Can You Tell

It takes less time than she expected for Nica to calm down. The toddler has always been easy to soothe, but she often gets fussy when she's tired. In the time since Claire's death, she's started taking longer to fall asleep.   When Nica has stopped crying and settled against Hella's side, Hella looks around quickly. Despite how heavy the baby is, she doesn't want to put her down. She can't see anything on the landing or the stairs, but she also can't see the walls, except for the ones around her bedroom.   She glances up the next staircase and then casts a look at the staircase that leads down. Nica's father is down there somewhere. But there aren't any walls down there, none at all, and the monsters will be able to find them more easily.   She blinks. How does she know that? She's only been consistently seeing through the walls tonight, but she already thinks it's the reason they aren't safe here?   She looks back downstairs. The television is off. There's no sign of Petyr or Theo. If she goes downstairs, she can find them, but she doesn't know how long it will take or what might happen to them while they search.   But Lina and Caroline are in their room now, with no idea of the horrors occurring around them. She should get to them.   With Nica held in one arm and Claire's knife clutched in her other hand, Hella begins to walk up the stairs to the next landing. Nica is strangely quiet, leaning her head against Hella's shoulder. The near silence makes the climb eerie, especially when Hella glances over the side of the banister, through the non-existent wall, and sees the top of the master bedroom.   The difference between her room and the master is apparent. While her room, despite seeming to float in space, is tan and brown and whole, the one she and Nica just left seems dimmer, and black cracks split through the walls, the faintest glimmer of red visible within.   Hella shudders and turns her attention back to the climb. One more staircase, and she'll be at Lina's room. Just one more staircase.   She reaches the landing and steps towards the door. Just as her fingers brush the knob, chills run down her spine.   There's... something nearby. Something that fills the hallway, invisible as the walls may be to her, with ice-cold hatred. Something watching her, watching Nica, watching before it pounces.   Her grip on the knife tightens. It's a simple thing, just a chef knife from the kitchen that Claire tucked in a drawer of her desk. But with her wielding, it was enough to drive back the creatue in the master bedroom and keep her and Nica safe. Now, with the toddler heavy against her shoulder and the aching silence of the building's space, it provides the only comfort she can feel.   She only waits a second before the presence draws closer, turning a corner behind her, dragging itself over the floors. She keeps her eyes down, focused on a spot somewhere past the silver point of the blade, but she can almost hear it now, the whisper of fur-feathers-hair, the light scrape of claws.   The presence goes still for a full ten seconds, and Hella knows it has spotted her.   The night with the television, she knew not to look at the windows or the person outside would know and come inside. Earlier, she knew that the creature in the master bedroom had attacked because she looked at it.   The same logic no longer applies.   She has acknowledged one thing and now they all know.   She is awake, Nica is awake, Petyr is awake.   The creatures know, and they are coming for them.   Nica begins to shiver in her arms. Instantly, all of Hella's senses tune to her. Her nerves turn to steel.   Fighting is hard with a child in one arm. As a boon to Hella, though, this creature is smaller than the other one. Less skilled, too. She pushes it back easily enough, and then realizes that she has nowhere to go but into Lina's room.   Her selfish, childish desire to find her cousin and beg for help is gone. All that remains is the need to escape this thing's sight and gather her thoughts in safety.   The door is visible. The walls are visible. This room, then, is a sanctuary.   Her hand nearly slips on the doorknob, but she wrenches it open. This time, when she throws herself through, there is no creature dying on the floor and no shattered wards to let more in. There is only desperation and terror in the way she trips on the door and crashes to the ground.   Her back slams the door shut. Scrambling, shifting the toddler in her arms, and dropping the knife, Hella reaches up, up, back, finds the lock, and twists it. Then she collapses, every drop of strength sapped, every piece of energy gone.   Nica starts crying again, Lina sits up in bed with a gasp, and Caroline rolls over with a wail. Hella barely registers what her cousin says or what her sister does. Somehow, she calms the baby down. Somehow, she explains what happened to her cousin. Somehow, the terror abates enough for her to tell everything.   Lina is pale when she finishes, but a light has already come into her eyes, a quiet courage that Hella knows has kept her going through med school and boyfriends who betrayed her and siblings who left on their own paths. It's why, even though she was closer to Lina's siblings when she was younger, she considers Lina to be her favorite now.   Caroline is harder to reach, but Nica is an easy way to win her over. Carrie adores the younger girl and would never pass up a chance to play with or take care of her. Hella only has to place the toddler down and let the two chatter at each other; Carrie with the insistence that all seven-year-olds have and Nica with the sweet babbling that makes her so adorable.   