Mezzanine

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"Shit," I hissed under my breath. "Fuck, what do we do?" Terror raced through my veins. I looked at my brother like I was expecting him to somehow fix this.

"We gotta get out of here." Damien leapt to his feet and rushed to the trap door. He glared at me when I didn't move. "Like right fucking now, Jay. Come on."

"Right." I shook myself from the panic freezing me in place and stood. My gaze flashed over the pile of things we'd gotten out of the boxes. "But what about all this stuff? We can't just leave without it." We'd gone to so much trouble to find it. Without it, this whole trip would be for nothing.

Damien clenched his jaw and grimaced. "Fuck, you're right." He shoved a hand back through his hair to get it out of his eyes. "Just grab the notes and leave everything else. Trying to carry it will slow us down too much."

"Okay." I snatched the loose sheets of paper, folded them and shoved them into my back pocket. "Let's go."

Damien held one finger to his lips in the quiet signal as he went through the trap door and out of the attic. I followed him, placing my weight on each ladder rung carefully to keep them from creaking.

As I descended, the sounds from the rest of the house intensified. Footsteps like someone was walking around on the first floor and something clattering in the kitchen...and then the thoughts came through.

Those kids were strange. Something was off about them...so many questions...got to stop taking requests when I'm not supposed to be working...

Chills rushed through me as I listened to the snips of Madame Leclerc's thoughts from downstairs.

"Do you hear her?" I whispered, gesturing with the side of my head toward the stairs.

Damien nodded. "She's down there right now."

Something didn't feel right about those two. Why do I get the feeling there is something wrong here?

A pause. I held my breath.

Wait. Things in the draws have been moved.

I winced. She'd already noticed something wasn't right. How were we going to get out of here? Short of jumping out a window, the only way down was the stairs that led directly to the kitchen where she was.

Another distant thought echoed through my mind, at the edge of what I could pick up.

Guys, get out!

Carter. It had to be him.

We tried to hold her off as long as we could, but she's in there now. You need to get out!

Damien took a step towards the stairs, and the wooden floor board groaned beneath him. We both froze. My heart raced, pounding through my ears so loudly I worried Kathryn would somehow hear it downstairs.

What was that? she thought. It sounded like it came from upstairs. Is someone in here with me? The thoughts pulsed through my mind, followed by a single word: Knife.

"Jay." Damien grabbed my arm. "We need to hide."

Sweat prickled the back of my neck as footsteps creaked through the kitchen, drawing toward the stairs. I stared at the trap door and the ladder extending from the attic.

"We need to put it up," I said. If she saw it down, she'd know someone was in here for sure. We'd be fucked.

Damien shook his head. "We don't have time." He tugged my arm. "Come on."

Finally, my feet responded, and I followed him into the bedroom at the end of the hall. I reached for the door to pull it shut behind us.

"Leave it!" He beckoned me to where he'd ducked behind the bed. "Get down."