by R. L. Stine
“Hey, wait up!” Melissa called.
Luke, skating easily, had picked up speed and had moved far ahead. Concentrating on keeping her balance, Melissa kept losing him in the crowd.
“Wait up!” Then she fell again. Her skates slid right out from under her, and she landed hard on her back.
“Hey, Luke.”
He appeared from out of the shadows and glided easily up to her. “How’d you get down there?” he teased, bending to help her up once again.
“I’m going to be black and blue,” she said. “It’s my ankles, I think. They’re not strong enough.”
“Follow me,” Luke said, skating away from the crowd.
She started to follow, moving slowly, one skate then the other, having lost all confidence. “Hey, where are you going?” she called.
“I’m going to give you a lesson,” he called back.
He was leading her away from the crowd, away from the flickering torchlight, away from the music.
“Why are we going over here for the lesson?” she called, picking up speed.
“It’s a private lesson!” he declared.
He skated into the darkness. She followed the skud skud skud of his skates.
It was so dark away from the lights. Away from the party.
Away from everyone.
She heard a cracking sound to her left.
“Hey, Luke!” she called, fear beginning to rise in her chest. “Luke, the ice! It’s cracking!”
Then she remembered the warning to stay away from this area.
“Luke, we shouldn’t be here!” she called, feeling her throat tighten and her heart begin to pound.
So dark. So silent.
Another crack just behind her.
Luke abruptly appeared out of the darkness, skating toward her, his features set, his eyes locked menacingly on hers.
Why has he led me here? Melissa wondered, suddenly consumed with fear.
Why did he take me to this dangerous spot, away from everyone else?
She spun around. Nearly fell. Started to skate back toward the party.
But he swept up behind her and grabbed her shoulders.
He twirled her around to face him.
Behind his glasses, his eyes gleamed with excitement.
“Luke, what are you doing?” Melissa cried.
Chapter 31
A HOODED FIGURE
Luke slid his hands down from Melissa’s shoulders and wrapped them around her waist. Then he lowered his head and kissed her.
“I just wanted to get you alone,” he whispered, starting to kiss her again.
“Get off me!” Melissa shouted angrily. She shoved him with both hands.
He slid backward, easily regaining his balance. His smile faded. “Melissa, what’s your problem?”
“You scared me to death!” she cried angrily. “How could you be so insensitive?”
“I thought this was supposed to be a party,” Luke snapped back, pouting. “I just—”
“You just forgot that I got all those death threats!” Melissa snapped.
“I thought—”
“You thought it was funny to lead me out here to the darkest spot where the ice is cracking! I don’t believe you!” She uttered an angry cry, raising her fists and nearly toppling over.
“Okay, okay. I was wrong,” Luke said, raising both gloved hands as if to shield himself. “Cool off, okay? Just chill.”
Melissa cast him a dirty look, but her anger had started to fade.
Luke was just trying to be romantic, after all.
But he scared her. He really scared her.
And besides, they had no business being out where the ice was thin and cracking.
“Why don’t you skate on without me?” she suggested, softening her tone but unwilling to let him off the hook entirely. “Go ahead. Skate a few laps. I’m just slowing you down. Skate for a while. Then I’ll meet you by the refreshment table,” she said, pointing.
“Well, okay,” he reluctantly agreed. “You still mad at me?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
She watched him skate away, leaning into the wind. “When I get back, I’ll teach you some tricks,” he called back.
“Yeah, like how to stay on my skates!” she shouted. She wasn’t sure he’d heard her.
A gust of wind ruffled her hair. She pulled her wool ski cap down. She felt sorry she had suspected Luke.
Party pooper, she scolded herself.
“What am I doing way out here?” she asked herself out loud.
The other skaters seemed miles away. She couldn’t even hear the music, only the steady booming of drums, echoing off the trees.
Surrounded by darkness, she felt suddenly afraid.
I’ve got to get away from here.
