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first.”
    “Are you
scared?
” Mark asked, scorn creeping into his voice. “I show you something this cool, and you’re too big a baby to explore?”
    “I’m not afraid,” I told him. “I’m not a baby.”
    “Then go ahead.” He scrambled to the side so I could get by him. “Go on.”
    And I did. I crawled in as far as my waist. The space was dark, with only a square of light from the open door. “I don’t see the other side,” I told him.
    “Keep going. You’ll see it.”
    Feeling my way along the floor with my hands, I crept a few inches forward, then a few inches more, until my feet had passed the threshold. Then the door slammed shut behind me, and I heard the latch being fastened.
    “Mark!” I pleaded. “Please don’t. Please!”
    I listened for a moment. “Mark?” I expected him to laugh on the other side of the door, or to blackmail me for some of my leftover Halloween candy or the contents of my porcelain piggy bank. Or maybe he just wanted to hear me beg. “Mark,
please
let me out. Please?” But there was no sound, no footsteps, no creaking floorboards. I waited and waited, but Mark was gone.
    I curled up in a ball, making myself as small as possible. When I moved, cobwebs brushed my arms. I lay there whimpering until my eyes grew used to the dark. Then I crawled forward, foot by foot, until I reached the wall. I felt along it, all the way from side to side, from floor to ceiling, looking for a secret exit that wasn’t there. Then I crawled back and banged on the entrance, screaming for help. Maybe a neighbor would hear me? It would be hours until Mom and Dad got home. How could I stand it in there for so long? I screamed and screamed until my throat felt torn.
    A long time passed. I fell asleep — maybe I passed out with fright — but I woke with a start, feeling something crawl across my face. A spider? A mouse? I screamed some more. Was it day, night? Had my parents come home? Would they look for me and be surprised not to find me in my room? Would they ask Mark where I was, and would he tell them?
    Then I had the most terrifying thought of all, one that seemed truer and truer the more I contemplated it: nobody would even notice I was gone.
    “Miss Jane? Come get me. Miss Jane?” Maddy’s crackly voice over the intercom summoned me from my memories. Had I fallenasleep? It took a few moments to recall where I was. I jumped up and pressed the intercom button.
    “I’ll be right there. Hold on.” I straightened my clothes and rubbed sleep out of my eyes with hands that were undeniably shaky.
Calm down,
I told myself.
Don’t be silly. You’re safe
. My parents hadn’t realized I was missing until the next morning, when Mom came into my room to wake me for school. They had run around the house calling my name until I heard their muffled voices and screamed back in return. When they found me, they were angry at me for scaring them. I opened my mouth to tell them about Mark’s part in the episode but took one look at the expression on his face and swallowed my words.
    “We thought you’d gone to bed early,” Mom told me, brushing cobwebs out of my hair. “How were we supposed to know you weren’t in your room?”
    Why didn’t you come in to kiss me good night?
I wondered, but knew better than to ask. Instead I threw my arms around her waist and hugged her hard, refusing to let go until she pried me loose and sent me off to get dressed for school.
    Get over it. You’re an adult now. Maddy needs you
. I started toward her room but, still sleepy and disoriented, turned a corner and found myself in a darkened wing I didn’t recognize. Maddy’s room was down the hall from mine; I had gone right past it and taken an unnecessary turn. I hesitated. It was then that I heard a laugh, so indistinct at first I thought I had imagined it. I froze, then heard the laugh again, louder this time.
    “Maddy?” I called, though the laugh hadn’t sounded like hers.
    Then I heard it again, still