Mark was still muttering as he rounded the backcorner of the house. What was he even doinghere?
It wasn't easy to get into the garden area fromoutside. He had to bushwhack through the overgrown
rhododendron bushes and blackberry canesthat formedadense hedge all around it. And evenwhen he
emerged from a tunnel of leathery greenleaves, the scene in front of him didn't immediatelyregister. His
momentum kept him going for a fewsteps before his brain caught up.
Hey, wait. There'sa girl here.
A pretty girl. Anextremelypretty girl. He could seeher clearly by the back porch light. She had hiplength
white-blond hair, the color that normally onlypreschoolers have, and it was as fine as a child's hair,too,
whipping around her like pale silk when shemoved. She was smallish. Little bones. Her hands and feet
were delicate.
She was wearing what looked like an oldfashioned nightshirt and dancing to what sounded like a
rent-to-own commercial. There was a battereddock radio on the porch steps. There was also a black
kitten that took one look at Mark and darted away into the shadows.
"Baaad cred-it,nooo cred-it, dooon't wor-ry,weee'll take you...." the radio warbled. The girl
danced with her arms above her head-light as thistledown,Mark thought, staring in astonishment. Really,
actu ally that light, and so what if it was a cliche
As the commercial ended and a country western song began, she did a twirl and saw him. Shestopped,
frozen, arms still above her head, wristscrossed. Her eyes got big and her mouth sagged open.
She's scared, Mark thought. Of me. The girl didn't look graceful now; she was scrambling to seize the
dock radio, fumbling with it, shaking it. Trying to find an Off switch, Mark realized. Her desperation was
contagious. Before he thought, Mark dropped the pruning shears and swooped in to grab the radio from
her. He twisted the top dial, cutting the song short. Then he stared at the girl, who stared backwith wide
silvery-green eyes. They were both breath ing quickly, as if they'd just disarmed a bomb.
"Hey, I hate country western, too," Mark said aftera minute, shrugging.
He'd never talked to a girl this way before. But then he'd never had a girl look scared of him before.
And so scared-he imagined he could see her heartbeating in the pale blue veins beneath the translucent
skin of her throat.
Then, suddenly, she stopped looking terrified. Shebit her lip and chortled. Then, still grinning, she blinked
and sniffed.
"I forgot," she said, dabbing at the corner of her eye. "You don't have the same rules we do."
"Rules about country western music?" Mark hazarded. He liked her voice. It was ordinary, not
celestial. It made her seem more human.
"Rules about any music from outside," she said. "And any TV, too."
Outside what? Mark thought. He said, "Uh, hi. I'm Mark Carter."
"I'm Jade Redfern."
"You're one of Mrs. Burdock's nieces."
"Yes. We just came last night. We're going to livehere."
Mark snorted and muttered, "You have my condolences."
"Condolences? Why?" Jade cast a darting glance around the garden.
"Because living in Briar Creek is just slightly moreexciting than living in a cemetery."
She gave him a long, fascinated look. "You've... lived in a cemetery?"
He gaveher along look. "Uh, actually, I just meant it's boring here."
"Oh." She thought, then smiled. "Well, it's interesting to us," she said. "It's different from where
we come from."
"And just wheredo you come from?"
"An island. It's sort of near ..." She considered. "The state of Maine.
"'The state of Maine."'
"Yeah."
"Does this island have a name?"
She stared at him with wide green eyes. "Well, I can't tell youthat."
"Uh-okay." Was, she making fun of him? Butthere was nothing like mockery or sly teasing in her
face. She looked mysterious ... and innocent. Maybe she had some kind of mental problem. The kids at
Dewitt High School would have a field day with that. They weren't very tolerant of differences.
"Look," he said abruptly. "If there's ever anything I can do for you-you know, if you ever get in
trouble or something-then just tell me. Okay?"
She tilted her head sideways. Her eyelashes actually cast shadows in the porch light, but her expression
wasn't coy. It was straightforward and assessing,and she was looking him over carefully, as if she needed
to figure him out. She took her time doingit. Then she smiled, making little dimples in her cheeks, and
Mark's heart jumped unexpectedly.
