“Don’t … ,” Lucas pleaded, but she was already up and running to the next bush. Lucas rolled his eyes and finished his thought. “… do anything dumb.”
A trail of pictures lay in the dirt. Lens let them fall, keeping his eyes targeted on the beast.
“Stop it,” begged Lucas. “It sees us. It knows we’re here.”
“Nah, we’re good,” whispered Lens as he gave Lucas a thumbs-up.
Bess was ahead of them and moving closer to the dark shadow. As she stepped forward, a branch rustled against her arm. It made a natural sound, like an animal scurrying to safety. Lucas steadied his breath and studied the forest around him. He pressed his fingers into the dirt and dug his feet into the ground. Lucas had walked directly into his recurring nightmare. He’d never turned around in his dreams to see what was chasing him, but now, he was staring right at it and hoping maybe the beast wouldn’t notice. Please bolt away, he thought. Please, beast, bolt away anywhere but here.
Suddenly the eerie serenity of the beast cracked. Without moving its body, the beast’s head swiveled around like a demon and snarled. The low growl rumbled through the graveyard, and Lucas felt it bubble up from the ground below him. The sound was unnatural and unsettling. Lucas was about to spring forward, but it was too late.
The beast pounced toward Bess like a living video glitch, moving in fast-forward and rewind at the same time.
Bess didn’t scream. She didn’t even flinch. She held as still as one of the graveyard statues. The beast circled her curiously, its red eyes like heavy embers.
Lens made the next move, clicking a strobe effect on his camera. The night became a burst of light that held the ghastly beast in a world of stop-motion horror.
FLASH. The beast rose up on its hind legs and laid a paw on Bess’s shoulder. Lucas saw real terror in her eyes.
FLASH. The beast’s head turned, looking directly at Lens, and dropped back on all fours. Bess stood alone in the forest and screamed, “Run!”
FLASH. The beast was running toward Lens! Lucas leapt out and blew the dog whistle.
FLASH. The beast froze and two smudged ears lifted at the top of its ashen skull. It roared at the noise with a new rage.
FLASH. The gray shadow turned to red flames rising off its body. Lucas stumbled backward and blew into the dog whistle again.
FLASH. A smaller, white creature appeared in front of the beast. It howled and snarled, digging its tiny paws into the earth. The fiery beast and the new creature paced around each other.
FLASH. Bess and Lens dragged Lucas into the dead patch of grass on the other side of the cemetery. They slumped down, once inside the stone border.
FLASH. The beast lurched closer toward the kids, but stopped at the edge of the dead grass. The small white creature pounced on the beast and bit into its neck, making the beast howl.
FLASH. The small white creature scrambled into the forest as the beast chased after it.
FLASH. The world was as normal as if nothing had ever happened except for—
FLASH.
Lens fumbled with his camera and turned off the strobe light. The forest went dark again. Bess stood up in the dead grass. She looked like a zombie just risen from the grave. Lucas was gasping and wrestled to find his inhaler, the bright lights from the strobe still burning in his eyes. Pulling his pockets inside out, Lucas drew in the medicine until his breathing steadied.
Lens rubbed his forehead and gave Lucas a wide-eyed stare. “What just happened?”
“I’ll tell you what happened,” said Lucas between deep breaths. “You both have a death wish! Normal kids don’t come out to a graveyard at night to take pictures of some crazy, haunted beast that may or may not want to rip them apart!”
Bess’s face glowed in the now-dark night. She breathed in short, quick breaths, and still held her arms up in a defensive stance, as if she was trying force the beast away.
“Bess!” Lens gently pushed her hands down. “You’re shaking. Are you okay? Did it hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” she said slowly, as if she were trying to convince herself. “Did you get pictures?”
“Pictures? We gotta get out of here!” urged Lucas. “If it weren’t for that other animal, we’d be beast chow. Let’s go. That thing’s gonna come back.”
“I’m counting on it,” said Bess. Her voice turned solid as a rock. “Wanna do this again tomorrow? Same time?”
Lucas shook his head and started back toward his house. “I’m outta here.”
