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Cassie didn’t knohere she was going The school was trying to hold classes, even though there were probably more kids outside the classroo around the main entrance Cassie looked dazedly at a clock and then went to her science class, conceptual physics She could probably call her o home if she liked, but she didn’t want to face her ht now She just wanted to try and pretend to be norless notes, she could feel eyes on her She had the odd feeling that she’d been transported back in tio, when Faye had blackballed her But after class she saw the difference People kept co, "Are you okay?" and "How’re you doing?" They looked ill at ease - as if they didn’t want to be talking to her but felt they’d better After her last class there were roups of two or three to say, "Sorry" or "Just want you to knoe’ll miss her too"

The truth of it struck her suddenly, and she alhed at the irony They were condolence calls! Cassie was standing in for the Club All of these outsiders were co that she was as much outside as any of them

When a cheerleader came and said, "Oh, this must be so hard for you," Cassie lost it

"I didn’t even know her!" she burst out "I only spoke to her once in my life!"

The cheerleader backed off hastily After that the condolence calls stopped

Ms Lanning, the history teacher, drove Cassie ho - apparently the school had called to explain what had happened - and went outside She clirandmother’s house

The ocean had never looked bleaker It was a heavy, shining silver color - like the mercury in a therht, had turned overcast, and it got darker and darker as Cassie paced

And paced This beach had been one of the good things about living here - but what good was it now? She alking on it alone

Her chest was bursting It was as if all the terrible events of the day were locked inside her, struggling to get out But there was no release

She’d thought being an outcast at school was the worst thing that could happen to her But it orse to al, and to know inside that you didn’t, and never would She kneas selfish to care about herself after what had happened to Kori, but she couldn’t help it With all the rage of confusion and pain inside her, she aled She had a place

Cassie, on the other hand, had never felt so lonely

The sky was dark gray The ocean stretched out endlessly beneath it, even darker Looking at it, Cassie felt a strange and terrible fascination If she just started walking toward it and kept on going

Stop that! she thought savagely Get hold of yourself

But it would be so easy

Yes, and then you’d really be alone Alone forever, in the dark Sounds good, doesn’t it, Cassie?

Shivering violently, she wrenched herself away froray waters Her feet were nuers felt like ice She stumbled as she cliht, she pulled all the curtains shut in her room so she wouldn’t have to see the ocean or the darkness outside Chest aching, she opened her jewelry box and took out the piece of chalcedony

I haven’t touched your gift in a while But I’ve thought about you Whatever I’, wherever I am, you’re somewhere in my mind And oh, hoish

Her hand shook as she shut her eyes and put the stone to her lips She felt the fa to her warmth Her breath came more quickly and tears started to her eyes Oh, soht

Then herlike lava welled up in her chest, and she threw the stone as hard as she could across the roo, to the floor

So yourself! You’ll never see hi with sore eyes into the diht on the far wall She couldn’t cry All her tears had been scorched away But her heart felt as if it had been torn open

Cassie was drea of the ocean - the dark and endless ocean The ship was in trouble - she could hear the tiround And so was lost lost

She ca in her breath Was that a noise?

Body tense, she listened Silence Her eyes struggled to pierce the darkness The night-light had gone out

Why hadn’t it occurred to her to be afraid earlier? What had been wrong with her this evening? She’d gone out there on the beach alone, never even wondering if the person who’d killed Kori ht, every sense alert and straining They said it was probably an accident But her heart was thundering dizzily She seehts in the darkness And she could feel

A presence Like a shadow in front of her Oh, God, she could feel it She sensed it like a pressure on her skin, like a radiation of cold There was so into the utter blackness, her body treht that if she didn’t move, didn’t make a sound, it couldn’t find her

But she rong

She heard a shuffling noise, a stealthy advancing Then the un toward her

Suddenly she could move She drew in breath for a screa clapped over her ed Before, all had been stillness, now all was dizzy ood; her ar else had her feet

She was being rolled over and over Wrapped in the sheet She couldn’tto kick, but her feet were trapped too

She felt herself being lifted She couldn’t screa her And thesilence Whatever had her was as noiseless as a ghost

As a ghost and she herself was norapped in a shroud Wild thoughts careened in Cassie’s head

It was taking her out of her bedroo her outside to bury her

She had envied Kori - now she was going to join her It was going to put her in the ground - or in the sea Frantic, she tried to thrash, but the restraining ht

She had never been so frightened

In tih, the violence of her first panic exhausted itself It was like fighting against a strait jacket; her struggles only served to tire her out And overheat her She was s and she was so hot if only she could breathe

Panting, Cassie felt her body go limp For the next few h air Then, slowly, she began to think again

She was being carried by s were being restrained not only by the winding material of the sheet, but by hands

Hues out of horror movies Skeletal hands barely covered by withered flesh Dusky hands with nail beds the cyanotic blue of death Mutilated hands, hands frorave

Oh, God, please I’ll lose my mind Please make it stop or I’ll die I’ll die of terror Nobody can be this frightened and live

But it wasn’t so easy just to die after all It didn’t stop, and she went on living It was like a nightmare, but Cassie knew she was not asleep She could pray all she wanted, but she wouldn’t wake up

Then everything stopped

She was no longer being carried; she was being held Then tilted her legs kicked and touched ground She was being set on her feet The sheet was unwinding; she felt a breeze on her legs, and her nightgown heainst therabbed out, and her wrists were caught and held behind her She still couldn’t see So was over her head, so her own carbon dioxide She swayed, wanting to kick, to fight again, and knowing she didn’t have the strength

Then, froed everything

It was a chuckle

Slow and rich Ae to it

Unht she had been frightened before She’d i her back into the ground with the compared to the sheer terror she felt now

In one blinding instant she put it all together Faye had killed Kori The way she was going to kill Cassie now

"Walk," Faye said, and Cassie felt a push in the center of her back Her hands had been tied together behind her She staggered and then took a step "Straight ahead," Faye said

Cassie staggered another step, and an arm steadied her It came from the side Faye wasn’t alone, then Well, of course not; she couldn’t have carried Cassie by herself

Cassie had never realized how i to be ness For all she knew Faye ht off a cliff

No, not off a cliff They weren’t on a bluff; they were on the beach Although she couldn’t see, now that she was no longer wrapped in the sheet her other senses were functioning From her left came the slow, rhythmic roar of waves Very close Under her feet she could feel cruown around her calves was cold and fresh It smelled of salt and seaweed

"Stop"

Cassie obeyed automatically She tried to s and found the inside of her et out

"Be quiet!" The voice was sharp, no laziness now Like a cat with its claws unsheathed A sudden pressure at her neck rabbed the bottoly "Don’t talk unless you’re asked a question Don’t move unless you’re told Do you understand?"

Numbly, Cassie nodded

"Now take one step forward Turn to your left Stop Stay right there Don’t make a sound"

Hands lorious rush of cool air as the hood was lifted away Light burst in on her, and Cassie stared in astonishment at the fantastic scene before her eyes

Black and white, that was her first thought Everything was stark black and white, like a scene from the surface of the moon

But there was the moon in front of her Pure white, just risen, it formed a perfect crescent over the ocean The ocean was as black as the sky, except for the ghostly white foaure that seeht

Diana?