The Slither Sisters

SEVEN





That night, Glenn went over Robert’s house for dinner. Glenn went over most nights, and Mrs. Arthur never complained. She said she liked having an extra person to help with the cleanup. If the boys finished their chores and homework early, they were allowed to watch TV or play video games together.

“Take more ravioli,” she told Glenn, passing him the platter. “Someone needs to finish it.”

“Mrs. Arthur, I’m stuffed,” he said.

“You’re sure? More salad?”

Glenn patted his stomach. “I can’t. I’ll explode.”

She pushed herself away from the table and stood up. “You’re both on kitchen duty tonight. I need to run to the supermarket. I’m on the refreshments committee for the Halloween dance. Speaking of which, did you buy your tickets yet?”

Robert and Glenn exchanged skeptical glances.

“You’re not going?” Mrs. Arthur asked.

“Dances are lame,” Robert said.

“Oh, come on,” Mrs. Arthur said. “There must be some pretty girl you’d like to invite. Maybe that Karina you’re always talking about?”

Robert blushed. “I don’t think Karina can dance.”

“All girls can dance,” she said.

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Don’t explain,” Mrs. Arthur said, as she put on her coat. “Just buy the tickets. I’ve already agreed to chaperone, so I want you boys to be there.”

As soon as her car left the driveway, Pip and Squeak came tumbling down the stairs. They leapt upon the kitchen table, dove into the salad bowl, and began chewing their way through a mound of greens and sliced tomatoes.

“Careful,” Robert told them. “Don’t track salad dressing all over the tablecloth.”

Pip and Squeak had been living in a shoe box under Robert’s bed for the past few weeks, but he had yet to tell his mother about them. She was terrified of regular household mice, so he could only imagine what she would make of a two-headed rat. He was forced to feed Pip and Squeak really late, after she went to bed, or on those rare occasions when she left the house after dark.



While Glenn cleared the plates, Robert used a garden hose to fill the sink with water. A while back, the kitchen faucet had broken, so Mrs. Arthur had snaked a garden hose through the window. It was meant to be a temporary solution until she could scrape together enough money to hire a plumber, but they had been living with it for nearly a year.

“So what are we going to do?” Glenn asked.

He didn’t need to elaborate. Robert knew he was talking about the Price sisters. The boys had spoken of nothing else since escaping Tillinghast Mansion earlier in the day.

“Watch our backs,” Robert said. “Now that they’re angry, I’m sure they’ll come after us.”

“Do you think they’re demons? Like Professor Goyle?”

“They could be worse. There’s two of them.”

Just one month earlier, they discovered that their Science teacher, Professor Goyle, was in fact a giant winged demon named Azaroth. But Karina explained that Tillinghast was summoning all kinds of monsters—giant insects, oozing slimes, savage beasts, and creatures beyond imagination. There was no telling what the Price sisters truly were—except strong, mean, and very dangerous.

“Maybe I should sleep over tonight,” Glenn said. “Maybe I’m safer here.”

There was a sudden loud knock at the front door.

The boys froze.

“Or maybe not,” Robert said.

He dried his hands on a dish towel and then went out to the living room. He pulled back the curtains and peered outside.

“Who is it?” Glenn asked.

Robert opened the front door. Ms. Lavinia was standing on the porch, cradling a paper shopping bag.

“May I come in?” she asked.

“My mother’s going to be back soon.”

“I can’t stay long.”

Ms. Lavinia settled into the sofa. Robert and Glenn remained standing; they were too nervous to sit.

“You gentlemen did a very foolish thing today,” she said.

“I know—” Robert began.

“Don’t interrupt, Mr. Arthur. I want you to see what happens to humans who cross over to Tillinghast.” She reached inside her bag, producing a ceramic container about the size of a one-gallon paint can. She unscrewed the lid and allowed the boys to peer inside. “This is where Crawford Tillinghast will keep your soul. Trapped for eternity on a shelf in his laboratory. While your body becomes a ‘vessel’ for one of his unholy minions. Do you gentlemen wish to spend the next thousand years living in a one-gallon ceramic jar?”

“No,” Robert admitted. Glenn shook his head.

“Then I forbid you from crossing over ever again,” Ms. Lavinia said. “It’s simply too dangerous. If I hadn’t been there …”

“Why were you there?” Robert said.

“I clean the house. I serve the food. I brew that hideous larval tea. My brother keeps me enslaved. If I refuse these tasks, he’ll turn me over to his monsters.”

“Your brother?” Robert and Glenn asked in unison.

“Yes, Crawford Tillinghast,” Ms. Lavinia explained. “He’s my twin.”