Sissy pointed to a chest with lingerie hanging out of every drawer. “Next to the bottom. Help yourself.”
Abby sat on one bed and watched as Gina pulled out wisps of chiffon. She usually slept in an oversized T-shirt. Her eyes met Gina’s and they hid smiles from Sissy, who was rummaging in her closet.
“I think I have three clean towels.” She tossed two on Abby’s bed. “I don’t know about you, but I need a hot shower. Let’s do that and then we can talk.” Sissy disappeared with an armload of soaps and shampoos, towels, and a silky nightgown.
“I’m not going to be much fun, Gina,” Abby said, leaning back on the single bed opposite Sissy’s. “I don’t even think I can wobble into the shower.”
“You might want to soak your ankle. I have a feeling you were lying about how it feels.”
“Some. But even that is too much work. Toss me that silky turquoise thing. I’ll pretend I’m Madonna and have a personal trainer coming tomorrow to give me a massage.”
“Jane Fonda probably has a massage every day, too. Such luxury. Some day.” Gina sighed and disappeared into the bathroom.
The third drawer of Sissy’s clothes intrigued Abby. With no one there to see her, she gave in to her impulse to snoop. Hanging out was a sequined-dotted length of sheer material.
Abby pulled the drawer all the way out. This was obviously where Sissy kept her drama supplies. There were cans of grease paint in several colors, a witch mask, face putty, a booklet on the art of makeup. Abby flipped through that. Scars, witch noses, warts, disfigured chins and cheeks and foreheads.
The idea hadn’t occurred to her before, but someone from the drama department could be dressing up to look like a monster. Someone with access to all the makeup and costumes kept there. Why would Sissy want to do something like hide and attack people? Anger, rage, jealousy — Abby ran through the reasons they’d listed earlier in the evening for someone turning into or pretending to be a monster.
Jealousy seemed the only one that suited Sissy. Jealous of whom? Jerry and Lenny had been the only ones attacked so far. Sissy had no reason for jealousy there. Unless they were just red herrings for the real attack, for injuring the person she really wanted to get at. And who would that be? Abby shivered. Sissy might be jealous of her. Of David loving her. But enough for an elaborate scheme like dressing up as a monster and scaring people until she hurt the one she wanted?
No, that was crazy, Abby decided.
Putting things back, trying to remember which piece of material was hanging out — as if Sissy would remember herself with this cluttered room—Abby spotted a piece of paper folded small on the bottom of the drawer. She picked it up.
Curiosity drove her. Quickly she unfolded it. Her heart skipped a beat. She would know David’s handwriting anywhere, his spidery scrawl.
Sissy, Sunday won’t work. I’ll meet you Tuesday night at ten at Varsity Pond, the west side where there are benches.
Wanting to wad the narrow rectangle, Abby folded it quickly and tossed it back in the drawer. Then she slid it almost shut, tugged off her pants and shoes, preferring to sleep in the shirt she was wearing instead of one of Sissy’s nightgowns. She pulled covers up over her, turned her face away from Sissy’s bed, and pretended to be already asleep.
They didn’t know it, but Sissy and David were going to have company for their secret date — meeting — assignation … Abby didn’t like this at all.
Swallowing over and over as her throat swelled, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to sob as she heard Sissy and Gina whispering and giggling.
You won’t be laughing on Tuesday, Sissy, when I catch you with my boyfriend.
Anger flashed over Abby. She clenched her fists and silently beat her pillow. Anger was easier to live with than jealousy. But it was going to be a long time before she could sleep.
Chapter 11
The hours before ten o’clock Tuesday night seemed to number into the hundreds. They weighed on Abby like a ton of bricks instead of minutes and seconds.
She went to classes, studied, tried to study. Both Monday and Tuesday nights she went to the chem lab and worked on her extra-credit project.
Tuesday night Stan was in the chem lab before her, since she’d spent time in the library before going there.