“Wait!” It was Lens who spoke up. “Lucas, we’ve been hunting the beast for months, and we’ve only seen it once or twice. You move in and our sightings are suddenly off the charts.”
Lucas pointed at him angrily. “You say that like it’s a good thing.”
“No, it’s just that if you hadn’t been here …” Lens paused. “If you hadn’t acted so fast, then Bess …” He didn’t finish the sentence, but Lucas knew what he was going to say.
Bess stood still, refusing to look at either boy.
A rustle in the forest broke the silence and set the three of them on edge. Lucas was about to run to the house, when Eartha Dobbs shuffled out of the darkness with a lantern.
“This ain’t no playground,” she announced. “This here is a place to be respected. And I know that three kids your age at this time of night ain’t up to doing no respecting.”
“We were just leaving, ma’am,” said Bess.
“I’m sure you were, missy.” Eartha gave Bess a slow stare. “Your mom will be wondering where y’all are. Best head home now.”
As they walked away, Lens turned and asked, “See you tomorrow, Lucas?”
Every muscle in his body said no, but Lucas’s mouth had a mind of its own. “Maybe.”
Sure, Lucas had just almost been shredded by a creature with fangs and claws, but he realized that life in Hounds Hollow would be really lonely without his bizarre new friends.
Lens nodded as he and Bess headed down the hill back toward Bess’s house.
“You, too, mister,” said Eartha. “Do your parents even know you’re out in this mess? They don’t strike me as the let-my-child-go-running-around-at-night-in-the-wilderness type of parents.”
“They’re not,” agreed Lucas.
As they walked back, Lucas thought about the small white creature that challenged the beast. He knew he’d seen it before. It looked exactly like a tiny white mutt. And that made Lucas smile.
“I don’t know why you’re grinning, boy,” said Eartha. “Caught you in the middle of a graveyard—on a grave, no less. What were y’all doing up here anyway?”
Lucas wiped the smile off his face. “Nothing really. Just kid stuff.”
Sleep was the last thing on Lucas’s mind as he tossed and turned in bed. He played the night over and over in his mind. Lucas wasn’t sure which freaked him out more: the beast or Bess’s willingness to become its bait. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the sound of Silas’s old house creak and moan alongside the hiss of his special mask. The house had made noises every night since he’d arrived. This time, though, Lucas kept imagining that the sounds were coming from something inside the house and not from the house itself.
Unable to close his eyes without seeing the beast, Lucas pulled back the covers and eased out of bed so as not to disturb Lucky. The cat gave him a tired glare, then settled back in.
He left the mask running on the side table, then picked up the key and the dog whistle.
Walking through the house at night wasn’t as frightening as Lucas thought it would be. The dark furniture just looked like furniture. The corners hid nothing behind them. If anything, the house that made him so uneasy before had grown on him. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but tonight, Lucas felt safe inside these halls.
Upstairs he flipped on the light in the study and the room was just as he had left it. Lucas unlocked the desk and picked up the journal. Scout, Shadow, Dakota, Duke, and Casper. They did sound like names. Then Lucas opened one o
f the small drawers again and pulled out the pig’s ear.
“Dogs. I was right,” Lucas mumbled as he went back to the journal. In every column, there were notes on each animal. Fed. Walked. Playtime. Cleaned stall. But under one entry, there was a longer paragraph. Running his finger under the faint writing, he read it out loud to the empty room.
Weeks since A. left and Shadow is not doing well. Tried to walk today, but body and spirit are not right yet. Still suffering. Shadow lingers near A.’s room. We should not have let them into the house, but empty halls can play tricks on a mind. Sometimes even I can still hear A. Shadow does, too, I think. Brought him to the plot the night after to pay respects. May have been a mistake. Shadow’s stolen out into the night ever since. Can’t find how he’s escaping, but he’s always in the same place. Right by A. The other animals have tried to help, but Shadow has broken from the pack. I have a plan that could help, but it’s not natural. And it’s dangerous. Heaven help me if I’m wrong.
This was the final entry in the book. Lucas set it back down on the desk and tried the stuck drawer again. This time, he used the small key instead of his finger to wedge down whatever was blocking the drawer. It took a few tries, but finally gave way and slid out.
