It was an abstract rendition of a forest, very heavy on green swirling lines.
"All right, so I did draw a forest," Audrey said. "I've always had nightmares about them, but I never knew why. I didn't even know what forest I was scared of."
"He picks up on our subconscious," said Dee.
"So what happened to you two after we got separated?" Jenny asked.
"Not much," Dee said. "They put us in that room, only there wasn't any door at first. Then we saw the door-and at that exact instant those corpses appeared and Audrey started screaming. What about you? Did you see the Erlking?"
Jenny looked away. "Sort of. It was Julian, playing the part." She hesitated, then blurted, "You do know that it's because of me you're suffering, don't you? It's me he wants. He told me that he'd stop hurting you if I-if I let him-"
"Don't you dare," Dee said, sloe eyes flashing.
"Don't even think about it," said Audrey with equal heat.
Jenny nodded, feeling warmth in her eyes. To cover it up she watched Audrey. While they were talking, Audrey had efficiently put her hair back up, fished a quilted pouch out of her jacket pocket, and deftly restored her cherry lipstick. Audrey had always seemed so cosmopolitan, so invulnerable-but now Jenny had seen beneath the facade.
"It must have been hard, living in all those different countries," she said slowly and glanced over at Dee.
Audrey paused a moment in the midst of fluffing her bangs. She snapped her compact shut with a click.
"Frankly, it was awful," she said. "You can't imagine the culture shock. The dislocation-the insecurity-and you never know when you're going to move again. Even now that Daddy's retired I still feel-"
"Like it's hard to make real friends?"
Audrey nodded. "I feel as if we might be picking up and going again any minute."
"You're not, though," Jenny said. "You're staying here with us." She glanced at Dee again. "Right?"
"Oh, naturally," Dee said, but there was no rancor in her voice, and she laid a slender dark hand on Audrey's back.
"You know, I don't understand," Jenny said suddenly. "Those guys in the forest seemed nice-so why did they do it? Why did they hand us over?"
"Well-elves are supposed to do people favors. Answer questions, do work for you. But they always
want something in return, and if you call them up and try to trap them, they sometimes trap you. Take you to their world. I guess those guys figured we were more expendable than they were."
Jenny nodded. "One more thing-"
"Always one more thing!" said Dee.
"-which of you did the door? I know I didn't put it there because I've never seen a door like that."
"I did, I suppose," said Audrey. "I saw doors like that in Germany-but I didn't put it there. It just appeared."
"You can't change things here by using your mind," Dee said. "You have to deal with everything here as if it's real."
"But where is here?" Audrey said bleakly.
"Good question," said Jenny. "It's nowhere on Earth; I know that from what I saw out the window."
"The Shadow World," Dee said. "Remember the instructions? A world that's like ours but different, that exists alongside ours, but never touches it."
" 'Some people call it the world of dreams, but it is as real as anything else....'" Jenny quoted. "Well, it touched our world tonight, anyway. What's wrong now, Audrey?"
"It just occurred to me. You know, in Norse and German legends there are supposed to be nine worlds-our world's just the one in the middle."
"Nine?" said Jenny.
"Nine. There's Asgard, which is a sort of heaven, and Hel, which is a sort of hell, and a world of primal fire and a world of primal water and a world of primal wind-but, listen. There's also a world of primal ice. It's sort of connected to Hel-and it's
also a world of shadows. It's called Niflheim, and nifl means 'dark, shadowy.'"
"Just what are you getting at?" Dee asked.
"I don't know. It's just strange, nicht wahr? God, I'm starting to think in German. But it is strange, isn't it-with him calling himself the Shadow Man? And I just remembered something else. The things that live in Niflheim are supposed to be terribly destructive, so they're under a rune of restraint to keep them from getting out of their world and into other peoples'. I don't remember which rune, though."
"You're not saying runes are real," Jenny said. "I mean, like the one Julian talked about-the one that 'pierced the veil between the worlds.' They can't really work."
"I always assumed they didn't, that it was just a silly superstition. But now ... I don't know. They work in legends all right, to let you-oh, what do they call it? Fare forth between the worlds. Or summon up things from the other ones. The way those German boys summoned the elves."
The talk was making Jenny very uncomfortable. She didn't know why, and that made her even more uncomfortable. Something to do with runes, a long time ago. After all she had seen, why should it upset her that runes might be real? That day in her grandfather's basement...
"Look," she said abruptly, "we've been standing here gabbing forever. Don't you think we'd better start looking for the next person? There is a time limit, you know."
"Right," Dee said, always ready for action. "Do you want to split up again?"
"No," Jenny said quickly. "Let's stick together." By whatever weird laws operated in this place, she'd already yielded Julian the right to touch her hand, her cheek, her hair. And he'd made it plain that he wouldn't be satisfied until he got all of her, bit by bit. It was just a question of what kind of ruse or threat he planned to try next. Jenny figured her best chance was not to be caught alone.
