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“Mr. Wilson’s gone back downstairs,” said Brian. “What do you guys think? About the lodge, I mean. I think it’s kind of freaky.” He sat down on the lower bunk bed. “I mean—those heads?”
“I think it’s freaky too!” said Coco. “I saw—” She bit her tongue and sat down on the rocking chair without finishing her sentence. “Never mind,” she muttered. “Just a shadow.”
“Lodge seems great,” said Ollie firmly, still digging into her bag. “Well, except for the heads. I’m with you on that.” She pulled out a box of her dad’s cookies and passed them around. “These will make you feel better. The Wilsons seem nice. It’s not their fault the power is out.”
“But it’s so dark,” said Coco. She took a cookie. “Couldn’t they have more generators? To make it less dark?”
“They’re trying to save on propane. Like Mrs. Wilson told us,” Ollie said reasonably.
“Hope we can ski tomorrow,” said Brian. He was on his feet again, at the window, peering out like he was straining to see the ski mountain through the storm. Brian loved to ski. “Listen to that wind.” Ski lifts could operate on backup generators, but not in high winds.
They all went silent, chewing their cookies. The wind had a voice. It whined and howled and whispered around Hemlock Lodge. Ollie saw Coco shiver. She’d never been totally on board with the skiing. That was okay, Ollie told herself. Tomorrow they’d show Coco how much fun it could be.
“It’ll be better in the morning,” Ollie said aloud. She licked crumbs off her fingers. “We’re going to have so much fun.”
“Yeah, I hope so,” said Brian. He turned away from the window. “Group mission to brush teeth now? Or do you guys want to go out into that creepy, chilly hallway one at a time?”
Ollie and Coco shook their heads. Since October, none of them had liked being alone in the dark. It wasn’t that they were afraid, exactly. But they had learned that bad things could happen to you. At night. Alone. In the dark. Not that there was anything bad in the hallway, Ollie reminded herself. But the three of them still stuck together. They’d been sticking together ever since they’d run the corn maze and escaped the scarecrows and met the smiling man.
Sometimes Ollie, Brian, and Coco argued. Sometimes they annoyed each other. But they stuck together. Even for little stuff. Like going to the bathroom down a spooky dark hallway. Coco was looking a lot happier. “Yep, let’s go together,” she said.
Ollie was so glad she had her friends.
* * *
—
That night, Ollie dreamed.
In her dream, someone was pulling at her sleeve.
“Go ’way,” Ollie murmured. Even in her sleep, she wanted to sleep. But the tugging kept on.
A small voice whispered, “Please, can you help me?”
Dream-Ollie opened her eyes. She saw a girl about her own age standing by her bed, dressed in a long white nightgown. The girl’s face was in shadow. The whole room was full of shadow and moonlight. “Can you help?” whispered the girl again in a thin, scratchy voice. “No one else wants to help.”
Ollie realized that she was lying on one of a row of identical white beds. She couldn’t see how long the row was. The end of it disappeared into the shadows. Ollie looked down at herself. She was wearing a white nightgown too.
She still couldn’t see the face of the girl by her bed. Only the girl’s hand gripping her sleeve. It was bony and gray; the nails were long and black. The fingertips were blackened too, like the girl had dipped her hands in ashes.
Ollie wrenched away, half falling over the other side of the bed.
“Please,” the other girl’s voice whined out of the darkness. “I’m looking for my bones. Can you help me find them?”
Bones? Ollie just wanted to get out of that room. She looked around for a door. There wasn’t one. Just a lot of narrow white beds. The room was full of beds.
In each bed lay a girl. Their eyes were closed and frosted around with ice. Frozen shut? Their skin was all grayish. They looked like they’d frozen to death, stiff in their beds.
Ollie wanted to get away. But there was nowhere to go. Her heart beat faster and faster.
“I need my bones,” whispered the girl again. “I can’t get out of here without my bones.”
Ollie tried to say something, but no sound came out.
Suddenly the other girl reached over and grabbed Ollie by the arm. Her hand was cold and skinny and strong. “She’s coming,” the girl hissed. “You have to help me. If she finds you here, she’ll put you to bed. She’ll put me to bed. And then she’ll never let us leave again. Just like the others.” She gestured at the sleeping girls all around them, with their eyes frozen shut. “You’ll sleep here forever.”
