The Hunter Page 0,43

Michael. Only Summer stood rooted in horror.

"The door!" Dee shouted, from the top of a pile.

Jenny's head snapped up. Relief flooded through her. Barely visible above a stinking pile she could see the rectangular molding of the door.

"It opens in," Audrey said. "We have to get all this stuff out of the way."

They scrambled over each other, ripping at the pile. A cockroach climbed onto Jenny's foot; she kicked it off. Time to scream later.

The room shook again. Jenny looked up and her breath hissed in. There were ominous cracks in the ceiling.

At that moment Dee and Michael cleared the last rubble from the door.

With a thankful sob Jenny helped them pull it open.

Then she turned to look back.

What she saw wasn't anybody's room. It was Hell. There were huge cracks in the floor with monstrous, mutant bugs crawling out. The ceiling was buckling and plaster was filtering down. The moths, disturbed, were fluttering through the air, their wings making a sound like huge cards shuffling. And sprouting like grotesque anemones among the refuse were objects Jenny didn't recognize. They looked like drooping sea cucumbers and they were green-gray.

Audrey and Michael had stumbled out into the hall of mirrors. Dee was holding the door. The earth rumbled again.

"Summer, come on!" Jenny shouted.

Summer turned toward her voice, her large blue eyes blind. She took a step toward Jenny.

One of the growths directly in her path straightened up. It became a column. At the top of the column there was an aperture that flared open and shut.

The aperture opened wide. A demented, obscene sound came out.

It was howling.

The other growths were straightening. The moaning siren sound doubled, tripled. They were between Summer and the door.

Summer turned and stumbled back toward the closet, shrieking.

"Summer, no! Come back!"

The ground heaved. The piles of garbage were toppling, falling into the clear path. The mutant bugs skittered around in a frenzy. They seemed to be heading toward Summer. The fungus howled.

Summer's shrieks gave way to full-throated screaming.

"Summer!" Adrenaline kicked in and Jenny plunged into the garbage, trying to climb it.

"Jenny, come back!" Dee shouted. More rubbish

fell. Jenny couldn't see Summer at all. The screams were fading.

"Jenny, I can't hold the door!"

The screams fell silent. Only the howling went on.

"Summer!"

The earth jerked violently.

"It's coming down!" Dee shouted, and Jenny felt a hand grab her, pull her backward.

"No-we have to get Summer!"

"We can't get anybody! Come on!"

"No-Summer!" Jenny screamed, turning again.

Dee ducked and caught Jenny around the waist. Jenny found herself flying over Dee's shoulders, out the door.

Michael and Audrey grabbed her. Through the open door Jenny saw the ceiling come down. Dee staggered out and fell beside them. Jenny didn't have the strength to stand up.

Then the door slammed shut as the toppling piles fell against it.

"Look," Michael said in a thick voice.

The door was disappearing.

It did a slow fade, like a still frame in a movie. It was a door, it was a slightly misty door, it was a transparent door with mirror showing through, it was a mirrored wall.

Jenny was staring wildly at her own image.

She could see the others in the mirror. Audrey was white as china. Dee's face was gray. Michael looked numb. They huddled on the carpet, stunned.

It had happened with such terrible suddenness.

Jenny whispered, "When Dee was late coming out of Audrey's nightmare, the door didn't disappear. It stayed there-and she came out. But this time ..."

"God," said Dee in a very low voice.

There was a long silence. Audrey, finally, was the one to say the words.

"She's dead."

Jenny put her face in her hands. It was a gesture she would never have thought she'd use. At the moment it just happened. She wanted to hide from the world. She wanted to make everything that had happened unhappen.

"It's not fair," she whispered. "She never hurt anybody." Then she was standing, shouting to the echoing hallway. "It's not fair. It's not fair, damn you! She didn't deserve it! It's not fair!"

"Jenny. Jenny, calm down-come on, now. Jenny, please-just sit down, okay?"

They were all trying to hold her. Jenny realized she wasn't in control of herself. She was trembling violently, and her throat hurt from screaming.

As suddenly as it had come, the hysterical energy faded. Jenny felt herself falling.

They set her down.

"It's okay," Dee said, and Jenny felt a hand stroking her hair. At any other time it would have surprised her. Now she felt nothing. "It's okay to be upset," Dee said.

They didn't understand. It was Jenny's fault. She was the one who