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

the truth was clear, his mind no longer willing to make excuses and push back what he knew to be reality even if it didn’t make any sense at all. He had seen a girl standing there, and it was not his sister.

4

The whole family, including his uncle, were already huddled at the end of the hall, just past the attic. They all looked at him as he approached.

“So, I have good news for you kids,” his dad said. “We’ve already seen all the bedrooms and don’t really care which one we get. So, it’s up to you three to figure it out.”

“I want this one!” Paisley shouted quickly, pointing at the room with the big closet at the end of the hall.

“Shit,” Trevor mumbled.

Their dad nodded. “And you two?”

The cold returned. Toby felt it caressing the skin on the back of his neck. He looked back and saw nothing but the attic door and wondered why he felt so on edge. This wasn’t like him. He wasn’t afraid of doors or cold air. The house had good air flow, so what?

“So?” his dad continued.

“I don’t care,” Trevor said. “Toby can pick, I guess.”

Their dad was surprised, and so was Toby. It wasn’t like Trevor to put the ball in Toby’s court. Toby was ready to choose the one he had preferred earlier, the one they were actually standing right in front of right then, when he suddenly stopped.

Even though the cold was still there, he wasn’t going to turn and face it. He would clutch his sanity right then and wrestle it into submission, force it to do as he demanded it do.

“I’ll take the one at the end down there.” He pointed down the hall, to the room he had been in a few minutes prior, still unsure of what he was doing or why he was making this decision. Hadn’t he been unnerved by that bedroom just a moment ago, or at least by what he had thought he had seen in it?

“I’ll take this one then,” Trevor said of the room Toby just passed on, the one right next to his sister’s.

“I guess that leaves us the room next to Toby,” their mother said.

When they finally split up, Toby was relieved to get away from where they had been standing. He had to shake it off, whatever this was. It helped when his dad announced that they would be ordering pizza for dinner. They played it off like it was some sort of new house celebration, but Toby could tell their parents were just tired and didn’t feel like cooking, which was okay with him. Pizza it was.

They sat, spread about the living room eating pizza, as a movie began. It was a rental that his dad brought back when he went to get the pizza. The movie was new, a film fresh out of the theaters starring the legend himself, Keanu Reeves.

“What’s wrong, Richard?” Lisa whispered under the sound of the television.

He broke from his trance and looked down at his wife, Lisa, whose head was buried in his chest.

“Nothing,” he said. “I’ll talk to you about it later.”

She just nodded, unsure of whether or not he really would, wondering if she should push the matter despite knowing how unlikely it was that she would get anywhere. Richard wasn’t stone cold or anything like that, but he also wasn’t an open book, always reluctant to share anything too close to his heart. Though he had softened up a bit over his years with her, his thick layers peeling back to reveal someone that so very few knew, and Lisa was happy to be one of them.

The movie ended. The room went dark as the screen turned black and the credits began to roll. Lisa sat up slowly, stretching her arms as she did so. She looked over at the others. Toby was awake, though, barely by the look of it. She couldn’t say the same for her youngest, Trevor, who was tilted over the edge of the couch a little, quiet snores emanating from his direction. The older twin, Paisley, was awake and alive, staring into the screen of her phone. She was older by mere minutes, but she relished in this fact whenever it became useful. Robbie, her husband’s little brother, was across the room in an armchair, his eyes closed.

“All right, guys, it’s time for bed,” she said.

Yawns and stretches moved through the room like a tidal wave. Trevor looked around like he wasn’t completely sure where he was. Toby sat up quickly, like he regretted having come so close to falling asleep. Richard was happy then that he was able to talk the others into getting everyone’s beds into the house before he went to get pizza because, just as he had expected, they were all far too tired to do it now that their stomachs were full so they would have been sleeping on the floor.

Nobody argued about heading to bed. They all rose like zombies and started for the stairs one by one. It was something Richard was both joyous about and incredibly sad. The stress of raising young children was now a thing of the past, but there were times he missed having to carry them up the stairs, Trevor or Paisley’s head resting on his shoulder, the other holding his hand. Toby following close behind with Lisa. Kissing them all on the forehead and wishing them sweet dreams.

He imagined the look he would get now if he tried kissing any one of them goodnight. He laughed, accidentally out loud. Lisa gave him a quizzical look. He just smiled, preferring to keep these thoughts in his head. There was no need to sour such a special moment in their lives, their first night in the new house, with yearnings for the