The House That Death Built (20 page)

Aaron felt strangely vulnerable.
Not just because he was stuck on a table directly over a laser net designed to
catch them all in a deadly trap. Part of it was just seeing something tumble
out of the closet, heading straight for Kayla. A smaller repeat of the
helplessness he had suffered while watching Dee waste away.

He glimpsed another form, still
standing in the closet. Something moving behind her.

A door. A hidden door sliding
shut. How many places like that are there? They could come from anywhere, could
attack us from anywhere.

He thought it was Happyface
rushing out of the closet, Sadface still inside the dark space. But that was
only the fear of an overwrought mind. It wasn't their tormentors, it was… a
kid. A teen, maybe someone in his early twenties. He was dressed in pants, no shirt.

The kid stood for a moment in the
doorway of the closet. Rob said, "Who are you?" Aaron looked at Rob
when he said it, and saw his eyes widen an instant later. Something strange in
his eyes. Something that looked like… recognition?

He knows him? Knows the kid?

The kid looked back at him with
no recognition whatever in his eyes. "Who are
you
?" he
answered. Whatever relationship that might exist between Rob and the kid looked
like a strictly one-way affair.

What do Sadface and Happyface
mean by this?

That this was something planned
by the two he had no doubt. Nothing in this night had happened by chance. He
just had to figure out what it all meant, and hope that would give him a better
chance of getting back to Dee.

The form in the closet stepped
out. It was the girl from the room – the daughter. She was still dressed in her
tank top and boxers, her dark hair disheveled and black circles under haunted
eyes. There was a bright red circle around her neck where the noose had cut
into her skin.

"You," said Rob. He
rushed at her, knife flashing in his hands. "What's going on, what's
–"

"Hey!" The kid managed
to get between Rob and the Crawford girl, but only for a moment. Rob tossed him
away, slamming him against the back wall.

"Wait!" Aaron saw it
unfolding with mounting horror; knew this was part of it, too. The kid and the
girl had appeared for a reason, and no doubt Rob's response was playing into
it.

No matter what we do, we're doing
what they want us to.

The thought brought hopelessness.
He tried to push it away. Partially succeeded.

He almost jumped off the air
hockey table, which would have put him in the center of the lasers, probably
breaking one of them and starting the countdown.

"Wait!" he shouted
again.

Kayla grabbed the kid with her
good hand as he tried to go to the teenage girl's aid. Even one-handed she was
a fury, raging against the boy, slamming his face, his ears, his neck with her
good hand.

"Don't you move! Don't you
move!" she screamed, spittle flying visibly from her mouth, spattering the
kid.

Rob had his knife pressed against
the Crawford girl's throat. "Who are you? What's going on here?" She
didn't answer, shock the only thing in her gaze. "
WHO ARE YOU?
"

The girl's eyes focused. Just a
bit, enough to look at Rob, though she still seemed to be gazing partly through
him. "I can't believe they really did it," she breathed.

"Did what? Did what?"

He pressed on her throat with the
knife, and now more red joined the angry welt on her neck. Blood welled around
the point of his knife. Not deadly, but another quarter-inch of pressure could
sever major blood vessels, and that would be the end.

The pain didn't seem to bother
the girl. She didn't even seem to notice it. "My parents. They did it."
Her eyes flitted around the room like she was afraid the walls would close in.

Maybe they will
.

"
DID WHAT?
"
screamed Rob.

Kayla had been struggling with the
kid the whole time. He would take a step toward the girl, Kayla would drive him
back with a series of terror-infused punches and body blocks. But when Rob screamed
that last, she looked away from the boy. Just for a moment, her eyes flitting
toward Rob.

It was enough. The kid's muscles
visibly hardened as he brought all his strength to bear and slammed a hard fist
into the side of her head.

Kayla reeled back in pain, her
eyes spinning wildly in their sockets as the hit dazed her. She took a few mad,
stumbling steps backward…

… "NO!" Aaron screamed…

… and right into the space where
the laser tripwires spun their deadly web.

Lights flashed on each of the
walls.

2:00….

Rob saw it. He wheeled away from
the girl for a moment, kicking the kid's legs out from under him, then
unloading a vicious kick to the kid's stomach that curled him into a fetal
position, coughing and retching. The actions spoke eloquently of Rob's fear.

He spun back to the girl. His
knife went back to her throat so quickly it was as though it had never left.

"How do we get out of here?"

The girl shook her head, her gaze
again lost somewhere far away. "Follow… follow the maps. Get to the door.
The front door. Front door. Front door…."

She kept repeating "Front
door," her mind lost in a mad litany, a prayer and a hope and a denial
wrapped in one.

Rob, disgusted, looked at Aaron. "What's
the map say?"

Aaron crawled the rest of the way
–

(
Why bother? It's not like I
can trip the countdown again.
)

– across the air hockey table and
grabbed the card before hopping off.

1:50….

