The Traveling Vampire Show

Hurrying at the last moment, she entered her bedroom ahead of me and flicked the light switch. We stood motionless. Only our heads turned.

“Looks fine,” Slim whispered.

“Yeah.”

She turned toward me.

Nobody’s home and we’re in her bedroom....

“I’ve made a decision,” she said.

Oh, God.

I was almost too nervous to ask, but I managed to say, “What?”

“I’m going after all,” she said.

“Huh?”

“To the Traveling Vampire Show. If you guys are going to it, so am I.”

“But I thought...”

“Yeah, well ... things have changed. If I don’t go with you, where am I supposed to stay that’s safe? They’ve been here—somebody has been, anyway.”

I almost confessed, but stopped myself. Rusty and I had been in her house, all right, and we’d broken the vase and perfume bottle in her mother’s room. But we hadn’t chewed her book or taken the yellow roses.

“And they’ve been to your place,” Slim continued. “Your parents are at the hospital. My mom’s away for the night. I’m sure as heck not going to stay here by myself. Or at your place. I wouldn’t stay at Rusty‘s, since I happen to not be able to stand his parents.” She shrugged. “Maybe at Lee’s, but...”

“Not there,” I said. “Julian has her address on the check she gave him.”

“As if he needs addresses,” Slim said.

“But why are they doing this?” I asked. “If it is them? I just don’t get it.”

“To scare us, I guess. So we won’t talk.”

“About the dog?”

“I don’t know. They might be afraid the cops’ll come if I tell. Maybe they’ve got a lot to hide. I mean, you know?”

“If they’re so afraid we’ll tell on them, why don’t they ...” Not wanting to say it, I shrugged.

“Take us prisoners?” Slim suggested. “Or kill us?”

“Something like that,” I admitted.

“I don’t know,” Slim said. “But that’d be awfully drastic. If they’re trying not to draw attention to themselves, killing some kids doesn’t seem like a brilliant way to go about it.”

I almost smiled. “You’re right about that.”

“On the other hand,” she said, “if they’re trying to scare us, why did they give us tickets for tonight’s show?”

“They didn’t give them to us. They sold them.”

“And got their hands on Lee’s address,” Slim said. “But why do they need her address? They didn’t need ours. They just followed us, or something.”

I shrugged. “Maybe in case they hadn’t been able to follow us? That sort of thing doesn’t always work. They might’ve lost us. But if they did, they’d still know where to find Lee.” When I said that, I got a slightly sick feeling inside.

“I wonder if she’s had any visitors,” Slim said.

“Maybe we’d better call her.”

“Yeah. In a minute. I want to change first.”

“Huh?”

“Like you.”

I blushed and raised my eyebrows as if I didn’t know what she was talking about. Which was pretty much true.

“The dark shirt,” she said.

“Oh.”

“It’s a good idea.”

“Thanks.” I hadn’t worn a dark shirt on purpose. After seeing the rose on my pillow, I’d just grabbed it. But I saw no harm in allowing Slim to think I’d chosen a dark shirt for purposes of camouflage.

She walked to her closet, turned on its light and began to search through the clothes hangers.

“I’d better wait in the hall,” I said.

“You don’t have to.” The words were hardly out of her mouth before she pulled off her T-shirt. Her back was