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Prologue

What Davey Knew

The Bronx

New York City, New York

Ten Years Ago

The eyes fell upon Sarah Hampton with a golden glow; the woman’s mouth, covered with blood, split into a diabolical smile as she cackled with glee, raising her carving knife and slamming it down on the writhing man tied to the butcher block in the kitchen. Blood seemed to spurt everywhere. Screams rose.

And Sarah, laughing at herself for her own scream, grabbed Davey’s hand and followed Tyler Grant out of the haunted house.

“Fun!” Tyler said, laughing, catching his breath.

It was fun. Though Sarah had to admit she was glad she was here as part of a party of six. Fun? Yes, sure...

And creepy! The weapons had looked real. The “scare actors” could have passed for the real thing quite easily as far as she was concerned.

“Ah, come on, the guy on the butcher block—his screams were nowhere as good as they should have been,” Hannah Levine said. “He must be getting tired of screaming—long season, long night. But I guess it is Halloween.”

“Yeah, I imagine that the poor kid has been at it awhile,” Sean Avery agreed. He looked at Sarah’s cousin, Davey. “Then again, this place opens for only four weekends, with Halloween weekend, the last, being the boss. Coolest thing ever, Davey!”

Davey gave him a weird little half smile.

Suzie Cornwall—Sarah’s best friend—frowned. “What’s the matter, Davey? Was the haunted house too scary for you? We were all with you, you know.”

“That one was okay,” Davey said.

“But now...drumroll! We’re moving on—to the major attraction!” Sean said.

“No, no, no!” Davey shook his head violently. “I’m scared!” He clearly didn’t want to go into Cemetery Mansion, another of the haunted houses; he seemed terrified.

Sarah looked at her cousin with dismay.

She loved Davey. She really loved him. She had never met anyone who was as kind, as oblivious to what others thought, as willing to help others.

But Davey had Down syndrome. And while most of Sarah’s friends were great, every once in a while they acted as if they didn’t want to be with her, not if she was bringing Davey along.

And tonight...

Well, it was almost Halloween. And she and her friends had scored tickets to Haunted Hysteria in a radio contest. It was the prime event of the season, but one they couldn’t actually afford. Well, to be honest—and they all had to agree—it was Davey who’d won the tickets. They’d asked him to dial the radio station number over and over again, and Davey hadn’t minded.

The place itself was fabulous. Decorated to a T. Bats, ghouls, ghosts, vampires, witches and more—young actors and actresses, of course, but they walked around doing a brilliant job. The foam tombstones looked real and aged; the makeshift mortuary chapel was darkened as if older than time itself. Lights cast green and purple beams, and fog machines set in strategic places made for an absolutely immersive experience.

And now they were all here—she, Davey, Tyler, Sean, Suzie and Hannah. Suzie, tall and well-built, perfectly proportioned to be dressed up as Jessica Rabbit for the night, was her best friend. Tyler was the love of her life. And most of the time, both of them were truly wonderful friends. Tyler had even told her once that he knew right off the bat if he’d like people or not—all depending on the way they treated Davey.

Hannah was a stunner, olive skinned and dark haired—and as an evil fairy, she was even more exotically beautiful than usual. Sarah was pretty sure she’d caused one of the “scare actors” to pause—too startled by her beauty to scare her!

Sean...Sean was charming, the old class clown. Apropos, he was dressed up as the Joker. Every once in a while, his wit could be cruel. Mostly, though, he was a great guy, and the five of them had been friends forever, even though Sarah and Tyler were the only duo in their group.

She had come in steampunk apparel; Tyler had matched her with an amazing vest and frock coat. Davey had come as his all-time favorite personality—Elvis Presley.

They were all nearly eighteen now. Come October of next year, they’d be off at their different colleges, except she’d be at NYU with Tyler, as they’d planned. But for tonight...

It was fricking Halloween. Aunt Renee had asked her to take Davey with her. Yes, of course, Sarah was very aware the tickets really belonged to Davey.

Sarah always tried to be helpful. It was easy to help care for her cousin.

Aunt Renee wasn’t in any kind of financial trouble—she had a great job as a buyer for a major chain store—and she had household help and could afford to send Davey to a special school.

But Aunt Renee wanted Davey to have friends and spend time with people his own age—Sarah’s age. Aunt Renee wanted a wider world for Davey; she did not want his mom to be his only companion.

Sarah’s friends were usually happy to have Davey with them.

