“Tarama salata,” said Angela, who suddenly appeared beside her. She touched Niki’s shoulder and repeated the words so Niki could read her lips. “It’s a Greek dish made out of fish eggs. I asked Justine. She said she learned how to make it when she lived in the Greek islands.”
“It’s good,” said Niki thoughtfully. “Try some, Terry.”
“Fish eggs?” he said. “Thanks, anyway. I’ll stick with pizza!” He stepped back and eyed Angela’s costume appreciatively. She was dressed like a biker girl, all in leather, and had stenciled tattoos on her arms and neck. “Neat costume,” he said.
“Thanks!” said Angela. “You should see some of the others. This is definitely the most excellent party I’ve ever been to.”
While Niki sampled something green with white swirls in it, Terry munched on pizza and surveyed the rest of the party. It was a little hard to see with all the shadows, but he could make out Trisha and David talking in a corner underneath a human skull. David was wearing his basketball uniform, only instead of a basketball he was holding a big, round papier-mâché skull.
Trisha, her round face cheery and excited, was wearing a cheerleader’s outfit from the fifties, with a tight pink sweater and short white skirt over white ankle-length boots. She had a big megaphone in her hand, and would have looked ridiculous, except she was obviously having such a good time.
In front of the fireplace Justine was dancing with Murphy: the vampire and the zombie. They looked gross, but also fascinating, like creatures out of a horror movie.
Terry was just wondering where the last couple of kids were when he heard a strange noise behind him. He turned and gawked, then started laughing. He couldn’t help himself. It was Ricky Schorr, dressed as a frog.
He was wearing bright green long underwear, a pair of swim fins, and had a half mask on top of his head with bulging black eyes. “Ribit,” he said.
“I don’t believe this!” Terry finally said when he could breathe again. “You came as your biology project.”
“You like it?” said Ricky, taking a swig of diet Dr Pepper. “I dyed the underwear myself. My mom got kind of upset, though—she couldn’t get all the color out of her washing machine.”
“I think it’s the real you,” said Angela nastily. “Sort of slimy and nerdy.”
“Oh, yeah?” said Ricky. “That shows all you know. If you kiss me—I’ll turn into a prince.”
“I’ll take my chances with the zombie, thanks,” said Angela. Murphy and Justine had stopped dancing, and Angela walked over and took Murphy’s hand.
“Hey, Funny Face,” said Terry, touching Niki on the arm. “If you can stop eating for a couple of minutes—want to dance?”
A fast, hard rap song was on, and Niki closed her eyes a moment, to better sense the beat of the music, coming through vibrations in the floor. “Sure,” she said. “I’d better stop eating anyway. Terry, this is the most fabulous food! She’s got things here from Greece, Japan, France, Mexico . . . . ”
“Not to mention good old American pizza,” said Terry.
“Don’t be a dweeb,” said Niki. She twirled away from him, then came back. “There’s one thing I can’t figure out,” she said. “I don’t see how Justine could possibly have lived in all those places. I mean, she’s just a senior.”
“Ask her later,” said Terry. Another song started and they kept dancing. He watched Niki proudly. Niki was the prettiest girl there. Justine was too ghoulish, and Angela looked like a tramp, but Niki’s red dress brought out the vibrant color in her cheeks and lips and made her dark eyes glow like coals.
To one side Ricky and Trisha danced, the bilious green frog and the plump cheerleader, both of them having a great time.
This is a cool party, Terry told himself. I still don’t know why we were invited—but I’m glad.
The tape clicked off. While Philip went to change it, there was the sound of heavy knocking at the front door. Justine went to answer it, and everyone turned to see the late arrival.
For a moment there was total silence. Standing in the living room dòorway, framed against the dark hallway, was a figure dressed in shining silver from head to toe.
He struck a pose, like a matador, then strode into the living room. Now Terry could see that it was Alex, dressed in a skin-tight silver body suit and a glittering silver mask. Beneath the silver his muscles rippled as he moved.
