Halloween Party

  But as much as he tried to make light of it, Terry couldn’t ignore a tiny shiver of foreboding.

  Terry was on his way from the library to his next class when he heard angry voices just outside the delivery entrance to the cafeteria. He was about to go on by when he heard a small scream and the frightened voice of a girl: “Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

  His heart thudding, Terry pulled the door all the way open. Standing on the service porch were Bobby McCorey and Marty Danforth. Between them was Justine, her face pale and her expression frightened.

  “I can’t!” Justine was saying. “Don’t you understand? The party is already set—”

  “Well, you’d better un-set it,” said Bobby, sounding really tough.

  Justine tried to get away, but Marty had hold of her wrist.

  “Like we told you, Justine,” he said. “We don’t take no for an answer.”

  Terry walked up to them without even thinking. “All right, you two,” he said. “Let her go.”

  “Oh, yeah?” said Bobby. “Who says so?”

  “I do,” said Terry. “Come on.”

  “You don’t scare me,” said Bobby. But he did let go of Justine’s wrist.

  “Come on, Bobby,” said Marty. “We can finish this later.”

  “And don’t think we won’t,” added Bobby. He started to go inside, but stopped suddenly and turned to glare at Justine. “You’ve got till tomorrow night to change your mind,” he told her.

  “Forget it,” said Justine. “You’re not coming.”

  “We’ll see about that,” sneered Marty. “And as for you, wimp,” he added, pointing at Terry, “if you don’t stay out of my face, you won’t need a Halloween mask.”

  Swaggering, the two bullies disappeared into the hall.

  Justine stared after them a moment. “Nice guys,” she said.

  “They think they’re bad dudes,” Terry said. “When it comes down to it, they’re probably the two biggest cowards in Shadyside.”

  “Well, I think what you did was really brave,” Justine said, giving him a brilliant and somehow intimate smile. “Thank you.”

  Terry noticed that she had her shiny blond hair pulled back in a braid and was wearing a lime-colored sweater that made her green eyes appear even greener.

  “Hey, listen, don’t worry about those two,” said Terry. Then suddenly he realized what he’d done. He’d stood up to the two meanest guys at Shadyside.

  I could’ve been dead meat! he thought.

  Was I out of my head, or what?

  “You were wonderful,” Justine said. “Some day I’d like to show you just how grateful I am.” She let her smile linger, then went on. “I also want to apologize to you,” she added, her musical voice low and intimate.

  “Apologize?” said Terry, surprised. “For what?”

  Justine looked embarrassed. “I—I understand that my party invitations have caused some trouble. That there’s some sort of contest.”

  “Well, yeah,” said Terry. “But it’s not your fault.”

  “Thank you for saying so,” said Justine. “I never meant the party to cause any bad feelings. All I really want to do is have a few special people over so I can get to know you all better.” For a moment she lightly rested her fingertips on Terry’s arm. He felt a jolt of electricity travel up his arm and then through his body.

  “Well—uh—hey, I mean— We’d, uh—we’d all like to get to know you better too,” he stammered.

  “I mean,” Justine continued, “there’s no need for a contest. I have plenty of excitement planned without it. The whole idea just seems really silly.”

  “That’s what Niki says too,” said Terry. “Niki, my girlfriend,” he added quickly. “In fact, she won’t have anything to do with the contest.”

  “Good for her,” said Justine. “She’s in my gym class, you know. Is it really true she’s deaf? Someone told me she was, but it’s hard to believe.”

  “It’s true,” said Terry. “But most people can’t tell.”

  “I’m so glad she’s coming to the party too,” said Justine. “I don’t have any close girlfriends in Shadyside, and I have a really special feeling about Niki.”

  “I’ll tell her,” said Terry. He left feeling warm inside. This party was really going to be special, he thought. And no one—not even Alex—was going to spoil it for him and Niki.

  Niki was waiting at his locker when school was over. When she saw him walk up, she smiled sheepishly. “Hi, Terry,” she said.

  “Hi, Funny Face.”

