We tread back around the house, and I half expect to see Crazy Carly sitting on our porch, but she isn't. As soon as the door clasps, shutting us back inside our gloomy living room, Salem rounds on me.

"You didn't tell me that Cap'n called today," he says angrily.

"Gee, I guess I was too busy thinking about whether we should let our parents rot or feed them fresh meat--and by that I mean humans," I say, stomping away.

"Well, before you decide, could you try not getting us caught?"

"Get us caught?" I repeat.

He catches up to me in the hallway. We're being loud enough to wake the dead. I hear our parents' corpses come alive down below, banging and clanging. Hissing and moaning.

"You should talk about getting someone caught. What's with miss I-shop-in-my-granny's-closet? You think she's gonna keep our secret?"

He looks away then, staring at the walls as though trying to move them with his super brain. The one that was willing to let a girl who's almost an enemy know our deepest secret. He mumbles something about an experiment and my blood freezes in my veins.

"You-what?" I can't form an intelligible sentence. The words are stumbling and rolling over each other. A dictionary tornado in my mouth.

"I said," he says more clearly, "I was going to try an experiment."

That's what I thought he said. I should have known. All those tanks in his room must not be enough. He needs human specimens.

"Oh, yuck!" I say. I shiver as the thought of Carly being zombified by my brother for the sake of his science experiments runs through my mind. "What is wrong with you, Salem?"

"I know what's on the line," he says. "So do you."

There's more clatter down below. We're practically standing next to the basement door. I look at it, knowing exactly what is on the line. They mean the world to me, even in the state they're in--especially in the state they're in, because they need me so much. They'd never abandon me if I were in their shoes.

My mom had stayed in the hospital for me a whole four days when I had my appendix removed. She wouldn't leave my side for anything. And that time I happened upon a bee nest, my father jumped right in the fray, even though he was deathly allergic.

If I were in the basement, fighting for life even though I appeared to be dead, they would fight for me, too. They would do anything, I know it.

"You know," Salem says, "That they have to feed."

My thoughts halt. I didn't expect this. An experiment like the mice, sure, but now he's saying something totally different than I assumed.

"You want to feed them Carly?" I say.

From down the hall comes a gasp. It pulls us to its source immediately. Carly. In our house. Carly, standing there, holding one of Salem's smaller tanks, a milder looking mouse inside, and her eyes are big. Like she's seeing her life flash before them. She drops the tank and it busts. The mouse skitters wildly, then latches onto her leg and bites.

Salem has already made it to her. She shakes the mouse and it flies into the wall, then onto the floor where Salem stomps it. It's bones crunch the way blackboard chalk crunches underfoot. Salem snatches Carly in a tight bear hug, so she can't run away. She screams loud and he roughly slaps a hand over her mouth. She bites him and he pulls his hand away from her mouth.

"Let me go!" she cries. "If you hurt me, I'll tell them everything. If you let go, I swear, I won't say a word."

Lies. She'll tell everything she knows now. She'll run from here like she's never run before, and she'll go to the police station first. They'll come for mom and dad, and they'll make sure they can never be cured. They might even come for us because of what we did. Attempted murder is a crime, and we've already committed that...not that I was in on Salem's plan. But even if she tells them I wasn't, I'd still never let Salem take that blame.

I realize I'm short on options, and everything is going so fast, with such high tension, it makes it hard for my brain to work properly. The only thing I'm thinking when I open my parents' old bedroom door is that I need to shut her up. I grab my dad's long cop flashlight. It's heavy, and it knocks Carly flat out when I hit her over the head with it. She goes limp in Salem's arms and he stares at me with a wide look.

"No other choice," I say dryly.

After a moment he lifts her into his arms so that the back of her knees are on one arm and the back of her shoulders is in the other arm. Her head is on his shoulder. This is the closest she's ever been to Salem. If she were conscious, she'd be in the clouds right now and I think I'm crying.

"Help me with the door," he says.

I hold it open as he goes down to where our parents are dead but alive, and hands her over to them. I know when they've got her, because I can hear it. It's like a pack of starving Rottweilers devouring innocent prey. Growls, ripping flesh, the works.

That punched-in-the-gut feeling hasn't settled much since the whole thing started, but now it goes off. I just feel numb.