“How the hell are we supposed to find our way around down here?” Heather’s voice had an edge of despair. “I can’t see shit. It’s worse than upstairs.”
Javier shrugged, knowing full well that she couldn’t see the gesture. “Let’s just find a way out, okay? Before anything else can happen.”
Kerri made an agreeable grunt and Brett stayed quiet.
“I know it’s dark, but maybe we’d better use one phone. That way we can save the batteries in the others, just in case.”
They murmured their displeasure, but did as he said.
Javier took Heather’s hand and settled it on the back of his jeans. “Hold on to me. Don’t let go for any reason. We don’t want to get separated down here.”
She hooked one finger through a belt loop, and then, while Javier held up the light to guide them, Heather found Kerri’s hand and placed it on her pants. Then Kerri did the same with Brett. His wounded hand hung limp by his side. A moment later they were moving again. Javier led them through the darkness, taking small, measured steps with only the cell phone’s dim glow to guide him. Brett’s belt dangled from his hand, the buckle smacking silently against his leg with each step. He felt Heather tug at his pants as they walked slowly forward, and it brought to mind another time she’d done that. A year before, the six of them had driven out to York County for a night so that they could attend a Halloween haunted attraction in LeHorn’s Hollow. Everyone at school had been talking about it since the ghost walk had first been announced, and they’d arrived with eager anticipation. They’d been standing in line waiting to buy tickets and Heather had hooked her index finger through his belt loop and pulled him to her suddenly, kissing him deep and earnestly. The suddenness had surprised and excited him. Sadly, their evening had been cut short when some kind of riot ensued inside the ghost walk. A bunch of people died. The police and the firemen arrived, and it was shut down. They’d driven back to East Petersburg, frustrated and bored. But not Javier. On the way home, he’d sat in the backseat of Tyler’s brother’s car, smiling, one arm around Heather, pulling her close, the kiss still lingering like an echo in his mind. It was a memory that Javier returned to often—and fondly. He held on to it now, as well, and it was enough to keep him going. As they crept forward, she came close enough a few times that he felt her breath on the back of his neck. It was warm in contrast to the unseen breeze that blew through the dark space. Javier just wished he could find the source of that breeze, because he was willing to bet he’d also find their escape route.
Still listening intently for any indication that Noigel was on their trail, he held the phone higher, trying to see. The darkness wasn’t complete, but it was close enough. Javier kept his eyes wide and his attention focused ahead of him and used his right hand to feel along the cold, damp basement wall. His fingers trailed over cracks and crevices and tore through cobwebs. He ran into a corner and felt along it for a moment before deciding to go to the left. It made sense, as he was fairly certain the street was in that direction. Hopefully, so was the exterior wall of the house and maybe a set of storm doors or even a sewer entrance. It occurred to him that an old place like this might even have a coal bin or root cellar attached to the basement, points of access that had been necessary in the past. He just hoped that the freaks who lived here hadn’t blocked them up. There had to be another way out down here. Brett had overheard them say it, and it made sense. The things living here couldn’t very well stroll out the front door—not without everyone seeing them. There had to be a hidden exit.
But he wasn’t having much luck finding it.
“Shit happens,” he murmured, reciting his mantra but not thinking the others could hear him.
“Yes,” Kerri responded. “It does. And tonight, it’s happened to us.”
Javier was about to reply when the wall opened up unexpectedly. He stopped. The slight breeze grew stronger as it flowed from the opening. It held a musky scent, age and mildew and something else that he couldn’t easily identify. He felt along the edge of the opening and realized that he might have found exactly what he was looking for. Holding the cell phone high, Javier stepped forward and felt for the wall ahead of him. The wooden boards disappeared, replaced with a hard, packed clay surface.
“What the hell?” he spoke softly, but his voice carried more than he’d expected. Chastising himself for doing exactly what he’d gotten on Heather about, he reached out and touched the spot, seeking any indication that the change might indicate a broken section of wall or an exit. The breeze gusted against his face. Heather pushed closer to him. Her breasts slipped along his back and her hands moved up to touch his shoulders. Had he been facing her, they’d have been close enough to kiss.
“Sorry.” Heather’s voice was a sighed whisper. Her body turned sharply and her voice grew a note sharper.
“Watch it!”
Kerri’s voice was louder, even sharper. “I can’t. Brett’s wobbling back here. You okay?”
“Sorry,” Brett apologized. His voice was slurred. He sounded tired. “Lost my balance.”
Javier shook his head, pressing his lips together in irritation. He was about to remind them to whisper when a new noise came from somewhere far ahead of them, deep in the darkness—a long, warbling howl, a sound that made as much sense in the basement of a crumbling, inner-city Victorian home as cannon fire in a confessional. The howl didn’t sound like a wolf, but more like a human throat doing a poor imitation.
Javier froze, his heart pounding in his chest. He felt Heather jerk upright behind him, clinging tighter to his shoulders. Shrugging her off as gently but firmly as possible, he listened intently, trying to guess at the distance or even a general location of the cries. At a guess, the howls came from at least a hundred feet away and directly ahead of them.
“What the hell was that?” Brett’s slurred voice was terrified. The echoes rang through the basement.
Javier flinched again. “Everyone shut up.”
He listened to the still-reverberating echoes. They told him more than the howl had. There was some kind of tunnel directly ahead of them—a long tunnel, judging by the sound. Javier frowned, wondering why such a thing would be in a basement. Before he could tell the others his suspicion, another wail pierced the darkness, twice as loud as before.
And closer. Much closer.
It was followed by another cry. This one had a different pitch and inflection.
And then another sounded out.
And another.
There were at least five different voices in the darkness.
Javier closed his eyes. His skin prickled. The air blowing out of the wall turned foul.
Behind them, they heard the basement door open. The darkness lessened, cut into by the kitchen lights from above. Then the all-too-familiar heavy footsteps thundered down the stairs. Noigel voiced his garbled cry, joining the others.
“Oh shit,” Heather moaned. “We are so fucked.”
***
Brett had allowed himself to be distracted by the feel of Kerri in front of him. Yes, it was wrong. He knew that. Especially when his girlfriend and her boyfriend were dead, murdered, their corpses lost somewhere inside this hellhole. But thinking about her body, feeling the way her hips swayed against his hand with every step was taking his mind away from the throbbing pain shooting up his arm and throughout his body. He’d just bumped against her ass—and it had been an accident, but a nice one—and was apologizing when the first howl erupted from the darkness.
Suddenly he needed to pee very badly. The pressure in his bladder almost overrode the pain surging from the stumps of his severed fingers.