I’ve got to get back to the others.
She started to skate, the ice slushy beneath her skates.
She heard a loud crack, spreading across the ice like a soft thunderclap, very nearby.
She tried to skate faster. Lost her balance. Stumbled. Fell onto her stomach.
“Oh, wow. Great party,” she muttered sarcastically.
As she pulled herself to her knees, she saw the hooded figure skating toward her.
Who is that? Melissa wondered and climbed all the way to her feet.
The hooded figure was skating fast, bent low, face cloaked in darkness under the hood.
Melissa squinted hard, trying to see who it was.
Closer. Closer. Skating low and fast in a straight line toward Melissa.
And what was that in the skater’s hand?
Something that caught the torchlight. Something silvery.
Slender and silvery.
Like a knife blade.
“Ohhh!” Melissa uttered a moan of terror. She tried to scramble away, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate.
She slipped, almost fell again.
The ice cracked behind her.
The skater approached, head bent low.
Melissa stared in open-mouthed horror.
The hood flew back. She saw the long red hair fly out from under it.
“Rachel?” she cried.
The skater glided rapidly through the shadows. The arm holding the slender blade rose up.
Melissa struggled to dodge away.
“Rachel!”
Head still lowered, red hair trailing over the fallen hood, she crashed into Melissa without slowing.
“Oh!” Melissa cried out, rocked back by the force of the collision.
And then she gasped as the knife plunged into her side.
Chapter 32
ON THIN ICE
“Somebody help me!” Melissa tried to scream. But in her terror, her voice came out a choked murmur.
She waited for the pain to roll up her side.
“Oh!” She realized the knife had plunged into the enormous, bulky overcoat. It had missed her.
Her attacker realized it too, and tugged the knife out of the coat, preparing to thrust it forward again.
“Rachel, please!” Melissa shrieked. In her panic, she lost her footing. She started to fall forward.
“Rachel—” As she started to fall, Melissa reached out and clutched at her attacker to hold herself up.
“Oh!” Her hands got tangled in the long red hair—and pulled it off.
A wig.
Stumbling backward, the red wig in both hands, Melissa caught her balance.
“Erica!” she cried. “You!”
Erica glowered angrily at her through the darkness, the knife raised at her side. “Give the wig back, Melissa,” Erica said, breathing hard, reaching for it with her free hand. “We don’t want the Drama Club to miss it, do we?”
“Erica, why?” Melissa cried. “Why?”
With a violent, angry tug, Erica grabbed the wig from Melissa. Her eyes gleamed furiously at Melissa in the flickering shadows.
“Surprised, Melissa?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“Yes,” Melissa ad
mitted.
“Of course. You’d never suspect Erica. You’d never even think of Erica. No one ever did,” Erica said bitterly. “After all, Melissa, who am I? I’m no one!”
“Erica, please—” Melissa pleaded as Erica raised the knife once again.
“Rachel is the beautiful one,” Erica continued, ignoring Melissa’s cry. “And Josie was the popular one. And me? I was poor Erica, so plain, so shy, so ordinary.”
She lowered the knife and skated closer, her breath steaming up in front of her. Melissa tried to back up, but the ice behind her was starting to crack.
I’ve got to keep Erica talking, Melissa thought desperately. It’s my only chance. “You—you killed Josie?” she asked.
“Of course!” Erica replied in a raspy whisper.
Melissa gasped. “Your own sister? Erica, why?”
“Josie had to die,” Erica whispered. “She was responsible for Rachel’s accident. But did she take any responsibility? No. Josie went on with her life as if nothing had happened. And me—I was stuck with Rachel.”
She thrust her face close to Melissa’s, her eyes seething with anger. “Do you know how many lives were ruined the day of Rachel’s accident, Melissa? Do you know how many? Two! Rachel’s and mine. Ruined forever. But you and Josie were just fine, weren’t you? You were just fine.”
