It threw open the closet door.
In its gloved hand, it once again held the knife Lori knocked from its grasp, having recovered it from the family room. With it, the entity would make the babysitter’s death a long and painful ordeal, thus showing BJ the consequence of his insurrection.
Lori cowered against the wall, peering up in terror. It relished her fear, anticipating the rush of energy that would spurt from her flesh when it cut the life from her.
It halted.
Glittering slivers of glass lay at the girl’s feet; above her head, the empty frame of a ground-level window opened into the night.
She got the boy out of the house!
With no time to waste, the entity shed the winter clothing for its true, incorporeal state and rushed out the window in pursuit of the child.
CHAPTER 32
Mallory leaned between the two front seats of Derrick’s car and directed him along the back roads that led home. Every now and again he gave her an enticing smile in the rearview mirror, and when he did, she tried her best to hold his stare without blushing.
She sat back in her seat once more when they pulled into the driveway and glanced to Tim. During the ride home, he’d sat quietly at her side, gazing out the window, oblivious to everything but the night. Twice, she’d asked him if his head felt any better, and both times he simply shrugged in response. Only once did he even look at her when he did.
Everyone piled out after Derrick switched off the engine, and Mallory frowned up at the house, not finding a single light in any of the windows.
Behind her, Troy’s battered Bronco parked along the curb and the rest of the group hopped out onto the lawn.
She turned her attention back to Tim. He lingered in the driveway, face expressionless, gazing at his mother’s car.
“So, how are you feeling?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine,” he answered. “I think I’m going to walk home instead of waiting for my mom, though. I’ll talk to you later.”
And with that, he started away.
“Wait a second,” she said, stopping him before he could take another step. “Walk home? That’s like two miles. I can’t let you do that.”
“I’ll be okay,” he began, but she wouldn’t let him finish. He’d paid for her entire evening, she’d had a fabulous time, and she wouldn’t stand to watch him walk off into the night with a migraine. “Come on, you don’t have to walk. My friends can drive you.”
He smirked. “No thanks.”
The others made their way up the driveway, remarking on the house.
“How about a tour?” Elsa asked. “Becky said your pool was huge. Let’s see it.”
“Yeah, sure,” Mallory answered. She just prayed BJ hadn’t trashed the place.
Taking Tim’s hand, she said, “Come inside with us. At least let me give you some medicine for your head. I feel really bad about you having a headache while I was having such a good time tonight.” She put on her most pleading expression and pulled him toward the front steps. Once again, he tried to decline, but she held fast, towing him with her.
Inside, Mallory called toward the second floor. “Hello? Lori? Tim and I are back.”
When no one answered, she proceeded toward the rear of the house, repeating her announcement and adding the news that her dad wouldn’t return until later than planned. She was about to say that she’d take over watching BJ, when she suddenly realized the first floor was vacant.
Lori didn’t attempt to cry out when the front door banged open, nor did she scramble from where she’d tucked herself between the house’s foundation and the water heater when the sounds of footsteps thumped through the floorboards.
She didn’t dare.
Three sides of her provided safety, but ahead lay an unknown realm of near-perfect darkness where she knew the attacker waited with a heart of ice and glacial patience.
To her, the cramped space of the utility closet had lost all sense of its original architectural dimension. Whatever existed beyond her curled legs might be nothing more than a few feet of empty concrete-lined room, or an entirely alien world with unattainably distant horizons. She didn’t know anymore. Her only certainty was that the attacker was still out there, somewhere, huddled in anticipation, waiting for her to make the move that would give her away.
And she didn’t plan on making that mistake.
Just go into the living room, she thought. Please, please go into the living room.
Mallory passed by the dark living room and hurried down the front hall to the kitchen, eager to find Lori and send her home. A note had been left on the counter, written in black Magic marker across a torn paper towel. She picked it up and frowned at the massive block lettering of the words and the chaotic manner in which it had been scrawled.
“Went to Lori’s,” Mallory read aloud. Why would Lori take BJ over to her house?
“Where’s the midget?” Becky asked.
Mallory dropped the note. “I guess he’s at the babysitter’s.”
“All right,” Elsa cheered. “We’ve got the whole house to ourselves.”
“I don’t think so,” Mallory responded. “They’ll probably be back any second.”
Becky opened the door to the deck, and everyone filed out to the pool area while Mallory flipped on the switches that activated the lights in and around the water.
“Wow,” Lisa said, watching the backyard light up. “Now this is livin’.”
Mallory stepped outside, about to accompany Derrick to the seating area at the pool’s shallow end, when she stopped and looked back. Tim still stood in the kitchen, looking miserable and out of place.
“I’ll be out in a sec,” she called to the others.
“Let’s get some Tylenol for your head,” she said to Tim. “Follow me.”
In the hallway bathroom, she gave him the medicine and a glass of water to wash it down with. “I’m really sorry you’re not having fun,” she said.
“I am,” he replied, and smiled for the first time since the beginning of the night.
“No, you’re not. You’ve hardly spoken a word since my friends showed up. You were so lively earlier. What happened?”
The bogus smile faded. “They haven’t exactly said much to me.”
“I know. I’m not blaming you for anything. After all, it was only supposed to be you and me tonight, not a whole group of my friends.”
Mallory stood in silence while he took the second pill and gulped it down with a mouthful of water. She was acutely aware of the voices of her friends outside and couldn’t help wondering what she was missing. More than anything, she wanted Tim to get along with them, wanted him to fit in and enjoy himself. At the same time, however, she wanted to get back to Derrick.
“Come on,” Mallory said, “we can go back out there and talk about something we’re all interested in.”
He shook his head. “I think I’d rather go home.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded.
“Well, let Derrick drive you so you don’t have to walk.”
He shook his head again, this time with a look of distaste. “No offense, but I don’t like that guy.”
She blinked. “Why not?”
His lips parted and closed without speaking.
“You can tell me,” she encouraged, biting her lower lip and playing dumb in the face of his evident jealousy. She knew that was the reason behind his dispirited attitude, and she wished she could convey her guilt at being the cause of it.
“It doesn’t matter,” Tim said.