But now Sarah could feel that Davey was holding them all back—and they were kids, with a right to be kids. The others were looking at her. Sure, they loved Davey. They were good people. But she could see them thinking screw it! They’d come to Haunted Hysteria; they were going in the haunted houses, and Sarah was welcome to sit outside with Davey.

Tyler, of course, had the grace to look guilty. He wasn’t eighteen until January, but he was already over six foot three, heavily muscled in the shoulders and extremely fine in the face. Hot, yes. Tyler was hot. And he loved her. He really did. Then, she hoped she wasn’t exactly dog chow herself. She was, she admitted, the typical cheerleader to his football hero. Yes, she was blonde and blue-eyed, the fault of her genetics. She was a good student and coordinated enough to be a great cheerleader. She liked to believe she’d been taught by her family to be a lot more, too—as in decent and compassionate and bright enough to see and understand others.

She thought Tyler was like that, too. No matter how cool he was.

They were just right for each other—and their group of friends was nice, too! Something she considered extremely important. Tonight, they wanted to be seniors—they wanted to be a little bit wicked and have a great time.

But being Davey’s cousin had long ago taught Sarah about the importance of kindness in the world. Patience, sharing, caring...all that.

All that...

Seemed to go out the window right now.

“Davey, I know you were scared in the first house, but we’re all with you,” she said.

“Hey, buddy,” Tyler told him. “I’m bigger than the damned ghosts!”

“You can go between Sarah and Tyler,” Suzie said. “They’ll protect you.”

“No! No—the things in this house—they were okay. They weren’t real. But that house...that one, there. There are things in it that are real. That are bad. They’re evil!” Davey said.

“Oh, you’re being silly,” Hannah said.

“It’s true,” Davey said.

“How do you know?” Sean asked him.

“My father told me!” Davey said. “He helps me see.”

Sarah bit her lip. Davey’s dad had died over a year ago. Aunt Renee was alone with Davey now. Davey’s dad had been a marine, and he had been killed serving his country. Her uncle had been a wonderful man—good to all the kids. She’d loved him, too, and she’d known he loved her.

“Davey, your father isn’t here,” she said. “You know...you know your dad is dead.”

Davey looked at her stubbornly. “My father told me!” he insisted.

“Davey,” Sarah said softly, calmly, “of course, the point is for it all to be very scary. Vampires, ghosts—but they’re not real. It’s a spooky fun place for Halloween. There are all kinds of made-up characters here.”

“No. Real bad things.”

They all let his words sit for a minute.

“The actors in there—they’re not evil, Davey,” Suzie said. “Come on, you’ve seen creatures like that before—and the ones who walk around, they’re high school kids like us or college kids, and now and then, an adult actor without a show at the moment! You know all about actors, buddy. There are pretend vampires—and werewolves, mummies, ghosts—you name it.”

“No. Not werewolves. Not vampires,” Davey insisted. “Bad people. Like my dad said!”

“You love actors and movies,” Sean said. Sean knew Davey had a skill for remembering everything about all the movies and, because of that, he always made sure Davey was on his team for trivia games. When they weren’t playing trivia, however, Sean had a tendency to ignore Davey.

Sean seemed to be trying with the rest of their group to engage Davey, but he kept looking at his watch. He wanted to move on.

“You shouldn’t go in! You shouldn’t go in. It’s bad. Very bad,” Davey said.

“It’s just a haunted house!” Tyler said.

“I love you, Tyler,” Davey said. “Don’t go. My father...he was next to me. Yes. He was next to me. All the things he taught me. He’s dead, I know! But he’s with me. He said not to go in. He said there would be bad men and you have to look out. He was smart. My dad was a marine!” he added proudly.

“That’s kind of sick!” Hannah whispered to Sarah. “Does he honestly think...”

“Davey,” Sarah said softly. “Your dad loved you—you loved your dad. But he’s gone.”

“I’m not going!” Davey said stubbornly.

“He should come,” Tyler told Sarah. “If you give in to him all the time...it’s not good. Don’t make him into a baby. He’s several years older than we are.” He turned to Davey. “You know I love you, buddy, right?”

Davey nodded. “We don’t have a weapon. I’m not going.”

“Davey, I’m begging you...please?” Sarah asked.

Davey shook his head, looking at her. There were tears in his eyes; he was obviously afraid she was going to make him go into the haunted house.

“Just go,” Sarah told the others. “Davey and I will get a soda or...hey, there are a bunch of movie toys over there. We’ll go look at the toys.”

