“Heeeee!” the woman shrieked.
Alis and Sangeeta whirled around, saw her, and screamed. Kiyoko and Lara boxed them in as Julie started herding them toward the front door. Sangeeta pushed against Alis, who started laughing. The house erupted into flashing lights and organ music, and just as abruptly stopped.
“Holy cow,” Ida murmured.
Lara handed the girls flashlights. The two flicked them off and on, testing them. They entered the condemned building. Julie ran after them into the house staggering a bit. Alis raised a hand as if she were waving to us onlookers, and a couple of girls cheered.
“And they were never seen or heard from again,” Claire intoned.
“Except in the bathroom,” Rose put in, “if you say, ‘Come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me, come to—”
“Stop,” Ida pleaded.
“Mmmm . . . ” Rose teased. Ida batted her arm and Rose shook her head and rolled her eyes.
The building came alive. The lamps flashed, creepy organ music cascaded out the holes in the walls, and crazed laughter echoed over the dark hills and pine trees. Someone shrieked. A second scream joined the first; then the screaming was a crescendo falling over itself like a waterfall.
“What’s going on in there?” Ida asked me, and I understood the genius that was Mandy. She’d shown me just enough to make me something of an insider. I could share information. But I didn’t have all of it, so I couldn’t give away all the surprises. Only Mandy’s chosen few—and her victims—would have the 411.
“I know not,” I assured her.
“Did you get to go in?” Claire asked me.
“Yeah, but I didn’t really see anything,” I said. They both eyed me dubiously. “It smelled like rotted books.”
“So there’re books?” Ida asked. “What kind of books?”
“Rotted books,” Rose said.
The music blared; the screams became real.
“It sounds like they’re
dying
,” Ida said.
I got the feeling that someone was watching us, the watchers.
On a rise to my left, pine trees swayed and moved in the night wind. A figure stepped from their bobbing branches. His hair was dark and bedroom-tousled, his eyes deep-set in a tanned face. He was cut—broad chest and muscular shoulders encased in a hoodie that read
LAKEWOOD.
I stared at him for another heart-stopping moment. He was
hot.
He was rock-solid, wearing faded jeans that molded to long legs and athletic thighs. As the organ music tumbled note over note over note, I thought he was staring at me, too. Then he stepped back into the shadows.
“Guys,” I said. “There was a—”
“I heard Alis and Sangeeta have to get to the bell tower and flash their flashlights on and off in Morse code,” Claire said, “to spell out ‘come to me’ five times.”
“ . . . Meeeee,” Rose finished.
“No!” Ida cried, batting Rose’s arm.
“Listen, there’s a guy here,” I said.
Ida and Claire turned to look. “A guy? Like that guy from last night? That diver guy?” Claire asked. “Corbin Bleu looka like? He thinks Julie’s cute.”
“A different guy,” I replied.
“Ooh. Does he have a chainsaw?” Claire asked.
“You’re evil,” Ida said.
Claire struck a pose. “That’s why you love me.”
Sangeeta appeared in the bell tower. Alis popped up next. A cheer rose up from the spectators as the two girls hopped around in a victory dance, then pointed their flashlights down as Mandy strode stick-legged out of the house and turned around and faced them. Kiyoko appeared in a white hospital nightgown, and Lara still had on her hood.
“We did it!” Sangeeta declared. Her voice echoed; it was very cultured British. “Might we come down now?”
“You need to do the code!” Lara called back, lifting her hood up from her mouth. “Flash us, honey!”
“Please! We are freaking out!” Sangeeta protested, swirling her flashlight overhead.
“Do the code!” Kiyoko shouted.
“Do the code! Do the code!” The chant was taken up.
They flicked their flashlights in a rhythmic pattern.
“Come to me,” Mandy called through her microphone.
They did it again.
“Come to me.” Lara and Kiyoko sang along with Mandy.
The flashlights went on, off, on, off, on, off.
“
Come to me.
” The girls around me took up the chant. Rose rocked back on the log and pounded it with her open palms. I couldn’t bring myself to join in.
“
Come to me, come to me!
”
And that strange coldness crept into my head again. I jerked and touched the back of my neck. Was it wet?
“Okay, you can come down,” Mandy informed Alis and Sangeeta.
They cheered and disappeared down some stairs. “Hey,” I said to Rose, “is my neck wet?”