“That’s not true, Erica,” Melissa told her heatedly. “Josie and I, we were both—”
“Shut up!” Erica screamed. “Do you know how much I looked forward to high school? Do you have any idea? But thanks to you and Josie, I couldn’t enjoy it for a minute. I had to give up everything to take care of Rachel. And Josie gave up nothing. I couldn’t let her get away with that. I couldn’t.”
Melissa gazed past Erica to the crowd of skaters so far away across the ice. Where is Luke? she wondered. Where is he?
“But the valentines,” she told Erica. “I don’t understand. Dave sent Josie those threatening valentines. And you—”
“When Dave started sending those awful valentines, I saw my chance to kill Josie,” Erica revealed, her eyes glowing in the darkness, her face close to Melissa’s as if challenging Melissa to back away. “Those valentines gave me the idea. I knew when I saw them I could pay Josie back for ruining my life, for ruining Rachel’s life. And I could get away with it.”
“But you were stabbed too!” Melissa exclaimed.
“I stabbed myself,” Erica said in her raspy whisper. “It was easy compared to the pain I already felt.”
“I don’t believe it,” Melissa blurted out, shaking her head.
Where is Luke? Where is anybody? Doesn’t anybody see us out here?
“I was home, pretending to be too upset to go to Josie’s funeral,” Erica recalled. “I was worried about being caught, about people figuring out that I had killed Josie. Then I saw Dave break into our house. Dave to the rescue again. He was giving me the perfect chance to throw all suspicion off me. I called the police. Then I stabbed myself without even thinking about it. I knew Dave would rescue me before I lost too much blood.” She snickered. “Good old Dave.”
“But you killed Dave too?” Melissa cried, horrified by her own words. “You killed him last week!”
“I had to. He was figuring things out. He realized I still had the valentines he sent to Josie. He realized I was using them to copy his handwriting on the cards I sent to you.”
Melissa slid back a few inches. The ice cracked noisily.
Laughter floated across the ice from the skaters near the shore.
I’ve got to get past her and skate to the others, Melissa thought. I’ve got to!
Erica raised the knife as if reading Melissa’s thoughts. “Enough talk,” she said quietly.
“But why me?” Melissa cried shrilly, a wave of panic tightening her chest. “I’ve been your friend, Erica.”
Erica uttered a bitter laugh. “You’re no friend,” she said. “You got everything, Melissa. Poor Rachel lost everything. You even got Luke. You even took Luke away from Rachel. And that made me even more of a prisoner—because after you took Luke away, I was all that Rachel had left.”
She let the wig drop at her feet and raised the knife. “You have to die, Melissa. It’s only fair. You killed Rachel and me. Now you have to die too.”
“Why the wig?” Melissa demanded desperately, raising her hands as if to shield herself. “Why did you wear the red wig, Erica?”
Erica glanced down at the ball of hair. “This is Rachel’s revenge too,” she said quietly. “I wanted Rachel to be here too. In some way, she’s here with me, getting her revenge on you.”
“You’re crazy!” Melissa cried. The words burst out of her mouth. “I’m sorry, Erica, but you’re crazy!”
Erica uttered an angry curse. The knife swung wildly, cutting the darkness with a near-silent whoosh of air.
Melissa stumbled back and saw Luke. He was leaning low, skating rapidly toward her.
“Luke! Help!” she screamed.
Erica thrust the knife at Melissa’s throat.
Melissa heard a booming peal of thunder. It took her a few seconds to realize that the sound wasn’t thunder. It was the ice cracking beneath them.
“Help me, Luke!” she managed to scream as the ice gave way and she felt herself begin to drop.
She saw Erica’s angry expression turn to fear. Erica raised both arms and cried out in terror.
Both girls were screaming as the ice split apart and they dropped into the freezing water.
Chapter 33
DROWNED
Melissa felt the shock of the cold water as she started to sink.
She reached up with her hands. “Luke!”
