She remained bent over, trailed a languorous finger over the smooth skin of her buttocks, let it slide down her crack. “It would be a shame if Tony woke up to find his doll shoving its way down his mommy’s throat.”

“You little bitch!” He reached for her, found that he could grab her; there was no barrier between them. His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her arm.

She flinched, moaned. “Rape me,” she whispered. “Take me any way you want.”

He let go, pushed her away. She laughed. “What’s the matter? Not man enough?”

“I’m not going to do it, and I’m not going to let you goad me into it.”

She stood, suddenly serious, smoothing down her dirty shift. “Fine.”

“And if anything happens to them…”

“There is another way,” she said matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“There’s no sex involved.”

“What is it?”

“The only thing is: you’re going to have to do something you might not like.”

“What’s that?”

She smiled, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. “Trust me,” she said.

ELEVEN

Laurie

When Laurie came to, she was lying on the bed. She’d been in the doorway of the kitchen when the Houses separated, and she must have gotten hit on the head or fainted or something because she could remember no further than that. Someone had obviously carried her up to her bedroom, though, and for that she was grateful.

She sat up warily. Her head hurt, but when she felt around, there were no bumps or blood. She didn’t know what was going on and she was about to search the House, see if any of the others had remained with her, find out who had brought her to her room, when her question was answered.

“Laurie! Come down here!”

It was her mother.

Her biological mother.

She recognized the voice though she hadn’t heard it since early childhood. Her recent remembrances had rendered everything from that time period as sharp and immediate as if they had happened yesterday, and her mother’s voice brought the feelings back as well. She was suddenly anxious to obey, filled with an almost Pavlovian compulsion to respond. She still wasn’t sure if she was here as an observer or a participant, if her mother was yelling at her or at a younger version of her that was also around somewhere, but when her mother called “Laurie!” once again and there was no answer, she hollered back “Coming!”

That response seemed to satisfy. There were no more shouted demands, and Laurie rolled out of bed, trying to ignore the pounding in her head. She suddenly realized that her room had a window again, and she walked over to it. Outside, she was not surprised to see the garage, the barn.