The Piper

FORTY-NINE




Olivia was in the hallway outside her hotel room, just swiping the card through the lock, when she heard the soft voice call her name. She had been vaguely aware that the elevator had dinged, doors shuffling open and closed, aware of the footsteps behind her, someone in soggy shoes, saturated like hers by the constant downpour of rain.

The voice was girlish, sounding just enough like Teddy to make her blood pound, even though she knew better.

‘Aunt Olivia?’

Janet held a hand out, and Olivia took a step backward. Olivia felt ashamed even as she did it, she knew it was unfair, but she blamed her, blamed Chris’s little girl. Unfair and unkind, and she made herself smile and open the door to her hotel room wide and invite the girl in.

Janet was trembling, perhaps a combination of cold, nerves, wet. Her jeans were soaked, the ragged bottoms streaked with mud, and her navy blue hoodie was plastered to her body like a second skin.

‘You’re soaking, hon,’ Olivia said. ‘Come on, peel out of that jacket, let me get you a towel. Why don’t you take those wet things off, you can borrow something of mine.’

Janet pulled the hoodie back off her head, but would not take the jacket off. Her hair clung in sodden strands around her face. Her eyes were bruised looking, her face broken out, angry red in patches on her cheeks and skin. She clutched the towel Olivia gave her in bunched up fists.

‘Come on, Janet, sit down.’ Olivia pulled a chair from the wall.

‘I’ll get it wet.’

‘Don’t worry about that. How did you get here? Does your mom know where you are?’

Janet settled on the edge of the seat cushion, hunching her shoulders together. ‘I walked some and took a bus. Mom thinks I’m doing a study date with a friend. I had to talk to you, but Mama wouldn’t let me come. Because of what happened to Teddy. Because you were so upset. I’m so sorry, Aunt Olivia.’

‘Thank you, honey. To tell you the truth, I don’t know which end is up anymore.’

‘That’s one reason I had to come, Aunt Olivia. I need you to really listen to what I have to say.’

‘Okay, but let’s get you out of those wet things first. Let me run you a hot bath, and you can cuddle up in this bathrobe, and if you’re hungry—’

‘Please, Aunt Olivia, don’t mom me. Please just listen to what I have to say.’

Olivia sat back on the bed.

Janet squeezed the towel in her fists and looked at the floor. ‘I’ve been praying a lot, Aunt Olivia, for Teddy, and trying to talk to Daddy in my dreams. I can’t know that he hears me, but I think he does.’

Olivia felt her shoulders sag. She felt she should hug Janet, wet and muddy or not, do something to comfort her. But she didn’t. She just sat there on the edge of the bed, thinking about what Teddy would be like at that age, wondering if Teddy would be lucky enough to get to that age. Bad thoughts, but she could not keep them out of her head.

‘I came here to warn you, Aunt Olivia. Because I think it must be trying to talk to you, isn’t it, trying to get in your head?’

‘What’s trying to talk to me?’

‘You know what. Why won’t anybody tell the truth about this thing? Duncan Lee, Decan Ludde. Whatever you call him. The Piper. Don’t pretend you don’t know.’

‘I do know what you mean,’ Olivia said steadily. ‘But I don’t hear it in my head.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure,’ Olivia said. But was she?

‘Because I bet it talked to Uncle Hugh. And it talked to Daddy. And I know it talked to Teddy. And all of them are dead.’

‘Don’t say that. Teddy isn’t dead.’

Janet folded her arms, and Olivia realized her niece was looking at her with pity. ‘It doesn’t play fair, Aunt Olivia. There’s not going to be any mercy for Teddy, haven’t you figured that out?’

Olivia felt the strength go out of her arms and legs. ‘Is it talking to you, Janet? Did the Piper tell you that?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t listen anymore. Daddy taught me to block it. But it can be hard.’

‘What does it say, when it talks to you? How does it work?’

Janet twisted the towel in her fists. ‘It starts slow, Aunt Olivia, but it’s always there, it waits and it presses on you, and after a while you start to know if it’s around. It even has a name for the first stage. It calls it the awakening.’

Olivia wrapped her arms tightly around her chest.

‘And if you listen even a little, then it’s like it’s got a foot in the door, and it gets stronger and stronger and sometimes it feels like a friend, but it’s not.’

‘Is it a voice in your dreams?’ Olivia asked.

Janet tilted her head sideways. ‘Sometimes. Or in your mind. But it can talk out loud, right behind you, or beside you. Sometimes it breathes on you. It’s scary and weird. But the more you listen, the more attention you give it, the stronger it gets. Teddy told me it used to sit on the end of her bed, and sometimes at the table in the sunroom. She said you couldn’t see it and Duncan Lee said it was because you were stubborn, and you refused to look. That no one can see it unless they agree. It has to be a choice.’

‘Teddy told you that?’

‘It’s why we had the séance that day, when you and Mama got so mad. I knew Teddy was in trouble and only Daddy could help. Mama doesn’t see it either. Or she pretends it’s not there.’

‘How long—’ Olivia’s throat was tight and it was hard to form the words. ‘How long has Teddy been talking to this thing?’

‘Do you remember the year before Daddy died and you came for Thanksgiving? You and Teddy, but not Uncle Hugh?’

Olivia nodded.