Lying on his stomach, Luke grabbed for her, capturing both her hands in his. He pulled.
“Luke, help!”
With a loud groan, he slid her up out of the dark hole. The force of his tug sent her scooting on her stomach across the ice.
As she slid, Melissa looked back and saw Luke grab for Erica.
Too late.
Erica slipped down under the tossing waters as if being sucked under.
“I did it all for you, Rachel!” Melissa heard Erica shriek.
And then she disappeared, down into the icy darkness.
Panting loudly, Melissa pulled herself to her knees.
Her heart thudding in her chest, her entire body trembling from the horror, from the cold, she saw Luke lying down leaning into the hole.
“Erica! Erica!” He called her name again and again.
The ice cracked loudly around them.
Melissa slid over to Luke and lay beside him. “Where is she? Why doesn’t she come back up?” she cried in a high-pitched, trembling voice she didn’t recognize.
“Erica!” Luke cried. “Erica!”
“Look!” Melissa cried, pointing down.
At first, Melissa thought she saw a fish trapped under the thin sheet of ice.
The mouth appeared first, the lips slightly parted.
But then the nose appeared. A human nose.
And then two wide-open eyes.
And Melissa realized to her horror that she was staring down at Erica’s face. Erica’s face under the ice, pressed up against it, gazing blankly up at them.
“Why doesn’t she move? Why doesn’t she swim out from under there?” Melissa cried hysterically, gripping Luke’s arm. “Why is she staring up at us like that? She isn’t moving at all!”
“I don’t think she wants to come up,” Luke said quietly.
Melissa stared in horror at the unmoving, wide-eyed face staring up at her, pressed up against the ice.
Erica has been in a prison for a year, staring out at the world, Melissa thought grimly.
Now she’s staring up at us from another prison.
Raising her eyes from the ghastly floating face, Melissa was shocked to see that a crowd of kids had gathered around them. Hushed voices murmured all around.
“What’s happening?”
“Did Meliss
a fall?”
“Is someone in the water?”
“Did the ice break?”
“Go get help.”
“Somebody—get help!”
With a sigh, Luke backed up and climbed to his feet and helped Melissa up. He put his arm firmly around her waist and, holding her tightly, started to lead her away.
Looking down, Melissa suddenly realized she was gripping the red wig in her hand.
“Ohh.” With a near-silent cry, she tossed the wig to the ice, as if tossing away all the horror of the night. Then she buried her face in Luke’s jacket as they skated away.
Chapter 34
A ROMANTIC IDEA
“I made this,” Rachel said, smiling.
Melissa and Luke leaned forward on the couch and studied the painting Rachel held up in front of her. “A snowman—right?” Melissa guessed.
“Right!” Rachel said, laughing gleefully. “It’s a snowman.”
Mrs. McClain watched from near the den doorway, leaning against the wall, a pleased smile on her face.
“Well, that’s a good painting,” Luke told Rachel.
“I paint a lot at school,” Rachel said, lowering the painting to her lap. As she started to roll it up, her smile faded, replaced by a thoughtful expression. “I wish I could show it to Erica,” she said wistfully.
“Yes,” Melissa said awkwardly, glancing at Luke. Luke was staring at his watch.
“I miss my sister,” Rachel said, rolling up the painting. “But I’m going to get better. I’m going to get better and go outside by myself.”
“Yes, you are,” Mrs. McClain said with forced enthusiasm. She crossed the room and stepped up behind the couch, placing her hands on Rachel’s shoulders. “But I think Melissa and Luke want to leave now.”
“Yes, we’re late,” Luke said, jumping to his feet.
Melissa bent over Rachel and hugged her. “I’ll come visit you soon.”
“I’m going to paint another snowman,” Rachel told her.
Melissa and Luke said goodbye to Mrs. McClain and showed themselves out. They stepped into a blustery March day, a thin layer of snow on the ground, high white clouds floating in a blue sky.