a serving platter for defense.
The master of the house turned toward them, dropping the body of the girl whose throat he had slit. It fell with a flat thud.
Sean squeaked out a sound that was nearly a scream.
Hannah grabbed Sean, thrusting him between her and the big man with the massive knife.
“Back up, back up, back up!” Tyler said.
Hannah did so. Sean turned to flee.
The master of the house went for Sean. He picked him up by the neck.
“No! Stop, stop it!” Tyler shouted.
This couldn’t be happening.
“This isn’t funny. It isn’t right!”
The character didn’t seem to hear Tyler. And Tyler had no choice. He leaped forward, shoving Hannah away, and tried to wrest Sean from the killer. He grabbed Sean’s arm and pulled.
“No!” Suzie shrieked.
Tyler looked up.
The master of the house was approaching her with the massive knife, dragging Sean along with him. Then he turned. He came swinging toward Tyler, still dragging Sean. Tyler held on to his friend and jerked hard; Sean came free and they staggered back—Hannah, Sean and himself—until they crashed into the table.
Hannah began shrieking in earnest. As she did so, Tyler became aware of the tinny scent of blood.
Real blood.
And he looked around the table and he knew.
They were people. Real people. And they were dead.
Really dead.
“No!” Suzie shrieked.
She slammed her serving platter at the master of the house.
He just laughed.
And raised his carving knife.
* * *
DAVEY RACED ACROSS the porch, pushing aside the bleeding maid and hopping over the body of the man in the Edwardian dress.
Sarah had no choice but to follow.
He burst through into a mudroom. There were bloody handprints all over it.
Some were fake—stage blood.
Some were real—human blood.
She could tell by the smell that some of the blood was real.
Davey rushed through to the foyer, his Martian Gamma Sword leading the way. But there was no one there. He threw open another door.
“Davey, stop! Please, Davey, something is going wrong. Something is...”
They were in a music room; it was empty—other than for a bloody body stretched across a floral sofa.
“Davey!” Sarah shrieked. “No, no, please...”
She started to whirl around. There were holograms everywhere. A child in black with a headless doll appeared. And then a hanged man, the noose still around his neck. All kinds of ghouls and creatures and evil beings began to appear in the room and then disappear.
“Davey, please, we’ve got to get out. Davey!”
She gripped his arm as the terrifying images swirled around them.
“Not real,” Davey said. “Sarah, they’re not real.”
He was moving on—and she heard screams again. Terrified screams...
He went through a black hazy curtain and they were in the dining room.
And there were Tyler, Hannah...Sean and Suzie... It appeared that they were all being attacked by...a creature, by someone or something. They had fallen back and were struggling to rise from the dining table, where there were...
Oh, God, corpses, real corpses. Dead people, all around the table. Suzie and Hannah were yelling and screaming, and Tyler was reaching out, but the carving knife was coming down and it was going to sink into Tyler’s chest at any minute!
She heard a terrible scream—high-pitched and full of fear and horror. And she realized it was coming from her...
And she had drawn the attention of the...
Man. It was a real man.
An actor gone insane? What the hell?
No, no, no, no. It was impossible. It was Halloween. It had to be a prank, an elaborate show...
The man was real.
Absolutely real.
He was tall and big and had long scraggly white hair and he might have played a maniacal killer in a slasher movie.
Except this wasn’t a movie.
And he was coming at her.
He opened his mouth and smiled, and she saw his fangs. Long fangs that seemed to drip with something red...stage blood...
Real blood.
She screamed again.
It sounded as if it was coming from someone else, but it was not. It was coming from her.
Tyler struggled up from the table. He slipped.
He was slipping in blood.
“No, no, no!” Sarah screamed.
And then Davey stepped up. He thrust her back with his arm and stepped before her, his cheap little plastic sword at the ready.
“Leave her!” Davey shouted, his voice filled with command.
The man laughed...
And Davey struck him. Struck him hard, with all his strength.
The man went flying back. He slammed into the wall, and the impact sent him flying forward once again.
He tripped on a dead girl’s leg...
And crashed down on the table.
Right on top of Tyler and Sean and Hannah, who had already been slammed down there. It was too much weight. The table broke with an awful groaning and splintering sound.
Shards and pieces flew everywhere as what remained of the table totally upended.
Tyler let out a cry of fear and fury and gripped the man’s shoulders, shoving him off with all the force of a high school quarterback.
To Sarah’s astonishment, the man, balanced for a matter of seconds, staring
