The Initiation Page 0,42

scrap. It had a shape - she could see what looked like the sweater's arm. In fact, it looked like a whole bundle of clothes. See, there was something like jeans lying below it...

Suddenly Cassie couldn't breathe.

That's funny - that's really funny, because it looks almost like a person. But that would be so stupid - it's cold and wet on the ground. Anybody lying down there would freeze -

She was moving down the steps quickly now.

Stupid - but it really does look a lot like somebody. See, there's legs. That yellow could be hair. They must be asleep - but who would go to sleep like that? Right beside the road. Of course, the weeds and stuff screen them -

She was very close now, and everything had gone into slow motion - everything but her whirling, reeling thoughts.

Oh, thank God - it isn't a person after all; it's just a dummy. Like one of those stuffed scarecrow things they put out at Halloween to scare people. See, it's all floppy in the middle... no person could bend that way... the neck looks like the neck of that doll in my locker. Like somebody pulled the head out...

Cassie's own body was reacting strangely. Her chest was heaving and her muscles were shaking. Her knees were trembling so hard she could scarcely remain standing. And her vision was sparkling at the edges as if she were going to faint.

Thank God, it's not a person - but oh, my God, is that a hand? Dummies don't have hands like that... not hands with little pink fingers... and dummies don't wear rings, turquoise rings...

Where had she seen a ring like that before?

Look at it closer; no, don't look, don't look -

But she had seen. The hand, stiff as a claw, was human. And the ring was Kori's.

Cassie didn't realize that she was screaming until she was halfway up the hill. Her legs, which had been trembling so badly, were taking her up in leaps and surges. And she was screaming over and over again: "Help, help, help." Only they were such thin, pathetic little shrieks - it was no wonder no one heard her. It was like one of those nightmares where your vocal cords are paralyzed.

But someone had heard. As she reached the top of the hill Diana appeared, running. She caught Cassie by the shoulders.

"What is it?"

"Kori!" Cassie gasped in a strangled voice. She could hardly speak. "Diana - help Kori! She's hurt. Something's wrong - " She knew it was more than something wrong, but she couldn't bring herself to say the words. "Help her, please - "

"Where?" Diana cut in sharply.

"The bottom. Bottom of the hill. But don't go down there," Cassie gasped illogically. Oh, God, she was completely falling apart. She couldn't cope - but she couldn't let Diana go down there alone, either.

Diana was flying down the stairs. Stiff-legged, Cassie followed. She saw Diana reach the bottom and hesitate, then swiftly kneel and bend forward.

"Is she - ?" Cassie's hands were clenched.

Diana straightened up. Cassie saw the answer in the set of her shoulders. "She's cold. She's dead."

Then Diana turned around. Her face was white, her green eyes burning. Something in her expression gave Cassie strength, and she stumbled down the last two steps and flung her arms around her.

She could feel Diana shaking, clinging to her. Kori had been Diana's friend, not hers.

"It'll be okay. It'll be okay," she gasped, illogical again. There was no way for this to be okay, ever. And over and over in Cassie's mind other words were echoing.

Someday they may find you at the bottom of those stairs with a broken neck. Someday they may find you...

Kori's neck was broken.

That was what the police doctor said. After Cassie and Diana went back up the stairs, everything that day seemed like a dream. Adults came and took over. School officials, the police, the doctor. They asked questions. They made notes in their notebooks. Throughout it all the kids in the school stood aside and watched. They weren't part of the adults' process. They had questions of their own.

"What are we waiting for? Why don't we just get her?" Deborah was saying as Cassie came into the back room. It wasn't her lunch period, but all the rules seemed to have been suspended that day.

"We all heard her say it," Deborah was continuing. "Suzan, Faye, and me - even she heard it." She gestured at Cassie, who was numbly trying