Dark Moon (Nightmare Hall) Page 5

  Afraid to take the time to wrap anything around her bleeding ankle, she hurried, in an awkward stumbling run, toward the Ferris wheel, repeatedly glancing over her shoulder for some sign of her tormentor.

  She never even noticed that her hair had slipped free of its barrette and was swinging, loose and disheveled, on her shoulders.

  She wasn’t aware of the missing barrette until Andie, standing at a taco booth near the Ferris wheel, turned and saw Eve approaching. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes widened. Forgetting the requested taco, she ran to Eve’s side.

  “What on earth …? Where have you been? What’s wrong with you?” Her words spilled out of her mouth rapid-fire. “Hey, what happened to your hair? Wow, Eve, it’s really pretty. You should wear it like that all the time. It makes you look so … so … well, different.”

  Renewed fury welled up inside Eve. How could Andie stand there talking about her hair! Couldn’t she see that something was very, very wrong?

  But when Eve tried to explain, the feeling of disorientation came over her again, and all she could do was shake her head. Now that she was out of that terrible place, now that she was out in the open with music and laughter all around her, with people in a hurry to have fun brushing past her, with the smells of hot dogs and tacos and cotton candy in the air, it didn’t seem possible that any of it had actually happened.

  Eve looked down. Yes, there it was. Her ankle was still bleeding. And it still hurt. She touched the back of her ear and her fingers were quickly stained with blood. Proof positive that all of it had actually taken place.

  Andie’s eyes followed Eve’s. “Oh, yuck! What’d you do? That’s gross! Did you trip or something?”

  Eve reached for the napkins Andie was holding. She bent to wrap them around her ankle, saying as she did so, “Have you seen Garth? He was with me in the Mirror Maze, and then he wasn’t.”

  “Garth? That new guy? No, I haven’t seen him. Is that why you took your barrette out, Eve?” Andie added coyly. “For him?”

  “I didn’t take my barrette out,” Eve snapped, standing up. “It fell out. You haven’t seen him?”

  Andie shook her head. “Haven’t seen anyone: Serena’s riding The Twister, Don and Beth and the others from the committee are making the rounds, checking things out, and Alfred was so pissed at you for being with Garth that he said, in this really disgusted voice, ‘Well, I can see that I’m not needed around here,’ and stomped off. Looked a little like one of those wooden soldiers in a Christmas pageant.” She sighed. “He is cute, though.” Then, “God, Eve, you really look terrible. You didn’t go on one of those scary rides, did you? The Devil’s Elbow?”

  “No, Andie, I didn’t go on a ride. Listen,” Eve said wearily, “we need to get the committee together. Emergency meeting. The Mirror Maze is permanently out of commission and I need to tell everyone.”

  Andie shrugged. “It wasn’t any good, anyway. Boring. And they made it too hard to get out. Who wants to hang around for hours in a gloomy old place like that?”

  “Not me,” Eve said grimly. Then, as they began walking, she added, “You were in the Mirror Maze?”

  “Yeah, a while ago. Hated it.”

  “Did you see anyone else?”

  “Sure. Three or four other fools, wasting their money like me. They hated it, too, although Alfred made me mad because he found his way out right away, while the rest of us were still stumbling around like idiots. He was waiting for us when we finally came out, and he looked so smug. I wanted to smack him.” Andie turned to glance at Eve. “Why? I mean, are you asking me if I saw someone special? Like who?”

  “I don’t know.” Just then, Don and Beth and the other committee members arrived, saying heartily that everything seemed to be running smoothly.

  “Well, not really,” Eve disagreed, and suggested that they all go to one of the food tents to hear what she had to say.

  “You really should do something about that ankle,” Andie said. “Those napkins look disgusting.”

  Blood from the wound had soaked through, making a sticky mess. “I will,” Eve promised, “as soon as I fill everyone in on what’s happened.”

  They were halfway to the tent when she spotted Garth, talking to Serena and Alfred at the archery booth. The second Garth saw her, he was at her side. His eyes quickly took in the hair, the awkward, clearly painful walk, then the bloody napkin swathing her ankle.

