The winds had stopped.
The cemetery was deserted. Silent.
The ground over her sister’s grave wasn’t split or cracked open.
It didn’t happen, she realized.
It was another dream. Another nightmare about Bobbi.
I was asleep, Corky thought.
I was leaning against Bobbi’s gravestone, and I fell asleep.
I’m always so tired these days. I never can fall asleep at night. I never sleep the night through because of the nightmares.
Yes. I was asleep.
She stared at the dark ground, solid, silent. I must have dreamed it, she thought. The ground trembling, the gravestones shaking and tilting. The bony hand reaching up through the crack in the earth. The grotesque figure of her sister, green and rotting, covered with dirt and insects.
All a hideous dream.
“What am I going to do?” she asked aloud. “What can I do to make these nightmares end?”
She turned back to the low gravestone, lowering her head to talk once again to Bobbi. “I’m not going to visit for a while,” she said softly, her voice muted by the heavy chill in the air. “At least I’m going to try to stay away.”
The wind picked up and gently stirred the trees. There seemed to be whispering all around.
“It’s not that I want to forget you, Bobbi,” Corky continued with a loud sob. “It’s just that—It’s just that I’m still alive, and I have to—”
She stopped abruptly. “I’m sorry. I’m not making any sense. I have to go. It’s late, and I’m cold.”
Bobbi is even colder, she thought. The grim thought made her shudder.
“Bobbi, I really—”
She stopped short and uttered a brief cry.
Something moved behind a tall marble monument. A squirrel?
No. It was too big to be a squirrel.
Staring into the darkness, surrounded by the ceaseless whispers, Corky saw a dark form hunkered down behind the monument. A hand moved, then was quickly pulled back. A head, the face hidden in shadow, poked out, then disappeared just as quickly.
Someone is here, Corky realized.
Someone is watching me.
The whispers grew louder as once again the wind swirled around her.
Before she realized it, she had pushed herself away from Bobbi’s gravestone and was running down the sloping hill. Panting loudly, she made her way through the crooked rows of stones, her sneakers slipping on the wet grass, on the flat, dead brown leaves. Tall wet weeds swished against the legs of her jeans.
Without slowing, she glanced back.
And saw that he was following her.
It was a man, or maybe a boy. He had the dark hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his head.
He was running fast, breathing hard, his breath steaming up over the dark hood.
She could see only a triangle of his face. Saw part of his nose and eyes. Hard, determined eyes. Angry eyes. Gray eyes, so pale they were almost colorless.
Pale gray ghostlike eyes.
Somebody—help me! Corky wanted to cry out, but she could only pant in terror as she fled.
His shoes pounded the ground. So close behind her.
Or was that the pounding of her heart?
Who was he? Why was he spying on her? Why was he chasing her?
The questions made her dizzy as she ran, gasping in mouthfuls of the heavy, cold air. Ran through the darkness. Ran toward the street. Fear Street.
Her house was only a block away.
Would she make it?
She was nearly to the street.
Running hard. Her right side aching.
The footsteps pounding behind her.
“Ow!”
She cried out as her leg hit a low tombstone.
As the pain shot up her leg, she fell and toppled forward, her arms and legs sprawling out as she dropped facedown into a pile of wet leaves.
Chapter 3
“Please Come Back”
“Corky!”
At first she didn’t recognize the voice.
“Corky!”
She raised her head, scrambled to her feet, frantically brushing at the wet leaves clinging to the front of her coat.
“Hey, Corky!”
The voice came from the street. From the little blue car just beyond the curb.
“Kimmy!” she cried. “Oh, Kimmy!”
Kimmy was running toward her, her eyes wide with concern. Behind Kimmy, Corky could see Debra and Ronnie climbing out of the car.
“He—he’s chasing me!” Corky cried breathlessly She skidded to a stop.
Kimmy protectively threw her arms around Corky’s shoulders. “What’s wrong, Corky?”
“What is it?” Ronnie called, hurrying up to them.
