Chapter 17 #2
Finally, he unlocks the basement door and we go down the stairs, though we first have to clear away the salt there so the ghosts can come. I was right about the lanterns—every nook and cranny of the basement is visible. Surprisingly, there are no spiderwebs or spiders.
“It’s shockingly clean in here.” Arissa echoes my thoughts as she turns in a circle.
“It’s the dark spirit,” Freddie explains. “The bugs don’t like it.”
“Of course. Well, I don’t think ‘demon in the basement’ will ever catch on as a form of insect repellant.” Her voice only cracks a tiny bit, and I reach out and squeeze her arm.
“Can you imagine advertising that?” Skye jokes nervously. “It’d be the perfect solution to moths and silverfish eating your clothes… as long as you don’t mind keeping a trapped demon in with your knitwear.”
A weak chuckle runs through the group.
“Okay,” Kieran says. “Okay. What now?”
Everyone looks at me. Great.
“Uh… well, let’s set up some salt lines.
And one of quartz closest to the stairs.
The ghosts can be the, uh…” How do I say this without making it seem dramatic?
“…the last line of defense.” I wince. Yeah, those were probably not the right words.
“I mean,” I add hurriedly, “since the salt will hamper them just as much as the demon, they need to be outside the salt barriers. With the quartz. So that if the demon gets past us, they can stop it from leaving the basement.” That’s a bit better, right?
“How would the demon get past us?” Arissa’s eyes dart toward the bricked-up tomb in the wall.
“It won’t,” I say, putting every ounce of assurance I can into my voice, even if I don’t feel it. “But just in case we get distracted and it slips past, this way the ghosts can stop it.”
“Let’s start pouring salt,” Kieran suggests. “Arissa, help me?”
She goes without question. I think it helps that he wants to pour the first line over near the stairs, away from the tomb.
As soon as she’s distracted, I pull the others into a huddle.
“Check every inch of this place for something it can use to hurt us. Any garbage, anything that might come loose from the walls.” I hesitate, then motion for Joe to join us.
He slips around Kieran, scowling at the salt.
“What?” he grumps.
“I’m sorry about the salt, but—”
“Don’t be a fool. Use whatever tool you can.”
“Thanks. Uh, do you think the demon would be able to pull items from the storeroom and down the stairs to attack us with?”
Joe’s jaw drops as Daniel swears.
“I didn’t think of that,” Ewan admits, glancing up toward the open doorway.
“Me either,” Joe says, looking troubled. “It’s possible. I can’t say for sure.”
I nod, my stomach sinking. “Then we have to close the door before we begin. Even if it can somehow open it, at least that would give us warning.”
Skye shivers. “I’m having horror movie flashbacks,” he mutters. “What kind of idiots close themselves in a basement with a demon when the only door has a bolt on the outside?”
“We’re the only ones here,” Daniel reminds him but then exchanges a glance with Ewan. “We’ll close the door from the storeroom to the hallway and barricade it from the inside. If someone tries to get in, we’ll hear them and be able to get up there before they make it to the basement door.”
That plan seems holey to me, but I guess it’s the best we’ve got.
Ewan and Daniel head up the stairs to build a barricade, and Skye and I begin searching the room for anything that could be thrown at us.
There are only a few, and we haul them upstairs and then check the walls, especially the bare rock.
If a chunk of that came loose and was hurled at our skulls, it could do serious damage.
The lanterns pose a different problem. We need them to see, but they have enough heft to be dangerous.
In the end, we decide everyone will be responsible for hanging on to their lantern as though it’s worth their life not to.
Except me. Skye offers to hold mine for me, since I might need both my hands.
Ewan comes back and checks the banister and each of the spindles, making sure they’re all secure.
I hadn’t thought of that and am glad he did.
By the time he reaches the bottom of the stairs, Arissa and Kieran have laid out three lines of salt in concentric rings, the first about three feet from the tomb, and the last a few feet from the bottom of the stairs.
Each line is also studded with chunks of quartz at random intervals.
The ghosts are clustered behind the last line, at the foot of the stairs, with an array of quartz.
Daniel comes to the doorway at the top of the stairs. “Are we ready?”
I look around at everyone’s faces, set with determination as well as fear, then nod. “Yeah.”
He steps down, then closes the door firmly. The click of the latch seems to echo.
When he joins us at the bottom, I take a deep breath.
“Here’s the plan. I don’t think I can do this through stone, so we need to unbrick the wall.”