"Okay," she said softly. "Mark. You're not silly, even though you're a boy. You're a good guy,
aren'tyou?"
"Well. . ."Mark had never been called upon to be a good guy, not in the TV sense. He wasn't
surehow he'd measure up if he were. "I, um, hope I
0am."
Jade was looking at him steadily. "You know, I just decided. I'm going to like it here." She smiledagain,
and Mark found it hard to breathe-and then her expression changed.
Mark heard it, too. A wild crashing in the overgrown tangle of rhododendrons and blackberrybushes at
the back of the garden. It was a weird,frenzied sound, but Jade's reaction was out of all proportion. She
had frozen, body tense andtrembling, eyes fixed on the underbrush. She looked terrified.
"Hey." Mark spoke gently, then touched hershoulder. "Hey. It's all right. It's probably one of the
goats that got loose; goats can jump over any kind of fence." She was shaking her head. "Or a deer.
When they're relaxed they sound just like people walking."
"It's not a deer," she hissed.
"They come down and eat people's gardens a. night. You probably don't have deer roaming
aroundwhere you come from-"
"I can'tsmellanything," she said in a kind of whispered wail. "It's that stupid pen. Everything smells like
goat. "
She couldn't smell ... ? Mark did the only thinghe could think of in response to a statement like that. He
put his arms around the girl.
"Everything's okay," he said softly. He couldn'thelp but notice that she was cool and warm at the
same time, supple, wonderfully alive underneath the nightshirt. "Why don't I take you inside now? You'll
be safe there."
"Leggo," Jade said ungratefully, squirming. "I mayhave to fight." She wriggled out of his arms and
faced the bushes again. "Stay behind me."
Okay, so sheis crazy. I don't care. I think I love her.
He stood beside her. "Look, I'll fight, too. What doyou think it is? Bear, coyote ... ?""My brother."
"Your . . ." Dismay pooled in Mark. She'd just stepped over the line of acceptable craziness.
"Oh."
Another thrashing sound from the bushes. It was definitely something big, not a goat. Mark was just
wondering vaguely if a Roosevelt elk could have wandered down the hundred or so miles from Waldo
Lake, when a scream ripped through the air.
A human scream-or, worse,almost human. As it died, there was a wail that was definitely inhumanit
started out faint, and then suddenly sounded shrilland dose. Mark was stunned. When the drawn-out wail
finally stopped, there was a sobbing, moaning sound, then silence.
Mark got his breath and swore. "What in thewhat wasthat?"
"Shh. Keep still." Jade was in a half-crouch, eyes on the bushes.
"Jade-Jade, listen. We've got to get inside." Desperate, he looped an arm around her waist,
trying to pick her up. She was light, but she flowed like water out of his arms. Like a cat that doesn't
want to bepetted. "Jade, whatever that thing is, we need agun.
"I don't." She seemed tobe speaking through herteeth-anyway there was something odd about
her diction. She had her back to him and he couldn't see her face, but her hands were clawed.
"Jade,"Mark said urgently. He was scared enoughto run, but he couldn't leave her. He couldn't.
No good guy would do that.
Too late. The blackberry bushes to the south quivered. Parted. Something was coming through.
Mark's heart seemed to freeze solid, but then he found himself moving. Pushing Jade roughly aside.
Standing in front of her to face whatever the thing in the dark was.
Mary-Lynnette kicked her way through the blackberry canes. Her arms and legs were scratched, and
she could feel ripe, bright-black berries squishing against her. She'd probably picked a bad place to get
through the hedge, but she hadn't been thinking about that. She'd been thinking about Mark, aboutfinding
him as fast as possible and getting away from here.
0Just please let him be here, she thought. Let him be here and be okay and I'll never ask for anything
else.
She struggled through the last of the canes into thebackyard-and then things happened very fast. The first
thing she saw was Mark, and she felt a rush of relief. Then a flash of surprise. Mark was standing in front