I crawled through the tunnel on my hands and knees. No one was in front of me. I listened for James, but it was silent. I was alone, in the dark, crawling inside a four-by-four tunnel in the belly of a three-story mansion. I closed my eyes to fight the rising claustrophobia. Just a little further and I would be out.
Where was everyone else? Why couldn’t I hear anything? I crawled faster, fear taking over. My heart pounded in my chest. My hands were slippery. My knees were sore.
The track lighting disappeared ahead.
I frantically sucked in gulps of warm air. Please don’t be a dead end. I quickened my pace. The tunnel veered a sharp right and the track lighting reappeared around the corner. A gush of cool air hit me. Almost out of here.
Light illuminated the end of the tunnel. I stumbled forward, thinking of nothing but getting out of this confined space. I reached the end and hopped out, feet first, into another empty circular room. The white arrows on the ground split into four separate directions. Each spray-painted line ran the length of the floor, up the wall and into another tunnel hole.
Four entrances.
You’ve got to be kidding me. How would James know which tunnel I took?
I tried to text James to tell him which tunnel I was choosing, but, of course, there was no signal. I patted my jeans for something to leave behind as a clue, Hansel and Gretel style. My purse was in Lucas’s Tahoe and all I had on me was a stick of gum.
I popped in the stick of cinnamon gum and wadded the paper into a ball. I climbed into the tunnel to my left. I placed the gum wrapper on the edge, praying James would see it and realize what I was doing.
I crawled through the second tunnel. Logic told me this couldn’t go on forever, but my mind wasn’t buying it. The floor gradually sloped downward and the steep angle of the tunnel pushed my momentum forward.
The track lighting abruptly stopped and the tunnel was now absolutely dark. The floor slanted at an impossible angle. I edged forward, blind to what was ahead. Then the floor disappeared. I tumbled into the darkness. Not falling, but sliding. Skidding down a wide slide to some unknown floor below.
A thick padded mat broke my fall. The paneled ceiling lights flickered on and off. Where was I? The basement? I checked to make sure everything was still in place before standing up. Once my sight adjusted to the eerie green light, I saw a pair of eyes watching me.
I jumped back. The figure jumped back, too. I waved my hand. The figure waved its hand. I was staring at my own reflection in a mirror.
A mirror? Why was there a mirror down here? I glanced over my shoulder and saw my reflection again. I turned in a circle. My reflection surrounded me. I was in a maze of mirrors.
My throat constricted. I tried to swallow, but couldn’t because of the lump forming in my esophagus. I was on the verge of a panic attack. How was I ever going to find my way out? I’d been worried about getting lost in a run-of-the-mill haunted house, but now I had to deal with a mirror maze? I was going to kill Lucas for making me come to this stupid….
James. Where was he? The vampire must’ve led him into the same room. I looked up. A large open square was cut in the ceiling. The slide had thrown me onto the padded mat. Would James fall in the same spot? I stepped out of the line of fire and waited. And waited. Nothing. Butterflies swarmed my stomach. Please don’t let me be alone.
A loud bang—like someone falling to the floor—answered my prayers, but the crash was nowhere near me.
“James?” My voice cracked.
“Alex?” James said, but I couldn’t see him. Only the endless reflections of myself.
“I’m here. I can’t see you,” I said.
“The slide must have dumped me in a different spot.”
“How big do you think this room is?”
“Hopefully not that big.” James sounded aggravated.
I walked with my arms outstretched trying not to smash my face. I groped the mirrored walls for an opening. Left, then right and then left again. It all looked the same. All sense of direction was lost.
“James?” I needed to hear a voice.
“Stay where you are. I’m coming for you,” James said from somewhere over the tall glass walls.
I could hear him, but there was no way to tell which direction he was coming from. Everything appeared unnatural in the eerie light. My skin looked a deathly whitish-green. I kept my eyes on the floor. I couldn’t face my ghastly reflection. Where was everyone? Other people were bound to be lost in here, too. We couldn’t be the only people in the maze.
“I’m sorry.” James’s voice echoed off the glass walls.
“For what?” I called out over the mirrors.
“For getting separated.”
I smiled despite the situation. “One hundred percent not your fault. Now, Lucas on the other hand….”
I groped my way around the walls. I turned right and then left, until I wasn’t sure if I’d made any progress at all. Was I walking in circles? I wished Peter was here. He’d know what to do. I rested my forehead against one of the mirrors. The glass felt cool against my skin.
When I closed my eyes an image flashed before them—the man from my nightmare chasing me through the Hazel Cove Cemetery. I couldn’t see his face, only the dark shadow of his outlined form. My eyes flew open. My ghastly green reflection stared back at me. Either way, I was in a nightmare. If I closed my eyes, I saw his unnatural stride—
Stop it. This was not the time or place to think about the creepy man from Hazel Cove Cemetery. I had to find a way out. Now.
“James?”
“I’m coming. I think I’m getting closer.”
What if we couldn’t find each other? Irrational thoughts were sinking in from the uprising panic. My breathing was shallow and I was dizzy from the lack of oxygen reaching my brain. I mechanically groped the mirrors, praying I’d find the way out. My hands were slick against the smooth surface. An open turn.
