inks returned, giving me the trust and faith I needed. I drank it all as quickly as I could. Something in it warmed my chest and stomach.
"Rest a while," she said, urging me to lower my head to the pillow again.
"Why did you bring me here?"
She just smiled at me.
"You know why," she said.
My mind was still so cloudy, but I began to recall my conversation with Ami and all that had happened. It made me want to cry, and I couldn't help but start to sob.
"No, no," she said. "You must be stronger now, not weaker. You can cry later if you want," she said.
"But why are you suddenly helping me? I thought you hated me."
"I didn't hate you. I hate what was coming in here with you, or what was coming back here because of you."
"You knew from the start what they wanted to do with me?"
"No, not exactly, but it wasn't long before I. . ." "Before what?"
"Was told," she said.
"Told? Who told you?"
She smiled again.
"You know. You had stopped listening to the voices, but I never stopped."
Could it be? Should I ask?
"Was it. . . Noble?"
"I don't know any names. I heard a voice that whispered in my ear every night and told me to be vigilant. That was why I did what I could."
"And that was why you put those things in my bed, on my door?"
"And more that you don't even know about," she said. "It wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry. That's why I brought you here now."
"They'll be very angry at you now," I said.
She shook her head.
"It doesn't matter. They can't do me any harm."
"Why are they so afraid of you?"
"Mrs. Emerson is afraid of her own shadow," she said. "She's up in her room, sedated in fact. I brought her the pills myself. She'll sleep away most of the day."
"And Wade?"
"He left very early for work this morning. He doesn't know any of it yet."
"But Basil. . . why should he put up with you once he finds out what you've done?"
She took on a look that turned her face into cold stone for a moment, her marbled eyes gazing into a memory. When she spoke, it was almost as if someone from beyond was speaking through her. Her voice was that different.
"There are so many different ways to sign over your soul to the devil," she said. "When you swallow a great lie, it festers and eats away at your spirit. That was what happened to the first Mrs. Emerson. I did all I could with her, too, but it was too great a dark secret to keep buried in her craw. I watched her weaken and weaken with time."