She opened the VIP door and went in. Curious, Kellen followed her. They were walking down a corridor Kellen hadn’t seen before.
“Do you know why trapeze artists are able to perform such death-defying tricks?” Lilith asked him.
“No.”
“They practice with a safety net. People are more willing to take risks if they have something to fall back on.” She stopped and faced him. “So I’m curious, Kellen. Are you Beth’s safety net?”
Her words cut into him. He didn’t want to be anyone’s safety net. He didn’t want to be someone’s Plan B in case Plan A didn’t work out.
But he realized he’d been acting that way. And that was going to stop. Now.
“No.” He shook his head.
“Then I think you’re ready,” Lilith said.
“Ready for what?”
She looked past him, and he turned to see a brightly lit sign. MAGIC THEATER.
“What’s so magic about it?” he asked.
“It’s where you will see what truly feeds your soul,” she said. “Once you’ve seen that, you’re under my spell.”
He grinned. “I think I already am under your spell.”
She stepped back and pulled open the curtain. “Enter.”
Kellen looked around the small theater as they walked in. He followed Lilith to the center aisle between the rows of folding chairs. Mist crawled up around his legs. Lilith glanced from him to the stage, so he looked there, too.
“Now watch,” she ordered.
Lightning flashed. A window seemed to open in front of him. Loud rock music—the kind played in movies when a superhero does something amazing—blasted into the theater.
The scene before him was a city street. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Fires burned in gutted vehicles. The windows of nearby buildings were dark.
One person stood straight and tall in the middle of the destruction. Kellen! He was dressed in what looked like leather armor. He gazed over the fires, searching for the one who needed him to be her hero.
“There you are,” Lilith said, but her voice was distant and unearthly.
What he saw in front of him was real. As real as a dream come true. He was a warrior. A hero. The one who could be depended on to save the day.
“That’s me!” he exclaimed.
And there was Beth, walking toward him, in an outfit made of the same black leather. Hers was decorated with lace. Not frilly lace, but netting that was somehow both powerful and beautiful. Her hair was done in a style he’d never seen her wear. Pulled back and teased up with a trio of braids draped over her ears. The rest hung wild and free down her back.
She looked straight ahead. She looked at nothing but him.
Just him.
A black car sped toward them through the piles of trash and burning cars. Hunter’s car.
In the scene, he and Beth turned as one to face the newcomer. Her face showed her fear. His own was determined and ready for battle.
Hunter got out of the car. He was dressed in black leather, too, but his suit was dusty and worn. He didn’t look like a hero. His face was dirty, and his lip curled in a sneer. “Hey!” he called. “She’s mine!”
Kellen smiled and shook his head. What a loser!
“You dare challenge me?” Hunter threw his hands out wide, inviting Kellen to throw the first punch.
Kellen stood his ground. “Bring it,” he said, with a dangerous undertone of his own.
In the theater, Kellen grinned. Now that was the way a hero answered a bully.
Hunter ran toward him, and Kellen raced to meet him. They were like two bulls about to lock horns. Only one would be left standing. The one that would win Beth.
Kellen didn’t slow down for the burning vehicle in front of him. He leaped, somersaulting over the top of it. Landing on his feet lightly, he turned to face his foe.
Hunter swung. Kellen leaned back, letting Hunter spin off balance when his fist didn’t connect. Kellen struck out with both a left and a right. He hit Hunter and drove him back a step.
Then Hunter hit him in the chin. Once, twice.
Kellen reeled backward. He couldn’t let Hunter win. Beth deserved better than Hunter. She deserved a real hero.
Like Kellen.
Fortified by that thought, Kellen jumped into the fray. Hunter got him with a strong kick that drove him into an old wooden door leaning against a burning car. Kellen hit it hard and dropped to the ground.
He was down, but he wasn’t out. Heroes don’t quit.