I made the mistake of dropping my hands for a split second. My forehead smashed against the reflective surface. I stumbled backward, losing my balance, and crashed to the floor. I tried to brace my fall with my hands, but I wasn’t quick enough. My butt hit the ground with an audible thud.
“What was that noise?” James banged on a mirror somewhere behind me.
I stayed on the ground, shocked by the impact of the fall. I felt my forehead, expecting blood, but there wasn’t any. Only tenderness.
That was it. I wanted out of here now. A new emotion erupted within me—not fear, but anger. This ridiculous haunted house! And that vampire! She could’ve warned us about the tunnels and maze.
I caught my reflection in a mirror. I was a pathetic sight. Sitting on the floor. Defeated. Lost, angry and hurt. Seeing myself in such a pitiful state infuriated me. I wanted to find James and I wanted to get the hell out of this maze.
I glared defiantly at the mirror. I directed all my fury and frustration at my own helpless reflection. Rage. Anger. Fear. Panic.
Then I heard a crack.
And a loud pop.
My reflection became distorted. A fissure slivered down the entire length of the mirror. The glass split like the ground opening up during an earthquake. Shards of glass shattered to the floor.
What in the world?
I didn’t touch it. It wasn’t even the same mirror I’d crashed into. I’d slammed into the panel a few slots down. Besides, I didn’t hit the glass with that much force—not enough to cause a different mirror to break. I wasn’t even bleeding.
“Alex!” James ran to me. “What happened?”
I glanced at my broken reflection, not sure what happened either.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“I’m fine.”
He looked at me skeptically.
“No blood,” I said.
James stood me upright. “Give me your hand.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not letting go of you until we’re out of this damn place.”
* * *
/> “You were right. Haunted houses suck.” James said, as we walked down Apple Orchard. After the night’s debacle in the mirror maze, he’d insisted on walking me home from the Coopers’. I think he felt guilty that I’d gotten lost under his watch.
“I’m never, ever, under any circumstances, going into another haunted house again,” I said. “I don’t care if Lucas begs until he’s blue in the face. It’s not happening.”
“No haunted houses, but what about Halloween costume parties? I heard your family knows how to throw a party.”
“Are you coming?”
“I was planning on it. Unless you don’t want me to.” James raised his eyebrows.
“No, I don’t mind.” I didn’t mind really, as long as he didn’t start anything with Peter.
“Not the answer I was looking for, but I’ll take it.”
“What answer did you want?”
“Oh, James, please. You have to come,” James said in a high voice. “Please? It wouldn’t be a party without you.”
“I hope I don’t really sound like that.”
“You know….”
“What?”
“We should do something soon. Like dinner.” A dimple deepened in his cheek.
“Dinner?”
“You know that thing people do every night? The whole-food-in-the-mouth gig.”
We were near my driveway. It was best to be direct and not lead him on. “James, I thought we’d been through this already. I don’t want to go on a date. I’m sorry.”
James’s face morphed into innocent shock. “Whoa. Date? Who said date? Wow, Alex, you’re moving a little too fast for me. I only said dinner.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. Just when I thought we’d reached neutral friend territory, here we were again, back in dating ground zero. “Why?”
“Why not? What does it matter?”
“Exactly, it doesn’t matter. So why go?”
James smiled at my reasoning. “Okay, answer this. Do I disgust you?”
“No.”
“Do you hate being around me?”
I eyed him skeptically. “No.”
“Do you like hanging out with me?”
“‘Like’ may be pushing it at times.”
James leaned against the mailbox. “We’ve established that you don’t mind being around me. And, you said yourself, you were single. You are single, right?”
“Yes.”
“And we’re friends?”
I bit my lip. I was walking right into his trap. “Yes, we’re friends.”
James shrugged. “Then going to dinner with me shouldn’t be a big deal.”
I didn’t know what to say.
A spark of hope gleamed in James’s eyes. “Besides, you kind of owe me.”
“How’s that?”
A grin spread across his face. “I rescued you from the Mirror Maze of Hell.”
I shook my head at his persistence. He wasn’t going to give up anytime soon. I inhaled the cool air and let it out slowly. “Fine.”
James stood up straight. “Really? You’ll go?”
“I’ll go.” I walked up the driveway. When I was halfway to the house I turned back to James. “Only because you saved me in the haunted house, of course.”
“Let’s go tomorrow night. I want to take you before you change your mind. Do you have plans?”
I hesitated. “I’m going to Salem tomorrow afternoon.”
For some reason, I didn’t finish the rest of my sentence. If I had, I would’ve mentioned that I was going to Salem tomorrow afternoon. With Peter.
Chapter Seven
“If you crash this car, they’ll never let me drive again. Ever.” I couldn’t look at the speedometer.
“Lex, I’m barely over the speed limit.”
The drive from Hazel Cove south to Salem was forty-five minutes. With the way Peter was driving, we were going to make it in record time.
“Fine,” I said. “When I’m stuck without a car, you’ll be sorry.”
Peter laughed. “Oh, will I?”
