The problem was that, depending on the cheerleading float’s position in the parade, I didn’t know if it would be faster to follow the line or to cut across town and meet the parade head-on. It could be a difference of ten minutes—ten minutes I couldn’t spare.
Scanning the path before me, I saw a clump of black T-shirts and steel-toed boots up ahead.
The Doom Squad! They might be annoying, but their need to constantly talk smack made them hyper-aware of everything going on in the school. They were like a gaggle of small-town old ladies. I made a beeline for them.
They were camped out in front of an abandoned storefront. Lydia hovered on the fringes like a watchdog.
“Lyd!” I said. “Have you seen the cheerleaders’ float?”
She swung to look at me, and her jaw dropped. “Whoa, Alexis, what’s wrong with your face?”
“Forget it. I just need to find Megan.” By now the whole group was staring at me.
“Why do you even care about her?” Lydia asked. “She’s a total drone.”
“Please,” I said. I took a step back. “Anybody? Anyone?”
Lydia sighed. “Listen, it sort of hurts your image for you to be seen with her, you know.” She glanced behind her. “People are talking already. About lunch yesterday . . . ? And Carter Blume? I mean, what’s up with that whole thing . . . ?”
I backed away, looking at all the faces behind her. A couple of people seemed mildly concerned, but most of them were watching me with curiosity.
“Bye,” I said numbly. Bye forever.
I would just have to take my chances following the line of floats and pray that I found Megan fast enough to save my sister.
I hurried away, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in my temples.
“Hey, wait up.”
It was a freshman girl with long black hair. She glanced back at the Doom Squad, who were glaring at us, and rolled her eyes. “Lydia’s a jerk. That float’s right at the front. It’s like the fourth one.”
I nodded. “Oh. Okay, cool. Thanks . . .”
“Taylor. Taylor Derry.”
“Thanks, Taylor.” Why was that name familiar? “Sorry, I have to go.”
“But, like, are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, her eyes lingering on my face.
I nodded, and as I looked at her, it hit me—
She was on the list.
“Listen, Taylor,” I said. “Do you know my sister? Kasey Warren?”
She nodded vaguely. “She’s a year behind me, right?”
“Yeah. This sounds crazy, but . . . go home. Lock the door. If she comes to your house, don’t let her in. Whatever you do.”
Taylor swallowed hard. “That does sound crazy.”
“Yeah, but . . .” I tried to think what I would have done if someone said those things to me. “Please. I’ll explain later.”
She shrugged. “I mean, I’ll have to miss this awesome parade, but . . .” She smiled.
“I seriously have to go. Just please . . . go home. And be careful. And thank you.”
“No problem.” She flashed me a peace sign and walked away.
One less target for Sarah.
I broke off from the parade route and cut through the deserted downtown. All the shops had signs in their windows that said CLOSED FOR PARADE.
As I came around the library building I saw the Surrey High marching band and the drum majorettes leading the procession slowly across an intersection a block away. I broke into a sprint and pushed through the thicker mass of spectators to make my way down the lineup.
I saw the eagle’s nest first, looming high over the miniforest of artificial Christmas trees. Stationed all around the edges of the float, cheering and egging the crowd on, were the cheerleaders themselves. At first I didn’t see Megan, and then as I drew nearer I spotted her at the back. She was pumping her arms in the air and shaking her pom-poms just like the rest of the girls, but you could tell her heart wasn’t in it.
“Megan!” I yelled, but my voice didn’t carry over the raucous sounds of the marching band and the cheers of the parade watchers. I pushed farther toward the street, trying to apologize as the people I passed made annoyed exclamations in my wake.
“Megan!” I called again. The float was only a few feet away. One of the cheerleaders noticed me and elbowed the girl next to her. I pointed at Megan, expecting to be ignored.
But the first girl backed out of her spot and made her way toward the rear of the float.
I stepped out into the street and heard the shrill whistle of a police officer.
Megan had seen me now; I gestured for her to come over, and she handed her pom-poms to the girl next to her.
That’s when I saw it, across the street—
A shock of caramel-colored hair.
Kasey.
Three things happened at once—a few feet away from me the police whistle blew loudly; Megan neatly hopped down to street level—
And with the horrible shriek of metal on metal, the cheerleaders’ float creaked to a sudden stop and lurched violently to one side.
It sounded like everyone within a hundred-foot radius immediately started screaming at the top of their lungs. Megan stood frozen in place, staring in horror as the rest of the squad scrambled to keep their footing. A few girls went tumbling down into the street, dragging other girls with them.
I ran to her side as the float stopped moving and everything seemed to settle.
And suddenly I realized where my sister had been the previous night.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Kasey did this.”
Megan turned to me, pale.
The trees and benches and eagle’s nest at the center of the float were starting to fall toward the girls on the ground, some of whom were crying and holding their arms or wrists or ankles. Pepper had her head in her hands.
“We have to help them!” I started to move forward, but Megan gripped my arm.
“Stay back!” she said. “There are plenty of people helping them.”
She was right: the injured girls were already mobbed by spectators helping them to their feet and shielding them from the decorations sliding off the side of the float.
