The Captive Page 0,60

It was growing. Faye was standing under that dreadful cascade of darkness, and the sound was like two ice picks driving into Cassie's ears, and somewhere a dog was barking...

Someone has to stop this, Cassie realized. No-I have to stop this. Now.

She was getting to her feet when the skull exploded.

Everything was quiet and dark.

Cassie wanted it to stay that way.

Somebody groaned beside her.

Cassie sat up slowly, looking around, trying to piece together what had happened. The cemetery looked like a killing field. Bodies were strewn all over. There was Adam, stretched out with one arm reaching toward the circle and Raj beside him. There was Diana with her shining hair in the leaves and dirt. There was Nick, getting to his hands and knees, shaking his head.

Faye was lying in a pool of black silk, her dark hair covering her face. Her hands with their long red nails were cupped, open-but empty. There was no sign of the skull.

Someone groaned again, and Cassie looked to see Deborah sitting up, rubbing her face with one hand.

"Are they dead?" Deborah said hoarsely, staring around.

"I don't know," Cassie whispered. Her own throat hurt. All those bodies, and the only movement was the fluttering of Diana's hair in the wind. And Nick, who was stumbling toward the circle.

But then there was a stirring-people were starting to sit up. Sean was whimpering. Suzan was, too. Deborah crawled over to Faye and pushed Faye's hair back.

"She's breathing."

Cassie nodded; she didn't know what to say. Adam was bending over Diana-she looked quickly away from that. Melanie and Laurel were up, and so were Chris and Doug, looking like punch-drunk fighters. Everyone seemed to be alive.

Then Cassie saw Laurel gasp and point. "Oh, my God. The mound. Look at the mound."

Cassie turned-and froze. Her eyes went back and forth over the scene without believing it.

The mound her grandmother had told her was for storing artillery was broken open. The rusty padlock was gone, and the iron door was jammed against the piece of concrete. But that wasn't all. The top of the mound, where the sparse cemetery grass had grown, was cracked like an overripe plum. Like the cocoon of an insect that had burst free.

And all up and down the line of graves by the fence, tombstones were tilting crazily. The ones nearest the mound, the ones with the names of the parents of Crowhaven Road, were split and shattered. Riven, Cassie thought, the old-fashioned word coming from nowhere, singularly appropriate.

Something from inside the mound smelled bad.

"I've got to see," Deborah muttered. Cassie had never admired anyone so much as she did Deborah just then, making her staggering way toward the open mound. Deborah had more physical courage than anyone Cassie had ever known. Dizzily, Cassie got up and lurched beside her, and they both fell to their knees at the edge of the evil-smelling fissure.

The moon shining inside showed that it was empty. But there was a coating like slime on the raw earth down there.

Then light and motion caught Cassie's eye.

It was in the sky, the sky to the northeast. It was something like the aurora borealis, except that it flickered intermittently, and it was entirely red.

"That's above Crowhaven Road," Nick said.

"Oh, God, what's happening?" Laurel cried.

"Looks like fire," Deborah muttered, still hoarse.

"Whatever it is, we'd better get there," Nick said.

Adam was holding Diana, trying to revive her. Suzan and Sean were huddled, and Chris and Doug still looked punchy. But Melanie and Laurel were on their feet, if shaken.

"Nick's right," Melanie said. "Let Adam take care of things here. Something's happening."

Cassie glanced at Faye, her fallen leader, lying on the ground. Then she turned and followed Melanie without a word.

It didn't matter that the five who started unsteadily toward the road had just recently been on opposite sides of a fight. There was no time to think about anything that petty now. Cassie got on the back of Deborah's motorcycle, and Melanie and Laurel jumped into Nick's car. The others would have to follow when they could-and if they wanted to.

Wind roared in Cassie's ears like the sound of the sea. But the feeling of power she'd had earlier, the connection with the elements, was broken. She couldn't think-her mind was fuzzy and cloudy as if she had a bad cold. All she knew was that she had to get to Crowhaven Road.

"It's not fire," Deborah shouted as they approached. "No smoke."

Dark houses flew by-Diana's, Deborah's. The empty Georgian at Number Three. Melanie's,