  “I’m sorry I got so mad before,” she said.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m sorry too. You were right. I’ve been taking the contest too seriously. I promise from now on to just forget about it and relax.”

  “Good,” said Niki.

  Terry smiled at her. It was good to see her happy again. And he felt more relaxed than he had all week too. “So, which way should we walk home?” he asked. “The long way or the shortcut?”

  “I think the long way would be nice, don’t you?” said Niki, squeezing his hand.

  “You bet,” said Terry. The long way would mean an extra ten minutes of just the two of them alone together.

  Terry stuffed his gear in his day pack. “Here, let me have your books,” he told Niki.

  She handed him her stack of books, but as she did, her geography book fell to the floor and a small scrap of paper fluttered out. Idly she picked it up and glanced at it, then gasped.

  “What is it?” Terry took the paper from her. In crude block letters the note said:

  YOU’LL WISH YOU WERE BLIND TOO.

  chapter

  4

  Ice.

  Ice, Terry thought.

  He felt frozen to the spot, chilled through. He felt as if he’d turned to ice.

  And then he felt hot, hot with anger. “I can’t believe someone would do such a cruel thing!” he said finally.

  Niki didn’t answer. She just stood there, obviously upset.

  “There’s only one person mean enough to do this,” said Terry. “And you know who it is as well as I do.”

  “Don’t start anything, Terry, please,” said Niki.

  “I haven’t started anything, but I’m ready to finish something!” said Terry heatedly. “Alex is behind this. It can only be Alex.”

  “Terry, no, please don’t!” Niki clutched his arm. “It wasn’t Alex. Alex likes me. You’re wrong. You’re not thinking clearly.”

  “Listen, Niki, I know that—”

  “You don’t know who it was. If you say anything to Alex, it will only make things worse!”

  “Yes, but I can’t just—”

  “Please,” Niki repeated. “Let’s just forget it.”

  “Forget it?” Terry was shocked that she could even suggest such a thing.

  “It’s—it’s just a joke,” she said. “It’s mean, and stupid, but that’s all it is. If we pretend it never happened, whoever did it won’t get any satisfaction.”

  Terry could see that she was probably right, but he didn’t like it. “Just not mention it?”

  “Right,” said Niki. “And not act upset.”

  “That’s going to take an Academy Award-winning performance,” said Terry.

  “Please, Terry, for me,” she said.

  He looked down at her and felt himself melting. At times like this he knew that Niki was the most important person in his life, and he would do anything for her. “Okay, Funny Face,” he said. “For you.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Thanks.”

  “In fact,” Terry said, “I have an idea. Let’s walk home by way of Pete’s Pizza. We can practice our Academy Award performances over Cokes.”

  Niki smiled again, a genuine, loving smile. “You’re on,” she said.

  Pete’s Pizza was one of Shadyside’s most popular teen hangouts, and that day it was jammed, both with kids from Shadyside and from the nearby junior college. Terry and Niki were lucky
to find a tiny booth vacant.

  While they waited for their orders, Terry started telling Niki about his biology project. It was so noisy in Pete’s that he could barely hear anything she said, but she picked up everything he was telling her. He had just gotten to the part about how the seed splits into two when Niki interrupted him.

  “Terry, look,” she said, pointing.

  He followed the direction of her finger and saw Justine standing in a phone booth, a serious look on her face.

  “Maybe we ought to ask her to join us,” Terry said. “She told me she wants to get to know you better.”

  “Okay,” said Niki. “We’ll just keep an eye on her and—” She stopped speaking and a strange expression came over her face.

  Terry took her hand. “What’s wrong? Niki, what is it?”

  “Maybe nothing,” said Niki. “But—look at Justine.”

  Terry turned to the phone booth again. Justine was still talking into the phone, with an odd, intense look. It was as if she’d changed into a different person, older, and cruel.

