Dark Moon (Nightmare Hall) (6 page)

“Ready or not, here I co-ome!”
The gleeful shout came from somewhere behind her, over her right shoulder. But it was muffled, as if from a distance, and even in her panic, Eve knew she was still alone in her glass-lined alley. But close … the voice was close. Too close.

As was the sound of shattering glass when, to her horror, it began again. Behind her. On her right. One explosion after another. Chasing her, following her, tormenting her.

She couldn’t stay ahead of it. It was happening too fast,
wham!
one panel after another,
wham!, the
glass exploding like windows in a tornado,
wham!,
so close now that a small, airborne sliver of glass caught her behind the right ear, impaling the lobe.

Eve cried out in pain again, and then her cries changed to shouts for help as she stumbled forward. Her hands fumbled along the mirrored walls, searching for a way out. Stumbling, searching, she shouted, “Help! Help me!” knowing that no one would hear her over the noise of the carnival some distance away. How could anyone hear her cries over the screaming, the shouting, the laughter, the loud music?

Why had Garth left her?

Wham!
Right behind her.

She
had
to find a way out of this terrible place.

Running, stumbling, her breath coming in uneven gasps, she struggled to think clearly. Something … there must be something …

She thrust one hand into her shoulder bag while her other hand continued to probe the glass walls for an exit. Ripping a lipstick out of the depths of her purse, she yanked the top from the cylinder, freeing the greasy, deep-pink stick.

Wham!

Eve ran faster. She whirled around a corner, darted down the corridor, sped around another corner, all the while searching for a door with one hand while the other hand left a vivid slash of pink lipstick on each panel of glass as she dashed past it. She was leaving her mark, determined not to keep retracing her steps.

Wham!

The lipstick broke, as she had been afraid it would. Her hand dove back into the purse and emerged a second later with a fat, black marker. She had used it earlier to make carnival signs to post along the highway. With the marker in hand, she was careful not to miss a single panel of glass. She left behind her a thick, very visible line of black.

“Eve-ie, where are you?”
the voice singsonged cheerfully. It sounded like it was further away now.
“I’m having a hard time keeping up with you! My, you are fast on your feet, aren’t you? Well, I think I can fix that. Permanently.”

Wham!

The explosive sound of shattering glass behind her was too far away this time to do her any harm. Maybe her tormentor was moving in the wrong direction.

Trying to push the terrifying presence out of her mind, Eve concentrated instead on finding a way out. She already knew that all of the glass-strewn passageways provided no exit, so she turned immediately away at the first sight of shards on the floor. And the pink or black trail she’d left behind saved her from entering any dead-end corridors she’d already traveled.

This tiresome process led her, after what seemed like long, anxious years, to the exit.

She was breathing hard, almost sobbing, by the time she stumbled to the door and threw it open. She fell out onto the porch and stood there, clutching the wooden railing and gulping in huge mouthfuls of cool, night air.

Darkness had fallen while she was inside. It surrounded her, broken only by lightning streaking the sky and the bright yellow bulbs on the Ferris wheel towering overhead in the distance. The music and laughter and screams of the carnival filled her with a sudden, white-hot rage. How dare so many people be having a good time when she had just been tortured and nearly killed in the Mirror Maze?

But they don’t
know
that, Eve, the voice of reason told her. No one knows. Only you and … whoever.

“Whoever” could still be on her trail.

Eve pulled herself upright, took two more deep, cleansing breaths, and staggered down the steps toward the music and laughter.

The bored girl in the booth was gone. A CLOSED sign hung on the window. The entire area was deserted.

Eve had never felt so alone. No wonder no one had heard her shouts. There wasn’t anyone there to hear them.

Afraid to take the time to wrap anything around her bleeding ankle, she hurried, in an awkward stumbling run, toward the Ferris wheel, repeatedly glancing over her shoulder for some sign of her tormentor.

She never even noticed that her hair had slipped free of its barrette and was swinging, loose and disheveled, on her shoulders.

She wasn’t aware of the missing barrette until Andie, standing at a taco booth near the Ferris wheel, turned and saw Eve approaching. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes widened. Forgetting the requested taco, she ran to Eve’s side.