‘Teddy was upset because you were moving again and she was going to have to go to a new school after Christmas break and not have any friends. She was crying in the night, after everybody was asleep. I heard her, she was in the living room all curled up. She said she wished she could live in the same house all the time like I did and go to the same school. So I told her about him. About Duncan Lee. I told her he could be her friend no matter how many schools she went to. That she would never have to start a new school by herself again. He could even protect her, if somebody gave her a hard time. Because new kids always have to deal with bullies.’

Olivia stood up, and Janet flinched, so she sat back down. ‘Why? Why did you tell her those things?’

Janet stared at the floor, and her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Because he told me to. He said I had to say it, to keep my sisters safe. I didn’t have a choice, Aunt Olivia – he says he gives you choices but that’s a lie. He has a friendly voice, Aunt Olivia, but the things he says are sick. And bad things happen if you don’t do what he says. So it’s my fault. Everything bad that happened. Daddy and Teddy and Uncle Hugh.’

Olivia crouched down beside her niece, took the towel and wrapped it around her shoulders. Janet stayed tense and tight when Olivia tried to give her a hug. Please just cry, Olivia thought. But Janet pulled away.

‘Listen to me, Janet. I don’t blame you, and you shouldn’t blame yourself. Whatever this Piper does – none of it is your fault. Teddy is eight years old and you’re barely thirteen. You’re children. This thing is taking advantage, don’t you see that? And every time you feel guilty, every time you think it’s your fault, every time you feel afraid, you’re playing right into its hands. I know you feel like an adult, but you’re not. This Piper thing is not your responsibility. It’s somebody else’s job.’

‘Whose job, Aunt Olivia?’

‘Maybe mine.’

‘That’s what Daddy told me too. But I wanted you to know. I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I needed to confess.’

‘I understand, Janet. You can’t keep something like this all to yourself. And it helps me to know what I’m up against. But I’m worried about you, now. Does it still – does it still sit on your bed and try to talk to you?’

‘No. Not since Daddy taught me what to do. He told me never to listen, to say no out loud and . . . and if it bothered me to ask him for help. He still helps me, Aunt Olivia, even since he’s dead. I ask him to send me signs that he’s watching over me, and he does.’

‘What signs does he send?’

‘Feathers. It’s what I asked for. To send me a feather, so I would know he was there. And he does. There was one on the floor of the elevator, just a minute ago.’ Janet dug into her jacket pocket, pulled out a tiny fluff of white and put it in Olivia’s hand. Olivia held it up, the kind of feather that drifted out of goose down pillows. There were pillows like that all over the hotel.

‘Do you believe me, Aunt Olivia? That Daddy can send me feathers? Don’t lie.’

‘I don’t know,’ Olivia said. ‘But I have a story to tell you. About a phone call I got. I think your daddy would want you to know about it. So you can be sure in your heart he’s okay.’

Olivia was only a little surprised that Janet took a phone call from her dead father in stride. Olivia made sure to tell her that Chris was in a good place, and watching over them all. She did not mention the warning, because it was not the kind of thing her niece needed to hear.

And though Janet would still not take a dry set of clothes or a meal, she seemed different, lighter, relieved. Driving home, with the heater on full blast to keep her niece warm, Olivia had the sense that she had taken the weight from Janet’s shoulders, and put it on her own, which was the way it should be – this was Chris’s child, and Olivia was the adult. She told herself that information was what she needed, that knowledge was power no matter how upsetting it was. She told herself that Teddy wasn’t dead.

But she was tied up tight with anger at the thought of her little Teddy, recruited like fresh meat. The anger felt good. She just needed to remember to be angry for both of them, two vulnerable little girls. Not to put the blame on a thirteen year old kid.

The Piper didn’t play fair with anyone. She needed to keep that in mind.

Charlotte’s car was not in the driveway when Olivia pulled up in front of the house.

‘Good,’ Janet said. ‘She’s probably at Kroger, getting groceries. I can sneak in. You won’t tell her, right?’

‘No, I won’t. But you should tell her yourself.’

Janet shook her head. ‘She’ll only worry – she doesn’t understand, but she knows enough to feel scared.’

‘Just don’t talk to it, Janet. Do what your daddy said.’

Janet looked almost old when she turned to Olivia, the reflection of raindrops on the windshield shadowing her face. ‘That doesn’t really work, all by itself. You have to pay toll to the troll, Aunt Olivia. I wouldn’t be safe if Daddy hadn’t died.’

The next morning, Olivia woke with the disturbing sense of a conversation interrupted, and the vague echoes of an unfamiliar voice in her head. She sat up, propped on one elbow, the hotel room grayish with early morning light.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, shoulders going tense as the memory came. An awakening, is what the voice had said. A man, the voice was male. Time for your awakening, Olivia. The voice had given her a bad feeling, distinct and chilling, like a snake crawling up her back.

It had to have been just a bad dream, her dark imagination taking everything Janet had said to heart. Olivia pulled her tee shirt off, and stood in front of the mirror looking over her shoulder. Her skin had reddened, up and down her spine, as if she’d been scratching it in her sleep.

Was it really as simple as Janet had said? A simple acquiescence, opening the door a crack?

‘Is this what you meant when you warned me about the Mister Man, Chris?’ She was talking to the dead now, just like Janet. ‘Were you talking about the Piper? Because you started this, didn’t you, Chris? You brought this thing into our home. You think it’s okay to save your little girl and not mine? You think I even want to live without my Teddy, that I wouldn’t hesitate to trade my life for hers? You did it, didn’t you, Chris? You made a deal. And if that’s what it takes, then so will I.’ Olivia stood up and opened her arms. ‘Come and get me, Piper. I want my little girl back.’