Party Games (11 page)

Finally, he turned away from Patti and raised his eyes to us. “This isn't a joke,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “She's dead.”

 

PART THREE

 

17.

IS THERE A KILLER IN THE HOUSE?

 

Kerry Reacher came bursting into the room. His long legs appeared to collapse when he saw Patti on the floor, and he dropped heavily beside her.

“What's happening? What
is
this?” Kerry's eyes were on Brendan. He didn't wait for an answer. He untwisted Patti's arms. Then he lifted her gently and pressed her face against his chest.

“No—” Brendan cried. “Don't touch her. We have to leave her for the police.”

Kerry ignored him. I don't think he even heard Brendan. “She isn't dead!” Kerry screamed, holding Patti's body close. “She
can't
be dead.”

Behind him, Geena and Delia were hugging each other. They both had tears running down their faces. Brendan's cousins hung back at the doorway, hands shoved in their pockets, not speaking, looking very pale and tense.

Kerry held on to Patti. Her head was tilted back on his arm. Her eyes remained shut. “Who did this?” Kerry shouted. “Who killed Patti?” He shook her body by the shoulders. “Patti—who did this? Who? I'll kill him! I swear I'll kill him.” He was shaking her, shrieking at the top of his lungs.

Brendan motioned me over. “Can you help Kerry?” he whispered. “Maybe take him downstairs? He's totally freaking. We have to leave everything as we found it. When the police come…” His voice trailed off.

“I-I'll try,” I stammered.

“I'll bring everyone else downstairs,” Brendan whispered. “We have to figure out what to do.”

“Why was she twisted like that?” Kerry demanded, his eyes locked on Brendan. “Who twisted her legs like that?”

Brendan lowered himself beside Kerry. “I'm so sorry,” he said softly. “I'll do everything I can, Kerry. Everything—”

“I should know not to get mixed up with anyone named Fear. There's a killer in this house,” Kerry declared. “A killer.”

Brendan gently lifted Patti's body from Kerry's arms. He set her down. Then he helped Kerry to his feet. “Go with Rachel,” he said. “Kerry? Can you hear me?”

Kerry's eyes stared blankly at the green wall. He didn't respond.

“Kerry, go with Rachel,” Brendan repeated. “We'll meet you downstairs.”

I put one arm around Kerry's waist and started to guide him to the door. I expected him to pull back, to fight me, or demand to stay in the room with Patti. To my surprise, he let me lead him past the other kids and into the hall.

I held onto him, and we walked together to the stairway at the end of the hall. Kerry muttered to himself, his eyes glassy, off in the distance as if he was somewhere else, seeing something I couldn't.

“The Fear family,” he murmured, turning his face to me. “There's a curse. A curse on the whole family, even Brendan.”

“Watch your step,” I said. I grabbed him as he started to stumble.

“There's a curse on this house, too,” Kerry said. “You know the story, Rachel. You have to know the story. How the Fear family had a hunting party here on the island. Like a hundred years ago. They had a hunting party and hunted all their servants. You know the story, right?”

“Well—”

“They made their servants run through the woods, and they hunted them. They shot them all. They killed all their servants. Just for a game. And they buried them somewhere in the woods.”

He let out a soft cry. “It's true. It has to be true. And now look. Look what happened here. Patti. Poor Patti. Because of the curse on the Fear family.”

“That's just a story. It can't be true,” I said.

I suddenly pictured the mannequin that looked like Brendan swinging on the rope. Was that really a warning to Brendan? And now, Patti was dead.

A heavy feeling of dread weighed me down.
Brendan has been warned. Patti is dead. Does this mean we are ALL in danger?

I led Kerry into the ballroom. The food table had been cleared. The waiters had left the room. But the bar table still had drinks.

The candles in the chandeliers had all been doused. Pale beams of light from spotlights in the ceiling filled the room with a silvery glow.

Two rows of folding chairs had been set up facing the fireplace. I sat Kerry down in a seat in the back row and brought him a glass of water. He stared at it as if he'd never seen water before.

