Dark Moon (Nightmare Hall)

  Dark Moon

  Nightmare Hall

  Diane Hoh

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Preview: The Biker

  A Biography of Diane Hoh

  Prologue

  “I HATE YOU!” THE teenager cries. The face is scarlet with rage, the eyes dark with fury. “Everyone else is going. Why do you have to be so uptight about everything? You’re ruining my life! I wish you would just die!” Sneakered feet whirl, race up the stairs, stomping down upon each riser. The tall, thin figure in jeans and a plaid shirt runs into the bedroom and slams the door, locking it. Hurtling onto the bed, the teenager lies there, face down, furious.

  A full moon shines through the window, illuminating the darkness.

  The teenager lies prone on the bed for a long time, finally falling asleep, only to be awakened sometime during the night. The head lifts, glancing at a luminescent clock on the bedside table. Quarter past two in the morning.

  The moon is now visible through a different window. The figure on the bed rolls over, thinking angrily of being forced to miss the best party of the year. At that moment, a thick, dark shadow slides across the round, pale globe, hiding it as effectively as if someone had just drawn a black velvet curtain over it.

  The teenager returns to sleep.

  And awakens to bright sunshine flooding the room. A breathless hush lies over the house. Something is not normal. Something has happened. Something is wrong.

  There are people downstairs, in the living room, in the kitchen, spilling out onto the wide front porch. Relatives. Neighbors. Friends of the family. All are ashen-faced, with stunned, bleak eyes.

  Because something has happened. Something is wrong.

  Someone has died.

  The mother who was wished dead only the evening before, has obliged—by dying.

  Dying during the night, of what the teenager learns in a sympathetic whisper from a relative was a “heart attack.” Unexpected. Shocking.

  But the teenager knows better. There was no heart attack. The heart stopped beating because it was willed to stop. It stopped beating unexpectedly, for no apparent medical reason because someone wished that it would. Wished hard. Wished so hard that the person had summoned up a power they didn’t even know they possessed. The power took over and, under the eerie, luminous glow of a full but shadowed moon, made the heart stop beating.

  Didn’t mean to. Didn’t even know about the power.

  But it’s too late now.

  Still … so many parties to go to, so much fun to have—and nothing to stop that now. Nothing to get in the way. The father won’t. Doesn’t care about things like that. Too busy, too preoccupied, never did have anything to say about it. Only her. She was the one who ruined everything.

  Won’t be ruining anything anymore, will she?

  What time did it happen, is the question posed to the father.

  He looks stricken. What? Why do you ask? What difference does it make?

  What time? the now-motherless teenager insists.

  “Two-fifteen,” the father answers reluctantly. “She made this terrible sound, as if someone had just pounded her in the chest, and it woke me up. I glanced at the clock as I woke up and saw it was two-fifteen. I tried to revive her, but …”

  Two-fifteen. The very moment that the dark shadow had passed over the full moon.

  The teenager would think about that later.

  Right now, the thing to do was cry and carry on as expected. It wouldn’t be good to let people think there weren’t any feelings. Everyone has feelings. Even people with special powers.

  Powers for good.

  Or evil.

  Chapter 1

  THE HIGHWAY BETWEEN SALEM University and the town of Twin Falls was so congested with traffic, the cars were barely moving.

  “It looks like a parking lot,” Eve Forsythe said in dismay. Her roommate and best friend, Andrea Coffee, peered impatiently out over the steering wheel, searching for an escape route. “We should have arranged for the parade to start on campus and move into town instead of the other way around,” Eve went on. “I was supposed to meet Kevin and the rest of the Founders’ Day committee on Fourth Street half an hour ago! Andie, can’t you steer around some of these cars?”

  “Oh, sure, Eve,” Andrea retorted sarcastically, “a fender-bender right now is just the ticket to solve this traffic problem. Anyway,” she added after honking in vain several times, “we all agreed at the first committee meeting that it wouldn’t make any sense for the parade to move from campus to town. The Founders’ Day celebration is mostly taking place on campus. That’s where the carnival is set up, right? So that’s where the kick-off parade needs to end up.”

  Eve sighed. “I know. You’re right. But who knew that practically everyone on campus would decide to drive into town? It doesn’t look like anyone had the brains to take the shuttle, the way Kevin said they would.” She glanced out her window and groaned. “And it’s going to rain! I can tell. The wind is fierce and that sky is black as death!”

  The car inched forward slightly. “I never should have agreed to cochair this committee,” Eve murmured, half to herself. She leaned her head back against the seat. Had her long, wavy hair suddenly slipped free of the wide brass barrette pulling it away from her face, it would have draped itself over the tweed upholstery like a dark, silken cape. But Eve never wore her hair loose. Ever. “Having Kevin as co-chairman helps, but I know who’s going to feel responsible if the celebration falls apart. I am!”