They found Michael on the third sweep down the hall. He was wandering back and forth in front of a door, running his hands through his rumpled dark hair and muttering. He brightened considerably at the sight of the girls. "Audrey, at last! It seems like years!" "Oh, I've been counting the seconds we've been apart," Audrey said, raising an eyebrow and dimpling at the same time.
"Me, too. I only wish I had a calculator to keep track."
And neither of them meant a word of it. Lucky for them, thought Jenny. Love for Tom was like an aching bruise in her chest. If only she could see him, just for a moment...
They explained to Michael everything that had happened to them. He told them that for him the parlor had simply disappeared while Tom was cowering from the invisible creatures. Then he'd found himself in front of this door. He'd tried the knob, but it wouldn't open. He'd been pacing the hallway ever since.
"And you never saw a staircase?" Jenny asked. "No staircase, no other doors, no nothing. No people, until you came." "And yet we've been walking this hallway for hours, and we've seen three doors, and I came up a staircase," Jenny said. "It's just one more weird thing about this place."
"Which we don't have time to discuss," Dee said. "Let's move, people. Who wants to try this door?"
"This time let's try to keep it open after we go in," Jenny said. "That is, if we don't need to slam it shut fast."
"We can't go in at all-it's locked," Michael said.
Dee flashed him a grin as she took up a heel stance, ready to do a forward kick. "Bets?"
The door opened easily when Jenny twisted the knob, and no monsters jumped out. Dee caught it as it swung and held it against the wall. Through the opening Jenny could see dimness.
"Uh, you first. I'm a registered coward," Michael said.
Jenny took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and stepped over the threshold--into a hallway identical to the one she had left.
She looked up and down it in bewilderment.
"What's going on? This door wants to close," Dee called.
"It's-" Jenny gave up and beckoned Audrey and Michael in.
"It's the same place," Audrey said, looking around.
This hallway was the mirror image of the other. Same gloomy carpet, same creepy wallpaper, same candles in brass holders.
Michael went back through to Dee's side. "Look-the candles even have the exact same drops of wax running down. It really is the same hallway, not just another one like it."
No matter how many times they went back and forth over the threshold, they kept getting the hallway.
"For some reason it's not letting us into your nightmare," Jenny said. "We just keep getting bounced back here."
"Oh, too bad," said Michael. "I'm really going to miss facing it."
"All right, let me see this." Dee finally went through, the door swinging shut behind her. "Yep, same place," she said, looking around. "Like a revolving door to hell."
"Wasn't it Sartre who said hell was eternity spent in a room with your friends?" Michael asked grandly.
"Oh, quit showing off your A in world literature," said Jenny. "Unless-was that your nightmare, Mike?"
Michael deflated a bit. "Uh, actually, no. Mine was more of a kid thing, really."
"But what was it?"
Michael seemed to be blushing. Scratching under the collar of his gray sweatshirt, he shook his head.
" 'Each of you has a secret you would rather die than reveal....'" Dee quoted portentously from the game card. "I'll bet it was something really embarrassing, like the potty monster, huh, Mikey?" As she spoke she turned the doorknob. It wouldn't budge. "Oh, great, it's locked again."
"If we're stuck here again, we might as well sit down," Audrey said.
There didn't seem to be anything else to do. They sat, and Michael talked. One thing you could always
count on, Jenny thought-that Michael wouldn't run out of things to talk about.
"When I think," said Michael, "that I could have stayed home and watched 'Ren and Stimpy' tonight..."
"This isn't much of a game. No reset. It's win, lose, or die," Michael said.
"You heard the one about the bunny and the hair dryer?" he said.
"Michael," Audrey said scathingly.
While he was talking, Michael had taken off one of his battered tennis shoes. It had a hole in the toe. Audrey stared in genteel horror at his limp sock on the floor.
"I can't help it-I've got an itch. Ah ... that's better," Michael said, scratching vigorously. "So what'd you say to-that guy-after we all got whooshed out of the parlor?" he said to Jenny. "I mean-" He fumbled for words as all three girls looked at him. "I mean-it was pretty obvious what he wanted-and you said he kept you there alone-"
"Whatever he wants," Jenny said shortly, "he's not getting it."
"Of course not," Audrey huffed. "What an idea." "She wouldn't give him the time of day," Dee said curtly.
"I don't even know what he sees in me," Jenny said.
The others all looked at each other. Then Dee snorted. "No, you wouldn't, would you? But everybody else does. Except Zach, probably, but then he's your cousin."
"It's not just looks," Audrey said. "You're good. Too good, sometimes. I've told you-"
"Aba would say your soul is straight," Dee interrupted.
"Just like a Girl Scout," Michael said helpfully. "Sweet and simple and honest."
"But he's bad," Jenny said.
"That's the point," Dee said. "Badness always wants goodness."
"And opposites attract," Audrey said grimly. "Look at Michael and me."
Michael said hastily, "So who do you think he is, anyway?"