Tyler sighed. “I’ll stay with you.”

The others had already fled like rats.

Not even Suzie—some best friend—stayed behind.

Just Tyler. Staring at her.

“Go,” she told him, suddenly feeling put-upon.

“Sarah—”

“Go!”

He stiffened, squared his shoulder, shook his head—and walked on quickly to join the others.

“I’m still so confused. What scared you so badly?” Sarah asked Davey, leading him to a bench. At least she could sit. Her steampunk adventurer boots were starting to hurt like hell. “You were fine when we first got here. The haunted house we went in was made up to look like that one from the movie—you know, when the kids get lost in the woods and they find the house, but everyone in it is crazy! The father likes to hang people, the brother plays with a Civil War sword, the sister sprays poison and the mother chops up strangers for dinner. It was creepy cool—and they were all actors.”

“Yes, they were actors,” Davey said.

“Then why are you afraid of that one?” She pointed to the house where her friends were now in line, Cemetery Mansion. It was a good, creepy representation from a horror film where people had built over a graveyard and the dead came back to kill the living for disturbing them.

“It’s evil,” Davey said. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shivered. “I saw them. Dad told me to watch—I watched. That house is evil.”

“How is it evil? It’s honestly much the same. The themes are different. There are a lot of fabricated creatures—some cool motion-activated stuff, like robots—and then more actors. People just pretending. We went through the one house—it was fine.”

He nodded very seriously and then pointed at the Cemetery Mansion.

“That one,” he said. “It’s wrong. I’m telling you, Sarah—it is wrong. And I like Tyler. And Suzie,” he added. He didn’t say anything about Sean or Hannah.

“You mean—you’ve heard they got the characters wrong somehow? We haven’t been in it to see what the house is like, Davey.”

“No, we can’t go in,” he said insistently, wetting his lips as he did when he got nervous. “No. It’s wrong. You can feel it. It isn’t scary—it’s bad. Evil.”

She looked at the house. It was spooky—the theme park had done a good job. Images were hazily visible in the windows: creatures that had just crawled from the grave, bony, warped, black-and-white, like zombies or ghosts, horrible to behold.

“You should stop your friends from going in there. Make Tyler come back. He wanted to stay with you. But you were all stubborn and mean.”

Sarah heard the words and spun around to stare at Davey. But he didn’t even seem to realize he had spoken to her.

He was looking at the stand where there were all kinds of toys.

Sarah suddenly smiled. His eyes were wide; he was happy to look at the toys. Davey loved the movies and he loved toys—that made movie-inspired props and toys extra special.

“Let’s go see what they have,” she told him.

* * *

“THIS IS WRONG,” Tyler said as he got into the line for the haunted house with Suzie, Hannah and Sean. What was one more haunted house? he asked himself, irritated that he had let Sarah push him away. No matter if it was their idea or not, Davey had gotten them the tickets. He’d been patient enough to dial his phone over and over and over again.

And Tyler knew that Sarah was feeling alone—as if Davey was her responsibility, and she wasn’t about to burden anyone else.

Tyler loved her. He knew they were both lucky, both blessed. People referred to them as the “Barbie and Ken” of their school. He liked to think it wasn’t just that he played football and she was an amazing cheerleader—for any team the school put forth. He tried to be friendly, kind, sympathetic—and he worked hard in class.

Naturally, he and Sarah had been intimate—though not in a way that would give others a chance to tease them. They were discreet and very private; Sarah would never do anything to disappoint her parents. But in their minds, marriage was a given. Sometimes, in the middle of a class, Tyler would smile, imagine being with her in such an intimate way again, when they both laughed, when they grew breathless, when the world seemed to explode. She was an amazing lover and he hoped he reciprocated. Sex was fireworks, but life was loving everything about her—her great compassion for others, her integrity. He liked to think that he was similar in his behavior.

Leaving her on her own tonight hadn’t been considerate in any way.

“I’m going to go back and wait with Davey and Sarah,” he said flatly.

“Go back where?” Hannah asked him. “They’re already gone. And besides, Miss Stubborn Pride isn’t going to let you stay with her. I’m sure you already tried to and she sent you after us. She doesn’t want you to have a lousy time just because she has to.”

Tyler gritted his teeth and looked away. “She isn’t having a lousy time—and neither am I, Hannah. I love Davey. No one out there has a better heart.”

It was true, though, that Sarah and Davey had walked off somewhere.

