Oughta just let her go.

But she is my responsibility, Mandy's right about that. I knew it without being told, but Mandy likes to remind people.

God I hate Phyllis!

But she's making me do what I wanted to do... wanted to help... just can't let the kids get hurt. Gotta keep them out of it.

Doing a wonderful job of it so far, Jeffery!

Rhonda, waiting just short of the corner, began to run again as Jeff neared her. A few strides behind her, he raced around the corner. Phyllis and the sheet woman were well in the lead, now running side by side.

"Rhonda," Jeff gasped.

"Yeah?"

"Stay with us." He glanced back. Mandy was running along just behind him and to his left, her treat bag swinging by her side, her poodle skirt flapping around her legs, her saddle shoes smacking the pavement. Bret was a little farther back. He now clutched his slingshot in one hand, his bag of Halloween candy in the other.

Both bags gave off dry papery sounds as the collected treats bounced and shook inside them.

"Whatever happens," Jeff said, "do exactly what I tell you. Understand?"

"You bet!" Bret called out, cheer in his voice.

"Whatever you say," said Mandy, sounding slightly peeved by the command.

"No ifs, ands, or buts. And no hesitation."

"Right, Dad."

He turned his head forward again. "Rhonda, same goes for you. I know you're not my kid, but I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'll do whatever you say, Jeff."

"Good deal."

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

"Gotta stop," Shannon gasped.

Laura grunted.

Can't stop with her on the bottom, Shannon thought. Squash her good.

But she didn't want to be on the bottom, either, so she ended her roll halfway up, lying on her side. "Okay?"

"Okay."

She huffed for air. Her heart pounded fast and hard. Sweat streamed down her body. Laura felt so slippery against her back and buttocks, it was as if someone had poured warm oil between them. She never would've guessed that rolling across the ground could be so tiring.

Well, she thought, I'm doing most of the work for both of us.

And I'm not exactly in the best condition.

Didn't help, getting trounced. Didn't help, getting...

Don 't think about it.

But she couldn't help thinking about it. In the midst of panting for air, she let a whimper slip out.

"Shan?"

"Huh?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah. No."

"Me either."

"Nobody's ever... done that to me."

"You mean... what he did?"

"Yeah. Or her."

"Me either. Not what she did. These three guys got me once. Kids. They were like sixteen."

"What about you?"

"Fourteen."

"God."

"It wasn't like this," Laura said. "It wasn't this bad. It was bad, but they didn't... they didn't hurt me... not much, anyhow. They just... screwed me, you know? No funny stuff."

"Funny ha-ha?" Shannon muttered.

"These two were... like deranged."

"You don't approve of... their alternative lifestyle?"

"Not much," Laura said.

"Sick fucks."

"I wonder why they went away."

"I don't know," Shannon said. "Glad they did, though."

"I hope they did."

"Huh?"

"Maybe they haven't... really left. Maybe they're watching us. You know, hanging around... somewhere out of sight... enjoying the show."

"Wonderful," Shannon muttered.

"Not that it matters."

"Not that it matters?"

"We've gotta do... what we're doing. Whether they're watching or not. So it's... like irrelevant."

"Won't feel irrelevant if they come over and stomp our asses."

"How we doing?"

Stretched out on her right side, Shannon was facing the direction from which they'd come. Though they'd been forced to alter their course a few times to avoid obstacles such as trees, bushes and grave markers, she still had a clear line of sight to the marble bench near their starting point. The bench was pale under a splash of moonlight. Beyond it, the Kneeling Girl statue was a dim gray shape in the dark.

"We aren't where we were," she said.

"How far?"

"Forty, fifty feet?"

"Not bad."

"How far to go?"

"Hard to tell," Laura said. "Real dark this way. I'd say... another thirty feet?"

Shannon moaned. That far?

"To the creek?" she asked.

"To the edge of the slope."

"After that, all downhill."

"Only trouble is, we've got... a big old headstone in the way. Maybe six feet from here. We'll have to..."

Off in the distance, shapes moved among the shadows far to the right of the bench. Shannon's stomach went cold and tight.

"Shhhh!"

"What?" Laura whispered.

"Someone's coming."

"Oh, God."

They both went silent.

The shapes came out of the shadows, walked into moonlight, and Shannon saw they were people. Four of them wore dark, flowing garments. The robes Hunter had talked about? If so, these were probably members of the group. He'd said there were a dozen or more of them.

Those who'd attacked Shannon and Laura didn't seem to be among them.

Might be. Maybe they put robes on after they left us.

She doubted it, though.

This must be four of their pals.

One walked at each end, and one on each side, of a line of smaller people.

The smaller people walked single-file with their heads down. They didn't wear robes. They seemed to be in different kinds of costumes. A clown? One seemed to be sporting a cowboy hat. Another wore a cape that fluttered in the wind. One looked white from head to toe and seemed to be some sort of monster.

In all, Shannon counted seven smaller people.

Are they kids? she wondered. They must be. Some were larger than others, but all were smaller than their robed escorts. And all of them appeared to be wearing costumes.

She whispered, "Oh, man."

"What?" Laura asked, her voice so quiet Shannon could barely hear it through the sounds the wind made.

"They've got kids."

"Huh?"

"Looks like... this cult or whatever... they've snatched a bunch of trick or treaters."

"Oh, my God."

"Must be seven kids over there. They're all in a line, maybe tied together."

The group came to a stop in the area between the marble bench and the Kneeling Girl.

Shannon heard a rough male voice. Though she couldn't make out the words and her view was partially blocked, she saw kids get down on their knees.

It made her think of grainy, black and white film... documentaries in which a man walks up behind each kneeling person and puts a Luger to the back of the head and fires and the person tumbles forward into a pit.