He was no longer the least bit friendly, ignoring Abby while she got settled. Thank goodness her table was clear across the room from him. But then she could feel daggers of anger and hatred coming across the room into her back. Geez, she had just refused to go out with him. Was that such a crime? And he knew she was going out with David, so he shouldn’t have been surprised at her saying no.
The rotten egg smell from whatever he was stirring and heating floated across the room and mixed with the equally acrid smell from her experiment. Two mad scientists competing for worst mess of the year. That’s what hers looked like — a mess. She couldn’t see his mixture, but if the appearance matched the smell, it was probably gooey, green, and black, with just a touch of khaki brown.
Suddenly, before she was ready, it was quarter to ten. She had to stop if she was going to get to the pond at the same time as David and Sissy. She covered her mixture and placed it in one of the class freezers.
She turned to go and was surprised. When had Stan left? She must have really been concentrating if she hadn’t heard him. But then he had the ability to creep around like a hyena hunting.
Outside, a light spring drizzle had stopped and fog had formed. Thick fog. She could scarcely see ten feet ahead of her. The trees across from Griswold Hall loomed suddenly as she crossed the grass and neared the pond.
Keeping off the sidewalk, she walked in complete silence around the south end of the water. Twice she thought she heard someone behind her, just a slight scuffling in the grass, once a crunch of gravel, a whisper of weeds crushed.
She glanced around, but of course could see nothing in the thick, gray, cottony air. She might have arrived before David or Sissy. She needed to be careful not to stumble across either of them. That would certainly spoil her plan to hide and listen.
She needn’t have worried. Because what she spotted near the benches, just where they said they’d meet, was two bodies twined into one. Sissy and David. Kissing.
Abby bit her lip, holding back sudden tears and a sob. She should have been angry. All she felt was a huge ball of sadness pressing on her chest, her heart.
What should she do? Scream and rage at David and Sissy? Let them know she had seen them? Slip away, sneak into the bushes like a whipped dog? Pretend she didn’t know, and wait for David to confess? For him to say, what we had is over, Abby. I want to go out with Sissy. We’re tired of hiding.
She felt dizzy with confusion, disappointment. But then a muffled sound behind her snapped her back to the fact that she was alone in the woods with some beast on the loose.
She smelled the garlicky mustiness of the body, the furry body. It mingled with the wet fog to clog her nostrils and smother her. She swung around, fell to the ground as it roared and stomped.
Dimly, through the haze she had dropped into, she heard Sissy scream. David yell. She heard the scuffle, the fighting, the scrambling to try to escape.
When she came to, she realized she had fainted. Where were David and Sissy? Were they hurt? She got to her feet, bent double with a wave of nausea, breathed, breathed, stood straight again. She moved forward in slow motion, swimming through the suffocating fog, fighting to surface from it.
She found the park benches. Glanced around. Here! Here was a tuft of hair, some clumps of fur. What had happened to David and Sissy? Had the — monster — carried them off? She started to call out, then remembered they hadn’t known she was there. If she revealed herself, they’d know she was watching, spying on them. Did it matter now? One of them, both of them, might be lying someplace near here, badly hurt.
She searched but found no body, no bleeding Sissy on the ground. No David leaning over her. Or the opposite. Oh, please, don’t let David be hu
rt. She forgot the hurt he had caused her, the heartache.
Smells lingered on the air. But all sound was again muffled in the thick clouds surrounding her.
Quickly she made her way back to the sidewalk in front of the chem building. A small crowd had gathered.
She ran.
“David?” She recognized him standing just outside the circle around Sissy, pretending he wasn’t with her. Blood oozed from one long scratch on his face. “David, what happened? I — I was going home from working late in the lab when I heard this terrible noise. Sissy? Are you hurt, Sissy?”
Sissy was crying but she didn’t appear to be badly hurt. In fact, she appeared to be enjoying the audience around her.
“I — I was coming home from rehearsals — you know I got the lead in the spring play —”
“We know, Sissy. We know,” muttered Abby to herself.