“Patti…” he murmured. “Patti. Not you, Patti. Not you. I never should have brought you here.” He raised his sad, wet eyes to me. “It's
my
fault, isn't it?”

“No,” I answered. “Of course not. Don't think like that, Kerry.” I motioned to the glass. “Have some water. Do you want something else? Want a beer?”

He didn't answer. He gazed into the glass. A single tear rolled down one cheek.

Suddenly, I felt like crying, too.

A wave of sadness rolled over me. I'd been trying so hard to calm Kerry down, I had been forcing down my own feelings of fright and regret. Now they came bursting to the surface, and my whole body trembled.

I'd known Patti since second grade. She was so tiny and cute and adorable. Our families were so close. So close … And now …

I lowered myself into the chair next to Kerry. The doors opened, and the rest of the party guests stampeded into the ballroom, followed by Brendan.

Brendan motioned everyone to the rows of chairs. His face was pale. His normally perfect hair was pointing in all directions. He kept his head down as he walked to the front.

“We have to get out of here,” Eric Finn shouted.

“Did you call the police?” Spider demanded.

“Brendan, did you call 911?” April repeated.

Brendan shrugged. He pulled his phone from his pocket and waved it. “I can't. No bars. Remember? There's no service on the island. And the landlines have all been shut off for the winter.”

“So we can't call anyone? We can't report the murder?” April asked.

The word
murder
sent a gasp through the crowd. It was as if
saying
it made it even more real and more horrible.

Once again, I pictured Patti's body all twisted up on the floor in that bedroom. And I remembered the handwritten note:
Twister, Anyone?

Someone is playing games,
I thought.
Deadly games.

“We can't just sit here,” Spider shouted. “There's a killer in the house.”

“Could it be one of
us
?” Brendan's cousin Kenny asked.

“Don't be stupid,” Eric snapped. “We're not killers.”

“I'm not stupid,” Kenny replied. He jumped to his feet. “Don't call me stupid.”

Eric raised both hands as if in surrender. “Sorry. I didn't mean it. You're not stupid.”

Kenny glared at him, then lowered himself to his chair.

Morgan turned to Eric. “Kenny has a short fuse,” he said.

Eric stared back at him. “Was that supposed to be a warning?”

“No,” Morgan said. “I was just saying.”

“Who would kill Patti?” Kerry asked. “Who?” He buried his head in his hands.

“Someone strung up a dummy of me,” Brendan told everyone. “It was hanging in one of the empty rooms. Swinging from the ceiling. Wearing my clothes. With a note that said something about wanting to play Hangman.”

“Sick,” Delia muttered. She was hunched in her chair, twisting a strand of her white-blonde hair tensely.

“I thought the hanging dummy was some kind of warning,” Brendan said. “But then…” He didn't finish his thought.

“Hangman and Twister,” Delia said. “Someone is totally sick.”

“Someone is definitely playing games with us,” Geena said. “Only…” Her voice broke. “Murder isn't a game.”

“We have to get on the boat—now,” Eric said. “We have to get out of here, Brendan.”

“Yes. Let's go.”

“Is the boat ready?”

“We have to get off this island.”

Brendan waved both hands to quiet everyone. “The boat is ready. But the pilot. Randy. He … He'll be okay, but he's out of commission. He's down. He can't do it. We don't have anyone to pilot the boat.”

“You said you sent for someone?” Spider asked.

Geena said, “We're not totally stranded here—are we?”

“Can anyone here handle the yacht?” Eric said.

“I sent one of the workers in a speedboat back to town,” Brendan said. “My family has another pilot we use in the summer. I told the worker to find him and bring him back.”

“But that could be
hours
!” April protested.

“What if he doesn't find the pilot?”

“You mean we're trapped?”

Brendan waved both hands. “Calm down, everyone. I'm sure the new boat pilot is on his way. As soon as he gets here—”

Spider jumped to his feet. “Let's go now. We can figure out how to pilot the boat. How hard can it be? You turn on the engine and steer it to town.”

