Because I'm on Shannon's and Laura's?

If that's the reason, why'd it kill Shannon's boyfriend?

Because Tony was an asshole?

"If s gotta be old Witherspoon," Bret whispered. Leaning toward the banister, he peered up the stairway.

"It's not old Witherspoon," Mandy said.

"Wanta bet?"

"I'm getting outa here," Charles said. "Kid. You. Bret. Conic here and give me a hand. You too, Mandy. Come here."

Obeying without question - maybe because he was an adult - Bret and Mandy started toward him.

"No, wait," Hunter said. "I'll do it."

"You and me," Mandy said.

"I can help," Bret protested.

"You can open the door," Mandy told him.

"It's already open."

"The screen door."

"Oh. Okay."

Bret hurried toward the screen door while Hunter and Mandy went to Charles. Mandy took a careful step to avoid the puddle of blood from Bryce. Then she crouched beside Charles and took hold of his right upper arm. Hunter gripped his left. Up near Charles's armpit, his shirt felt warm and wet.

While they lifted, Charles shoved at the floor with his good leg and began to rise, his back sliding up the wall. His teeth were clenched. Sweat poured down his face. He made quiet whimpery sounds.

Standing on one leg, he said, "Let go." The moment his arms were free, he spread them wide. He put one across Hunter's shoulders, one across Mandy's. Braced up between them, he said, "Okay, Let's move."

He hopped toward the doorway, but the rough motion must've hurt his broken leg. He shuddered and gasped and seemed to lose strength. They clutched him, pinned him between their bodies, staggered toward the doorway.

They couldn't fit through, three across, so they turned and Hunter went first. When Charles hopped down from the doorway to the porch, he yelled with pain and his good leg seemed to give out.

Mandy gasped, "Whoa!"

We're going down!

Arms across their shoulders, Charles was plunging them toward the porch stairs.

Hut suddenly he grunted and stopped. Clinging to him, Hunter and Mandy stopped just as abruptly.

Hunter jerked his head around.

Behind Charles stood Rhonda, hands clamped on his shoulders, wrenching at him. Everyone seemed to stand still for an instant. Then Rhonda flew backward, dragging Charles free from Hunter and Mandy, falling over the threshold. She grunted as Charles dropped on top of her.

He cried out, "My leg! My leg!"

Mandy, crouching by his hip, grabbed his arm and pulled him.

"Let go!" His head knocked against the door frame. "Ow! Stop it!" Then he swiveled and slid until his back met the porch floor.

Rhonda pulled her legs out from under him, and Bret helped her stand up.

"Are you okay?" Bret asked.

"Yeah."

Mandy said to her, "Thanks. We almost got ourselves obliterated."

"No problem. Are you all right?"

"Fine."

"I'm not," Charles gasped, raising his head off the porch floor.

"We got you out of the house," Hunter told him. "Just like you wanted."

"Probably not just like he wanted," Mandy said.

"Can somebody please call me an ambulance?"

"You're an ambulance," Bret said.

"Oh, kid, you're a fuckin' riot."

"Don't talk to my brother that way."

"Yeah, right. So sorry."

Rhonda gave him a soft kick in the side.

"Hey!"

"You're supposed to be nice to people who've helped you."

"Big help. They fuckin' dropped me."

"I'll go back in and call," Hunter said.

"Not by yourself," Rhonda said. "I'll go with you." Glancing from Bret to Mandy, she added, "You two stay out here with Charles. And don't go wandering off, okay? We'll be right back."

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.

Waiting on the porch, Mandy stared into the woods beside the house. She saw only trees and darkness, heard only the wind. "Dad should've come back a long time ago," she said.

Bret looked up at her, his nose wrinkled.

"He's been gone way too long."

"We oughta go and find him."

"I don't know. He said to wait."

"But what if he needs help?"

"Just take it easy, kids," Charles said from the floor. "The cops'll be here pretty soon. Let them take care of it."

"He's our dad," Bret explained.

"Lot of good you'll do him if you get yourselves killed... People are getting killed tonight, kid. Seriously dead. This isn't a game So just..."

"Mandy!" Rhonda called from inside the house. "Bret! Get in here!"

Bret rushed ahead of her, beat her to the screen door, threw it open. As he ran into the house, Mandy yelled, "Wait!" She flung the screen door out of her way and leaped after him.

"Hey!" Charles yelled. "Don't leave me alone out here!"

"In here," Rhonda called again.

Bret dodged to the left and ran into the living room, Mandy close behind him. A couple of strides into the room, he gasped and suddenly stopped. Mandy veered and lurched to a halt beside him.

In front of them stood two figures wearing gray robes.

Bloody gray robes.

Hunter and Rhonda. Both looking flushed and uneasy.

The dead woman on the floor was now sprawled facedown and missing her robe. She had a long gash down her back, curving from her right shoulder blade to her left buttock.

Turning around, Mandy looked through the entryway at the dead man in the foyer. He now lay on his back. His robe was gone. Glimpsing his genitals, she thought, Oh, my! and quickly turned again toward Hunter and Rhonda.

Hunter held his sword in one hand. Rhonda held the hatchet.

Below the hems of their robes, their legs were bare. They had shoes on, but wore no socks. Their clothes were piled in two different stacks on a nearby sofa. Mandy glimpsed a white bra, underwear...

They stripped naked... in front of each other?... and put on those yucky robes?

All that sticky blood right up against their bare skin?

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I know," Bret said.

"What happened to calling 911?"

"We've got a better idea," Rhonda said.

Hunter nodded. "We'll go in with our hoods up... Rhonda and me... with you two as our prisoners."

"Go to the graveyard?" Mandy asked.

They both nodded.

"Infiltrate them," Hunter explained.

"Cool! "Bret blurted.

Mandy felt squirmy inside.

"They'll think we're Bryce and Simone."

"Maybe for two seconds," Mandy said.

"Maybe that'll be long enough," Rhonda said.

"Or maybe not."

"You don't have to come," Rhonda told her. Not with any reproach, but in a friendly, understanding way. "It might be better if you don't. I mean, I know you're not supposed to go anyplace and I promised to stay here and look after you, but this is my brother. I have to try to save him."

Bret tugged on Mandy's sleeve. "Maybe they've got Dad."

"They might," Rhonda said. "It seems like he should've been back by now. Maybe they took him prisoner, too. And that girl."

"Phyllis," Bret informed her.

"HEY!" Charles yelled. "WHAT'S GOING ON IN THERE?"

"Everything's fine," Hunter called back. "The cops and ambulance are on the way."

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?".

"Nothing. We'll be out in a minute." Lowering his voice, Hunter said, "I didn't really call."

"Didn't think so."