Music Box (The Dollhouse Books, #4) by Allyn Anya

Author:Allyn, Anya [Allyn, Anya]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ghost, horror, ya horror, young adult horror, parallel worlds
Published: 2014-01-06T05:00:00+00:00

18. The torment within

CASSIE

We hurried across the wintry yard. The dogs were gone—I hoped they’d found somewhere to go—despite their chasing me down that day in the forest. I stepped inside the shed—the others following. Everything was exactly the same as I’d remembered. Only this time, thin layers of ice lay on the floor. The rainwater tank—being completely set into the ground—was iced over, its lid hard to even see.

Aisha tucked dark hair under her snow cap. “So what’s next—we find a pick?”

“What do we need a pick for sis?” Raif looked around at the old machinery and bookcases.

Aisha pointed at the rainwater tank. “We’re going down there.”

He raised his dark eyebrows, his aqua-colored eyes so similar to Aisha’s. “What in the hey now?”

“Just trust us,” she told him.

Molly glanced at the top of Frances’s head. “I don’t know that we should take Frances down there. She wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Frances gazed back at her with clear eyes. “Are we going down to where Jessamine is?”

Molly nodded, concern tightening her face.

“I want to see her,” said Frances.

Frowning, Molly bit down slowly on her lip, thinking. “I just... never could have imagined taking you back there if we ever got out.”

“Please.” Frances gave Molly a plaintive look. “We need to stick together, just like we did in the dollhouse.”

She sounded so much older than her six years.

Molly nodded, but she still looked uncertain.

Ben tugged his ear beneath his snow cap. “Did I just hear right? You’ve been down there before? You called it a... dollhouse?” A frown crossed his forehead. “That’s where you all were, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Lacey quietly. “That’s where they were.”

Raif plunged his fist deep into his pocket, eyeing his sister. “You were under my damned feet all that time I was searching for you here.”

Shaking his head, Ben smiled wryly. “Guess we’re about to see this dollhouse place. Did you say there’s still a girl down there? So, we’re heading down there to rescue her?”

“She needs rescuing,” Sophronia replied with a tinge of sorrow in her voice. “But there is nothing we can do to save her.”

Raif turned to Sophronia for clarification, but she told him, do not ask.

Molly raised troubled blue eyes to Raif. “You should know that if you go down there, there is a risk that she won’t let you out again.”

“So,” said Ben. “There’s some girl actually living down there, and she can keep us down there, if she wants.” He folded his arms. “Okay, sure, I’d be crazy to say no to that.”

He and Raif exchanged questioning glances, but said no more.

I eyed the frozen-over lid of the rainwater tank again. “I’ll run into the house to find matches. I don’t know how we’re going to do this, but it’s a start.”

“Hang on.” Ben shucked the backpack off his back and pulled out an assortment of items, including a small tent. He stared up at us. “I used to be in the boy scouts. I come prepared.”

He took a few of the hundred-year-old books from the bookshelf and placed them on top of the tank lid.

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