The Whisperer (Nightmare Hall) (12 page)

Tandy, lying face-down, shook her shorn head vigorously.

Dinah had to plead for several more minutes before Tandy finally forced herself upright. Her face was swollen and tear-streaked, and her expression was one of total desolation. “Why would someone
do
this to me?” she wailed.

“Maybe someone was jealous of how beautiful your hair was,” Dinah suggested.

“Was!”
Tandy cried.
“Was
beautiful. Now, I look like a freak! I’m not stepping one foot outside this room looking like this.”

“Oh, Tandy, don’t be silly,” Dinah said softly. “You can’t give up living just because someone cut your hair. Give me a pair of scissors and I’ll see if I can fix this a little.”

“I have a pair of scissors,” Shea said, getting up and going to her desk.

But the scissors weren’t there. She searched every inch of the cluttered desk. No scissors.

Giving up, she turned away from the desk, trying to remember if she’d left them somewhere else. She was about to say, “I can’t find them,” when she realized that Dinah, sitting on the bed beside Tandy, was holding something up in the air, a puzzled expression on her face. “I was sitting on these,” she said slowly, looking up at Shea. “They were here, under Tandy’s blanket.”

The scissors.
Shea’s
scissors.

What were they doing on Tandy’s bed?

Tandy and Dinah were both looking at Shea, Tandy’s eyes accusing, Dinah’s questioning.

Shea took a step backward. “Oh, come on, you don’t think that
I.
… ?”

“Of course not!” Dinah said hastily. “I’m sure the person who did it saw your scissors on the desk and grabbed them, that’s all.”

But Tandy said in a voice hoarse from crying, “If someone came in here to cut off all my hair, don’t you think they’d have brought their
own
scissors?”

Shea had been thinking exactly the same thing.

“Maybe they didn’t come in here to cut your hair,” Dinah said calmly, beginning to arrange the ragged ends of Tandy’s hair with her fingers, trying to decide where she should cut. “Maybe they came in for something else … to see if your electricity was on, or to borrow something, maybe a flashlight.” She viewed the crazily varied lengths of Tandy’s remaining hair with doubt in her eyes. “This isn’t going to be easy,” she added, before returning to the matter of the scissors. “Some girl who’s always been jealous of Tandy’s hair came in for something else, and when she found Tandy asleep and the scissors right there on Shea’s desk, she flipped out. I think that’s what happened,” Dinah said firmly. She began snipping carefully, one ragged strand at a time.

“I
hate
short hair!” Tandy wailed. “I’ve always hated it! I’m going to look like a brand-new baby bird!”

“You’re going to look really cute,” Dinah said in that same calm voice. “You never should have had so much hair. Your face is too small.”

“Since when are you an expert?” Tandy said bitterly. Then she added angrily, “I’m going to the dean about this! I’m cutting bio this morning and going straight to Butler Hall. This isn’t any different than being robbed.”

Dinah and Shea nodded. “You
were
robbed,” Shea agreed.

“I’ll have to take your scissors with me, Shea,” Tandy continued, her voice cool. “I mean, Dinah
did
find them in my bed. There might be fingerprints on them, besides yours and Dinah’s, I mean.”

She thinks
I
did it, Shea realized. Tandy really believes I cut off all her hair last night. How could she think that? And I can’t tell her about the whisperer. She’d think I was a raving lunatic. So would Dinah. They’d never understand.

But then, who would?

“I’m cutting bio, too,” Shea said, standing up. “There’s something I have to do.” The sooner she confessed to Dr. Stark, the sooner this nightmare would be over.

“You’ll see, you’re going to feel a lot more free with short hair,” Dinah was telling Tandy as Shea left the room.

The building had come alive with the usual Monday morning hustle to get over the weekend and get back into gear for a week’s worth of classes. It was never easy, and the sounds of the struggle filled the hallway. Cranky voices complained from behind closed doors, the pipes groaned with the strain of too many showers at the same time as residents of Devereaux fought to fully awaken, and typewriter keys raced to finish papers neglected over the weekend and due that morning.

