Chapter 2

Viktor

    Viktor had seen her.  He was sure of it.  Viktor wasn’t going to speak her name until he had the necessary proof.  If it wasn’t her, if it was something from the old world, Viktor didn’t want it knowing his sister’s name and taking her to the dark realms.  His sister used to whisper the stories their grandmother had told her before they moved to America.  

    Viktor remembered one of the stories that his sister whispered to him when he spent the night on the floor of her room during a terrible storm.  It was about Death Watchers.  Monstrous creatures that followed grieving families home from the cemeteries after a funeral.  They would then take on the form of the loved one who passed away and wait in odd places for the family members to see them.  

    The Death Watchers would then lure the family members one by one to their demise, so that they can could enjoy watching the family’s grief over and over again until there was no one left to grieve.  Entire families and villages had been destroyed by these creatures in the old country and no one could stop them, because, like all of the dominating evil of the old world, they remained unseen until they saw fit to show themselves.

    It scared Viktor for days to think that there was evil all around him, every kind of monster from the old world, and he couldn’t do anything about it because he wouldn’t be able to see them.  These monsters could stay for days, years, decades in his life, following him around, preying on him, his good fortune, and everyone and everything he loved, but Viktor would never know the monsters to be the source of his misery until it was too late.  Until one of these creatures came to kill him.

    The thought of something evil taking the face of someone he loved left a tingling feeling under his skin.  The idea that one day his mother or his sister would turn on him because they weren’t themselves was the scariest thing Viktor could imagine.  The worst of it being that he wouldn’t know if it was his loved ones actually turning on him for reasons unknown or if some old world evil had taken their form to lure him into a false sense of security.  It kept the young boy up at night and his sister didn’t help.  When Viktor told her he was scared that that would happen, she tricked him a few times when he came into her room or when he found her pouring a glass of milk in the kitchen.

    Viktor would call out his sister’s name and she would run at him shrieking like a banshee.  Or turn around with her face covered in ketchup, as if it were dripping with blood.  They were mean jokes to play and Viktor hated her for a little while for playing them on him, but somehow it helped.  Somehow, the fear of his sister ever being anyone other than his sister went away.  However, this was different now.  She was dead.

    Viktor’s grandmother always told his sister never to trust the face of someone you knew to be dead.  That story went directly against all of the stories their grandmother had in which a dead family member appeared to someone and saved them in some way.  Death and the dead seemed to contradict each other in so many ways in the old stories.

    It didn’t bother Viktor that there were so many stories from the old world that contradicted each other even in regards to simple things such as drinking milk and how to tie your shoe.  His sister always told him that the old world was so old, they had stories for everything in one way or another.  That if he lived long enough, he would too.  Some of these stories would praise dogs others would condemn them.  That was the thing with time.  If enough of it passed, anything could and would happen.

    Sometimes, Viktor wished he could have met his grandmother and heard the stories in the old tongue as his mother called it, the way they were meant to be told.  However, while his parents escaped with his sister during the war, their grandmother hadn’t been so lucky.  His parents had fought with her for days about joining them, about leaving their small village, but she said she was too old, too set in her ways to die anywhere but in the small cottage where she and all of her children had been born.

    Viktor’s parents made the hard choice to leave her behind.  It was the only way to save themselves and their young daughter.  It was the right choice to make.  A few days later, Nazi forces took the village and held it for years.  Very few survived.  The elderly certainly weren't among them.  

    After hiding in England for a few weeks and managing to book crossing to America to pursue their dreams, Viktor’s family spent a year in New York until Viktor’s father was killed in a mugging.  Viktor’s pregnant mother then moved with his sister to Claireville, where Viktor was born shortly before the war ended.

    Life was good in Claireville.  The people were generous and welcoming to Viktor’s small family and supported them in whatever way they could.  At first, Viktor’s mother worked as a nanny for a kind family, the Gorskys.  They supported her in getting her education at the small community college in Garrison and now Viktor’s mother worked as a nurse in the nearby nursing home.  Once a month, Viktor’s mother dressed her children up and took them to eat at the Gorskys.  The Gorskys were the closest thing that they had to family and they had known Viktor since before he was born.

