When it lifted again, she had vanished.
“Joy!” I took a running step and slipped on the rain-slick boards. I fell to my knees and scrambled up, then raced down the boardwalk to where she’d been standing.
Gone. Vanished.
The cold fog closed in again. With a shiver, I hurried to the end of the boardwalk. As I leapt down the steps, I glanced back, half expecting to see Joy behind me.
But I saw only the thick gray curtain of fog.
Shivering again, I started home. But I changed my mind and walked back to the coffee shop.
I should talk to Leslie again, I decided. Tell her everything that’s been going on. She said she cared about me, didn’t she? So give it a try.
But when I reached the restaurant, Leslie had already left. “She took off for some reason,” the other waitress told me. “Just lit out of here like a firecracker. Didn’t tell anyone where she was going.”
Still furious at me, I thought glumly.
Leaving the restaurant, I hurried into the small grocery store next door and stocked up on bread and milk and stuff. A few minutes later, I staggered into my apartment with a sack of groceries in each arm.
“Ian!” I called out. “You back yet?”
No answer.
I dumped the bags on the kitchen counter and wolfed down a banana as I put the food away. My clothes were soaked again, so I hurried into the bedroom to change.
The window shades were still down and the bedroom was dark and full of shadows.
Flipping on the light, I peeled off my jacket and went to the closet.
I almost tripped as my foot hit something on the floor. I glanced down, expecting to see a stray shoe or a wadded-up towel.
“Hey—how did that get there?” I cried out loud.
One of my sweatshirts lay near the foot of my bed. With a confused frown, I bent down and picked it up.
And gasped as a dead sea gull dropped to the floor.
A butchered sea gull. Its head chopped off. Its body ripped open. Its feathers slick with blood.
As I stared at it in shock, I spotted a piece of paper poking out from under its blood-soaked body.
My heart pounding, I nudged the bird away and peered down at the words scrawled across the blood-spattered paper: THIS IS YOU. YOU’RE NEXT.
Chapter 24
You’re next.
The words echoed in my mind as I walked to work the next day. The storm had passed and the sun blazed in the sky. Beachgoers hurried along the boardwalk and over the dunes, carrying coolers and towels and boogie boards.
I hardly saw their faces. Barely heard their happy, excited voices.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the torn, blood-soaked sea gull and the note wrapped in one of my sweatshirts.
This is you, it said. You’re next.
No way was that a hallucination. And neither were the threatening phone calls. I’d heard the voice on the phone. I’d held the bloody note in my hands. I’d cleaned up the dead sea gull and dumped it in the trash.
All that was real, I thought. It really happened.
Someone is definitely out to get me.
Who? I wondered. Who hated me so much that they wanted to rip me to pieces?
Leslie? Sean? The misty ghost of Joy?
Head down, I shouldered my way through the crowd and onto the beach. As I started toward the lifeguard station, someone reached out and clutched my arm.
“Sean!” I spun around, ready to fight if I had to.
But it wasn’t Sean.
Instead, Raina stood there, gazing at me with a relieved expression on her face. “Adam, I’m so glad to see you,” she declared. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I never got a chance to thank you. For saving my life.”
“Then it really did happen?” I gasped.
Raina frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s just that nobody else seems to know about it,” I told her. “It wasn’t in the paper or anything. I can’t figure it out, Raina!”
She held on to my arm. “Listen, Adam, I have to talk to you. Can we meet later?”
“Can’t we talk now?” I asked eagerly. “I really need to talk about this. I need to figure out what’s going on. Raina, I really need you to explain—”
Raina shook her head. “I . . . I can’t explain it,” she told me. “I have to show you.”
“Huh? Show me? Show me what?” I demanded. “Raina, please—”
“Meet me tonight. At seven o’clock,” she replied. “At the dock, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed. “But can’t we talk now, Raina? I—I keep seeing Joy. I keep hearing her—”
She shook her head tensely. “I’m sorry. Not now. Just meet me, Adam. Seven o’clock.” She let go of my arm. Then she turned and ran off toward town;
I watched her for a second, my heart pounding. Why couldn’t she talk to me? What did she want to show me?
Why was she being so mysterious?
Why did she seem so afraid?
At least I hadn’t imagined the whole tragic afternoon.
Raina thanked me for saving her life.
It happened. It all really happened.
With a shrug, I leapt down to the sand and strode along the beach to the lifeguard station. Sean slouched in his chair. He didn’t even turn his head when I climbed up.
What’s his problem anyway? I wondered again as I stepped over his feet and sat down. What is he so steamed about?
I took a deep breath. “Listen, we’ve got to talk,” I told him.
No answer.
“Hey. Sean.” I turned and stared hard at him. He sat like a statue, gazing out at the beach. “Did you hear me?” I asked.
“I heard you,” he muttered. “Loud and clear.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“What’s been eating you?” I demanded. “Why have you been acting so weird?”
Sean glanced at me quickly, his dark eyes snapping with anger. “I’ve got nothing to say to you,” he declared. Then he turned back to the beach.
“Great.” I sighed in frustration. “You know, you could give me a break,” I told him. “It isn’t asking a lot. Not with everything else that’s happening in my life.”
