Stolen Tongues

The gray stain on the carpet looks like a small man. It’s been over three weeks since Faye sleepwalked, but after a movie marathon one night, Felix finds her asleep, talking to someone and running her fingers over the stain on the rug. Felix wakes her and helps her to bed. On the way up, she spews black vomit again, all over the wall. This shape also looks like a man, but bigger this time.

Felix cannot sleep, and a few hours later, Faye goes to the bathroom. When she returns, she is rigid, with her head tilted all the way back. She tells Felix there’s a woman who lives in the attic and sleeps above their bed. Felix fears that the Impostor has chosen a new shape to trick Faye. Felix is unnerved; he wanders the house, remembering all the horrible things that have happened, and this lulls him into a “hypnotic state” that feels both comforting and sickening. Without thinking, he walks to a window and draws a backward “5.”

Not even a professional carpet cleaner can remove the stain. Faye begins talking about wanting children.

One night, Felix has a dream in which he tries to clean the stain on the wall. The wall putrefies, and his hand pushes through it. He finds the cellar of the cabin at Pale Peak behind the drywall. He knows he’s unwelcome there, and he’s about to escape before seeing something glimmering on a shelf. He reaches for it, but the shriek of a child stops him.

Faye wakes him up. Her face looks wrong, however, and he knows it’s not really her. She begins to argue with someone, waking herself with her own screams. When Felix tries to hold her, she pushes him away and runs to the hall, where she vomits a third time.

Felix starts to get angry and thinks Faye should try harder to fix whatever is happening. She says she keeps hearing a baby crying all night, and it’s deeply upsetting her. She expresses her wish that the Impostor would “just end it” (231). She says that it wants something from her that she can’t give because she doesn’t know what it is.

Faye and her sister, Becca, make plans for Becca to visit with her son, Caleb. Felix tries to find the last name of the couple who sold the Spencers the cabin, and Pike reveals that it is “Ball.” He finds Tom’s obituary, traces his brother, then locates Jennifer’s new husband, a dentist.

Becca and Caleb arrive. Felix can tell Becca is an “expert liar,” like her sister and mother are. She is five years older than Faye, so Felix tries to get her to recall some memories, anything connected to the number “5.” He can tell she knows something, but she won’t tell.

Late that night, Felix is woken by a baby crying, and he finds Becca, Caleb, and Faye on the couch. Becca doesn’t realize Faye is still asleep, but Felix can tell. Faye begins to croon the same song from the cabin, and Caleb screams just as Felix notices a massive shadow outside the window. He runs outside and finds a puddle like Faye’s vomit. Becca is outraged, and everyone goes to their rooms.

Later, while asleep in bed, Felix hears Faye apologize to Becca. He imagines Becca in her room, responding. Faye says not to tell Felix that the Impostor is in the stains, that this is how he gets in at night.

Felix cannot get back to sleep. In the morning, Becca and Felix talk in the kitchen while Faye is with Caleb upstairs. He apologizes, and Becca says it’s not him she’s upset with. She admits that she was “rough” on Faye when they were small, and now Faye is holding a grudge. Later, Becca and Faye go shopping; when they return, Becca is upset and Faye goes to bed.

Around 10:00, Faye raises a huge racket, scratching and pounding on Becca’s door. Felix grabs her, but she gains the upper hand, hitting, biting, and threatening him. Suddenly, she collapses, waking up. When she sees Felix and Becca’s faces, she apologizes miserably. She tells Felix to leave her alone because he isn’t safe, and he promises to call Nathan the next day.

Nathan asks Felix about Caleb and describes a dream he had. He wonders why the Impostor is putting so much effort into tormenting Felix and Faye. There must be something it wants from her that it cannot get if she’s dead. Felix says it’s something to do with “5.”

Nathan suggests that the Impostor can only read dreams, not minds, and Felix realizes that this is why he’s always standing outside windows: He’s listening to people’s nightmares. Felix begins to trace a “5” on the wall, soothed by the motion. Nathan suggests that the Impostor establishes his connection to people through the land because the land anchors the spirits and living together. Nathan says he dreams of the cabin—it’s dark but he can hear his father speaking—and whenever he opens the bedroom door inside, he wakes up to hear a crying child.

Felix hears a scream upstairs, so he tells Nathan not to go to the cabin and hangs up.