Page 15 of What Happens at Nightfall

Chapter Five

Finally! What took you so long?

Jess was hearing things. She’d been hearing things all night. She moved slowly toward the OMNY card, as if it had gone feral and might bite. She picked it up gingerly with the tips of her fingers and turned it over. “J. Waters.” She’d written her name on it. In Sharpie.

“That’s not creepy at all,” muttered Jess.

“Someone must have found it and put it there,” said Adam. “Maybe those boys.”

The boys were running in the other direction. They’d been long gone by the time Jess had dropped the OMNY card. And Ben had been under the rhododendron. But sure. “Maybe those boys,” she echoed. “Or someone from the tour.”

Even though the tour had gone the other way. But they might have sent someone back to look for her.

Who had then randomly found her OMNY card and left it on a tomb.

Sure.

“I’m just glad we found it,” said Adam. “Okay, I’ll take a quick look inside, lock these doors, and we’ll get you to the subway.”

The wind shoved at Jess’s back, pushing her up the walk after Adam. Was it Jess’s imagination, or did the roses at the base of the monument stretch their vines toward Adam? Just as the trees had seemed to lean in toward him as they’d passed.

The wind, obviously. Just the wind, that was all.

Quick, quick, hissed a voice in Jess’s ear.

Those gummies Kimmy had given Jess, she’d sworn they were just Welch’s. For the kids. They’d been in a sealed blue single-serve pack. But then why did Jess keep hearing people who weren’t there?

How many times does one have to tell you people? fumed the voice.

Maybe the stress of the past nine months had finally gotten to her. Maybe part of her subconscious had broken off and formed a new identity, one with Locust Valley Lockjaw and an attitude problem.

There’s no finding good help.

She was going to have to warn Kimmy to double-check those gummies before giving them to the kids.

At the end of the walkway, there were two more steps up. Light flickered from within the tomb, casting moving shadows on the stone.

Adam pulled the door open wider. The hinges shrieked in approved horror movie fashion. It wasn’t just a door; it was a work of art, an elaborate grille of twining vines and wreaths and ripe fruit. Pomegranates? Jess thought they might be pomegranates. Suitable for one entering the underworld.

But that was just ornamental. Behind it was the real door. The other door. A heavy stone slab that opened inward, the sort of slab you saw in Indiana Jones movies, when the villain was trapping Indy in the dark. With snakes.

Jess saw Adam hesitate, just for a moment, before putting his hand to the stone and pushing it forward.

Jess sneezed as a waft of sulfur tickled her nose.

“The air’s not great in here,” said Adam grimly, shoving a worn wooden wedge under the door.

Jess eyed the wedge. “What happens if that gives?”

“We bang on the door until the air gives out.”

“Really?”

“No, not really. The door doesn’t self-lock. You don’t have to come in if you don’t want.”

The clouds had cleared and moonlight silvered the landscape, illuminating the woman reclining on a slab, holding up a wreath in one hand. As if she were beckoning.

“You’ve got the flashlight. I’m sticking with you.” Jess stepped inside, and felt her jaw descend earthward. “Wow. This is . . . wow.”