When I arrived home, my brother was yelping about some newsworthy event on the TV and dragged me into the family room.
“You have to see this,” he said. “They struck again! Look.”
“More crop circles?” I said, almost having heart failure. This time Junior Bateman was on TV.
“There it is, a big X. It wasn’t there when we went to bed,” the boy said.
“This time we had a video camera out,” the father said.
Oh no, I thought. We were going to be in trouble now.
He showed the footage, fast-forwarded. “There isn’t anyone on the video!” the boy cried, excited and horrified at the same time. “The aliens, they are invisible!”
“That is creepy,” Billy Boy said. “I’m sure there is an explanation; I can’t wait to meet Henry at Math Club and figure it out.”
“There’s only one explanation,” I said truthfully. “Vampires.”
My family shot me a quizzical look, and I rose and left for the mill.
I headed to the Crypt to wait for the vampires to rise. When I arrived, I saw a small truck parked outside. I didn’t find anyone when I entered the main room. I was imagining myself dancing around on opening night when I heard hammering coming from downstairs. I tiptoed over to the Covenant door and turned the knob. It was locked. I pressed my ear to the door and I could hear more hammering. If the Covenant wasn’t going to be used for a vampire club, what was it going to be used for?
I was wiping off the Crypt’s bar when I heard the door unlock. I turned to look and a burly workman with a tool belt exited the Covenant and locked the door behind him.
He nodded and passed me by before I could say anything.
I dropped my towel on the bar and raced after him, but by the time I caught up with him he had already started his truck and was taking off down the gravel road.
When I returned, I was determined to get through the door. I stuck my boot against it and pulled, hoping the old lock might break, but it didn’t budge. I had a bobby pin adorned with a skull stuck in my hair. I took it out and jimmied it into the lock. As much as I pried, the lock didn’t come loose.
Scarlet found me fiddling with the knob.
“I didn’t realize you guys were up,” I said, shoving the pin in my pocket.
“Yes, some of us are still sleeping. We had a really wild night.”
Onyx wandered out. “Good evening, Raven.”
“Hey,” I said. “I’m glad you both are awake.”
When I realized no one else was following them, I returned my attention to the door. “What does this door lead to?”
I asked her.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“No one will tell me,” I said.
“Maybe it doesn’t lead to anywhere,” Onyx said.
“Then why is it locked?”
“To keep us from tripping down the stairs,” Onyx said. “Duh.”
I could only imagine what it led to. But maybe it was only the unfinished, never remodeled Covenant room. Maybe the worker was only reinforcing beams to make the main floor sturdier for dancing.
“I saw someone going in there once,” Scarlet said. “Really late at night, when everyone else was done working. I saw Jagger go down there with one of the guys from the Coffin Club. When I spotted him and asked him what he was doing, he acted like I’d caught him doing something.”
“So you think he’s doing something sneaky?” Onyx said. “Why does everyone think he’s such a bad guy?”
“Would you be so into him if he wasn’t?” Scarlet teased.
I wasn’t going to tell her that it was really Jagger who made the circles. She adored him so, and since he’d fixed the problem there was no reason to address it.
The mysterious locked door, on the other hand, was worth addressing.
“So what do you think it is?” I asked. “The underground club he said he wasn’t going to have?”
“I have no idea,” Scarlet said. “But I’d love to find out.”
“We need a key,” I said. “We can’t break down this door. I know; I tried,” I said with a smile.
“The only one with a key is Jagger,” Scarlet said. “And I don’t know how to get it from him.”
We both turned to Onyx, who turned a paler shade of ghost white.
“I can’t do it,” she said. “He keeps his keys locked away. Besides, I don’t want to do anything against him.”
I was ready to continue putting pressure on her, but Scarlet let her off the hook.
“Do we know anyone else with a key?” Scarlet asked.
“That workman I just saw,” I said. “But I don’t know how to get it from him.”
Then it hit me. Trevor. “Trevor wears a key around his neck and always shows it off to me like it’s something I’d want.”
“Do you think it goes to this door?” Scarlet asked.
“He and Jagger are friends, and apparently Trevor’s dad was part of sealing the deal for the club,” I said. “Trevor may not even have a clue what it goes to, but I think he holds the key to this door.”
Scarlet’s expression brightened. “I could always use an excuse to see him.”
My stomach almost turned. My friend was excited about seeing the one person I loathed. But this time I’d be excited to see him, too.
Alexander and Sebastian were taking a break from the Crypt and hanging out at the Mansion. Normally I’d happily join them in their fun, not wanting to spend one nightly hour away from my true love, but curiosity was getting the best of me and, thankfully, of my new friend as well.
Scarlet picked me up in the Beetle. She cranked up the music and we sang at the top of our lungs until we got to the soccer field. We walked down the hill to the woods behind the field, recalling our music fest and laughing from the bottoms of our bellies. My cheeks hurt so bad I was afraid I’d split open my lip again. But what I didn’t know was I already had.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. Suddenly Scarlet was staring at my mouth.
“Oh no,” I said.
Her eyes were a weird shade of red. Something had come over her. It was the scent and presence of blood. I backed away.
Scarlet took my arm. I was moments from a struggle. She was my friend and I knew she was fighting her internal impulse. I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
My mind raced. Instead of being turned by Alexander, I was going to be mauled by Scarlet. There was no one to defend me. She was a little bit bigger than me, and with her underworldly powers, I wasn’t sure how I’d fare.
“You aren’t going to attack me, are you?” I asked.
“No — why would you think so?” She did her best to close her eyes. She turned away from me and covered her face. “Could you please just fix it?”
I wiped my mouth with my sleeve and pressed a tissue to it.
Trevor was suddenly standing in the woods.
“What’s going on in here?” he asked as I held the tissue to my lips. “I thought you’d at least wait for me!” he said.
“Don’t be gross,” I said.
Scarlet lit up in Trevor’s presence.
“Why are you covering your mouth?” he asked me. “Grrr,” he growled like a tiger. “Catfight? Don’t stop on account of me.”
“Cut it out,” Scarlet said. “We were just in the neighborhood.”
“In the high school’s woods?” he asked suspiciously. “You shouldn’t hang out here. Without me, of course.”
“We wanted to see you,” Scarlet said. “I wanted to see you.”