He should have firmly ignored Sarah when she’d pushed him away. She was usually bright enough to be angry if someone didn’t understand that hanging out with Davey was like hanging out with any friend...

And Tyler was suddenly angry himself; they wouldn’t be here at all without Davey. Davey had won the tickets.

“Oh, come on, Tyler!” Hannah said. “It’s okay! The retard is her cousin, not yours.”

He wanted to slap Hannah—and he was stunned by the intensity of the feeling. In his whole life, he’d never hit a girl. And Hannah was a friend. She was usually...fine.

“Hannah, you know calling him that is not okay. Not cool. He’s just like you or me,” Tyler said.

“Maybe like you!” Sean said, laughing. “Not me. Hey, come on—this is supposed to be the coolest thing here, ghosts coming up out of the ground from all over. They say the creatures—animatronic or whatever—are the most amazing, and they put their best ‘scare’ actors in this one. Tyler, come on, we take Davey with us all the time. But this is our night. It’s our last Halloween together. If he doesn’t want to come in, screw it!”

“Not to mention that, as I already pointed out, we don’t even know where they are anymore,” Hannah said.

“Yep, well, I do have a cell phone,” Tyler said.

“Tyler, leave it,” Suzie said. She looked guilty, too, he thought. But maybe she was right. “We have VIP tickets—we get to move into the express lane up there. We’ll be out soon and then we’ll explore the food booths—Davey will like checking those out! And we’ll hug him and tell him that he was right—we should have stayed out. It was really scary, so now we’re all hungry!”

An actor in some kind of a zombie outfit came toward them, using a deep and hollow voice to ask for their tickets. They showed their passes and were moved up quickly in the line.

They entered the mudroom of the Cemetery Mansion. Bloody handprints were everywhere. They were met by a girl in a French maid outfit—with vampire teeth and blood dripping down her chin.

“Enter if you dare!” she said dramatically.

A terrified scream sounded from within. And then another. And another.

The place had to be amazingly good.

“Ah!” said the maid. “I say again, enter if you dare! Those who have come before you seem to be just...dying to get back out!”

She opened the door from the mudroom to the foyer and stepped back.

Tyler thought she looked concerned. As if...

As if people actually were dying to get out.

* * *

“CAN WE GO look at the booth over there?” Davey asked Sarah.

He gave her a smile that made her ashamed. She had been secretly bitter; she’d wanted to go with her friends. It wasn’t terrible that she should want to; she knew her feelings were natural. But she felt guilty, anyway. Davey wasn’t being mean, she knew. He wasn’t hurting her on purpose. He had his irrational fear set in his mind.

“Come on!” She caught his hand and led him to the toy stand. This one was stocked with prop weapons.

There were all kinds of great things: realistic plastic ray guns, gold-gleaming light-up lasers and much more. There were fantastic swords, like from some 1950s sci-fi movie, she thought. They were really cool—silver and gold, and emitting light through plastic blades that shimmered in a dozen colors.

They were cheap, too. Not like the licensed merchandise. It was called a Martian Gamma Sword.

Sarah smiled, watching Davey’s fascination.

She worked three days a week after school at the local theater and could easily afford the toy sci-fi sword. She paid while Davey was still playing with it.

“Okay, good to go,” she told him.

He looked at her, surprised.

“I bought it, Davey. It’s yours.”

His eyes widened. He gave her his beautiful smile again. Then he frowned, appearing very thoughtful.

“Now we can go,” he said.

“Pardon?”

“We have to go,” he insisted. “I can save them now—Tyler and Suzie. I can save them.”

Sarah couldn’t have been more stunned. She smiled. Maybe they could catch up—and if not, well, she’d still be able to say she’d experienced the most terrifying haunted house in the city—the state, maybe even the country!

“Come on!” she said. “Sure, I mean, it will be great if we can save them. So great.”

“I have to go first. I have the Martian Gamma Sword.”

“Okay, I’m right behind you!” Sarah promised. She hurried after him.

“They don’t like this kind of light, you know.”

“Who doesn’t like it?”

“Those who are evil!” he said seriously.

He had his sword ready and held in front of him—he was prepared, he was on guard!

Sarah smiled, keeping behind him. She hoped he didn’t bat an actor over the head with the damned thing.

* * *

TYLER DIDN’T KNOW when it changed.

The haunted house was incredible, of course. He knew the decorations and fabrications, motion-activated creatures and the costumes for the live actors had been created by some of the finest designers in the movie world.