When I first got here, Shea thought as she entered the elevator, I loved Monday mornings. The start of a whole new week always seemed like such a great thing. But then, I loved everything about Salem University at first, didn’t I?

The elevator door had already begun to slide shut when Shea realized, with cold-sweat certainty, that she could
not
stay in this elevator. Not after last night. She hadn’t been thinking when she got on or she would have headed straight for the stairs instead.

Her arm shot out and one panicky finger pressed the DOOR OPEN button. With a huge sigh of relief, Shea jumped free.

Thanks to the whisperer, it would be a while before she could enter an elevator without panicking.

Because, although she wasn’t sure
how
he was responsible for the blackout last night, she knew that he was. He’d probably found the master switch, wherever that might be, and turned it off before he sneaked into their room to hack off Tandy’s hair.

Shea took the stairs down to the lobby.

It was empty and quiet there. The heels of her black flats click-clacked across the tile floor as she headed toward the big, double front doors. Her stomach writhed at the thought of facing Dr. Stark with the truth. How would the professor react? Probably turn her over to the administration immediately, with a demand for absolutely
no
clemency.

Probably not.

Dr. Stark had never been the friendliest, warmest person on campus. She’d probably be even worse after what had happened to her.

Maybe she wouldn’t even listen to Shea.

But … I won’t know until I try, Shea told herself, rounding a corner where the lobby wall jutted out at an angle, hiding from her view a small alcove off to her left. The alcove held only a desk with brochures on it, a worn plaid couch, and a door leading to the basement.

Shea heard no sound, saw nothing. One minute she was almost to the door, and the next an arm had wrapped itself roughly around her neck and was dragging her backward, into the alcove.

“Well, good morning, Miss Goody Two-Shoes! Think you’re too saintly to give someone a simple haircut, do you? That’s pretty funny, coming from a cheat! And just where do you think you’re going?”

“I
SAID, WHERE DO
you think you’re going? Didn’t suddenly decide to confess all, did you, Shea? Not a good idea. Not good at all.”

The grip around her neck was so tight, Shea had trouble breathing. She had told
no
one that she was going to see Dr. Stark. How did he
know
that?

Reading her mind, he whispered into her ear,
“I just guessed. You look like a woman on a mission. Forget it. You’re in even deeper trouble now than you were before. Poor little Bethany could have died, and it would have been your fault. Sorry about that. How was I supposed to know she had a bad heart? It was Annette I was really after.”

“Where’s the tape?” Shea gasped, her fingers clawing at the arm around her neck. “You promised! I’m not doing another thing you ask me to. You might as well give me the tape now.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

Shea’s heart jumped. Did he mean it?

“Tell you what. If you can find the tape, you can have it.”
Soft, wicked laughter.
“I tossed the paperweight into the river. It was a nuisance dragging that thing around. It’s heavy, you know? But the tape can still hang you. Here,”
something was thrust into her shoulderbag,
“maybe this will help. Don’t say I never gave you anything. But if you don’t find the tape, you’re still at my beck and call.”

Before she could gasp an answer, the arm was released from around her neck. The door behind her opened and closed with a sharp click, and she was alone again.

Relief flooded her body as she rubbed her raw throat with one hand. He was gone. And he hadn’t threatened her or made her promise to do something disgusting for him.

He had given her something … stuck it into her shoulder bag. What was it?

She sank down on the worn plaid sofa in the alcove and pulled her bag onto her lap. She thrust a hand into its soft folds, and almost immediately, her fingers closed on something that hadn’t been in there before.

A cassette. But not the tape she wanted. This was an audiocassette. A message from the whisperer? Her heart sank. Maybe the reason he hadn’t assigned her some miserable task while he was choking her was, he’d already put it on tape. Maybe this cassette contained new instructions for her, some gruesome new task …

But he’d
said
she could have the videotape if she found it. Did he mean it? How would she know where to begin looking?

She didn’t have a Walkman.

But Tandy did.

Sighing heavily, Shea forced herself to her feet and reluctantly made her way back up the stairs to the fourth floor.

When she walked into the room, Dinah was curling Tandy’s new, short hairdo with a curling iron.

