Raising his hand for attention, Aidan said, “We shouldn’t split up. Who knows where we’ll end up.”
Phoebe started cracking her knuckles.
Read frowned. “We’re wasting time arguing about this.”
Aidan lifted his arm and showed his wristwatch to me. The first and second hands were twisting from left to right, left to right, left, right.
“I don’t think that time is our problem,” he mumbled. “I agree with Robin. I think if we split up, we’re screwing ourselves.”
I jerked my head to ask Damien, but he wasn’t there.
Following my gaze, Robin asked, “Where’d he go?” Her voice shook with her body.
“I think that she’s in shock,” Phoebe said and wriggled out of the sweater. Her lean body looked as if it belonged in a fitness magazine with just the tube top and shorts.
Read gave her a quick up and down before frowning and looking back at Aidan. He was still staring at the doors, making his way down the hallway.
Appreciative, Robin popped inside Phoebe’s oversized sweater, still shuddering and wringing her hands. She immediately, started to snuggle closer to Read.
Phoebe turned and grabbed a silver doorknob.
“Phoebe!” I shouted.
She twisted it, but the knob wouldn’t move. “It’s locked.” She huffed and glared. “We aren’t getting anywhere by just standing here, you know.”
“She’s right.” Read stepped forward, away from Robin, and tried another door. It too was locked. Shuffling down the hallway he twisted the knob of the fourth door and it swung inward by a hair.
Phoebe rolled her eyes. “Great. The locked ones are probably our way home,” she grumbled and gave the closest locked door one last kick.
I hated to admit it, but she could be right.
Noticing that they had an open door, Aidan stalked toward us. “One of us has the key, what about…” He noticed Phoebe’s lack of clothes and stammered to a stop.
Oblivious, Phoebe pushed Read out of the way. To my surprise, he moved without complaint and we watched as she kicked the open door inward with all of her strength.
It flung open, hitting something on the other side with a bang. It was so loud that I could have easily mistaken it for gunfire.
Phoebe flew back in surprise, her spine hitting the opposite wall. Aidan was so close to me I could feel him jump at the same time that I did. Robin squeaked and shuffled behind Aidan.
Attempting to slow my heart after the violent jump-start, I shuffled closer to see the same darkness beyond the threshold. “What about the key?”
Aidan started counting the doors. “There’s maybe three dozen doors in here.”
Phoebe edged closer to the opening.
I shook my head. “I think we should figure out the clue first.” I grabbed Phoebe to turn her around to face me, the dead dark just over her shoulder.
Phoebe crossed her arms over her chest, her skin brushing against me. “We’re wasting time. We can figure it out as we go.”
“We got the clue now,” I protested.
Aidan was nodding along with Robin.
Read said. “Well the last four doors were locked, what if we each try them? Maybe only one of us can open certain doors or something.”
“That would suggest that this is Phoebe’s door,” Aidan pointed out, “but how can we be sure?”
Rolling her eyes, Phoebe flung open her arms. “We’re wasting…” Her voice cut off the second she saw me slam back against the wall.
The long squid-like tentacle whipped into view behind her, disturbing the misty dark so that it spilled into the hallway at our ankles.
Robin screamed shrilly, falling to the ground. She crab-walked backwards and I heard Aidan shout, “Phoebe move!”
She barely had enough time to turn around.
The rubbery flesh smacked against my stomach, before constricting around Phoebe’s slender waist.
Her forest green eyes grew wide and she opened her mouth.
I heard the sharp intake of breath before the scream that never came.
In a flash, Phoebe was ripped back into the dark.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Everything came unglued.
Without thinking I stepped toward the darkness when the door slammed shut. The rushed breeze hit my face smelling rancid and sickly sweet, like rotting food.
At the same time, Read grabbed my arm and pulled me back hard. Losing my balance, my head smacked into the drywall, and I clutched the back of my skull, hissing.
