Page 381 of A Matter of Time

“No. Do not dare hang up. Just…go to the attic.”

“Okay,” I agreed, hoping that there would be no more high-pitched screaming on my way up the stairs.

I walked all over the second floor—which was technically the third if you counted the basement—looking at the ceiling, looking for the ladder that led to the attic. I finally found it by checking the seams in the tiles. One wasn’t sealed like the others. I jumped up and hit it until I got it right and it slipped down enough for me to get my fingertips on the edge. As soon as it moved a little, the long cord dropped and I was able to pull on it to get the stairs to drop down. I had been giving Caleb a play-by-play account, and was now ready to go up there.

“Look out for vampires,” he warned me.

“Oh fuck off,” I snapped at him.

“What? You know there’s not actually vampires up there. That should be comforting.”

“Shit.”

“Ohmygod, boy, calm the fuck down,” he ordered. “Your imagination is spinning completely out of control. At worst you have a crazed maniac with a gun or a knife up there, just waiting for you because he never left the house in the first place.”

“You should give seminars on fear management.”

He laughed at me as I started up the stairs.

“God, I hate this.”

“Which begs the question—why are you doing it, then?”

I tried to see everything at once, but my flashlight was too small.

“What do you see?”

“I can’t see shit.”

“Jory, fuck it. Even if the police catch you, who cares? Turn on a light.”

I had to agree. They knew I was here anyway and were most likely on their way. If Sam was to be believed, their arrival was imminent. I really didn’t care. I did not have the emotional fortitude to hunt around in the dark. Finding the switch on the wall, I flipped it on, and light illuminated the attic. Immediately, I pulled up the narrow stairs, making sure the cord was on my side, and tried to breathe. When I turned and saw the man, I screamed again and raised my hands. It took me a few seconds to realize I was looking at a CPR dummy.

“Fuck!” I yelled, kicking the wall closest to me as hard as I could. I sat down after a second and tried to breathe. When I could, I realized I had dropped my phone. I found it halfway across the room beside a metal chair. I picked it up and spoke into it, telling Caleb I was all right.

“Are you kidding me? Jesus Christ, Jory! I thought you were dead.”

It was funny, but I kept my eyes on the dummy to make sure it didn’t all of a sudden turn its head and look at me. I was maybe a little paranoid, just a trifle unhinged.

“No more screaming!” He ordered. “I mean it.”

“Sorry.”

“God! Just get out of there. I can’t take any more of this.”

He couldn’t take any more?

“Just leave and go camp out at the airport and wait for me.”

“Lemme look around first.”

“If you can without scaring the shit outta yourself.”

I ignored the snide remarks, instead concentrating on the room. It was perhaps the cleanest place I’d ever seen in my life. Besides the creepy CPR dummy hanging on what looked like an IV stand, and a chair, there was nothing. I walked around, making sure I didn’t miss anything, but there were no hollow walls or hidden rooms. It was just an empty attic. The only thing scary about the place was me, all psyched up and frantic. I sent Caleb a picture, and he was disappointed. His grunt told me everything.

“What?”

“Kinda boring, right?”