uneasy.
It was a look he'd never seen before, an insidious, unwholesomely cunning look that seemed totally out of place on Tony and only served to accentuate the influence Doneen was exerting on him.
A doll lay between the two of them.
'Tony!' Daniel yelled.
The boy gave no indication that he could hear.
'Tony!'
Doneen's eyes flicked up at him for a brief second, but she continued talking to his son in a low, steady, even voice, not pausing, and the boy did not turn or even flinch when he screamed his name again.
'TONY!'
Daniel moved closer, grabbed his son's arm, but though his hand closed around the boy's wrist, he could not move the arm, no matter how hard he tried. He put all of his muscles, all of his weight into it, but it was like trying to lift a mountain, he was not able to pull his son even a fraction of an inch.
'Use your mother's teeth for the mouth next time,'
Doneenwas saying. She pointed to the figure's half finished face. 'Knock them out while she's asleep and use as many of them as you can on the project.'
For the first time since he'd come into the room, Daniel saw hesitancy in his son's face.
'No, Tony!' he yelled, though he knew his son could not hear him. 'Don't listen to her!'
'I don't want to do that,' Tony said.
'That's okay,'Doneen assured him quickly. 'That's all right. Maybe the teeth of someone else. Someone you don't like. Someone at school, maybe.'
'Maybe,' he said, doubtfully.
She patted his hand, reached between his legs, and gave his crotch a small squeeze. 'Just keep on doing what you're doing,' she said. 'It's a fine job.'
'Okay.'
Doneenlooked up at Daniel again. 'You can work on the hands a bit,' she told Tony. 'I'll be back in a minute.'
He nodded mechanically.
Doneenstood, walked over to the desk. Daniel let go of his son's arm and followed her.
She turned to face him. 'I thought I had you killed,'
she said softly, and even though he was already dead, there was something about her tone of voice that frightened him. He could not be threatened with death or physical harm anymore, but in the core of his being he feared her, and he moved back a step.
'What do you think you can do to me? Why are you here?' She stared at him fiercely. 'I eat ghosts like you for breakfast.'
He kept his voice steady. 'You lied. You said you'd leave him alone.'
'Yes. I lied.'
He reached out and slapped her. His hand connected with her cheek, and her head rocked back.
A look of doubt crossed her features, disappearing as quickly as it had come.
He stared at the red imprint of his hand across her cheek, and thought of what his mother had said.
He could bring her back to the House.
He wasn't exactly sure how to do that. He wasn't sure how he had come back here, for one thing. He'd simply thought about being home and . . . here he was. Was that all there was to it? Could he just think about the House and be returned there?
It was worth a try.
Doneen was scowling at him, and Daniel realized that he might have only one chance.
He'd better make it count.
'I'll kill--' she began.
And he lunged forward.
He grabbed her, tackled her. Concentrating hard, he cleared his mind and thought about where he wanted to go.
They were sucked out of the house and out of the world to the Other Side.
Laurie They walked together into the woods, holding hands.
Dawn's fingers and palm felt slimy in hers, greasy, and Laurie wanted to pull away, but she dared not. She wasn't sure exactly where they were going or what they were going to do, but she was smart enough to know that if she kept quiet, kept her mouth shut and her eyes and ears open, she just might learn something.
Around them, the trees and bushes grew thicker. The path on which they'd started walking had narrowed and dwindled until it was now less a clearly defined trail than a section of forest that was not quite as overgrown as the rest. They'd stopped talking several minutes before, and the only sounds were the crunching of their shoes on themulchy ground and the far-off calls of increasingly bizarre-sounding birds.
Laurie didn't like the woods. She kept thinking she saw movement in the bushes to the sides, shadows amid the ferns, figures that ducked behind tree trunks whenever she turned in their direction. It was unsettling being here, and she was sorry she'd come.
To her left, there was a face formed from the tangle of branches. She did not know if it was really there or if it was a trick of the leaf-filtered sunlight, but the small random shadows on the bare intertwined twigs highlighted a cruel, pointed-nosed face.
She glanced over at Dawn.
Who smiled.
They continued deeper into the woods, and her apprehension increased.
'We're almost there,' Dawn said.
'Where?'
'You'll see.'
Laurie stopped. 'I don't want to see,' she said. 'I
want to go back. The fun's over.'
Dawn's smile took on a strange secretive quality. 'The fun hasn't even started yet.'
'I'm out of here.' Laurie turned, started back the way they'd come, but she immediately slipped on one of the slimy leaves, fell, and before she could get up, Dawn was crouching above her, squatting down. Laurie saw a pink- slittedvagina beneath the dirty tattered slip.
Screaming, she rolled away, jumped to her feet.
Dawn tapped the pull tab on her finger. 'I'm your husband,' she said.
What the hell was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to get out of here? Laurie glanced quickly around, saw only thick brush and unfamiliar forest.
Above, the sun was blocked by layers of tree leaves and branches.
'It's time to do your wifely duty.' The girl lifted the hem of her tattered garment, revealing the split-V of her crotch. 'Get on your knees,' she said. 'And lick it. Lick it clean.'
Laurie took off.
She wasn't going to learn anything here, she wasn't going to find out anything that would help her. She was going to end up dead, and she ran as fast as she could away from the girl, through a copse of overgrown man zanita, the red branches scraping the skin of her arms, the small thin leaves slapping against her face. She turned, ran parallel to the path on which they'd come, but nothing looked familiar to her, and when she adjusted her course, running at an angle to intercept the path, she found nothing.
She stopped, breathing heavily, drenched with sweat from the humid air, and looked wildly about. Her sense of direction was completely screwed up, and she did not know which way was the House. Her heart leaped in her chest as she saw the figure of a man in a derby in her peripheral vision, but when she whirled to face the figure, she saw that it was only a skinny sapling with a bushy and irregularly shaped top. From somewhere behind her, Dawn called out her name in an amused, playful voice.
'Laurie!'
