Hush Baby Hush

“I’m sorry to have to say it but, no, we were not surprised.”

“McKenzie was precocious,” Ewan says. I always hated the way he said my name, like he relished the taste of it. “She often presented herself as older than she was.”

“Did she dress provocatively?”

“Oh yes,” Janet says. “All the time. She craved attention, especially from older men.”

“You see that sort of thing all the time with girls who come from broken homes with absent or abusive fathers,” Ewan says. “But McKenzie was in a class all her own. We haven’t had that much difficulty with a placement, before or since.”

I feel like I’m outside of myself.

Before or since.

I don’t know what I expected to happen when I saw them again. An earthquake, maybe. A meteor strike. Spontaneous combustion. Something to mark the moment as significant.

Since...

All I feel is a slight queasiness mixed with a dash of incredulity.

Thisis the monster I’ve been running from?

I told myself that Ewan Cline was dead to me. Six years later, I can no longer believe my own lies. He’s still out there. Hunting, creeping, hurting. Because a monster like Ewan Cline can’t stop. He’s always hungry.

Before or since...

I push up from my desk and race down the hall to Austin’s office. He looks up from his computer, concern crimping his brow.

“What is it, Kenz?”

“I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but I need a ride.”

“You don’t have to apologize. Where do you want to go?”

“See, that’s the part I do need to apologize for. I need you to take me to Newport and not ask why.”

“Newport.” He frowns. I know what he’s thinking. Newport is almost an hour away. It’s the middle of the workday.

He closes his laptop.

“Okay.”

* * *

I ask Austin to park across the street from the redbrick house with white trim. The single-story home looks unassuming from out here. You wouldn’t guess that some of the worst moments of my lifeoccurred behind those white curtains.

“This is the place you want to be?” Austin asks. He still has no idea what we’re doing here. I haven’t mentioned the television interview, or who I’m here to see. But my twitchy hands and bouncing foot tell on me.

“Yep. This is it.”

“Do you want me to come in with you?”

I didn’t before, but now that we’re here, I don’t think I can make myself go back in there alone. “If you come in, you have to promise not to hurt anyone, no matter what happens.”

“Why would I want to hurt someone?”

“Just promise me, Austin.”

His jaw twitches.I can only imagine the dark directions his thoughts are now taking; they wouldn’tbe too far off from the truth.