Chapter 7

Shayne took a tentative step toward the torn paper and kicked

herself. “Quit being such a Namby Pamby and pick it up,” she told

herself as she tried to pluck up her courage. She wasn’t sure why a weird

wind dropping notes out of thin air freaked her out anymore then the idea

she had traveled ten years into the future. She hadn’t even began to stop

and come up with an explanation for the vase that broke when she

walked by it. Nor did she want to address the fact she had not only seen

her eyes change colors but also seemed to break the mirror with a glance.

To start thinking like that was dangerous. Thoughts like those could

easily be interpreted as sheer craziness. And although she often felt a bit

out of balance, Shayne wasn’t ready to admit she might be stark raving

mad. Instead of considering that maybe she had exited normal about ten

yards back, she walked over and lifted the paper to the light.

The handwriting brought a happy tear to her eyes. She gently

touched the scrawl of Rachel’s pen. Shayne glanced at the date and was

instantly aware she was holding a page from Rachel’s journal. The left

side of the page was ragged and it was clear it had been torn from a

bound book. Shayne glanced around the room in search for the rest of the

volume, but was disappointed when she didn’t see it.

With a small shrug of her shoulders, Shayne sank back into the chair

and began to read.

May 16, 1985

I buried my Debra today. I planted her in the dirt between her

husband and mine, like a flower that I know is never going to bloom. And

as overcome with grief as I am for my daughter, it is her daughter,

Shayne, that plagues me most.

The child found the attic today. She slipped away from me during

the wake. I came up the stairs just in time to see her push the secret

panel and watch the door slide open. It is as we feared, and the

Anderson curse appears to be upon her. Even as I write, the pain in my

heart is great, for I alone know the burden she will bear. Only a true

Anderson heir would be drawn to the evil attic. No other child would

have ever searched out its magic.

As I watched her disappear into the darkness, I knew I should have

stopped her. I could hear her cry of awe as she was drawn into the

serene peace that it gives us. Heaven help me, I was weak and I let her

go. It seemed only fit that she be allowed to enjoy it’s pleasures before it

slowly leaches the life out of her, one heart break at a time.

I know now that it was destined to be so. It didn’t matter that I sent

my own child across the country with a husband that had never once set

foot in this cursed house, she was still taken from me. That son-in-law of

mine never really had a chance. He died young, as all the Anderson

husbands before him, and my beloved daughter along with him.

I am weak. If I had been strong I would have burned this cursed

place to the ground the day my daughter was born here. My own mother

had warned me. She told me that only women could survive the

vengeance that was cast upon us. She said no male children ever

survived and she was correct. I didn’t believe until my own son withered

at my breast not more than a year after Debra’s birth. But I could not—I

left the house to stand and it consumed my children. Now it will take my

granddaughter as well.

I have decided to hide these truths from my flighty girl. She would

not understand and I won’t rob her of her childhood this way. Instead, I

will resign myself to wait. When the time approaches I will protect her. I

will send her to a place that death cannot find her, and I will keep her

safe…

Shayne dropped the journal page and watched it float mysteriously

to the floor. “What?” she asked herself over and over. There were so

many things in her Grandmother’s diary entry that she didn’t understand.

“She really thought our family was cursed?” Shayne mused.

Shayne glanced down at the necklace she wore. She touched it

carefully wondering if her grandmother had indeed kept her promise.

Had she really sent Shayne to a place where death could not find her?

Was the locket she wore the only thing keeping her from returning to a

past where she was destined to die? And if the chain was meant to

protect her, why did she have the sinking feeling time was running out?