What a show-off, Terry thought.
Niki gripped Terry’s hand tighter, and she whispered, “Wow! He looks fantastic!”
Several of the other guests began to whistle and shout.
Even Justine couldn’t take her eyes off Alex. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said at last, “I give you—the Silver Prince!”
Alex came the rest of the way into the living room as if he owned it.
Terry couldn’t resist saying something. Niki’s exclamation of how fantastic Alex looked had set him off. “Hey, Alex,” he called, “what are you supposed to be—the Tin Woodsman? Or is it Tinkerbell?”
Alex laughed. “Admit it, Ryan,” he said. “You could never look this good in a million years.”
Terry was still trying to think of a sarcastic reply when the music started up again, and for a moment Alex danced by himself, the complete center of attention.
Niki tugged at Terry’s arm. “Come on, Terry,” she said. “Let’s dance.” She gave him such a loving look that for a moment Terry forgot to envy Alex’s spectacular costume. Take that, Silver Prince, he thought. Show off all you want, but Niki wants to dance with me.
Even though she couldn’t hear the sounds of the music, Niki was one of the best dancers Terry had ever known. She’d once explained to him how she felt the beat through her body, but he still wasn’t sure how she did it.
All he knew was that he liked it. He felt as if he could dance like that forever, holding Niki close to him, the warmth of her body against his.
The slow song ended, and another started up, just as slow and romantic. Terry brushed Niki’s hair with his lips, inhaling her spicy fragrance.
BAARRROOOOM.
The noise was as loud as a thunderclap.
“What was that?” someone yelled.
Everyone was startled.
The tape switched off.
“Hey—what’s going on?”
In the next instant the room filled with smoke. Then the room filled with frightened cries, confused whispers.
No one was sure if it was a trick of some kind—or a catastrophe.
Terry was about to pull Niki toward the door when Justine stepped into the center of the room.
“Like my surprise?” she asked, her sexy body almost disappearing in the smoke. “It’s what they call a flash pot. My uncle Philip picked it up when he was a stage manager. I wanted to get your attention. Did I succeed?”
A couple of kids cheered and clapped. A few were still too stunned to react.
Justine smiled, then raised an eyebrow. “I promised you lots of surprises,” she said. “And there will be more to come. But for now—who’s up for more dancing?”
The cheers and applause grew even louder. Terry found himself cheering too. It seemed that anything could happen at this party, and he was ready for it.
“Good,” said Justine. “But first I have to tell you a true story. Throughout history people have loved to dance. But in the Middle Ages dancing was sometimes much more than just fun. In fact, some people were said to be taken by evil spirits when they danced. They would dance faster and faster, faster and faster, till they literally danced themselves to death. I don’t know if we have evil spirits here tonight, but anything can happen on Halloween. Is anyone brave enough to try some really fast music?”
“Yeah!”
“Let’s go!”
“Yo!”
The crowd was now ready for anything. If Justine had told them all to jump into a swimming pool with their clothes on, Terry thought, they would have done it.
“We’ll see how fast you can go!” Justine sai
d. She reached behind her and flicked a switch. The candles on the wall went out. At the same time a strobe light came on, and the music came back on, loud and fast, a relentless synthesized rhythm, over electronic-sounding voices repeating “Pump up the jam, pump up the jam,” over and over.
The fire in the fireplace had died down to embers, so the only light came from the strobe. In its rapid flickering everything seemed to move faster and faster.
Terry took Niki’s hands and twirled her. Everyone was laughing, dancing, shouting, and changing partners. In the eerie light it was hard to see who was dancing with whom. Once Terry found himself dancing with Ricky!
It was fun, but it went on and on. Whenever Terry started to slow down, the music went faster.
In the center of the room Alex was twirling like a shiny silver top, and Terry suddenly wondered where Niki was. Just when he spotted her, dancing with David, the lights went out. The tape player died down with a sad groan.