“Shit,” he said. “Are you okay?” Read’s fingers probed over mine, which hid the throbbing shriek at the back of my head.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Robin quivered on the floor, her legs curled up to her chest. “It just took her!”
Aidan twisted the doorknob to find it locked.
Read asked, sounding both angry and concerned at the same time. “Why didn’t you grab for her, Nora?”
Why didn’t I? It seemed so unreal! Reasons fumbled through my mind, knocking into each other. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I didn’t think, I couldn’t move, I didn’t save her! “I don’t know,” I said in a whisper. Had there been enough time to grab her?
Robin began to cry again. “First Cody, now Phoebe. We have to get them back!”
Please let this all be in my head. Let it be a dream.
“Nora,” Read said low, his eyes level with mine. He wouldn’t continue until I looked at him. “You realize this isn’t a dream, right? Phoebe is really gone. Something just took her. Cody is really lost. Our friends are gone.”
Had I spoken my thought out loud? I opened my mouth to reply but the uncertainty on his face seemed impossible to assuage. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It happened so fast.”
Read turned, letting me go. “Someone help me break this door down.”
I started to shake my head, feeling my brain slosh around and stopped.
Aidan said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Read glared at us over his shoulder. “Our friend is in there.”
“She thinks this is a dream?” Robin choked. “Like the ones we all had earlier this week?” Her eyes began to widen at the possibility. “They did seem real. This could be a dream.”
“Oh yeah?” Read barked. “How is it we’re all dreaming at the same time?”
Robin just stared at me, eyes glistening until I was forced to look away. How could this possibly be real? I glanced at my friends, feeling the shame swell in my chest. Phoebe is really gone. It circulated like a warbled record.
“How did you wake up from a bad dream before?” Robin asked getting to her feet with the help of the wall, Phoebe’s sweater was a sack on her petite frame.
I shook my head, trying to think. “I, uh, pinch myself, I guess. But the messages weren’t dreams…”
Before I could back away she stomped up to me, her previous sadness fluttering behind her like a memory. Robin pinched my arm, then twisted so hard I shrieked.
Jerking away, I held my flaming forearm in my palm. It throbbed as if Robin had put a cigarette to me instead. Eyes narrowing, Robin motioned to me. “Did you wake up?”
“I get it,” I shouted to keep her away.
Read slammed his shoulder into the locked door. The wall shuddered, but otherwise, it didn’t budge.
Slipping past Robin I put my shoulder against the door with Read. “On the count of three,” I instructed. My insides felt like someone had punched me but at least my head didn’t throb as much. Besides, if I didn’t do something, I’d go insane. I understood at last why they were so angry with me. Phoebe and Cody were gone. Not my imaginary friends, my friends.
“One…two…three.”
Together we rammed our bodies into the door. A shooting pain zipped through my shoulder blade, down my spine and shook the teeth in my gums all at the same time.
The door however, didn’t budge.
Aidan’s voice rose before we could do anothe
r count down. “If we’re going to get her back we can’t just go barreling into the dark like Han Solo on the Death Star. You heard Damien, if we fail or die, we’re stuck here.”
Robin looked to me, eyebrows raised as she mouthed. “Death Star?”
I shrugged.
Read stalked past us and studied the doors. “How can one of us have the key?” He demanded, not looking up.
Robin hurried after Read. She spoke softly as they marched down the hallway together. I think enough of her nerves returned for her to try and comfort someone instead of everyone trying to comfort her.
Rubbing the place where she pinched me, I pushed off the door.
I wished I could be of more help and stared at the watery symbol on Phoebe’s door. If only there was something in those carvings that would lead us to our friends.
If it weren’t for me, maybe Phoebe wouldn’t be lost. If I had just talked to Cody a little longer, maybe, just maybe…
Aidan was studying the doors beside me when he whispered. “I’m sorry,” his pale eyes flickered toward Read and Robin; they were too far away to hear.
“You didn’t do anything to be sorry for. I’m the jerk here.”
