Free Daughters of Silence by R.L. Stine Page A

house?”
    Hallie nodded. “They’re very rich, you know. The house is full of expensive things, and they even gave us gifts. Some of their daughters’ jewelry.”
    â€œOh, look, there’s Frank Douglas,” one of the girls said, pointing toward a tall young man near the barn. “I simply have to talk to him!”
    â€œWe’ll come with you,” the redheaded girl offered.
    The whole group walked away. The redheaded girl glanced over her shoulder once, and Jenna saw fear in her eyes. Real fear.
    On one hand, she felt sorry for the Fears. They’d lostboth their daughters, and had been shunned by their neighbors. On the other hand, the very mention of their name struck terror into the people of this town.
    Why? What could have happened here to make the townsfolk fear Simon and Angelica so?
    â€œThis is all your fault!” Hallie snapped.
    Jenna turned to her, completely taken aback. “What? What are you talking about?”
    â€œIf you hadn’t come with me, I would have made friends with those girls.”
    For a moment, Jenna was too astonished to reply. Hallie thrust her face close. Her normally laughing blue eyes looked hard with anger.
    â€œI worked so hard to make friends here,” she said. “It’s been so hard. But you come waltzing in here and make a friend the very first day. Then the minute I make some progress, you ruin it for me!”
    Jenna couldn’t believe it. Her friend, her best friend, had turned on her. And for no reason! Jenna couldn’t understand it.
    â€œI didn’t do anything to you!” she protested. “I hardly said a thing to those girls. It was the Fears. They got scared when you mentioned visiting the Fears.”
    â€œThey were not!” Tears leaked from Hallie’s eyes. She didn’t seem to notice that she was crying.
    Jenna’s outrage vanished at the sight of those tears. Something was wrong with Hallie, and fighting with her wasn’t going to do any good.
    â€œHallie, you’ve been acting strange all day,” she whispered, anxious to help her friend. “First, you scared me silly when I tried to touch that locket this morning, and then you flirted with Rob, and now this—”
    â€œI can’t talk to you right now,” Hallie cried, flinging her hands up. “I wish you hadn’t come here. I wish something awful would happen to these people. I wish … I wish that whole stupid barn would just fall down around their heads!”
    Whirling, she walked off. Jenna stared after her, unsure what to think or do. There had been such anger in Hallie’s face, such malice in her eyes. It was as if she’d suddenly become a different person overnight.
    â€œI wonder what’s the matter with her,” she muttered.
    She scanned the crowd for Hallie, but the other girl seemed to have vanished into thin air. Frustrated, she turned one way, then the other.
    Her gaze drifted to the barn. She could see Rob, high up on the roof. He and Frank Douglas and two other men hammered on timbers at the very peak.
    A shadow fell across the barn. A faint shadow. Very faint. But the sight of it sent Jenna’s nerves tingling with alarm. She glanced up at the sky.
    Nothing. Not a single cloud to mar the pure stretch of blue.
    She looked at the barn again. The shadow seemed to twine around the skeletal framework like a gossamer snake. No one else seemed to notice. She shook her head, denying her own senses.
    Then the barn trembled.
    Jenna took a step forward, then stopped. The sun shone down gaily. Everyone else chatted and laughed, even the men working on the barn. No one seemed to see the shadow. No one seemed to have noticed the building’s faint shiver.
    For a moment, Jenna thought she might have somehow lost her mind.
    Then another, sharper tremor passed through the framework. This time, however, some of the workers noticed it, too. Several of the men on the roof called to