L. J. Smith - Forbidden Game 99, page 34
They spent the evening in silence; Tom pacing and Michael and Jenny sitting.
Staring at a blank TV screen.
It was all going to come crashing down soon-their carefully built structureof deception. Jenny had called her aunt Lily to say that Zach was upset andwas spending the night with Tom. She’d called Dee’s mother and told her Deewas staying with her. Neither mother had been happy. It was only a matter oftime before one of them called Tom’s house or Jenny’s house and everythingcame out.
And Michael was right. They weren’t going to find the base-not on theinformation they had now. They
needed more.
She was actually glad that night when Julian showed up in her dreams.
It had taken her a long time to get to sleep-she’d lain for hours staring atthe empty couch where Dee should have been. The last clear thing sheremembered was deciding she was never going to sleep at all that night-andthen she must have shut her eyes. When she opened them, she knew she hadn’treally opened them at all. She was dreaming again.
She was standing in a white room. Julian was standing in front of a table,
with the oddest thing stretched out in front of him. It was a sort of model,
with houses and trees and roads and street lights. Like a railway model, onlywithout the train, Jenny thought. But it was the most elaborate model she’dever seen; the miniature trees and bushes were exquisitely made, and thelittle houses had various windows alight.
Not just a model, Jenny realized. It’s Vista Grande -it’s my neighborhood.
There’s my house.
Julian was holding a small figure of a wolf above one of the streets. He setit down carefully, looked up at Jenny, and smiled.
Jenny didn’t smile back. Although she was dreaming, her head was clear-and shehad a purpose in mind.
She was going to get all the information she could fromhim.
“Is that how you tell them what to do? The wolf and the snake?”
“Possibly.” He added, just as seriously as she had asked her question, “What’sblack inside, white outside, and hot?”
Jenny, mouth opened to speak again, shut it and gave him the kind of lookAudrey frequently gave
Michael. “What?” she said tightly.
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“Is that what you are?”
“Me? No, I’m a wolf in wolf’s clothing.” He looked up at her, and light
flashed in his wild, exotic sapphire eyes.
I don’t know how I ever mistook him for a human, Jenny thought. Julian was
from an older and wilder race. One that had fascinated and terrified humans
from the beginning.
I will not be distracted, she told herself. Not this time. I will remember
what I want from him.
“What do you think of the new Game?”
“It isn’t fair,” Jenny said promptly. “Isn’t sporting, ” she added,
remembering what Julian thought of the idea of fairness. “It’s not a game at
all if we don’t have a chance to find your base.”
“And you think you don’t have a chance?”
“Not without some kind of information.”
Julian threw back his head and laughed, his hair shining like white jade. “You
want a hint?” He looked at her with those veiled, liquid-blue eyes.
“Yes,” Jenny said flatly. “And you’d give it to me if you wanted it to be any
kind of real contest. But you probably don’t.”
He clicked his tongue at her. “You really think I’m an ogre, don’t you? But
I’m not so bad. You know, if I wanted, I could manipulate the Game so I
couldn’t lose. For instance …” He lifted the wolf and held it judiciously
over another street. Jenny recognized the pale gray wood-frame house and the
tiny towheaded figure in front of it.
“Cam!” She looked at Julian. “You wouldn’t! You said-“
His long lashes drooped. “I said I’d keep this Game to the original
players-and I will. I’m just telling you what I could do. So you see I’m not
so bad after all.”
“Gordie Wilson wasn’t a player.”
“He put his nose in where he wasn’t wanted.”
“And what about P.C. and Slug?”
Julian’s smile was chilling. “Oh, they were players, all right. They played
their own gameand they lost.”
So now I know, Jenny thought. I suppose I’ll have to tell Angela-if I live to
do it.
She was staring down at the tiny towheaded figure of Cam when something else
occurred to her. She looked up.
“Was it you who made those kids play lambs and monsters?” she asked. “All that
violence-were you influencing them?”
“Me?” He gave his black velvet laugh again. “Oh, Jenny-they don’t need me.
Children are that way naturally. Children’s games are that way. Haven’t you
noticed?”
Jenny had, but she said nothing. She turned away.
“War and hunting and chasing-that’s all there is. That’s life, Jennyno one
can escape it.”
He was standing behind her now.
“And why should we? There’s excitement in the chase, Jenny. It gets the blood
going. It sends chills through the body….”
Jenny stepped away. Her blood was going. His voice, strange and haunting as
the melody she’d heard on the hotel balcony at the prom, sent a shiver of
awareness through her.
Cat-quiet, he followed her. I will not turn around, she thought. I will not.
“Love and death are everything, Jenny. Danger is the best part of the game. I
thought you knew that.”
Part of her did. The wild part that he had changed. The part of her, Jenny
thought suddenly, that would always belong to him.
“And I thought you were going to give me a hint,” she said.
“Of course, if you want-but nothing is free.”
