Midnight Voices

But there was nothing.

Maybe she was safe, at least for a little while.

In the silence and the darkness, she let her mind turn to other things.

Her body.

She tried to feel her body, to move her fingers and toes.

To lift a hand or an arm.

Nothing.

Was her body gone?

Was her mind all that was left, suspended in the silent darkness?

Was this all there would ever be? Would she spend eternity in the darkness, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing?

Panic rose up inside her, and for a moment she was terrified that her mind itself would break, and she would finally fall forever into the nightmare world where the bright light hung over her, blinding her as much as the darkness, but letting her see the shapes of the tormentors that surrounded her, letting her anticipate the terrible pain that seized her as they began prodding and poking at her. She fought against the churning terror that threatened to overwhelm her, and finally managed to force it back into the darkness.

A sound!

The terror came rushing back, threatening to overwhelm her once again. She strained to listen once again, and when the sound — no more than a faint wheezing — crept once more out of the darkness, she braced herself for the light that was certain to follow.

The light, and the nightmare.

The sound grew louder, and now she heard what seemed like laughter.

The light went on; the brilliance slashed at her eyes.

Silhouetted figures drifted around her, black shadows against the light. Then the whispering began, sounds that seemed like words, but were unintelligible to her ears.

The light above her moved, but then she realized it wasn’t the light that was moving — it was she herself.

Then she was out of the brilliance of the light, and moving into the gloom.

The gloom of the nightmare.

Laurie had finally drifted into a sort of half-sleep. She knew she wasn’t quite asleep, but she wasn’t quite awake, either. But not quite awake was at least better than the hours that had gone before, when she’d rolled over and over in her bed, kicked the covers off then pulled them back on, turned the light on to read then turned it back off again, searched for a thermostat to make it cooler then tried to open her window, and finally gone back to bed, certain she was going to lie awake all night in the room that was so big it shouldn’t have been stuffy at all, but in which she was finding it harder and harder just to breathe, let alone fall asleep. The last time she’d looked at the clock — a little travel alarm in a gold-colored case that Tony had given her for the trip to Mustique — it had been eleven-thirty. Since then, time had seemed to creep by so slowly that she was expecting the glow of morning to start seeping in the window before she’d gotten to sleep at all. But finally a kind of lassitude had fallen over her, and when she first heard the faint noises in the darkness, she’d thought she must have been dreaming.

But a moment later, when she heard a distinct sound of laughter, she knew she wasn’t sleeping.

Reaching out, she pressed down on the large button on top of the clock, certain that it must be at least four in the morning. But the black hands silhouetted against the glowing green face told her it was just past midnight.

Was it really possible that time was going this slowly? It had seemed like so long since last time she’d looked at the clock — could it really be only half an hour? Sighing, she let the light in the clock blink off.

Then she heard it again.

Laughter, faint and muffled.

A pang of fear went through her. But what was there to be afraid of? There was nothing scary about laughter. It wasn’t like she’d heard a scream, or a cry, or even something really spooky, like a creaking sound. But even as she tried to rid herself of the fear that had suddenly come over her, she was already remembering the stories she’d heard when she was seven or eight, when she and Amber Blaisdell had stood across the street from The Rockwell, listening as one of the older kids told them about all the terrifying things inside the building.

Tales of ghosts, and monsters, and trolls and witches and ogres. Even then, she’d known they weren’t really true, that ghosts and monsters and trolls and witches and ogres didn’t really exist. “They’re just stories,” her father had explained to her the first time he’d read “Hansel and Gretel” out loud to her. “There are no such things as witches.” But she’d had a nightmare that night anyway, and even though she hadn’t quite believed the stories the older kids told her about The Rockwell, she’d had nightmares about them, too.

And now, tonight, as she lay in the darkness, all the stories came flooding back to her.

But they’re just stories, Laurie told herself. And all I heard was some people outside.

As if to prove to herself that there was nothing to be afraid of, she got out of bed and went to the window, peering down into the street below. There were a few cars cruising up and down the street, mostly taxis with their toplights glowing optimistically though the night was warm enough that what few people were out were happy to be walking. But by the time she got to the window, the laughter had faded away and even though she stood at the window for several more minutes, she heard nothing. Finally she went back to bed.

She lay in the dark, waiting.

Waiting for sleep?

Or waiting for the sound to come again?

Then, just as she was once more drifting off, it happened.

Not quite a laugh this time.

This time a sort of scuffling noise!

And whispered words: “Shh! You’ll wake the dead!” A giggle that was gone almost as quickly as it had come. Then more scuffling noises, and more whispering, but this time so quiet she couldn’t make out the words. But it sounded like it was coming from the other side of the bedroom wall.

She got out of bed and pressed her ear to the plaster.

Louder!

The room next door? Suddenly her heart was pounding. Ryan’s room? Was someone in Ryan’s room? But Ryan’s room was on the other side of the hall, down near the staircase!

More whispering, and this time she was certain she heard footsteps when she pressed her ear against the wall.

The fear she had conquered only moments ago suddenly came flooding back, but once again she refused to give in to it. She went to her door, listened, and when she heard no sound from outside, twisted the key.

The bolt snapped.

Locked!

But now what should she do?

Call for her mother?

Desperately, she tried to remember where her mother’s room was. Downstairs? No — it was on this floor — she was almost certain.

She went back to the wall through which she’d heard the faint sounds of talk, and laughter, and people moving.

Now there was nothing.

She stayed perfectly still, her ear pressed to the wall, doing her best not even to breathe, straining to hear.

Nothing.

But her heart was still pounding, and her stomach was still knotted with fear.

She didn’t know how long she stayed there, listening to the silence beyond the wall, but finally, when her