The foyer had the necessary spiderwebs dangling from the chandelier and hanging about. As they were ushered in—the door shut behind them by the French maid—a butler appeared. He was skinny, tiny and a hunchback. Igor? He spoke with a deep voice that was absolutely chilling.

Tyler had to remind himself he was six-three and two hundred and twenty pounds of muscle. But just the guy’s voice was creepy as hell.

“Cemetery Mansion!” the butler boomed out. “The living are always ever so careless of the dead! Housing is needed...and cemeteries are ignored. And so it was when the Stuart family came to Crow Corners. They saw the gravestones...they even knew the chapel housed the dead and that a crypt led far beneath the ground. And still! They tossed aside the gravestones, and they built their mansion. Little did they know they would pay for their total disregard. Oh, Lord, they would pay! They would be allowed to stay—forever! Forever and ever...with those who resided here already!”

Suddenly, from thin air, haunts and ghouls seemed to arise and sweep through the room. Suzie let out a squeal. Even Hannah shrieked.

Good old Sean let out a startled scream and then began to laugh at himself.

It was done with projectors, Tyler realized.

“To your left, ladies and gentlemen, to your left! The music room, and then the dining room!”

They were urged to move on. The music room hosted a piano and rich Victorian furniture. There was also a child sitting on the sofa, holding a teddy bear. She turned to look at them with soulless eyes—and then she disappeared. A figure was hunched over the piano. Suzie tried to walk by it; the piano player suddenly stood, reaching out for her.

She screamed. The thing was a motion-activated figure, one who would have done any haunted mansion proud. It was a tall butler—blond and grim-looking, with a striking face made up so that the cheeks were entirely hollow. It spoke with a mechanical voice. “Come closer, come closer... I can love you into eternity!”

It was nothing but a prop, an automaton. But it was real as all hell.

Suzie ran on into the next room.

The dining room...

At the head of the table was a very tall man—an actor portraying the long-dead head of the household; a man in a Victorian-era suit, wearing tons of makeup that had been applied very effectively. He was sharpening a knife.

There were dummies or mannequins or maybe animatronics slumped around the table. At least their bodies were slumped there. Their heads were on it. Blood streamed from their necks and down their costumes.

“One of them is going to hop up, I know,” Hannah murmured.

She bravely stepped closer to the table. No one moved.

Tyler noticed there was a girl about their age at the end of the table. She was wearing one of this year’s passes to Haunted Hysteria around the stump of her neck.

Good touch, he thought.

The bodies around the table did not move. The master of the house watched them with bloodshot eyes. He sharpened his knife.

A girl suddenly burst into the dining room from the music room. “Run! Get out—get to the exit! He’s in the house somewhere!” she screamed.

“Yes, he is. He’s right here,” the master of the house said. He reached for her and dragged her to him. She screamed again, trying to wrench herself free. He smiled.

He took one of the knives he had been sharpening.

And he slit her throat.

* * *

SARAH DIDN’T KNOW what had gotten into Davey; he was usually the most polite person in the world. He’d been taught the importance of please and thank you.

But he was almost pushing.

And he knew their radio station tickets gave them VIP status.

Light sword held before him, he made his way to one of the actors herding the line. “VIP, please!” he told her.

“Uh, sure. Watch out for that thing!” She started to lead them up the line, toward the house. As she did so, there was a scream, and one of the actors came bursting out the front door.

She was dressed as a French maid—a vampire or zombie French maid, Sarah thought.

She stumbled out of the entry and onto the porch, grabbing for one of the columns. Blood was dripping down her arms and over her shirt—she appeared to have a number of stab wounds.

“Don’t!” she shouted. “Don’t... He’s a killer!”

Applause broke out in the line. But then someone else burst out of the house—a ghoul dressed in an Edwardian jacket.

He crashed down, a pool of blood forming right on the porch.

More applause broke out.

“No, no, that’s not supposed to happen,” the zombie leading Sarah up the line murmured.

Davey burst by her; he was headed to the house, his light saber before him.

“Davey!” Sarah shrieked. Something was wrong; something was truly wrong. They needed to stay out, needed to find out if this was an excellent piece of play-acting or...

Or what?

Imaginary creatures came to life and started killing people? Actors went crazy en masse and started knifing the populace? Whatever was going on, it seemed insane!

The sensation that crawled over Sarah then was nothing short of absolute terror—but Davey was ahead of her.