Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28845 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28845 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Then suddenly it felt like I was on a ride, dipping and spinning as my heart dropped to the ground.
Lucas and I were standing in an old house that wasn’t very large. There was a fire going in the hearth and I could hear what sounded like a chair rocking back and forth. Dropping Lucas’s hand, I turned and gasped. A little girl sat in rocking chair, holding a baby doll.
“Charlotte,” I whispered.
She glanced up and smiled. “You came! I’ve been waiting!”
Lucas took hold of my hand again and whispered, “Do you see her too?”
Nodding, I led us both across the old wood plank floors. Stopping right in front of her, I bent down. The smell of smoke was overwhelming, but I couldn’t see any flames.
“Do you smell smoke?” I whispered.
Lucas squeezed my hand. “Yes, but I only see the fire in the hearth.”
“Is that our dolly?” I asked as I pointed to it.
Charlotte nodded her head. “Tis. My mama gave it to me. The bad woman hurt Papa, and she locked me in here. She told me I was going to go see my mama, but the smoke burns my eyes.”
Lucas jumped up and looked around. “Holy shit.”
I turned to see a woman starting a fire in the corner of the small house. A man was on the floor, clearly passed out.
“She’s starting the fire, Lucas,” I whispered.
Turning back at Charlotte, I said, “Give me your hand, darling girl, and we’ll get you and your papa out of here.”
With a look that said she was much wiser than her years, Charlotte shook her head. “I cannot. But I need you to take her.”
She held out the doll. “Save it for me, please.”
“What?” I asked. “No, Charlotte, you have to come with me and Lucas.”
Charlotte held out the doll. “Please take it. I’m running out of time.”
I went to reach for her hand, but mine own went right through her. Was I dreaming? Was Charlotte a ghost?
Trying for her hand once again, I started to sob.
“Lucas! Lucas, I can’t get hold of her! We have to get her out of her! Lucas!”
He put his hand on my shoulder and calmly said, “Hollie, take the doll.”
The steady way he spoke had me drawing in a breath and looking back at Charlotte.
Blue eyes met mine, and I froze. “Tis real, this one,” she said. “Tis the one you must take care of for me.”
With shaking hands, I reached for the doll. Charlotte put it in my arms and then smiled.
“I’ll see you soon, Mama and Papa. I’m going to sleep now.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I frantically shook my head. When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the same spot as before, staring down at where the house once stood.
I turned to Lucas. “What was that? Was I dreaming just now?”
He slowly shook his head then looked down at my hand. When I followed his gaze, I gasped.
“The doll.”
Lucas screwed up his face in confusion. “How is this possible? That doll is in a locked containment box to preserve it.”
Clutching the doll to my chest, I looked into his eyes. “I’m not giving it to you.”
He drew back like I’d just slapped him.
“I’m not, Lucas. Charlotte gave this to me to keep for her. I’m keeping it.”
Scrubbing a hand down his face, Lucas started to pace. “I don’t understand what in the hell is going on, Hollie. What’s happening? I could get on board with the spells, but traveling back in time? I felt the heat from the fire, for fuck’s sake!”
“So could I, but when I tried to touch her, it was like she was air. Like she wasn’t there.”
Lucas sighed. “We know how she died. Sara did it. How could she kill a child?”
I wiped a tear from my eye. “I’m not sure, but we need to get home and you need to figure out if the other doll is still there.”
He gave me a strange look. “Of course it is, Hollie. It’s in a locked case at the building where we store all of the artifacts we find in Salem. It’s safe.”
Raising a single brow, I asked, “Is it?”
Lucas
Staring down at the glass box, I studied the doll that had been discovered at the dig site. It was an exact duplicate of the doll that was currently under Hollie’s protection at our home. The day after Hollie and I had gotten the doll, I’d brought it into the lab and had Tripp run several tests on it, including x-raying it—all of the same tests we’d done previously to the doll I was currently looking at.
“What do you make of it?” Matt asked.
Hollie and I had told Matt, Sarah, and Tripp about what had happened to us. Hollie hadn’t wanted to tell Tripp for fear he’d think she’d taken the doll from the site. But Tripp had completely believed our story and was eager to find out if the two dolls were identical or not.