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We look like we’re heading directly into the water, when Logan turns onto a side street about the same width of the car, where shadows look like creatures ready to consume us.
“Shadowheart”, I say. “The pirate consumed by his own grief.”
“Damn”, Jack says, “That’s good.”
“We’re here”, Logan says, killing the car.
Either side of us are huge abandoned buildings that look like something out of Sin City. All we need now to make this even more into a film is a thin spread of rain and some ominous music. Alice looks up through the car window towards the thin slither of sky thirty meters above us.
“Are you sure we are allowed to be here?” she says.
“Of course we’re not allowed to be here”, Logan says. “Which is why this is so much fun.”
“Gravedigger”, Jack says, peering around his seat to face us. “I did tell you.”
“Come on”, Logan says. “I know you get just as much of a kick out of this as I do. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have any idea where to get your ideas from.”
He opens his door straight onto the wall, which is less than thirty centimeters away from us, and then struggles to squeeze out through the gap. We’ve driven down here, but this alley way definitely wasn’t built for a car. “Don’t forget Shadowheart”, I hear him call as he makes his way round to the trunk.
Getting out is just as difficult for the rest of us, and by the time we manage it, Logan has selected a variety of archeological tools he clearly deems fit for our imminent mission.
“Both of these places are abandoned”, he says, indicating them with what looks like a gardening trowel, “but the one on the left here is going to be our best bet. I’ll show you where.”
“Is this safe?” Alice asks, as Logan hands her a shovel, before taking it off her immediately afterward and giving it to me.
“Safe is kind of a subjective word”, he says. “If you follow me, you’ll be absolutely fine.”
I look from Logan to Jack, who leans on his pick like a miner on lunch break.
“He’s a professional”, he says. “Or at least he thinks he is.”
“Any questions?” Logan asks.
Alice holds her trowel up into the air. “Are we going to use these things or are they just for show?”
“That depends on how hard the ground is”, Logan says. “We can’t make the legend of Shadowheart too easy to solve, after all.”
“O-kay”, Alice says. “Breaking into an abandoned warehouse and burying a monkey skull in the earth isn’t at all weird, I suppose.”
“Pirate”, Jack corrects her.
“Whatever”, Alice says. “Can we get this over with as soon as possible? This place gives me the creeps.”
“Me too”, I say. “I just hope we don’t bump into Rosalie.”
We follow Logan to one of the boarded up windows of the warehouse, half way along the alley way we’ve just come down. We’ve covered only about ten meters but because of the way the shadows fall, it’s impossible to see the car when I turn back to look for it. What little light we have comes from the gap between the two buildings above us, a relatively dense slice of darkness drenched in a milky glow from the moon I know is somewhere beyond.
“Don’t do anything stupid”, Logan says. “Turn your cell phone torch on if you have it, if not grab onto someone who has. I’ll go in first, Penny, you follow me, then Alice, then Jack at the back. Got it?”
“Got it”, we echo back as a group.
“It’ll be darker than this inside, so if anyone prefers to stay out here, now is the time to mention it.”
All eyes go to Alice. “No”, she says. “I’ve seen just as many films as you guys. The girl that decides to stay behind is always the one that gets killed first.”
“This isn’t a horror film, Alice”, Logan says.
“It feels like it”, I say.
“Alright, we all go in together, but no screaming. If anyone catches us here, we’re likely to be in a lot of trouble, I can cope with that, what I can’t cope with is screaming. Got it?”
“Got it”, we echo again as a group.
Logan levers one of the wooden boards off the window, creating a large enough gap for him to slip through with ease. Once inside, he holds the panel open so the rest of us can do the same.
It’s dark, even with the torches on our cell phones, and under our feet I can feel something crunching that I immediately assume is a blanket of cockroaches until I swing the light down and see it’s glass and rubble.
“This way”, Logan says, already moving.
I fall in quickly behind him, while Alice grabs hold of my sweater tightly and Jack brings up the rear.
“You know, this is the kind of thing people warn women against doing on a first date”, Alice says.
“People warn you against burying skulls?” Logan asks.
“No, not that”, she says. “Disappearing into the middle of nowhere.”
