Still Waters by Emma Carlson Berne Page B

the car and turned off the ignition. They both stared through the windshield.
    The house sprawled at the very edge of the lake—its clapboards gray like the sky. Bay windows jutted from the front, and elaborate scrolling dripped from every eave. In front of it spread what Hannah thought must have at one point been a lawn. Nowthe grass lay in luxuriant green swathes, crowding the foundation. Ivy wound its way up the rain gutters. Paint hung in shreds from the clapboards, and from where she sat Hannah could see dead leaves and twigs strewn across the porch. Her eyes followed the big wraparound porch over to the right corner. There was the broken railing, just like in the photo.
    The worm of unease hatched earlier now uncoiled in her belly.
Not exactly a vacation paradise
. And it was so far off the road too. Hannah glanced over at Colin, but his face was blank as he sat behind the wheel. For a moment, she thought of telling him to just drive away, that this was obviously a mistake. They’d go back to the highway, find a motel for a couple days.
    But then she looked back at the house. It was sitting patiently, waiting for her, as it already knew her decision.
Come here,
she could almost hear it whispering. She got out of the truck and slammed the door. The sound echoed in the silence. “Come on,” she said to Colin. “Let’s go in.”

CHAPTER 7
     
    Colin paused, just for an instant, and then followed Hannah up the path toward the house. Their feet crunched on the gravelly soil as the long grass caught at their ankles. Halfway up, Hannah stopped and inhaled. The air was heavy with the rich, rotting odor of lake mud, overlaid with the astringent scent of the pine needles that lay everywhere. A whip-poor-will called once from a nearby tree and then fell silent, as if thinking better of it.
    Hannah looked up at Colin. “Do you remember it now?” she asked eagerly.
    He shook his head. “No. It’s like I’m here for the first time.” He paused. “The smell, though. I do remember the smell. Like dead fish.” His voice was flat.
    Hannah squeezed his arm. “It’s not so bad. The lake is gorgeous, don’t you think?” She cast an arm toward the water and as if commanded, the sun broke through the clouds—lighting a million sparkles on the lake.
    Colin looked around at the wild landscape. For the first time since their fight in the car, his face relaxed. “Yeah, it’s not too bad.”
    She took Colin’s hand and swung it a little as they walked together. Almost like they were married, Hannah thought, and they were about to go into their home together for the very first time.
    She mounted the porch steps, her eyes already fixed on the front door, when suddenly she felt the top step give way under her foot and her hand slide out from Colin’s. She gasped and arms flailing, managed to grasp the rickety banister.
    “Careful!” Colin grabbed her around the waist. She clung to his shoulders as she pulled her foot out of the middle of the step, trying not to snag her jeans on the jagged edge.
    “Nice welcome,” she said. Colin and she stared down at the dark hole. The point of a rusty nail stuck out two inches from the rotted boards.
    “Okay?” Colin asked. She nodded and he released her.
    She laughed shakily. “I guess a lot of things are probably falling apart in this house.”
    “I guess so,” Colin replied, a little grimly. He examined the front door, a huge carved wooden affair. The brass doorknob was rusty and crusted with age. He paused, then twisted and pushed.
    Hannah’s breath caught when the door swung open as if it had been oiled. “It’s not locked.”
    Colin shrugged. They were standing on the threshold of a large, airy room. It was sparsely furnished with an old-fashionedwood-frame sofa and a few scattered armchairs, the high-backed kind with wings for your head. Weak sunlight filtered through a picture window on the opposite wall. A footlocker trunk sat underneath.
    Hesitantly, Hannah stepped over