Life Among the Dead (Book 4): The End by Daniel Cotton Page A

his older brother.
    “I don’t know. She’s sick I guess.” He stands on the bottom step, allowing his sitter to come to him. The foyer is a mess. Killian guesses she must have fallen a few times and wonders if she has hit her head. “It’s all right, Mrs. Krantz, we’ll take care of you and clean this up.”
    The sitter reaches the stairs, and the boy standing above her. She doesn’t so much falter on her feet as actually lunges for him. Her cold withered hands grab greedily onto his shoulders with crushing strength. Her weight pins him to the risers. Killian lets out a yelp of shock as he fights to get out from under her.
    The old woman holds him down, her sad expression and blank eyes take on an eagerness that unnerves the youth. The sitter quickly lowers her head to the boy she was hired to look after.
    “Get offa him!” Hippo yells from behind the old lady, his hands on her shoulders and pulling with all his might. He had leapt over the railing, happy to have a reason to since the action usually lands him in trouble.
    Big for his age and solidly built, Hippo is able to keep his babysitter from getting her face too close to his brother, for now. His initial yank on her body was enough to pull her back but neither is giving up. To the dismay of his father, Doctor Josh Newton, Hippocrates is very stubborn and brutish, more like his step son’s father than his own spawn. Killian ironically has been easier to bond with; he’s a reader, a thinker, and far more sensitive.
    The sitter is derailed from her second attempt, the child on her back draws her full attention. He leaps away as she turns. Killian is afforded the chance to get up, he’s shaken but more concerned with his brother’s safety. Mrs. Krantz is slowly heading his way.
    “Run, Hippo!” the older of the two warns. At his call, the sitter once more sets her eyes on him for he is closer. “Oh shit!”
    Hippo bounces in place as he watches his brother retreat a few steps up the stairs, he isn’t sure what to do and unable to contain the energy begging to be released. “What’s wrong with her?”
    “I don’t know, buddy,” the brother admits, taking another step up to keep out of her reach.
    The sitter attempts to use the stairs but stumbles, failing to lift her foot high enough to step up. She claws and crawls after him.
    “Just jump over the railing,” Hippo suggests when he sees his brother at a loss.
    Killian does what he and his brother have been told countless times not to do. The banister wobbles slightly with a cracking sound as the boy’s weight shifts over the top. He doesn’t share his brother’s fearlessness, he can’t just leap without regard and forethought. His toes are sticking through the spokes of the railing to keep him on the stairs as the sitter closes in. Mrs. Krantz clutches the thin wooden poles and hoists herself up until she can get a hand on the main rail.
    “What are you waiting for?” Hippo asks.
    “I’m letting her get closer,” Killian reveals the plan, he can see the woman is not in her right mind and unable to understand what he’s saying. Once she is almost to him, having struggled and strained her way halfway up the stairs, he drops down.
    The brothers stand in the foyer watching the woman lean against the railing, still reaching out to them. One of the reasons they are told not to jump over the banister or slide down it, besides the obvious safety concerns, is that it isn’t strong enough for that sort of abuse and could break. Mrs. Krantz herself has had to scold little Hippo on more than one occasion, Tonight, she doesn’t heed her own words.
    The wood cracks under her weight and shakes. The boys move back, seeing what is about to happen before it occurs. Killian warns the old woman, afraid of her but not wanting to see her get hurt. With a sudden snap the rail lets go of the wall and comes crashing down with the woman on top.
    Given her behavior the children don’t rush to her aid, they just