Pretty Please (Nightmare Hall) Read online

  But before she could look for Evan, Cath, hurrying back and forth between the kitchen and the library and living room, asked if Jo could help her out for a minute. “I need soda. It’s in the cellar. Could you run down and bring up a couple of those big plastic bottles?”

  She followed Cath into the kitchen. “Is it dark down there?” Jo asked hesitantly.

  “No, the light’s on. Just be careful going down the stairs in those high-heeled boots, okay? I don’t want you falling again. And leave the door all the way open so it won’t swing shut.”

  Jo hesitated at the top of the stairs. There was a light on down there, but its glow didn’t reach as far as the stairs. The light from the kitchen only spread halfway down, leaving the bottom half dozen steps in darkness.

  Cath hefted a large party tray and aimed for the living room. “Just set the soda in the fridge, okay? Thanks, Jo.”

  Jo made her way down the stairs very carefully. She had no intention of falling at this party. She was a little nervous when she reached the lower stairs and had to feel with her hand along the wooden railing and explore with her feet to find her footing.

  But once in the cellar itself, there was a faint yellow glow from a lone bulb hanging near the huge black, noisy furnace.

  She hadn’t expected the cellar to be so cold. The furnace heat was being dispatched up into the house and did little to warm the earthen-floored, gray, stone-walled space. One tiny window was set high into a far wall. There were shelves loaded with tools, and other shelves full of canned goods and glass jars. At the end near the window, boxes and trunks and suitcases were piled high.

  The entire space smelled musty.

  Jo wondered if there were spiders.

  Shivering, Jo hurried over to an old wooden table along one wall. It was loaded with soda bottles and cans. Filling her arms, she turned and headed through the chill to the stairs.

  She had just put one booted foot on the bottom step when she heard a noise above her.

  She raised her head. “Evan?”

  But it wasn’t Evan at the top of the stairs. Above her, the kitchen was dark. Hadn’t she left the kitchen light on? Cath wouldn’t have turned it off, would she?

  The cellar light didn’t reach to the top of the stairs. All Jo could see was a shadowy figure outlined above her. It could be anyone. But if it wasn’t Evan staring down at her, who was it?

  Lost in shadow, the top of the stairs suddenly seemed miles away. Jo peered upward, trying to make out the identity of the person who seemed to be staring down at her. “Who’s that?” she called. “Who’s up there?”

  The vague, dark figure at the top of the stairs lifted a foot, as if to begin moving downward to join her.

  And then Jo thought she saw a second shadowy figure outline appear behind the first.

  She heard the first figure utter a surprised grunt.

  Then she saw it pitch forward, arms flying out as if to grab something, anything, to stop the fall that was coming. It made a sound, a startled cry for help.

  The figure plummeted downward, free-falling through the air, straight at Jo.

  Before she could jump out of the way, the cellar was plunged into sudden, complete darkness, and the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut.

  Jo opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

  Then it was too late. Something warm and heavy slammed into her chest, knocking her off her feet, propelling her backward into the stone wall behind her. There was a sharp crack as the human missile collided, headfirst, with the wall. The figure went limp, a dead weight lying half on, half off a stunned and horrified Jo, who was sitting with her back against the wall, her legs straight out in front of her.

  Shaking her head to clear it, Jo gently, gingerly, pushed against the dead weight imprisoning her. She managed to free herself enough to slide out from beneath the heavy burden.

  But she could see nothing.

  She sat there on the cold, damp earthen floor, trying to think. Help….she had to get help. She had to get help. Someone had been hurt. Someone had fallen…been pushed…fallen…and was hurt. Needed…help.

  Before she could stir her paralyzed limbs into action, the door upstairs suddenly flew open and the light came on again.

  Jo blinked. Tried to lift her head to look up. Her neck hurt. Couldn’t lift it.

  “Jo? Jo!”

  Evan’s voice.

  “Oh,” was all she could say. “Oh.”

  “What…?” Evan ran down the stairs, landing at the bottom to crouch at Jo’s side. “Jo? What happened?”

