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.She was smiling at Whitney, a big, wide smile that showed all her teeth, and Whitney was surprised at how white her teeth were, almost like they were glowing.The woman put a finger to her lips, as though she didn't want Whitney to tell her grandma that she was there, and winked at Whitney with her bright green eyes.Whitney winked back, and the woman smiled even more then, gestured over to the narrow stairway that led up to the loft, and began to tiptoe in that direction.She was a great tiptoer.Everybody made noise when they walked around the costume shop because the floor was so creaky, but Whitney couldn't hear the woman's footsteps at all, not even when she started up the stairway and beckoned to Whitney to follow her.Whitney, in her own opinion, was a great tiptoer, since she was so light the floorboards refused to give beneath her.She held her breath as she followed the woman, around the pile of clothes, across the floor, and up the steps.Whitney couldn't see her now.She must have gotten to the top and turned to the left and was waiting for Whitney.What was she going to do? Some surprise for Grandma, that was it.Maybe they could scare her."Hello?" Whitney whispered, and clapped her hand over her mouth dramatically, the way she had seen the little girl on Cosby do it when she said something she shouldn't have."Whitney?" came her grandma's voice from below."Where are you, honey?"She had to answer."Up here, Grandma.Just exploring.""Well, you be careful and stay away from the edge.That banister's not much to speak of, so you stay back.""I will, Grandma," she said.She was at the top of the stairs now, but still couldn't see the redheaded woman she had followed.On the left was the open area of the loft and a small work table, while to the girl's right were three racks of clothing parallel to the wall, so that only the front one was visible to Whitney.Where was the woman? Was she hiding behind one of those rows of clothes? Did she want Whitney to come and hide with her too? And then they could get Grandma to come up and look for them and jump out at her and scare her? That had to be it, and Whitney suppressed a giggle as she tiptoed across the boards of the loft, peering between the costumes that hung like dozens of scarecrows on the fat, steel pipes."Hello?" Whitney whispered again, softly enough this time so that she didn't have to put her hand over her mouth.But there was no answer.Okay then, Whitney would just have to find her.Slowly she made her way down the rack of costumes, pausing after every half dozen or so to separate and look behind them for the lady.At worst, she expected Grandma's helper to lean forward, make a face, and whisper Boo.But when she pulled the costumes apart at the exact middle of the rack to reveal who was standing behind them, no one said Boo.No one said a thing.And what Whitney had expected to be the worst would have been merely playful in comparison to the reality.It was not a young, redheaded woman with kind green eyes and glasses who now stood a yard away from Whitney.Instead it was a creature out of a worse nightmare than any little girl could imagine.Everything was bad, but the eyes were the worst of all, or rather the absence of eyes.Where they should have been were two black pits, their utter darkness in vicious contrast to the icy whiteness of the skin and the long hair that, shroud-like, framed the face.Yet deep within the sockets Whitney saw red specks burning brightly, like coals when you blow on them.The mouth opened slowly, as if cranked, and the exhalation that rippled over Whitney was more foul than anything she had ever confronted in her eight years of life.She felt a sudden warm dampness, knew that she had wet her pajamas, and for an instant shame swept over her before the fear bludgeoned its way back.Now something moved at the bottom of her field of vision, and she saw that the hands, sharp talons from which gray flesh was flaking, were coming up toward her across the surface of the thing's blood-red dress, and the monstrous head was growing closer as well, the nightmare face nearing her own.Whitney's hands fell to her side, and the costumes closed together, blocking the woman from her sight, breaking the spell the lich had laid upon her, giving her just enough time to back away a few steps before the gray, rotting claws darted from between the costumes, pushed them violently to either side, and the woman came toward her again, quickly now, her legs unseen beneath the long red dress she wore, the red coals of the eyes blazing as though buffeted by a tornado."Grandma!" Whitney screamed, still backing away, unable to turn her gaze from the thing bearing down on her.Then her head hit the railing of the loft, and she was through, falling backward, toward the floor of the costume shop far below, falling, the ceiling receding, and all she could do was hope that the woman didn't come over the edge, didn't fly down after her where she was falling, falling, hearing the air rush past her, hearing Grandma's cry, and falling
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