“Yes,” said Vater, ignoring us now and speaking to the rest of the group. He eyed each in turn carefully. “Yes, I think that’s it.”
Waldheim drew in his breath, and I knew he was about to speak. So did Vater, who put up a flat hand toward Waldheim’s face. “Don’t speak,” commanded Vater. “Don’t compound your errors, Dean.”
Waldheim fell silent. Whatever words he’d thought to say died in his throat without ever having been spoken.
“Children,” Vater said, addressing our classmates. “These three amongst you have been selected as the hares. The rest of you, are the hounds. The hares will run from you today, and tonight, for a full day. You, the hounds, will try to catch them. Are there any questions?”
Danny raised his hand. There was an eagerness in his eyes I didn’t like.
“Speak!” said Vater.
“Milord,” said Danny smoothly. “What will the hounds do when they catch they hares?”
Vater smiled at Danny. He turned and regarded the three of us. “What hounds always do when they catch their prey. Nature will take its course,” he said evenly.
I blinked at him and suddenly, there was an odd pain in my pants. I felt shocking discomfort, and then something long snaked down the back of my pantsleg. It slipped out onto the floor beside my shoe. I had sprouted a long pink scaly tail. The tip of it flipped and curled like a snake around my leg.
Some of the kids in the line-up snickered.
Vater looked down at my tail and pursed his lips. “A rodent,” he said flatly. “I don’t care for rodents.”
I looked back at him, narrowing my eyes. I almost said many things, but held back with a desperate effort of will.
He noted the look in my eye with interest, and gave me a tiny nod, showing he’d read my thoughts.
Vater drew himself up. “The game begins. He pointed at the clock on the wall. It showed it was 10:15 am. “The hounds will give the hares a fifteen minute head start,” he announced.
He turned back toward the three of us and leaned forward. He put his hands on his knees. He eyed each of us intently, Beth, Jake and lastly me. His face loomed into ours.
“It’s time to run, children,” he said in a whisper.
We staggered back away from everyone. All their eyes were upon us.
We ran.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
We’d been taught, all our lives, that someday we might be pursued. We’d been taught that on some single, fateful day, we might become hunted prey. Remember all those horror movies that ended with a bunch of angry villagers carrying pitchforks and torches and chasing down the monster? Well, the monsters in those movies were our relatives. We’d been trained for this day, which everyone hoped would never come. But we had never expected that the hunters would be our own friends.
“So now I guess we know what kind of a purge he had in mind,” I puffed as we ran down the hall. Beth and Jake were right behind me.
“What did you get me into, man?” asked Jake, wheezing as he ran.
“What do you think they’ll do if they catch us?” asked Beth.
“I don’t plan on finding out,” I said.
“I knew being your friend would end with something like this. I just knew it. You’ve been flipping off the adults since day one. It was only a matter of time. And now I’m guilty by association. Why did I have to be your buddy? All because you didn’t laugh at me that one day.”
“Shut up, Jake,” I said.
Jake had no intention of shutting up. “I should have just sucked up to Danny and Thomas like all the other guys. I should have been their court jester. I could have done silly little toad-tricks to keep them all amused, but noooo, I had to go with the rebel, the prankster, the powerless boy.”
“Jake,” said Beth, “Please shut up.”
“I’m tired already,” said Jake. “All day and night did he say?”
“Where are we going anyway, Connor?” asked Beth.
“They’ll expect the attic, they’ve seen us up there. So I’m headed for the basement.”
We got to the basement door and rattled the doorknob. It was locked. We stood there for a moment, hands on our knees, breathing hard.
“Locked,” I said. “We’ll have to find another way down.”
“This can’t be happening,” moaned Jake.
Beth just looked at me. No doubt she expected me to pull a rabbit out of my hat, as I had during Hussades. I looked back at her, thinking to myself there were no more rabbits in there. In fact, there wasn’t even a hat.
“Maybe we should really run for it,” said Jake, looking at me seriously. He had some of his wind back and could talk clearly. “Let’s just open a window and head for the woods. We could make it before the fifteen minutes are up.”
“Ten left now,” interjected Beth.
“Whatever, we have time,” said Jake. “We could be home in two hours and just forget this whole thing. What are they going to do? Make us move out of town?”
I looked at him seriously. “Maybe.”
“You think so? What about our families?”
I just stared at him. “If we shame ourselves in front of Vater I think anything could happen. Our folks could be too ashamed to stay here. People move out of Camden for a lot less reason than this.”
I turned my attention to Beth, who watched us closely. “You’ve got no big stake here, Beth. I think Jake’s right in your case. Just take off. No one will feel bad about it.”
“Except us, that is,” said Beth. “I’m not a quitter. You should know that about me by now. Look, Connor, we’ve been running away from things since I got here. Maybe it’s time we planned out some moves of our own.”
I looked at her and slowly, I grinned. “You really do think the way I do.”
Jake moaned. “Okay, I’m out!”
I turned to him and my grin vanished. “Jake?”
“No, I’ve had enough Connor,” he said, heading to the nearest window. He jimmied the lock, but it was frozen shut. He tried several more while he talked. “You are my best friend, but I’m not going to get run down in this spooky place. I’m bailing.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Beth put her hand up in a gesture to stop me. Hard words died in my throat.
With a grunt and a crunching sound, Jake got one of the old-fashioned windows to crack open about a foot. He put one leg out into the snowy outside world. Cold air blew in, cooling our faces.
“Don’t freeze to death out there,” I told him.
He looked back at me, and I saw the pain in his face. He didn’t want to do this, I could tell. “I’m sorry,” he said.
I grabbed his hand and gave it a shake. He and Beth hugged, and then he was running around the side of the house, plowing through about two feet of snow.
I couldn’t believe Jake was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Beth and I closed the window to cover his tracks, and then we ran further into the house, toward the back where the kitchens were.
We avoided the adults working there and slipped into the basement through the kitchen’s backstairs. This part of the massive basement was used to store food and cooking goods. The gymnasium section was far away at the other end of the mansion under the dormitories.
“How long?” I asked Beth. The first hallway in this part of the basement was dingy and dark. A single, naked 25 watt bulb hung down from the ceiling and glowed with yellowy light. We were surrounded by musty crates of vegetables and canned goods. The place had an earthy smell to it, the smell of dust and mold. She snapped on her tiny flashlight, examining her watch. I had neither.
“Five minutes, maybe less.”
I chose a passage at random and we ran into the darkness.
For several hours, no one came near. I imagined them combing through the attic, finding nothing.