    Viktor once asked his mother about their family and friends back in Europe, but she told him not to ask again.  That everyone in the old country had died in one way or another.  As a soldier, as a prisoner, as a starving civilian, or more likely than not in one of those inhuman camps.  There was no family left behind.  Only the dead.  There were no friends in the old country.  Only the dead and all things haunting and evil that roamed free in a country filled with the dead.  Now, living in America, where people were alive and free of wicked spirits, all their small family had was the Gorskys and Mama’s patients to keep them company in good times and bad.

    Viktor and his sister used to visit the nursing home when their mother was working.  Viktor loved it there.  It was like having dozens of grandparents who adored him instead of a single grandmother, full of scary stories, dead and gone in the old world.  After his sister died, Viktor’s mother stopped bringing him to work as much as she had before.  It had been terrible for the residents when his sister passed.  

    After all, she had been so young and beautiful and full of life.  None of the elderly men and women there ever suspected they would outlive a girl like that. There was so much grief brought into the nursing home by her death that the director thought it might be better for the residents to see less of Viktor so that they would be less attached to him should something happen.  Viktor was still welcome to come twice a week, but it wasn’t the way it had been.

    Everyone there pitied him.  The residents gave him extra sweets and hugs.  The nurses whispered about him when he came and went and Viktor wondered if it was as bad for his mother every day when she worked.  

    There was nothing that either of them could have done to prevent his sister’s death.  It was still tragic.  For no one more than for Viktor.  It was a hard adjustment losing the person who was more of a mother to him than his own mother.

    With their mother working, his sister had always been the one to wake him up in the morning, to fix him breakfast, and to make sure he was ready for school.  She was the one who walked him home again after her own classes were over and sat with him at the kitchen table until both of them had finished their schoolwork.

    She was also the one to arrange for him to go over to a friend’s house, to give him a dime for an ice cream cone in the summer when his friends came pounding on their front door, begging for him to come along.  She was the one that did the shopping and the cooking.  She was the one that made sure he took his bath and kissed him good night.  

    It was a hard change when she died.  It was like expecting a warm shower only to step in and have the water feel like ice against your skin.  Every morning, his bed felt wonderful and safe until it was his mother that woke Viktor for school in a panicked rush and the realization that his sister was gone pressed against his heart like a shock of cold water against his skin.

    Almost a year had passed.  A year of terrible and painful loneliness.  Then everything suddenly changed.  She was back.  By chance, Viktor saw her one night when he went to close the curtains to his room.  She was walking down the street, away from their house.  At first, it seemed like a dream.  In the morning, Viktor wasn’t even sure he had seen her.  So he waited up the next night, peering quietly over the windowsill, so that she wouldn’t see him.

    Viktor didn’t know if this was a good spirit or a bad.  He just knew it had taken on the form of his sister.  The second night, Viktor was sure it was her.  He needed his mother to know. His mother knew the same stories from the old world.  She would know how to tell if this was a good spirit or a bad.

    It didn’t go well.  At first, Viktor’s mom was calm and told him that it was a dream.  That it was normal to dream of the dead once they were gone.  However, when Viktor insisted she was there, that she walked past their house and lingered to watch the windows, his mother lost it.  She told him to leave it alone.  To stop lying.  She then sent him to his room for the day and sank into the old rocking chair, started crying and didn’t stop.  It was long after dinner should have been made when Viktor’s mother walked quietly into his room and set a plate with a sandwich on his desk.

    She didn’t say anything.    

    “Mama,” Viktor said.  “I’m sorry.  It was a dream.  I’m sure of it now.”

    That was a lie, but it was a lie that needed to be told.  Viktor’s mother kissed his forehead and pressed her tear streaked and red face against his face before leaving the room again.  Viktor knew he couldn’t tell her again.  It wouldn’t stop him from discovering what this visiting spirit was and if it was a good spirit, he would help it.  If it was a bad one, he would have to push his mother to tell him what they did in the old world to take the bad spirits away.

    Since Viktor noticed this spirit that looked like his sister, he realized that she was like clockwork, appearing every night around the same time.  Viktor often wonder how long had she been coming here?  Since her funeral?  Since she died?  It was strange to see her there.    