Jenny nodded without turning. She’d expected this. “Give the hint first,” she
said flatly.
“You can find your friends behind a door.”
Jenny frowned. “What kind of a door? Have I seen it?”
“Yes.”
“Have I been through it?”
“Yes-and no.”
“What kind of an answer is that?” she said, angry enough to turn. She could
face him when she was furious.
“It’s as clear as black and white-if you know the right way to look at it.
Now,” he said, “the price.” He stepped to her and bent his head.
It took all her self-control to remain rigid and unresponsive in his arms. At
last she gasped and pulled away.
“Oh, Jenny. Let’s stop playing-we don’t need to play this Game anymore. You
can have your friends back-you want Dee back, don’t you?”
“I’ll get her back,” Jenny said shakily. She still felt tingles of electricity
in every place Julian had touched her. “I’ll get them all back-my way.”
“As usual, I admire your confidence,” he said. “But you can’t win. Not against
me, Jenny. I’m the master player.”
“A door I’ve been through but haven’t been through,” she said. “A door that
needs to be looked at in the right way.”
He smiled. “A door in the shadows. But you won’t find it until I take you
through it.”
We’ll see, Jenny thought. Things were getting blurry around her-the shadows
were growing. The dream fading.
“Here,” Julian said. “To remember me by.”
He put a silver rose in her hand.
Jenny recognized it. It was the rose he had given her in the Erlking’s cavern,
a shimmering half-open blossom, perfect down to the tiniest detail. The petals
cool but soft in her palm.
There was something like a slip of white paper wrapped around the stem.
This time I’m going to wake up right away, she thought.
She did. The silver rose was lying on her pillow. She almost knocked it off,
sitting up quickly to look at the bundles of blankets on the living room
floor.
Tom and Michael were both there. Two dark heads on white pillows. Jenny leaned
over and shook the nearest shoulder.
“Michael, Tom, wake up. I’ve got the next clue.”
But when she unraveled the slip of paper from the stem, she wasn’t sure.
“It’s French,” Michael said. “And none of us speaks French. It isn’t fair.”
“Life isn’t fair,” Jenny muttered, staring at the words on the paper in
frustration. There were only six of them.
Pas de lieu Rhone que nous.
“If we only had Audrey,” she said. “Nous means ‘we,’ I think-or is it ‘you’?”
“Maybe Dad’s got a French-English dictionary somewhere,” Michael said.
Tom didn’t even try to join in the conversation. He had looked at the silver
rose, and then at Jenny, and then he had settled back. Now he was staring down
at his own hands.
Jenny started to speak to him, then stopped. As she’d told Michael before,
what was there to say?
The ring felt as cold as ice and as heavy as lead on her finger.
Michael found the French dictionary the next morning, but Jenny still couldn’t
make much sense of the clue. The words were French, but they didn’t seem to
make any sense when you put them together.
“It’s about me, I know it is,” Michael said. “Because it’s French, and
Audrey’s connected with French, and I’m connected with Audrey. I’m next.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Jenny said. “We don’t know which of us it is-but if we
all stay together-“
“Staying together didn’t do Michael and Dee much good,” Tom said from what had
become his habitual position, pacing the hallway.
“He’s going to get us all. One by one,” Michael said softly. “And I’m next.”
Jenny stared down at the dictionary and rubbed her eyes.
It was dark and stuffy in the apartment. Outside the sky was cloudy, gray as
concrete. Jenny felt like a rat in a trap.
She tried thinking about the base instead of the French clue. She’d told
Michael and Tom what Julian had said about the door, but none of them could
make anything of it. Now Tom was pacing endlessly, and Michael was staring at
nothing, and Jenny was very tired.
Her head felt stuffy and her eyes hurt. She’d had almost no sleep last night.
Maybe if she shut her eyes she could think better. If she shut them just for a
few minutes…
The crash woke her up with a jerk.
“Sorry,” Michael whispered guiltily, picking up a TV tray. He looked even more
nervous than usual-almost wild. His hair was sticking up all over his head,
and his eyes reminded Jenny of a hamster she’d once had-a frantic hamster that
had always tried to run away from her.
“What time is it?” Jenny whispered back, trying to clear her head. It was
almost as dark as night.
“About four. You slept for a while.”
Jenny wondered vaguely why they were whispering, then saw the bundle of
blankets on the floor in Tom’s place. He was wrapped like a mummy, even Ms
head covered.
Good-he needs rest, too, Jenny thought, shifting. The slip of paper rustled on
her lap. Jenny’s blurred eyes focused on the writing on it, her foggy brain
seeing the words not as words but merely as letters-sounds. Pas de lieu …
She straightened suddenly, her breath hissing. Michael nearly jumped out of
his skin.
“What is it?” He limped hastily over to her. “What-did you figure it out? Is
it me?”
“Yes-oh, we’ve been so stupid, Michael. We didn’t need the dictionary. It’s
not French at all.”
