Fernanda was still looking at the film pinched between her fingers. “I do not think Penelope could be hiding in that house. I do not think anyone could have concealed anything there tonight.”
“Why’s that?” Kyla said.
“Because they would have to leave the ring of light to reach the house. They would have to pass through the dark,” Fernanda said. “Those creatures are out there. We would have heard the screams.”
Kyla swallowed. The woman had a point. “So Penelope’s somewhere in the motel. Penelope, and everything else. We just need to get busy.”
“But with what time?” Hunter said. “It just hit ten o’clock. The next two hours will be gone before you know it.”
He had a point. Kyla looked at Ethan. Ethan looked at Kyla.
Ethan nodded, as if he knew what she was thinking.
Kyla nodded back. “We’ll split up.”
NOT LIKE THE LAST ONESTHE TWINS
10:00 p.m.
They sat in the dark, lit only by the embers of the dying fire. No lights on, no heat: it wouldn’t have been fair. There wasn’t much fuel left in the generator. If the guests weren’t mindful of the power, it might not even last until midnight.
The corpse of Ryan Phan was still sprawled near the door of the office, exactly where it had fallen after Stanley shot him. Phan’s brains still clung to the wall. His blood had congealed around him, crusty as spilled sugar.
This would all be over before the body really started to smell.
“They’re not like the last ones,” Thomas said, speaking of tonight’s guests. “They didn’t go back to their rooms. They still haven’t.”
“Is that really the best way to describe them?” Tabitha said. “?‘The last ones’?”
“Don’t start.”
“How can I not?”
In the back of the office, the thing behind the walnut door was getting restless. It clicked and scratched across the wooden floors of its room. Clawed at the walls. Rustled its great feathers. Hissed its long tongue.
It let out aSHRIEKso loud even the twins flinched.
From where they sat, they could just make out the dim shape of Stan Holiday’s overturned van. They weren’t surprised he’d come to a bad end. The man had been doomed almost from the moment he arrived. When he’d checked in earlier, Stanley had thought he was making polite conversation.The two of you live in that old house out back?
No matter how many times the twins heard questions like this, they still shivered.
Livethere. Imagine.
Now Thomas said, “You know he’ll still come tonight.”
“Maybe he won’t,” Tabitha said. “We’ve never had a night like this before.”
“That crack in the mirror won’t save anyone.”
“It seems to have gotten them out of their rooms. Like you said.”
“You don’t know that’s because of the mirror.”
“You don’t know that it wasn’t.”
For the second time that night, the generator stuttered and stalled. This time, it stalled properly. For a few seconds, the lamps outside burned down to little more than a wisp.
It looked like they might go out entirely. That would be unfortunate.
