on to his hat as he plummeted. Karen and Liz climbed the railing while Heather squirmed under it. Jeremy started to climb. Shiner grabbed the back of his jacket.
“Don’t,” she said.
“The guy took a picture!”
“They’ll take care of him.”
He knocked her hand away and straddled the bar.
“Please. Dammit, please!”
He shook his head, climbed down onto the edge of the boardwalk, and jumped. The beach pounded his feet. His legs folded, and he rolled over the sand. As he pushed himself up, Shiner landed beside him.
“Leave me alone!” he snapped.
“I’m coming with you.”
“I don’t need you.”
But she stayed at his side as he rushed after the others into the darkness beneath the boardwalk.
“Where is he?” Tanya’s voice.
“Oh, God, we can’t lose him.” Karen.
“We’ll get him.” Cowboy. “We’ll nail his sorry ass.”
“Dance on his face.” Liz.
“Christ, it’s dark down here.” Samson.
“Everybody shut up,” Tanya said. “Maybe we can hear him.”
Off to the left, a patch of ruddy, shimmering light appeared in the blackness.
“There! There!”
“Judas priest, a fucking door.”
The huge form of the troll was silhouetted against it as he crouched and entered. Then he was gone, but the light remained.
They rushed toward it, dodging the thick pilings that supported the boardwalk.
The next shape Jeremy saw silhouetted against the light was Tanya. She didn’t hesitate for an instant. She lunged inside. The others followed.
As Jeremy stepped through the opening, he heard the faint, distant shrill of a whistle.
“That was Randy,” Shiner whispered behind him. “Joan’s here.”
Jeremy thought she would rush off to join her sister. But she put a hand on his back and entered.
“The cops are here,” Jeremy announced. “Randy just blew his whistle.”
“They won’t find us,” Tanya said. “Close the door.”
Shiner pulled it shut.
They were crowded into a small room lighted by candles on wall holders. The door at their backs was tight against a concrete wall. Another door on the left. Ahead of them was a staircase.
Cowboy tried the second door. “Locked,” he said.
“Where the hell are we?” Heather asked, her voice low and whiny.
“Looks like a basement,” Samson said.
“Brilliant deduction,” Liz muttered.
“Tha’s a fack,” came a dry, ancient voice from above. “Welcome t’ Jasper’s Funhouse.”
Tanya pulled a folding knife out of the pouch of her sweatshirt. She pried its blade out.
Jeremy dug into a pocket for his Swiss Army knife.
He saw Samson, Karen, and Cowboy produce knives of their own.
“Everybody ready?” Tanya whispered. She scanned the group, her eyes glinting and fierce in the candlelight, then turned around and began to climb the stairs.
Forty-one
Robin’s eyes were squeezed shut in pain and fear, but she opened them just a crack when she heard sudden shouts. The shapes of the trollers, far below, started running up the boardwalk.
Her stomach seemed to take a sudden drop.
God, she was so high!
A blink of light flicked a quick white glare over the tiny figures. It came from a big man ahead of them, who suddenly ran to the railing, leapt over it, and rushed out of sight under the boardwalk.
The kids, in pursuit, started throwing themselves over the railing.
Are they leaving me up here? she wondered.
Are they done hurting me?
No. No, they aren’t done. They’ll come back. They have to kill me. I’m a witness.
Oh, God, Nate.
Deader than shit.
They murdered him. Tanya did.
But why did she cuff him to the bed? Maybe she lied to that kid. Duke, she’d called him Duke. She wouldn’t have cuffed Nate if he was dead, would she?
Maybe.
Maybe he’s alive.
I can get help for him if I get down from here.
If I don’t get down, they’ll come back and kill me. Tanya or Duke will. Maybe they won’t do it in front of the others, though.
All they had to do was start the wheel going again, make it stop once more, and she’d probably go flying.
The last stop had almost torn her loose.
It was like being yanked downward by a mighty giant. The steel edges of the bracelets tore at her, and she’d thought her hands might rip off. Her fists had been clenched all the way up and over the top. If they hadn’t been, she was sure she would’ve been jerked out of the cuffs.
The end of Robin.
Even now, her fists were all that kept her from falling.
Open your hands, she thought, and it’s all over.
Out of your misery.
Just one big pain, and that’s it. All the pain gone.
I don’t want to fall!
A numbness was starting to replace the pain in her hands. She felt blood trickling down her arms and sides. The breeze off the ocean