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Back THE HOUSE Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. PART I
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. PART II
  20. ONE
  21. TWO
  22. THREE
  23. FOUR
  24. FIVE
  25. SIX
  26. SEVEN
  27. EIGHT
  28. NINE
  29. TEN
  30. ELEVEN
  31. TWELVE
  32. THIRTEEN
  33. FOURTEEN
  34. FIFTEEN
  35. SIXTEEN
  36. SEVENTEEN
  37. EIGHTEEN
  38. NINETEEN
  39. TWENTY
  40. TWENTY-ONE
  41. TWENTY-TWO
  42. EPILOGUE

“No. But you will have that chance. Be prepared for it when it happens.”

He didn’t like the vagueness of her answer, and every opportunity that he could come up with for reconciling with his parents filled him full of dread.

He did not want to see his dead mother or father.

“There’s one other thing you have to do, though,” Kristen said.

“What’s that?”

“Kill her.” And there was a look of uncharacteristic fierceness on her face. “Kill the bitch. She’s the one who’s doing this, who’s perverted the Houses for her own purposes, who’s tried to bring down the barrier. Once she’s out of the way, everything will return to normal and will be back the way it should, with voluntary border guards and the Other Side safely separated.”

“She’s evil,” Mark said.

Kristen nodded, and for the first time she looked afraid. “Yes,” she said. “She’s evil.”

“I’ll do it,” Mark told her.

There was a slight gasp, and an expression of pain crossed Kristen’s face. She hugged him, but she was already fading quickly, her warmth cooling into nothingness. “I love you,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

“I love you too,” he said.

But before he reached the word “love,” she was gone.

NINE

Stormy

So where was Billings?

They hadn’t seen the butler all day yesterday, and now he was missing again this morning. It was pretty obvious that something had happened to him, and they were at a loss as to what to do about it. None of them liked the butler, and they all seemed to be afraid of him, but he was their link to the House, the translator between themselves and the horrific impersonality of the events that occurred here.

Maybe he’d served his purpose, Norton suggested. Maybe he was only needed to lure them here and to keep them imprisoned until the House was charged up again. It sounded plausible, but Stormy didn’t quite buy it. Nothing logical happened here, and even the most benign and minor events inevitably had ominous implications.

He figured the butler had been captured by the girl.

Or killed.

Or both.

Stormy sipped his coffee. Once again, breakfast had been made for them. Just as dinner had been last night. They’d had to serve themselves, but someone—or something—else had cooked and prepared the food. Laurie suggested that one of them stake out the kitchen this afternoon, an hour or so before dinner, to try and find out who or what was making their meals, and Mark volunteered for a tour of duty.