  “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Niki said. “But—I read her lips. And she said, ‘They’ll pay. Every one of them will pay.’ ”

  chapter

  5

  Halloween Night

  The wind picked up, gusting wildly through the old cemetery, shaking the bare tree limbs like the bony fingers of skeletons. Niki squeezed Terry’s hand as they approached the Cameron mansion. They were following Murphy, who was still chuckling over the scare he’d given them.

  Suddenly Niki wheeled around. Two other kids were making their way through the cemetery, their costumes glowing in the pale, silvery October moonlight.

  Everyone had been given directions to come the same way. They all had to park in the cul-de-sac at the end of Fear Street and cut through the cemetery to Justine’s house at the edge of the woods.

  In spite of the scare Murphy had given him and Niki, Terry decided that going through the cemetery had been a great idea. What could be better for putting everyone in a thrills-and-chills Halloween mood?

  Up close, the Cameron mansion looked even spookier than it had from the cemetery. It was surrounded on both sides by barren trees that looked as if they must be hundreds of years old. The ground-floor windows were covered with heavy iron grates, and beside them battered wooden shutters banged in the wind.

  They may be fixing this old house up, thought Terry, but it still resembles something out of a horror movie. Maybe it really is haunted. Just then there was a break in the wind, and he could hear music and shrieks of laughter from inside. It sounded as if the party had already started.

  Murphy was clomping up the front steps to the porch, his zombie costume fluttering around him in the wind. Terry sneaked a quick glance at Niki and squeezed her hand reassuringly. She was dressed as an old-fashioned carnival reveler, in a beautiful red satin ball gown and flowing black cape. She had copied the dress from a book of old party costumes. She was beautiful. Grinning at Terry excitedly, she slid on her shiny black feathered eye mask.

  Quickly Terry pulled on his own mask. His mother had helped him dress up as a greaser from the 1950s. He was wearing black chino pants and old saddle shoes of his father’s that he’d found in the attic. He had rolled a pack of cigarettes in one sleeve of his tight white T-shirt and had a loose dark jacket over it. His hair was slicked back on the sides with Vaseline and teased up in the front. When he had left his house that evening, he’d thought he looked pretty cool, but now he wondered if he just looked silly.

  Like a wimp.

  As if reading his thoughts, Niki reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “You look great, Terry,” she said.

  Terry smiled down at her. “So do you, Funny Face.” He slid up his mask and leaned over to kiss her. She kissed him back, and for a moment they just stood there, holding each other awkwardly because of their costumes, and kissing.

  “Uh, Terry,” Niki said after a moment. “What about the party?”

  “What party?” said Terry. But he pulled away and smiled down at her again. Then, hand in hand, they mounted the steps up to the vine-choked porch. Murphy must have already gone inside, because the porch was empty.

  There was a heavy, ornate door knocker in the shape of a skull in the center of the old wooden door. Terry reached out to pull it when suddenly a huge hairy spider swooped through the air and landed on his arm.

  “No!”

  Niki shrieked and Terry jumped back, his heart pounding.

  “Gotcha again!”

  Terry spun around and saw Murphy standing on the railing on the side of the porch, hidden by some of the vines. Cackling maniacally, Murphy jumped onto the porch. The giant rubber bug was on the end of a long pole and rubberband that he jerked up and down like a yo-yo.

  Murphy laughed. “You two sure scare easy. If all the wimps are as wimpy as you, the jocks’ll win this contest easy.”

  “Very funny, Murph,” said Terry. He took a deep breath and then laughed.

  Adjusting his mask, he raised his hand to knock again. There was a creaking noise, and the door slowly swung open.

  Justine’s living room was an eerie wonder, the ultimate fantasy of the ultimate Halloween dream—or nightmare. Artificial cobwebs hung in every corner, and cutouts of skeletons, witches, and bats dipped and swooped from the ceiling.

  Along a narrow balcony above one side of the living room were colored spotlights that seemed to sweep the room in time to the music, their flickering lights causing everything to move eerily. The only other light came from the huge open fireplace, where a big black kettle was boiling, sending greenish fumes bubbling up.

