"Me neither," Shannon said.

"Very funny."

"Where'd they go?"

"I don't know."

"Loved us and left us."

Underneath her, Shannon started weeping. Her shoulders and back made quick, small jerking motions. She was the big one, the tough one, and she was crying like a hurt child.

Tears came to Laura's eyes. "It's all right," she said. "Hey. It's fine. You'll be fine. We'll both be fine."

Shannon kept crying. Laura, riding her back, jiggled up and down.

Tears slid down from the corners of Laura's eyes and rolled into her ears. They tickled. She wanted to scratch the itch, but couldn't. Not with her arms bound tight to Shannon's arms. "At least they didn't kill us," she said.

Shannon went on crying.

"They are gone," Laura said. She felt a little as if she were talking to herself. Raising her head off Shannon's head, she looked to the right and left and felt the teardrops sliding around inside her ears. "I can't see 'em anywhere. I can't see anyone. Looks like they left us here and went away." She eased her head down again and stared at the windblown branches high above her face. Leaves were flying sideways. "They probably aren't done with us. Might be. I sorta doubt it, though. I think they'll come back and... I don't know. The kid said he saw like a dozen of them. Some kind of cult. They'll probably wanta come back and sacrifice us or something fun like that."

Shannon sniffed. "Thanks... for cheering me up."

"You're welcome."

"We 'd better... get our asses outa here."

"The sooner the better," Laura said.

Neither of them moved.

After a while, Shannon said, "You can't get off me, can you?"

"Not unless the ropes go away."

Ropes passing under Laura's armpits bound her shoulders to Shannon's shoulders. Laura's left upper arm was tied to Shannon' right upper arm. Their elbows and wrists were also tied together, and ropes bound their other arms together in the same way. Another length of rope, wound twice around their waists, lashed them back to back, rump to rump. Lower, they were roped together at the thighs, knees and ankles.

"I don't think they mean for us to leave," Laura said.

"What-say we do it anyway."

"How?"

Underneath her, Shannon squirmed and flexed her muscles, stirred her arms and legs, rocked gently from side to side, apparently testing the limits of her motions, the tightness of the bonds. From the sounds she made, the efforts hurt her and tired her.

When she finished, Laura felt the firmness go out of Shannon body. She seemed to go limp, but her chest expanded and contracted quickly as she panted for air, raising and lowering Laura.

After a while, her breathing slowed down and she said, "Too tight. They've... got us good."

"There has to be a way out," Laura said.

"You tell me and we'll both know."

"How do they get out of this stuff in those mysteries you're always reading?"

"Sometimes," Shannon said, "they don't."

"Sure they do."

"This kind of shit... happens to minor characters. The ones who get found dead."

"Oh, great."

"And then the main guy, he gets all pissed off 'cause maybe he knew one of them... met her in a bar or something... and she was a swell kid."

Laura let out a laugh, and felt Shannon laugh once underneath her.

"At least we'll make lovely corpses," Shannon said.

"Speak for yourself," Laura said. "They pounded me pretty good."

"Yeah. Me, too."

"Did they?"

"Yeah."

"I was so out of it," Laura muttered. "I hardly knew what was going on after a while."

"Just as well."

"We're probably neither of us so lovely right now."

"If I can't be a lovely corpse," Shannon said, "I'm not gonna be one at all."

"Attagirl."

Shannon chuckled, then groaned. Then she said, "I read a book once, they left this guy tied to an armchair. He was the main guy. What he did, he hopped around and threw himself backwards down some stairs and smashed the chair to smithereens. No trouble getting loose after that. I read that chair-breaking thing in a couple of books, now that I think about it. Must be a good idea."

"So... I'm the chair?"

"It's a thought," Shannon said.

"No stairs."

"Must be a lot of marble and granite around here."

"Terrific. I've got an idea - let's have a plan that doesn't involved smashing one of us to smithereens."

"Okay. Good. Have you got a knife on you?"

"Let me check my pockets."

Laura expected at least a small, mocking laugh, but didn't get one.

"I'll see if I can reach any knots," Shannon said. "Stay loose."

Laura's arms, spread out wide, were drawn in toward her body on top of Shannon's moving arms. When her hands met the sides of her legs, she felt thick ropes underneath her fingers - the ropes binding her thighs to Shannon's, probably.

Ropes, but no knots.

She also felt Shannon's hands searching around down there. "Any knots?" she asked.

"No. Not here. Where're all the damn knots?"

"Mostly up here. On me." Laura had noticed several knots before, but now she turned her head from side to side and looked for them. "They're on the sides of my arms, up near the top." Raising her head, she looked down her moonlit body. Beyond her breasts and ribcage, her belly and hips were elevated high enough by her own and Shannon's buttocks to let her see the rope at her waist. "I've got a knot right about at my belly button. Can't see my legs." She tried to raise herself a little higher, but the shoulder ropes anchored her to Shannon.

Shannon arched her back. Rising slightly, Laura glimpsed the ropes around her thighs. Then she lowered her head and Shannon stopped straining upward. "Saw the knots. They're on top. No place I can reach them. I don't think we can reach any of these knots."

"I guess we'll have to try Plan B," Shannon said.

"What's Plan B?"

"I'll think of it pretty soon."

Laura stared straight above her. Leaves were tumbling, falling, sailing sideways, sometimes rising in the strong wind. Through the tangle of high, black branches, she watched shredded rags of clouds blow across the moon.

In different circumstances, she would've been delighted by the sights. So Halloween.

Tonight, they felt like a lousy joke.

I'll probably hate Halloween from now on, she thought.

Yeah, right. What do you mean, from now on?

Something skittered up between her breasts, tickling, pricking, racing toward her face. She gasped and flinched, jerking the ropes, making Shannon grunt with pain. Then the attacker climbed her chin and scooted over her lips, leaped off her nose.

"You okay?" Shannon asked.

"Just a leaf," Laura said.

"Take it easy, okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry. I didn't know what it was at first." Another leaf swooped down. After bumping her left nipple, it flipped over and climbed skyward. "How're you coming with Plan B?"

"I've been thinking about escape artists."

"Yeah? Too bad one of us isn't Houdini."

"You know how some of them do it? Escape artists? They hide keys and saws and things on their bodies. Like in their orifices."

"Orifices, huh?"

"You wouldn't happen to have a knife up your ass?"

"Not at the moment. Sorry."

Shannon's laugh shook Laura.

Laura said, "If I did have a knife up my ass... or any other orifice... we couldn't use it anyway, not tied like this."

"That wouldn't have stopped Houdini," Shannon said.

"Too bad he's not here."

"I think he died on Halloween."

"Oh, well, nice to know we'll be in good company."

"I guess it's time for plan C," Shannon said.

"Do you have a plan C?"

"Not yet."

"Well," said Laura, "maybe I do."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

As Hunter hurried down the rest of the stairs, voices from those on the porch called out, "Trick or treat!" and Eleanor threw open the screen door.

"Wait!" Hunter called.

Eleanor rushed out. She tried to dodge past the larger of the two men - who seemed to be dressed as Sherlock Holmes. Laughing, he sidestepped and intercepted her. He threw his arms around her, pulled her against him and kissed her. She struggled for a moment, then wrapped her arms around him.

Couldn't he tell this was a stranger under the sheet?

Even though Eleanor seemed to be about the same size as Shannon, shouldn't her boyfriend know the difference?

Hard to imagine they kiss the same.