    She always stood outside the window, across the street, just for a minute before walking away again.  Viktor knew it was her.  It had to be.  He knew that silhouette.  She was the same as she had been the last time he saw her, waving to him as they separated on their way to school.  The dead weren’t meant to change.  It sent a chill down Viktor’s spine.  Maybe she was a ghost.  Maybe she had come to haunt him.  Or maybe she was an angel, come to save him from the evils he couldn’t yet see.

    In the morning, he wouldn’t tell mom that she was there again.  He would tell his friends though.  The weekend was coming.  He could have a sleepover at Donny’s house.  Donny’s mom always took him in on the weekends now.  Ralph would be there.  Maybe Christopher would have to come too.  Ralph rarely had a choice when it came to Christopher tagging along, but it didn’t really matter.  Christopher was smart enough to know that if he tattled there would be no more adventures for him.

    The last time Christopher tattled was when the boys found Donny’s older brother’s bow and arrows in the shed and took it to the old woods to hunt a deer.  They’d taken turns shooting arrows and retrieving them.  When they got back, Christopher told his mom all about the fun they had and the boys were in big trouble for playing so dangerously.  

    “Someone could have been hurt,” they were told.  “You don’t know whose out there in the woods.  What if you would have hit Mrs. Yule walking her dog on a trail?  What you did just isn’t safe.”

    The boys took their punishment like men and then made it clear to Christopher that if he tattled again they wouldn’t bring him along even if Ralph’s mother said they had to.  They successfully managed to ditch Christopher a couple of times and gave him the silent treatment until he swore he would never tell his mom about anything they did unless Ralph told him it was all right.

    Since then Christopher had proven himself loyal, but this adventure would be so much more important than the others.  Viktor needed Christopher to be braver and more loyal than ever before.

    For the whole week, Viktor packed supplies.  He was going to follow her on the night of the sleepover.  He had to.  Every night, he woke to her standing outside of his window for just that short minute.  She was there for a reason.  She had to be.  Maybe she wanted to tell him something.  Maybe she wanted to come home.  Or maybe she just missed him and mom as much as they missed her.

    With his backpack ready and his mom giving him an extra kiss as she dropped him off at the Hannigans, Viktor knew that tonight would be the night that he followed her.  He wanted to walk hand in hand with her to her grave and tell her that it was all right.  That she could rest now.  She was safe and no one else could hurt her.  That she didn’t have to come to their house night after night.  

    Viktor knew she was dead.  He remembered the funeral.  Everyone did.  The whole town had been there.  The disaster at the funeral sparked as many rumors and gossip as his sister’s untimely death had.  

    Viktor remembered seeing her body, so lifeless and still at the viewing.  It was hard to believe it was her.  She looked like a wax doll or a statue placed there.  Snow White waiting for a kiss.  Everyone had gawked at her body in disbelief.  So healthy and young.  Why was she the one to die?

    Then they brought her to the small cemetery on the edge of town.  Mister Gorsky and his three boys were the pallbearers.  The police had to manage the crowds that showed up for a spot in the church.  They had to control the crowds that pushed their way into the cemetery.  So few of them were true friends of their family.

    Viktor knew that most of them had come to show their support.  He also knew that Clairesville was a small town and that a lot of people were here because it was the only interesting thing happening.  Something that would be discussed in great detail the next day and for weeks to come until something else unusual happened and there would be new gossip in town.

    Then, as the men who worked at the cemetery lowered his sister’s casket down with ropes, disaster struck.  One of the ropes got caught on something.  One of the men tried to gently shift it.  It didn’t budge.  The man pulled hard to one side to move the rope to a spot here it would be able to lower the casket.  With that jerk the rope broke free and then just broke.  The casket fell.  

    Viktor’s heart broke as he watched the casket fall and crack open, revealing his sister to him for one final horrifying moment.  A man had jumped into the hole and fixed it as fast as anyone could have, but it was too late.  Viktor’s mother screamed and fainted.  Viktor was stronger though.  He fanned his mother with the piece of paper he’d been handed in the church, a picture of his smiling sister was on it, and knelt beside his mother as he watched the man in the grave try to make things right again.

    His sister’s body was in the grave and her soul was unable to rest.

