Halloween Party (6 page)

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.

F
or 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.

“We've had a long time to think about it,” said Justine. “But enough questions. Let's just enjoy the music—and each other.”

She pressed even closer to him, and for a moment Terry forgot everything except the scent and closeness of Justine.

The tape ended and the dancers broke apart. Justine squeezed Terry's hand and went to put on a new tape.

Guiltily, Terry realized that Niki was standing by the fire, staring at him. She didn't look jealous, or even angry, but there was a strange, unreadable expression on her face.

Alex said something to her, and Niki shook her head. She started to cross over to where Terry was, but stopped suddenly, her eyes wide with surprise.

Everyone heard a tremendous thumping at the door—along with a growling roar from farther away.

The noise was so intense that Niki picked up the vibrations. Her mouth dropped open and she turned toward the front of the room.

Ricky pulled open the door, and the roaring became a deafening blast of sound.

Then, as everyone watched in shock, two gleaming motorcycles bombed right into the living room!

A
ll Terry and the others could do at first was stare in shock at the motorcycles. The riders were dressed in leather jackets and pants, and their faces were completely covered with shiny black helmets.

“Oh, wow!” someone yelled over the thunderous noise.

“Rad! Really rad!” Ricky shouted, his idea of a funny comment.

The whole crazy scene reminded Terry of the movie
Animal House
, which he and Niki had rented a few weeks before. That movie had a guy riding a motorcycle up and down the stairs.

Was this another of Justine's “surprises”? Terry wondered, enjoying the crazy, chaotic scene.

With a final roar, the two bikers cut their machines. The sudden quiet was almost deafening.

The bigger of the two riders removed his helmet
and got off the bike. With a sinking feeling, Terry saw that it was Bobby McCorey. Bobby's eyes were bloodshot and he had a nasty expression on his face. “Nice party,” he said sarcastically.

“Yeah,” agreed Marty Danforth, the other rider. He twirled his helmet in his hands as he checked out the room. “Great place you got here. Too bad we had to knock so loud.”

“For some reason the door was locked,” Bobby added. “It's almost like you didn't want us.”

Justine stepped forward, her face a mask of fury. “Get out of here,” she said in an icy voice.

“Get out?” said Bobby. “We just got here.”

“I told you you weren't invited,” Justine said. She didn't sound frightened at all, Terry noticed, but was so angry her voice was shaking.

“Yeah, well, we told you we don't like to be left out of things,” Bobby said, forcing a tough-guy sneer on his face.

Now Philip stepped quickly to the center of the room. “Who are these young men?” he asked Justine.

“Two clowns from the high school,” Justine told him. “They're not on the list.”

Philip approached Bobby and Marty. He had an expression on his face like a teacher who was disappointed with his class. Terry could see that Philip didn't realize how mean Bobby and Marty could be.

“If you leave right now,” said Philip, “I won't call the police.”

“Hear that?” Marty asked Bobby, his sneer frozen in place like a bad Elvis imitator. “He won't call the police.” Both boys laughed.