He rushed Hunter. He avoided his foe’s punches and rammed his shoulder into Hunter’s gut. As his enemy folded, Kellen leaped onto his back, wrapping his arms around Hunter’s waist and shoulders. He kicked up into a flip. Hunter was dragged along with him. He slammed Hunter onto a wooden pallet. It cracked, and Hunter didn’t move for a long minute.
Pushing himself to his feet, Hunter stared at Kellen. The arrogance in his eyes was gone. In its place were uncertainty and fear.
Hunter lurched away, reeling from his defeat.
Beth smiled at Kellen—her hero! She stepped forward, her expression filled with admiration. She took his hand.
Together, they walked away, leaving Hunter behind.
Kellen opened the door of Hunter’s car for Beth, and she stepped into the passenger seat. He got behind the wheel, and he and Beth drove away.
Kellen had won the girl, the car, and the day!
Lightning flashed, blinding Kellen. The light flickered silver in his eyes as the scene vanished.
He blinked, unable to remember the past few minutes. Pain ground through him, and he groaned.
“What just happened?” he whispered. “Where am I?”
Lilith smiled, but it wasn’t one of her mysterious smiles. It was cold and merciless … and hungry. “You’re in my father’s power now.”
Her father? What was she talking about?
His hand began to itch. He looked at it. The stamp of Dr. Hysteria seemed to speak. “Mine,” it intoned. “Now … you … are … mine!”
Lilith gave a laugh that sounded just like Dr. Hysteria’s.
“He’s your father?” Kellen asked in horror and disbelief. “No! That can’t be true.” He winced as sharp pain shot through him again. It came from the stamp, and spread into every inch of him. “You tricked me.”
He gave a gasp of agony and clutched his wrist. Dr. Hysteria’s stamp faded as his hand began to change. His fingers grew long and became claws. His nails stretched into talons. He was turning into some kind of creature. A monster!
“Beth was right!” He gasped.
“Oh, hush, dear heart,” cooed Lilith. “There’s nothing you can do now.”
“I’ve got to get out of here!” He ran from the theater.
Lilith didn’t bother to chase him. She just smiled.
This one had been fun.
KELLEN ESCAPED THE THEATER, BUT stumbled along the twisting hallways outside. He couldn’t go any farther. He was bent nearly in half with pain.
He was a fool! Why hadn’t he listened to Beth? She’d warned him about Lilith.
Every thought disappeared as his body contorted and rearranged itself. He sank to the floor, putting his hands—no, his claws!—over his face.
Agony seared him. He threw back his head to cry out.
He roared. Like a beast.
Pulling his claws from his face, he could feel the transformation becoming complete. His nose had turned into a snout, and his teeth were fangs. He was no longer human. He was a beast. A horrible, ghoulish beast.
He dropped to his knees, weakened by the process of transformation. He couldn’t even get back to his feet. Every bit of his strength had been sucked up by Lilith’s evil magic. He bowed his head in surrender.
Footsteps came toward him. He saw two figures moving in the shadows at the end of the hall. They stepped into the dim light. He stared at them in disbelief.
He knew them. It was Luke and Nicole.
But they weren’t t
he Luke and Nicole who’d first come to the Hall of Horrors with him. Luke wore the frightening makeup and costume of a fiendish clown. Pretty Nicole was a hideous hag with a black cloak that flapped over her shoulders like raven’s wings.
They marched toward him in a silence that was terrifying. He should run. He should get out while he still could.
But he couldn’t move. He was too exhausted.
He wasn’t anyone’s hero. He couldn’t even save himself.
Luke and Nicole stopped on either side of Kellen.
From behind him, Kellen heard Dr. Hysteria’s voice. “It does my heart good to see three good friends together.”
Lilith came to stand beside her father as Luke and Nicole helped Kellen to his feet. He couldn’t even stand on his own. His limbs were as limp as noodles.
“Now, get him into costume,” Dr. Hysteria ordered. “We still have a show to do.”
The hag and the clown dragged the beast that had been Kellen past the demon and his daughter.
Lilith looked them over. “There’s still one missing.”