“Yeah, because you’ll be driving me everywhere. You’ll have to get up early before school—”
“I think I could manage that. Don’t worry. I won’t hurt your little car.” Peter patted the dashboard.
“How was the game last night?”
“We won,” Peter said. “Riverland sucks. You haven’t told me about the haunted house. How did it go? You look okay. No noticeable cuts, scrapes or bruises.” Peter kept one eye on the road while he scanned me for evidence of an accident.
“It was okay. Not as scary as last year.”
“I never thought I’d hear you say that. No mishaps?”
“Well….”
Blue eyes abandoned the road and landed on me. “What happened?”
I bit my lip. “I got lost in a mirror maze.”
“They had a mirror maze inside a haunted house? I hate those things.”
“Me too,” I said. “I broke a mirror, but other than that, I had a nice time.” I didn’t mention how I broke the mirror, because I wasn’t entirely sure how the accident happened.
Peter raised his eyebrows. The words “nice time” and “haunted house” didn’t go together in the same sentence. At least not from my mouth.
“Did everyone go?” Peter asked. It was a half question. He wanted to know whether James went or not.
I gave a half answer. I could be vague, too. “We had a pretty big group.”
The familiar town of Salem zoomed by—gift shops selling witch memorabilia, the Salem Witch Museum and the house from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables.
Peter parked on a cobblestone street lined with shops. Old wooden signs hung over the store doors. The entire town was like a portal back to the seventeenth century.
The store was small, but it was stocked better than Kitty’s Costume Closet in Hazel Cove. A Goth girl behind the counter hungrily eyed Peter the minute we walked inside.
“I think you have a fan,” I said.
Peter glanced at the girl. “Just my type, Lex. Black lipstick and all.”
The surge of jealousy and possessiveness I felt, surprised me. I didn’t like her staring at Peter regardless of what she looked like. I tried to think of something else before I became petty enough to shoot the girl a dirty look.
“I have no idea what I want to be. We might be here a while,” I admitted as I rummaged through the costumes.
Peter started rattling off ideas. “A fairy?”
“No.”
“Cleopatra?”
“I would look stupid without a Cesar,” I said. Peter would make a great Cesar.
“Not a chance.” A devilish grin appeared. “How about a French maid?”
“Yeah, right.”
Peter placed the barely-there costume back with a sigh. He flipped through the hangers until his eyes lit up. A silky black dress with draping sleeves dangled from his fingers. “A witch?”
It had potential. I reached for the costume.
“Lex, wait. You can’t be a witch without the hat.” He handed me a pointed black hat that looked like it belonged to the Wicked Witch of the West.
I pulled the curtain shut and put the costume on, hat and all. The dressing room didn’t have a mirror, so I’d have to go out there. I braced myself for an onslaught of Peter’s teasing.
He was leaning on a rack of costumes, resting his chin on his arm. When Peter saw me, he stood up.
I reached to pull the hat off. “It’s awful, right?”
“No, leave the hat. It’s… perfect.” Clear blue eyes scanned me from head to toe and then from toe to head.
My cheeks grew warm under the weight of Peter’s gaze. “Perfect? I doubt that.”
“Look in the mirror. Lex, you look hot.”
I walked over to the three-way mirror and did a turn. The silk dress fit perfectly everywhere it was supposed to and the pointed hat was cute.
Peter appeared behind me in my reflection. ??
?You look great.”
“You don’t think it’s too cliché, do you?”
“How so?”
“Getting a witch costume in Salem?”
“Nah, this costume was made for you.”
* * *
Dust from the gravel driveway clouded around the car. The usually spectacular view of the ocean from my grandmother’s backyard was obscured by the heavy fog settled near the shore. We couldn’t see the water, but the smell of salt was thick in the air.
Scooby, my grandmother’s plump Chihuahua, sprinted out of the small brick house. When we were kids, Peter and I named the puppy after our favorite cartoon show.
Grandma Claudia Ross emerged from the house to greet us. My grandmother’s hair was fastened into a tight bun at the nape of her neck. Her hair, once a deep brown, was populated with gray. Wrinkles filled her thin face, but her emerald-colored eyes were still young and vibrant.
She clung to an exquisite red shawl draped over her shoulders. “Alexandria! Peter! Come inside. It’s freezing.”
We followed my grandmother into the living room, a cozy area with an enormous stone fireplace. The house smelled like cinnamon and coffee. Grandma Claudia sat in her favorite rocking chair. Peter and Scooby sat across from me in the recliner.
“I hope the drive wasn’t too long.”
“Not at all,” Peter said.
“He wouldn’t let me drive,” I complained.
“He’s a smart man.” Grandma Claudia rocked in her chair. “Alexandria, are you doing anything special for your seventeenth birthday?”
I shrugged. “Victor and Emma are throwing another big party.”
“For your birthday?”
“No, for Halloween.”
Grandma Claudia raised her eyebrows, but I knew she wasn’t surprised. Many years ago, I’d gotten over the fact that I was somewhat of an afterthought to Victor and Emma. It didn’t bother me anymore, but it bothered Grandma Claudia. And Peter.
A moment of uncomfortable silence passed.
“You should see the Halloween costume Lex bought today. It’s great.” Peter said, trying to change the subject.