Before anyone could move, the lights flickered, then went out.

I blinked. I stared into the glare of light that lingered. It faded. The darkness was so deep, I couldn't see Kerry sitting next to me.

Kids screamed.

I held my breath, thinking maybe the lights would flash back on.

Cries of panic rang out all around me.

“Brendan? I can't see you.”

“Who turned off the lights?”

“Was it the killer?”

“Did someone just come in the room?”

“Can't anyone turn them back on?”

“Did someone cut the electricity? Brendan—help us!”

I jumped to my feet. I was too frightened just to sit there. My legs felt shaky. I forced myself to move, to get away from the chairs.

But someone grabbed my arm and started to pull me back. “Kerry?” I screamed. “Kerry? Is that
you
?”

Or is it the killer?

 

18.

IN THE DARK

 

“Yes, it's me,” Kerry said in a whisper. “Rachel, please don't leave me. Where were you going?”

“I … I just wanted to get away.”

My eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness. I could see Kerry holding onto me, so frightened he didn't realize how hard he was gripping my arm. I saw other kids up on their feet.

Chairs squeaked and scraped. Frightened cries rang off the ballroom walls. I sat back down beside Kerry. He was so messed up about Patti, he couldn't move. His whole body was trembling.

Someone bumped me on the other side. Startled, I turned and found Eric beside me. He leaned close. “Are you as scared as I am?”

“Yes,” I said. “I think we're all scared out of our minds.”

“It's like living in a horror movie,” Eric said, his voice tight and hoarse. “I've seen this movie. Some crazed killer plans to kill us all.”

“Stop it. Shut up,” I said. “Don't make it worse.”

“Worse? How can I make it worse?” Eric cried. “Our friend Patti is lying dead upstairs. We're sitting ducks here in the dark and … and—”

“Quiet, everyone! Quiet!” Brendan shouted. “Please—everyone stop talking.”

It took a while for everyone to stop voicing their panic. A few kids returned to their chairs. Squinting into the heavy blackness, I could see some kids standing at the sides of the rows of seats.

“We don't know for sure that someone cut the lights. It may just be a generator down,” Brendan said. “We get these blackouts here all the time.”

“We have to get out of this house.” I recognized April's voice, even though I couldn't see her. “We can't just stay here, Brendan.”

Shouts of agreement. It took Brendan a while to get everyone quiet again. “We'll get some light,” he said. “It'll make it easier. We have flashlights. My family keeps a cabinet full of flashlights for power failures like this.”

“Let's get them. Let's go.” Eric said.

“The cabinet is in the next room,” Brendan said. “There should be a flashlight for everyone. I'll lead the way. Keep close. Keep together. It isn't far. It's a supply closet only three doors down the hall.”

Chairs scraped again. Kerry stood up and led the way out of our row. He stopped to let someone move past, and Eric bumped me hard from behind.

“Oh. Sorry, Rachel.”

Normally, I'd think he was doing his usual clowning. But not now.

We moved in groups of two or three toward the ballroom doorway. We had to walk slowly. The room had no windows, so the darkness was complete.

I kept close to Kerry and Eric. The hallway was just as dark as the ballroom. We turned to the left and shuffled along the carpet, following Brendan. It was like walking blindfolded.

A hush had fallen over everyone. There was nothing more to say. We were all in the same horrible situation. We were all having the same thoughts. We all had the same frantic desire to get away from this house and this island.

To escape to safety.

As we slowly moved through the hall, I thought about Patti again. She had such big plans. She was already accepted at Northwestern. She was going to be an Education major. She wanted to learn how to teach deaf children because her sister Ashlee is deaf.

Patti would have been a good teacher. She was kind and patient and very tuned in to people. And, she and Kerry planned to stay together, even though he would be at Penn, where he got a basketball scholarship.

A sob escaped my throat. I couldn't help it. I felt so much sadness, so much fear, I felt I might either explode or collapse.

Walking beside me, Eric must have sensed it. “It's okay, Rachel,” he said in a low voice. “We're getting out of here. For sure.”