  “That’s because you’re the responsible type,” Andie said amiably, stepping on the gas again as a gap appeared in front of her. Her freckled hands held the steering wheel lightly, and her mop of tightly curled, burnt-orange hair moved from side to side as she surveyed the long lines of cars boxing her in. “That’s why you were elected over everyone else on the committee who wanted to be chairperson. Like me, for instance.” She grinned, and the freckles on her cheeks danced. “Chairing this week-long event would look so good on the résumé of a future public-relations genius. Especially if this thing is a success.”

  Eve groaned. “And what if it isn’t? What if the whole thing’s a huge disaster? Would you want it on your résumé then?”

  Andie shook her head, her grin spreading wider. “Nope. That’s why I didn’t scream and tear my hair out when you and Kevin were picked over me as chairpersons. I figure, as just one more member of this committee, if things go okay, I can take part of the credit. But if it flops, I’m free and clear. All the blame goes to you.” She glanced sideways at Eve. “Why are you so jittery? You’ve organized tons of things. We all know that. Rumor has it that you’ve never fallen down on the job in your life.”

  Eve laughed without humor. Andie’s earlier comment had stung. “The responsible type?” It made Eve sound so … dull. “Right. You know what they say,” she said in a brittle voice. “If you want anything done right, get Eve Forsythe to do it.”

  It wasn’t as if Andie was wrong. She wasn’t. Eve was more organized than most people. Did that make her dull? Well, maybe she looked dull, which co
uld be why she hadn’t dated very much since she arrived on Salem’s campus. Could be the neatness that scared guys away. She was very neat. Impeccably neat. Her clothes were always clean and pressed, every skirt matched every sweater, her hair was always carefully restrained, and she was obsessive about flossing thoroughly every night before she crawled into her bed, which she made first thing every morning. All of her life, teachers had commented not on how brilliant she was or how creative or how clever, but on how “neat” her work was. It had seemed to impress them.

  Neatness seemed to indicate to most people a sense of responsibility, as if keeping your appearance in order guaranteed that you could keep everything else in order, too. Meaning that you would be the perfect person to run fairs and carnivals and bazaars and committees and take care of all those tedious little details that messier people never wanted to bother with.

  And the truth was, she was very good at that kind of thing. Hadn’t had a flop yet.

  But … she hated every minute of it. It wasn’t who she was, not at all. If the people who always voted for her could have seen inside her mind, seen how tousled and tangled and chaotic it was, they’d have chosen someone else. If they could see how she had struggled with every assignment, every office, the organizing of every event, seen how she had to fight desperately for every moment of concentration, they might even have picked someone whose shirt trailed carelessly over the edge of a skirt or pair of jeans, someone whose clothes were always a mass of wrinkles and stains, someone whose hair was an untamed tangle of wild curls, as hers would be if it weren’t for the ever-present barrettes.

  Eve Forsythe was a fraud, but she was the only one who knew it. The person everyone saw … the neat, orderly, and organized Eve Elizabeth Forsythe, a dean’s list freshman at Salem University, did exist. But only with great effort and concentration on the part of the real Eve Forsythe. The real Eve Elizabeth was a totally different human being. Dreamy. Vague. Unfocused, with thoughts and emotions as wild a jumble as any mass of thick, naturally curly hair. It was her mother, of course, who’d created the Eve Forsythe everyone saw.

  When she was nine-and-a-half, her father had left the house, carrying only a suitcase and two boxes full of books. “Sorry, Kitten,” he had said while her mother stood, stony-faced and silent, in the kitchen, “but this man’s breaking out of jail, and the warden there,” gesturing toward the kitchen, “says you can’t come. Not fair to leave you here living under more rules and regulations than in any man’s army, but I can’t spring you.” He knelt then to kiss her on the cheek. “I just hope you have the strength to escape one day. Don’t wait too long, honey.”

  And he was gone, leaving her in the sole care of his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Nell Forsythe, who viewed the slightest speck of dust, the merest hint of disorder, and any unrestrained locks of curly hair with all the horror most people reserved for disasters like world wars, fatal plane crashes, and serial murders.

  Eve had learned, very quickly, to pretend she hated those things, too. Because unlike her father, who was an adult, she couldn’t leave. Not for a long, long time. As for fighting with her mother, what good would that do? If Richard Forsythe, a strong and strong-minded adult, hadn’t had the strength to stand his ground and do battle against Nell, what chance did a shy, dreamy nine-year-old have? It was easier to give in and live the way her mother wanted.

  Somewhere along the way, the myth that the daughter was as well organized, capable, and efficient as the mother had established itself, almost without Eve’s awareness. And she had found herself heading one committee after another, organizing countless events, being elected to numerous offices.

  Her mother was thrilled.

  Eve wasn’t stupid. She knew that the best way to dispel the myth was a simple one. All she had to do was screw up, big-time. All she had to do was ruin a major event. Forget an important detail, ignore a crucial phone call or note, miss repeated committee meetings. Not so difficult. Anyone can screw up, especially if they really want to.