“We figured that.” For all his worrying ways, Kieran sounds absolutely calm right now.
I nod. “If we’re really lucky, it’ll be too weakened from captivity and from all the salt and quartz in here to even come out of the hole.
We’re probably not that lucky, but I’m still hoping to keep it contained to the first circle.
” If the ghosts were able to herd it here and into its prison using quartz, I doubt it will be able to cross that first salt-and-quartz line.
In fact, I’m kind of counting on that. Because if it can cross the first, the second and third will be essentially useless, and it will once again come down to the ghosts—with maybe some living human help—to keep the demon contained.
“I like this plan,” Arissa says, trying to sound confident even though her voice is shaking. Kieran puts an arm around her.
“Riss, there’s no shame in waiting upstairs,” he tells her quietly. “None of us would judge you for it.”
She shakes her head. “I would judge me for it. And anyway, if I don’t see the demon banished with my own eyes, I’m not sure I’ll ever truly believe it’s gone.
And I don’t want to be afraid to go into the storeroom for the rest of my life.
” Setting her chin, she meets my gaze. “We unbrick the opening. What next?”
Pride soars through me. It’s such a privilege to know some people.
“Next, I hold the herbs on the demon and banish it.”
From the way they all frown, I know they want more detail. I wish I could give it to them. Even though NEDDT’s instructions clicked with something deep inside me, I don’t know how to explain it. I just know that this will work.
As long as I don’t think about it too hard. When I do, I’m riddled with doubt.
“Okay,” Kieran says, seemingly more to himself. “Let’s do this.”
As we approach the wall, I see the first problem. “Wait, stop.”
They freeze.
“What is it?” Ewan demands fiercely, gaze darting around the room.
“We can’t all do this. The tomb is too small for us to crowd around it like this. If the demon leaps out or something, there’s too much chance of someone getting hurt. And I won’t have room to maneuver.” I’m not sure if I’ll need to maneuver, but I don’t want to take risks with my friends’ safety.
Kieran runs a hand through his hair. “Good point. We need to think tactically. How many of us will it take to open the hole?”
Annnd there’s the second problem. How are we going to unbrick the hole with our bare hands? The stones have been cemented in.
I groan. “We’re really bad at this. Scooby and Shaggy were smarter than us.” I explain what I’ve just realized.
“Are we sure getting the living involved was the right decision?” I hear Freddie ask.
“They do seem to be…” Carter trails off doubtfully. “But I’m sure they’ll rally.”
“This is a dilemma,” Ewan says thoughtfully, eyeing the tomb.
“If we bring tools down to open it up, the demon can use them against us. But how do we open it without tools?” He moves closer, carefully stepping over the salt line and crouching to examine the patch of wall.
A moment later he makes a sound that’s part shock, part disgust. “Who did this work?” he calls over his shoulder toward the ghosts.
I look back and see them exchanging glances. “We did,” Hattie calls back. “We had to do it in a rush while everyone was attending to the injured workmen.”
“Why?” Joe barks.
“You’ve done a great job cementing the stones together, but you didn’t cement or otherwise seal around the edges. It’s just wedged in here.”
“We were in a rush,” Carter defends. “And we didn’t wedge it in. We built it in. With all the quartz in that, there’s no way the dark spirit could push it out.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Ewan placates. “But my point is, with time having eroded the edges a bit, I can probably get my fingers in around it and pull it free without tools. Maybe.”
“Let me do it,” I demand. I don’t really want Ewan or his fingers that close to the demon.
He shakes his head. “I don’t think you could.
It’s still in there pretty firmly, and it’s going to take a lot of muscle.
” I’d be offended, but only an idiot would compare my muscle to Ewan’s.
All those things they say about blacksmiths being strong are absolutely true.
“Plus, it’s better if you’re ready and waiting for it. ”
I want to protest, but he’s right.
“New plan,” I begin. “Ewan pulls out the… door.” I don’t know what else to call it. “As soon as it’s loose, step back out of the way. And whatever you do, don’t let go. Those stones could do a lot of damage.” Especially all cemented together into a slab like that.
“Got it,” he affirms. Kieran takes his lantern so he’ll have both hands free.
I turn to look at the others. “Could you stay behind the next line?” I point to the second salt circle, almost halfway to the stairs. “That will give us all room. You’ll also have a clearer view of what’s happening. Warn me if the demon somehow finds something to throw at me.”