Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,58

it is a screaming hole.

Chapter 14

I staggered out of the orphanage, disoriented. Something had just happened, but my thoughts were on lockdown. I couldn't quite grasp exactly what had occurred, or how long the span of time was that I had suddenly lost.

"Thanks for joining us," Alex said smugly, stubbing out his cigarette on the side of the house.

"Fire hazard," Theo muttered, rolling her eyes. She was busy fixing her bun, bobby pins in her teeth.

"Are you okay?" Henry asked, touching my arm. He pulled his fingers away and rubbed them together. Soot covered them. I looked down at my forearms: ash marks, almost in the shape of fingerprints, stood out on my pale skin. I brushed them away. Old houses could be so dusty.

"Do you want to go home?" I asked Theo, who was looking much better. The night was dark and full of voices. Our fellow haunted house survivors were still milling around, talking about how scared they had been inside the orphanage. Stars filled the sky, clearly visible since we were farther out near the country.

"No!" Theo shook her head fervently. "I'm alright now. I just don't like it when things jump out at me. But I'll be fine for going back inside alone." The way she held her purse like a stuffed animal to her chest did not convince me.

"Are you sure?" I insisted.

"You'll be all right, Theo," Alex said, trying to put his arm around Theo's shoulders. She wriggled out and stepped away.

"Okay, the question is now, where can we hole up until everyone else is gone?" I asked.

"How about over there?" Henry asked, gesturing towards an ugly jackpine squatting on the side of the yard. Barely visible behind it was a little shack.

We sneaked over behind the tree while the others were heading to the front. The tiny cottage looked like it was out of a fairy tale illustration. Brown paint was peeling off of the wood in strips, and dirty white gingerbread trim ran around the windows.

One at a time, we went inside the shed. It smelled stale, like old standing water. I shut the door behind us tightly. Henry had brought two camping flashlights. He turned one on to and pointed it at the ceiling, cutting through the gloom and lighting up the room rather brightly.

"Do you think they'll be able to see that outside?" I asked.

"Shouldn't be able to," Henry said, looking around for possible flaws. "I think the only window is that one with the shutters. But those should protect any light from getting out."

"It's gross in her," Theo said, surveying the state of dirt and decrepitude. A metal bed held a mattress torn up by nesting mice. Boxes of supplies were piled in the corner. Alex and Theo looked through them, holding up glow sticks, old rolls of yellowing carnival tickets, corroded batteries.

"What exactly is it that we're doing?" Henry asked me. "I'm just curious. Are we really going through with this whole s茅ance bit?"

I didn't know exactly how to explain it now that I was on the spot.

"We're going to hang out here until everyone clears off, and then we'll go inside to hopefully...call up some dead people."

"Just your typical Saturday," Theo said wryly.

"You didn't really strike me as the law breaking type," Alex said to me. "Hot."

Henry scowled at him. "As simple as that then?" he asked, looking back at me.

"As simple as that," I echoed. "As long as we don't get caught."

"Well then, let's not get caught," he reasoned.

A splintery wooden table and mismatched chairs sat in the opposite corner beneath a shelf. Henry started rooting around in the shelf, and found an old deck of casino cards. "Something to pass the time," he said, more to himself even though I was watching over his shoulder.

Alex moved one of the chairs over and started pulling at the braided rug beneath it.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Every movement he made irritated me more.

"This rug is all damp and moldy," he complained. "I don't want my shoes ruined, they're new." He tilted his foot so I could get a look at the sneakers in question. They looked like boy shoes to me. I rolled my eyes. He succeeded in pulling away the offending floor covering, revealing a small painted door underneath.

"Look what I found," Alex said, already kneeling down. "Where do you think this goes?"

"No idea," I said, kneeling beside him. The wooden door was a perfect square, only several feet across. I scratched off some of