  But she couldn’t do it. And it wasn’t only Nell’s wrath that she couldn’t face. The thought of the disappointment and anger in the faces of her fellow students when the prom turned into a disaster or the fund-raising event was a failure or no one showed up for the concert, made her physically ill.

  So she did it all, and she did it well. And everyone approved.

  She had vowed that college would be different. True, she had agreed to study accounting instead of interior design the way she wanted, but that was only because Nell had laid down the law once again. It was accounting or nothing. “You have to earn a living,” were the exact words. “Accounting is a good, solid profession. What is ‘graphic arts,’ anyway? Sounds like something that would appeal to your father. And look what happened to him!”

  Eve’s father had died two years earlier, unemployed and penniless. Which left Eve with no choices at all. It was accounting or nothing, so accounting it would be.

  That was the first blow. The second was, although she had every intention when she left home of changing her image the very second she stepped onto the grounds of Salem University, she hadn’t done it. At first, it was because she couldn’t escape the clammy, uneasy feeling that her mother could somehow see her. By the time that feeling faded, it just seemed easier to brush her hair away from her face every morning and thrust its thickness into the clutches of the familiar barrettes. Easier, too, to wear the carefully matched sweaters and skirts her mother had picked out and then packed for her, easier to make her bed every morning and to color-coordinate her closet and alphabetize her CD’s and use a Daytimer to keep her schedule straight. Easier, that’s all.

  Maybe later, when she had settled into her new routine, she would change her image. Maybe later …

  But she had waited too long, and now here she was, cochair of the most important event of the year, the Founders’ Day celebration jointly arranged by the university and the village of Twin Falls. The committee that she and Kevin cochaired was made up of five townspeople and five students. If the townspeople were chagrined at having young students on their committee, they handled their chagrin with grace and a spirit of cooperation.

  That might well change, though, Eve thought, lifting her head to survey the traffic mess again, if this thing turns into a disaster. The whole town will blame us if something goes wrong.

  She had done her best. It was harder, here at college. She hated accounting with a passion. It was boring and tedious and there was so much work. Finding the time for her committee duties was a struggle, and some nights she dragged into the dorm room so exhausted, she skipped flossing. Then she couldn’t sleep, and had to struggle up out of bed and go into the bathroom and clean her teeth the way she’d been taught, just so she could sleep.

  So much for changing her image.

  What sickened her more than anything was knowing that if the Founders’ Day celebration did go off perfectly, without a hitch, its success would condemn her to three more years of the same kind of life she’d always led. She’d be elected to more committees, more offices, she’d be called upon again and again to organize. She would be tagged throughout her entire college career with the label Andie had just applied to her: “The responsible, organized, capable, efficient Eve Forsythe.”

  Gag.

  There were ten people on the committee. Two of the Twin Falls members, a nice, funny guy named Don and a small, heavy, blonde girl named Beth, were young. Eve had anticipated that one of them would be made chairperson.

  She knew there were others on the committee who had actively sought the position, who wanted to sit in the chair at the head of the table, to be the “authority,” the head, the person in power. Founders’ Day was a very big deal, according to campus rumor. If all went well, there would be a certain amount of prestige for those who had pulled it all together. And if it didn’t go off well?

  Eve didn’t want to think about that. Maybe failing now would let her off the hook for future events. But the disgrace would be
even worse here at college than it would have been in high school. Unbearable. And her mother would hear about it, maybe even yank her out of school.

  She didn’t want to be yanked out of school. Maybe she hadn’t flowered on campus the way she’d hoped, but she loved it here. She didn’t want to leave Salem, with its green, rolling lawns and its brick and stone buildings, its bell tower, the deep, wide river racing along behind the administration building. Most important, Nell Forsythe was three-hundred-and-eighty-seven miles away.

  Spending the next three years chairing boring committees would be better than not being here at all. Better than being dragged back to the cold, sterile, atmosphere of the small frame house on Water Street in Doaks Landing, Pennsylvania.

  The Founders’ Day celebration had to be a success. It had to.

  “Almost there,” Andie announced, catapulting the car through an intersection just as the yellow light turned red. “Now all we need to do is find a place to park, which should be about as easy as straightening my hair.”

  She was right. Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Twin Falls was overflowing with parade spectators and every parking space for blocks was already taken. They had to park on Sixth Street, six blocks away, and dash down the side streets to find Kevin and the other members of the committee.

  They found the group waiting in front of the post office, a huge red-brick building in the center of town.

  “Everything’s under control,” Kevin assured Eve quickly when he saw how white and strained her face was. She could barely hear him over the noise of the crowd. “I know it looks like chaos, but the bands are lining up, the floats are in place, and the clowns are already tossing candy to keep the kids from rioting.”

  “It’s not going to rain, is it?” she asked anxiously, glancing up at the charcoal-colored sky.

  “Weatherman says no,” Kevin answered firmly. He was tall and thin, neatly dressed in crisp chinos and a red Salem T-shirt, his light brown hair slightly windblown. Although he sounded confident, his eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses were as anxious as Eve’s.