“Even I can recognize that much French.”
Jenny clutched at his arm. “The words are French, but it isn’t a French
sentence. I figured that out with the dictionary-the words don’t make any
sense when you put them together. It only makes sense in English.”
“What are you talking about, English?” Michael forgot to whisper.
“Just say the words to yourself, Michael. Pronounce them the French way, but
kind of run them together.”
“Pas… de… lieu … Rhone… que… nous-it doesn’t say anything!”
“Yes, it does. It says ‘Paddle your own canoe.’”
Michael’s lips formed the words silently as he stared at the paper, then he
hit himself in the forehead. “Oh, my God. You’re right. But, Jenny”- he
dropped his hand and looked at her-“what does it mean?”
“I don’t know.” Jenny glanced out the window, where large drops were hanging
from the eaves of the walkway and small drops pattered on the concrete. “But
it’s got something to do with water, I bet-so none of us can go outside. But
don’t you realize, Michael”-she turned to him excitedly-“we’ve done it! We’ve
finally done it! We have a clue, and we have all of us here and safe. We can
win this one!”
Something about Michael’s expression made her heart jolt.
And then she realized-she and Michael hadn’t been whispering for some time.
They’d almost been shouting-but Tom’s blankets hadn’t stirred.
“Michael-” He was staring at her in terror. The hamster look again. In a
single motion Jenny darted to seize Tom’s blankets, to yank them away.
She just stared at the bunched-up pillows underneath. She could feel herself
folding inside. Collapsing.
“Michael.” She spoke without moving, still holding the blankets. Then she
lifted her head and looked at him. He flinched and raised a hand defensively.
“Where is he, Michael?”-deceptively softly.
“He made me, Jenny-I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen-“
“Michael, where is he?” Somehow Jenny had gotten
two fistfuls of Michael’s gray sweatshirt, and she was shaking him. “Where
did he go?”
Speechlessly Michael looked toward the gray and dripping window. There weretears in his dark spaniel eyes.
“He went to the mountains,” he gasped after a moment. “You know the place hetold us about-where they found Gordie Wilson. He thought he could find thebase there-or maybe just kill the wolf or the snake. He said that killing themmight help you and me, even if he-” He stopped and began again. “I told himnot to, Jenny-I told him not to go-“
Jenny heard her own voice, sounding strangely quiet and detached. Almostmusical. “To the mountains.
Where they found Gordie Wilson-in a creek bed.
Isn’t that right, Michael?”
Michael blinked at the lines of slanting gray outside. “In a creek …” hewhispered.
Then they just looked at each other.
“Come on,” Jenny said at last. “We’ve got to find him.”
“He told me to keep you here-“
“Nothing will keep me here. I’m going, Michael. The only question is whetheryou’re going with me.”
Michael gulped, then said, “I’m going.”
“Then let’s get out of here. We may already be too late.”
14
Tom had never shot a gun before. He’d taken this rifle from a case in Zach’sfather’s den. Zach’s father wasn’t going to be happy when he found it missing, or when he found the back door jimmied open, either.
But Tom wasn’t going to be around to hear about it.
He had no illusions on that. If he was right, this was strictly a one-waytrip.
Of course, Julian’s base might not be up here after all. There weren’t anydoors on this mountain slope, and Julian had told Jenny the others were behinda door. But this was definitely a place where the wolf and the snake hungout-and Tom didn’t expect them to pass up the chance to attack him.
If he even got one of them, Jenny’s chances would be better. If he got both,
maybe she could actually make it.
The idea had first come to him the night Audreyhad disappeared, when they’d all been talking in
Michael’s living room.
Michael and Dee had been saying that the only way to win Julian’s game was tofind the base, and Tom
had said, “There might be another way”-and thenstopped. The other way that he’d thought of was too dangerous. Too dangerousfor Jenny, anyway. It wasn’t a trip he wanted her making.
He’d thought about his idea during the next two days, going over it, debatingabout whether to tell Dee.
She’d want to be in on it, he knew. But that wouldmean leaving Jenny practically unprotected. That was the basic problem withthe idea-if Tom left Jenny, he left her vulnerable.
Then Dee had disappeared-and suddenly the choice had become critical. SoonJenny wouldn’t have
anyone to protect her… and Julian could creep in throughher dreams.
That was what had decided Tom in the end. He couldn’t keep Julian out of theapartment-which meant
he was no good to Jenny there. What he coulddo-maybe-was to give her one less enemy to fight.
I’ll bet it took both of them-the wolf and the snake-to get Dee, he thought,
trudging through the damp and puddling creek bed. Dee could’ve stood up toeither one of them alone—
but not both.
Maybe Jenny would have a chance against one or the other of them alone. Ormaybe-if Tom’s luck really held-he could get both before Julian killed him.
No one else had even suggested going after the animals. It simply hadn’toccurred to them. They all
