Free The Siege by Rick Hautala

expecting we’d be staying in some flea-ridden motel for the next two nights, and… and…
    He wanted to say more, but his voice suddenly twisted and broke. Mrs. Appleby reached out and gripped him gently by the elbow.
    “Now, now,” she said, almost cooing. “You just take it easy. I know what it’s like when you lose someone you love, and I could tell as soon as you mentioned Larry, that it pained you. You just get your car up, and I’ll show you your room. Then I can tell you how to get to Mildred’s house.”
    Dale smiled and nodded as he went out the door and down the walkway to his car. All the while he was thinking that it was people like Lillian Appleby, people who reach out and help people in the simplest ways by being kind and caring who can, with time, help blunt the hollow pain of loss.
     
    III
     
    A ngie was surprised how fast she and Lisa hit it off. It felt like they had known each other before. Even before they were out the kitchen door and walking across the back yard, they were chattering away to each other like long-lost friends. Again, Angie found herself thinking that she wouldn’t mind living in a place like Dyer if she could have a house like Mrs. Appleby’s and a friend like Lisa.
    As they crossed the back yard, heading toward the line of trees at the margin of the well-trimmed grass, Angie paused and looked back at the house. Slanting sunlight lit up the side of the house, making it gleam so brightly it hurt her eyes. The windows reflected back the cloudless sky with a dark marble sheen.
    “I thought we were going to take a walk downtown,” Angie said, frowning. She heard a car pull into the driveway and saw her father back into the turn-around. When he parked and got out to get their luggage from the trunk, he glanced up and saw them standing at the far corner of the backyard. He smiled and waved.
    “I want to show you something else, first,” Lisa said. Her voice was hushed with repressed excitement, and Angie had a moment of doubt, wondering if she could trust her. Maybe, living in such an isolated town, she was weird or something.
    “I was thinking maybe I should help my dad unpack,” Angie said. She hoped her momentary doubt wasn’t betrayed by her voice.
    Lisa looked over and watched as Dale, a suitcase in each hand, walked up the back steps. “It looks as though he’s got it. Come on. I want to show you my secret place.” She spoke in a low, conspiratorial whisper and, lowering her head, glanced to either side as though the surrounding trees had ears.
    “Exactly what is this place?” Angie asked.
    “Follow me,” Lisa said, and she started off into the woods, following a well-worn path that twisted between trees and through ever-thickening brush.
    Angie hesitated before following, uncertain exactly what Lisa had in mind. Growing up in Thomaston, she had never spent much time playing in the woods, although she didn’t exactly define herself as a “city girl,” either. But there was something about the forest, especially deep forest, like these must be, stretching all the way to Canada that unnerved Angie. She felt a gnawing of fear in her stomach as she watched Lisa’s yellow shirt plunge deeper into the foliage.
    “Uh, remember what your grandmother said about not going too far from the house?” Angie said as she started along the path. “We don’t want to miss supper.”
    Lisa glanced back at her over her shoulder and waved her arm to hurry her along. “We won’t miss supper,” she said with a slight agitation. “Come on. If you hurry, we’ll be back in less than half an hour.”
    Taking a deep breath, Angie quickened her pace until she was only three or four steps behind Lisa. The woods grew thicker as she followed her, but the path continued, unwinding like a beige ribbon up a gradual rise. Angie cast several nervous glances behind her as she went, and the gnawing in her gut got worse when she lost sight of the large house.
    “Your dad said something