Lina insists they go to find Theo and Petyr. Hella wants to stay where they are, sheltered in the sanctuary of Lina's room, undetectable to the monsters that now prowl the walls thanks to her actions. But she knows why the other woman wants to go, knows why she wants to find her husband.   With an aching twist in her heart, she remembers the devastation in Petyr's eyes when they arrived, the fear that clung to each of Claire's scribbled words, and the stillness in Theo's body when he told her what he'd felt the night before.   Lina brings a flashlight lantern that she and Theo brought in case anyone went wandering too close to nightfall and they needed to go after them. Hella would have tried to tell her they didn't need it, but that strange sense of knowledge is pressing in again and she thinks they need it.   They leave the room in formation, organized by Lina, who goes first, holding the lantern in one hand and Caroline's wrist in the other. Caroline holds onto Nica, eyes wide with a mix of fright and excitement, and Hella brings up the rear, her knife clenched tightly in a numb grip.   They have barely reached the stairs when Hella's vision twists. She gasps, raising a hand to her eyes. Ahead of her, the others react as well. Caroline almost screams, Nica starts to cry, and Lina lets out a startled exclamation.   "What is it?" Hella asks. "What's wrong?"   "The lights went out," Lina manages to say. "Just— just a moment, kids, it's okay. I'll turn on the lantern."   Hella blinks harshly, squinting and shaking her head. When she looks up, she has to fight to keep herself calm. Everything looks the same as it did before, but now, despite what Lina said about the built-in lights turning off, she can still see perfectly.   When Lina turns on the lantern, Hella can't stop her inhale. Her cousin spins instantly, looking for the danger.   "It's okay," Hella says, her gaze locked on the lantern. "My vision is just... a little different than yours."   Lina doesn't look convinced, but she turns and starts to walk down the stairs. Caroline and Nica follow her, and Hella barely hesitates before doing the same.   It isn't that the lantern turning on is bad. It's that instead of light, Hella can see a faint, bluish-white glow surrounding their group like a shield. The lantern itself glows the same color, wisps of light trailing from Lina's heart to the object in her hands.   The Caretaker, she thinks, and then wonders where that came from.   They reach the next landing and hear footsteps. Instantly, Lina reaches to turn off the lantern. "No!" Hella hisses. "Stop, don't touch it! It's not a monster!"   Lina looks up at her in confusion, but the footsteps are already coming up the stairs, and now Hella can see Petyr and Theo's heads rise above the railings, invisible to the others until they reach the landing as well.   Lina gasps, nearly dropping the lantern as she throws her arms around her husband's neck and sobs. Petyr is more composed, but the blankness in his face tells Hella that he isn't okay. He looks at Nica and then at her. "What happened?"   "A creature broke into the bedroom," Hella says. "I fought it off and came upstairs, where we were attacked again. Lina and Carrie woke up, and we decided to try and find you." She casts a glance at Lina and Theo and lowers her voice. "Lina said the lights went out. You said you were going to do that, right?"   Petyr stares at her, then crouches to pick up his daughter. When he turns back to her, his voice is just as quiet. "After I found Theo, I tried to turn off the lights but they wouldn't go out. Finally, I tried using the remote." He holds up a hand to show the television remote. "It worked. I led us to the staircase, then we froze and realized we could feel things throughout the house. I tried pointing the remote around and then all of a sudden all the lights went out. We started upstairs, made it to the landing, and when I went to open the door to check on you, you and Nica were gone." He laughs a little, but Hella can’t see any humor in his eyes. "I panicked a bit, but Theo pointed out there was no blood or damage aside from the broken window. We continued up this way, hoping you’d tried to go for Lina and Caroline."   Hella nods, reaching out her free hand to brush through her sister’s hair and pull her closer. "I saw the creature through the window and it attacked," she says. "There was another one up by Lina’s room, but I fought enough that we made it inside. When we left, the lights turned off, probably from you, and Lina turned on the lantern."   Petyr glances at the device and inhales quietly. "I see."   Hella blinks in surprise. "Can you... see the glow?"   Petyr nods slowly. "I can't see through the walls, but I can still see as if the halls were lit." He frowns. "Were the hallways always like this? Did we ever notice?"   "There are a lot of things here that I don't think anyone noticed," Hella tells him. She looks back at the television remote still in Petyr's hand and pauses. "Did you turn off your computer?"   "No?"   "You need to."   She's aware, suddenly, that Lina and Theo have turned to look at her, that Carrie has gone still, that Petyr is frozen. Her breath feels stiff inside her lungs. There's weights pressing down on her chest, holding her fast.   "I need to what?" Petyr asks carefully.   "Turn off the laptop," she says through nerveless lips. "You're the Housemaster. You have the remote. You need to shut off every thing he can watch us through. Computers. Televisions. Cameras. The lights are off, they can't find us as easily. But the windows need to be sealed. It's how he got in the first time. We can't let him in again."