They were on a narrow dirt road now, still heading east. Suddenly Cassie had a terrible thought.
Oh, my God-Faye's house. That's where we set it loose and that's where we're going. We're going to trace this stuff all the way back to Faye's bedroom... and then what?
The coldness that went through her now was deeper and more numbing than the night wind. If the dark energy that had exploded through Faye's ceiling had killed Jeffrey, Cassie was as guilty as Faye was. She was a murderer.
Then stop tracing it, a thin voice inside her whispered. You're controlling the crystal; give it a twirl in the wrong direction.
But she didn't. She kept her eyes on the quartz teardrop, which seemed to shine with a milky light in the darkness, and she let it swing the way it wanted to.
If the truth comes out, it comes out, she told herself coldly. And if she was a murderer, she deserved to be caught. She was going to follow this trail wherever it led.
But it didn't seem to be leading to Crowhaven Road. They were still going east, not northeast. And suddenly the narrow, rutted road they were on began to seem familiar.
Up ahead she glimpsed a chain-link fence.
"The cemetery," Adam said softly.
"Wait," said Deborah. "Did you see-there, look!"
"At what, the cemetery?" Adam asked.
"No! At that thing-there it is again! Up there on the road."
"I don't see anything," Nick said.
"You have to. See, it's moving-"
"I see a shadow," Adam said. "Or maybe a possum or something..."
"No, it's big," Deborah insisted. "There! Can't you see that?"
Cassie looked up at last; she couldn't help it. The lonely road in front of her seemed dark and still at first, but then she saw-something. A shadow, she thought... but a shadow of what? It didn't lie along the road as a shadow ought to. It seemed to be standing high, and it was moving.
"I don't see anything," Nick said again, curtly.
"Then you're blind," Deborah snapped. "It's like a person."
Under Adam's jacket, Cassie's skin was rising in goose pimples. It did look like a person- except that it seemed to change every minute, now taller, now shorter, now wider, now thinner. At times it disappeared completely.
"It's heading for the cemetery," Deborah said.
"No-look! It's veering off toward the shed," Adam cried. "Nick, come on!"
Beside the road was an abandoned shed. Even in the moonlight it was clear that it was falling to pieces. The dim shape seemed to whisk toward it, merging with the darkness behind it.
Adam and Nick were running, Nick snarling, "We're chasing after nothing!" Deborah was standing poised, tense and alert, scanning the roadside. Cassie looked at the chain in dismay. Everyone's concentration had been shattered, the crystal was gyrating aimlessly. She looked up to say something-and drew in a quick breath.
"There it is!"
It had reappeared beside the shed, and it was moving fast. It went through the chain-link fence.
Deborah was after it in an instant, running like a deer. And Cassie, without any idea of what she was doing, was right behind her.
"Adam!" she shouted. "Nick! This way!"
Deborah reached the waist-high fence and went over it, her tank dress not hindering her at all. Cassie reached it a second later, hesitated, then got a foothold in a chain link, flicking her skirts out of the way as she boosted herself over. She came down with a jolt that hurt her ankle, but there was no time to worry about it. Deborah was racing ahead.
"I've got it," Deborah shouted, suddenly pulling up short. "I've got it!"
Cassie could see it just in front of Deborah. It had stopped in its straight-line flight and was darting from side to side as if looking for escape. Deborah was darting, too, blocking it as if she were a guard on a basketball team.
We must be crazy, Cassie thought, as she reached the other girl. She couldn't leave Deborah to face the shadowy thing alone-but what were they going to do with it?
"Is there a spell or something to hold it?" she panted.
Deborah threw her a startled glance, and Cassie saw that she hadn't realized Cassie was behind her. "What?"
"We've got to trap it somehow! Is there a spell-"
"Down!" Deborah shouted.
Cassie dove for the ground. The shadow-thing had swelled suddenly to twice its size, like an infuriated cat, and then it had lunged at them. Straight at them. Cassie felt it rush over her head, colder than ice and blacker than the night sky.
And then it was gone.
Deborah and Cassie sat up and looked at each other.
Adam and Nick appeared, running. "Are you all right?" Adam demanded.
"Yes," Cassie said shakily.
"What were you two doing?" Nick said, looking at them in disbelief. And even Adam asked, "How did you get over the fence?"
Deborah gave him a scornful look. "I didn't mean you," he said.
Cassie gave him a scornful look. "Girls can climb," she said. She and Deborah stood up and began brushing each other off, exchanging a glance of complicity.
"It's gone now," Adam said, wisely dropping the subject of fences. "But at least we know what it looks like."
Nick made a derisive sound. "What what looks like?"
"You can't still say you didn't see it," Deborah said impatiently. "It was here. It went for Cassie and me."
"I saw something-but what makes you think it was this so-called dark energy?"
"We were tracing it," said Adam.
"How do we know what we were tracing?" Nick rapped back. "Something that was around the place Lovejoy was killed, that's all. It could be the 'dark energy'-or just some garden-variety ghost."