"Do you know where?" Mandy asked.

His eyes turned to her again. "The graveyard." His eyes strayed to Rhonda.

Of course, Mandy thought. Why would he look at me when he can be looking at Rhonda? She's only like the most popular girl at Beaumont High and I'm nothing but an eighth-grader. Not to mention she's beautiful and stacked and here I stand holding, this dumb bag of Halloween candy like some kind of kid.

Mandy suddenly felt guilty for having such thoughts at a time when her dad and Phyllis and a lot of other people were missing and someone might even end up dead.

Anyway, she thought, Hunter's too old for me. He's got to be at least three years older, so even if we wanted to see each other, Mom and Dad wouldn't allow it in a million years.

Did Dad get abducted, too?

That wouldn't make a lot of sense, not if they're after kids. With her mind wandering, she'd missed most of Hunter's explanation about where the ceremony would be taking place.

But if I tell him, she thought, he'll know I wasn't paying attention. He might think I'm an idiot.

"To the rescue!" Bret blurted.

Rhonda glanced at him. "Not so fast. I'm in charge here. I'm supposed to take care of you, and your father said we shouldn't go anywhere."

"But we can't let 'em kill everybody!"

"We have plenty of time," Rhonda said. She slid a sleeve of her sweater up her forearm and checked her wristwatch. A nice forearm - lightly tanned, free of blemishes - a little too furry in Mandy's opinion-but Hunter looked as if he might want to lick it. "Not even nine yet."

"They might start early," Bret warned.

"I doubt it," Hunter told him. "If it's supposed to be at midnight, that's probably when they'll do it."

"Maybe or maybe not."

Before Hunter had a chance to respond, Mandy stepped in. "Rituals have to be done a certain way." Hunter was watching her, nodding in agreement. "Step by step. Or they don't work. That's why they call them rituals."

"So?" Bret asked.

"So they won't start early."

"But they might."

"Anyway," Hunter said, "I don't want to wait any longer. I was just about to leave. Nobody..."

From inside the house, someone called, "You were just about to get me out of here!"

Hunter turned his head and called back, "Just a second." To Rhonda, he said, "That's Charles."

"Get me outa here!"

"Why can't he come out himself?" Rhonda asked.

"He's a little wrecked up."

"I've got a broken leg!"

"I'd better bring him out," Hunter said. "I'll be right back. Can you wait here?"

Rhonda nodded.

Hunter opened the screen door and stepped into the house.

As the door began to swing shut, Bret lurched forward, grabbed it and threw it wide. He rushed in, yelling, "LAURA? SHANNON?"

"Get back here!" Mandy demanded. She swept his treat bag aside with her foot, dropped her own bag near his, leaped over the threshold and reached out for him.

Behind her, Rhonda gasped, "Hey! You shouldn't..."

In the foyer, Bret skidded to a stop. Mandy almost collided with him, but veered aside just in time.

Hunter whirled around and spread his arms. A pained look on his face, he shook his head and muttered, "No, you weren't supposed to..."

"Welcome to the funhouse." The grown-up man who said it was sitting on the floor of the entryway, back against a wall, legs out in front of him. Like Hunter, he was bloody and looked as if he'd just finished a battle. Though he wore a shirt, it was torn open. One of his legs was crooked.

The other man, curled on the floor near the foot of the stairs, wore a gray robe like a monk in a horror movie and he was bloody all over and Mandy knew right away that he was dead. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew.

But maybe it really is a funhouse and its all a fake to scare trick or treaters...

Behind her, Rhonda let out a yell. Not a scream like in the movies, but a loud, quick, "YAHHH!"

"He's one of the bad guys!" Hunter blurted.

"Another in the living room," said Charles, seeming pleased with himself.

Mandy turned, sidestepped past Rhonda, and looked into the living room. A woman was sprawled on her back. She wore a gray robe like the man in the foyer, but it was wide open and she seemed to have nothing else on except a leather belt and a pair of sneakers.

Mandy walked toward her.

"She's one of them, too," Hunter called. "One of the kidnappers."

Her long, dark hair was fanned out around her head. Her eyes were wide open, but had an odd, flat look. Her gray face was colored here and there by small swipes of blood.

All over her front, her bare skin was smeared with blood. Mandy saw no wounds, just blood. Crimson smudges. Streaks made by fingers. Imprints made by hands. On her throat, her breasts, her belly and groin and thighs.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.

From where he stood in the foyer, Hunter heard Mandy gagging Bret and Rhonda turned their heads toward the living room, but didn't go to investigate.

"You all right?" Hunter called.

She answered by gagging some more.

"You shouldn't look at that," he called.

"Too late," said Charles.

"If you hadn't told her..."

