The sound was coming again, from far away like it were several halls and perhaps a couple of floors down. But distance was the only thing lending the illusion of a soft sound; up close it would be booming like the house's own heartbeat. And Sunny hoped against hope that that was her own private hallucination and her own fear was creating the drum beat.

"Pity we're not in a corn maze," she said, trying to think of which way they should try to go. "Keep your hand along the wall and you're out." But there had to be a trick to it somehow.