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And like sorimly She said, "If you did look at himIf you pulled off his helmet, say-"
She could feel Zach recoil in the dark
Jenny shut her eyes, feeling suddenly tired "Then that’s what you have to do, I think It’s your nighto with you"
It was a risk Whether the Hunter was Julian or just one of Julian’s dreaht very well look like Zach under the helmet
"Zach, I think you have to-or on’t ever find the way out of here I think, even if he looks like you, you have to know he’s not you"
"But-if he is meif you’re not really here and this is all my hallucination "
"Then I’ll probably disappear or so!" Jenny said "And then at least you’ll know you’re crazy All I know is that Suhtmare and she died"
There was a silence Zach turned toward her, but it was too dark to be sure of his expression "Coht
Jenny’s heart rate kept accelerating as they got closer to it The Cyber-Hunter could easily shoot them at any ure in the Movieland Wax Museuht
Zach stopped when they were a few feet in front of hi in her ears
The Cyber-Hunter shifted the crossbow a little Pink jewels of light slid up and down it, and over his black armor Zach’s face was reflected in the mirrored faceplate
"Go on, Zach," Jenny whispered "Take off the helmet Tell him he’s not you, whatever he looks like"
She wasn’t nearly as confident as she sounded Was it Zach’s face under the helmet? Julian’s? Maybe it was some hideous android-soet shot before he could find out Maybe
The Cyber-Hunter stood waiting
With a sudden gesture Zach reached out and grabbed the front of the hel the faceunderneath
No face, no head Jenny, prepared for anything else, screamed involuntarily The Cyber-Hunter’s black body ar on top of it
A door appeared beside the pink floodlight
Zach was staring down at the eed the disave a little gasp of relief It had been so easy-but then she looked at her cousin The real test was in his head "I’ht?"
He turned to look at her, pink light haloing his hair
Then, slowly, he sht," he said
The awful dazed look had disappeared He looked like Zach again She could see the sanity return to his eyes Relief flooded Jenny in painful waves
Zach dropped the mirrored face mask on the pile of black armor
"The rock I’ll keep I still want to do that photo"
They stepped through the door to the mirrored hallway
Zach’s slip of paper was on the ground Jenny picked it up and frowned over it She could vaguely make out what looked like a profile-a profile with a
beaky nose-but behind that was just a futuristic s in my head," Zach said He took it from her and tore it up Jenny watched the colored pieces float down like confetti
"Zach-what made you think insanity runs in the faed The others had explained their nightmares, but it didn’t surprise Jenny that Zach wouldn’t Zach protected his privacy
An unseen clock struck four
"I hate this place," Zach said, looking at his own gray-eyed reflection "It reo to ere kids"
"Then you’re the one who put it here," Jenny said She’d forgotten the fun house herself-but then she’d forgotten a lot about her childhood, especially the years before she came to California She didn’t want to remember
She felt a little twist of premonition in her stomach
She also felt the heat in her cheeks Now that they were out of danger, now that Zach looked like hied It was Julian’s fault Jenny knew perfectly well that her cousin had never thought of her roet what had happened in the darkroo those gray eyes black with passion
I’ll forget eventually, she told herself It’ll wear off Just as long as he never finds out
Aloud she said, "We’ve got to find the others Dee and Audrey and Mike are all wandering around here souess we should separate But I’ht not be able to find our way back to each other I know it seeoes tays, but you can’t trust anything here"
"Wait a minute" Zach pulled two crayons out of the pocket of his flannel shirt "I took theht work in a photo Take your pick, cadet blue or Indian red We can mark a trail"
Jenny chose cadet blue and made a pale, waxy streak on the nearest o that way Whoever finds the them back here"
"Where the two crayons , he walked away The first zigzag of the hall took hioodbye Well, that should help her forget the darkrooht
She went her oay, leaving a crayon trail behind her
The mirrored hallway seemed infinite-and completely deserted It went on and on with no variations
Until, to her astonishray as concrete No ht, no red button
It scared her
On the ground in front of it was a white slip of paper
Jenny approached the paper slowly It scared her, too Dee, Audrey, Mike, Suhtmares And Julian had said Tohtmare left on this floor but hers
She picked the paper up, turned it over She recognized the fores The middle of the paper was exactly as she’d left it-blank
Jenny looked up at the blank wall
"Need any help?" Julian asked from behind her
The paper crumpled in Jenny’s clenched fist as she turned
He was leaning against a h Instead, there was a splash of purple in the shock of white hair falling over his forehead and a triangular blue design on his cheekbone It looked alh-tech body art Zach would love it-or e cat-tilted blue eyes Things had changed since Julian had set the bees on her She had a new confidence at her core Whatever he did to her, even if he killed her, he couldn’t break her
"So it was you shooting at us," she said
"Personally, I think it was Zach’s father I think he has a little coled son, you know On the other hand, I am a hunter" He pushed the lock of purple hair out of his eyes, so away?" Jenny said "I’lad to help I know a lot about you I’ve watched you for so many years now Hour after hour, day after day"
Jenny froze He’d said sis before, and she hadn’t really listened Or she hadn’t taken it literally But now, looking at him, she knew heshe’d ever heard
He’d watched her for hours on end? How ht she was alone, had he been there?
It was an appalling intimacy, and one Jenny didn’t want
"I’ you do is marvelous"
"You-"
"There’s no need to be embarrassed I don’t think the same way you do Whether your hair’s brushed -whether your makeup is on-I don’t care Besides"-he smiled at her-"didn’t you know that I was there?"
"Of course not" But she had, Jenny realized So watched She’d just thought everybody had that feeling
Those tiht when she woke up, certain that a tall shape was standing over her in the darkness Usually when it happened she couldn’t move, could hardly breathe Soainst lighter blackness, and she stared until her eyes ached
If she kicked at it or turned on the light, it would disappear But she’d sit there breathing hard anyway, choking on her own fear
Her rooht brightness Subtly different than it did in the dayti tiain
And underneath, in her heart of hearts, she would feel it had been real Not just a drea above her, and it didn’t matter if that was stupid and nobody could see in such darkness She’d seen it anyway It had been there
Jenny had thought everybody went through things like that
"I hate you," she whispered
"I’d have thought you’d want ht now" He nodded at the blank wall "That’s your nightet into it? And if you can’t get into it, how are you going to get through it?"
He wants you panicked, Jenny told herself He wants to scare you, to make you think you need his help
But she didn’t need it She refused to need it
She smiled suddenly She could feel it was lopsided She held up the cadet blue crayon
"I’ll get in with this," she said and smoothed out her blank slip of paper
His eyelids drooped in amusement, and his voice was a caress "But hoill you remember You don’t knohat to draw You’ve spent all these years trying to forget____"
"I know enough," Jenny said She wondered just how ht away fro that she was about to find out
"I knohat it starts with," she said "It starts with randfather’s basement, when I was five years old"
She put the paper flat against a an to draw