"Something had me! Something grabbed me, Meredith!"
"I know. Be quiet! It's still around," Meredith said. Bonnie jammed her face into Meredith's shoulder to keep from screaming again. What if it was here in the room with them?
Seconds crawled past, and the silence pooled around them. No matter how Bonnie strained her ears, she could hear no sound except their own breathing and the dull thudding of her heart.
Bonnie started to nod miserably, then abruptly lifted her head. "Where's Vickie?" she whispered hoarsely.
"I don't know. I had to let go of her hand to pull you away from that thing. Let's move."
Bonnie held her back. "But why isn't she screaming?"
A shudder went through Meredith. "I don't know."
"Oh, God. Oh, God. We can't leave her, Meredith."
"We have to."
"We can't. Meredith, I made Caroline invite her. She wouldn't be here except for me. We have to get her out."
There was a pause, and then Meredith hissed, "All right! But you pick the strangest times to turn noble, Bonnie."
A door slammed, causing both of them to jump. Then there was a crashing, like feet on stairs, Bonnie thought. And briefly, a voice was raised.
"Vickie, where are you? Don't-Vickie, no! No!"
"That was Sue," gasped Bonnie, jumping up. "From upstairs!"
"Why don't we have a flashlight?" Meredith was raging.
Bonnie knew what she meant. It was too dark to go running blindly around this house; it was too frightening. There was a primitive panic hammering in her brain. She needed light, any light.
She couldn't go fumbling into that darkness again, exposed on all sides. She couldn't do it.
Nevertheless, she took one shaky step away from the chair.
"Come on," she gasped, and Meredith came with her, step by step, into the blackness.
Bonnie kept expecting that moist, hot hand to reach out and grab her again. Every inch of her skin tingled in anticipation of its touch, and especially her own hand, which she had outstretched to feel her way.
Then she made the mistake of remembering the dream.
Instantly, the sickly sweet smell of garbage overwhelmed her. She imagined things crawling out of the ground and then remembered Elena's face, gray and hairless, with lips shriveled back from grinning teeth. If that thing grabbed hold of her...
I can't go any farther; I can't, I can't, she thought. I'm sorry for Vickie, but I can't go on. Please, just let me stop here.
It was a whole series of sounds, actually, but they all came so close together that they blended into one terrible swell of noise. First there was screaming, Sue's voice screaming, "Vickie! Vickie! No!" Then a resonant crash, the sound of glass shattering, as if a hundred windows were breaking at once. And over that a sustained scream, on a note of pure, exquisite terror.
Then it all stopped.
"What was it? What happened, Meredith?"
"Something bad." Meredith's voice was taut and choked. "Something very bad. Bonnie, let go. I'm going to see."
"Not alone, you're not," Bonnie said fiercely.
They found the staircase and made their way up it. When they reached the landing, Bonnie could hear a strange and oddly sickening sound, the tinkle of glass shards falling.
And then the lights went on.