Midnight Games(26)

I sneaked out of the house a little after one in the morning and made my way to Nights Bar on Fear Street.

I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t want more kids staring at me—those cold, accusing stares. I knew I couldn’t take it much longer.

I’d gone to bed early. I wrapped myself up in a tiny ball, hugging my pillow like a teddy bear, and tried to sleep.

But Nate called on my cell and begged me to come to the bar. He said he really wanted to talk to me.

So here I was. In a worn sweater and an old pair of jeans, torn at the knees. Did I stop to brush my hair? I couldn’t even remember.

A cool, clear night. Lots of stars twinkling in the sky. No one else around, of course. The town asleep, except for us.

I waved to Ryland O’Connor and purposely didn’t kiss the bronze plaque of Simon and Angelica Fear. Then Nate pulled me to a booth at the back wall. The bar was crowded with kids. But they were a blur to me. I kept my eyes straight ahead. I didn’t care who was there.

I dropped into the booth, and Nate squeezed beside me. He kissed me. He’d been really nice to me ever since that frightening afternoon in the auditorium.

“I . . . didn’t want to come out tonight,” I said. “But when you called . . . ”

He started to unzip my parka. “Are you wearing the amulet?”

“Excuse me?” I moved his hands away. “No. I threw it in the trash.”

He squinted at me. “Really? Well, I found out more about it. The real one, I mean.”

Ryland came up to the table. Nate ordered a beer. I asked for coffee.

“You did research on it?” I asked.

“Yeah. On the Net,” he said. “I found some interesting Web sites.”

I pulled off my parka and stuffed it on the other side of the booth. Then I snuggled next to Nate. “What did you learn about the amulet? That it makes feathers fly out of people’s noses?”

He shook his head. “Forget about feathers, Dana. Angelica Fear was convinced she could use the amulet to come back from the grave. And—”

“We already know that,” I interrupted.

“She believed she could come back from the grave and inhabit a living person’s body,” Nate said.

I stared at him. “So?”

“Don’t you see?” Nate slapped the tabletop. “Who else could be doing all these horrible things? It can’t be any of us. We’re all just trying to slog through high school, right? We’re not murderers or sorcerers. We just want to get through senior year and party a little and have some fun.”

“I guess . . . ,” I said. I didn’t really understand where he was going with this.

“So, I’ve been thinking,” Nate continued. “Thinking a lot. I mean, they tore down the old Fear Mansion last year, right? It was on this spot where we’re sitting. And they tore down all the other Fear Street houses to put up the shopping center.”

“Yeah. Right,” I said.

“Well, what if Angelica Fear was buried under the mansion or something?” Nate asked, eyes wide with excitement. “What if her grave was disturbed when they dug up the old place? What if a lot of graves were disturbed, and the ghosts of Fear Street all escaped from them?”

“Nate, please—,” I started.

He squeezed my wrist. “Dana, listen. What if Angelica really did know how to come back to life? What if she came back to life last year with all her evil tricks and is living inside someone’s body. Someone we know!”

“STOP!” I screamed. “I mean it, Nate. Stop! Don’t you realize how crazy that sounds?”

His face fell. He looked hurt. “Of course it sounds crazy,” he said. “But look at all the crazy things that have been happening. How do you explain—?”

“You’ve been hanging out with my cousin Jamie too long,” I said. “Jamie believes in all that supernatural stuff.”

Nate opened his mouth to say something, but he never got it out. Shark appeared at the table, with Nikki close behind him.

Shark had a black leather jacket open over a black T-shirt, collar up, over black denims. He had a black wool ski cap pulled down over his hair. Nikki’s white-blond hair hung wildly about her face. She wore a pale green parka, and brown corduroy pants tucked into furry Ugg boots.

Shark grabbed Nate’s shoulder. “Yo, dude. What’s up?”

“I’m talking about evil ghosts,” Nate said. “Doing evil things to our friends.”

“Shut up! Are you freaked about Whitney?” Nikki asked. “Shark told me about it, and—”

“Do we have to talk about that stuff?” Shark asked. “Hey, we used to sneak out late at night for fun—remember? We’re the Night People. We stay up all night. So why aren’t we having fun anymore?”