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"Jenny?" Dee’s voice said hesitantly "Jenny, are you okay?"

I’ve had such a strange dreaht, but when she lifted her face fro on the floor of her grandfather’s basement, in a puddle of icy-cold water Dee, Audrey, Zach, and Michael were standing in another puddle, looking at her

"I found these three in the hallway," Zach said

"We fell down a shaft," Michael said "This hole just opened up in front of us It took us all the way back to the first floor"

"It was a chute," said Dee "I fell down it, too, and then we had to walk back up here"

"We followed your crayon trail, and it ended at a door," Zach finished "We pressed the button and "

"It let us in," Audrey said crisply, when he stopped "But it looks like soht herself back to the present The five-year-old in her mind seemedto Dee and Michael and Audrey looked like strangers

Not Zach, because Zach had been there when she was five

Zach, maybe, understood this In any case he knelt on the floor beside her, ignoring the water soaking into his jeans

"What happened?" he said, his gray eyes steady

"I lost," Jenny said dully, feeling strangely re "I screwed up I couldn’t save hi about Grandpa Evenson, isn’t it?"

"What do you know about it?"

Zach hesitated, then, looking her directly in the face, he said, "Only what my parents told me They say he-went crazy that day Tried to-well, hurt you"

Jenny was shocked out of her apathy "What?"

"They found you here, in the basement, with your clothes all torn and your ar"

"Froh the ice And he scratchedhim He let them take hi again She felt a movement, then a slender, hard arm around her Dee A rustle and a cool hand on her wrist Audrey, heedless of her fancy clothes An aard, warrip from behind on her shoulder Michael, They were all around her, all trying to help

"You went through our nightmares with all of us," Audrey said softly "It’s not fair you had to face yours alone"

Jenny shook her head "You don’t understand All of you had nightht happen Mine did happen-because of me It was real It was my fault"

"Tell us," Dee said, her face stern and beautiful

"He was a sorcerer," Jenny said She looked at Zach "You ht he tried to hurt me?"

"What were they supposed to think?" Zach said "You were here, practically in a coma You screamed if anyone tried to touch you, but you wouldn’t talk And he was gone They figured he ran ahen he realized what he tried to do And when they looked around at this place"-Zach looked around the basement himself and snorted-"well, they kneas crazy Paranoid Because all this junk turned out to be-"

"Charht I mean, what kind of nut collects thousands of those from all over the world? And he had piles of books on the occult, all kinds of garbage____"

"He was a sorcerer," Jenny said again "Not a black one Maybe not a white one, either, but not black He wasn’t trying to do evil He was just-a little bit naive He didn’t allow for accidents happeninglike a five-year-old co a door she knew she shouldn’t touch"

"That door?" Dee looked at the empty closet

Jenny nodded

"But as in the closet? A monster?"

"Julian"

They all stared at her

Jenny sed the bad taste in herthose Geruess" She looked at Audrey "Power Or s - out in the darkness, and he caught some Maybe he used runes to summon them up, I don’t know But I know he used a rune to hold them On that door"

"And just what," Michael said, his voice unusually griht?"

"Aliens," Jenny said, looking at Dee "Dark elves," she said, looking at Audrey "De around to face Michael "The Shadow Men," she said to Zach

Dee hissed softly in comprehension

Once started, Jenny couldn’t seeods The fairy folk"

"Okay," Michael said huskily "Enough, already"

"They’re real," Jenny said "They’ve always been here-like genies, you know? The old narandfather called theet it? It was a joke They like to play with us"

Her voice was rising She felt herself gripped fro the They said they had

the right to take me But he went instead He did it for et through this," Dee said, "we’ve got to be strong We’ve got to stand together All right?"

"Right," Audrey said, the first to confir down, Jenny saw Audrey’s perfectly polished nails entwined with Dee’s slender dark fingers Both holding on to each other, to Jenny

"Right," Zach said with no hesitation, no distance in his winter-gray eyes His long-fingered artist’s hand caht," whispered Michael, and he gripped Zach’s hand with his own square pudgy fingers, une to do," Jenny said, alain "He won I lost I didn’tat the closet one-"was always here It’s not the way out"

"What about that one?" Michael said, standing back and looking up the stairs

Jenny had to move around the bookcase to see it Instead of the blank wall she had seen earlier at the top of the staircase, there was a door

Directly above them-in the room above-a clock struck five

"You ht," Dee said

Jenny’s skirt was clas Her hair, she kneas in co inside, and it seeo first," she said and led the to look like Dee, proud as a princess She found her slip of paper on the top step and stepped on it

"If that’s the turret-the top of the house-we’ve won," Audrey said "Right?"

So to be that easy

She twisted the knob and pushed, and the door swung back on oiled hinges They all stepped into the rooer than any turret could possibly be

It was the More Gaht There were the saames on them There was the same small -quite dark-and the salass

But there were differences, too One was the grandfather clock standing near a corner, ticking loudly and steadily

The other was Toainst the clock, chained to it soistered fury at the hus

"To with both hands for him

He turned weakly, and Jenny was shocked There were no bruises on his face, but he looked-ravaged His skin was unhealthily pale, and there were black circles under his eyes He gave her the ghost of his own rakish smile

"Hey, Thorny," he said painfully

Jenny put her face against his shoulder and cried

The faded-photograph memory had disappeared

What Jenny rerade, behind the hibiscus bushes at George Washington Eleotten detention, but it had been worth it

That kiss, she thought Everything innocent Everything sweet To for granted Tom had loved her

"Tommy," she said "I missed you so much What did he do to you?"

ToI don’t understand There were the rats"-his haunted eyes skittered around the floor-"but they’re gone now"

Rats So that hat Tos that had tried to clirade To had owned a pet rat Onethey woke up to find that the rat had eaten the turtle-eaten it right out of the shell

I kne upset that ht Why didn’t I realize what they were in the parlor?

Because it hadn’t see Jenny had learned: Everybody’s nightet into their shoes, to understand just how scary

"I’m sorry," she whispered "But, oh, To shackles like the kind his brother Bruce used in police work The rest of hihost

"I kept trying to get away," he said "Not because of the rats Because I saw you He would come and hold up ato you I saw you go through everything When Suet control of hiht in horror Pictures of what Toether flashed through her mind Then she felt a backwash of relief If Julian had been standing here holding aTom the times when he-Julian-wasn’t with Jenny Still, she had to know

"Did you ever see-him-in the mirror?"