  Jo turned her head slightly to stare at the figure lying so lifelessly beside her, its arms and legs splayed out around it.

  Black…black arms, black legs, black mask…

  There were only two people at Cath Devon’s party dressed completely in black. One was Johanna Donahue. The other was Tina Downs.

  “Tina?” Jo asked tentatively, crawling over to kneel beside the frighteningly still girl. “Tina?”

  Tina didn’t answer.

  Chapter 13

  EVAN FELT FOR TINA’S pulse.

  “Is she alive?” Jo asked anxiously. “Is Tina alive?”

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “What are you doing down here?”

  Jo was too dazed to think clearly. What was she doing in the cellar? “I don’t know. Cath wanted something, I think…is Tina dead?”

  “No. She’s alive. Must have hit her head. And it looks like she might have a broken leg, too.”

  “There was this terrible sound when she hit.” Jo shuddered. “Are you sure she’s not dead?”

  “She’s not dead. But we need an ambulance, fast. Can you go up and call one?”

  “I’m not sure my legs will work. But I’ll try.”

  She stepped in something when she got to the top step, and nearly fell. She grabbed the handrail just in time. Something…something slippery…on the top step….

  She called the ambulance, and then alerted Cath that something terrible had happened.

  The word spread quickly. Curious party guests began to fill the kitchen, piling up in the cellar doorway, murmuring as they watched.

  When the ambulance had come and gone, Evan turned to Jo in the kitchen and said solemnly, “I thought it was you lying down there. I’d been looking all over for you. Couldn’t find you anywhere. The cellar was the only place I hadn’t looked, so I decided I might as well try there, too. It was so dark though, I couldn’t see much. Could barely make out a figure in black, lying there like she was dead. I thought it was you, thought that was why I couldn’t find you, because you’d fallen and were hurt.”

  “Oh, Evan.”

  “Then I turned the cellar light on, and saw you sitting there.” His voice strengthened, became normal. “What happened, anyway? You said she was pushed?”

  “I…I’m not sure. I thought I saw someone, but there’s a puddle on the top step. She might have slipped on it and fallen.”

  “I guess I missed it. I took the steps two at a time. Show me where.”

  Jo led Evan to the staircase and pointed.

  The top step was clean. No wet puddle there.

  “What are you guys looking at?” Kelly asked as she came into the kitchen. Her face was very pale.

  Jo turned. “There was something spilled on this step. Now it’s gone.”

  “Oh, that. I think it was soda. I wiped it off before the paramedics got here. I was afraid they’d fall.” Jo had to admit that was sensible. Still, she had wanted another look at the spill. She had so many questions, and had hoped the mess on the top step might provide an answer.

  Cath came in then, and asked what they were talking about.

  When Jo explained, Cath said, “There wasn’t anything on that step when I left the kitchen. Jo had just gone down to the cellar. And it was just a few minutes later that Tina fell. If something was on the step, she must have spilled it herself.”

  Evan shook his head. “If she’d been drinking something, her cup
would have fallen with her. I didn’t see one down there. Besides, think about it. If she’d been standing there, looking down into the cellar, and she’d spilled something, she wouldn’t have stepped in it.”

  “Unless she didn’t know she’d spilled,” Jo said.

  “True. But then I repeat my original question: if she was drinking something, where is the cup or glass she was using?” To double-check, Evan went back down into the cellar and looked around. He found no cup or glass.

  When he came back upstairs, shrugging, Kelly said impatiently, “Look, we don’t know what happened. No one saw anything. Except Jo, and she doesn’t really know what she saw. We’ll just have to wait until Tina’s okay. Then she can tell us if she was pushed.”

  She had a point. Jo nodded reluctantly. “Kelly’s right. And can we get out of this kitchen now?” she added, shivering. “I keep looking down into the cellar. It’s giving me the creeps.”

  They went into the living room, where the hushed group of party guests had gathered.

