“Use your mother’s teeth for the mouth next time,” Doneen was saying. She pointed to the figure’s half-finished face. “Knock them out while she’s asleep and use as many of them as you can on the project.”

For the first time since he’d come into the room, Daniel saw hesitancy in his son’s face.

“No, Tony!” he yelled, though he knew his son could not hear him. “Don’t listen to her!”

“I don’t want to do that,” Tony said.

“That’s okay,” Doneen assured him quickly. “That’s all right. Maybe the teeth of someone else. Someone you don’t like. Someone at school, maybe.”

“Maybe,” he said, doubtfully.

She patted his hand, reached between his legs, and gave his crotch a small squeeze. “Just keep on doing what you’re doing,” she said. “It’s a fine job.”

“Okay.”

Doneen looked up at Daniel again. “You can work on the hands a bit,” she told Tony. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

He nodded mechanically.

Doneen stood, walked over to the desk. Daniel let go of his son’s arm and followed her.

She turned to face him. “I thought I had you killed,” she said softly, and even though he was already dead, there was something about her tone of voice that frightened him. He could not be threatened with death or physical harm anymore, but in the core of his being he feared her, and he moved back a step.

“What do you think you can do to me? Why are you here?” She stared at him fiercely. “I eat ghosts like you for breakfast.”

He kept his voice steady. “You lied. You said you’d leave him alone.”

“Yes. I lied.”

He reached out and slapped her. His hand connected with her cheek, and her head rocked back.

A look of doubt crossed her features, disappearing as quickly as it had come.

He stared at the red imprint of his hand across her cheek, and thought of what his mother had said.

He could bring her back to the House.

He wasn’t exactly sure how to do that. He wasn’t sure how he had come back here, for one thing. He’d simply thought about being home and… here he was. Was that all there was to it? Could he just think about the House and be returned there?

It was worth a try.

Doneen was scowling at him, and Daniel realized that he might have only one chance.

He’d better make it count.

“I’ll kill—” she began.

And he lunged forward.

He grabbed her, tackled her. Concentrating hard, he cleared his mind and thought about where he wanted to go.

They were sucked out of the house and out of the world to the Other Side.

SIXTEEN

Laurie