  All the furniture was from another century, but the music booming from hidden speakers was now. The whole effect was like the world’s most modern haunted castle.

  Even Murphy was impressed. “Wow,” he said, stopping just inside the living room door. “I mean—wow!”

  “Oh, Terry, it’s excellent!” Niki gripped his arm in excitement.

  They stood in the open door a moment as an apparition of beauty—or evil—crossed the room. It took Terry a moment to recognize Justine. She was dressed all in black, in a body-hugging, low-cut satin gown and high spiked sandals. Her thick blond hair was piled high on her head, and she had powdered her face and throat so they were dead white—except for a slash of red on her full lips and the glittering green irises of her eyes.

  “She looks like that dark-haired woman on TV with the horror movies. Elvira,” Terry whispered.

  Justine paused for effect, then smiled warmly. “Welcome to my crypt!” she said. “Almost everyone else is here. We were beginning to think the ghouls got you!”

  “Great costume, Justine,” said Niki.

  “Thanks,” said Justine. “I always wanted to be a vampire.” She said it as if she meant it, then laughed. “Your costume’s pretty cool too. It reminds me of one I saw at the Venice Carnivale.”

  “The what?” said Niki.

  “A big party they hold in Venice once a year,” said Justine. “Everyone dresses up and parties through the streets and canals. That’s Venice, Italy,” she added. “I used to live there with my—my uncle. Which reminds me. Uncle Philip, I’d like you to meet my new friends.”

  A very skinny man stepped out of the shadows beside the fireplace. He was wearing a blue satin clown costume, and his face was covered with greasepaint in a sad clown mask. A single sparkling tear was glued below his right eye.

  “This is Murphy Carter, Niki Meyer, and Terry Ryan,” Justine said.

  “I’m very pleased to meet all of you,” said Philip, studying each one carefully with his sad clown eyes.

  “We’re very pleased to meet you,” said Terry, shaking Philip’s hand. “Your place is terrific.”

  “Yes,” agreed Niki. “This is the most incredible party I’ve ever been to.”

  “Why, thank you,” said Philip. “We had an engineer from Starflight Disco install the lights and sound system. Justine picked ou
t all the tapes and CDs. We—my niece and I—have done all we could to make sure this is a party you will never forget.”

  “Let me take your coats,” said Justine. “Come on in and join the fun. There’s food over there on top of the casket, and soda chilling in that kettle.”

  Justine and her uncle left to talk to the other guests.

  Terry remained by the door, checking out the fantastic decor. A couple of kids were dancing by the fireplace, and a few more were standing and eating and laughing. With all the decorations, the place looked like a movie set.

  Justine and her uncle must have a lot of money, Terry thought. This party cost plenty. I wonder why she wanted to spend so much on just nine people?

  “Pretty weird, huh?” said Niki at his side.

  “Weird? Are you kidding! It’s great!” exclaimed Terry.

  “They’ve spent a lot of money on this party,” Niki went on as if she had been reading his thoughts. “I wonder why she went to all this trouble?”

  “Beats me,” said Terry. “Maybe we’re her favorite charity.”

  “Lucky us,” said Niki. “Still—I’d like to know more about Justine.”

  Terry laughed. Niki was the most naturally curious person he’d ever known. “Hey, Funny Face,” he said. “You can play Nancy Drew later. For now, let’s check out the refreshments.”

  He took her hand and led her to the side of the room. As Justine had said, the refreshment “table” was a shiny black coffin. It was covered with an appetizing array of cheese, bread, crackers, and various dips and hors d’oeuvres, including several Terry had never seen before. A shelf above the coffin held huge bowls of chips and platters of pizza—pepperoni, onion, sausage, and every combination Terry had ever heard of. Below all the food was a huge black cauldron packed with ice and dozens of cans of soda.

  “Look at this!” Terry said. “I’ve never seen so much food at a party.”

  “Me neither,” Niki agreed, “except maybe when my parents have their New Year’s party.” She reached for a cracker covered with something pink. “Yummy!” she said. “I wonder what it is.”