A stack of photographs tumbled over the lip, sliding into Lucas’s hands and onto the desk. Lucas picked up the first one. It was a photo of Silas as a young boy. He looked eerily familiar in a way that sent a shiver down Lucas’s back. He was suddenly very aware that another kid had lived his entire life in this same house. Did that mean Lucas was going to turn into Silas one day?
In the picture, Silas hugged his arms around a Rottweiler’s neck, and the dog happily had its mouth open with its tongue hanging goofily off to the side.
The next photo was of a husky with black fur. Its piercing crystal eyes glowed in the black-and-white picture. “Hey, you must be Shadow,” Lucas said. “That’s what I would have called you.”
In picture after picture, the dogs and Silas seemed so happy together. The sight put Lucas at ease; the joy in those photos was infectious. There had been love in this house. But at the same time, the pictures carried a loss with them. Silas had locked them away for a reason.
A cool breeze from the open window blew more of the pictures onto the floor. Lucas bent over to pick them up as a wave of exhaustion finally crashed over him. Each blink became longer and longer, until he was sure the next time he shut his eyes, he’d be asleep. Lucas carried the pictures with him. He wasn’t sure how they played into the mystery of Hounds Hollow, but he was developing a theory.
He gazed out the window again. The night was clear. Moonlight cast the forest in its otherworldly light. Lucas searched the trees for the beast’s glowing red eyes, but the woods were calm and empty. The wind made the branches sound like the ocean.
With heavy lids, Lucas sleepwalked back to his room and was dreaming before his head hit the pillow. He dreamed the photographs were alive and heard the sound of Silas’s laughter as his distant relative ran back and forth with dogs. Silas held a ball high above them and hurled it out the front door. Suddenly their paws pitter-pattered on the wood floor as they scrambled after it. The simple act repeated itself over and over again in Lucas’s dreams until he felt a wet, rough tongue lick him right on the nose.
The slobber was real. Lucas could smell the awful breath of the dogs as their tongues lapped his cheeks. He pushed them away, but the dogs kept joyfully nuzzling and licking him. Then, from behind his dreams, a loud, snapping bark ripped through everything. The dogs whimpered and darted back, cowering in fear. Lucas felt a different steaming breath huff down his neck as he jolted awake.
The bedroom was silent. Lucas expected to find the beast waiting for him, but he was wrong. It was just a dream. Stunned, Lucas pulled off his mask and pressed his palms to his face. When he pulled them away, wet drool dripped from his hands like he’d been slimed.
Then Lucas felt something bound off his bed and heard the clicking of claws leaving the room.
He jolted up, thinking it might be the cat, but Lucky was curled up, quietly sleeping, full of his own cat dreams. Morning light poured through the window.
“Just a dream,” Lucas told himself as he wiped his face off with his pillow. When he was finished, he pulled back, horrified. “Gah! That’s a lot of drool. Stupid mask. I must have put it on wrong last night.”
He turned off the CPAP machine and stretched. Underneath the blankets, grit and dirt rubbed against Lucas’s legs like tiny, annoying bugs. He kicked off the covers, but still didn’t manage to wake up Lucky. Running his hands down the sheets, black and brown specks flicked off the bed and onto the floor. Lucas shrugged the mess off as his own dirt and grime from the previous night. The forest, after all, was not a clean place.
After a warm shower, Lucas dressed, made the bed, and started a plan for the day. First he was going to find the little white dog. If it had stood up to the beast, then it probably needed help.
Next, Lucas wanted to explore more of Sweetwater Manor. Maybe Silas had left other clues about the beast. Maybe Lucas could even find the control room for all of Silas’s cameras. Maybe there was even video footage from the night before.
As Lucas walked into the front hallway, though, he realized his morning plans would have to wait. Lens stood next to Lucas’s mother, waiting for him. He gave Lucas a slow wave and nodded his head as if he was trying to send a signal.
“You didn’t tell me that you were going out today, Lucas,” Mom said.
