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Exciteo so hallway," Dee said

Michael was looking awed "It’s just like going up to the next level of a video game"

But Audrey pursed her lips When Jenny asked why, Audrey gave her a sideways glance under spiky dark lashes

"One thing about video gaet," she said "N’est-ce pas?"

The stairs had rubber padding with the ridges worn al Jenny couldn’t see the top from where she stood-the roof of the Haunted Mansion hall was in the way

"What are aiting for?" Dee said and vaulted onto the steps Then she grabbed for the railing-as soon as her foot touched a step, the whole staircase had startedescalator

"Oh, geez," Michael said "I hate to tell you this, but when I was a kid I was scared of escalators I was afraid they -"

"You don’t wear mufflers," Audrey said and shoved him on

"Mike, if you’re scared of escalators, then this one is probably your fault," Jenny said, stepping on behind hiets it all from us"

As they neared the top, Jenny found they were riding directly toward a mirror In fact, she discovered when she looked down the hall-after helping Mike juic moment -there were mirrors everywhere

The hallway downstairs had been dark-this one was exactly the opposite Light bounced and rainbowed off thewalls until Jenny saw colored streaks even with her eyes closed In fact, the ed so sharply that it was iet a clear view for ht and left to follow the hallway’s path, and anything in the bend before you or behind you was invisible

"All right, who put these here?" Dee des really that short? Or are these trick

Michael ray sweats and then gave up

Jenny’s own reflection made her uncomfortable She seereen as cypress and hair like liquid amber "

That wasn’t what she saw Just now Jenny saw a girl with flushed cheeks, whose hair was clinging to her forehead in little dao lirass-stained

"Right or left-take your pick," she said, glancing up and down the hallway

"Left," Dee said fir with the acute turns

The e was thrown back at her, and thrown fro, reflected to infinity on all sides Stay in this place long enough and you ht

As in the other hallway, there were no deviations frouish any part of it fro able to see ht be waiting around the next turn ahead Ih Jenny’s mind

"Dee, slon," Jenny said as Dee’s long, light step took her out of sight for the third ti the corridor like a skier on a slalo in and out of the sharp turns, while the rest of them walked with hands outstretched to help theuys hurry up-" Dee’s voice was responding from the next bend, and then there was a flash

It seeht it came from ahead She and Audrey and Michael stood frozen for a , hands on her hips, in front of a door It was ured it had to be a door because there was a red button like an elevator button beside it When she looked hard she could distinguish the door’s outline from the mirror around it

Above the red button was a blue light bulb, round as a clown’s nose

"It just appeared," Dee said and snapped her fingers "Like that In that flash"

Fro

"Summer!" Jenny, Dee, and Audrey exclaimed simultaneously

It was Su on her folded ars drawn beneath her china blue shirtdress She looked up with a little hysterical cry at their approach

"Is it really you?"

"Yes," Jenny said, kneeling She was a little frightened by the expression in Summer’s eyes

"Really, really you?"

"Yes Oh, Suirl and felt her tre, and I kept seeing ht I saw other people, but when I ran toward them they weren’t there___"

"Who have you seen?" Jenny asked

"Sometimes Zachary-and sometimes him He scares me, Jenny" Summer buried her small face in Jenny’s vest

He scaresto be frightened of now We’re really here See?"

Sued a watery suess it htmare next"

"Good job, Mr Tactful," Dee said under her breath

They explained about the nightht she et out of here," she said

"I know I’ve only been here twenty minutes, and I hate the place already," Dee said "Anybody for claustrophobia?"

In front of the door Jenny hesitated with her finger on the button "I don’t suppose you want to tell us what you drew for your nightmare," she said She didn’t have much hope; none of the others had told

"Okay," Summer said readily "It was a messy room"

"A messy room?" Michael said "Oh, horror"

"No, really, Summer," Audrey said with a briskly adult air "It’ll help if you tell us"

Dee flashed an alance at her

"I did tell you It’s a ht, Suet there" She pushed the red button The blue light went on The door slid open

It was a messy room

"You see," Summer said

It was Summer’s bedroom, only more so Ever since Jenny had known Suees frohtly frayed or weathered, but as Michael said, Summer herself had clutter down to a fine art When you visited her you usually couldn’t see the handht patchwork quilt on the bed, because of the things hanging from them or piled up in front of them or scattered on top of them

In the room behind the mirrored door, Jenny couldn’t even see the bed There was a s else was obscured by piles of junk

Dee and Michael were giggling "Trust you, Sunshine, to have a nighthed, not nearly as ao in I suppose we have to clean it up-thereone of the far walls"

"Hey, wait I don’t do the C-word," Michael protested, alaries"

"In," said Audrey, taking him by the ear

They all squeezed in between the closet and the piles The door slid noiselessly shut behind them-and disappeared

"Talk about claustrophobia," Michael gasped

"Cette chaaille," Audrey said under her breath

"What?" Jenny asked

"I said this is one messy room Summer, how can you stand it?"

Summer’s delft-blue eyes filled with tears "My real roohtht

"Because my mom never yells about my room, but once my nana came to visit, and she almost passed out I still dream about what she said"

"Don’t make her feel bad," Jenny whispered to Audrey "Try to clear a path around the edges," she said aloud, "and check every wall for the door"

The piles of junk were aly varied There were heaps of ruazines, disjointed Ray-Bans, spindled cassette tapes, unstrung string bikinis, crushed frozen yogurt cups, bent photographs, mismatched sandals, dry felt-tip pens, chewed pencils, twisted headphones, gled stuffed ani-chewed Frisbee, a mashed Twister mat, and a futon that smelled like somebody’s bottoathering up one of the heaps "Haven’t you ever heard of Raid?"

"I believe in live and let live," Suhthty and Audrey with fastidious precision, and slowly they forged a path through the debris Michael was no good at all-he stopped to leaf through everyto a different type of garbage-a type that made Audrey wrinkle up her nose Blackened avocado husks, s of unidentifiable liquids in them

Then Jenny lifted a box of odds and ends and saw so like a pressed flower on the hardwood floor underneath But it wasn’t a flower, it was the

wrong shape At first she didn’t recognize it, then she saw the little muzzle and the tiny curled-up feet It was a flat and desiccated

I can’t touch that, I can’t, I can’t

Dee scraped it up with a 1991 calendar and threw it in the closet Jenny felt a whisper of terror inside her, unease that went beyond disgust at the ot worse and worse-like what you’d find at a du that would be in anybody’s bedrooes of decomposition Every kind of refuse, trash, and litter

No one was s anymore

Dee picked up a tattered Easter basket, paused An awful srass with one long finger, and then her face convulsed In the basket was a solid ots

"God!" In one fluid motion Dee threw the basket at the closet, where it hit the door and scattered a shower of white Michael bolted up fro

Jenny felt the quick, cold touch of real fear

"Surandmother say about your roo in it," Sue and worried "She said it would attract bugs She said it looked like an earthquake hit it She said soet lost in it and never co at Sulance of startled revelation at Jenny The tension in the rooht to discipline her voice