And another thing was certain, too. She couldn't use her power to visualize the hidden room downstairs, and Joyce wasn't going to let her anywhere near it. So the only solution was for her to go down there herself.
The Passion
But when?
Still rubbing her forehead, Kaitlyn toed her sneakers off and lay down.
At first she shut her eyes just to ease the headache. But soon her thoughts began to unwind and her muscles relaxed. This time there were no nightmares.
When she woke she had that feeling of desertion again. The house seemed too quiet, the warm air too still.
At least her headache was gone. Moving slowly, she got off the bed and tiptoed to the door.
Silence.
Oh, they wouldn't leave me alone again. Not unless it's a trap. If it's a trap, I'm not going anywhere.
But she had a right to go downstairs. She lived here; she was a full member of the team. She could be going down to get a diet soda or an apple.
Down the stairs, then.
And she had a right to look around downstairs. She could be looking for the others; she could be lonely. She kept the right words on her lips.
"Joyce, I just wanted to ask you-"
But Joyce wasn't in her room.
"Are you guys still testing-?"
But the front lab was empty. So was the back lab.
And the kitchen, and the dining room, and the living room. Kaitlyn pushed aside the living room curtains to look outside the house. Nobody playing hacki sack or Frisbee tag. Only juniper hedges and acacia trees. She couldn't even see Joyce's car.
Okay, so maybe it's a trap. But it's too good an opportunity to miss.
Heart beating in her throat, Kaitlyn crept toward the paneled hallway under the staircase.
The middle panel, she thought, with one guilty glance behind her at the French doors leading to Joyce's room. She ran her fingers over the smooth dark wood, reaching up to find the crack that was the top of the door.
Okay, she was in front of it. Now to find the place Lewis had showed her. She shut her eyes and concentrated on the images she'd gotten from Lewis. They weren't exactly visual, more like just a feeling of how she should move her hands. He'd found something around this level-and then he'd pushed with his mind. She would push with her fingers.
And then he'd moved over this way, and down, and pushed again. Kaitlyn pushed again, pressing hard.
Something clicked.
Kaitlyn's eyes flew open. I did it! I actually did it!
Excitement bubbled up from her toes, fizzling out to fill every part of her body. She was impressed with herself.
The middle panel had disappeared, sliding to the left. Stairs led downward, illuminated only by faint reddish lights at foot-level.
The bubbles seemed to be making a fizzing in her ears now, but Kaitlyn tried to listen over it. Still, silence.
Okay. Going down.
With each step into the red dimness, she felt a little of the effervescence leaving her. This wasn't a nice place. If she'd been a few years younger, it would have made her think of trolls.
At the bottom she groped for the light switch she knew should be there-and then snatched her fingers back. Too much light wasn't good. If there was somebody in the room at the end of the hall, they might notice.
But if she didn't turn on the light, she'd have to walk the whole way in darkness. Just the thought made her knees unsteady.
There was no help for it. Tensing her muscles, she put a hand on the wall to guide her and began walking forward. In a moment she had to put the other hand out to feel for obstacles. She was blind.
Each step was hard, and she had to clench her teeth tighter and tighter to make herself keep going. The red staircase behind her began to feel more and more tempting.
Oh, God, what if somebody came and saw the panel open and closed it and locked her in here?
The thought was so terrible that she almost turned around and ran. Instead, she used the energy to force herself forward. And one more step, and one more step-
Her outstretched fingers encountered a door.
Her need for light was so great that she reached automatically for the knob, without listening to see what might be on the other side. But instead of a knob, her fingers found something like a calculator built into the door.
What was it? She could feel little square bumps in a regular pattern. It really did feel like a calculator.
Oh, you idiot. You idiot. You must still be stupid from the testing this morning. It's a combination lock. Not one of those padlock kinds; one of the fancy ones, where you punch numbers on a keypad.
And if this was the combination lock, then behind that door . . .
It was in there. That grotesque thing with the obscene crystalline growths all over it. It was squatting in there just a few feet away.
Kaitlyn was swamped by a feeling of evil.
And then-she heard noises.
From behind the door.
They were in there with it.
Oh, God, I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid. Of course, they're in there. This is where they go in the afternoons, they go to the crystal, and they're all sitting in there around it right now.
Don't panic, don't panic, she told herself, but it was too late. She was panicking. She hadn't even asked Lewis how to shut the secret panel. She was incompetent and stupid and they were right inside there and she didn't have time to get away.
Another noise sounded-very close to the door.
Suddenly Kaitlyn was moving, without thinking, without caring where she was going. With great stocking-footed leaps she was sailing down the hallway toward the red stairs. She reached the first step and began to scramble up, banging her knee, ignoring it, scrambling on. Using her hands. She got to the top of the stairs and the white light of the hallway blazed into her eyes. That light was the only thing that stopped her, kept her from running through the living room and out of the house-or up to her bedroom to hide under the bed. She was almost like an animal in her blind instinct to get under cover.
"Kaitlyn, what on earth-?"
The voice was high and light, surprised. Kaitlyn turned terrified eyes on Lydia.
"What happened? Did they do something to you?" Lydia was looking past her down the stairs.
A tiny bit of Kaitlyn's mind returned. There was a chance, just a chance for help-for salvation. Lydia knew about the panel; Lydia seemed worried about Kaitlyn.
"Oh, Lydia," she said, and her voice came out a croak. "I-I . . ."
She'd meant to lie, to say that she'd been down with the others and she'd gotten scared. But somehow what came out was, "Oh, Lydia, I know I shouldn't have gone down there. But Joyce never lets me do anything. I just wanted to see-and now Joyce is going to be furious. I don't know how to get the panel shut."