“He’s chasing me!” Corky turned and pointed behind her.
No one.
No hooded man. No pale, pale eyes.
Vanished.
Or was he another nightmare?
Corky shuddered. Her side ached. Her ankle throbbed from its collision with the granite tombstone.
Another nightmare? Just a hallucination?
“We’ve got to get you home,” Kimmy said, her arm still around Corky’s shoulders. “Come on, Corky. Come with us,” she urged softly.
“It’s freezing out here!” Ronnie exclaimed, wrapping her big coat tightly around herself.
Debra remained silent, staring up at the crooked gravestones in an old section of the cemetery. Intense concentration froze her face. She reached for the crystal she wore around her neck and, still gazing up at the old stones, moved her lips in some sort of silent chant.
“Debra, come on!” Kimmy’s voice from near the car interrupted Debra’s concentration. She turned, still distracted, and followed her friends to the car.
A short while later Kimmy pulled the Camry up the gravel drive beside the Corcorans’ rambling old house and cut the engine.
The four girls jogged to the front porch. Corky fumbled with her keys before finally managing to push open the front door. They all stepped inside.
“Brrrrrr!” Debra shivered and stamped her feet.
“Debra, it isn’t that cold,” Kimmy scolded.
“Yaaaaii!”
A screaming figure leapt out at them from the living room.
“Sean, give us a break,” Corky told her little brother, rolling her eyes.
“I scared you.” Sean grinned, his blue eyes lighting up. With his straight blond hair and high cheekbones, he looked like a smaller, more angelic version of Corky.
“We don’t really feel like being scared right now,” Kimmy told him, tossing her coat onto the banister.
“Do you feel like playing Nintendo?” Sean asked, tugging her arm.
“Nintendo?”
“Yeah. I’ve got Mega Man II.”
“Not right now,” Kimmy told him.
“Just a short game,” Sean insisted, pulling Kimmy toward the stairs.
Kimmy turned helplessly to Corky.
“Sean, take a hike,” Corky said sharply. “We can’t play with you now.” She poked her head into the living room. “Where are Mom and Dad?”
Sean reluctantly let go of Kimmy’s sleeve. “Next door.”
“Come on in,” Corky told the three girls, motioning to the living room. “I’m going to run into the kitchen and put on the kettle. I’ll make hot chocolate.”
“That sounds great!” Debra exclaimed, rubbing her shoulders, still shivering.
“I hate hot chocolate,” Sean offered loudly.
“Sean, please!” Corky cried. She pointed. “Upstairs. Now.”
“You’re a jerk” was his reply, one he used about a hundred times a day. He stuck his tongue out at her, then loped up the stairs to his room.
Corky clicked on the floor lamp beside the leather couch against the wall. Pale light washed over the living room, which was decorated mainly in greens and browns.
“I’ll be right back,” she told the others. She h
esitated at the doorway. “What were you doing there? I mean, at the cemetery?”
Debra flashed Kimmy a hesitant look. “Well …”
“We were looking for you,” Kimmy explained. “We were headed to your house. But we stopped when we saw you … uh …” She hesitated to finish her sentence.
Corky’s pale cheeks reddened. “I was at Bobbi’s grave. I go there sometimes.”
No one could think of a reply. A heavy silence hung over the room.
“I’ll go put on the kettle,” Corky said and hurried out of the room.
As she held the kettle under the tap, her mind whirred from thought to thought. She tried to figure out why the three cheerleaders had come to find her.
Corky hadn’t spent time with any of them since dropping off the cheerleading squad. They always acted very friendly when she passed them in the halls at school. But Corky really hadn’t talked with them in weeks.
Hearing an odd noise, Corky glanced out the kitchen window into the darkness. Two cats were chasing each other over the deep carpet of brown leaves that covered the backyard. Their chase reminded her of being pursued by the strange hooded man with the cold gray eyes. With a shudder she hurried back to her visitors.