Dr. Hysteria chuckled. “Not for long.”
WHEN THE DOORBELL RANG, BETH was in no hurry to open it. She expected more trick-or-treaters.
But when she did, there were no princesses or superheroes screaming “trick or treat.” There was only Hunter.
She practically dragged him in. Maybe he would listen to her. He was her last hope.
She told him about the fake cabinet … and about the sheriff. When she was finished, she could tell that he didn’t believe her, either. But she gave it one more try. “Hunter, I saw Nicole. I’m telling you, she turned into a real, live …” She gulped, finding it hard to say the word. “I saw her turn into a real witch.”
“Wow, Beth.” He looked stunned. “I mean … are you sure Nicole wasn’t wearing Halloween makeup or something?”
“I was sure. But now I don’t even trust myself. Maybe some of this is in my imagination.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Hunter said. “We have to go back to the Hall of Horrors.”
“But you don’t believe me,” she said.
“Like I said before, I’m here for you,” Hunter said firmly. “Let’s go.”
She nodded, but the thought of going back to that terrifying place filled her with dread. She had told herself she would never go back there again.
But there was no choice. She had to help her friends, and she had to find Andrea Payton …
But she also had to stay alive.
The Hall of Horrors was open. A crowd milled around, waiting in a long line to get in to see the show.
Lilith stood in front of the entrance, doing her usual speech: “Do not feed the zombies. Beware of the ghouls. Do not look the witches in the eye.” She tilted her head as Beth and Hunter walked by. She shot them a snooty smile. “Do not feed the zombies. Beware of the ghouls. Do not look the witches in the eye.”
As they walked closer, the chained zombie lunged at Beth. She pulled back, but didn’t laugh as she had before. Nothing was funny about the Hall of Horrors now.
“You okay?” Hunter said, putting his arm around her shoulder.
She didn’t answer as they got in line to begin the tour. Ahead of them, a ghoul was taking tickets and stamping hands. When a vampire jumped up from behind a gravestone, a couple of kids screamed and ran away. Beth wondered if it was the same vampire who had hunted her in the back rooms of the show.
“The first thing I have to do is find my friends,” Beth said. She had to yell to be heard over the screams and the laughter.
“And if they’re okay?”
“Then I guess I’ll have to admit that it’s all in my mind.”
They joined a crowd going through the Hall of Horrors. The kids jostled one another, screamed at the characters, and laughed when someone else jumped in terror. They were having such a good time that they didn’t notice that neither Beth nor Hunter spoke or reacted to any of the creatures.
Beth halted when the ghoul in a dirty karate gi stepped forward. He lifted the velvet rope and blocked their way to the left.
The ghoul stared at her. She remembered seeing him in the Cabinet of Souls, but did he remember her? Was he trying to give her a message? Or was it all in her imagination? She couldn’t guess.
The ghoul didn’t move or speak. She looked back at Hunter. He shrugged. It was her choice to go to the right, even if he pointed to the left.
She took Hunter’s hand and steered him to the hall on the right. She couldn’t stop now. The Cabinet of Souls—the real one—was hidden in there somewhere.
Beth and Hunter went through a door and into another corridor. Thick fog clung to the floor, moving only when they waded through it. They came around a corner and into a hall that looked unfinished. Plywood covered one wall, instead of the brocade wallpaper in the other hallways. There was a skeleton outside the door. He looked totally fake. Even his glowing eyes looked phony.
Nobody else was in sight.
“Maybe we took a wrong turn?” Beth said.
“I don’t know.” He pointed to another hallway on the left. “Let’s try down there.”
Beth nodded and led the way around the corner. This one was more brightly lit, but still dim enough that shadows crawled out from the walls in every direction. Then she he saw a marquee with Dr. Hysteria’s face and the words MAGIC THEATER.
Hunter stepped past her and pushed the curtain in the doorway aside. He peeked in. Then motioned for her to step inside.
She walked through the door, hoping to find something that might lead them to her friends.