"You should've gotten me out of this house when I told you to."

To Rhonda and Bret, Hunter said, "You weren't supposed to come in and see all this."

They both stood there, dull-eyed, jaws drooping, looking stunned and disoriented.

"I know it looks awful," he said. "I had to do it, though. See that knife there?" Hunter pointed at it. "That guy came after me with it. He would've killed me. And the other one, that's her hatchet." He pointed toward the hatchet embedded in the wall. "She was gonna kill Charles. Then she threw it at me. I had to... do this."

Rhonda looked at him. She took a deep breath, blinked and muttered, "It's so... horrible."

"I know," Hunter said. "I know it is. I wish it hadn't happened. But these are the two who kidnapped Shannon and Laura."

Bret seemed to come alive. "They are?"

"Yeah. There were three of them. One chased me upstairs and these two... they took Shannon and Laura away. They must've... I don't know, delivered them to where the ceremony's supposed to be... then come back. Maybe to look for Eleanor... I don't know."

Mandy walked slowly out of the living room, rubbing her chin with the back of a hand. She looked pale, shaky. The front of her poodle skirt was stained by some bloody fingerprints.

"Are you okay?" Hunter asked.

"She's so... bloody." Mandy raised her own bloody hands. "I slipped and..." She shook her head.

"I'm sorry."

"What happened to her?"

"She... she wouldn't stay down. I got her with my sword, but... she got up again and fought me. I finally... I had to strangle her." He lifted his hands, looked at them. "It was awful."

He saw Mandy staring at his hands, too.

"I washed up," he explained. "I had her blood all... all over me."

Bret tugged on the sleeve of Rhonda's golden cheerleader sweater. "We'd better go to the rescue now."

She still seemed to be in a daze.

"Rhonda!" Bret tugged again, harder this time, jerking the sweater again and again, stretching its neck hole down over Rhonda's shoulder.

Hunter saw her bare shoulder, the white strap of her bra.

"Stop pulling on her," Mandy said.

He let go. Turning to Mandy, he asked, "We've gotta go to the graveyard."

"I don't know," she said. "Dad wanted us to..." Her voice trailed off. Looking Hunter in the eyes, she said, "Maybe we should call the police."

"Yeah, I know. I was gonna do that... I was just on my way to the phone when these two showed up." He nodded toward Bryce. "All hell broke loose." Smiling in a way he knew must look slightly mad, he reached behind his back, slipped his hand under the pirate sash and pulled Shannon's pistol out of the waistband of his jeans.

Mandy's eyes widened.

"It's okay," Hunter said. "Well, not that okay. Look. Shannon put a trigger lock on it. These two lunatics come in here with knives and hatchets and shit and what've I got... a SAFE pistol!" He realized he was shouting. In a quiet voice, he continued, "So all I could do was use my sword. That's all I had. My sword and my hands." He shook his head. Trying to smile, he held the pistol out "Anybody happen to know the combination?"

Rhonda didn't seem to be paying any attention.

Bret shrugged. Mandy shook her head.

"It did me a real lot of good."

"I bet Shannon knows the combination," Bret said. "We should take it to her and she can unlock it and then we can shoot all the bad guys."

"It's worth a try," Hunter said. Reaching behind his back, he shoved the pistol under his sash and down the waistband of his jeans.

"Hey," Charles said. "Remember the cops? I believe the young lady suggested calling them? How about a couple of you giving me a hand outside and somebody calls 911? Then I can go to an emergency room and Beaumont's finest can hustle out to the graveyard and save the night. How does that sound to everyone? Sound good to me. How about it? Me, I'm not too interested in staying in this house one more fucking minute! I don't like it in here."

"Take it easy," Hunter told him.

"Oh, yeah?" He looked up at Mandy, at Bret. "You don't know this, children, but my best friend is upstairs dead as shit.... strangled by a coat hanger wielded by a fucking spook!"

Mandy wrinkled her nose. "Huh?"

"This is your lucky Halloween, kiddies. Not only have you wandered into a charnal house but a haunted house. Two thrills in one! And the spook upstairs likes to kill people and he might be coming down for you. So I suggest we haul ass outa this dump."

Mandy looked at Hunter.

Hunter nodded. "Whatever's upstairs... it did kill his friend, Tony. Tried to kill Eleanor, too. I got there in time for her."

"Witherspoon," Bret whispered, awe in his voice.

"No such thing as ghosts," Mandy said.

"I don't know," said Hunter. "But something's up there. It's invisible and it killed Tony. Whatever it is, though, it hasn't hurt me yet."

Maybe it's on my side, Hunter thought.

So far, both attacks had taken place against people who'd posed threats to him.

But why would the thing be on my side? he wondered.