“The basement?” He frowned, as if thinking hard about it.
“Were you?” I demanded. “Were you in the basement, Peter?”
“No. Of course not,” he said sharply.
And then he startled me. He reached out suddenly and grabbed my wrist.
“Danielle,” he whispered through gritted teeth. He squeezed my wrist hard and brought his face close to mine. “Danielle, don’t forget me. Please
—don’t forget me!”
The next morning, I dressed for school in a hurry. I gazed out the window as I pulled on a baggy gray sweater over a pair of black straight-legged
jeans. It was a cloudy day. Cold, gray light poured into my bedroom, making long, dark shadows over the floor.
Despite the gray, I felt cheerful, eager to get downstairs to breakfast. It was a new day. A new start. My frightening nightmare about the strange,
glistening kids was just that—a nightmare.
It’s normal to have strange dreams when you move into a new house, I told myself.
And I assured myself that Peter would be okay today.