“What on earth …? Where have you been? What’s wrong with you?” Her words spilled out of her mouth rapid-fire. “Hey, what happened to your hair? Wow, Eve, it’s really pretty. You should wear it like that all the time. It makes you look so … so … well, different.”

Renewed fury welled up inside Eve. How could Andie stand there talking about her
hair!
Couldn’t she see that something was very, very wrong?

But when Eve tried to explain, the feeling of disorientation came over her again, and all she could do was shake her head. Now that she was out of that terrible place, now that she was out in the open with music and laughter all around her, with people in a hurry to have fun brushing past her, with the smells of hot dogs and tacos and cotton candy in the air, it didn’t seem possible that any of it had actually happened.

Eve looked down. Yes, there it was. Her ankle was still bleeding. And it still hurt. She touched the back of her ear and her fingers were quickly stained with blood. Proof positive that all of it had actually taken place.

Andie’s eyes followed Eve’s. “Oh, yuck! What’d you do? That’s gross! Did you trip or something?”

Eve reached for the napkins Andie was holding. She bent to wrap them around her ankle, saying as she did so, “Have you seen Garth? He was with me in the Mirror Maze, and then he wasn’t.”

“Garth? That new guy? No, I haven’t seen him. Is that why you took your barrette out, Eve?” Andie added coyly. “For him?”

“I didn’t
take
my barrette out,” Eve snapped, standing up. “It fell out. You haven’t seen him?”

Andie shook her head. “Haven’t seen anyone: Serena’s riding The Twister, Don and Beth and the others from the committee are making the rounds, checking things out, and Alfred was so pissed at you for being with Garth that he said, in this really disgusted voice, ‘Well, I can see that
I’m
not needed around here,’ and stomped off. Looked a little like one of those wooden soldiers in a Christmas pageant.” She sighed. “He
is
cute, though.” Then, “God, Eve, you really look terrible. You didn’t go on one of those scary rides, did you? The Devil’s Elbow?”

“No, Andie, I didn’t go on a ride. Listen,” Eve said wearily, “we need to get the committee together. Emergency meeting. The Mirror Maze is permanently out of commission and I need to tell everyone.”

Andie shrugged. “It wasn’t any good, anyway. Boring. And they made it too hard to get out. Who wants to hang around for hours in a gloomy old place like that?”

“Not me,” Eve said grimly. Then, as they began walking, she added, “You were in the Mirror Maze?”

“Yeah, a while ago. Hated it.”

“Did you see anyone else?”

“Sure. Three or four other fools, wasting their money like me. They hated it, too, although Alfred made me mad because he found his way out right away, while the rest of us were still stumbling around like idiots. He was waiting for us when we finally came out, and he looked
so
smug. I wanted to smack him.” Andie turned to glance at Eve. “Why? I mean, are you asking me if I saw someone special? Like who?”

“I don’t know.” Just then, Don and Beth and the other committee members arrived, saying heartily that everything seemed to be running smoothly.

“Well, not really,” Eve disagreed, and suggested that they all go to one of the food tents to hear what she had to say.

“You really should do something about that ankle,” Andie said. “Those napkins look disgusting.”

Blood from the wound had soaked through, making a sticky mess. “I will,” Eve promised, “as soon as I fill everyone in on what’s happened.”

They were halfway to the tent when she spotted Garth, talking to Serena and Alfred at the archery booth. The second Garth saw her, he was at her side. His eyes quickly took in the hair, the awkward, clearly painful walk, then the bloody napkin swathing her ankle.

“What happened?” he asked. “Where did you go?”

“Where did
I
go?” Eve looked up at him defiantly, suddenly very, very angry with him for deserting her. “
I
didn’t go anywhere! You were the one who left.” She was aware of people watching them with interest, but she didn’t care. “Without a word.”

“You left first!” Garth protested over the loud music and shrieks from the rides. “You went so fast, you got ahead of me and turned a corner. Out of sight, just like that. Before I could catch up to you, you called back ‘I’m out of here.’ By the time I turned the corner, you were gone. How come you didn’t wait for me?”

“I never told you I was leaving,” Eve argued. “How could I? I couldn’t find the way out. And if I
had
found the way out, I wouldn’t have left. I’d have waited for you.”

