"Get Out of the House--- Now!"

"GuiGui, what's the matter?" Calvin asked, his voice remaining low and steady.

"I-I'm here alone with him!" GuiGui whispered, taking one last glimpse of Wang Zi pacing nervously with his length of cord. She backed silently into the kitchen.

"Huh? What are you saying?" Calvin asked, losing his professional tone, alarm creeping into his voice.

"It's a boy I met in school," GuiGui whispered quickly, her eyes on the doorway, hoping Wang Zi wouldn't get suspicious and follow her into the kitchen. "He's here. In my house. A new boy. Wang Zi." She started to give a description.

"That sounds like him," Calvin interrupted.

"Oh, no," GuiGui moaned. She suddenly felt dizzy. She grabbed the kitchen counter, forced the room to stop spinning. "What do I do?"

"Get out of there immediately," Calvin instructed. "Just put the phone down and leave the house. Get as far away as you can, GuiGui. We'll have men there in ten minutes."

"But---" she started to protest.

He cut her off. "Get out of the house--- now."

The line went dead.

GuiGui replaced the phone with a trembling hand. The room was still spinning. The two cans of Coke seemed about to slide off the counter. Then the room tilted back up.

GuiGui crept to the hallway and listened. She could hear Wang Zi's footsteps as he paced back and forth.

What was he planning to do?

Why was he so dangerous?

Why had Calvin sounded so alarmed?

She realized these questions were keeping her from making her escape.

Was she paralyzed? Couldn't she move?

Wang Zi seemed like such a nice guy, such a shy boy, so considerate, so caring.

He really seemed to care about her. He was the first boy ever to care about her.

That's what she had kidded herself into thinking.

That's what she was so eager to believe.

It was all a fantasy.

No. Worse. It was all a lie. A stupid lie.

She had been stupid.

So stupid she had hurt someone else--- had hurt YaLun--- because of a lie she wanted so desperately to believe.

Move, she told herself, still frozen in the dimly lit hallway, still listening to Wang Zi's steady footsteps in the other room.

Move. Move. Move!

And then all at once she was pulling open the kitchen door and hurtling herself out into the dark, cold night.

Onto the hard, frozen ground of her small backyard, the trees bending and shifting, black silhouettes against a blacker sky.

Where should I go?

What should I do?

And then she suddenly remembered Hebe.

Hebe was on her way over.

Hebe would be there any second.

I've got to warn her, GuiGui thought. I can't let her come here. I can't.

Then she was running down the asphalt driveway, her sneakers pounding loudly, her arms swaying at her sides, the cold air brushing her face.

Running down the drive, running blindly through the darkness.

And then GuiGui stopped and cried out, a cry of horror as Wang Zi loomed up in front of her, his face hidden by the night, his powerful body blocking her path.