She found Kimmy and Debra seated on opposite ends of the couch. Kimmy was tapping her fingers nervously on the arm. Debra had her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
Ronnie was standing by the window, hands on her slender hips, staring out at the driveway. She turned when Corky reentered the room. “I think we’re warming up,” she said.
Corky moved quickly to the armchair that faced the couch. She sat down, and a rude noise erupted from under the chair cushion.
“Sean!” she screamed angrily, jumping to her feet. She reached under the cushion and pulled out her brother’s pink whoopee cushion.
Her three visitors laughed.
“My family loves practical jokes,” Corky explained, rolling her eyes. She tossed the flattened whoopee cushion across the room.
“Your brother’s funny,” Debra said, tucking her legs under her.
“You want him?” Corky offered. She resumed her place on the chair. Ronnie moved in front of the couch and flopped down on the carpet, crossing her legs in front of her.
“Corky, how are you?” Kimmy asked finally in a concerned tone.
“Okay, I guess,” Corky replied quickly, avoiding Kimmy’s eyes.
“Were you at the game last night?” Ronnie asked.
“No. Huh-uh.” Corky shook her head.
An uncomfortable silence.
Corky cleared her throat. The repetitive electronic music of Sean’s Nintendo game drifted down from upstairs.
“So why’d you want to see me?” Corky asked.
“We want you to come back on the squad,” Ronnie blurted out.
“Yeah. That’s why we came,” Kimmy said, locking her blue eyes on Corky’s.
“I don’t know,” Corky replied, shaking her head. She brushed away a strand of blond hair that had fallen over an eye.
“The squad really needs you,” Kimmy said. “It isn’t the same without you.”
“Really,” Ronnie added earnestly.
“That’s nice of you,” Corky said, avoiding their eyes. “But…”
Her mind suddenly returned to the days when Bobbi was on the squad. She remembered how angry Kimmy had been when Bobbi was named cheerleader captain. She remembered how Kimmy had tried to turn the other girls against Bobbi.
Now Kimmy was the captain. Bobbi was dead, and Kimmy had gotten what she always wanted. So why was she here begging Corky to rejoin the squad?
“Why not give it a chance?” Kimmy urged her.
“Yeah. Just come to practice a few times,” Ronnie suggested, twirling an opal ring on her index finger.
“Let’s be honest,” Corky blurted out. “You girls all resented Bobbi and me.”
Her blunt words seemed to freeze in the air. Kimmy and Ronnie looked stunned for a brief moment. Debra swallowed hard.
“Things have changed, Corky,” Kimmy said finally. Then she added, “Since that night.”
Debra dropped her hands to her lap. She stared out the window with her icy blue eyes, her face pale in the harsh light of the floor lamp.
“We’ve all changed, I think,” Kimmy continued, lowering her voice. “I know I have.”
Corky sighed but didn’t say anything.
“I was there with you that night,” Kimmy said heatedly. “I saw the evil spirit too. I saw the dirt flying up from that old grave. I—I can’t get it out of my mind.”
“I can’t either,” Ronnie added. “I still have nightmares about it.”
“Me too,” Debra whispered.
“It’s changed me,” Kimmy said, continuing to stare at Corky. “I didn’t lose a sister like you did, but it’s changed me. I used to be angry a lot of the time. You’re right when you say I resented you and Bobbi. I’m not as thin or as pretty or as talented as you. But after that horrible night in the cemetery, I don’t care so much about that stuff. I saw how fragile life is. I saw—”
“It made us all stop and think about what’s important,” Ronnie interrupted. “I’ve changed too.”
“And you’ve changed too,” Kimmy told Corky. “We’ve all seen it. We understand.”
Debra nodded but remained silent.
“That’s why we think it would be good for you to come back to the squad,” Ronnie said. “We really want to help.”
“We should be friends,” Kimmy said, round spots of pink growing darker on her cheeks. “We went through something really frightening together. Now we should be friends.”
Corky stared at them one after another.
They’re sincere, she decided. They really mean it. They came here out of friendship, out of concern for me.