“I thought you guys would be done by now,” Shea said, disappointed. She
had
to listen to that tape.

“Dinah went to get her curling iron. Took her forever,” Tandy said. “I’ve already missed bio and now I’m missing English.”

“Get your priorities straight,” Dinah cautioned, deadpan. “What’s really important here, an education or your hair?”

Tandy was still too upset to laugh.

Impatient with both of them, Shea asked abruptly, “Tandy, can I borrow your Walkman for a minute? I’ve got a new tape I want to check out, make sure it’s okay.”

Dinah looked up, dark brows furrowed. “You went out this early in the morning to buy a tape?”

“No. It was … in my mailbox. My brother sent it. Tandy?”

“Sure. Help yourself. It’s right there on my table.”

Taking the Walkman, Shea donned the headphones and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She didn’t care if they thought she was acting weird. The only thing that mattered now was finding out if the whisperer had given her another crummy “assignment,” or if he’d meant what he said.

She sat down on the cold, tile floor. By accident, she pressed the RECORD button first, but quickly caught her mistake. She pressed PLAY and leaned back against the wall.

Go directly to the house of nightmares.

Enter.

Beyond those doors lies your answer.

If you find what you seek, do whatever you will with it.

If you fail, the prize remains in my keeping.

And you will do my bidding without question.

Find it or be sorry.

The tape clicked off.

Shea remained on the floor, motionless, confusion in her face.
The house of nightmares?

Nightmare Hall.

The tape was hidden at Nightmare Hall?

But … how would she find it? She’d never even been inside the creepy old house.

She played the tape again, hoping there would be more on it than what she’d already heard. But that was all there was.

She would never be able to find that videotape. And there was a party there that night. She couldn’t very well go searching through the place with people all around her.

But … what choice did she have?

She could still go to Dr. Stark and confess. But the thought terrified her.

And now … she had this one, tiny chance. The paperweight was gone … Now, all she had to do was find the tape, and she’d be free of the whisperer and free of the threat of expulsion. She’d destroy the tape, and that would be the end of it.

Now all she had to do was figure out where the tape was hidden …

T
HAT NIGHT, WHILE THEY
got ready for the party, Shea tried to casually pump Tandy for information about Nightmare Hall: How big was it inside, how many rooms, how many floors?

But Tandy was so preoccupied with the favorable reception her new hairstyle had received on campus, she couldn’t concentrate on anything else. “For heaven’s sakes, Shea, why are you asking me all these questions about that place? Afraid you’ll get lost?”

Shea forced a laugh. “Well, yes, actually, there are lots of other place I’d rather be lost.”

“It’s not that bad.” Tandy slid a pink silk tank top over her head, careful not to mess up her new hairstyle. “It’s just old. Haven’t you ever been in an old house before?”

Shea asked no more questions, afraid Tandy would get suspicious. She’d just have to wing it when she got to the house.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Tandy said, picking up her purse, “Coop called while you were in the shower. Just wanted to make sure you were going to be there tonight.” Her eyes narrowed. “I said no, but that
I
would be, and he was going to
love
my new hairstyle.”

“You did not,” Shea said calmly, sliding her feet into black flats.

“No, but I could have. Don’t forget, I saw him first.” Tandy’s voice hardened slightly. “Then he asked to be introduced to
you.”

Shea stopped brushing her hair and looked at Tandy carefully.

Tandy laughed and waved a hand in dismissal. “Oh, well, what’s one more cute guy in this world so full of cute guys? Now, hurry up. I can’t wait to stun everyone at the party with my gorgeous new look.”

They were almost to the elevator when Shea stopped and said abruptly, “Go on ahead. I forgot something.”

Tandy frowned, but went on.

Shea went back to the room, picked up Tandy’s Walkman from her table, inserted the cassette tape the whisperer had given her, and slipped the Walkman into her shoulder bag. If she was going to go into an unfamiliar house looking for something, she might as well take the only clue she had. She had no idea how or even
if
the Walkman would be helpful, but having it in her possession felt, somehow, useful. Then she hurried out of the room and down the fire stairs to catch up with Tandy.