The final curtain

Struggling to free myself, I ducked my head and jerked my body forward with all my strength. The hands slid off me, and I stumbled into the wall.

Gasping for breath, I spun around. And stared at Mac Garland.

“Mac! What are you doing here?” I choked out.

He was breathing hard, too. His dark-blond hair fell over his forehead. He narrowed his metal-gray eyes at me.

“Mac—you hurt me,” I cried. “Why are you here?” And then the words poured out like a gushing waterfall. “I saw you running. I knew it was you. What’s going on? Tell me!”

He glanced up and down the long hall. “I’ll explain later,” he said in a breathless whisper. “Hurry.”

“Hurry?” I cried. “What do you mean? What do you want, Mac? Answer my questions? What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”

“Later,” he repeated. He reached for me again, but I backed away. “Come with me, Rachel. I told you. I told you things were going down.”

“The murders? You knew about them last week?”

He didn’t answer. He pushed the hair off his forehead with one hand. Then he burst forward and grabbed my hand. He tugged hard. “Let’s go.”

“No! Let go of me!” I cried. “Let go! The murders, Mac. You knew about them?”

He scowled at me. He’s a good-looking guy, but he’s ugly when he’s angry. “Shut up,” he snapped, glancing up and down the hall again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Somebody—help me!” I tried to scream to the kids back in the den, but the words came out in a choked whisper.

“Don’t be an idiot,” he rasped. “Shut up and come with me. Now. I have a canoe, Rachel. I can get you out of here.”

I spun free and took several steps back. “I … I’m not going anywhere with you. Answer my questions. What do you know about the murders?”

“We’ve got to hurry, Rachel. I’ll explain later. There’s no time.”

His chest was heaving up and down. He took rapid, wheezing breaths. I’d seen him angry before, but I’d never seen him this desperate.

“I’m not going with you,” I said. I gritted my teeth and tensed my whole body, preparing to make a run for it. Mac stood in the middle of the hall. I’d have to fake him out somehow to get past him.

Brendan and the others were still in the den down the hall. I knew I was just a few yards from safety.

“I’m warning you,” Mac said, his eye twitching. His face was red, in a rage. “I’m warning you. I know what’s going down. Rachel—I’ll get you out of here. But you’ve got to go now. Come on!”

I stared at him, thinking hard, frantically trying to plan a strategy.

If I dart to the left, maybe I can get him to move left. Then I’ll throw him off-balance by running to the right.

I took a deep breath, readying myself to run. And then I saw something in Mac’s eyes. He wasn’t watching me. His gaze went over my shoulder to something down the hall.

His expression changed. His eyes went wide with fear. And to my surprise, Mac swung away from me and took off, running in the other direction. Before I could utter a sound, he disappeared around a corner.

“Weird,” I said. My heart fluttered in my chest. I turned and gazed down the dark hall. I didn’t see anything. I used the wall to shove off and stumbled on shaky legs back to the den with the others.

“Brendan—” I gasped.

He spun around at my cry. “Rachel? Did you leave again?”

“I—I-I—” I stammered, picturing Mac, his eyes so wide and crazy.

Brendan didn’t give me a chance to say anything. “Follow me,” he said. “We need to regroup. Think about our next move.”

I glimpsed Eric’s body stretched out on the couch. His mouth had dropped open and his eyes were rolled up in his head.

A stab of sheer terror tightened my throat. I followed Brendan as he led everyone down the long hall, then down another. He kept his eyes straight ahead and took long, rapid strides as if desperate to get away from that room, from the sight of Eric so still and dead.

Brendan led us to a large room we hadn’t seen before. A blue curtain stretched along the back wall. Armchairs and couches faced the curtain. It was obviously a theater or a screening room.

Brendan motioned to the chairs and couches. “Take a seat, everyone. We need to talk.”

Kenny and Morgan dropped onto the couch near the back of the room. I slumped into a brown leather armchair at one side. Spider sat on the wide arm of my chair. “This can’t be happening,” he whispered. “Someone has to come and save us … before … before…” His voice trailed off.

I knew what he was going to say. Before we are all killed one by one.

Geena and April didn’t sit. They stood leaning tensely against one wall, their arms tightly crossed in front of their chests. Geena had been tensely chewing her bottom lip, and now a trickle of bright red blood ran down her chin.

Brendan stepped in front of the curtain and began to pace back and forth. Finally, he stopped and turned to us. “This was always a happy room for my family,” he said. “This is our little theater, where we used to put on plays when we were kids, and we had funny talent shows.”

He sighed. “A lot of good times in this room. But … I guess I could say this is the final curtain.”

He walked to the far end of the curtain. He grabbed a slender rope in both hands and began to pull it. And as he pulled, the curtains parted in the middle and slowly slid open.

Gasps of shock filled the room as we saw what was behind the curtain. And then the gasps turned to screams when we realized we were staring at three bodies.

The bodies of our friends. Patti, Kerry, and Eric. Face down. Piled in a heap on top of each other.

“How … how did they get here?” I cried, my voice hoarse with terror. “Who did this? Brendan—who moved them here?”

I tried to look away. But the horrifying sight held me as if in a trance.

Eric on the bottom. Kerry on top of him, his long legs bent at an odd angle. Patti sprawled face down on top of Kerry, arms hanging limply to the floor, her hair falling over her lifeless face.

“No … No…” I shook my head as if trying to shake away the sickening scene. “No…”

And as I stared, gripped in horror, the pile of bodies started to move.

28.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20