  “What happened?” he asked. “Where did you go?”

  “Where did I go?” Eve looked up at him defiantly, suddenly very, very angry with him for deserting her. “I didn’t go anywhere! You were the one who left.” She was aware of people watching them with interest, but she didn’t care. “Without a word.”

  “You left first!” Garth protested over the loud music and shrieks from the rides. “You went so fast, you got ahead of me and turned a corner. Out of sight, just like that. Before I could catch up to you, you called back ‘I’m out of here.’ By the time I turned the corner, you were gone. How come you didn’t wait for me?”

  “I never told you I was leaving,” Eve argued. “How could I? I couldn’t find the way out. And if I had found the way out, I wouldn’t have left. I’d have waited for you.”

  The color in Garth’s cheeks deepened. “I did hear you say you were leaving,” he insisted. “And when I finally found my own way out, you weren’t anywhere around, and no one had seen you.”

  “Sure,” Eve said brusquely. “Listen, forget it. No big deal!” She was too tired to deal with this now, and besides, she couldn’t stand the satisfied smirk on Alfred’s face as he watched them argue. “Right now, I’ve got to tell everyone what happened in the maze. You’re not a member of the committee,” she added stiffly, “but if you want to come along, I can’t stop you.”

  “Oh, I’m coming, all right,” Garth said emphatically. “We’re not finished with this. And I want to know what happened to you in there. You look … pretty bad.”

  Was Garth telling the truth about what had happened in the maze? Eve wondered.

  Or had he suggested going in the maze just so he could terrorize her?

  Chapter 8

  EVE HAD JUST FINISHED telling her story to the committee and Garth when the blonde girl from the Mirror Maze ticket booth burst into the food tent and shouted, “There she is! That’s her!” She was pointing directly at Eve, who was standing at the head of a table, the committee members seated in a semicircle in front of her.

  Heads swiveled toward the front of the tent.

  There were two campus police officers behind the girl. The three marched straight toward Eve. “What did you use?” the girl demanded when she was facing Eve. “A hammer? An axe handle? I’ve never seen such a mess!” Turning toward one of the policemen, she ordered, “Arrest her! She and that guy,” pointing toward Garth, “were the last ones who went into the maze. I figured they’d left, so I closed the booth and went to get something to eat. When I came back and looked inside, there it was, half the mirrors shattered and glass all over the place. She did it!”

  “I did not!” Eve said heatedly, conscious of heads on the opposite side of the huge tent turning toward them in curiosity. “I don’t know who it was. I didn’t see anyone. Look,” pointing toward her napkin-wrapped ankle, “I got cut. And there’s another cut on my ear. Would I do that to myself?”

  The girl sniffed in disdain. “Probably happened while you were going crazy smashing all those mirrors.”

  Alfred jumped to his feet. “This is stupid,” he said. “Eve wouldn’t wreck anything at the carnival. She’s in charge of this committee. Nobody wants this thing to be a success more than Eve does. If she says it was someone else, it was someone else.”

  Eve glanced at him uncertainly. She was grateful for the support, but she had wanted it to come from Garth, and he wasn’t saying a word. Neither was anyone else on the committee. Serena looked blank and Andie looked confused. After a moment, Garth got up and left the tent.

  Watching him go, Eve
wondered if she would ever see him again. But if he wasn’t going to stand up for her, she didn’t really care. She turned her attention to the girl from the booth.

  “You’ve got a lot of nerve accusing me,” she said. “Anyone could have gone into that maze when you left. That’s why,” she added pointedly, “you aren’t supposed to leave unless you get someone to take your place. Didn’t anyone explain that to you?”

  “I was hungry.” The girl turned her back on Eve and said to the police officer on her left, “Well? Aren’t you going to arrest her? Or is vandalism suddenly no longer a crime?”

  “Look, miss,” he said politely, “it’s already been established that you were absent from the booth for a period of time. Like your friend here says,” waving a hand in Eve’s direction, “anyone could have gone into that maze while you were gone. We’ve got no proof that she was the one who did it.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t see anyone else?” Eve pressed. Not because she was anxious to clear herself. It didn’t look like the police officers were going to arrest her. But she was anxious to find out who had been in that maze with her. To find out who that soft, sinister voice belonged to.

