Read Online Deadly Offer by Caroline B. Cooney - Free Book Online

Celeste?” asked the vampire. He seemed calm, ready to talk philosophy all night if necessary. Not that there was much night left.
    She had no answer.
    “Because you wanted to be popular,” the vampire told her. “It’s very reasonable. We all want to be popular. You made a good choice, Althea. Why, everybody at your party wanted to come again.”
    She thought of the good-byes. So many hugs. She had been careful not to hug back, but nobody noticed. They said what a good time they’d had, what a cool house she had, what fun it was, how they must get together here all the time.
    “What interesting people you had at this party,” said the vampire. His voice was full of admiration. It glowed, like a night-light in the hall. Safe and warm. “You have so many good friends now, Althea. Better friends than Jennie. How good a friend was she to you? Wasn’t she mean? Didn’t she abandon you? Didn’t she leave you to sit alone in the cafeteria?”
    It was true. Jennie had been rotten and nasty. And Althea did have better friends now. Nobody could put Jennie in the same class with cheerleaders like Becky. Jennie hardly mattered when you compared her to Becky.
    Althea felt somewhat better.
    “Think what a wonderful day Monday will be,” said the vampire. He was leaving. She could see him growing down, dividing away, letting himself be absorbed into the thick woolly air around him. “Friends clamoring for your attention. Friends begging to come to the next party. Friends hoping to sit with you.”
    He was gone, and she was smiling. Friends. Oh, what a lovely, lovely word! She would have them like a bouquet of flowers in a bride’s arms: all shapes and colors and sizes of them, all beautiful and happy to be there.
    Friends.
    Althea straightened and looked around the house. She began cleaning. The mess extended to every corner. She swept, she mopped, she neatened. Plenty of friends had volunteered to help clean up, but she had turned everybody down. She didn’t want her first party to end with scrubbing and stacking. No, her first party had to finish with laughter, and the honking of horns, and the hugging of friends.
    Friends, thought Althea. Her sweeping slowed down. Her energy evaporated. Jennie had once been a friend. Celeste had thought it was the act of a new friend to offer a ride.
    Althea dropped down, becoming carpet, becoming rug, flat and thin.
    Jennie would be like Celeste. Vibrance gone. Energy evaporated. Jennie would trudge.
    And it will be my fault, thought Althea. I did it to her. My best friend. “No,” said Althea out loud, “I couldn’t have done that. Not me.” Her voice was all scratch and no sound, like the leftovers of a soul.
    How would Althea ever sleep again, knowing what she had done?
    She had destroyed Jennie, Jennie of childhood memories and childhood joy. This is how I repay her, thought Althea. I sell her to a vampire.
    Althea had cleaned up to the bottom of the stairs. At the top of the stairs waited the locked entrance to the Shuttered Room.
    All I have to do, thought Althea clearly, is shut the shutters. I have to close him back up. Bolt him back in.
    I can’t save Celeste and Jennie now. It’s too late for them. But I can still stop him. I can prevent him from doing it again.
    She lifted her chin. Took the first step up. She felt strong and full of resolution. She was the kind of woman who could conquer whole worlds.
    The vampire said, from behind the door of the Shuttered Room, “Do you want the first party to be the last party?”
    Althea held the broom tightly.
    “Do you want to find out if Ryan will ask you on a real date? Do you want to know if Michael enjoyed himself tonight? Do you want to know if Michael was just accidentally everywhere that you were? Do you wonder why it is that Michael did not bring along the beautiful, perfect Constance?”
    Althea trembled. The broom fell from her fingers and tipped against the wall.
    The vampire’s voice was soft as cookie dough.