“Oh, yeah, uh, I totally forgot,” Lucas said, catching on in time. “We had a—”
“Bike ride,” Lens finished, which was good because Lucas had no idea what crazy excuse he might have come up with on his own.
“Yeah, Lens wanted to show me … the thing with the … thing.” Lucas watched as Lens rolled his eyes.
Mom gave a confused smile. “The thing … with the thing?” she asked.
Lens swooped in to help. “I told Lucas that I’d take him into town to meet a few other kids. You know, since he’s new, it seemed like a good idea.”
“I love that, Deshaun.” Mom clapped her hands and leaned toward Lucas. He’d seen her act this way before, but it was usually in front of his teachers when they met at a parent-teacher conference. “Thank you so much for helping Lucas with the transition.”
“Yes, Lens. Thank you so much for thinking of little old me,” Lucas said through a gritted smile. “Before we get this party started, can I talk to you outside?”
“Sure.” Lens waited as Lucas led the way onto the porch. The two of them sat on the front steps. Lucas waved to his mom as she peeked through the window and gave him a thumbs-up.
Once she was gone, his mood shifted. “What in the world are you doing showing your face around here again?”
“It’s good to see you, too,” said Lens, who acted as if nothing strange or monumental had gone down between them last night. “And you’re wrong about Bess.”
“Wrong?” Lucas laughed. “Okay, tell me, which part do I have wrong? That she wants to risk her life being a ghost hunter? Or that she doesn’t care who she puts in danger to get what she wants?”
“She cares,” said Lens. “Trust me. She cares. She’s just after something bigger than the beast.”
“What could be bigger than the beast?” asked Lucas. “Especially if it means risking her life?”
Lens looked over his shoulder to make sure they were alone. “Look. Last year, Bess’s dad went missing. She’s convinced that the beast took him.”
Lucas swallowed. He wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to say without being rude. “Actually, I heard a different story. Gale from the town store told us that Bess’s dad left … on purpose.”
Lens shook his head. “Gale said that? Hah! Listen, you can’t believe a word that old crow squawks. She’s always in everyone’s business.”
“So you think Bess is right?” asked Lucas. “That the beast took her father? What would it do with him othe
r than …” Again he trailed off, not wanting to think about the answer.
“I don’t know,” Lens admitted. “But Bess thinks the beast is connected to this house, and I do, too. I don’t know how or why, but it can’t be a coincidence that most pictures of the beast are from the cameras I hid here.”
Lucas thought back to the old photos from the desk. “Speaking of pictures, I did find something that you should see.”
The two friends went to Lucas’s bedroom. Lucky was lying in bed again. The cat stretched out its front paws before leaping to the floor and circling Lens, sniffing his legs.
Lucas handed over the pictures. “Look, these used to belong to Silas. Do you think they’re connected to the beast?”
Handling the photos carefully, Lens looked through them for any clues. He lifted some up to the light. “Whoa, these are crazy old, but the quality has lasted. They must have been taken with a pretty good camera. What’s with the dogs?”
Lucas took out the notebook and pointed to a photo with the boy in it. “See, that’s Silas. I think that he used to take care of stray dogs. If you look in this journal, there are lists for dog care. Walking. Feeding. See?” He flipped through the pages, pointing out the repetitive notes.
“You know what’s weird about these pictures?” asked Lens. “Silas is in a lot of them.”
“So, that doesn’t seem weird,” said Lucas.
“Yeah, but this is way before selfies. And if he’s in so many of these shots, then who’s taking the pictures?” Lens stopped at one of the photos that showed Silas. The black-and-white boy was squinting and shading his eyes with his hand, almost like he was saluting. Lens pointed to the bottom of the picture, where a long, thin shadow stretched into the frame. “Someone took these pictures. Here’s the proof.”
Another shudder went down Lucas’s spine. He’d been so focused on what was in the photos that he hadn’t thought about who was taking them. “It must have been his parents, right?”
“No way,” said Lens. He spread the pictures out on the bed. “Look at the angles of each shot. These pictures were taken by someone short—maybe even another kid.”
The Haunting of Hounds Hollow Page 15