They really have changed.
Corky had a sudden urge to leap across the coffee table and hug all three of them. Instead, she stammered, “It—it’s really nice of you. To come, I mean. I mean, to ask me back. I’ll think about it. I really will.”
“Come to practice after school,” Kimmy urged. “You can just watch, if you want.”
“Well …” Corky climbed to her feet and, wrapping her arms over the front of her sweater, crossed over to the window.
“The spark is just missing without you,” Ronnie said, her eyes following Corky across the room.
“We haven’t replaced you,” Kimmy added. “Your place on the squad is waiting for you. Really.”
“Thanks,” Corky said, sincerely moved.
She gazed out the window—and gasped. “Ohh! It’s him!”
The hooded man with the strange, ghostly eyes—he must have followed her home.
As Corky gaped in fright, he strode over the shadowy front lawn, moving quickly toward the house.
Chapter 4
The Evil Is Alive
“Corky, what is it?”
Seeing the horrified expression on Corky’s face as she stood frozen at the window, Kimmy and Debra leapt off the couch and darted across the room. Ronnie, who had scrambled to her feet, was right behind them.
“He—he’s there!” Corky managed to cry. She pointed toward the middle of the yard.
Kimmy put a protective arm around Corky’s shoulders and drew her aside.
The other two girls pressed their faces close to the glass and peered out.
“Huh?”
“Where?”
“He’s there!” Corky insisted, her voice trembling. “He stared at me with those empty eyes. Like ghost eyes.”
“I don’t see him,” Debra said, cupping her hands around her eyes to shut out the glare from the living room.
“I don’t see anything,” Ronnie agreed. “The wind is blowing the leaves around. That’s all”
“Hey, there are two cats down at the end of the drive,” Debra reported. She turned away from the window to face Corky. “Is that what you saw?”
“No!” Corky insisted, shaking her head. “I saw
him. I did! He was there, walking on the grass toward the house.”
“Well, he’s gone now,” Ronnie said, flashing Kimmy a puzzled look.
Corky breathed a loud sigh of relief. “He must have seen us all staring at him and run away,” she said.
“Yeah. I guess,” Debra said doubtfully.
“I guess,” Ronnie repeated.
They don’t believe me, Corky thought miserably. They don’t believe I saw him.
They think I’m seeing things.
And then she added, I’m not so sure I believe me.
She shuddered and started back to the couch.
“Guess we’d better get going,” Kimmy said, starting toward the front hallway. “I promised my parents I’d be back half an hour ago.”
“Me too,” Ronnie said, forcing a smile for Corky.
“It was really nice of you to come,” Corky said, a little embarrassed at how stiff the words sounded. “I mean, I’m so glad you came by. With that guy and everything—”
Again Ronnie met Kimmy’s eyes.
None of them believe me, Corky thought again, catching Ronnie’s expression. They think I’m cracking up.
She glanced at the front window, half expecting to see the hooded guy peering in at her.
The window was dark and empty.
Kimmy and Ronnie had pulled on their coats.
“Is that fake fur? It’s really neat!” Corky ran her hand up and down the sleeve of Ronnie’s coat.
“You like it? There’s room for you in here too,” Ronnie joked.
“Hey, aren’t you coming?” Kimmy called to Debra, who had hung back at the living-room doorway.
“I thought I’d stay a few minutes and talk with Corky,” Debra told Kimmy. She turned to Corky. “If that’s okay?”
“Yeah. Sure,” Corky replied quickly, smiling at Debra.
“I’ll walk home,” Debra told Kimmy.
“I can drive you,” Corky said.
“Well, think about what we said,” Kimmy told Corky, pulling open the front door. “Come to practice, okay?”
“I’ll think about it. I really will,” Corky replied.
More good-nights. Then Kimmy and Ronnie disappeared out the door.
Corky followed Debra back into the living room. They both headed for the couch. The beams of Kimmy’s headlights rolled up the wall, then disappeared.