“Cut off all paths but the one out,” Omet said in a low voice. Yali and Sefi stepped into the hall and blocked the way.
The thing half crouched, its arms brushing the floor, and growled softly.
“Careful now,” Modo said. “Keep your eyes on him. He’s nearly ready.”
“For what?” Max whispered.
“To slash. Arms up, and try to look bigger than you are.”
Susan squared her shoulders and raised her head. All the time, she watched the thing as it bobbed there on its matted feet.
Suddenly, Nell gasped, and for a split second, Susan turned her head.
“No!” Omet yelled.
Too late, Susan realized her mistake. She wheeled back, but the creature had launched itself at her. A monster the size of a grown man, it snatched at her as she tried to jump aside, and she fell with a thud. The blow knocked the breath from her, and she struggled, gasping, as the thing lunged. A sharp pain in her shoulder! She cried out and clawed at the creature, half suffocating from the foul stench. Her fingers closed on a stiff bristle of hair, and she yanked backward. She pulled her other arm free of the monster’s weight and shoved at its putrid face, slick with spittle.
The others were on it by then, pounding at it with sticks and yanking at its head. They shouted and the beast screamed, losing its grip on her and scrabbling at her neck, trying to regain it. Gasping for air, Susan squirmed beneath it. Over the din, she heard Max and Nell shouting. Spots swam before her eyes and she thought her ribs would snap when suddenly the beast was off her. She looked up to see Max dragging the thing by its ears. He hauled it backward, and Modo slapped the chain around its neck. He tugged sharply and the creature flailed, falling onto its back. Susan panted and coughed, rolling onto her knees to try to find air.
She gulped, her shoulder on fire, as Nell dropped beside her.
“Susan! Susan! You okay?”
She could only cough and nod and look up in time to see Omet and Modo dragging the thing across the floor as it clawed at the chain around its neck.
Max helped her to her feet.
“It bit you!” he cried.
For another moment, Susan watched as the others dragged the thing to the door. Its feet scraped against the tiles, but every time it gained purchase, Omet and Modo jerked the chain and it fell back, gurgling, until they heaved it into the hall. Susan heard the thud of the outer door. She could finally breathe.
Nell took her arm. With shaking fingers, Max touched the small hole in her shirt.
“It’s not too bad,” she told him. “I’m okay.”
Her brother’s face looked ashen. He didn’t say anything.
“Really, it’s fine. Not too deep.” She tugged at her shirt and saw a vivid bruise forming there. “See? It didn’t even break the skin.”
Max sighed shakily and stepped back. “I dropped the knife. I didn’t even stab it when I should have.”
Susan took another long, welcome breath. “Well, that’s good. Sometimes a wounded animal’s even worse than an angry one, right?”
Nell’s grip tightened on her arm.
“That was no animal,” she said.
“What? What do you mean?”
Nell’s round face looked pasty. She eyed the small hole in Susan’s shirt.
“I saw it. A second before it jumped you. That thing had on pieces of clothes. Whatever it is now, it used to be a man.”
She’s right,” the redheaded girl said. Outside, Susan could hear the slasher howling and pounding the wall. “They’re people, or something like.” She tilted her head at them. “Didn’t you see them back in the workshop? Some say they get made there.”
Susan put a hand to her bruised shoulder and shuddered.
“Sefi, what story are you telling now?”
Omet had returned with the others, who now collected weapons that had been tossed aside when they wrestled the beast away.
“Only asking,” Sefi said. She kicked at a crack in one of the floor tiles. “That’s what I heard, anyway.”
Max ran a hand through his sweaty hair, making it stand on end.
“Is that true?” he asked, sounding a little sick. “Somebody made that thing on purpose?”
Omet only shrugged. She hefted the rusty chain and slung it over her shoulder. Modo collected Susan’s fence post.
“Nobody knows,” Omet said. “That’s one story, but there are others. Sleeper lost to a nightmare, I once heard; only that’s no sleeper I ever saw. Take your best guess which one’s right.”
The slasher gave a final scrape and howl, then subsided. Omet let out a grateful breath. “Off to go after someone else’s supper,” she said. She turned and led them down the corridor, back to the room where Kate and Jean waited, huddled beside the black stove with three of the smaller children. Susan tugged at her shirt, trying to hide the torn part.
Modo took his chain from Omet and threw it into the corner with a loud clank.
“Guess I’m ready to eat now,” he said.
Omet smiled faintly and retrieved the sack. The sweaty, exhausted children promptly sat down on the floor and watched as she emptied it.
“What a haul!” Modo said. “Omet, you’re the best!”
The half smile widened into a grin. Susan took a quick inventory to find out what a haul meant for children of sleepers: a loaf of bread, a slab of cheese, an apple, and two plums of fairly good size.
“Somebody left a door open,” Omet said. “Almost.”
Having eaten at Liyla’s house, Susan steeled herself for what was coming, but to her surprise, Omet broke the cheese and bread into pieces and handed the fruits to Sefi, who produced a small knife from her pocket, carved chunks of apple and plum, and passed them around.
“We don’t wait here,” the girl said when she saw Susan looking. “Too hungry for it.”
Gratefully, Susan accepted her share. If she’d supposed having a bite taken out of her would damp her appetite, she discovered she was wrong. Two days