For a moment there was dead silence. Except for the faint glow from the fireplace the room was in total darkness.
“What is this, Justine, another surprise?” asked Murphy’s voice after a moment.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Justine. She sounded a little frightened. “Uncle Philip—”
“I’ll check the fuse box,” Philip’s voice said calmly. “Don’t go away.”
“Don’t worry, everyone,” said Justine, still sounding scared. “We just had a new electric system installed, and the strobe must have overheated it. My uncle will change the fuses, and we’ll—”
At that moment the artificial candles came back on and the tape started up again.
But no one felt like dancing anymore because the light showed a horrifying sight.
In front of the fireplace, half on and half off the rug, lay a limp body.
Blood trickled down its sides from the huge carving knife sticking out of its back.
chapter
6
For a moment nobody moved or spoke. Then several people began screaming at once. Terry’s heart was beating so fast he could hear it. The vast room seemed to spin, then tilt. He grabbed a chair back to steady himself.
It took a while for his head to clear. Sounds came back. He could hear individual voices.
“Oh, no, no!”
“Is it real?”
“Who is it?”
“Somebody—call 911.”
Tightly holding Niki’s hand, Terry began to move toward the body with the other guests. He could see now that it was someone dressed in a skeleton costume. But who?
Everyone seemed reluctant to get any nearer. Finally Alex squatted down. He tentatively reached out to touch the body when suddenly the skeleton jumped up.
“Trick or treat!” the skeleton yelled, and collapsed, laughing uncontrollably, back on the rug.
It was Les Whittle.
There were gasps of surprise.
Then laughter, nervous at first, built until the room nearly shook from it.
“One for the wimp side!” shouted Ricky in triumph.
“Great trick, Les!” Terry clapped him on the shoulder.
“It was good,” agreed Trisha in a shaky voice, “but you had us all scared to death. Why didn’t you tell the rest of the team you were going to do it?”
“Because Justine and I didn’t cook it up till just this morning,” said Les, still laughing. He showed them all the knife. It was just a knife handle. The “blood” was the kind that comes in a tube. “I found these in a joke shop and thought it would be a shame to waste them,” he explained. “It was the easiest thing in the world.”
“Yeah, well, for your information none of us was scared at all,” said Murphy. “That’s just the sort of wimpy trick a wimp would pull.”
Les wasn’t at all perturbed. “Sure, Murph. Tell us another one,” he said, chuckling. He put his hornrimmed glasses on over his skeleton mask. It made him appear incongruous, like a studious corpse. “I’ve been hiding in the kitchen for half an hour,” he said. “Where’s the food? I’m starved!”
Most of the kids, exhausted by dancing and the scare, collapsed on the antique furniture, eating and talking.
“What a dumb trick!” said David, his legs thrown over the arm of an antique rocking chair.
“You’re just jealous ’cause you didn’t think of it,” said Trisha.
“We’ve thought of better tricks,” David said. “Much better. You’ll see what I mean, unless you get some sense and go home now.”
“Never!” said Ricky. “You jocks don’t have a chance!”
“You’re the ones who don’t have a chance,” said Alex. “But I gotta hand it to Les. He made a pretty good corpse.”
Terry didn’t say anything. Niki was sitting, turned away from everyone, eating another plateful of food. He was glad she couldn’t hear the conversation, because it would probably just get her mad again.
“So what do you think, guys?” asked Alex jovially, sitting next to Terry and Niki on the arm of an antique wooden bench. “Think your team can go the distance?”
“We’ve got a better chance than your team,” muttered Terry. “We have some brains on our side.”
Alex laughed. He wanted it to sound like a good-natured laugh, but Terry knew better.
“Great costume, Niki,” Alex said, admiring her appreciatively.
“Thanks,” Niki said. “I made it myself.”
“You always could do anything,” said Alex. “I remember that great dress you made for the freshman dance. You were the best-looking girl there.”