She was running out of time. It was getting late. It was probably past ten o’clock by now.
One thing Beth knew for sure: If she didn’t find her friends before midnight, she would never see them again.
BETH AND HUNTER WALKED DOWN the center aisle of the small theater. She looked at the stage and frowned. What sort of shows did they do here?
As if in answer, lightning flashed in front of them. The theater filled with fog. When it cleared, Beth was looking at herself standing on the side of a great chasm. She was dressed like a princess in a fairy tale. A narrow wooden bridge spanned the chasm. Her side of the chasm was draped in gray shadows.
The other side of the chasm was filled with sunlight and color—a perfect paradise. Then Hunter emerged from the trees. He wore a brown leather outfit, like something Robin Hood would wear. His long, dark brown coat dropped to the top of his boots. He was more handsome than ever. A true prince, ready to win her heart.
Hunter held out his hand from his side of the bridge. “Come over to this side, Beth. It’s beautiful here!”
Beth was ready to leave her grim forest with its leafless trees. She wanted to meet her prince in the sunshine.
“Join me!” he urged, his dark eyes holding her gaze.
She held out her hand. “I will.”
But before she could move, her friends burst out from among the trees. Nicole. Luke. Kellen! They were dressed in fairy-tale clothes, like her, but they sounded the way they had before they came to the Hall of Horrors. She could tell they were terrified.
“You can’t go over there,” Luke said, grasping her arm.
“You can’t leave us,” Nicole cried out.
Kellen took her other arm. “We need you.”
“You’re free without them,” Hunter said from the other side of the bridge. “This is where you belong. It’s who you really are.”
No! The real Beth knew something was horribly wrong. She looked at Hunter. “No, that’s not who I am.”
She tried to look at her friends, but the vision wouldn’t let her look away from her mirror self. The Beth in her vision raised her skirts and walked to the bridge.
“This isn’t right,” the real Beth told Hunter.
Fairy-tale Beth stepped onto the shadowy side of the bridge. She took one step, and then another. She was moving to Hunter’s side … moving into the sunlight and color.
Moving where the real Beth didn’t want her to go.
The Beth in the vision stopped and looked back. Her friends were reaching out to her in desperation. They were afraid for her as well as for themselves. The choice she made would affect them all.
Her gaze lingered longest on Kellen’s face. Her friend, the one she always had been able to depend on … She realized how special he was to her.
Kellen had never steered her wrong.
Fairy-tale Beth looked out at the real Beth standing in the theater. The choice belonged to her.
“Your friends are holding you back,” the real Hunter said. He moved closer to her.
Beth pulled away. “Your fairy tale is beautiful,” she said. “But I would never betray my friends like that.” She turned her back on the vision. It didn’t seem beautiful anymore. It was as creepy as everything else in the Hall of Horrors. “I’m going to get out of here.”
She walked out of the theater. Hunter grabbed her arm.
“Beth.” He pointed at the curtain, a strange, angry look on his face. “We should go back in there.”
“No! What’s going on in there is obviously some kind of sorcery. It’s wrong.”
“It’s showing us what we could be. The two of us. Together.”
Beth stared at him for a long minute as the facts she’d ignored began to come together in her mind.
She asked him a simple question: “Who are you?”
“DON’T BE STUPID, BETH,” HUNTER said, that odd expression still on his face. He was talking to her as if she were a child.
“Showing loyalty to my friends is not stupidity, Hunter,” Beth replied coldly.
“How about your loyalty to me?” he snarled.
“I don’t owe you any loyalty.”
His eyes looked wild. Beth suddenly had the feeling that he wanted to grab her by the throat.
Before he could speak, Lilith stepped out of the shadows to stand by his side. “What’s wrong, brother? Isn’t she cooperating?”
“Brother?” Beth was shocked. She had never imagined anything like this.
Hunter ignored Beth and spoke only to Lilith. “No, she’s not cooperating. She’s being a stubborn little fool.”