A Place So Wicked by Patrick Reuman (life books to read txt) 📕

the same size as the bathroom, which, now that he thought of it, wasn’t all that much smaller than his bedroom back at the old house. He closed the door quickly, not willing to accept that one as his room. He had to move before his brother and sister decided they would venture this way and try to lay claim to everything else.

The next door, this one back on the other side with the bathroom, led to stairs, which went upward to what he assumed was the attic. He considered going up to look, wondering if maybe that would make for a good bedroom, remembering how the attic appeared to stretch across the entire length of the house. He decided against it. The attic at their old house got so hot in the summer months and then equally as cold in the winter due to a lack of insulation. With this attic’s significant increase in size, he could only imagine how difficult it would be to heat and cool. Not only that but having so much space would be a little weird, and when he thought about it a little longer, a little creepy as well. He may not even be able to see across to the other end of the room at night. He wasn’t sure why that mattered, but it suddenly did.

He closed the door and ventured on to the next door. This one led into a room significantly larger than the last. At one end was what looked like a closet. There were two windows, but they weren’t big and creepy like some of the others, nor were they stretching across the whole room like in the living room. He counted four plug outlets at first glance. Plug outlets galore.

He decided right then that this was going to be his bedroom, even if he had to go to war for it. He had to have some pull as the oldest child, and he would use it without hesitation.

He heard a noise in the next room over and turned to face that door. It sounded like Paisley and Trevor talking, but he hadn’t noticed either of them walk by, which was strange. He was sure he would have heard them. How couldn’t he? He had hardly even entered any of the rooms. But as he walked toward the final room, the voices became clear, definitely the sound of his brother and sister talking coming out through the partially opened door.

As he pulled open the door the rest of the way, the two of them turned to face him.

“Hey,” Trevor said.

Paisley just waved.

Toby looked back down the hall, in the direction of the stairs, then back at the other two.

“Did you guys walk by just now?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Paisley answered, her eyebrow lifting just slightly.

“Like, did you guys walk down the hall just now, to this room?”

“No,” she said. “We’ve been in here for a bit debating who should get this room. The answer is me, by the way.”

Toby took in the room for the first time. It was pretty big but smaller than the room next door, the room that was going to be his. As if reading his mind, she explained herself.

“The closet is huge. It would be perfect for me,” she said.

“You don’t need a big, stupid closet,” Trevor said.

“You can have the next room over,” she demanded.

“No,” Toby cut in. “That’s going to be my room.”

They both looked at him like he was insane. He didn’t back down, though, allowing the room to remain in silence for another long minute.

“So, neither of you were in the rooms in the other hall.” He pointed in that direction, just to make sure they knew exactly what he was asking.

They took a few seconds to reply, as if remembering that there were in fact two other rooms to look at.

“No,” Trevor said. “Haven’t been over there yet, now that you mention it.”

Toby left the room and closed the door without saying goodbye. His mind was too lost within itself. He was sure he had heard a voice coming from that other room. For a moment, he wondered if maybe it was Uncle Robbie, but then he remembered that it was a girl’s voice, not a man’s, that he heard. Robbie must have been downstairs moving things around with his parents. Maybe, he thought, he truly was just crazy.

As he walked past the door that led to the attic, he stopped. Perhaps the attic was worth a quick look after all. If it was nice, maybe it would save him the argument later when they went to war over who got what bedroom.

He pulled open the door and looked up the narrow stairway. The light switch was on the wall to the right. He gave it a flick, lighting up the stairway in some underground-feeling way. Like he had just lit the tunnel in some coalmine a mile underneath the earth’s surface.

There was a second door at the top, leading into the attic itself. A few steps up, the door squeaked behind him. He glanced back as it shut but only a little bit. It didn’t slam shut sinisterly like in some horror film, just moved slightly like a decent breeze nudged it. He ignored it and continued to the top, where he opened the next door and stepped into the attic.

There were two windows up there, both creepy and tall, letting in ample lighting from the outside. But he could swear he had seen three when he was outside. His whole body gave a sudden spastic shiver as if it just then realized how chilly it was up there, which was weird since heat was supposed to rise and the rest of the house felt just fine. That’s when he noticed a door. Even though light shone into the