to get her bearings-and drew in her breath sharply. The door was still behind her. It hadn't disappeared. She could walk right out again.
But if this was Zach's nightmare, he must be in here somewhere. She couldn't leave without looking for him.
After a moment's hesitation she headed for the nearest floodlamp, a neon pink one. It took courage to step away from the security of the door, and once she did she kept her eyes fixed on the island of light ahead. The black velvet ground was perfectly smooth, without the slightest wrinkle. She could practically skate over it in her flats.
When she reached the floodlamp, she saw it had a pink filter just like the ones Zach used. He got them from the drama department when colored spotlights burned out. And the scene it illuminated was exactly like a print Zach had made-a cardboard silhouette of a neon-pink coyote in the grass. The print had been weird and high tech, like all Zach's photos, but Jenny had always liked it. Just now the coyote-shape standing alone with pink light blazing on it was unnerving.
Waiting for the photographer, Jenny thought. It gave the disquieting impression that it had been waiting there forever.
She headed toward the next floodlamp, a white one maybe forty feet away. It was hard to judge distance here.
This one was shining on a wall, a single wall standing alone, its windows broken out. Silver dots and swathes decorated the wall. Zach had gone into deserted houses in Zuma Beach and painted and photographed them. Vandalism, the police said, but Zach insisted it was art.
Jenny looked on both sides of the freestanding wall. It was unnerving, too. Everything was so quiet here... .
Just as she thought it, she heard a faint clanking noise.
The light from the pink floodlamp dimmed for a moment-as if something had passed in front of it. Standing rigid, Jenny strained her eyes in the darkness. She couldn't see anything moving. She couldn't hear anything, either.
Just your imagination, she told herself-but it was hard to make it sound convincing.
Glancing back frequently, she walked to the next lamp.
This one had a neon orange filter. A few years ago Zach had photographed baking soda thrown in the air under colored lights. The problem was that here the baking soda stayed in the air, a glowing orange cloud suspended-by nothing. Jenny could see individual motes in it twinkle and drift slightly.
God, get me out of here.
She backed away from it and set out for the next island.
When she got closer her heart skipped and she began to run. There were two blue floodlamps close together. Zach was under one.
Jenny opened her mouth to shout to him, but stopped at the last minute. What if it wasn't Zach? She'd been fooled once.
She approached cautiously and looked down at the figure in silence.
Same flannel shirt over same T-shirt. Same denims. Same hair in same ponytail.
He was holding a fist-size rock over a gray canvas painted with silver streaks. He put the rock down, looked at it, picked it back up. He put it down again in almost exactly the same place.
"I'm going to call it 'Rock on Water,'" he said. He looked up. "Because rocks don't really float."
"Zach," said Jenny. She knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. His gray eyes were abstracted and a little glazed, just like the other's had been. But something told Jenny this was really her cousin.
A stealthy noise in the endless dark made her look up fast. The white spotlight winked out, went back on.
"Zach, we've got to go," she said and tightened her grip. "I'll explain later-but there's something out there, and we have to get back to the door."
Zach just gave her one of his absent smiles, the kind that didn't reach his eyes. "I know it's out there," he said. "It doesn't matter. It's all part of my hallucination."
"Your what? You mean your nightmare?"
"Whatever." He picked up the rock again, shifted it slightly, considered it. "I've known for a long time that this was going to happen."
Jenny was genuinely astonished. "You knew we were going to get kidnapped by the Shadow Man?"
"I knew I was going to go crazy." Then, adjusting the rock fractionally, he said, "Actually 'kidnapped by the Shadow Man' is a really interesting way of putting it. Really imaginative. I mean, what else is going insane?"
Jenny could feel her mouth hanging open. Then she shut it with a snap and took her cousin by both shoulders.
"Zachary,