“Well, I was walking along, in a hurry to get home, but not walking too fast because I couldn’t see, when this thing jumped out at me. I knew what it was immediately and I screamed and screamed. That was probably what saved me. It got scared and ran, ran into those woods, there. We probably should see if we can find it, but with this fog — Well, I was just lucky. I have a few scratches, but I’m really not hurt. Just scared. God, I was scared.” Sissy leaned on Gus McClain, a hefty handsome linebacker for the Salem football team. He grinned, glad to hold her up if she felt faint.
“David Waters happened to come along,” Sissy continued her drama. “He stopped and fought the thing off. He’s not hurt badly, but he may have saved my life.”
Abby’s eyes met David’s. Something passed between them. A realization, maybe not that Abby had seen David and Sissy together, but a realization that Sissy was lying. And a realization that something they had treasured for four years was gone. They still needed to talk. He had “forgotten” their date for Sunday night. But a discussion would be merely a formality. Abby saying, here’s your tennis sweater back. I hope it won’t be too, too big for Sissy. David might even say, I didn’t mean to hurt you, Abby. It just happened.
She spun around and walked smack into Stan Hurley.
“Can I walk you to the Quad, Abby? It’s not safe for you to be out here alone. I’m going that way anyway.”
Something told Abby that Stan had seen Sissy and David together. That he knew she and David were no longer going steady. But if he thought —
No, right now he was just being nice. Nice didn’t fit the image they had all formed of him, but that was all right.
She fingered the small fluffs of hair in her pocket. A scenario formed in her mind. Stan had waited outside Griswold Hall for her to come out. He’d followed her to the woods. He, too, had seen David and Sissy kissing.
Had Stan known that Abby was hurt by what she saw? Had his anger at someone hurting her made him shift to the beast and attack the couple? He had done this for her? Questions, too many questions buzzed around her head, making her feel dizzy again.
Why was she such a wimp? If she hadn’t passed out, she would have seen this thing. Would she have known it was Stan?
Jumbled thoughts whizzed through her mind. She felt more confused than ever. And she was tired.
“That would be nice, Stan. I’d like to go to my room.”
She fell into step beside him. He didn’t say a word the whole way to the Quad. But that didn’t matter. She was safely back to her dorm. Left with a lot of heartache and as big a puzzle as ever.
But safe. For now.
Chapter 12
David shivered, thinking about what had happened to Sissy and how lucky she was to have gotten away from that — that thing that attacked them. Attacked her, actually. The beast had knocked him aside and jumped on Sissy, rolled her away from him into the dense fog.
For much too long he had frozen, his legs locked, his heart pounding, unable to react. He knew the sounds were going to haunt him forever; the moaning, the growls, Sissy screaming.
How she had gotten away from it, he didn’t know, but here she was now acting like a celebrity, talking to anyone who would listen, telling the tale over and over.
That was one of the things he didn’t like about Sissy. Her need for attention. Her over-dramatizing everything that happened. Even her demands, her delight, it appeared, at their secret meetings. David had started wanting to tell Abby about Sissy right away, but Sissy demanded that they keep quiet, meet on the sly.
What he was doing ate away at his insides, making his stomach ache. Every time they were all together, he found himself stiff and unlike himself. He couldn’t even talk and laugh and enjoy anything in a normal manner.
Now, tonight, looking at Abby, he felt worse than ever. She knew. He was certain that she knew. Why hadn’t he taken her aside right then, while Sissy was holding court, and talked to her? Confessed everything? There was no way to keep from hurting her. At least he could make a clean wound so they could both start to heal.
Abby might not believe that this was hurting him, too. But he had dated her for four years. He had loved her. He still loved her, but something inside him had started to feel trapped. And maybe, if he wanted to admit it, curious. Curious about other girls. How it would feel to kiss someone else, hold someone else in his arms.
He settled onto one of the park benches near the pond, deep in thought, not realizing he might still be in danger. Sissy was never going to miss him. She had her audience to think about.
