Page 83 of Call Off the Dark

“Hey.”

From her dress pocket, she pulled out the prescription pill bottle.

After a moment, he blinked in recognition. “Is that your antipsychotic?”

She was impressed Wade remembered what type of drugs she’d been taking when he’d met her. “Yeah.”

“I didn’t know you brought that here.”

“I had some left in my last bottle.” She shrugged. It’s what you do. Keep old meds.

“Good idea,” he said.

Helen inhaled, hopeful. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Wade looked out at the pond. “If it helps.”

This was going much better than she had anticipated.

“It could,” she said.

“Good. I need you to understand what I’m trying to tell you. Will it work right away?”

It took Helen a moment to comprehend Wade’s assumption. When it finally hit her, she said, “No, Wade. I thought you might want to try the medication.”

“Me?”

“You think your brother is a ghost.”

Wade stood, disgusted. “I can’t even talk to you about this.”

“That’s nothing new. You’ve never been able to talk to me about anything.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“My husband was murdered in front of me.”

Wade looked at her like she was crazy. “I know that!”

“I used to think I was seeing him in the streets after he was gone.”

“Why are you telling me things I know?”

“Because that’s about all you know. The basic facts. But you never ask me how I’m doing. Does it not concern you that I haven’t been able to sleep the entire time you’ve known me?”

“That’s why I told you about lavender tea. What are we even talking about? This is not important. A goddamn ghost has slept in our guest room for the last two nights. That’s what’s important!”

Helen looked at Wade with true vitriol.

He left, and she stayed there awhile longer. Alone in the forest of sighs.

Tyler, Tyler, Tyler.

When she returned to the farmhouse at last, Isaac was nowhere to be seen. She crossed the yard toward the grave he’d dug. The raven was no longer on the grass.

At the edge of the grave, she looked down inside it, expecting to see the bird, but the grave was empty.

The hole was even larger now. While Helen was in the woods, Isaac had continued digging. Now the grave was big enough to hold a person.