Just as with the others, there
was a piece of photo inside. Just as with the others, it was a wash of reds and
grays impossible to understand. The back had a "7" on it.

The card also had another
message.

there is always madness in love
TWHA

Beneath the photo, another map.
An outline of the room with a green spot on one side. It corresponded to a door
beside the couch. A door that would lead to –

"The bathroom!" Aaron
shouted.

The door was closed. He wondered
how hard it would be to get through.

"Come on!" he shouted.
Rob and Kayla moved quickly toward the door. The kid and the Crawford girl just
stared at them, not sure what was going on. Then the kid grabbed the girl.
Dragged her toward the hall door.

Aaron knew what would happen. Not
the details, only that touching that door would involve pain. Death.

"No!" he shouted, and
at the same moment the Crawford girl reared back and screamed, "Don't
touch it!" but the kid was already reaching for the door.

He touched the knob.

There was a crackle. The potent
whiff of ozone.

And the kid began to dance.

His teeth slammed together so
hard that blood flowed around his lips, which locked in a terrifying grimace.

The girl moved to help him….

(
and all the while the
countdown keeps going, keeps getting lower, the numbers point to our death
)

… reached out.

Any electrocution powerful enough
to lock someone's entire body into a single clenched muscle would be enough to
kill it in seconds.

And would be enough to catch
anyone who touched the kid in its embrace.

"No!" Aaron screamed at
the girl. Her hand stopped only an inch from the kid. "Don't touch him!"

The girl looked from her
boyfriend to Aaron. "He's dying! Help him!"

Aaron flew at the kid, looking
desperately for anything he might use to knock the kid away from the knob that
had his fingers locked around it.

His eyes settled on the air
hockey table. The paddles. He put the paddles against him, jamming them against
his chest so they would be between him and the teen, then ran at the kid like
he was a hockey player going for a full-body check.

Hope this works.

He hit the teen with everything
he had. There was another crackle as the teen flew to the side, knocked loose.
Aaron almost pitched headfirst into the same knob that had trapped the kid. He
leaned wildly to the side. Bounced off the door. Landing in a heap beside the
kid.

The kid was rocking back and
forth, his good hand going first to the wrist of his bad hand, clenching it as
though he might be able to cut off the flow of pain from his hand to his brain;
then clutching at his side where Aaron had hit him as though unsure which pain
was worse.

Aaron looked at the countdown.

1:00….

He got to his knees, reaching out
to help the kid rise with him. The kid screamed in pain, doubled over –

"Leave him!" Rob
shouted. "Get over here and help us!"

Aaron, for the first time in his
life, completely ignored Rob. He helped the kid over to the bathroom door, the
Crawford girl close behind.

Once he got to where Rob and
Kayla were standing, he helped the kid slide to the floor again. The Crawford
girl knelt beside him, cradling his head in her arms.

Rob and Kayla were shoving madly
at the door. Straining at it, slamming into it. Nothing worked.

"How do we get out of here?"
he asked the girl.

She looked dully at Rob and Kayla
as they pushed, pushed, to no avail.

She shook her head. "I don't
know."

Aaron searched her face. Believed
her.

She's as much a victim of this as
we are.

He went to Kayla and Rob. Helped
them slam into the door, over and over.

In the middle of the third hit –

(
0:32….

0:31….
)

– a voice floated into the room.
It was deep. Clearly male, but mechanized somehow.

Happyface.

"Try pulling," said the
voice.

They all turned to the sound. And
saw him.

Happyface looked in through a
window that had appeared in the face of the doorway that led to the hall. It
hadn't been there a second ago, Aaron was sure of it.

Hidden passages, hidden traps.
Why not hidden windows?

Happyface waved at them. Then
spoke again, that altered voice grating against the pain centers in Aaron's
mind. "I could just let the time run out and watch you all die, but… there's
still so much fun to be had." He waited a moment as they all watched him,
stunned. "I'd move quickly," he finally said.

Still no one moved for a moment. "Why
are you doing this?" Kayla said.

"You only have a few seconds
left."

0:09….

Rob pulled at the door with a
terrified scream. Clearly not sure whether to be more afraid of what was coming
behind, or what waited for them ahead.

The door opened easily at his
pull –

(
aren't we just a bunch of
geniuses?
)

– then Rob rushed through the
door. First one out. Again.

Everyone else piled through on
his heels. Even the kid and the girl – the kid's eyes shining with pain, the
girl mumbling disbelieving words to herself – followed.

They were barely through, into
the bathroom beyond the wall, when Aaron heard a high-pitched whistle, followed
by the
whoosh
of gas igniting. He pulled the door shut behind them.

The unmistakable sound of flame
could be heard through the door. The crackle of an entire room being
incinerated.

Everyone was still huddled
against the door, as though afraid to take a single step further into the room.
They all looked at one another.

Aaron's gaze moved to the door
that led to the hall. Knowing it had to be a trap.