“Kasey’s here!” I said. “I saw her!”
Megan was staring at the wreckage in disbelief. “All of it. All because of me? And your face,” she said. “Is that my fault too?”
“What?” Oh God, she didn’t even know. “Megan, no! It’s not your mom.”
She looked like she didn’t know whether to believe me.
“She locked you outside. She saved your life. A hundred years ago, this girl who lived in my house fell out of the tree and died. All the girls from town were chasing her. And now she’s trying to get revenge by killing all of their daughters and granddaughters. It’s so many people, Megan. Pepper and Mimi, that freshman Taylor, the librarian—me. Kasey. Our mom.”
Megan’s eyes were suddenly blazing. It made me think of the moment in the hallway when she stood up for Emily Rosen. “How many people?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “The girls all grew up and got married—so the names are different. But there are dozens, Megan . . . And she wants to kill them all.
“So—the thing is—I’ll explain later, but I need your necklace.”
She glanced at the girls on the ground, then pulled me away and quickened her pace. “No, explain now, on the way to your house.”
“What? No!” Oh, hell no. Megan was not coming back with me. “She’s still after you.”
“You want my necklace?” Megan asked. “You’re getting me with it.”
I shook my head and sighed. I was having a hard time keeping up with her. “Fine.”
She slowed a little to accommodate me, but after one block I couldn’t even speak. My half-strangled throat begged for mercy, but I kept going.
“Oh, look!” Megan cried, pointing up ahead.
I looked and saw a green Prius parallel parking.
Carter.
Lovely.
&
nbsp; “He can give us a ride!” she said, grabbing my hand and sprinting.
“No,” I said. “Wait!”
But she’d already waved him down, and I couldn’t manage to say anything else.
When we got to the car, I had to bend over and put my hands on my knees. I thought I was going to throw up. It was just as well. I didn’t want to have to look at Carter’s face.
“Can you give us a ride?” Megan asked.
“. . . Aren’t you supposed to be on a float or something?”
“Yes or no? It’s an emergency!”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Get in.”
Then I felt his hand on my back. “Alexis, is everything okay?”
I looked up at him and he jumped backward.
Oh, right. The black eyes.
“Who did this to you?” he whispered.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
The urge to throw up had subsided. I climbed into the backseat as Carter went around and got into the driver’s seat.
“You have to go to the police,” Carter said.
“It’s not like that,” Megan replied. “Take us to Alexis’s house.”
“What’s at your house?” Carter demanded.
“Please,” I said. “Let it go for now.”
“It’s a long story,” Megan said, looking out the window.
“Is it safe?”
Does it look safe? I wanted to ask.
“This isn’t high school melodrama b.s.,” he said. “I’m seriously worried about you.”
“You’re right.” I looked at the rearview mirror and saw the concern in his eyes. Little flecks of amber glittered among the blue. “But I can’t explain right now.” We reached Whitley Street. “Just stop in front of the driveway,” Megan said. Carter obeyed, then jumped out of the car to open my door for me. “Listen, if anything happens . . .” I said, “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“If anything happens?” he repeated. “That’s insane.”
Yeah, it was.
“Alexis, yesterday . . . what you did. I know you’re trying to protect me, but I don’t need protecting.”
Megan was waiting for me halfway up the front path. I started to walk away, but Carter took hold of my hand.
“Just tell me,” he said. “If nothing else mattered, would you want to go to the dance with me?” I looked into his blue eyes and nodded. “Now, please,” I said. “Go.” He got back in the car and drove away.
Megan and I looked at each other.
“Anything else I should know?” she asked.
“It’s a doll.”
Megan stared at the ground. “I remember a doll. . . .”
“Yeah, your mom used to take pictures of it. It’s the doll from my story and my dream. It belonged to the little girl who died here, and now it’s possessed by her ghost. We have to destroy it.”
She nodded.
“But first . . . we have to find it.” I glanced at her neck. “Keep your necklace on. My sister seems to be totally scared of them. But she keeps getting stronger, so I don’t know. . . .”
We’d reached the front porch. As I extended my hand toward the doorknob, the door swung open all by itself.
Let the games begin.
THE SUNLIGHT POURING THROUGH the front door lit up the foyer, but the hallway faded into darkness. Someone had lowered the kitchen shades and closed the drapes in the living room and the sitting room, leaving the house shrouded.
The front door slammed shut behind us.
Megan stared at it and swallowed hard. “Who did that?”
I looked up at the ceiling of the foyer as if there might be a ghost floating above us. Then I squared my shoulders and focused ahead. “Probably the ghost. But you can’t let it get to you, okay? Try to stay focused.”
Megan gave a minute nod. “All right.”
“Follow me.”
We might as well start, I figured, in the obvious place—my sister’s bedroom.
Kasey never stood much of a chance against an evil ghost who used the power of dolls to lure her in. Come to think of it, maybe that’s how her fascination with dolls began in the first place. Could evil seep through the walls of the house, plant a seed of obsession in someone’s heart?
And what about me and my photography? I was just like Shara.