    Viktor knew that the others didn’t believe him.  He’d whispered it to Donny and Ralph at school.  They pretended to understand, to take his word for it, but Viktor saw the doubt in their eyes.  Tonight he would show them he wasn’t crazy from grief like his mother.  They were going to see where she went and ask her why she was still here.

    At the Hannigans, the boys got their usual sleepover meal of hot dogs and popcorn and settled on the couch to watch the movie that Donny’s mom found on the television for them.

    There was a western on.  The cowboys rustling cattle in their black and white glory.  The warm glow settling on the boys’s faces as they ate their dinners in silence.  With the movie done and the plates back in the kitchen, teeth were brushed and sleeping bags were rolled out on the living room floor.  The boys waited in silence, closing their eyes when Donny’s mom snuck through the living room to grab her magazine.

    For an hour or two, they could hear her sitting at the kitchen table, sipping her tea, turning the pages one by one, waiting for Donny’s dad to come home.  Viktor was hoping that Donny’s dad’s shift didn’t run late.  She always looked up at Viktor’s window at the same time.  If Donny’s dad was running late, they would miss her.  As it was, they barely had enough time to grab their things and go as soon as Donny’s parents went upstairs.

    Viktor looked over at Donny who was watching the clock on the far wall.  Viktor then turned his head to check Ralph who was resting his chin on his hands, staring lazily straight ahead.  Christopher was already sleeping.  That was fine.  He didn’t have to tag along.  Maybe it was better that way.

    Waiting was boring.  All there was to do was check the clock and listen to the pages turn.  Finally, there was a click and creak.  The front door was opening.  Immediately, Viktor, Donny, and Ralph closed their eyes.  Viktor could hear Donny’s dad walking gently in his heavy work boots.  He could feel the man leaning over them and kissing his son goodnight.

    Once the footsteps faded back to the hall, Viktor opened his eyes again.  He couldn't risk falling asleep now.

    “Hey, sweetheart.”  Viktor heard from the other room and then a kiss.  “Were the boys any trouble?”
   “No.  They watched some T.V. and went right to sleep.  How was work?”

    “The usual.”

    There was some more chatter.  Donny’s mom giggled at something and then the two of them walked upstairs.  Viktor counted the creaking steps and then listened to the bedroom door closing.  As soon as it did, he sat up and looked at the clock.  He waited five minutes before standing up and getting ready.  Ralph and Donny did the same.  They then waited another few minutes before creeping to the door.  When they reached it, Christopher woke up. 

    The younger boy sat up and stared at them before scampering out of his sleeping bag and over to them.

    “Wait for me,” he whispered a little too loud for comfort.

    He started changing his clothes, but Ralph stopped him.

    “Just put your shoes on.”

    Ralph tied Christopher’s shoes for him and then they were off.  Donny closed the door as quietly as he could while the others waited across the street from him.  Once the door latched into place, they bolted.  If Donny’s parents had heard the slight click, the boys wanted to be sure they got in trouble after their adventure ended and not before it started.

    After two blocks, they turned down Viktor’s street.

    “Come on, Christopher,” Ralph kept calling behind him, just loud enough for his brother to hear.  “Come on.”

    When they got to Viktor’s house, the boys crossed the street to the wooded side.  Viktor knew that his mom wasn’t home.  She was at work, taking care of old people.  The house was empty and lonely looking.  It was almost unrecognizable in the dark.

    “Here,” Viktor said.  He stepped off of the sidewalk and into the woods.  

    In all of his preparations for tonight, Viktor had taken the time to set up a spot for them.  he used the old chair cushions from the deck furniture that his mom was going to throw out to make a soft place for them to sit between some large bushes.  He also took all of the snacks his mom and Mrs. Carver had given him and kept them in a tin that he dropped in the bushes on his way to school this morning.

    Once everyone was settled, Viktor picked up the tin and opened it.  He handed chocolates and candies to his friends.  Viktor knew they still didn’t believe him, so he wanted to be sure to keep them in a good mood for as long as possible.  Chocolate would do the trick.

    The boys sat quietly munching on their sweets when Christopher started tapping frantically on Ralph’s shoulder.  Ralph turned to look at his younger brother and put his finger to his lips.  Christopher then pointed down the road.

