Page 84 of The Vanished

“There was a well. The wooden cover had been tossed aside, and the moon’s reflection danced on the water. The lady tried to scream, but someone clamped a hand over her mouth. They were wearing gloves.”

“What happened then?” Quinn asked.

Gabe shot her a look of warning, since whatever had come after wasn’t suitable for a child’s innocent eyes, but she had to know, if only to better understand how to help Alex process the horror.

“The lady struggled, but she was too weak to fight. After a few moments, she went still. The person grabbed her beneath the arms and dragged her towards the well. She wore nothing but a short slip, and her heels made tracks in the snow. They pushed her in, feet first, and she dropped into the freezing water. It closed over her head. The cold revived her, and she tried to scream, but the filthy water got into her nose and mouth, and she gagged. She tried to find something to grab on to.” Alex was crying again, but softly this time, with compassion, not naked fear. “She was terrified. Her heart beat wildly, and her arms flapped as she tried to get her head above the water. She managed to suck in a few quick breaths, but then the person put their hand on her head and pushed her under. They held her down until she could no longer fight, and then they stood at the edge, looking down for a few moments until they fitted the cover into place.”

“So, she was still alive,” Quinn whispered. “The poor girl was still alive.”

Alex nodded, and she pulled him into her arms and held him. She could hear his heart beating against her chest and wished she could protect him from anything that had the power to hurt him, but they would not be able to put this episode to rest until she asked one final question.

“Alex, who was it? Who threw her into the well?”

“I don’t know,” Alex muttered. His voice shook with emotion as he looked into Quinn’s worried face. “Was it real, Mum?”

“It was real a long time ago,” Gabe said. “The lady you saw is past her suffering.”

“That’s good,” Alex said. “But why did I see that?”

“You saw a memory,” Quinn explained.

“Is it like the Pensieve in Harry Potter?”

“Yes,” Quinn said, grateful for the lifeline Alex had thrown her. It was much easier to explain if he could place what he had experienced into the context of a story he already knew and understood. “We can use the memories to figure out who did that to her.”

“Will they get punished?” Alex asked, and looked from Quinn to Gabe. “Will they go to jail?”

“Maybe.”

“What do you mean maybe?” he demanded.

“This happened a long time ago. They might be long gone. But it’s still important to find the truth. She had family, a sister.”

Alex’s gaze slid to the bedroom door, where his own sisters were talking softly to Max.

“Was it a man or a woman you saw?” Quinn asked.

Alex shook his head. “I don’t know. It was dark, and the person I saw wore a dark coat and a hat. I couldn’t see their face.”

“How big were their hands?”

The boy’s gaze went from Quinn’s hands to Gabe’s, assessing. “More like Dad’s.”

“So it had to have been a man,” Gabe said.

“Can I go now?” Alex asked. He bolted from the kitchen and went straight to the bedroom, then shut the door.

“I reckon that was bound to happen sooner or later,” Gabe said wearily.

“I’m sorry. I thought I had put the earring away. I must have left the container on the worktop.”

“The world is full of objects that belonged to the dead. Alex will have to learn to be careful what he touches.”

“He’s just a little boy,” Quinn said miserably. “This is too much for him to handle.”

“Yes, but we won’t be there to protect him every minute of every day. He should have known better than to open the container and take out the earring.”

“I wish there was something we could do to turn off his visions.”