The Missing by Dan Poblocki

Author:Dan Poblocki [Poblocki, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2018-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

“Who are you?”

The voice had come from behind Lou. She turned, and nearly stumbled backward. Two kids were standing in the doorway to the kitchen, blocking the way out. The girl crossed her arms, trying to look tough, and the boy hunched his shoulders as if he were trying to disappear.

“Well?” asked the girl in the doorway. Her messy black hair fell in frizzy ringlets to her shoulders. Even though she looked intimidating, Lou figured that she didn’t look scary, which was a good thing.

“I’m Lou Benjamin,” said Lou. She introduced the others quickly, not knowing what else to say other than, “And who are you?”

“I’m Nina Patel.”

“Rufus Mendoza,” the boy answered.

For a few seconds, everyone just stared at one another, waiting for someone else to make a move, and Lou looked around the huge kitchen where they’d all ended up.

A dim bulb over the iron stove cast a faint light across the shadowed space. Behind her was a long counter whose surface looked like a giant chopping block. Large cabinets lined the walls and an immense steel refrigerator hulked in the far corner.

“You guys know the way out?” Rufus asked.

“We’re working on it,” said Cal.

Nina turned to Rufus and groaned. “I thought the kids in the mirror were going to help us leave this place.”

Rufus nodded at the others. “Maybe we’re all just supposed to work together?”

“Kids in the mirror?” Lou repeated. It made her think of her brother’s reflection in the window and the movie screen, how he’d tried to frighten her.

Nina tilted her head as she gave Lou a funny glance. “You kind of look like the boy.”

“What boy?”

“In the mirror! You have the same eyes. And there was a girl wearing an old-fashioned black dress with a white apron over it.”

Rufus went on. “The boy and the girl appeared in the mirror in the nursery upstairs. For some reason, we couldn’t hear them.” Lou stiffened. This sounded too familiar. “They showed us the way out of the room, away from the worms.” Worms? Lou wondered, but Rufus left her no time to ask. “We went where they pointed, only to find another mirror with them in it, pointing us in a new direction. Mirror after mirror. Hallway after hallway. Finally, we found ourselves down here, in that huge dining room across the way.” Rufus wiped at his forehead. “I’ve never seen such a big house. Have you?”

Jason had been helping them? Lou didn’t want to believe it. Was the house playing more tricks on her, trying to make her think that Jason was actually here? Did it want her to trust him, to give her hope, only so it could snatch it away again? To make her feel even more abandoned? She stepped back from the two new kids.

“You look like you don’t believe us,” Nina said. “Why not?”

Lou sighed. After a moment, she explained what she and Sadie and Cal and Marcus had just been through.

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