The musty smell sent him into immediate panic.
He swung around, peering into the fog. Because of the clouds swirling and shifting around him, he couldn’t tell where the sound of shuffling feet was coming from.
But it was coming, coming for him.
Suddenly the monster leaped out of the gray void and grabbed him.
Falling to the ground, David grasped it and rolled. The hairy arms were strong as steel bands wrapping round his chest. A snarl from its snout carried a fetid breath. The stench of a decaying carcass, the heat of anger and evil.
Sharp claws raked his face. He threw his hands up to protect himself and felt razorlike teeth rip his skin.
He was able to throw it off and struggle to get to his feet only to be tackled from behind. The creature clawed his back. His jacket shredded like paper. He felt it rake his back, then squeeze. He choked, his breath wheezing out like air from a broken balloon.
Lashing back and forth, he gasped for air but felt the coppery taste of blood fill his mouth instead.
David’s last thoughts before he lost consciousness were of Abby. How he had wronged her. How he was going to die before he could apologize to her.
His mind returned to all the good times they’d shared … the dinners … the long walks … the picnics —
Chapter 13
The woods. They were in the woods. Abby and David. They had brought a picnic. Abby had fried chicken, made potato salad, and sliced the chocolate cake her mother had made the day before, piling up generous pieces, since she knew David would like it.
After lunch they dived into the deep pool from the big rocks around the creek where it had dammed up years ago and formed this perfect swimming hole. Then they lay in the sun on side-by-side towels, holding hands until they were scorching, needing another dip.
“Look, Abby. Wait till you see this — look!” David poised, leaning backwards off the highest rock.
“Don’t, David. Don’t jump. You could hit your head,” Abby cautioned, her hand stretched out to him.
“No, I won’t. You worry too much!”
He leaped up, arched, then headed for the water. He was too close to the rock, too close to the bottom rock.
“David, watch out!” Abby cried. She jumped up and reached for him but it was too late. He was going to crash into the rocks.
She stretched out her hand and reached and reached and reached …
Suddenly she sat straight up in bed and screamed. “David!”
He didn’t hit the rock. She was dreaming. She was in her own bed, at Salem
University. This was another year. She and David weren’t swimming together. They might not even be going out anymore.
All that flashed through her head before she realized that something else had waked her.
“Something has happened to David,” she whispered. “David is hurt!” She jumped out of bed, wide awake, and started to tug on her jeans and a sweatshirt.
Before she got her tennis shoes laced, there was a pounding on her door. She snapped on the light, no longer worried about waking Carrie. Then, as she dashed to her door to unlock it, she saw that Carrie wasn’t in her bed.
She jerked the door open to find Jerry and Gina in the doorway. “Abby, you have to come with us,” Jerry said urgently.
“What’s wrong?” Abby looked from Jerry to Gina, standing beside him, her face contorted into a mask of worry and concern.
“It’s David.” Gina reached out and took Abby’s arm. “It’s David, Abby. He’s hurt. Get your jacket. It’s raining.” Gina pushed Abby back into her room and towards her closet.
Her jacket wasn’t in the closet. She must have tossed it someplace last night. That didn’t matter now. She grabbed a rain slicker and a yellow, plastic-brimmed hat.
“What happened?” Abby asked. “How bad is he? He’ll be all right, won’t he?” She grabbed Jerry’s arm and swung him around. “Tell me he’ll be all right.”
“They don’t know,” Jerry said. “And we haven’t seen him yet. Sissy called me. She went looking for him, heard him moaning, and found him beside the lake. She said she didn’t know why he’d gone back there. It was the same place the — the beast had attacked her earlier.”
“Maybe he went back to look for clues.” Gina took one of Abby’s arms and Jerry took the other. They steered her towards the stairs, down, out the front door of the Quad, and then towards Gina’s car.
“Where is he?” Abby asked, her legs feeling rubbery. She was glad for Jerry and Gina’s arms. She wasn’t sure she could walk without them holding her up.
Monster Page 6