The color in Garth’s cheeks deepened. “I
did
hear you say you were leaving,” he insisted. “And when I finally found my own way out, you weren’t anywhere around, and no one had seen you.”

“Sure,” Eve said brusquely. “Listen, forget it. No big deal!” She was too tired to deal with this now, and besides, she couldn’t stand the satisfied smirk on Alfred’s face as he watched them argue. “Right now, I’ve got to tell everyone what happened in the maze. You’re not a member of the committee,” she added stiffly, “but if you want to come along, I can’t stop you.”

“Oh, I’m coming, all right,” Garth said emphatically. “We’re not finished with this. And I want to know what happened to you in there. You look … pretty bad.”

Was Garth telling the truth about what had happened in the maze? Eve wondered.

Or had he suggested going in the maze just so he could terrorize her?

E
VE HAD JUST FINISHED
telling her story to the committee and Garth when the blonde girl from the Mirror Maze ticket booth burst into the food tent and shouted, “There she is! That’s her!” She was pointing directly at Eve, who was standing at the head of a table, the committee members seated in a semicircle in front of her.

Heads swiveled toward the front of the tent.

There were two campus police officers behind the girl. The three marched straight toward Eve. “What did you use?” the girl demanded when she was facing Eve. “A hammer? An axe handle? I’ve never seen such a mess!” Turning toward one of the policemen, she ordered, “Arrest her! She and that guy,” pointing toward Garth, “were the last ones who went into the maze. I figured they’d left, so I closed the booth and went to get something to eat. When I came back and looked inside, there it was, half the mirrors shattered and glass all over the place.
She
did it!”

“I did not!” Eve said heatedly, conscious of heads on the opposite side of the huge tent turning toward them in curiosity. “I don’t know who it was. I didn’t see anyone. Look,” pointing toward her napkin-wrapped ankle, “I got cut. And there’s another cut on my ear. Would I do that to myself?”

The girl sniffed in disdain. “Probably happened while you were going crazy smashing all those mirrors.”

Alfred jumped to his feet. “This is stupid,” he said. “Eve wouldn’t wreck anything at the carnival. She’s in charge of this committee. Nobody wants this thing to be a success more than Eve does. If she says it was someone else, it was someone else.”

Eve glanced at him uncertainly. She was grateful for the support, but she had wanted it to come from Garth, and he wasn’t saying a word. Neither was anyone else on the committee. Serena looked blank and Andie looked confused. After a moment, Garth got up and left the tent.

Watching him go, Eve wondered if she would ever see him again. But if he wasn’t going to stand up for her, she didn’t really care. She turned her attention to the girl from the booth.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve accusing me,” she said. “Anyone could have gone into that maze when you left. That’s why,” she added pointedly, “you aren’t
supposed
to leave unless you get someone to take your place. Didn’t anyone explain that to you?”

“I was hungry.” The girl turned her back on Eve and said to the police officer on her left, “Well? Aren’t you going to arrest her? Or is vandalism suddenly no longer a crime?”

“Look, miss,” he said politely, “it’s already been established that you were absent from the booth for a period of time. Like your friend here says,” waving a hand in Eve’s direction, “anyone could have gone into that maze while you were gone. We’ve got no proof that she was the one who did it.”

“Are you
sure
you didn’t see anyone else?” Eve pressed. Not because she was anxious to clear herself. It didn’t look like the police officers were going to arrest her. But she was anxious to find out who had been in that maze with her. To find out who that soft, sinister voice belonged to.

“Oh, cut the act!” the girl said with scorn. “You know you did it, and I know you did it. But since I can’t prove it …” Shaking her head in disgust and anger, she turned and stomped away.

“So,” Alfred said, coming over to stand beside Eve, “what kind of damage are we talking here? Shouldn’t we all go take a look? See if the maze can be salvaged?”

“It can’t,” Eve said firmly. “It would be too expensive, and we’re not making that much money on it, anyway. But,” addressing the police officers, “whoever that was in the maze was after
me.
He called me by name.” Remembering the terrifying chase through the maze, the
whams
racing along behind her, she shuddered. “He came in there to find
me.
”