“Huh?” She got up to check, pulling down my jacket and my sweater. “Ewww.”
“Ewww what?” I cried.
She snickered. “Oh my God, you’re easy. There is nothing on your neck.”
“Here they come,” Mandy announced. A cheer rose up as Alis and Sangeeta barreled out of the house just as Headless Julie ran up behind them. Mandy, Kiyoko, and Lara threw their arms around Alis and Sangeeta. They turned to the rest of us and bowed. People started applauding and cheering. Then they moved to the right, into the shadows. Around me, the girls started heading out, in a rush to sneak back into their dorms. The lights in the house went off. Poof, just like that.
Julie swayed forward, then stopped. She looked confused.
“Hey, Julie,” I shouted, waving my hands.
“Ju-lie! Ju-lie!” Ida and Claire chanted.
Julie started toward us. The stump and the torso shifted forward, throwing her off balance, and she stumbled, ran-walked, and stumbled again.
Then Julie tripped on something. She flew forward and landed in a ball-gown heap on the ground.
I got up and hurried to her. Rose, Ida, and Claire jogged behind me. Julie looked pretty bizarre, headless and all, as the last of her fake blood poured onto the ground. Rose and Ida started pulling apart the Velcro strips that held her neck-stump together. It split down the middle like she was hatching her own head. She was sweaty and flushed.
“I—I tripped on something.” Julie groaned. “Ow! It
hurts
!”
“Look.” Claire shined her flashlight on a blob of white gleaming in the moonlight. It was a human head made out of glass
—
maybe porcelain. The brain was showing and it was divided up into sections with numbers painted in black.
“What the heck is that?” Ida said.
“It’s Julie’s missing head,” Claire informed her.
“No, it’s like a chart. Like a cut-by-numbers. Oh my God, did they do brain surgeries out here?” Ida made a face.
I gently touched Julie’s ankle. She sucked in her breath.
“Ouch, no,” she said. “Oh, it really hurts.” She looked off to the left, where Mandy’s group had gone.
“Can you stand up?” Rose asked.
Julie groaned. “I don’t know.” Ida loosened the torso section of the costume, and Julie pulled out her arms. She was wearing a simple white T-shirt and a jog bra underneath. Her ball gown was gathered around her hips, the torso and stump sticking straight out from her stomach. The pumping mechanism had shut off.
“We need to get help,” I said. “Maybe someone’s cell phone works up here. We can call security.”
Ida and Claire both grimaced; Julie shook her head. And Rose said, “Let’s think that one through, okay? It’s one in the morning and we are out here.” She looked around. “Maybe Mandy’s got an idea.”
“Go ask her,” Julie begged. “And tell her I’ll be right there, okay?”
Rose bounded away.
“I think I broke her costume,” Julie told me under her breath. She sounded very young and scared. I felt for her. She’d been so excited to be included.
“Well, she’s lucky you don’t sue her,” I replied.
“We could sling our arms under her shoulders and walk her back to the dorm,” Claire suggested.
“No, it’s almost a mile,” I argued. “Rose will come back with Mandy.”
But Rose jogged back empty-handed, shaking her head.
“They’re gone.”
“Oh, great,” Julie moaned. I could hear the hurt in her voice. They hadn’t waited for her.
“Hey,” said a deep masculine voice.
Two hiking boots were planted in front of me. Two long, muscular legs, in jeans. I gazed up to see the guy from the pines, tousle-headed, bedroom eyes . . . gazing directly at me. He caught my gaze and held it. All that was very nice . . .
very
nice . . . but it was his smile that mesmerized me. Sweet and kind of innocent. It actually made
me
smile . . . and tingle, and look down for a moment, to catch my breath. Then I looked back up.
“Chainsaw guy,” Ida breathed.
“Hi,” he said to me. “Need some help?”
ten
He stood in front of us,
gazing down, his dark hair curling around his face, his eyes warm and deep blue. He had the kind of mouth that looked great when he smiled, with dimples on either side. His nose was straight, then a tad bit turned up, very adorable. His Lakewood sweatshirt clung to a fantastic chest and good arms. Jeans and boots finished it off. He smelled like wood smoke. It was a good smell for him.