“Well, thanks,” said Niki. Her eyes were sparkling, and Terry forced himself to take a slow, deep breath. He hated himself for feeling jealous, but he couldn’t help it.
After all, Niki was sitting next to him, holding his hand, so why did he feel so jealous of Alex?
Why did he want to punch him in the face?
“Say, Niki,” said Alex teasingly, “don’t you think it’s about time you joined the jock team?”
Niki’s eyes changed. She was no longer flirtatious, but sad now—and a little angry. “Oh, will you two stop it with your idiotic games? I’ve said a hundred times I’m not on either side!”
She abruptly stood up and walked toward the fireplace.
The dance music had started again, and Terry was surprised to see Niki ask Ricky to dance.
“What’s with her?” Alex asked Terry. “I guess she’s been hanging out with you for so long, she’s forgotten how to take a joke.”
“Hey, Beale, you’re the joke,” Terry muttered. “She just doesn’t like the whole contest idea.”
“Hey, man, I thought you were supposed to be such a good talker. You know, debate team and everything. And you mean you couldn’t talk Niki into joining your team? Whoa!”
“Niki makes her own decisions.” Terry stood up. “I don’t own her.”
“Wow. Heavy talk, Ryan. Back off, okay?” Alex leaned away from Terry and put up his hands as if shielding himself. “You and I used to be friends, remember?”
Used to be, Terry thought. Those are the key words.
He realized that Alex was reaching out to him. Alex was deliberately reminding him of what good buddies they had been until very recently.
Alex was staring at him expectantly, but Terry couldn’t respond. He just had a bad feeling about Alex. He couldn’t pretend to want him as a friend again.
Alex’s eyes filled with disappointment. “Later, man,” he said abruptly, and got up quickly from the bench.
Alex walked toward the glowing fireplace with a swagger. The song on the tape ended. Alex stepped up to Niki and Ricky and smoothly took Niki’s hand.
As if he owns it or something, Terry thought, watching with growing discomfort.
Trying not to look as if he were watching, Terry kept sneaking glances at Alex and Niki. They were dancing to a fast number, and Niki was smiling.
Does she have to smile? Terry asked himself. Maybe he should go over and interrupt them.
But that would just make Niki angry, and Terry really didn’t want any kind of confrontation with Alex.
He watched some of the others for a while. Ricky and Trisha were dancing together again. While he watched, Ricky said something that made Trisha laugh so hard she almost fell over.
David was dancing with Angela. He was a pretty good dancer, and Terry realized that he didn’t really know David. He was quieter than the other jocks and didn’t seem to take the competition as seriously as the rest of them did.
The song ended and another began. Niki was still dancing with Alex. Enough is enough, Terry told himself. He started to cross to them when a musical voice stopped him.
“Going somewhere?”
Terry twisted around to see Justine standing behind a loveseat.
“I, uh, thought I’d dance,” said Terry.
“Isn’t that a coincidence?” said Justine. “I was just thinking the same thing. How about dancing with me?” She gave him her warmest smile, and Terry felt the knot in his stomach start to dissolve.
“Well, sure,” he said. “I’d love to.”
“Good,” said Justine. She took his hand and led him over near the fireplace. A slow tune was playing on the tape player. Terry saw Niki whirl past with Alex, the Silver Prince, but she didn’t see him.
Up close Terry became very aware of Justine’s animal warmth and her perfume, a faint musky scent different from anything he had smelled before. She settled even closer, pressing her body tightly against his.
“How are you enjoying the party?” she asked huskily.
“It’s great,” he said sincerely. “I think everyone is really in a party mood now.”
“Good,” said Justine. “It’s very important to me for all of you to enjoy yourselves.”
“Everything’s perfect,” Terry said, talking to distract himself from the way he was feeling. “The food, the music, the lights. You’ve thought of everything. You and your uncle.”
“As a matter of fact, Uncle Philip’s up in the attic now,” she said, “preparing a few extra surprises.”
“How’d you ever dream all this stuff up?” Terry asked.