Page 116 of Serenity Falls

‘Hey!’ Dax raises a hand.

‘Well, good evening,’ Ramona warbles in a terrible faux British accent.

Sadie raises a hand and looks around. ‘What the hell is this place?’

‘It’s one of the old storage basements,’ Ellis says, wandering over to the table and grabbing two cans of beer. She hands one to Sadie. Sadie hesitates and then accepts it. She’s had alcohol before, of course, but she’s a little surprised to see Ellis and her friends drinking. She thought they were more uptight about it here, especially with the legal age being twenty-one. Also, she isn’t wild about beer, but she guesses it’ll do. She takes a sip and tries not to wrinkle her nose.

‘One of?’ she queries.

‘Yeah, there are half a dozen or so around Serenity Falls. They connect via underground tunnels.’

‘What? Why?’

‘It’s a hangover from the park,’ Dax says. ‘Y’know how they have a big underground system beneath Winsom Wonderland?’

Sadie knows about it. Miles of tunnels running beneath the theme park for the staff and performers to get around and for scenery and costumes to be transported without ruining the Winsom magic.

‘Yeah. But why here?’

‘Harold Winsom didn’t want the residents to see staff in overalls out doing stuff around town. He wanted decorations to go up and costumes and props to appear as if by magic. Apparently, there used to be these cool little trucks that trundled around the tunnels.’

‘Used to?’

‘They don’t use the tunnels any more,’ Ellis says. ‘There was a bad storm, and the tunnels got flooded. Apparently, someone drowned.’

‘Shit.’

‘Yeah. They’re supposed to be sealed off so no one can get down, but I guess they forgot about the one under the old Ghost Train.’

‘How do you know all this?’

Ramona grins. ‘My dad’s the mayor.’ She chugs some beer. ‘Which isn’t as grand as it sounds. He just gets to dress up in a robe a few times a year. Anyway, he can’t help spilling a few secrets, especially after a glass of wine.’

Sadie raises her eyebrows. ‘Okay.’ She glances at the door set into the opposite wall. ‘So, can you get out of here into the tunnels?’

Ramona shakes her head. ‘You don’t want to try that. There are miles of them, and most just end up in dead ends.’

‘And when it rains, some of them still flood,’ Dax adds.

Ellis sits on an upturned crate next to Dax and Ramona.

Sadie looks around again. ‘So, you guys come down here to hang out a lot?’

Ramona nods. ‘Yeah, it’s private. No one can eavesdrop.’

‘But no one can know about it,’ Ellis stresses. ‘No one.’

Sadie stares around at them. ‘Okay. Fine.’

Dax pushes a crate towards her with his foot. Sadie sits and takes another swig from her beer. It doesn’t taste any better.

She clears her throat. ‘Yesterday, in the diner … were you guys serious about Frankie?’

‘You really want to know?’ Ramona asks.

‘Yeah.’

‘Because it seemed like you thought we were talking shit?’