Chapter Twenty-One
The Answer Was Right under Our Noses
The answer came two days later, clearly stamped on Seth’s pale face. “Twist found something.”
“A dead body perhaps?” After solving the Sade Stone caper, a murder would put the Deadwood Detective Agency’s name on everyone’s lips.
“I’m not sure,” he said.
“Oh.”
“He wants us to meet him at Wallington Hall.” He scraped back his lawn chair and jogged down the front porch steps. A minute later, he was headed across the yard on his faded blue bicycle. I caught up with him just outside the gate. We coasted beneath clumsy clouds like white giants with colorless hearts and a lurid sun that caressed our cheeks.
By the time we reached the mansion, it was noon and the weather had radically
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Thunder boomed again, rattling the broken glass in the window frames. Outside it was raining—from light sprinkles too hard fat drops in seconds.
“I need to measure the ghostnitric energy in the room.” Seth pulled a small device about the size of a calculator from his hip pocket and pressed an oversized black button. The thingamabob made a soft snick sound then flashed green.
“So the green light means that the ghost was a fake?” I guessed.
“No, no.” He lifted his eyes from the contraption and gave me a worried look. “It was very real.”
“Real?” Twist’s eyebrows quivered.
“Come on.” I grabbed his wrist and dragged him up the stairs. “You wanted to show us something, remember?”
“Oh, right,” he groaned.
We tiptoed down the dark hall and into the secret room. The casket was gone. Twist pointed to a trap door in the floor that we hadn’t seen before.
Seth’s eyes got wide. “Where did that come from?”
“It was here the entire time. We just didn’t see it before because it was covered with a rug and dust.” Twist yanked the cord. The trapdoor swung up, and a wooden ladder clattered into place behind one of the walls. “Come on.”
The steps trembled as we climbed down.
Seth reached the bottom and moved his flashlight around, a dim and shaky beam of yellow light against the darkened shaft. The tunnel was filled with a bunch of creepy junk: a Samurai sword covered in dust, glass jars containing tiny skulls in green goo, rigging pulleys attached to knotted ropes like bristly
They found a dark wooden staircase running up in a rectangle and descending in a corner, hinting the remains of coffins, it wasn’t expected though as they thought they were looking at a grave of cholera victims.
The digging went quickly with fresh workers to switch out with. Inside the house, Derby was amazed at the radio equipment. Trey broke the bad news that the front door was nailed shut. Getting the corpse outside was difficult. With more room, each man grabbed a stiff appendage and juggled the load through the wooden gate.
“ Are you sure? I was standing right close. I could hear him gasping for breath.”
The rain hit the window screen harder and harder with every drop. Well at least, that’s what it sounded like. Or, it could have just been the large amount of heroine I just shot up my arm.
Excitement washed over me, it was the perfect hiding spot and I had a good feeling that the ancient artifact we longed for was hidden amongst these walls. That excitement quickly vanished as I realized that we were still trapped in the Labyrinth. We kept pushing forward, my hand forever enveloped in Connor’s. Our flashlight began to flicker, the engraved walls appearing and disappearing with every beacon of light until the obscurity swallowed us whole. The ichor that flowed through the body of the Labyrinth providing only a dim gleam in the darkness.
I walked to the baby carriage and looked at the the bundle of blankets. I took the blanket into my hands and realized that there was nothing wrapped in the plush blanket. “It looks like this might be a baby nursery at one time but I wonder what is behind the oth-” I said until interrupted by the sound of footsteps and whining behind the second door. I quickly ran out of the room signaling Anthony and Kevin to follow. We all hid behind the door once again looking through the separation between the door and the wall.
Behind the door was the staircase leading towards a dark basement. At the bottom of the stairs, the walls and newspaper clippings of fires created by Roach, shelves lined with stuffed dogs, cats, rats and various other animal corpses. There was a desk covered in random papers and a door with a cut out hole that looked to be there for feeding a captive victim. Luckily there was no one
it was going to rain soon. The trees looked like ghosts and even sounded like them because the wind
Her feet padded by the thick rug running through the middle of the hall she came upon a door. Giving a quick turn of the head she was satisfied that no one was following her and no one appeared to be inside. Rolling through and lifting herself into a crouch she surveyed the surroundings. A large room with four entrances, completely empty apart from
The rain forced off its vertical path by the breeze gently bit onto his face. He now had two whole days to himself before he was due back at work. Walking into the rain he really hoped the bus was on time tonight, if it was he could be home in less than an
“You were telling me how you got here.” He stopped looking at the ground. “I said you don’t have to talk about it.”
Thunderous clouds loomed above as I scanned the street in front of me. Taking a step, I let my foot fall forward onto the pavement and into a brown puddle of dirt and leftover rainwater from the storm just a few days prior. Ignoring the splash of water that soaked the ends of my jeans, I walked briskly to the other
I looked over at Jay, his body laying on the ground, lifeless. I couldn't help but get angry, I’d known him since we were teenagers. I never thought we’d end up here. As I looked back up at James and Dave, they started pacing the room together, trying to find a solution, I assume. I looked around the room while trying to struggle free of the rope tied around me. The cave had a low ceiling and there were
"What the hell is that supposed mean?" Joel asked as if anyone actually knew the answer. The bedroom door creaked open,
The sound of the rain, as it hit our car, was like that of pins dropping on a metal surface. The intensity of the rain increased as we ventured further into the eye of the storm.