    There she was.  As Viktor had hoped.  They had to believe him now.  Viktor wanted to jump out of the bush and talk to her, but Donny had told him that they should wait and see where she goes first.  If she was a good spirit, she would go someplace that belonged to her, like her grave or where she died.  If she was a bad spirit, she would go someplace else.

    They watched and waited.  The girl walked slowly and unnaturally down the sidewalk.  It was as if she couldn’t lift her feet high enough and was scraping the top of her foot along the cracked and worn cement with every step.  She was probably tired.  Viktor knew she had to be.  If his suspicions were correct, she had been coming here every night for nearly a year, hoping to make peace with the world.  If she was a good spirit, Viktor would make peace with her tonight.  Then she could rest for ever and things could be good again.

    When the girl stopped and turned to face his house, Viktor had chills.  He was so close to her that he could reach out and touch the ruffles of her long, puffy dress.  Viktor knew that dress.  He’d seen it a hundred times and yet it had never been found.  White with blue roses.  Tight at the top and puffy below the waist.  She’d saved for months to buy it.  Mrs. Craver sneaking her the last dollar or two so that she could have it in time for picture day.  She’d looked like a model from the catalogue, but not quite a film star in it.

    Viktor noticed the bare feet, the lack of stockings, the dirt and blood on her legs.  The messy hair, only half in curls, and the lack of breathing.  It was hard for Viktor to control his own breathing being so close to her.  He felt that he was doing it so loudly that he wanted to be in time with hers so that she wouldn’t hear him yet.  That was when he noticed that she wasn’t breathing.

    Suddenly, Viktor felt a hand on his back, gently pulling him away.  He hadn’t realized he was doing it, but he had moved so close to her that he was almost completely outside of the safety of their hiding place.

    As quietly as he could, he sat down between Donny and Ralph, their stunned eyes fixing on him.  He nodded, hoping it would tell them he was all right.  They then waited for her to start moving again.  When she was a little ways down the street, they followed.  Not on the sidewalk, but in the safety and cover of the trees.  At first, she was still slow, but the further they walked, the faster she seemed to be.  

    Every so often, she would stop and look at a house, focusing on the lights behind the windows.  Her head turning ever so slightly to the movement that danced across the light.  Viktor’s was the only darkened house she stopped at.

    Finally, after three or four blocks of following her, she turned right down a wooded lane instead of left into the heart of town.  The boys waited for her to walk bit down the lane before stepping out of the trees and following.  The lane wasn’t lit like the street and they could follow her without worrying about being seen.  It was a straight road, but dark.  All they had to do was stay in the shadows of the trees when she turned around and the darkness would keep them from being seen.

    It wasn’t hard to know where she was going.  The lane only lead to one place.  After a while, the trees disappeared on the left side of the lane and were replaced with a tall brick wall that towered over the boys.  The girl wasn’t visible any more, but Viktor and the others knew where she turned.  When they arrived at the big iron get, they found it open.

    She was there.  Waiting down the long path at the open door of the building.  

    “What do you think she wants in the hospital?” Donny whispered.  “There’s nothing in there, but a bunch of Civil War ghosts.”

    “I don’t know,” Viktor said.  “Just come on.”

    Viktor was worried that if they didn’t they didn’t hurry, she would disappear into the building and they wouldn’t be able to find her again. 

    As they hurried down the path, a light suddenly came around the corner and started coming towards them fast.

    “Run!”  Viktor felt Donny grab him and pull him in the opposite direction.  It was one of the security guards that patrolled the grounds of the old red brick hospital.  

    Viktor turned and followed his friends.  They made it back onto the lane only to realize that Christopher wasn’t with them.

    Ralph ran back through the gate and grabbed his brother by the hand.  “Come on, Christopher.  Come on.”

    It was the most frequent thing Ralph said to his brother and this time the most important.  Once Christopher and Ralph made it through the gates, the four boys ran down the lane and back to the street where they caught their breath.

    “It’s her,” Donny said.  “It’s really her.  She’s not just some window-looker ghost”

    “And she’s a good spirit,” Viktor added.  “She came back here.  So we have to help her find peace.”

    The other boys nodded.  They knew the significance of her ghost going back to the place where she’d been killed.  They would help Viktor.  They would make a plan and set the spirit of his sister free.