“You’re right”, Jack says. “Anything could happen out here.” I feel Alice’s grip get tighter. “Logan might even develop a sense of humility, but to be honest, I think we’ve got more chance of bumping into Rosalie.”
There is a squeaking sound I am almost certain isn’t a door that needs oil and by her reaction, I know Alice has heard it too. Logan stopping suddenly with his arm out to indicate we should do the same doesn’t fill me with confidence either. For a horrible moment, the sound seems like it’s getting closer.
“What the hell is that?” Alice asks.
“Water rats”, Logan says plainly. “But not here.” He shines his cell phone torch into the corner of the room before sweeping it across to the other. “The basement”, he says.
“Oh, well that’s okay then”, Alice says sarcastically.
“Come on”, Logan says, on the move again. “We’re nearly there.”
He leads us towards the far wall where the exposed stone is damp to the touch from the humidity of the water beyond. The ground here is different, as though we’ve stepped outside and below our feet is earth and mud.
“I thought you said there was a basement”, Jack asks.
“There is, but not in this part. Because of the way the earth slopes at the edge of the bay, they built this part directly into it. This wall probably goes down quite far, but they didn’t want to excavate it all, in case the pressure of the water broke through, I suppose. The basement is on the street side where the deliveries used to come in.”
He digs his shovel into the soil. “Right here, where the floor has been pulled away, is compacted dirt and it’s the perfect place to bury our friend.”
“How on earth did you find this place?” I ask.
“I’m an archeologist”, Logan says. “It’s what I do.”
“Gravedigger”, Jack says, “and he read about it online.”
“A meter ought to do it”, Logan says. “We’ll dig out the soil along the wall and drop the skull and the necklace alongside it.”
“Do you guys even realize how weird this is?” Alice asks.
By the way the twins look at her, they obviously don’t. I’m having an amazing time, but it’s clear this is a little out of Alice’s comfort zone. I can’t think of anything I’d prefer to be doing right now, especially because Jack and Logan have stripped down to their T-shirts to get to work, so I’m absolutely in my element. I can’t say I hadn’t noticed before, but it’s clear that Logan’s line of work keeps him in incredible shape and if Jack’s doesn’t do the same, he more than makes up for it in the gym.
“You guys can lend a hand, whenever you want”, Logan says, and I realize that for the last couple of minutes I’ve just been staring at them both in silent admiration.
?
??I’ll keep look out”, Alice says, “you know, if Rosalie decides to make an appearance, or a security guard. I can’t really do much damage with a trowel anyway.”
“Tell me where to dig, and I’ll dig”, I say, moving forwards with my shovel.
“Forget digging for the moment”, Jack says. “Do you think you could draw something on the wall above? A kind of X marks the spot, but a bit less obvious.”
“Sure”, I say, leaning the shovel up against the wall. “I could draw a skull if you like?”
“A skull and crossbones”, Jack says. “The mark of any pirate worth his salt.”
“Done”, I say, excitedly reaching for my tools. “I’ll try to make it look faded so it looks like it’s been there for a while.”
“Half worn away too”, Jack adds. “We can’t make it too easy.”
As the boys work with the two shovels, digging a trench against the wall, and Alice tries to get a signal on her cell phone, I get to work on a faded skull and crossbones to perfectly represent our fallen pirate.
I know Alice is more than happy to be here to support me, but I feel a little bad for her anyway, considering she’s my best friend, that she’s supported my eccentricities for long enough, and this probably isn’t what she’d pick as an activity for a first date if she were given the choice. This is supposed to be her date with Jack as much as it is mine with Logan, and I know the whole thing was her idea to get both of them out together with me, but I still feel bad that she might be having a lot less fun than the rest of us.
I want to check she’s alright but I don’t know how to do it without alerting the suspicions of the sexy twins. I’m caught between beginning the drawing and leaving the conversation until later and going over to bring it up with her, when she looks over to me, and as if reading my overactive mind, gives me a confidence boosting wink and a huge half-faced smile.
This scene is way beyond the outer stretches of even my colossal imagination, but with Alice’s unwavering support, two sexy identical twins digging a trench against a wall in an abandoned warehouse in a forgotten district of New York that’s straight out of the pages of a slush pile script, and a monkey skull adorned with a plastic necklace waiting patiently at my feet to be buried, I’ve never felt happier.
