Labyrinth Society Read Online Free PDF Page B

happened to me in there. If they didn't they wouldn't try and keep me from going back. But I was determined to go back into the labyrinth as soon as I could.
    When I stood to go back to bed, the hem of my nightshirt caught on the edge of the window seat. As I tugged it free, the seat moved and I realized the seat was also a lid. I lifted it and saw there was a large storage space beneath. Inside were some scraps of notebook paper, a folder, and old newspapers. Amongst the debris, I spotted a snapshot. I picked it up and held it to the moonlight streaming through the window.
    It was a faded snapshot of woman who looked a lot like Mrs. Tarpley, but with much shorter hair, and an older man with a beard. The man had his arm around the woman's shoulders. The woman was dressed in a sleeveless, flowered mini dress. The man wore a brown suit, which was too big with a wide red-and-black striped tie. They were grinning and leaning against a wall, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
    I flipped the snapshot over and saw the words Maddy and Ev, Paris 1970. So, it was Mrs. T. in the picture. Maddy must be short for Madeline. I figured the man must be her husband, Dr. Everett Tarpley. Then I froze. Cold fingers of fear crawled up my spine. Nineteen seventy was almost forty years ago, and Madeline Tarpley couldn't be more than thirty-five. If this was her, and it had to be because the woman in the picture had the same stud in her nose, even if she was twenty-five in the picture, she should be an old lady in her sixties now!
    I switched on the light and read at the date again. The handwriting was faded. I guess the seven could have also been a nine. But, the snapshot itself was pretty old and the clothes they were wearing was identical to the stuff I'd seen my grandma wearing in old photos from the seventies. Feeling completely spooked again, I put the picture in the drawer of the bedside table, locked my bedroom door, buried myself under the covers, and tried to sleep.

Chapter Three
    The next few days it rained buckets, and we all stuck close to home. Devon was still acting like a complete cow but Tomi and Lily more than made up for it. They seemed truly happy I was here and wanted to know all about me, which I didn't quite know how to take. For all I knew they could end up being as psycho as Brandy Gordon or as sneaky as the Higgins twins. Fortunately, the only things I found out about them so far were pretty harmless. Tomi was a chocoholic history geek who spoke four languages and had a collection of high-top tennis shoes in every color under the rainbow. Lily was working on a black belt in karate, and loved puzzles and cycling. I didn't know much about Devon. But she was rarely without her laptop and cell phone and strutted around like she owned the place.
    I was itching to go back into the labyrinth. However, when Tomi and Lily weren't following me around like puppies, Alex or Mrs. T. picked up the slack by making me go with them on errands. I planned to sneak out one night when everyone was asleep, but Mrs. T. set the security alarm each night before she went to bed and I didn't know the code. Instead, I tried to pry information out of them. I badly wanted to ask them about the so-called rock-climbing trip on Saturday, but didn't want to tip them off about knowing they were lying. I decided to stick to safer questions, or so I thought.
    "What was Morgan like?" I asked them casually on the afternoon of my fourth day there. Tomi and Lily shot each other a look. We were lounging around the TV room watching Spanish soap operas while Tomi demolished an entire pint of chocolate fudge ice cream. How did she stay so tiny? Spanish was one of Tomi's four languages and she could understand it perfectly, as did Lily whose family was originally from Mexico. I had to resort to interpreting hand gestures and facial expressions and still couldn't figure out what was going on half the time. I finally gave up and started sketching random objects in