Free House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo

bed, but David wasn’t hiding there. Back in the hallway, he opened the linen closet door. It was narrow and deep. The shelves started a few feet in, leaving a space for maybe brooms or a mop bucket in front of them. His eyes went from the floor to the top shelf. Empty. He shut the door.
    â€œDavid!” he yelled again. His voice echoed, then cut short, as though whatever messed with the sounds had rippled past, snagging his call. A third time, he yelled for his brother. He flashed his light into the room they had checked first. Letting out a deep sigh, he entered and opened the closet door. Again, nothing. Back in the hallway, he yelled, “David, this isn’t funny. Remember how you felt when Dad scared us? Don’t mess around.”
    His voice came back to him: Don’t mess around. Oh, now the auditory tricks were getting outright scary. From up the hall, his own voice barked out again: Don’t mess around. His stomach was tightening. He didn’t know whether to stand still, look for David, or run like a madman to the front door.
    Twenty feet away, a figure stepped out of a bedroom.
    â€œDavid?” Xander whispered.
    â€œDon’t mess around,” the figure said in Xander’s voice and stepped closer.
    It was Toria, with that blasted bear in her arms. She squeezed its paw, and it said, “Don’t mess around.”
    â€œ Victoria! ” Xander yelled, stomping toward her. “Stop that!
    Where’s David?”
    â€œI haven’t seen him,” she said, frightened by his anger.
    â€œGo back in your room. Stop messing with that bear. I mean it.” He followed her into her room, checked the closet, and then he realized: one of the second floor’s three bathrooms was between here and the end of the hall. He hurried to it and knocked on the closed door. “David, are you in there? Didn’t you hear me calling?” He knocked again, then tried the handle.
    It was unlocked, the bathroom empty.
    Now, not only his stomach felt constricted, but his heart.
    â€œDavid!” he screamed with everything he had. He ran to the nearest door, the bedroom they would make their own.
    Let him be here. Let him be here. Just lost in imagining what our room would be like .
    But it was empty. And the closet was empty.
    His mom yelled up from below: “Xander, what is it? Is everything all right? Is Dae with you?”
    Xander surged into the hall, intent on getting Mom’s help.
    Whether she would blame him for losing his brother didn’t matter now.
    Movement in the corner of his vision. He looked. David was standing in the hall, back by the first rooms they had checked. A gash above his eyebrow trickled blood. He looked dazed.
    â€œXander?” Mom called. Her footsteps clopped on the stairs. Xander called over his shoulder. “Got it, Mom! Everything’s okay!”
    â€œDavid’s okay?”
    â€œYeah! Just . . . uh . . . bathroom.”
    Her footsteps descended, echoed in the foyer, and were gone. Xander rushed to David. “Where were you? What happened?” “You won’t believe me if I tell you.”
    â€œDae, what happened?”
    He prodded the cut on his brother’s forehead.
    David flinched away. He touched it himself, looked at the blood on his fingertips. “Whoa,” he said.
    Xander had David’s blood on his fingers as well. It frightened Xander more than a simple bonk on the head should have. “David—” he began.
    David grabbed Xander’s arms. “I mean it, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
    â€œYou gotta—”
    â€œI’ll show you!”
    â€œShow me what?”
    â€œCome on.” David opened the linen closet door.
    â€œWere you hiding?” Xander said. “I checked in there.”
    â€œShhh. Just go.” He pushed on Xander’s back, trying to get him in the closet.
    Xander resisted, sidestepped away. “What are you doing ?