You Can't Hide by Dan Poblocki

Author:Dan Poblocki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

IT’S DASH! THINKS Dylan. He wants to call out, Wait for me! But he holds his tongue.

The voices in the ceiling are starting to fade. However, Dylan’s anger is just as strong as it’s been since Del Larkspur scolded him and threatened to take away his role. For the past few minutes, Dylan has had to restrain himself from running back out the door and hiding in his dressing room, but he doesn’t want the voice to scream at him again. If he makes it too angry, it’ll be a long time before he gets to check in with Dash.

His cast members have made a mess of this room. The cat, the rabbit, and the bear. They’ve knocked over chairs and dragged the table toward the spot where the stairs disappeared into the ceiling. But Dylan says nothing. Del told him to follow the others from now on. The cat pauses before one of the bookshelves. Three taxidermied animals lie on the floor. A fox. A bobcat. A rabbit.

To his surprise, Dylan watches as the rabbit begins to squirm slightly, a soft wheezing escaping its mouth. The cat bends down and picks it up, holding it next to her pointed plastic ears. She nods as if the rabbit is whispering secrets.

The fox and the bobcat begin to shiver and shake. Dylan steps farther away, as if they might scurry toward him. The masked kids are silent now, so he keeps quiet too. He tries to adjust his mask so he can see better, but he finds that he can’t move it, which scares him even more.

Where did Dash and the others go? Will they still be upstairs when he comes for them?

The girl in the cat mask stands and then arranges the squirming animals on the bookshelf so that they’re standing upright. In the corner of the room, the stairs drop from the ceiling again. The trio of animal-faced kids begins to climb, but Dylan hangs back.

His longing to call out to his brother—to warn him maybe—grows stronger. Suddenly, Del’s threat pops into his head: Don’t disappoint me again.

Too late, says another voice in his ear.

An ache pounds at his temples, worse than before.

Dylan crouches, clutching his head. His vision blurs and his teeth chatter.

It’s the mask, he thinks. It’s too tight.

He needs air. He grabs at the mask and tries to pull it up and away, but his face moves with it, as if his skin is bonded to the plastic. He yanks harder. Pain tears through his skull. It feels like he’s ripped his skin away from the muscle and cartilage underneath. He shrieks, releasing the mask, and then falls backward against the wall, struggling to catch his breath.

His three cast mates are watching from the stairs now, empty eyes revealing nothing.

“Help me!” he cries out. “Someone, please, get my brother!” Dylan rises and then stumbles toward them. And suddenly, somehow, he remembers.

Flash.

They attacked us! Me and Dash and Poppy and Marcus and Azumi. In the elevator, they

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