“I got you guys into this,” he said piteously.
Here, I was blaming myself and I felt the weight of it, heavy, brooding and chalk full of self-pity. I hadn’t thought about what Aidan must be going through. It was his house. He’d opened the door and here we are. It wasn’t that I blamed him, I knew there was a part of me that could, but I didn’t. If I started pointed fingers where would it end? Where would it get us?
Tightening my lips, I realized we weren’t going to win this way. Turning, I caught Aidan’s shoulders, determined to face him squarely and honestly. “Listen, there is nothing to be sorry about. You didn’t know, we all didn’t know. I agreed to open that marble door. We’re in this together.”
It wasn’t completely true, I said yes when I didn’t want to. Could it be Damien had forced me to say those words to get us here? Those weighty eyes that I felt in this hallway weren’t any different than the ones I had felt in my own house. Remembering the shower, I shuddered and let Aidan go.
Aidan hung his head, his thick reddish-brown hair bobbing. “I could have stopped Phoebe from going upstairs.”
“I doubt it,” I said and licked my lips before asking. “Do you think your grandfather knew about the Demon’s Grave?”
Sighing, he looked up. “It’s been bugging me, but I don’t know.”
“Are you going to give up on me, Aidan?” I demanded in a hushed whisper.
He shook his head, clarity gradually sweeping the shadows from his expression. “Course not. Are you?”
I let his shoulders go. I could feel the muscles in them tense just before I released him. “No.” I answered. “Listen, first we have to figure out that clue. It means something.”
Aidan leaned against the wall opposite of the doors and slid down until he sat on the floor. He couldn’t stretch out his legs in the narrow hallway. “Maybe it’s a clue for later, like in one of the Challenges.”
I nodded, watching him. “But then, which door do we pick? There’s too many.”
“I still think that the door we should go through is a locked one,” Aidan gestured toward the door that had a little dent from Phoebe’s kick. The symbol that was carved deep into the wood looked like four smooth waves that were blocked off by a vertical, almost like a dam.
“What could these symbols mean?” I asked, though I knew that Aidan wouldn’t have the answer.
“Maybe some dialect,” Aidan said. “Who knows if it’s even decipherable.”
“Wish we had your parents’ living room. Bet there’s a book in there that could tell us.”
The corner of his mouth tugged at an attempted smirk.
Any other day, this might not have warranted humor, but I think both of us were eager to break the tension and I was grateful for the small smile. I started rummaging through the pockets of my blue jean shorts.
“What are you doing?” Aidan asked.
“Looking for a key.”
Aidan shook his head. “Would be a bit absurd.”
“Look where we are,” I countered.
His smile vanished and he shoved his hands in his pants pockets. Neither of us found anything.
“Okay,” I said, hearing Read trying doorknobs down the hallway. He didn’t open any that weren’t locked. Read had pulled his car keys from his pocket and marked the doors that were locked. Aidan and I didn’t move from the floor. Their distraction helped numb the erratic voices in my head. Phoebe and Cody were in trouble. This all felt so wasteful but if we rushed and got the wrong answer, where would our friends be then?
Robin and Read came back toward us. “Only five of them are locked,” Read confirmed.
Aidan was counting on his fingers, unresponsive.
“What do we do now?” Robin asked, hands shoved in Phoebe’s kangaroo pouch.
Sighing, Aidan dropped his hands. “There has to be a connection somewhere. What if we walk through the wrong door…Robin, what’s wrong?”
Robin’s eyes bulged as she eased her hands from the sweater’s pocket and showed us a glass key that fit in the palm of her hand.
Leaning forward to inspect it, no one moved to touch it.
Finally, Robin squeaked. “Oh my God! Phoebe had it this whole time?”
It was a key, but made from what looked like glass. It had a slender, circular neck with a square tip, much like the old-fashioned skeleton keys.
Robin was dancing from foot to foot, heels clomping. “Well?”
“This is great, as long as it doesn’t break in a keyhole.” I said.
