"Kim?" Janet shouted, switching on the chandelier and flooding the entry hall with light. "KIM!"
There was a silence-a terrifying silence that froze Janet's blood-until she heard her daughter's voice.
"In the library!" Kim called out. "We're watching a movie."
From behind her, Janet heard Ted snicker, and turned to glare at him. "Don't you tell her," she warned. "Not a single word."
"Please?" Ted begged. "You looked so scared."
"And you weren't?" Janet countered.
Ted hesitated, then nodded. "Well, maybe just a little bit," he agreed. "Come on, let's go take a head count and make sure the right number of bodies are here."
Together, they went into the library, where the two girls were stretched out on the floor watching a movie. On the screen, a masked figure held one of the nastiestlooking knives Janet had ever seen, about to plunge it into a terrified victim. "How can you watch that?" she asked. "I'd be scared out of my wits."
"It's fun," Kim told her.
"It's creepy," Sandy declared.
Kim rolled her eyes at her friend's nervousness. "It's only a movie. We can shut it off anytime we want."
Janet glanced pointedly at the clock. "Well, just make sure it's off by midnight, okay?"
Ten minutes later Janet and Ted were in their room. Molly was still sound asleep in her crib, and there'd been no sign of Jared all evening. "See? I told you there was nothing to worry about," Ted said as he slid into bed. "Now, why don't you come join me?"
"Ted! Kim and Sandy are right downstairs!"
"They won't hear a thing," Ted assured her. "Come here."
As Ted wrapped his arms around her and began covering her with kisses, Janet felt the tension of the evening finally slipping away.
"It'll be all right," Ted whispered in her ear. "Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll make it all right."
Then his mouth covered hers, and she gratefully gave in to the pleasures of their bodies.
CHAPTER 26
The touch was as gentle on her skin as the caress of a summer breeze, so light that at first Sandy was hardly even aware of it. All she knew was that a slight thrill had run through her, disappearing so quickly that she wasn't quite sure she'd felt it.
Yet something had happened.
Something she wanted more of.
She stretched her body languidly, but didn't open her eyes for fear of losing the last faint vestiges of the elusive pleasure.
The touch came again, as soft and soothing as the fur of a kitten, but now she could hear something, too.
A strange sound, not quite a voice, but not quite music. The sound reached deep within her, resonating inside her.
The touch was stronger now, like gentle fingers against her skin, and once more she stretched her body, as if reaching out to the source of the caress.
The sound-the odd not-quite-music-was forming into a whispered voice, drawing each syllable of her name into a sigh of longing: "Saann… deee…"
Then again: "Saann… deee…"
"Yes," Sandy whispered. "Oh, yes…"
Now, lying in the darkness, the soothing sounds washing over her, she felt soft lips touch her own, and the gentle touch grew more bold.
Hands slipped beneath her blouse, and the nipples on her breasts hardened while at the same time a great lassitude spread over her.
She wanted nothing more than to lie where she was, surrounded by the protective darkness, thrilling to the touch, yet calmed by the soothing sounds.
She shivered with pleasure, straining closer to the touch.
And in the instant she responded to it, it vanished.
Sandy's breath caught, and she felt a terrible sense of disappointment.
Of loss.
"Nooo," she whimpered so softly the word was barely spoken. "Noooo…"
She reached out, searching in the darkness for the source of the touch, silently pleading for its return.
And in the darkness she felt something. Her fingers closed on a strong hand, and a moment later she felt herself being drawn to her feet.
"Come," a whispered voice instructed. "Come with me…"
Sandy let herself be led through the darkness, afraid to open her eyes lest the magical touch and voice prove to be as ephemeral as a dream, vanishing as she came wide-awake.
She had no sense of where she might be going, where the pleasure might lead her, but it didn't matter. All she wanted was to follow.
Slowly the darkness around her began to change. Her whole being felt suffused with a growing light, and the hands that guided her now lay her gently on a surface so soft it felt as if it must be nothing more than a cloud. Sighing in contentment, Sandy let herself sink into the softness.
The suffusing light brightened into a golden glow swirling with a rainbow of colors, and once again she heard the strange sounds-not quite voices, but not quite music-pulsing in her head, wrapping her whole body in its throbbing rhythms. Then, from somewhere just beneath her consciousness, a voice whispered to her.
"Open your eyes, Sandy. Don't just feel me and hear me. See me, too…"
Obeying the voice, Sandy slowly opened her eyes. She was blinded by the golden luminescence and flow of color, but then an image began to take form.
A face-the most beautiful face she'd ever seen-loomed a few inches above her own. Eyes the color of sapphires gazed into her own; full lips hovered close to hers, smiling. The jaw was strong, the chin slightly cleft. The cheekbones and forehead were high, and framed by waves of chestnut hair.
It was exactly the face that until now she'd seen only in her fantasies, coming to her during the daydreams in which she imagined the man who would someday sweep her into his arms and carry her away.
As if in answer to every craving she'd ever felt, the face above her came closer. She felt the lips brush her own. She tried to raise her arms, to pull herself closer to the object of her dreams, but somehow her limbs refused to obey.
She lay helpless in the vision's thrall, craving every touch, moaning softly.
She felt the tip of a tongue prod gently at her lips, and opened her mouth to accept it. Then, once again, she felt the caressing fingers stroking her body.
The buttons of her blouse opened; her jeans slid down her hips.
The fingers were everywhere now-hundreds of them-tracing intricate patterns on her skin, brushing over her breasts and hips, stroking her thighs.
Her legs spread, and her breath turned ragged as the electricity of the vision's touch streamed through her.
The rhythms of the music intensified; the throbbing grew more urgent.
Sandy felt herself writhing now, straining upward against the bonds that seemed to bind her to the cloud, every nerve in her responding to the magical touch. Her skin felt damp with sweat, and then she felt a tongue-no, dozens of tongues-licking it all away. Her own moans mixed with the pulsing rhythms and she felt as if she might pass out as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her.
"Yes…" she whispered once again. "Oh, God, yes…"
Then, as she gave herself over completely to the sensations of her body, another sound broke through the unearthly music in her head.
It was the sound of laughter-laughter that mocked her.
For an instant she tried to pull away, tried to extricate herself from the maelstrom of pleasure in which she wallowed, but it was far too late.
Moaning one last time, she submitted herself to the pleasure.
And the laughter grew.
No! Not again! Don't let it be happening again!
But instead of instantly passing, leaving her with the eerie feeling that she'd just reexperienced something that had happened before, the deja vu only deepened its grip on Kim.
It was happening all over again.
Once again she was lost in the house, racing through an endless maze of corridors that branched off, then branched again and again, forcing her to make a choice at every juncture.
Once more she could sense some unseen menace closing in on her, toying with her, circling her, never quite visible, but always drawing closer and closer.