After the cries went ignored for a while, snarls and screams would simulate the demise of the young supplicants.
Then a new batch of solicitors began begging for admittance.
Perhaps most disconcerting was when Grandpa was inviting them down to breakfast. We made it, kids, the sun is rising! Come on, Lena cooked hotcakes.
How do we know you're our Grandpa? Kendra asked, more than a little suspicious.
Because I love you. Hurry, the food's getting cold.
I don't think the sun is up yet, Seth replied.
It's just a little cloudy this morning.
Go away, Kendra said.
Chapter Fourteen
Just let me in; I want to kiss you good morning.
Our Grandpa never kisses us, you sicko, Seth yelled.
Get out of our house!
The exchange was followed by vicious banging on the door for a solid five minutes. The hinges shook, but the door held.
The night wore on. Kendra leaned against the headboard as Seth dozed at her side. Despite the noise, her eyelids began to feel heavy.
Suddenly she jerked awake. Gray light was seeping through the curtains. Goldilocks wandered the floor, pecking at kernels from her spilled bucket of feed.
When the curtains were masking unmistakable sunlight, Kendra nudged Seth. He looked around, blinking, then crept to the window and peeked out.
The sun is officially up, he announced. We made it.
I'm scared to go downstairs, whispered Kendra.
Everybody's fine, Seth said nonchalantly.
Then why haven't they come to get us?
Seth had no response. Kendra had gone easy on him during the night. The consequences for opening the window were brutal enough without placing blame and starting arguments. And Seth had really acted remorseful. But now he was reverting to his idiot self.
Kendra glared at him. You realize you might have killed them all.
His face fell and he turned away, shoulders shaking with sobs. He buried his face in his hands. They're probably fine, he squeaked. Dale had a gun and everything.
They know how to handle themselves.
Kendra felt bad, seeing that Seth clearly was worried too. She went to him and tried to give him a hug. He shoved her away. Leave me alone.
Seth, whatever happened isn't your fault.
Of course it's my fault! His nose was getting congested.
I mean, they tricked us. I sort of wanted to open the window too, when I saw those wolves charging. You know, in case it wasn't fake.
I knew it might be a trick, he sobbed. But that baby looked so real. I thought they might have kidnapped him to use him as bait. I thought I could save him.
You were trying to do the right thing. She attempted to hug him once more, but he pushed her away again.
Don't, he snapped.
I didn't mean to blame you, said Kendra. You were acting like you didn't even care.
Of course I care! You don't think I'm terrified to go down there and find out what I did?
You didn't do it. They tricked you. I would have opened the window if you hadn't.
If I would have stayed in bed none of it would have happened, Seth lamented.
Maybe they're fine.
Right. And they let a monster come in the house and up to our door pretending to be Grandpa.
Maybe they had to hide down in the basement or someplace.
Seth was no longer crying. He picked up a doll and used her dress to wipe his nose. I hope so.
Just in case something bad did happen, you can't blame yourself. All you did was open a window. If those monsters did something bad, it's their fault.
Partly.
Grandpa and Lena and Dale all know that living here is risky. I'm sure they're fine, but if they aren't, you mustn't blame yourself.
Whatever.
I'm serious.
I like it better when you're funny.
You know what I liked? Kendra said.
What?
When you saved Goldilocks.
He laughed, snorting a little through his stuffy nostrils.
Did you see how bad the salt burned that guy? He retrieved the doll and wiped his nose again on the dress.
It was really brave.
I'm just glad it worked.
It was quick thinking.
Seth glanced at the door and then back at Kendra. We should probably go check out the damage.
If you say so.
Aftermath Kendra knew it would be bad the moment she opened the door. Ragged gouges furrowed the walls of the stairwell. Crude pictograms defaced the far side of the door, along with an abundance of less orderly nicks and scratches. Near the base of the stairs, a crusty brown substance was smeared on the wall.
I'm grabbing some salt, Seth said. He returned to the ring around the bed and filled his hands and pockets with the salt that had scorched the intruder the night before.
When Seth rejoined her, Kendra started down the stairs. The steps creaked loudly in the quiet house. The hall at the bottom was worse than the stairway. Again the walls had been savagely raked by claws. The bathroom door was off its hinges and had three splintery holes of different sizes.
Patches of carpeting were burned and stained.
Kendra moved down the hall, appalled by the aftermath of the violent night. A smashed mirror. A broken light fixture. A table reduced to kindling. And at the end of the hall, a gaping rectangle instead of a window.
Looks like they let others in, Kendra said, pointing down the hall.
Seth was examining singed hairs in a damp stain on the floor. Grandpa? he yelled. Anybody!
The silence was an ominous answer.
Kendra descended the stairs to the entry hall. Sections of the banister were gone. The front door hung askew, an arrow protruding from the frame. Primitive drawings marred the walls, some scored, others scrawled.
In a trance, Kendra roamed the lower rooms of the house. The place had been gutted. Almost all the windows were destroyed. Battered doors lay far from their frames.
Mutilated furniture bled stuffing onto mangled carpeting.
Shredded drapes dangled in tattered ribbons. Chandeliers lay in shattered ruins. Half of one charred sofa was entirely missing.
Kendra wandered to the back porch. Wind chimes lay in tangles. The furniture was scattered around the garden.
A broken rocking chair balanced atop a fountain. A wicker love seat protruded from a hedge.
Back in the house, Kendra found Seth in Grandpa's office. It looked as if an anvil had fallen on the desk.
Pulverized memorabilia littered the floor.
Everything's trashed, Seth said.
It looks like a demolition team came through here with sledgehammers.
Or hand grenades. Seth indicated where tar appeared to have been slopped against the wall. Is that blood?
It looks too dark to be human.
Seth picked his way around the splintered desk to the empty window. Maybe they got out.
I hope so.
Out on the lawn, Seth said. Is that a person?
Kendra approached the window. Dale? she shouted.