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desperately wished I had been able to destroy them when I had destroyed my own vardoger, but apparently they had survived my attack.
    "Try again," Claudia ordered in a low voice. They shook their heads and Sarah's vardoger glanced at the floor where we had struggled. Where I had destroyed my vardoger.
    "Do it!" Claudia screamed, fury vibrating through every word. She screamed again when the vardogers dissipated, leaving us. "Cowards! I know you're still here! You can't go anywhere without me!"
    Silence answered her and she whipped her attention back to me. She stalked me as we circled each other, her nostrils flaring as she hunted me. "It's not fair that I'm stuck in the body of a stupid ordinary human. I deserve to possess you! It should be me!" Claudia suddenly smiled at me, giving me chills. "Maybe I can try. The worst that can happen is you die."
    She lunged at me and my instinct was to run. I ran through the living room and into the kitchen, throwing open the back door and rushing out. Once I was in the backyard, I ran towards the front of the house, adrenaline making my heart beat frenetically. I saw Lenore's ancient car in the driveway and stopped still. Lenore was still in there. Maybe she was still alive.
    I looked behind me, confused that Claudia wasn't pursuing me. Fear squeezed my lungs until I could barely breathe, but I couldn't leave without Lenore.
    I crept up to the front door, straining to hear any sound but there was only silence. The front door was ajar and I slowly opened it further, my heart in my mouth. I gasped when I saw the empty living room, pushing the door all the way open and running inside. I looked around the room frantically but Lenore was gone. All that remained was the bloody spot on the carpet where she had laid.
    I searched the house with a frenzy, not caring if Claudia or the vardogers appeared. In fact, I wanted them to appear. I needed to know what they had done to Lenore. But the house was empty. It was as if Lenore disappeared, just like my aunt.
    I waited at the house, expecting something to happen, but when night started to fall, I realized that this was doing nobody any good. I needed to go back and tell Marie and Cecelia what had happened. They would know what to do.
    I grabbed Lenore's car keys on the coffee table where she had dropped them earlier and went outside, sliding into the driver's seat of the car. I tried to remember the directions back, grateful that her house was so close to my aunt's. When I pulled up in front of Lenore's house I frowned. It was pitch black with not a single light on. I parked in front of the house and turned off the engine, a feeling of foreboding coming over me. I took a deep breath and forced myself to exit the car and walk towards the house.

Chapter Four
     
    "Hello?" I called out, wishing my voice didn't sound so tremulous. The front door had been unlocked and I immediately turned on the lights in the foyer and living room. Nothing looked amiss except for the fact that the house was completely empty. Lenore had given Marie and Cecelia strict instruction to wait for us at her house, and I doubted they would stray from her direction.
    I checked upstairs, flooding the whole house with light. The last thing I wanted was to be alone in the dark. I was already starting to panic as I realized I really was alone now. Even if Cecelia and Marie had just left, I had no way of contacting them.
    I didn't know what to do and I had nowhere to go. I had a fleeting thought of calling Simon, but I knew he was safer back in Rochester.
    I rummaged through Lenore's kitchen, feeling like I was violating her privacy but I was starving, not having eaten anything since yesterday. I couldn't believe that it had just been yesterday that I was in Simon's car. I remembered the last kiss we shared when he dropped me off before going to the East End. I thought things had been bad then. Now I wished I could go back to those times, when the threats were vague and I still held