  “Oh, cut the act!” the girl said with scorn. “You know you did it, and I know you did it. But since I can’t prove it …” Shaking her head in disgust and anger, she turned and stomped away.

  “So,” Alfred said, coming over to stand beside Eve, “what kind of damage are we talking here? Shouldn’t we all go take a look? See if the maze can be salvaged?”

  “It can’t,” Eve said firmly. “It would be too expensive, and we’re not making that much money on it, anyway. But,” addressing the police officers, “whoever that was in the maze was after me. He called me by name.” Remembering the terrifying chase through the maze, the whams racing along behind her, she shuddered. “He came in there to find me.”

  Before the police officers had digested this new information, Garth returned, a first-aid kit in hand. He marched straight over to Eve and ordered her to sit down in a chair, “while I take a look at that foot. I’ve had some first-aid training. If I can’t patch you up, you’re going to the infirmary.”

  He hadn’t abandoned her, after all. He was, in fact, the only person who had been concerned about her injuries.

  When the foot had been bandaged and Garth had daubed antiseptic on the cut behind her ear, the two campus police officers led all of them back to the Mirror Maze.

  Everyone but Eve seemed stunned by the destruction.

  “You were in the middle of all this?” Alfred said in awe, staring at Eve. Garth’s mouth was grim, Serena had tears of disbelief in her eyes, and Andie’s face was white with shock. “I can’t believe you weren’t sliced to ribbons,” she whispered to Eve.

  Eve answered all of the questions directed at her in an amazingly calm voice, until one policeman asked her if she knew anyone who was angry with her.

  That stumped her. Could someone be so angry with her that they’d chase her down a corridor, smashing mirrors in her face, taunting her the whole way? What could she have done to make someone so mad?

  She couldn’t think of anything.

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t think so.”

  “Well, if anything else happens, let us know,” the younger police officer said.

  Eve stared at him in dismay. “Anything else?” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “You think something else might happen?”

  He shrugged. “This looks like serious business to me,” he said. “Like your friend said, you could have been seriously injured. And you said he knew your name. Might be a good idea to stay close to your dorm room for a while, until we get to the bottom of this.”

  “I’m cochair of this event,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “The other chairperson is already in the infirmary. That leaves me. I can’t run things from my dorm room.” Why didn’t they just catch whoever had done this? Wasn’t that their job?

  “We’ll keep an eye on her,” Garth told the police officer. “You just find out who did this, okay? Then she won’t have to worry.”

  Leaving the officers there to search the scene thoroughly, Eve led the way out of the maze. It wasn’t difficult, thanks to her lipstick and marker trail. But she made very sure that the group stayed close together until they reached the exit.

  The skies had opened up while they were inside. It was pouring thick sheets of rain that were rapidly turning the earth to mud and sending people running for the exits in droves.

  “Of course,” Eve said wearily as they clustered under the building’s overhang, “of course it’s raining. Why wouldn’t it be?” And wondered why she hadn’t let Alfred or Serena or Andie or one of the townspeople run this stupid event.

  If someone was so furious with her that they wanted to hurt her, then she needed to be tougher and stronger. Like her mother.

  The trouble was, she didn’t know if she had it in her.

  Eve stood up straighter, took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to fold, not yet. She had faked being organized and responsible, hadn’t she? Maybe she could fake the rest. She’d pretend she wasn’t scared half out of her wits, pretend that she was as much in control as she’d always seemed to be, pretend that she hadn’t realized the maniac in the maze knew exactly who she was and was out to get her.

  Maybe she’d do such a good job, she’d even fool herself into thinking she wasn’t scared half to death.

  It was worth a try.

  Besides, rain or no rain, she still had the carnival to think about. People were counting on her.

  “This place is going to be a mess tomorrow,” Serena commented grimly as they all stood in a group, watching the sheets of rain.

  Eve laughed bitterly. “Could it be any worse than it was today?” she cried. “I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m starving, and I don’t want any of the junk food here. I say we all head for Vinnie’s and forget about this stupid carnival for a little while.”

