"You're telling me."

"No. I mean we're going... where we were going."

"Huh?"

"You know, to look for the kids. Rhonda's brother... the others."

Rhonda had obviously realized it, too. A few strides ahead of Jeff, she turned her head to the right. Then she veered in that direction, stopped running and gazed toward the corner.

Must be where she lost them, Jeff thought.

Nobody was there now. In fact, except for Phyllis and the sheet woman far ahead, nobody else was anywhere in sight.

Where are all the trick or treaters? Jeff wondered.

Gone.

Almost as if the neighborhood's been evacuated. Nobody left but us.

It's just getting late, that's all.

Jeff stopped beside Rhonda. Mandy stopped, too.

Rhonda cupped her hands to the sides of her mouth and shouted, "GARY! DOUG? ROSIE?"

Bret came up from behind and stood with them. "They're getting away!" he gasped, pointing down the street with his slingshot.

Just as Jeff looked, the sheet woman cut to the left in front of the dead-end barricade, Phyllis close behind her. "Wait!" he called out.

They both glanced his way but kept running.

He muttered, "Shit."

Bret said, "Quick or we'll lose 'em!"

"Everybody just hold your horses." Jeff bent over and put his hands on his knees and panted for air. Sweat streamed down his face, dripped off his nose and chin.

"Dad!" Bret warned.

He straightened up and wiped his face. The sheet woman and Phyllis were gone.

"Hang on. Hang on. I've gotta think. They were supposed to wait, damn it."

"Like Phyllis is gonna listen," Mandy said.

"Rhonda?"

She turned to Jeff, eyebrows lifting.

"Look," he gasped, "why don't you... stick around here and... look for your brother? I'll go ahead and see... what I can do about that." He flapped a hand in the general direction of the dead-end.

"They're getting away!" Bret blurted.

"Take it easy," Mandy told him.

"But..."

"You two." Jeff glanced from Bret to Mandy, saying, "Stay here. Stay with Rhonda. Help her look for..."

"Gary, Doug and Rosie," Bret rattled off.

"Yeah." Including Rhonda in his glances, he said, "I'll go after Phyllis and that woman and... do what I can. But I want you three to stay out of it. Don't come after us. Stay on the street here. Stay where it's well lighted and keep your eyes open. I'll come right back here... as soon as I can." To Rhonda, he said, "Keep an eye on them?"

"I sure will."

"And if anything... I don't know... strange starts to happen... like anyone fishy comes along... get the hell away. Stay away from everyone, okay?"

A grim look on her face, she nodded.

To his kids, "Stay with Rhonda and... do exactly what she says. She's in charge till I get back."

Bret looked pouty.

"You be careful, too," Mandy said, looking worried.

"I will." He took off running. As he raced toward the end of the street, he glanced back. Rhonda and his kids were standing in the street, watching him. Bret waved good-bye with his slingshot. Jeff returned the wave. As he faced front and picked up speed, a sick feeling swept through him.

What if something happens to them?

They'll be fine. I'll be right back.

Yeah, sure, he thought. What the hell am I doing? Going up against three guys? To help this Julie, whoever she is? I don't even know her.

But he would want someone to do this if Mandy ever got into such trouble. Or Sue. Or Bret, for that matter.

At least they're out of it.

I hope.

Running past the end of a driveway, he realized this must be where Rhonda had stopped to tie her shoe. The driveway of the Witherspoon house. Where Bret's pals lived.

They hadn't come to the door.

But the kids had heard sounds from inside And Rhonda'd said the woman had told her something about a boy being chased.

A lot of weird shit going on around here, Jeff thought.

Nearing the barricade, he veered to the left and slowed down. He glanced back. The kids were close together in the well-lighted intersection, walking slowly and looking around.

They'll be fine, he told himself.

He stopped at the end of the barricade. Ahead of him, a footpath sloped upward into an area of bushes and dense woods. A few yards up the path, the glow of the nearest streetlight vanished into darkness.

This must be the way they went, he thought.

Damn it, why didn't they wait?

Stepping over the curb, he wondered if he would even be able to find Phyllis and the sheet woman.

Might be lucky if I can't.

I've got to find Phyllis, he thought. She's my responsibility. I have to get her home safe even if she is an obnoxious snot.

If she'd listened to me...

Bending over slightly to avoid overhanging branches, he started up the path.

He fought against an urge to call out.

Surprise'll be our only advantage.

Won't be much surprise, he thought, with all this noise I'm making.

The path was ankle deep with fallen leaves. They crackled and crunched with every step he took.

A short distance up the path, he halted and listened. The wind sighed and moaned all around him. He was surrounded by the dry hissing sounds of leaves being shaken and rubbed against each other by the wild wind. But he heard no crunching noise of footfalls.

He resumed walking, but slowly. Though he set his feet down gently on the carpet of leaves and twigs, the effort seemed wasted. He might've been trying to sneak through a field of cornflakes.

Maybe it doesn't matter, all this other noise.

If I don't hurry, he thought, I'll never catch-up to Phyllis and that woman.

Did they even go in this direction?

He couldn't be sure.

But the woman had said the men grabbed her and Julie at the dead-end and intended to take them to the graveyard. Jeff knew the graveyard was somewhere in this general direction and not terribly far away. This path probably led to it.

And these thick woods won't last forever, he told himself. The trees'll thin out by the time I get to the graveyard.

He'd wandered through the cemetery a couple of times - though not recently - and remembered it was shady with numerous trees but had plenty of open ground... plenty of graves, tombstones, burial vaults, statues. Not at all like this.

Pausing to rest and listen, he looked all around. In every direction he saw the dim shapes of bushes and tree trunks lit by flecks and dabs of moonlight. He also saw great slabs of blackness.

A bit of the moon showed through the high, blowing, branches. If the Headless Horseman puts in an appearance, he thought, I'm gonna shit.

For a few moments, Jeff consoled himself by considering that the Headless Horseman couldn't possibly come galloping down this particular path; the low branches would rip him off his saddle.

That's one thing I don't need to worry about.

He resumed walking, this time trying to move faster than before, both hands out in front of his face to guard against low branches, Staying on the path wasn't very difficult. Though his eyes gave him no more than vague hints of where it must be, he encountered hushes or a tree trunk or rises in the ground each time he strayed to one of the path's borders.

I oughta just give it up and turn hack, he thought. Get back to my kids. If anything happens to Mandy or Bret while I'm in here looking for Phyllis and these strangers...

My God, I can't go home without Phyllis.

She can't be that far ahead. Just tough it out.

When Jeff finally noticed a dim gray shape ahead of him, he thought it was moonlight. Perhaps he was approaching a break in the woods, maybe an edge of the graveyard.

All right!

As he trudged nearer to it, however, the paleness seemed to possess the general size and form of a person standing motionless on the path in front of him - someone draped in a sheet.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.

Jeff's heart lurched with a heavy, sick thud.

Calm down, he thought. It's just the woman. She stopped to wait for me, after all.

Though the sheet fluttered in the wind, the person underneath it didn't seem to be moving at all.

Jeff intended to walk right up to it, but his legs wouldn't let him. They stopped him several paces short of the sheeted figure.

"Is that you?" Jeff asked.

No answer came.

"Where's Phyllis?"

He heard nothing except the wind and all it was blowing through.

"Phyllis!" he shouted.

No answer.

Frightened but growing angry, he said, "Where is she? Where's Phyllis?"

Nothing.