“I saw you fall,” he said to Julie. He jerked his head in the direction of the pine trees. “I’ve got a car,” he said. “I can drive you back to Marlwood. Maybe you should go to the infirmary.” He looked at me again, as if he saw something he wanted to keep track of. Riley used to look at me like that.
There was no way Riley was going to share this moment.
None
.
I couldn’t seem to make my brain connect to my mouth. After an extended silence, I said, “Cool.”
That was brilliant.
“Can you get us close to our dorm instead?” Julie asked him. “We’re in Grose.” Julie looked quickly at me before continuing. “We can wait until morning to get it looked at. I’ll say I slipped on my way to breakfast. That way we won’t get in trouble.”
“No,” I said, picking up the layers of her dress and running my flashlight the length of her leg. Her jeans concealed her injury. “I say better a little bit of trouble now than, I dunno, gangrene setting in.”
“It’s just a sprain,” Julie retorted, but her voice was shaky. “And I don’t want to be in trouble, even a little. I want to go back to Grose.” Julie looked at the guy. “Please?”
“Sure,” he said, overruling me. “There’s a hole in the chain-link fence,” he told us. “You’ll have to crawl through.”
“I can do that,” Julie said.
He caught his lower lip and scratched his nose. He had dark eyebrows and just a hint of a five o’clock shadow. He was wearing a ring that caught the light. “You haven’t seen the hole yet.”
He looked at me, and my knees wobbled. “I’m Troy, by the way,” he told me. “Troy Minear.”
“Lindsay. Cavanaugh.”
We stared at each other for a second, and I felt something pass between us. It was physical, but it was more than that. After Riley, I thought I was over guys forever. One of the most appealing things about Marlwood was that it was an all-girls school. But now I was trying very hard not to drool.
“I could carry her,” he told me, pointing to Julie. I was normally a feminist type, but his heroic offer was seeming really hot right now. “Or two of you could let her sling her arms over your shoulders . . . what?” He cocked his head at me.
“Nothing. Sorry.” I had just been wishing I was the one hurt. I definitely wouldn’t mind being carried. I looked at Ida and Claire. “Are you guys in?”
“Yeah.” Ida bent down and picked up the weird porcelain head. “Is this what you tripped over, Julie?”
Julie nodded. “I want to keep it.” She reached out her arms. She looked guiltily at me. “If it’s valuable, I’ll give it back.”
“What is it, a head?” Troy said. “I’ll carry it for you.” He took it from Ida, wrapping his big hands around it as if it were a football. My imagination suited him up in shoulder pads and a helmet. Or maybe a basketball uniform. He was very tall, maybe too tall for football. If I ever tried to kiss him, I’d have to use a ladder.
Stop
. But my heart was skipping beats. He was too, too hot.
And he was rescuing us—well, Julie, anyway.
Troy and I eased Julie to a standing position while Ida and Claire pushed down her costume. Rose folded it up.
“Can you put this in your trunk?” she asked him.
“Don’t put any weight on your ankle,” I told Julie, as she slung her arm over our shoulders and we started walking. Poor Julie moaned and hopped along. It was awkward in the extreme.
“Nice, kiddo,” Troy said. He was very gentle with her. “You look like a quarterback coming off the field.”
We reached the chain-link fence. Ferns and ivy braided the diamonds. Ida shone her flashlight along it, and we saw the jagged gap, which, luckily, was flush with the ground. Troy went through first, crab walking, then grabbed the top links of the hole and tried to stretch them upward. Each of us squirmed through; part of my mom’s sweatshirt caught on the broken fence, tearing the arm.
I helped Troy pull Julie through next. Julie sucked in her breath a lot, but we took our time. My fingers brushed Troy’s. I was hyperaware of touching him.
At last, the six of us stood on a rise. A hill spread below us, and there was a dark shape in the trees. His car. He fished in his pocket and handed a ring of keys to me.
“What kind of car do you have?” I asked. “So I’ll know which one it is.”
He chuckled. “It’s an old T-bird, but it’s the only car down there.” Then he looked at Julie. “It’s steep. We’ll go slowly.”
“This is really nice of you,” I said.
He didn’t say anything, but he did smile. I slid ahead of them down the hillside. When I saw his car—the T-bird was vintage, beautifully restored from some long-ago era—I smiled, too; it wasn’t what I would have expected from a rich boy at a private school. A Mercedes or a Beemer, maybe.