Page 3 (2/2)
They put the rease on the tagboard, gesturing with chopsticks To; he’d had practice raphs he took Jenny watched his careful, clever fingers transforh Victorian house and was forced into admiration
It had three floors and a turret and was open in front like a dollhouse The roof was removable Sheet after sheet had to be cut out to make all the chiot tired of working, and only Michael co Even Audrey, whoht far too sophisticated to enjoy this, lent an experienced hand
"Look, here’s some furniture to put inside-are you done with the first floor, Zach? You see, this is the parlor, and here’s a little parlor table Gothic Revival, I think Mother has one I’ll put it here"
"Here’s a sort of Oriental screen thing," Summer said "I’ll put it by the table for the dolls to look at"
"There aren’t any dolls," said Jenny
"Yes, there are," Dee said and grinned She’d curled her long legs up and was reading the instructions to herself "And they’re us It says we each get a paper doll for a playing piece, and we draw our own face on it, and then we et to the turret at the top That’s the game"
"You said it was scary," Tom objected
"I didn’t finish It’s a haunted house You run into a different nightet to the top And you have to watch out for the Shadow Man"
"The what?" Jenny said
"The Shadow Man He’s like the Sand around inside, and if he catches you, he’ll-well, listen He’ll ’bring to life your darkest fantasies and make you confess your most secret fears,’" she read with obvious enjoyeez," said Michael
"What kind of darkest fantasies?" said Suer Seduction Fear Secrets revealed Desires unveiled
Te with you, Thorny?" Tom said affectionately "You’re so nervous"
"It’s just-I don’t know if I like this game" Jenny looked up at him "But you do, don’t you?"
"Sure" His hazel eyes, brown flecked with green, were sparkling "It’s good for a laugh" Then he added, "Don’t be scared I’ll protect you"
Jenny gave hiainst him When she ay from Tom, the skin of her forearm missed hiht side because she always sat on Toet so Su to need to draw a lot Not just the paper dolls that are us; we’re also supposed to draw our worst nightmare"
"Why?" said Michael unhappily
"I told you We have to face a different nightmare
in every room So we each draw one on a slip of paper and shuffle the papers and put theet to a roohters on his jeans and went to sit by Dee on the couch, bending his head over the instructions Suet crayons fro the rest of the unless he had so to like this," Audrey said, judiciously placing furniture in the different roo, her hair shining copper under the track lighting
"Here are the crayons, and I found so with a Tupperware container "Noe can all draw" She ruboard left in the box, finally producing one printed with human outlines The paper dolls
They were all enjoying theame was a hit, the party a success Jenny still felt cold inside
She had to ad neatly along dotted lines It brought back long-agothe paper dolls was fun, too, the Crayola wax sliding richly onto the stiffon the rectangle of paper Suave her next, she stopped helplessly
Draw a nighthtmare? She couldn’t
Because the truth was that Jenny had a nightht agoand she couldn’t remember it She could never re was coht The scared feeling Was she the only person in the world oke up in the ht sure that she’d discovered some awful secret-only, once she’d awakened, she couldn’t re she couldn’t reh herwhite hair, a kind face, tired, twinkling dark eyes He had entertained her when she was five years old with souvenirs froic tricks that had seemed real to a child His bases Until the day so had happened
That last horrible day
The flicker died, and Jenny was glad The only thing worse than not re It was better to just leave the whole thing buried The therapists had said differently at the time, but what did they know?
Anyway, she certainly couldn’t draw it
The others were all sketching assiduously Toa back her soft light curls, drawing so over his nightmare, his face even more intense than usual; Audrey’s eyebroere arched in areen," said Michael, hunting a the crayons
"What for?" asked Audrey, eyes narrowed
"Can’t tell you It’s a secret"
Audrey turned her back on hiht, they’re secrets," Dee agreed "You don’t get to see them until you reach the room they’re in"
Nobody here could possibly have a secret froht Except Audrey, I’ve known theot their first bra None of them could have a real secret-like mine
If she had one, why not the others?
Jenny looked at Toant, as even Jenny had to ad now?
"Mine needs green, too And yellow," he said
"Mine needs black," said Dee and chuckled
"All right, done," Audrey said
"Come on, Jenny," Tom said "Aren’t you finished yet?"
Jenny looked down at her paper She had es; the middle was blank After an embarrassed moment with everyone’s eyes on her, she turned the paper over and gave it to Dee She would just have to explain later
Dee shuffled all the slips and put them facedown in various rooms on the upper floors "Noe put our paper dolls in the parlor downstairs," she said "That’s where we all start And there should be a pile of game cards in the box, Summer, to tell us what to do and where to move Put them in a stack on the table"
Summer did while Audrey fixed the paper dolls on their little plastic anchors and set the," Dee said She paused dramatically and then said, "The Shadow Man"
"Here he is," Suboard from the box "I’ll cut out his friends first-the Creeper and the Lurker" She did, then handed the figures to Audrey The Creeper was a giant snake, the Lurker a bristling wolf Their naraphy
"Char anchors on "Anywhere in particular I’m supposed to put them, Dee?"
"No, the cards will tell us e meet them"
"Here’s the Shadow Man He can shadow me if he wants; I think he’s cute," Summer said Audrey took the paper doll frorabbed her wrist Jenny couldn’t speak She couldn’t breathe, actually
It couldn’t be-but it was There was no question about it The printed face that stared up at her was unmistakable
It was the boy in black, the boy fro blue eyes