  “Is somebody trying to tell us something?” said Missy Stark, dressed as Madonna. “Like, we’re partying too much? I mean,” she added, “two horrible accidents so close together seems a really weird coincidence to me. I think I’m staying in my room for the rest of the semester. So don’t anyone invite me anywhere. I won’t go.”

  The party broke up quickly then.

  Jo decided against going to the hospital. “Tina’s friends will be there. That’s enough of a crowd. We’ll call later to see how she’s doing.” As anxious as she was to hear Tina say she had not been deliberately pushed down those stairs, Jo couldn’t stand the thought of hanging around a hospital. Not tonight. It would remind her too much of her own accident.

  As Evan helped Jo with her coat, she struggled to make sense of what had happened. She had been warned away from this party. She’d received all kinds of messages that clearly told her she shouldn’t be going out in public until her face was healed. She’d ignored them and come to the party, anyway. She had covered her injured face, but she’d come.

  Maybe that had made someone angry.

  But it was Tina who had flown down that flight of stairs.

  As they left Nightmare Hall, Jo remembered Missy’s statement at the ski lodge hinting that Jo had been deliberately pushed into that door at the Stark party.

  But it wasn’t true. She was sure of it. She’d thought about it, long and carefully. And she was still positive it had been an accident.

  Just as Tina’s fall had been an accident. That sticky stuff on the top step…anyone could have supped on that and fallen. I almost slipped on it myself, Jo thought.

  It was true that two accidents in a row was pretty weird. But stranger things had happened, right?

  Some vague, unformed thought tugged at the back of Jo’s consciousness…something that made her uneasy…something she couldn’t identify. What was it?

  She was too tired to wrestle with it now. Later…

  Kelly, Nan, Carl, and Reed decided to go to Vinnie’s, but Jo had lost her appetite. She insisted that Evan drop her off back on campus.

  “You don’t have to walk me in,” she said. “Go on to Vinnie’s with them.”

  “I don’t want to go to Vinnie’s with them.” He closed the car door and grabbed her hand. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” Liar. She began walking across the Commons, huddling in her suede jacket for warmth. The mask was irritating her face pulling at her bandages. She couldn’t wait to get it off. Such a great costume…but such a bad night, after all.

  “At first I thought Tina’s fall was an accident,” Evan said. “But I’m not really sure. I know you want to believe that. I do, too, but I can’t.” They were almost to Lester. It looked warm and welcoming, lights peeking from many windows, dotting the old snow with streaks of yellow. “I’m just not sure, Jo.”

  “It was an accident! Quit trying to scare me.”

  “Jo!” He sounded honestly appalled. “I wasn’t trying to scare you.” He yanked on her hand, forcing her to stop. Then he pulled her around to face him. “It’s just that when I looked down into that cellar and thought I saw you lying there…” He stopped. He reached out, grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her close and kissed her.

  Afterward, she leaned against him, her head on his shoulder, and said quietly, “Evan, it wasn’t me. I’m fine. I’m just fine.”

  “I know.”

  He kissed her again at the door to her room. “You’re sure you’re going to be okay? Want me to stay?”

  She shook her head. She wouldn’t mind being alone for a while. There were things to think about.

  The first thing she did after she locked the door was carefully pull the black latex mask off her face and head.

  She’d been right about her hair. It was squashed flatter than a pancake. But the relief of having the rubber off her face was wonderful.

  When she had changed into a long nightshirt and her robe, she sat on the bed, thinking about the party.

  Jo curled her legs up underneath her and leaned back against the wall. What if Tina’s fall wasn’t an accident? If that were true…then there was something else to think about. From the back, in that darkened kitchen, all anyone would have seen was a tall, thin figure dressed head to toe in black. Tina. But…the figure could as easily have been Johanna Donahue. From the back, in that tiny bit of light from the cellar, the two figures could have been interchangeable.

  Curling her fists into small, tight balls, Jo thought about the draped mirrors, the missing compact mirror, the hat with the veil, the cover-up cream.

  “I was being warned,” she murmured, her fists clenching and unclenching nervously. “I was being told to hide my face, not to show it in public. And I didn’t listen. I went to the party, anyway.”

