(2) ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪɴᴅ ᴍʏ ʙʀᴏᴋᴇɴ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ──── ROADTRIPTV

𝙀𝙋𝙄𝙎𝙊𝘿𝙀 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉 ✔️

"Next time," Rye said quietly, "I won't leave."

Andy knew he meant it, and it terrified him. But just now his emotions were quietly coasting in neutral, and he didn't want to argue.

"He was there," he said. "Inside an ordinary house full of ordinary people, just as if he had every right to be. I wouldn't have thought he would dare."

"Why not?" Rye said briefly, bitterly. "I was there in an ordinary house full of ordinary people, just as if I had every right to be."

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded. It's just that the only other time I've seen him in public was at the Haunted House when he was wearing a mask and costume, and it was dark. Before that it was always somewhere deserted, like the gym that night I was there alone, or the graveyard..."

He knew as soon as he said that last part that it was a mistake. He still hadn't told Rye about going to find Robbie three days ago. In the driver's seat, he stiffened.

"Or the graveyard?"

"Yes... I meant that day Mikey Jack and I got chased out. I'm assuming it must have been Robbie who chased us. And the place was deserted except for the three of us."

Why was he lying to him? Because a small voice in his head answered grimly, otherwise he might snap. Knowing what Robbie had said to him, what he had promised was in store, might be all that was needed to send Rye over the edge.

Then he'll never know, he promised himself. No matter what I have to do, I'll keep them from fighting each other over me. No matter what.

For a moment, apprehension chilled him.

Five hundred years ago, Harry had tried to keep them from fighting and had succeeded only in forcing them into a death match. But he wouldn't make the same mistake, Andy told himself fiercely. Harry's methods had been stupid and childish. Who else but a stupid child would kill himself in the hope that the two rivals for his hand would become friends? It had been the worst mistake of the whole sorry affair. Because of it, the rivalry between Rye and Robbie had turned into implacable hatred. And what's more, Rye had lived with the guilt of it ever since; he blamed himself for Harry's stupidity and weakness.

Groping for another subject, he said, "Do you think someone invited him in?"

"Since he was in."

"Then it's true about - people like you. You have to be invited in. But Robbie got into the gym without an invitation."

"That's because the gym isn't a dwelling place for the living. That's the one criterion. It doesn't matter if it's a house or a tent or an apartment above a store. If living humans eat and sleep there, we need to be invited inside."

"But I didn't invite you into my house."

"Yes, you did. That first night, when I drove you home, you pushed the door open and nodded to me. It doesn't have to be a verbal invitation. If the intent is there, that's enough. And the person inviting you doesn't have to be someone who lives in the house. Any human will do."

Andy was thinking. "What about a houseboat?"

"Same thing. Although running water can be a barrier in itself. For some of us, it's almost impossible to cross."

Andy had a sudden vision of himself and Jack and Mikey racing for Wickery Bridge. Because somehow he had known that if they got to the other side of the river they'd be safe from whatever was after them.

"So that's why," he whispered. It still didn't explain how he'd known, though. It was as if the knowledge had been put into his head from some outside source. Then he realized something else.