“What is that?” Mary called from the kitchen.
George turned the switch off. “Nothing. Just static.”
Ricky looked to Amber and she shrugged.
“Please don’t turn on any more switches, George.”
“Okay.”
They exited through the other door to a stairway with a hall that led to a doorway under the stairs.
“Up or down?” Ricky asked.
Amber pointed her light down the hall. The door under the stairs had a dog door in it. She swept her light up. There were more lights on at the top of the carpeted staircase. Romeo had a chairlift to carry him up the stairs. It was parked at the top.
Ricky put a foot on the bottom stair and began to climb.
Amber reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
“Wait,” she said. “Before we go any farther, George, how did you get here?”
“Huh?”
“We left you near the headstones at the Prescott cemetery. How did you get here?”
George took a breath and looked down at his feet.
“I heard an ATV come through the woods. There was an old guy on it. He said he lived with Jan in the house and that it was their property. I told him we had permission and then…”
George glanced up the stairs and blinked, trying to remember.
“He had trouble getting out of his ATV. He wanted to see the markers, he said. Then I thought he stabbed me in the back, and I couldn’t move. Next thing I knew, his arm was around my neck. I could still breathe, but the world just went black.”
“He zapped you and choked you out,” Ricky said. “Same thing he did to me.”
George shook his head. “Must have been more than that though. I didn’t wake up until we were back at the car. I almost got a message off and then he smashed the satellite messenger.”
“How did you get in his truck?” Amber asked.
George shook his head. “I don’t remember. Next thing I was really clear about was being strapped to that table.”
Amber looked at Ricky. “Are we sure he’s working alone?”
“No.”
# # #
When Mary, Tucker, and Alan were positioned at the bottom of the stairs, Ricky started to climb. He paused with each step, listening. He knew that his mother’s attention was focused on the door under the stairs. She was eyeing it suspiciously, the same way that Ricky had been. It felt like there were secrets down there, waiting to come out.
Behind him, Amber moved silently.
George, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to help but step on the squeakiest part of every stair tread. Anyone upstairs would have plenty of notice before their arrival.
When he was still a few stairs from the top, Ricky leaned forward to point his light one direction and then the other. The second floor was like a dormitory. There were doors on both sides of the hall, spaced so close that they must have led to tiny bedrooms. Ricky remembered that the building had housed a commune. Apparently, communal living meant separate bedrooms.
Amber crawled up next to him and then pointed to the floor. Ricky understood. Years of travel had left clues to the direction of Romeo’s bedroom. She swung the seat of the chairlift over so they could slip by it and start down the hall to the right. Ricky waited for George to reach the second floor. He brought up the rear and faced backwards to make sure that nothing snuck up on them.
Amber tried the first door. She turned the handle enough to pop the latch and then gave the knob a nudge as she stepped back. The door creaked open. Ricky pointed his light through the doorway. Amber started to reach inside for the light switch and Ricky shook his head. He directed his light towards the window. A box was built around the window, framing it in. It was effectively boarded up. Swinging his light down towards the floor, they saw stains on the wood planks.
“Like the cave,” Amber whispered.
Ricky nodded. She turned her light towards the ceiling where a lot of the plaster had been torn down and they could see the slats. Amber reached in with her stake and pulled the knob until the door swung shut enough for her to reach it and latch it.
At the next door they didn’t open it all the way. With it cracked open just a few inches they could see that it was the same as the previous room.
“This is the real roost,” Amber whispered.
“So where are they?” Ricky asked.
They were standing at the end of the hallway. Amber crouched down to look at the floor and then she stood up on her toes while she pointed her flashlight at the ceiling.
She leaned close to George and Ricky and whispered, “I don’t think they travel through here—just Romeo. That means that maybe those windows…”
“Aren’t really boarded up,” Ricky said.
Amber nodded.
They opened the next door and swung their lights around to make sure that there were no occupants in the dark space. George stayed in the doorway as Ricky and Amber slowly crept in. They avoided stepping on the discolored spots on the floor. Ricky saw that the biggest spot was below the part of the ceiling that was most torn up. He pictured one of the creatures roosting up there and its waste dribbling down on the floor. Amber reached out with her stake and poked at the lumber that boxed in the window. The bottom of it swung in a little and then stopped.
She leaned down to see what was blocking it.
“There are wires,” she whispered.
Ricky crouched to look. He whispered to her, “That looks like a solenoid. The electric locks at the sheriff’s department have those. I’ve seen behind the panel when they were being repaired.”
Amber looked back toward the door and Ricky saw what had drawn her attention. There was a similar device mounted above the door. When he saw where they were looking, George leaned in to have a look for himself. The room was so dark, it was hard
