Chapter Eight Rain, Rain Ghost Away
“So what happens if you call in sick to chrickler duty?” Luis asks the next day at lunch as we make our way down to what is very definitely a dungeon. He insisted on accompanying me today because “yesterday was rough.”
He isn’t wrong.
“I have to say, after your mom’s bad behavior, I think she should have to do it instead.”
“No shit,” I agree. I stopped by her office this morning to talk to her before my first class. I figured I’d be calmer before I had to take on the chricklers and Jude in the same afternoon—but she blew me off. Told me she’d try to make time for us to “chat” after school.
Also, that damn storm that was brewing yesterday is moving in fast—which means the chricklers should be in extra nasty moods today. I’m a little terrified that I’m going to be longing for yesterday’s level of roughness before the next hour is over.
“I think you should let me go in with you,” Luis suggests for the fourteenth time today as we continue down the hallway. “It’s clear you need help.”
“Yeah, but if my mother catches you helping me—” I start, but Luis cuts me off.
“It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone,” he says, making a face at me. “And it’s not like your mother is going to be setting so much as a toe down here any time soon. No one has to know.”
“Yeah, until one of the chricklers takes a chunk out of you.”
He rolls his eyes. “Claudia seems good at keeping secrets.”
“You really want to test that theory?” I shoot back as I pull out my phone to turn on the flashlight. Before I swipe it on, I fire off another text to Serena, asking how the spell and the interview went. I really hope she gets the job.
“I can’t believe your uncle didn’t replace the lightb—” Luis breaks off as I stop dead. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” My stomach clenches a little, but I ignore it. Just like I ignore the fact that the closer we get to the end of this hallway, the more I notice a strange glow coming from the vestibule at the end.
“Your face doesn’t look like it’s nothing.” He glances at me, concerned.
“It’s probably just the storm. No big deal.”
But then a low, rasping moan creeps its way around the corner and stops me in my tracks.
“What?” Luis demands, skidding to a halt beside me. “What did you see?”
“It’s not what I saw. It’s what I heard.” The sound comes again, lower and more desperate this time, as unease slithers along my skin.
Luis, on the other hand, jumps straight past panic into full-blown terror. “I didn’t hear anything. Did something actually get out?” He squints his eyes, surveying the hallway with his diminished but still excellent wolf vision.
“It’s not the menagerie.” I try to force my feet to start moving again, but they don’t budge.
His eyes widen as he finally figures out why he isn’t hearing—or seeing—what I am. “Oh, fuck.”
I look down at the floor, focus on the cracks running through the cement, and force myself to get my shit together.
“Let’s go,” I tell him.
“Go?” Luis looks wild eyed. “Don’t we need a plan? The last thing I want is for them to hurt you again.”
“They won’t.” I blow out a breath. “And I have a plan.”
“Oh yeah?” His brows go up.
“Get in front of me and run like hell. We’ll take the long way to the chricklers and hope they don’t follow us.”
“That’s it? That’s the whole plan?” he demands.
I nod. “That’s the whole plan.”
“I should have made it clear I meant a good plan.” Still, he starts backing up. “Okay, tell me when to run.”
Another eerie wail makes every one of my pores prickle. The sounds are getting closer.
One more deep breath before I force myself to shout, “Now!”
We book it all the way back down the hallway, but I skid to a stop a few feet before we have to turn because the eerie light is leaking around that corner, too.
“Why are we stopping?” Luis demands. “Shouldn’t we—”
“We need to get to the stairwell.” I grab his arm and start tugging him backward.
“The stairwell? What about the chricklers?”
“They’ll have to wait.” But the second I turn around, I know it’s too late.
“What do we do?” Luis yells.
“I don’t know,” I answer. Because everywhere I turn is suddenly filled with ghosts.
Hundreds and hundreds of ghosts.