Cassie screamed and pressed her hands to her face. Lenny and Jordan backed up against the bare wall.
I couldn’t move. I stood, stunned, and watched Spencer float up off the floor. He spun around in the air. Hovered about two feet off the floor. His long hair floated around his head like silver-white cobwebs.
He spread his arms wide and his mouth opened. An ugly black hole. He let out a ghoulish, bone-chilling laugh.
It’s a joke! my mind screamed. A horrible trick.
But I couldn’t see any wires holding him up.
Spencer floated closer to me. Cold air radiated off him. Moonlight streamed through the window, lighting up Spencer’s decayed skin. His sunken eyes.
His evil grin.
Floating off the floor, Spencer stared down at me. “No more games, Diane,” he rasped in his dry, dead voice. “No more Night Games. No games. I’m really dead. You killed me.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” I shrieked. “I didn’t kill you.”
“Yes, you did!” Spencer cried. He flew across the room and hung in a dim corner, pointing a bony, accusing finger at the four of us. “You all did! You killed me last year at the cabin.”
“Spencer—” I started.
“All of you killed me,” Spencer repeated. “You left me to die. You packed me under the snow and left me there. And I smothered in the snow.”
His blank eyes returned to me. “You could have helped me, Diane. I thought you were my friend.”
“I was your friend, Spencer!” I choked out.
“No, you weren’t!” he screamed. “Friends don’t let friends die, Diane. You could have stopped them. But you didn’t.”
He floated over me. An awful odor filled my nostrils. I coughed and covered my mouth.
What was he talking about? We didn’t kill him. It had just been a stupid game. A snowball fight.
We didn’t kill him.
Did we?
Suddenly I wasn’t so sure. Did we do something terrible—and not realize it?
“If you’re dead, how can you be here?” I demanded.
Spencer dropped to the floor. “My hatred kept me here,” he rasped. “After I died, I climbed out of the snow. It took me a long time to realize what happened. But my hatred for you all kept me here in Shadyside.”
He slid closer to me. “It kept me here long enough to pay you back. Long enough to scare you to death!”
I gasped. “You killed Mr. Crowell! You killed him! Didn’t you?”
“I gave him a heart attack,” he confessed. “It was part of my plan.”
“What plan?” I whispered.
“I convinced you to come play the Night Games,” Spencer explained. “I knew you couldn’t resist. It was my turn to play a game on you—on all of you.”
Spencer twirled around in the air.
He came to a sudden stop. “I had so much fun,” he rasped. “Watching you all get more and more scared from my calls and notes.”
“Why didn’t you just kill us?” I cried.
“What kind of game is that?” Spencer demanded.
Then, without warning, he grabbed me.
“Now the game is over,” he cried. “Now I’m going to kill you. The way you killed me.”
I tried to pull away, but he was too strong. “You’re my favorite, Diane,” he said. “So you die first.”
I screamed.
And then I couldn’t make another sound.
His bony hands tightened around my throat.
I pushed at his hands. He squeezed tighter. Tighter.
I twisted and punched him with my fists.
He didn’t seem to feel my punches. “Now this is fun. Really fun, Diane,” he howled at me.
I clawed at his strong fingers, tried to pry them away.
A rushing sound filled my ears. I couldn’t breathe.
No air. No air.
I felt as if my lungs were about to burst.
And then I didn’t care anymore.