Part 5 (1/2)

”Me three,” said John.

Everyone else chimed in with a number, even Gilley. ”Me six,” he said, pus.h.i.+ng himself off the ground to sit up and look around.

And that was when it hit me: There were seven of us in the group. ”Where's Gopher?”

Heath looked at me and blinked. ”Isn't he here?”

”No.” I pointed the flashlight all around the hall, looking for our producer, and finally called out to him, ”Gopher!” My voice echoed through the large hall, down into distant corridors, but no reply came back to us.

”Isn't that his pack?” Meg asked, pointing to his signature silver backpack.

I hurried over to it, and discovered it was indeed his, and next to it was his camera. I looked back to Heath as an unsettling foreboding sank deep into my bones. ”He'd never leave his backpack,” I said.

”Maybe he's off taking a whiz,” said John.

”Gopher!” I shouted. Again, my voice echoed out of the room down into the corridors, but no sign or sound of our producer could be seen or heard.

”Where could he have gone?” Gilley whimpered, looking especially frightened.

”We need to find him,” I said, getting up and wiping the wet hair out of my eyes.

”We also need to see about drying out our clothes and maybe starting a fire to get warm,” Heath advised.

It was then that I noticed both Meg and Kim standing with their arms wrapped tightly about themselves, s.h.i.+vering with cold.

”Right,” I agreed, rummaging around in my messenger bag for the lighter and the small notebook I never went without. Tossing both to John, I said, ”You stay here with Gilley, Meg, and Kim. See if you can find some wood for a fire, and use the notebook paper for kindling. I think you should try and get one started by the door, 'cause I don't trust that hearth's chimney.”

We left the main group and Heath and I worked our way deeper into the castle. The storm was still raging outside, and the walls reverberated with the sound of thunder, but no flashes of lightning made their way inside. The only illumination was our flashlights. ”Gopher!” I called as we moved into the first main corridor off the front hall.

Somewhere in the distance a loud creaking sound made Heath and me both pause to listen. ”Where'd that come from?” Heath whispered.

”I think from that hallway down there,” I whispered back, motioning to a separate corridor that opened up all the way at the end of the one we were in.

”Gopher?” Heath shouted.

His voice echoed along the walls.

And then ...

... something something growled back. growled back.

”What was was that?” that?” I whispered. The sound we'd heard was deep and guttural and not at all human. I whispered. The sound we'd heard was deep and guttural and not at all human.

Heath didn't answer me. Instead, he pulled out a magnetic grenade and popped open the cap. ”Whatever it was,” he said, bending low to my ear, ”I don't think it's friendly.”

I pulled a grenade out too and uncorked the top. Tipping out the spike, I held it high, like a knife, ready to stab it into anyone-or anything-that approached. After a moment I asked Heath, ”Should we continue down that way?”

”Do we have much of a choice?”

Mentally I cursed Gopher for wandering off. ”Okay. Let's keep going but quietly. No calling out to Gopher until we know what we're dealing with.”

Heath and I proceeded cautiously down the corridor. I could still hear the storm, and the dripping of water and some sort of scuttling noise I attributed to something like a mouse or a rat, but nothing else disturbed the darkness.

As we walked forward, I began to get a terrible feeling. It was like I was thirteen again, watching a scary movie well past my bedtime. I couldn't seem to shake the creepy s.h.i.+ver seeping along my spine. I leaned over and in Heath's ear whispered, ”I really really don't like this!” don't like this!”

He paused.

I paused.

And for several heartbeats neither of us moved even to breathe. The longer we stood there, waiting, the more unsettled I became. I was about to tell Heath that maybe we should double back-and quick-when a wave of something terrifying wafted through the ether and washed over me with tremendous power. I sank to my knees and closed my eyes as every nightmarish monster I'd ever seen on TV or conjured up in my worst dreams flooded through my mind and wiped away all reason.

It was as if a force that knew everything that had ever frightened me as a child or an adult had kept a record of it, and was filling my mind with all those images at once, while clearing away any ability I might have to form a rational thought. It was an onslaught of horror, and I was powerless to stop it.

The effect crippled me both mentally and physically, and I couldn't seem to form a thought of my own. I was aware only of danger, terror, and panic until I felt something crash into my shoulder, and it knocked me to the ground. That just increased my terror and I screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

I wanted desperately to get away, and so I scuttled and crawled along the floor, trembling from head to toe and barely able to hold on to my flashlight. I must have left the spike behind because very slowly I became aware of things other than the parade of terrifying images surging through my mind-like my empty right hand.

And then, with unexpected abruptness, the onslaught vanished, and I was left gasping and shaking all over but once again in my right mind. ”M. J.!” someone whispered urgently to me. ”Sugar, please, look at me!”

With effort I lifted my chin and realized Gilley was squatting down in front of me, attempting to get me to my feet.

His sweats.h.i.+rt sagged on him, and I could see in the dim light how the dozens of magnets he'd secured to the inside of the s.h.i.+rt were bulging right through the fabric. ”Gilley!” I croaked, clutching his arms and getting up shakily.

”What happened to you?” he asked, his face filled with concern. ”And where's Heath?”

I blinked and for the first time I was able to take in my surroundings. John, Meg, and Kim were hovering close, each of them holding several spikes and eyeing the hallway nervously. ”I-I don't know,” I said, trying to spot Heath's face among those gathered around me. ”He was next to me, and then ...” My voice trailed off as I tried to remember what had actually happened.

”And then what, honey?” Gilley asked.

I focused on his face again, still struggling to form linear thoughts. ”Something attacked us.” And then, my lower lip began to tremble, and the s.h.i.+vering increased, and a tear or two leaked out of my eyes.

Gilley and John exchanged a look and John said, ”Let's get her back to the front hall. I can get that fire started, and I've got some water and a protein bar in my pack. Maybe that'll help calm her.”

I realized I was still trembling and my hands were shaking so hard that the light from my flashlight was bouncing all over the floor. I took a deep breath and attempted to steady the ray, and that was when I saw two spikes illuminated several yards down the corridor.

I pointed to the spikes, and Gilley and John both looked to the spot. ”Those yours?” Gilley asked.

I shook my head. ”Only one. The other was Heath's.”

”Heath!” John shouted.

We all waited breathlessly, but no reply came.

Tears were now streaming steadily down my cheeks as I began to consider that whatever terrifying force had produced such a crippling and mind-altering effect on me had likely done the same to Heath, and without his spike, he was completely at its mercy.