Whatever lives in the basement, it wants us to come down there. It’s been trying to lure us from the very beginning. Sammy grips my shirt.
“Mari . . .”
Mom glances at us, frowning. “What’s wrong with you two?”
Alec steps into the kitchen and opens a drawer. “Where’s the key?”
“Key? What key?”
“The key to the basement,” he says, as if it’s a stupid question. “I put it right in here after storing the moving crates.”
There’s a freaking key? Has he been going down into the basement all this time?
Buddy stiffens, a low growl rumbling from his throat.
“Daddy?”
We whip around, shining all our lights in the direction of her voice. Piper stands in the hallway, wincing at the brightness, hands shielding her eyes.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he says, taking a flat-head screwdriver to the lock. Piper blinks, looking stricken.
“Daddy,” she whispers hesitantly. “Don’t.”
Shit. Even possessed Piper doesn’t want him to go into that basement! And if he opens that door, I’m not standing around here to see what’s on the other side.
“Make a break for it,” I whisper to Sam. “Hurry!”
Sammy nods, skittering down the hall with Buddy. I circle, widening the distance between the basement and myself, before gently touching Mom’s elbow.
“Mom,” I whisper. “Mom, we need to go.”
Mom doesn’t notice the seriousness in my tone, too preoccupied watching Alec.
“Let’s just call the electric company,” Mom decides, pointing her flashlight on the table to find her purse.
I’m going to have to drag her out of here. I won’t leave her.
“Mom—”
Zzzzzz POP!
All at once, the lights flick on and we flinch. Sam is already outside, the porch light shining above him.
“Well, there you go,” Alec says with a grin, dusting his hands. “My job here is done!”
“What was that all about?” Mom laughs, resetting the stove clock.
“Old house, old problems,” Alec says with a shrug. “But if I could get downstairs, I could check it out to be sure. Will have to call a locksmith tomorrow.”
“Mom! Come look!” Sammy shouts. “I think the lights are still off down Maple Street.”
We congregate on the porch, the night air brisk. Sweets sits on the ledge, facing the street. Alec shuffles down the walkway, straining to see.
“I don’t think it’s just Maple Street,” he says. “I think it’s all of Maplewood.”
It’s easy for us to gather in the middle of the street when cars never drive this way. From our view, you can see that Maple, Sweetwater, and Division are sitting in pitch-blackness. Houses in the distance blend with the night sky. Our house is a tiny candle in the middle of the dark woods.
“I’m sure they’ll get power any moment now,” Alec says, full of optimism. “Look, we can stand here and watch it happen! Like fireworks!”
We wait and wait and wait and wait. Nothing. The trees seem to cave in, shadows growing around us, wind swirling leaves into the street. I glance up at Piper’s window and can’t shake the eerie feeling that we’re being watched.
“Daddy, I’m cold.”
Mom, playing with her cell phone, grumbles. “I can’t find the number to the electric company. It’s like they don’t exist. Oh, wait. No service? What the hell is going on?”
Sharp thorns prickle down my back and I shudder. We need to get out of here.
“Daddy,” Piper says, pointing down the street. “Someone’s coming.”
Not just someone. Many someones. A steady storm of footsteps, heading our way.
Alec frowns with a bemused chuckle. “Wonder what they want.”
Mom stares for a moment before a light bulb clicks.
“Everybody inside,” she orders, pushing us back toward the house. “Now. Let’s go!”
“What’s happening?” Sammy asks as she pulls him down the walkway and up the stairs.
“Inside! Hurry!”
A crowd of people emerge from the darkness as they near the house.
“Raquel,” Alec says, oblivious as usual. “What’s wrong?”
“Aye!” a voice barks behind us, and we freeze.
Mr. Stampley stalks onto the grass, pointing a finger at the house. “Why you got power and we don’t!”
The parade of neighbors that followed him spreads out, making a semicircle on the front lawn, faces contorted in scowls, the air charged and hostile.
Alec, genuinely confused by their presence, shrugs. “Don’t know. You’ll have to ask Cedarville Electric.”
Mom, standing in front of us on the porch, discreetly dials 911. Still no service.
“Shit,” she mumbles.
“Oh I see, so you think you having power in your new fancy home makes you better than us!”
“Fancy?” Alec chuckles. “Have you seen this block?”
Someone gasps, the outrage visceral.
“So the Wood ain’t good enough for you?” a man yells.
Curses are thrown, steaming-hot burns. In the far back, Yusef is standing in the street, seeming puzzled by the sheer size of the crowd. We catch eyes and he shakes his head, disappointed in our neighbors. Neighbors I recognize from my runs, school, and the library. People who know us but seem hungry to attack.
“What, you don’t like living with Black people?”
“He didn’t say that!” Mom snaps, stepping down to join him on the bottom step. I glance at Piper, standing beside Sammy, shivering in the cold. She peers over her shoulder into the house, as if she’s waiting for someone to come out.
“Ain’t nobody asked you, sis,” a younger woman shouts, neck rolling. “And you need to watch it with that one! He’s been trying to get with every female he come across.”
“What?” Alec shouts. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s true,” another woman says. “I’ve seen him spitting game to all the sisters at the office. That man’s a flirt!”
Alec turns to Mom. “This is ridiculous. I’m not flirting with anyone!”
Mom gives him a curt nod. She believes him. And honestly, I do too. Alec seems too stupid to cheat.
“He probably not going after no females,” Mr. Stampley says. “Too busy going around stealing people’s stuff from they houses!”
The crowd roars with agreement.
“We told you before,” Mom says in an even tone. “We don’t know how your belongings ended up on our porch.”
“Maybe your boy took them!” a man yells, pointing at Sammy. “I see him walking that dog around!”
“That’s what people do,” Alec snaps back. “They walk dogs!”
A woman shouts, “Then they got their little girl trying to get the kids to come play with her in them abandoned houses.”
Piper takes in a sharp breath, flinching, grabbing hold of Sammy’s arm, then quickly lets go.
“Yeah, they all been hanging out in them houses. That older one be smoking up in there too.”