Vengeance by Megan Miranda Read Free Book Online Page B

came to say hi.”
    “Okay,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Hi, then.”
    “See you tomorrow.”
    “Senior year. Best year ever.” She twirled her finger in the air and went back into the house.
    I started walking. I didn’t live too far from Justin’s—hell, I didn’t live too far from anything here—and it’s not like I’d never walked it before. Two miles. Maybe two and a half. Better than going back in and asking Kevin for a ride home. Having him list all the reasons I shouldn’t leave. Hearing Tara tell everyone I wasn’t speaking to Delaney.
    Knowing Janna was smiling about it.
    The clouds were blocking half the sky now, and by the time I made it to Main Street, the vendors were packing up and clearing out. A few kids with painted faces weaved across the deserted street, and a stack of napkins blew down the center of it, scattering in every direction. Six blocks from here to the lake, one block from the lake to home. The thunder rumbled in the distance. I wasn’t sure I’d make it before the storm.
    By the time I reached the lake, the wind gave it current. The surface moved and broke and swirled. I jogged the last block home.
    The key wouldn’t turn in the front door. Already unlocked. I stuck my head inside and called, “Mom?” My voice echoed through the wood-floored rooms and off the bare walls and back again. I was pretty sure I had locked the door. I looked at the tree on the side of the yard where we kept the spare key, the wind bending the branches under the dark sky. Delaney knew where we kept it, and her car was back in her driveway. But she wouldn’t. I cleared my throat. “Delaney?” I said, listening to the syllables of her name bounce back too loudly.
    I walked inside and locked the front door behind me. I heard the steady drip of rain on the roof. It sounded off,somehow. Closer. The house was in shadows, gray, like the dark clouds outside. I flipped the light switch on the wall, heard a faint buzz, a pop, then nothing. No light.
    “Hello?” I called again. I took another step and heard a splash of water, like stepping into Falcon Lake. I took another step, heard another splash. Looked down. Something was moving across the floor. Like the lake was in my house, taunting me. Seeping across the hardwood, looking to claim me.
    A curse. A trade. I bent over and put my hand against the floor. Cold water. What the hell? I took out my phone and shone the screen on the floor, saw the water moving across, inching farther and farther throughout the downstairs. I moved the light around, saw dark trails of water down the walls, saw it dripping from the light fixture in the center of the room.
    Closing in around me.
    It was coming for me.
    Maybe it was coming for her, too.
    I backed out of my house, raced across the yard in the rain. A bolt of lightning lit up the sky, and I pressed and pressed and repressed Delaney’s doorbell. She opened the door, freezing at the sight of me. I looked past her, at the carpet through her house. Dry. At the lights turned on. At the walls, untouched.
    “Hi,” she said, like a question. One syllable, but I could hear everything inside of it.
    “Something’s happening,” I said. I looked over my shoulder. I’d left the front door wide open. The rain was getting in. “My house,” I said, shaking my head. “Something’s happening to my house.”
    I must’ve looked as confused as I sounded, because she didn’t ask me to explain. She put a hand on my arm as she passed, ducking her head as she raced through the rain. I almost crashed into her back as she stood, frozen, in my front entrance.
    There was still water everywhere. I hadn’t imagined it. Seeping up, dripping down—it was real. It was happening. “Do you hear that?” she asked.
    I heard rain. I heard water.
    She ran to the kitchen, where the faucet was turned on high. Water ran over the basin, onto the counters, down the cabinets, onto the floor. She pulled out two dish towels that had been