Carter obeyed, then jumped out of the car to open my door for me.

“Listen, if anything happens…” I said, “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“If anything happens?” he repeated. “That’s insane.” Yeah, it was.

“Alexis, yesterday…what you did. I know you’re trying to protect me, but I don’t need protecting.”

Megan was waiting for me halfway up the front path. I started to walk away, but Carter took hold of my hand.

“Just tell me,” he said. “If nothing else mattered, would you want to go to the dance with me?”

I looked into his blue eyes and nodded. “Now, please,” I said. “Go.”

He got back in the car and drove away.

Megan and I looked at each other.

“Anything else I should know?” she asked.

“It’s a doll.”

Megan stared at the ground. “I remember a doll….” “Yeah, your mom used to take pictures of it. It’s the doll from my story and my dream. It belonged to the little girl who died here, and now it’s possessed by her ghost. We have to destroy it.” She nodded.

“But first…we have to find it.” I glanced at her neck. “Keep your necklace on. My sister seems to be totally scared of them. But she keeps getting stronger, so I don’t know….”

We’d reached the front porch. As I extended my hand toward the doorknob, the door swung open all by itself

Let the games begin.

**

28

The sunlight pouring through the front door lit up the foyer, but the hallway faded into darkness. Someone had lowered the kitchen shades and closed the drapes in the living room and the sitting room, leaving the house shrouded.

The front door slammed shut behind us. Megan stared at it and swallowed hard. “Who did that?”

I looked up at the ceiling of the foyer as if there might be a ghost floating above us. Then I squared my shoulders and focused ahead. “Probably the ghost. But you can’t let it get to you, okay? Try to stay focused.”

Megan gave a minute nod. “All right.”

“Follow me.”

We might as well start, I figured, in the obvious place—my sister’s bedroom.

Kasey never stood much of a chance against an evil ghost who used the power of dolls to lure her in. Come to think of it, maybe that’s how her fascination with dolls began in the first place. Could evil seep through the walls of the house, plant a seed of obsession in someone’s heart?

And what about me and my photography? I was just like Shara.

Dozens of pairs of doll eyes stared at me accusingly, but none of the dolls levitated up from her perch with glowing eyes. I scanned the rows but didn’t see one that was half bald.

“What do we do now?” Megan breathed.

If we couldn’t pin down exactly which doll was the evil one, we’d have to destroy them all. I grabbed one from the top ledge and hammered her porcelain head on the edge of the dresser. Her face cracked like an eggshell.

“How destroyed is destroyed?” Megan asked. “And how will we know when it’s done?”

“I don’t know,” I said, pulling on the head of an antique rag doll until it detached from the body with a rrrrrrip!

One thing was certain: we had to get rid of the ghost before Kasey got home. Because if she saw this carnage she would kill us both on sight.

Megan opened a display case and grabbed one of Kasey’s Grande Dame dolls, the fancy kind you order from catalogs with monthly payments. I held my breath as she wrapped her hand in the hair and slammed the doll headfirst onto the surface of the desk. The doll’s face imploded.

“What was that?” Megan asked, suddenly looking up. I glanced at the door.

I didn’t see anything, but…something was wrong.

I took a half step out into the hallway, and before I had time to look, something barreled into me, sending me flying to the ground.

I propped myself up weakly on my elbows and looked around.

Kasey stood at the far end of the hall.

“You like that?” she asked. “Want another one?”

She held the flat of her hand up in the air and moved it toward me, just an inch, and the impact hit me like a bowling ball. My head slammed into the carpet.

“Megan, run!” I shouted.

But of course Megan couldn’t run. She had nowhere to go.

There was silence.

“Come on, Megan,” Kasey said. “Come on out.”

Megan stepped haltingly out of my sister’s room. I looked up at her, but I couldn’t find the strength to move.

I expected another long-distance strike, so when Kasey came marching toward us, I knew something was wrong.

I watched from below as Megan pulled on her necklace and held the charm out in front of herself. Kasey paused a few feet away, then lifted her hand.

“Duck!” I yelled. If she didn’t get close enough to feel the effects of the necklaces, they were useless.

We were powerless.

All I could see was a flash of red-and-white cheerleader uniform tumbling to the floor and the charm flying across the hall.

Before Megan could stand, Kasey had reached her. She put one hand on Megan’s throat, under her chin, and hefted her to her feet, slamming her against the wall.

“Your mother should have killed you when I told her to,” Kasey said. “But I guess I’ll just do it myself.”

Megan whimpered as my sister’s hand tightened against her neck.

“Stop,” I said, but I was frozen in place. I tried to move my arms, but they were paralyzed.

A few terrible seconds passed, and I heard Megan’s hands slapping the wall helplessly.

“Hello?”

Kasey spun away toward the voice, and Megan went crashing to the floor next to me.

The heaviness faded from my body, and I managed to sit up in time to see Carter at the top of the stairs.

“Carter, watch out!” I screamed. He saw my sister and turned back to retreat down the stairs, but Kasey had already raised her hand.

“Alexis,” Megan’s shaky voice said from behind me, “the heart…where’s the other heart?”

Kasey pushed the flat of her hand toward Carter.

“No!” I cried.

Megan had pulled herself over to me and put her hand on my arm.

Carter seemed to balance in the air for a split second. And then he fell.

I glanced up at my sister, who, like an angry bull, had already turned back to face us.

“I won’t let you do this!” I said, grabbing the heart out of my pocket.

“Got it!” Megan cried. She dove for me, raising her half of the heart toward mine.

Just as my sister held her hand up, the two pieces came together perfectly.

A flash of brilliant blue light filled the hallway and then faded slightly into a giant blue sphere of energy. It pounced on my sister, lifting her off the ground while she clawed and kicked against the air.

After a moment the whole house shook, and the blue light exploded in every direction, absorbing into the walls, the ceiling, the floor.

Kasey collapsed.

The house kept shaking.

“Alexis,” Megan whispered, pointing to the ceiling. “Look!”

I saw a smaller, greenish ball of light moving frantically around the ceiling. It glowed, but the glow was almost sinister. It seemed to move like a rodent, scurrying away from the blue sparks leaping around from wall to ceiling and back. Finally it disappeared into the ceiling. The tremors stopped, and the house was still.

“Carter,” I said. “Go check on Carter.”

Megan slowly climbed to her feet and limped down the hall toward the stairs, while I pulled myself over to Kasey, whose skin was a dull gray. For a horrible moment I thought she was dead, but then I saw the minutest movement of her chest.

“Carter’s alive,” Megan’s voice called up the stairs.

Thank God.

I went to the top of the steps and looked down at them. Megan sat leaning over Carter’s motionless body. A tiny blue lightning bolt jumped from the railing of the stairs to the carpet, where it smoldered, leaving a blackened spot.

Megan’s eyes met mine. “There’s too much energy,” she said. “It’s like a circuit overloading.”