2015
"Tell me about the snake," Sidney prompts when Nico and Taylor lapse into silence. Taylor's gaze strays to the little backpack near her chair, the only contents being an old baby blanket and her pet. She read up on adders a lot once she learned how, but her snake seems to act however it wants, a total contradiction to all those websites and Wikipedia articles.
"I got her on the same day that Flora came to stay," Taylor says after a bit. She looks up at the camera, watching the blinking red light. She's growing bored with the constant barrage of questions. "She's a present."
"From one of the ghosts?"
"No."
"Well, who sent it?" Taylor smiles and doesn't answer, a cold thing that she knows sets her daddy on edge. He doesn't understand, doesn't have the same nightmare over and over again with no explanation other than the absolute ruin that's just a few years away. Part of her knows he won't live to see the red skies and gray fog that will choke the life out of people. She doesn't even think he'll make it another two years, but she keeps quiet and makes her smile look warm.
She has her own Hollywood Smile.
2014
Lee's daughter arrives late the next morning as Nico and Taylor are leaving for a picnic. Nico wants to walk through the property and maybe find some evidence that points towards the extras from The Hills Have Eyes as the people that broke into the house last night; Taylor just wants to spend some time with her daddy and see what's so great about a bunch of trees. She can hear the excited shouts of Flora as Taylor and Nico walk out the back door.
The backyard, like most of the property, leads into the woods that surround the house on three sides, the trees rising high above Taylor's head with the scent of pine heavy in the air. Taylor can imagine herself climbing the high branches that tower over everything, seeing the land from a bird's point of view instead of a little girl's that can barely peek over the dash of a car.
"Has your uncle brought you out here before," Nico asks, letting her swing their hands to and fro as they walk.
"No," she answers, gaze wandering around.
"Too scared of hillbillies?"
"And snakes. What's that tree called?" She points to one of the trees spread throughout the pines and cedars, the leaves clinging to the branches a dark brown and crunchy where they litter the ground.
"I don't know. Maple, maybe? We'll have to ask Lee when we get back to the house." Taylor nods, letting her fingers brush over a low-hanging branch as they pass. She likes walking through the woods, though it isn't nearly as fun as walking along the beach like she and her mommy used to do in the mornings.
"Let's go this way." She tugs on his hand until he turns towards the left, Taylor's gaze focused on a blur of movement ahead of her. They're walking for a good ten minutes before she catches sight of blond hair and a loud giggle. Nico doesn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, but Taylor's used to that.
"What are you looking at?" Taylor doesn't answer him, squinting as she tries to make out anything except for a vague blur thirty yards away. A little boy, she thinks. "Tay?"
"Shh." He's saying something, but she can't quite make it out. It's not just the distance between them, his voice is staticky like a bad telephone call. "I can't hear him," she mumbles, taking a step forward. "Speak louder, dude."
"Hear who? Taylor?" She drops her daddy's hand and moves a few feet closer, leaves crunching under her wellies. The boy is flickering in and out of view, turning gray and then disappearing altogether. She frowns, stamping her foot with the frustration welling up in her belly. What good is it to talk to ghosts when they just disappear?
"He's gone."
"Who's gone?"
"Nobody." She shrugs and turns back the way they came, dragging her feet with Nico trailing after her. "I wanna play inside."
Nico's drawn out of his thoughts as he comes up to the second-floor landing, intending to go set up his half of the attic when he's distracted by a faint talking. It's not surprising, the house is full and two members are little girls that talk to just about anyone. Except everyone else is downstairs playing Sorry, all except for his daughter; she'd feigned a stomach ache and dashed upstairs like her nightgown was on fire.
She's been acting weird since their walk in the woods, mumbling softly under her breath like she was sharing secrets with someone. Nico can't even blame it on ghosts, there were no shadows that didn't belong or flashes of color from the corner of his eye. Nothing. And his daughter isn't the type to come up with imaginary friends, the kid doesn't even talk to her Barbies because she can't get the different voices just right. He comes over to her closed door, resting his ear against it to listen in.
"Of course, I love her," Taylor is saying. "Yeah, she's pretty even if she is a little cold." There's a moment of silence, like she's listening to a reply. "I saw you in the woods today, but you weren't really here, were you? You're still in California with your nana." Another silence, this one longer than the last, followed by a soft hissing. "What do you mean my daddy's listening in?"
Nico isn't sure what he's expecting when he opens the door—a ghost of some sort maybe—but it certainly isn't his little girl sitting in the middle of the floor with a snake coiled loosely around her wrist, tongue flicking out lazily.
"Jesus Christ," he shouts, taking a step forward on instinct and freezing when the snake hisses.
"Hi, Daddy."
"H-hi, Princess." The snake, sleek and black with a hint of red in its scales, wraps slightly tighter around Taylor's arm. "What are you doing with that snake?" She tilts her head and raises her arm, observing with not a hint of fear in her gray eyes. She's always been curious about animals, but Nico never thought she'd be curious enough to pick up a snake.
"Playing with it, duh."
"Where'd you get it?"
"My cousin sent it to me. He said it's because he needs a friend." She giggles, like it's all a big game to her. "She's a black adder and I've named her Eve."
"Do you think you can get it off your arm without making it mad? Black adders can really hurt you." Taylor glances over at him and the anger burning in her gaze takes him by surprise, her features seeming to sharpen until she looks like someone else entirely. But then she's back to his baby girl, round cheeks still holding their baby fat and small hand coming up to trace the V of the snake's head.
"Eve won't hurt me." She gets up all the same and walks over to her toybox where a nest of blankets has been created, letting the snake slide off and curl up around a Tigger plushie. "She'll hurt you, though, so don't touch her." There's a hard edge to her voice, one that doesn't quite belong to Taylor but he's heard before. It was years ago, a family reunion with that drunken aunt Shelby and Monica rarely speak of.
It makes something inside him squirm, and a voice hisses that his baby girl's got a touch of darkness in her.