Dozens of pairs of doll eyes stared at me accusingly, but none of the dolls levitated up from her perch with glowing eyes. I scanned the rows but didn’t see one that was half bald.
“What do we do now?” Megan breathed.
If we couldn’t pin down exactly which doll was the evil one, we’d have to destroy them all. I grabbed one from the top ledge and hammered her porcelain head on the edge of the dresser. Her face cracked like an eggshell.
“How destroyed is destroyed?” Megan asked. “And how will we know when it’s done?”
“I don’t know,” I said, pulling on the head of an antique rag doll until it detached from the body with a rrrrrrip!
One thing was certain: we had to get rid of the ghost before Kasey got home. Because if she saw this carnage she would kill us both on sight.
Megan opened a display case and grabbed one of Kasey’s Grande Dame dolls, the fancy kind you order from catalogs with monthly payments. I held my breath as she wrapped her hand in the hair and slammed the doll headfirst onto the surface of the desk. The doll’s face imploded. “What was that?” Megan asked, suddenly looking up. I glanced at the door. I didn’t see anything, but . . . something was wrong. I took a half step out into the hallway, and before I had time to look, something barreled into me, sending me flying to the ground. I propped myself up weakly on my elbows and looked around. Kasey stood at the far end of the hall. “You like that?” she asked. “Want another one?” She held the flat of her hand up in the air and moved it toward me, just an inch, and the impact hit me like a bowling ball. My head slammed into the carpet. “Megan, run!” I shouted. But of course Megan couldn’t run. She had nowhere to go. There was silence. “Come on, Megan,” Kasey said. “Come on out.” Megan stepped haltingly out of my sister’s room. I looked up at her, but I couldn’t find the strength to move.
I expected another long-distance strike, so when Kasey came marching toward us, I knew something was wrong.
I watched from below as Megan pulled on her necklace and held the charm out in front of herself. Kasey paused a few feet away, then lifted her hand.
“Duck!” I yelled. If she didn’t get close enough to feel the effects of the necklaces, they were useless.
We were powerless.
All I could see was a flash of red-and-white cheerleader uniform tumbling to the floor and the charm flying across the hall.
Before Megan could stand, Kasey had reached her. She put one hand on Megan’s throat, under her chin, and hefted her to her feet, slamming her against the wall.
“Your mother should have killed you when I told her to,” Kasey said. “But I guess I’ll just do it myself.”
Megan whimpered as my sister’s hand tightened against her neck.
“Stop,” I said, but I was frozen in place. I tried to move my arms, but they were paralyzed.
A few terrible seconds passed, and I heard Megan’s hands slapping the wall helplessly.
“Hello?”
Kasey spun away toward the voice, and Megan went crashing to the floor next to me.
The heaviness faded from my body, and I managed to sit up in time to see Carter at the top of the stairs.
“Carter, watch out!” I screamed. He saw my sister and turned back to retreat down the stairs, but Kasey had already raised her hand.
“Alexis,” Megan’s shaky voice said from behind me, “the heart . . . where’s the other heart?”
Kasey pushed the flat of her hand toward Carter.
“No!” I cried.
Megan had pulled herself over to me and put her hand on my arm.
Carter seemed to balance in the air for a split second.
And then he fell.
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I glanced up at my sister, who, like an angry bull, had already turned back to face us.
“I won’t let you do this!” I said, grabbing the heart out of my pocket.
“Got it!” Megan cried. She dove for me, raising her half of the heart toward mine.
Just as my sister held her hand up, the two pieces came together perfectly.
A flash of brilliant blue light filled the hallway and then faded slightly into a giant blue sphere of energy. It pounced on my sister, lifting her off the ground while she clawed and kicked against the air.
After a moment the whole house shook, and the blue light exploded in every direction, absorbing into the walls, the ceiling, the floor.
Kasey collapsed.
The house kept shaking.
“Alexis,” Megan whispered, pointing to the ceiling. “Look!”
I saw a smaller, greenish ball of light moving frantically around the ceiling. It glowed, but the glow was almost sinister. It seemed to move like a rodent, scurrying away from the blue sparks leaping around from wall to ceiling and back. Finally it disappeared into the ceiling. The tremors stopped, and the house was still.
“Carter,” I said. “Go check on Carter.”
Megan slowly climbed to her feet and limped down the hall toward the stairs, while I pulled myself over to Kasey, whose skin was a dull gray. For a horrible moment I thought she was dead, but then I saw the minutest movement of her chest.
“Carter’s alive,” Megan’s voice called up the stairs.
Thank God.
I went to the top of the steps and looked down at them. Megan sat leaning over Carter’s motionless body. A tiny blue lightning bolt jumped from the railing of the stairs to the carpet, where it smoldered, leaving a blackened spot.
Megan’s eyes met mine. “There’s too much energy,” she said. “It’s like a circuit overloading.”
Suddenly I had an image of our enormous wooden house as a giant pile of kindling.
“I have to find that doll,” I said.
I turned back to my sister crumpled on the floor. I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her violently.
“Get up!” I roared. “Wake up, Kasey!”
After a moment her eyes opened. They were blue. They jumped away from me to look at the sparks overhead.
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