He grunted.
“You could show a little sympathy,” I said. “I mean, after what happened the day before yesterday. After Joy drowned. Did you ever think about how I feel after a thing like that?”
He grunted again. “Bad, huh?”
“It’s been so rough,” I admitted. “Sometimes I feel as if I’m totally falling apart.”
I sensed Sean’s eyes on me. I kept watching the beach.
Was I getting to him? Was he finally going to open up and tell me what was on his mind?
“And then last night,” I told him, “I came home and found a bloody sea gull in my bedroom. Somebody ripped it to pieces and wrapped it in one of my sweatshirts.”
I glanced quickly at Sean.
He gazed back at me, a look of total surprise on his face. “In your sweatshirt?” he asked.
I nodded. “A nice gruesome present for me. Scary, huh?”
He snapped his head back toward the ocean. “Yeah. Real scary,” he agreed. Then he glanced at his watch. “It’s my break time,” he muttered. “Be back in twenty minutes.”
I sighed again as Sean climbed down the ladder and hurried off. Had he been faking that surprise when I told him about the sea gull?
I couldn’t tell.
Oh, well, I thought unhappily. I tried to get through to Sean. I tried to make things up with him.
I don’t know what more I can do.
I sat back in the chair and scanned the beach and the water. Everything seemed calm. Nobody was in trouble.
The sun grew hotter, making me thirsty. As I reached into my duffel bag for some water, a shrill scream suddenly pierced the air.
I dropped the bottle and leapt to my feet, my heart pounding.
More screams ech
oed across the beach.
Trouble, I thought. But where?
I gripped the railing and scanned the ocean.
There! People floundering around in the water, shouting and screaming and . . . laughing.
Laughing because the wind had turned their Sunfish over and sent them sprawling into the water. Laughing as they struggled to flip the little boat right side up again.
Nobody’s hurt, I told myself. Nobody’s going to drown.
They’re just having fun.
I let go of the railing and sank into my chair. My hand shook as I picked up the bottle of water.
Fun, I thought.
I don’t even remember what that is.
• • •
I trudged up the lane to my apartment at six-thirty that evening, feeling tired and hot.
And really steamed at Sean.
After treating me like the Invisible Man all afternoon, he split early. Again.
At least nothing went wrong, I told myself. The only time I had to blow my whistle was when two kids got in an argument and started swinging their boogie boards at each other.
But something could have gone wrong, I thought. And I would have been on my own. Again.
Sean used to be a good lifeguard. But lately he was pretty irresponsible.
Shaking my head, I let myself into the apartment. I dumped my bag on the couch and headed straight to the refrigerator for some ice water.
As I reached for the handle, I heard a noise.
A soft creak.
I tensed up, but then I relaxed as I heard another creak.
It’s just the squeaky floorboards in the bedroom, I thought. Ian must be home. Good. I can tell him not to borrow my car tonight, just in case he was thinking about it. After the day I’d had, I felt like driving around by myself until it was time to meet Raina.
“Ian?” Forgetting the water, I hurried across the living room. “Hey, buddy.”
I stopped in the bedroom doorway—and froze.
A hulking figure stood in the room, his back to the door, one hand raised high over my bed.
What was that glinting in his upraised hand?
A butcher knife?
Chapter 25
I drew in a deep breath. “What are you doing?” I shouted angrily. “What’s going on?”
His back still to me, the figure leapt away from the bed and stumbled into the closet door.
Furious, I charged into the room.
And stopped, stunned and terrified.
My bed had been slashed to bits. Gouged over and over and over, down into the mattress.
Pillow feathers floated in the air and drifted down onto the shredded quilt. Deep, savage slashes ripped through the sheet and into the mattress. Mattress stuffing littered the bed in thick, wadded clumps.
My sweatshirt lay on top of the sheet. Slashed to pieces.
It could have been me, I thought.
It was supposed to be me!
The intruder turned. Raced toward the open window.
Sunlight slanted across his face.
Sean’s face!
With a cry I vaulted across the ripped-up bed, sprang through the air, and tackled him around the knees.
Sean bellowed in anger and struggled to keep his balance.
But fury made me stronger for once.
With another cry I grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed him onto the floor.
The knife flew through the air and skittered out of reach under the bed.
“What are you doing?” I screamed.
Planting a knee on his back, I twisted one of his arms behind him and yanked up hard. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Adam?”
Gasping, Sean twisted and squirmed under my weight. “Let me go. Let me go. You don’t—”
I yanked his arm higher. He gasped in pain again. But I didn’t care.
He’s the one, I thought. Threatening me with those phone calls. That torn-up bird.
Sean is the one who’s been driving me nuts. Trying to terrify me!
“Why have you been doing this to me?” I demanded. “Tell me, Sean! Why are you torturing me?”
“You?” Sean’s face twisted in surprise. He lifted his head from the floor and tried to look at me. “What does it have to do with you?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know!” I shouted, pressing down harder with my knee. “I just caught you sneaking around my bedroom with a knife.”
“But . . .”