  “Are you sure?” Garth asked, gazing down into her rain-streaked face. “You don’t want to head for the dorm? That ankle must be hurting.”

  “No! My room is boring!” Eve cried giddily. “Come on, let’s go! Vinnie’s isn’t that far. And a little rain never killed anyone.” Unlike a million pieces of flying, broken glass, she thought instantly.

  When they were settled in Garth’s car, daubing at wet faces with crumpled tissues yanked from pockets, Eve, sitting in the front between Garth and Alfred, leaned her head against the seat and wondered who could be so angry with her, they wanted her to die.

  At Vinnie’s, crowded because of the rain, she knew she was talking and laughing too loudly. She felt the stares of Serena and Alfred and Andie as she chattered away, her words spilling out of her in a rush in her effort to pretend she wasn’t scared. She couldn’t help it. If she kept talking and laughing and pretending that everything was okay, maybe everything would seem okay.

  Garth didn’t know her well enough to realize she was behaving oddly. Still, when they’d talked earlier, at the carnival, she must have struck him as a quieter person, because she felt his eyes on her once or twice and, when she looked up, she saw the concern in them.

  He knew something was wrong.

  That wasn’t what Eve wanted. She wanted everyone to think there was nothing wrong. That she wasn’t scared. That she had passed off the maze incident with barely a shudder. That she wasn’t still thinking about it.

  She calmed down then, deciding that a better approach would be to act as she always did. Calm, with no outward hint that she was terrified. Composed, as if she knew exactly what she was doing and how to do it. That shouldn’t be hard. Hadn’t she been doing it all of her life? What was so different about this time?

  Are you kidding? the answer came readily. The difference, Eve Forsythe, is that you’re not just running a social event this time. You thought that’s what you were doing. But you were wrong. Dead wrong. This time, you’re running for your life.


  Serena and Alfred lived off-campus, at Nightingale Hall, an old, brick building with a sagging front porch. Surrounded by huge, old, dark-limbed oak trees that kept the house shadowed even on sunny days, Nightingale Hall sat high on a hill overlooking the highway. Nicknamed Nightmare Hall by the students, partly because of its gloomy appearance but mostly because of stories about strange happenings there, it seemed to Eve to sink deeper and deeper into its surroundings with every passing day, as if one day she would drive by there and the house would have disappeared from sight completely, with only the top of its brick chimney poking up over the crest of the hill.

  She didn’t see how anyone could live there. But when Garth dropped them off that night, Serena and Alfred jumped from the car and ran up the driveway like anyone else going back to the place where they lived.

  It had stopped raining by the time they returned to campus. The sky was cloudless, the moon, almost full now, shining down upon them. The air smelled clean and fresh and the ground didn’t seem to be oozing mud the way Eve had feared. Maybe the carnival grounds would be dry when the site opened the next afternoon.

  She would have to remember to put an OUT OF ORDER sign on the Mirror Maze first thing tomorrow.

  Exhausted, she showered, rebandaged her ankle, and went to bed. She was asleep almost immediately.

  Meanwhile, a figure stood motionless behind the darkened Ferris wheel.

  The figure’s arms were outstretched and raised toward the sky. Its eyes were closed, its face upturned, as if it were basking in the silvery glow of the moon.

  Chapter 9

  I COULD HAVE KILLED Eve tonight. She ran too fast, though. Besides, it was fun scaring her, chasing her, smashing those mirrors while she ran. So I made up my mind not to kill her just yet. But then I was disappointed when she got out, because I was having so much fun. She’s smart, Eve is. That was clever, the bit with the lipstick and the marker.

  But she’s not clever enough to figure out that I get my power from you, Moon. She’d never believe it. She’d laugh. Make fun of me. I can just hear her. “Oh, get real,” she’d say, in that scornful way she has. When I didn’t back down, she’d add, “Special power? You and the moon? And what planet did you say you were from?” Eve doesn’t believe in anything that she can’t see right in front of her eyes. And she doesn’t want anyone else to believe, either. Of all the people in parapsychology class who don’t belong there, she’s the worst. The most logical, the most cynical, the most scornful.