Page 4 (1/2)

Jenny felt as if a black riptide was trying to suck her underwater It was hiame store Every detail of his face was reproduced perfectly, but it wasn’t a photograph It was a drawing, like the snake and the wolf The boy’s hair was colored silvery-white with blue shadows The artist had even captured his dark eyelashes The portrait was so lifelike it looked as if those eyes ht speak

And it radiated er

"What’s theHer face swam in and out of focus as Jenny looked up Jenny’s eyes fixed on the beauty mark just above Audrey’s upper lip Audrey’s lips were , but it was a minute before Jenny could , Jenny?"

What could Jenny say?

I know this guy I saw him at the store He’s a real

person, not soame So

So what? That’s what they would ask her What difference did it auy, and the guy had modeled for the picture That would explain why the box was blank: Maybe it wasn’t even a real, uy was crazy, had a fixation with this particular game, and had bleached his hair and dressed up to look like the gaht suddenly-people were supposed to get heavily into that, soo overboard That’s the answer

At least, it was the answer soive Tom, maybe, because Jenny could tell he wanted to play, and once To, he was ier always kicked her Zach, because the gaht it was "cute" They all wanted to play

A good hostess didn’t get hysterical and ruin a party because she had shadows on the brain

Jenny forced a so of Audrey’s wrist "Sorry I thought I recognized that picture Silly, huh?"

"You been drinking the cough syrup again?" Michael inquired froht, Thorny? Really?" Toreen-flecked eyes searched hers, and Jenny felt her smile become more stable She nodded "Fine," she said fir

"Hey," said Michael

"We need it dark," Dee told thelance at the like smoky pearls

’What oath?" Michael said warily

"The Oath of the Game," Tom said His voice was sinister "It says here that we each have to swear that we’re playing this gaame is real" Tom turned the lid of the box around for them to see On the inside cover, above the printed instructions, was a large symbol It was like a squared-off and inverted U, the two uneven horns of the letter pointing doard It was deeply impressed in the cover and colored-as well as Jenny could tell in the diht-rusty red

I will not ruin this party, I will not ruin this party, Jenny thought I will not

To from the instructions: " ’There is a Shadow World, like our own but different, existing alongside ours but never touching Some people call it the world of drea else’ and then it says that entering the Shadow World can be dangerous, so you play at your own risk" He grinned around the group "Actually, it says that the game can be hazardous to your life You have to swear you understand that"

"I don’t know if I like this anymore," Suerously Make it happen"

"Well" Suht curls off her forehead and frowned "Is it getting warm in here?"

"Oh, swear, already," said Michael "Let’s get this thing over with I swear I understand that this gaet a McJob like my brother Dave"

"Now you" Dee stretched out a black-spandex-covered leg to nudge Zachary "Swear"

"I swear," Zach said in bored tones, his thin face unreadable, his gray eyes cool as ever

Su "Me, too, then"

Audrey adjusted her houndstooth jacket "Me, three," she said "And what about you, Deirdre?"

"I was just about to, Aud I swear to have a great tiotten up and was lurking over Jenny "How about it, devil woman? I swear-do you?"

Normally Jenny would have jabbed an elboard into his ribs At the e was a colorless smile They all wanted to do it She was the hostess They were her guests

Tom wanted it

"I swear," she said and was embarrassed when her voice cracked

Tom cheered and tossed the box lid in the air Dee’s foot flashed out, kicking it back toward him It fell on the floor by Jenny

You jerk, if you really cared about ht in a rare ht It was his birthday He deserved to be indulged

Soht her eye For just an instant the upside-down it looked as if it were printed in red foil It had-flashed-Jenny thought But of course it couldn’t have

Everyone was kneeling around the table

"Okay," said Dee "All the little dollies in the parlor? Then soot to turn a card Who wants to be first?"

Jenny, feeling that if she was going to do this she hly, reached out and took the top card It was glossy white like the gaers She turned it over and read: " ’You have gathered with your friends in this rooin the Galed

"Sort of an anticlimax," Audrey murmured "Who’s next?"

"Me," said Tom He leaned over Jenny and took a card He read, " ’Each of you has a secret you would rather die than reveal’"

Jenny stirred uneasily It was just coincidence, because these were pre-printed cards But it did sound alht of earlier

"My turn," Suerly She read, " ’You hear the sound of footsteps from one of the rooms above’" She frowned "But there aren’t any rooms above This is a one-story house"

To yourself We’re not in this house We’re in that house"

Su over the pastel, basket-adorned walls of the Thornton living room Then she looked at the Victorian paper house, with the seven paper dolls neatly arranged in the parlor like a group of guests too polite to go ho the card back when they all heard the noise froht patter, like a child running on a wooden floor

Su

Dee jurabbed at her, and she smacked his hand away Zach’s face was turned up; even his ponytail seehter

"It’s squirrels," he got out finally "They run on the roof all the time, don’t they, Jenny?"

Jenny’s stohtly as she said, "Yes, but-"

"But nothing Soht, I’ll do it myself This is for you, Mike" He flipped a card

"’You go to the door to get some air, but it seeroup "Oh, coame Here, look" He stood up in a fluid lass door that looked out on Jenny’s backyard Jenny saw his fingersthe locks on the handle A sense of dread overwhelmed her

"To, she jumped up and took his arm If he didn’t try the door-if he didn’t try it-the card couldn’t co her "There’s so with it-there must be another lock"

"It’s stuck," Michael said He ran a hand through his ruesture

"Don’t be stupid," Audrey snapped

Dee’s sloe eyes were glittering Her hand darted

out and she took a card " ’None of the doors or s in this house will open,’" she read

Toe Jenny caught his arer

"Take another card," Zach said softly There was soe about his thin face-it was almost trancelike Zombied out

"No!" Jenny said

Zachary was taking the card hiain She had to stop this, but she couldn’t let go of Tom "Zach, don’t read it"

"’You hear a clock strike nine,’" Zachary read softly

"Jenny doesn’t have any clocks that strike," Audrey said She looked at Jenny sharply "Do you? Do you?"

Jenny shook her head, her throat clogged Every inch of her skin see

Clear and sweet, the chiame store, the clock she couldn’t see It seean to strike the hour

One Two Three Four

"Oh, God," Audrey said

Five Six Seven

At nine, Jenny thought See you later-at nine

Eight

"Tom," Jenny whispered The muscles in his arm were hard under her hand Now, too late, he turned toward her

Nine

Then the wind caotten her Then she thought it must be an earthquake But all the ti by her, as if a hurricane had co hurricane that burned even as it froze It hurt her like a physical thing, shaking her body and blinding her She lost track of the roo real was the fistful of Tom’s shirt she held

Finally she lost track of that, too The pain stopped for a while, and she just drifted

She woke up on the floor

It was like the only other time she’d ever fainted, when she and Joey had both been home sick with the flu She’d jumped out of bed suddenly to tell hi she knew she aking up with her head in a wastebasket Lying on the carpeted floor of her roo sure how she knew it This was the same

Painfully Jenny lifted her head and blinked to bring the far wall into focus

It didn’t work So The wall itself, which should have been pastel-colored and hung eavings and baskets, rong It was paneled with some dark wood, and an Oriental screen stood in front of it Heavy velvet curtains obscured aA brass candlestick was attached to the wall Jenny had never seen any of the things before

Where aest cliche

But she really didn’t know She didn’t knohere she was or how she had gotten there, but she knew that whatever was going on was all wrong Was-beyond her experience

Things like this didn’t happen

It had happened anyway

The two ideas jostled in her e of panic Now she began to shake, and she felt a swelling in her throat