“A bird hit the window.”
“No, it’s the front door.”
“Come in!”
“Where are the candles?”
“The kitchen!” Rachel shouts. “Under the sink. There should be six of them.”
“Here,” some boy says. He flicks on a lighter. For a Second, the small blue-yellow flame lights his face. The shadows of others, around him. In the mirror on the back wall the reflection of the light reveals more: the enormous living room is {jacked. “Everybody light your lighters.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Just get some candles.”
“Knock knock.” A boy, a junior, from the Gardner School, reaches the front door. He draws the door inward.
A gust of steam. Humidity has risen.
Two figures in the dark, on the front porch.
“You’re late,” the boy says sleepily, not quite recognizing them in the dark. “Party’s almost over.”
For a split second, the boy who has opened the door has an instinct, but he ignores it. He thinks he should shut the door and lock it, but he doesn’t know why he’d think that.
2
And then it begins.
Four Dark Nights Page 28
