Come Little Children by D. Melhoff Read Free Book Online

growl.
    A refrigerator bulb blinked on in the darkness. Camilla pilfered a jug of milk and poured a tall glass for herself. Tipping it back, she eyed the rest of the fridge’s contents.
    Apparently the family was precise with their portioning—there wasn’t a crumb of leftovers from dinner.
Hmm
. She looked over her shoulder at the rack of pots and pans hanging above the island in the middle of the room, but decided she would rather starve to death than risk waking the family.
    Camilla poured another glass of milk and put the jug back on the shelf. She took her drink and followed a wall of cupboards.
    Spices behind door number one.
    Mugs behind door two.
    Bowls behind door three.
    The cupboards led all the way to the kitchen sink, where she paused to finish her last swig of milk. As she lowered the glass under the faucet and tested the water on her fingertips, she looked up at the dark window in front of her.
    The moon was behind a bank of clouds and it was pitch black outside—so black that it was impossible to see anything beyond the veranda.
    Camilla grabbed a tea towel and dried her cup, randomly remembering how tea towels had made excellent capes when she was little.
    Something moved in the darkness outside.
    Camilla stopped drying.
Jesus. Not the other cat?
    She leaned forward, squinting through the window—
    Nothing. Only black.
    She leaned closer…
    Closer…
    Just as her nose touched the glass, there was a knock at the back door.
    Camilla dropped her glass and it exploded on the tile. The crash echoed through the house like a hydrogen bomb, and shetripped against the counter, half falling, half crouching behind the granite island.
    Aside from the ringing in her ears, everything was quiet again. She put her hands on the counter and pulled herself high enough to peek at the back door.
    There was a figure standing outside, its silhouette distorted behind the door’s curtains.
    The stranger knocked again.
    A shiver rushed up the back of Camilla’s neck. Her eyes went straight to a set of knives on the counter in front of her—
    No. Don’t be ridiculous
.
    Another knock tolled out.
    Maybe it’s not an intruder? Maybe it’s another family member? Christ, in either case, why are they knocking?
    Knock. Knock. Knock
.
    Screw it
.
    She reached up and grasped one of the meat cleavers in her shaky hand. Vickie had always teased her for being too jumpy, saying things like “how can you work with dead people when you can’t even take the bus at night?”, but to Camilla it was obvious. Dealing with dead people is easy: they’re dead. It’s dealing with the living that’s dangerous.
    Camilla stood, the knife gripped behind her back, and crept to the door, hoping to God it was just another uncle or cousin or nephew who had forgotten his key. She eyed the disfigured silhouette and reached out, clenching the dead bolt.
    “Hello?” she asked, her voice cracking.
    There was no answer.
    “Can I help you?”
    Still nothing.
    She gripped the dead bolt and gave it a turn, pulling the door open on its old, rusty hinges.
    Instantly a breeze rode through the kitchen, carrying in a damp stench of wet hair and mud.
    Standing in the doorway was a young boy who couldn’t have been more than six-years-old. He was soaking wet from head to toe, pale skin and dark freckles, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer shorts that matched the black hair sticking to his skull in sopping wet strands. His eyes were blue, but distant, like a bright sky blocked by clouds or factory smog.
    “Oh!” Camilla said, stunned. “Oh God, uh…Come—come here.”
    The boy didn’t move.
    She looked around, completely at a loss for what to do, when suddenly the kitchen lights flashed on.
    “What in God’s name is happening down here? Something break, or—”
    Camilla turned to see Moira billowing into the room, her black nightgown swirling like thunderclouds around her. The woman’s face cycled from confusion to frustration, and then to