  Could that have made someone angry enough to…punish her? Punish her for not listening? For ignoring the warnings? Punish her by pushing her down a flight of stairs?

  I don’t know anyone like that, Jo argued with herself. I don’t!

  You mean, a little voice in the back of her head admonished, that you don’t want to know anyone like that. But isn’t it obvious that you do? Because if someone did push Tina down those stairs, they were attending the same party you were. So you know them. Whether you want to or not.

  Had the push been meant for her instead of Tina? Who knew she was dressed as Catwoman?

  Everyone. Everyone at the party knew. She hadn’t made any secret of who she was.

  Her head beginning to ache, Jo lay down on the bed, pulling her comforter up over her. So many questions, but only two were important: Had Tina been deliberately pushed down those stairs? And if she had, had she been mistaken for Jo Donahue?

  One thing was clear: if she was the one who was supposed to have fallen, then she would be stupid not to be afraid.

  She wasn’t stupid.

  So…was she afraid?

  Yes.

  She was scared to death.

  Chapter 14

  JO AWOKE THE NEXT morning with a headache. She took an aspirin and called the hospital to find out about Tina.

  The nurse would tell her only that Tina Downs was in “fair condition.”

  Oh, thanks a lot, Jo thought as she hung up the phone. That tells me next to nothing.

  But at least Tina was alive.

  Jo glanced out the window. They’d planned to return their costumes this morning. The sun was shining brightly and the sky was cloudless. Looked like a beautiful day—maybe her mood would improve.

  By the time she had showered and dressed, Kelly was awake. She asked about Tina right away.

  Jo shrugged. “Fair condition, whatever that means.”

  “I think it means she’s going to be okay. If she weren’t, she’d be in ‘critical’ or ‘serious’ condition,” Kelly said. “So, what are our plans on this beautiful Saturday?”

  Jo had awakened to find the stitches on her cheek bothering her, probably a result of wearing the
mask the night before. They still hurt, and she found herself resenting the fact that Kelly, who hadn’t been awake more than a minute, looked perfectly gorgeous.

  Life just wasn’t fair. “I don’t have any plans,” Jo said irritably. “Except, we have to return our costumes.”

  “Are the guys going with us?”

  And then, for no other reason than the fact that Kelly Benedict looked far more beautiful than anyone had a right to look first thing in the morning, Jo snapped, “Can’t you go anywhere without a male by your side?”

  “Hey!” Kelly sat up in bed. “Ease up. What’s your problem, anyway?”

  Chagrined, Jo apologized. It wasn’t Kelly’s fault she looked the way she did. And not her fault that Jo had gone through that glass door. She hadn’t even been in that crowd at Missy’s party. “I’m sorry. Guess I got up on the wrong side of the bed. And yes, as far as I know, they’re meeting us down at the fountain at ten.”

  Kelly glanced at her alarm clock. “Ten? That’s only an hour away!” She threw the covers aside and jumped out of bed. Running for the bathroom, she called over her shoulder, “I’ll never be ready in time, no way!”

  Jo’s irritation melted. It was Saturday, it was gorgeous, Evan had kissed her last night, and she was going to see him again in an hour. Best of all, Tina was not in “critical” or “serious” condition; she was in “fair” condition. Maybe she’d even be up to a telephone conversation later today.

  Vowing to call the hospital when they returned from town, Jo got dressed.

  They were coming out of the costume shop in Twin Falls when she glanced across the street and noticed that the sporting-goods shop was flanked by a beauty supply shop on one side and a drugstore on the other.

  Beauty supplies?

  Evan must have been going into the drugstore the day they rented their costumes. What would he be doing in a beauty supply store? Jo smiled to herself. Evan certainly didn’t need any beauty supplies. He looked just fine the way he was.

  Suddenly, without warning, a vision of the little beige tube danced before her eyes. Ban-Blem. A special corrective makeup for scars and blemishes….

  Wouldn’t you buy that at a beauty supply store?