Bad Moonlight by R.L. Stine Page B

Lapped up the water like a thirsty dog.
    What’s wrong with me? Danielle wondered. Somethingis happening to me, and I don’t know how to stop it.
    â€œDanielle, you ready?” Billy asked, breaking into her troubled thoughts.
    Danielle jumped. “Sure, Billy. Sorry.” She picked up her guitar and jogged toward the front of the stage.
    â€œYou okay?” Kit murmured as she passed him, his blue eyes full of concern. “You look worried about something.”
    Danielle shook her head. She couldn’t tell him. How could she tell the guy she liked that she might be going crazy?
    â€œI’m all right,” she reassured him. “Just a little tired, I guess.”
    â€œOkay!” Billy called out, when Danielle took her place. “Start with ‘Bad Moonlight.’ Make this place jump!”
    For a while Danielle lost herself in the music. It cleared her mind and made her feel safe.
    Too bad she ever had to stop.
    â™¦ ♦ ♦
    â€œWear the red dress again,” Caroline advised Danielle later in their hotel room. “You wore it in Midland and we were a hit.”
    â€œI think she ought to wear black,” Mary Beth argued. “Those tight black pants and that cropped T-shirt with the silver things on it. They look like half-moons—it’ll go with our name.”
    â€œI hate those pants,” Danielle declared. “I have to lie down to get them on. And I’m always afraid they’re going to split up the back.”
    â€œThat’d make it a full moon!” Caroline joked.
    Mary Beth laughed and tossed a pair of rolled-up socks at her. Caroline tossed them back, but Danielle grabbed them in mid-air and threw them at Caroline.
    They were still heaving the socks at each other when somebody banged on the door. “Hey, it’s me. Open up!” Billy called in.
    Caroline opened the door. “What’s the matter?”
    â€œI can’t find Kit,” Billy told them, pushing back a tangle of dark blond hair. “He needs to set up for the show. We’re on in an hour and a half. Anybody seen him?”
    â€œI saw him around three, after we finished rehearsing,” Mary Beth volunteered. “He was leaving the club with Dee.”
    â€œWith Dee?” Danielle asked, feeling a twinge of jealousy.
    Mary Beth nodded. “They were having some kind of argument. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was pretty intense.”
    Danielle frowned, thinking hard. What could Dee and Kit be arguing about?
    Billy glanced at his watch. “We’ve got to find them. Let’s spread out and look. Hastings is small. It shouldn’t take us long. Mary Beth, you come with me,” he ordered. “We’ll look north, up by the river, then west. Danielle, you and Caroline take the south side, then go east.”
    Danielle pulled on her sneakers and followed the others out of the hotel. “Where could they have gone?” she asked, shoving her hands into the pocketsof her cut-offs. “Kit wouldn’t take off—an hour and a half before a show.”
    â€œI know,” Caroline agreed. “It’s not like him. It’s not like him to argue with anyone, either. Kit’s always so calm and cool. I only saw him get mad once, when Joey blew out an amplifier.”
    They turned a corner and hurried down a side street lined with old brick buildings. Weeds poked through the cracks in the sidewalk.
    â€œDee’s been so totally weird since Joey died,” Caroline said thoughtfully. “I mean, she’s never exactly the life of the party, but she’s been so much moodier and angrier.”
    â€œYeah.” Danielle reached up and touched her throat. It still felt sore from Dee’s angry attack.
    Danielle’s heart speeded up. She suddenly had a powerful feeling of dread.
    What could Dee and Kit be arguing about? What?
    â€œHey, Danielle, wait up!” Caroline called. “Why