“And what about those phone calls?” I reminded him. “You’re going to pay for what you did to me. Don’t tell me you didn’t make them!”
“Okay, okay, I did,” Sean admitted. “Let go of me. Let me up. I—I—”
“You what? You got the wrong number?” I asked sarcastically.
“No! I thought . . . I was trying to . . .”
“You were trying to torture me,” I cried. “You called and threatened me. You left a bloody sea gull in the room, wrapped in my sweatshirt. And now you’ve slashed my bed to pieces!”
“Your bed?”
“Yes!”
Sean let his breath out in whoosh. I felt his arm go limp as he stropped struggling.
“Oh, man!” he groaned. “Adam, listen—I thought Ian answered the phone that night. It sounded like Ian! I didn’t know it was you.”
“Huh?” I gasped.
“That’s right,” Sean continued. “And that sweatshirt I wrapped the bird in? I saw Ian wearing that sweatshirt the other day, so I thought it was his. Just like I thought it was Ion’s bed when I saw the sweatshirt lying there!”
“Ian?” I frowned, confused. “What are you talking about? What does Ian have to do with anything?”
Sean turned his head again, rolling his eyes as he tried to look at me. “I can explain, okay?” he gasped. “Just stop trying to break my arm, and I’ll tell you!”
I paused. Then I shook my head. “Why should I trust you? You broke in here with a knife,” I reminded him. “Tell me why first. Then maybe I’ll let you up.”
“Okay.” Sean sighed and lay quietly for a few seconds. “As I said, I didn’t know it was you on the phone. Really. I thought it was Ian. I’ve been trying to warn that roommate of yours that I’m coming after him. That I’m going to pay him back!”
“Why?”
Sean tensed up again. “Because of my girlfriend!” he shouted angrily. “Ian has been sneaking out with Alyce!”
Chapter 26
“Ian is going out with Alyce?” I asked, totally surprised. “Are you sure?”
“You think I made it up?” Sean muttered. “Sure I’m sure. She met him for a movie just the other night And last night he took her up the ocean coast to this hot new club. I followed them.”
Ian and Alyce? Whoa.
Ian hadn’t said a word to me about her. Sure, he told me he was seeing someone. He just didn’t bother to say who.
If he had, I would have told him to forget it. Sneaking around with Alyce was playing with fire.
Letting go of Sean’s arm, I removed my knee from his back and stood up.
He quickly rolled over and rose to his feet. “I guess you believe me now, right?” he asked, rubbing his arm. “About the call and the sea gull and everything. I didn’t know it was you, Adam. I really thought I was doing it to Ian.”
“Yeah,” I told him reluctantly. “I believe you. But I don’t get something—if you’re so steamed at Ian, how come you’ve been acting as if I’m the one you hate?”
“Because he’s your roommate,” Sean snapped.
“So?”
He shook his head impatiently. “I figured you already knew what he was up to. That’s why I’ve been too angry to talk to you. He’s your roommate. Your friend—and I thought he was my friend! But I saw him with Alyce and—”
Sean broke off, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. His eyes flashed angrily around the room.
He’s looking for the knife, I thought. If he finds it and Ian walks in now,
there will be major trouble.
“Sean!” I grabbed his shoulders and squeezed, “Cool it! Calm down!”
“Yeah, sure.” He bared his teeth in an angry grin. “Great advice, Adam. Some guy sneaks out with my girl and you tell me to be calm?”
“Yes!” I cried. “You have to get control of yourself. Remember that story you told me about the guy in your high school?”
He nodded.
“You freaked out and beat him to a pulp, remember? You said you’ve been afraid of your anger ever since. Well, don’t mess up again, Sean.”
“You’re right, I know it,” he muttered, his breath coming in gasps. “But whenever I think of Ian, I feel as if I’m going to explode.”
“Yeah, well, control yourself,” I repeated. “I’ll talk to Ian later. I promise. But listen—I saw Ian at the Sea Shanty the other night. Not with Alyce—with another girl.”
Sean stared at me skeptically.
“It’s true,” I insisted. “Ian likes girls, period. Not just Alyce. Okay, so he went out with her a few times. But I bet he won’t stick with her. It’s like . . . Ian borrows things, you know? Clothes and cars and stuff. And it’s the same with girls.”
“Alyce isn’t exactly a thing,” Sean muttered. “If she knew that’s the way Ian thinks about her, she’d flip.”
“Maybe she already does know. Why don’t you talk to her?” I suggested.
He frowned. “I don’t know . . .”
“Well, think about it,” I told him. “But anyway, you’ve got to calm down, Sean—before you do something you’ll really be sorry for.”
Sean stared at me for a moment, still breathing hard. But finally I saw him begin to relax. “Yeah. Yeah,” he muttered. “You’re right, Adam. I’d be stupid to pull another stunt like the one in high school.”
Some stunt, I thought. “Good,” I told him. “Now, why don’t you go home and try to relax?”
Sean nodded, but he didn’t move. He just stood there as if he didn’t know what to do now that he didn’t have anyone to fight.
Get him out of here, I told myself. If Ian comes home, Sean will definitely have somebody to fight with.
“Why don’t you go home and take it easy?” I urged.