I looked at my brother.
“Jamie, do you remember going away with someone when you were little?”
He became very still.
The change was immediate.
His shoulders stiffened.
His eyes dropped.
“Jamie?”
He whispered, “I don’t like that story.”
My chest tightened.
“What story?”
He shook his head.
“Mom said not to talk about the basement.”
A cold silence settled over the kitchen.
“What basement?”
Jamie began twisting the hem of his shirt.
“The room with the red door.”
I could barely breathe.
“What happened there?”
He covered his ears.
“I don’t want to remember.”
I reached toward him.
“Okay. You don’t have to.”
He looked at me.
There was fear in his eyes.
A kind of fear I had never seen before.
Then he whispered something that made every hair on my arms rise.
“Claire knows the man with the red door.”
## THE NIGHT SOMEONE CAME BACK
