Junie had been inching away from him. He lunged at her and might have caught her if the trapdoor separating me from her hadn’t given a mighty tremble and then begun to slowly open, creaking.
I moaned.
“About fricking time,” Ricky said, blinking rapidly. “Ant, pull that scarf off the lamp. Ed’s not gonna like this room all yellow.”
“I didn’t put no scarf on the lamp,” Ant said, staring at the trapdoor along with the rest of us. “And it’s not yellow in here.”
CHAPTER 53
The trapdoor that had been opening tentatively suddenly shot wide, hitting the floor with a thump. Junie gasped and ran to my side, and we both backed against the far wall, nearer the front door. A bloody hand erupted from the floor like a horror-movie zombie erupting from its grave.
A woman followed.
I gasped. She was covered in blood, her eyes wild, but I recognized her red hair.
Beth McCain.
She moved like a cat, measured, turning her back to me and Junie so she faced Ricky and Ant as she climbed the stairs. The bottom half of Ricky’s jaw had unhinged like somebody’d pulled the fasteners out. It just dangled there. Ant had gone as white as a frog’s belly.
“Oh crap,” he said, staring from Ricky to Beth and then at the trapdoor. “Crap on a holy cracker.”
Beth crept steadily until she stood alongside me and Junie, gaze still locked on Ricky in the kitchen and Ant by the bedroom, the door to freedom at her back, the trapdoor a gaping mouth in the middle of all of us. She smelled of funk and blood. She was painfully skinny, her muscles stretched like jerky over her bones. She clutched a piece of wood or metal, it was hard to tell which, covered as it was by gore and what looked like a patch of slick black hair.
If I hadn’t been standing so near the door, I may not have heard the gentle rattle of her hand clasping the knob at her back, that’s how stealthy, how hypnotizing her movements were.
She finally turned toward me.
What I saw in her eyes was eternal and terrifying.
“Run,” she said simply.
CHAPTER 54
She took off like she knew the quarries, and I supposed she did. She was a Saint Cloud girl. Junie and I followed. I felt light-headed. I didn’t know if it was the fear or if I’d swallowed a poison pill. I’d taken only one.
That couldn’t kill me, could it?
A roar ripped the air behind us, followed by Ricky yelling, his voice phlegmy, “We’re gonna catch you!”
We skirted the firepit I’d sat at less than a week earlier and raced toward the mountain of granite on the opposite side of the quarry. Beth was leading the way toward the summit, Junie right behind. I brought up the rear. I hoped Beth knew of a road, or even a path up there, so that we wouldn’t reach the top and be trapped. I turned to see how much of a lead we had. The bright moonlight lit up Ricky maybe fifty yards behind me, reflecting off the runners of snot hanging out both his nostrils. He looked furious, racing across the rocks like a goat.
Ahead, Beth appeared as sure-footed on the granite as Ricky did behind. She jumped from one boulder to another, reaching back to offer Junie her hand. Ricky’s scrabbling was growing louder. I tried to pick up speed, but the black water to my left leered at me, warning me to be careful or it’d swallow me whole just like it’d done to Maureen. I’d never gone up the high dive that day at the Muni. Maureen had led the way. Even Brenda had worked up the courage to jump. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to crawl to the top.
“Come on!” Junie hollered from ahead.
Ricky made a gurgling noise. I didn’t turn this time, but it seemed like he was gaining. Even sick, he was a faster runner than me. He’d taken so many pills, but he was keeping them down. My own heartbeat was funny, rapid-fire. I pushed myself to climb faster, toward Beth and Junie. I kept scrambling, but the higher I crawled, the bigger the risk of falling grew. The height made me dizzy. I tried not to look.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” Ricky taunted. He sounded close now, not even ten feet behind. I tried to rush ahead, but the rocks were sharp, and sweat was stinging my eyes.
“Come on!” Beth called.
She stood at the top of the rocks, outlined by the moon. I bet she wanted to take off, to run away from here and never look back. Instead, she backtracked until she reached Junie, grabbing her elbow to hurry her to the peak. She tossed me an apologetic glance.
I knew what that look meant.
Beth was going to get Junie out of here. To safety.
I wanted to weep with gratitude, but just then Ricky’s hand clasped my ankle. I kicked at him, the force nearly tumbling me into the quarry fifty feet below, into the cold gray arms of the ghost that haunted the water. I peeled my fingernails back trying to cling to the rock. Ricky flipped me over to face him, leaving me dangerously near the edge. A jagged piece of granite stabbed my spine where my shirt rode up. I didn’t dare look down.