Aidan’s frown deepened at my words and reached to take it from Robin’s palm. She didn’t move to stop him, only whispered a warning. “Don’t drop it.”
Aidan’s eyes rounded as if it never occurred to him and he froze.
“Which door?” Read asked.
I plucked the key from Aidan’s fingers before he could react.
Jolting, he didn’t move to snatch it away, just watched me.
I gestured toward the doors. “Let’s see which one this thing opens.”
Aidan nodded silently and stood at my side. Working down the hallway, I tried each door that Read had already marked as locked. Carefully placing the glass key in each, I wiggled the lock. Each of the five doors denied the key.
“Uh oh,” Robin whispered. “Maybe you’re not doing it right?”
I glanced at the door Phoebe had disappeared behind. It wasn’t marked by Read, but it’d been locked before.
“Crap,” Read muttered as we shuffled closer to the door.
Turning the key in the keyhole, I heard the distinct click.
Robin shuffled closer to me while Read stepped back.
Feeling the tension from my friends behind me I pulled the key out, hearing the clinking while the glass shuddered in the keyhole in my nervousness.
The symbol on the door was three water-like symbols that rode through a triangle.
I pocketed the key in my shorts. I didn’t want to leave it behind just in case we’d need it for any other locked doors. I’d just have to pray it wouldn’t break in the meantime.
Aidan reached in front of me and grabbed the doorknob. I felt his chest at my shoulder and forced myself to look at him. He raised his eyebrows as if to ask, ready? We each took a deep breath in preparation. What were we about to walk into? The question was heavy, almost too heavy to dwell on.
Nodding at Read and Robin behind us, Aidan twisted the knob. With one gentle push it swung inward.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Aidan and I exhaled at the same time.
There was a room in front of us, a familiar one instead of the inky dark.
Robin spoke to Aidan softly. “This isn’t so bad. It’s your folks’ house.”
It was indeed the Birket living room. The same one we’d left behind before piling into the statio
n wagon.
Every detail was immaculate. There was the brick wall, dark furniture, masks, and overflowing bookshelves. For a moment it felt like we were back in our world—and safe. It was the green carpeted hallway we crowded within which reminded me otherwise.
Aidan stepped through the doorway first and I followed with Robin. Read was close behind me, breathing down my neck and his hands hovering over my hips.
Stopping just within the threshold, we listened to the sounds of a seemingly empty house.
When the door didn’t slam behind us the way it had Phoebe, I looked over my shoulder. Where the front door should have been, there was a sneering wooden mask. It was three feet tall, not exactly intended for a human face.
“This is uncanny,” Aidan whispered, eyes wide.
“It’s like we’re actually at your house again,” Robin confirmed, still keeping her voice low.
Neither had seen the mask for a door behind us, though Read had and gave me a pointed stare before walking up beside me and keeping one hand at my hip.
Mildly uncomfortable with the move, I stepped away. I followed as he Aidan’s tip-toed to one of the bookshelves.
No one spoke as Aidan carefully pulled a faded, green book from the closest shelf. The spine was nearly broken, but the title on the side was legible: Talking With Spirits.
“This isn’t ours,” Aidan whispered, then snatched another book like a praying mantis. This one was newer, the paper jacket still smooth. The cover read: Bending Time & Space.
“Another clue?” I asked. My eyes darted from the books to the room, searching for anything out of place. Having only been to his house once, I knew I was at a disadvantage.
Having flipped open Bending Time & Space, Aiden muttered into the pages. “I don’t know. Neither book has an author or publisher, so I’m assuming so.”
Robin took the Talking with Spirits book from Aidan and opened it. “Half of the pages are blank,” she told us.
Read walked around us before collapsing in the brown recliner. His thick, dark eyebrows pinched together. “There’s no kitchen either,” he said.
Looking up, I saw there was a wall where the doorway used to be. “What else looks out of place?” I asked. “Other than blocking off our only two exits.”
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