Our faces twisted in agony, but neither of us dared cry out.
I knew I couldn't overpower Uncle Garrett. I grabbed fistfuls of his pant leg and begged.
"Uncle Garrett, I'll leave right now."
"Just let my brother stay in the rice bin with you. Please."
But he snatched the cleaver off the cutting board, murder blazing in his eyes.
"That bin's barely big enough for one person. I'm cramped in there as it is!"
"The old hag's coming out any second. Get lost, or I'll kill you both!"
My bottom line was simple: I could go, but River had to stay.
I'd even been prepared to dig in and threaten him with mutually assured destruction.
But he was more ruthless and more inhuman than I'd imagined.
Just as despair closed in, the mysterious voice spoke again.
"Stop wasting time with him. Find somewhere else to hide."
"The Kitchen God's shift ends at sundown. In five minutes, this kitchen won't be safe anymore."
"This is the one room that thing hasn't searched yet. Once it does, it'll tear this place apart!"
River and I froze in shock.
But Uncle Garrett still looked nothing but impatient, as though he couldn't hear the voice at all.
Before he could react, I'd already grabbed River's hand and bolted out of the kitchen.
The courtyard had four rooms — north, south, east, west — but we'd been sealed inside the rice bin the entire time. I had no idea which room Grandma had gone into.
And if we stood in the open yard deliberating, we might run straight into her on her way out.
My heart hammered up into my throat. I gritted my teeth and pulled River into the nearest door — the south room, the one used for storage.
The door swung open to an empty room. Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly buckled.
I flipped a large bamboo basket upside down over the two of us and had barely settled into our hiding spot when footsteps echoed across the courtyard.
"The kitchen and the south room are good places for hide-and-seek. Time for a thorough look."
I held River tight, silently begging that the mysterious voice had told the truth.
If Grandma went to the kitchen first and found Uncle Garrett, River and I might still have a chance to slip out of the south room and find a new hiding place.
Mercifully, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from the kitchen next door.
"Mom, don't! It's me, Mom!"
After she found Uncle Garrett, the thing wearing Grandma's skin let out a satisfied sigh, like a beast settling after a full meal.
"Three left. Almost done. Almost."
Uncle Garrett was gone. That left only me and River.
But she'd said three. Why was there one extra?
There was no time to think it through. Every second counted. I threw the basket off us, grabbed River, and ran for the east room — the bedroom where Grandma had lived for decades.
The moment we pushed open the door, a large hand clamped over both our mouths from behind.
"Hope. River. Don't scream. It's me!"
The familiar voice hit us like a shockwave.
Finding our father in the most dangerous moment of our lives was like drowning and catching hold of driftwood.
Tears poured down our faces before we could stop them.
But Wade Calloway made no move to comfort us. His expression was all cold calculation and sharp authority.
"We don't have much time, so I'll make this quick."
"Every time that thing enters a room and catches someone, it leaves. It doesn't keep searching."
"That means if all three of us hide in the same room, even if one gets caught, the other two survive."
Grandma's words slammed back into me. Three left.
She'd known all along that our father had snuck back. She'd already counted the extra person.
The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. "I know who did this to Grandma. The one responsible is right here with us!"
"No matter how hard we try, there's no escaping it."
Dad squeezed my shoulders hard. "Hope, I know I haven't been much of a father."
"All these years I never checked in on you and your brother. This is the first time I've come back, just to sneak a look at you two during the holidays."
"But you have to trust me completely. I will protect you. I promise."
The panic that had been clawing at my chest finally eased. I nodded firmly.
He leaned in close, his voice low and deliberate. "I've watched your grandma hunt. She's old. She can't bend down. She never searches low. You and your brother will be safest under the altar table."
By then, Grandma had already finished searching the south room. Her footsteps were heading our way.
At Dad's signal, I pulled River under the altar table without a second thought.
A red cloth hung all the way to the floor, hiding us completely.
The room went so quiet I could hear nothing but our hammering hearts and the slow shuffle of Grandma pushing the door open.
Then the mysterious voice sighed.
"Your father told you to hide under the table. But he climbed on top of the wardrobe."
"He's using you two as decoys. That thing crawls along the ground."
