Twenty-Eight

We were well into the tunnel by this time. Too late to turn back. I could feel a chill at my back and imagined a ghost behind me, creeping through the shadows, coveting my energy, leeching my warmth.

I whirled, my heart in my throat. “Did you hear something?”

“No.” Devlin turned and swung the light down the tunnel.

I caught the gleam of beady eyes and then the scurry of tiny feet. Just a rat.

We pressed forward. I was breathing a little easier now, knowing the sounds I’d heard from behind me were nothing more than the scratch of rodent claws on brick. And oddly, telling Devlin about my dream had lightened my mood, unchained me from a childhood terror that had dogged me for years. It had also made him my confidant. I’d never told anyone about that nightmare. What this said about my feelings for him, I was a little too scared to consider.

We had been keeping a steady pace, but now I slowed, my head turning to the side as a new sound invaded the silence. I paused, took a step forward, then glanced over my shoulder.

“Something’s back there.”

Devlin barely broke stride. “Another rat.”

“No, not a rat. Listen.”

Nothing but silence.

Then it came again, a sort of furtive shuffle. The hair sprang up at my nape.

“There! Did you hear it?”

Devlin whirled, the light beam piercing the darkness. “Stay calm.”

“I am calm,” I said over the thunder of my heartbeat. “What do you think it is?”

“I can’t tell.”

It wasn’t a ghost. This was something very real, something solid and alive.

Devlin transferred the flashlight to his left hand, and with his right, drew his gun from the holster. Again and again, he swept the beam across the darkness.

“Get in front of me,” he said and handed me the flashlight.

“He’s back there, isn’t he?” I whispered.

“Just keep moving.”

We walked in complete silence now. Once the sound faded, my nerves settled and I noticed we were ascending. And just when I hoped that meant the end would soon be in sight, we came to a dead end.

There was nothing in front of us but a solid brick wall.

The thought of turning around and going back toward that sound, back to that chamber of horrors was too much. I was emotionally drained. Spent. I felt like dropping to the floor and bursting into tears.

“Over there,” Devlin said, and pressed my hand holding the flashlight down and to the left.

Another opening. Another way out.

He took the flashlight and shined it into the hole.

“Is it a way out?” I asked nervously.

“I think so. Come on.” He went first and waited for me on the other side.

We were in some sort of circular chamber maybe five feet wide in diameter. Metal steps had been bolted into the wall and I felt a surge of elation until I realized those stairs led up to nothing. There was no opening at the top. Just total darkness.

“I think we’re in an old well or cistern,” Devlin said. His voice had a metallic sound as it ricocheted off the round walls.

“How do we get out?”

“There must be a lid or something over the top.” He slanted the beam upward for a moment, then handed me the flashlight and his gun.

“Do you know how to use a weapon?”

“No, not really.”

“The safety’s off. If anything comes through that hole, point at it and squeeze the trigger. Don’t think, just do it.” I nodded.

“Keep the light,” he said. “Don’t watch me, watch that hole.”

“Okay.”

He tested his weight on the ladder, his footsteps clanging as he went up. Within seconds, he was twenty feet above me. I heard the click of the lighter and a grunt or two from Devlin as he tried to dislodge the cover, but I resisted the temptation to glance up.

“Is it bolted down?”

“It’s a door. I see hinges and a handle, but something solid has been placed on top of it outside. I can move it, but I can’t open it more than a crack.”

My eyes were still glued to the opening as I clutched the weapon in one hand and the flashlight in the other. For a moment I could have sworn—

There it was! That stealthy shuffle, as though someone was inching his way along the tunnel, skulking through the darkness so as not to give away his position.

“He’s coming,” I whispered.

My voice carried all the way to the top. The stairs clanged as Devlin quickly descended. He took the gun and the flashlight and swept the beam up the ladder.

“Get to the top. I’ve managed to pry the door open a few inches. See if you can squeeze through.”

“What about you?”

“Just go. I’ll be right behind you.”

But as I started up the ladder, I glanced over my shoulder and saw the light disappear through the hole.

“Devlin?”

No answer.

I was torn between going up and coming back down. The torturous indecision was like my nightmare all over again. I was still hanging there a moment later when Devlin crawled back though the opening.

He didn’t say a word, just waited at the bottom until I’d climbed to the top and then he followed me up.

I shimmied through the opening, scraping elbows and knees against the rough brick, and then once through, I used all my strength to heave a boulder aside and open the door.

Devlin crawled up out of the well and we both turned to survey our surroundings. We were somewhere in the woods outside the cemetery gates.

It was not yet dark. The horizon still glowed in the west. To the east, the moon rose over the treetops. A breeze whispered through the leaves and I could smell jasmine in the twilight.

Devlin took my hand and we walked through the cooling air as his ghosts slipped through the veil behind us.

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