They followed the tracks in the dirt further down the hallway. The lantern light was not overly bright, but it was much better than nothing. Derek moved in a slight crouch, holding the lantern close to the ground so he could see the tracks. Sam felt his bare feet growing dirty from the floor. He wished he had his shoes. And that he wasn’t in his pajamas. And that they weren’t chasing an alligator.
They followed the tracks around several bends and turns in the passageway. Sam looked behind them. Would they even be able to find their way back? “I think this is far enough.”
Derek paused and stood up straight. He held his hand up in a stop motion, not making a sound. Sam peered ahead of them into the shadows. What was it?
Derek picked up a loose piece of stone and tossed it up ahead of them. A dark shadow scurried away from the wall and around a corner, out of sight. Sam’s heart froze.
“Did you see that?” hissed Nathan.
Derek hustled forward with the lantern, leading them toward the movement. They came to a ragged opening in the stone wall. The opening was supported by two wooden beams, placed at an angle against the stone. Sam couldn’t tell if it was a doorframe that was falling down, or a hole in the wall that had been supported to make a doorway. It reminded him of pictures of old crumbling buildings that were about to be knocked down. Sam stared up at the beams in the shadows. They looked rickety.
Derek held the lantern through the opening. It was another room. A shadow moved along the back wall.
“What was that?” asked Sam, his legs starting to tremble. “Was it...an alligator?”
“I don’t know,” said Derek. “Come on.”
“What?” gasped Sam. “No way, I’m staying here.”
Derek stepped forward with the lantern. “Fine. Stay there.” He moved toward the shadow, with Nathan following behind.
“Derek!” Sam shouted in frustration. He glanced around at the darkness. “Wait!” he whispered, running to catch up.
They walked through another tunnel. This one felt more like they were underground than in a planned hallway. There were spots in the ceiling where water dripped, leaving small streams along the wall and the floor. It was hard to tell in the near darkness, but it felt like they were going down. As if the earth was swallowing them up.
They came to a turn and Derek stopped. The air was cool and filled with the distant sound of running water. Sam thought of the crunch crunch hum sound up in the hotel. He’d thought he was scared then… this was much worse.
Derek crouched down and studied the dirt again under the lantern light. “Something’s in there,” he whispered.
“How do you know?” asked Nathan, hesitation filling his voice.
“I can sense it,” answered Derek.
Sam groaned, then did something surprising.
Maybe he was sick of Derek always telling him what to do. Maybe it was because his feet hurt. Maybe he was tired of always getting scared for no reason.
“This is stupid,” he yelled, grabbing the lantern. He pushed past Derek and Nathan. “There’s nothing out there. It’s just the shadows playing tricks on us. You probably didn’t even see the alligator come down here. We need to get the heck out of here before we get lost.” He stepped around the corner.
“See!” he proclaimed, holding the lantern up high in front of him. Light streamed into an enormous, open room. It seemed to stretch on forever, like some hidden underground cavern. Water dripped from open cracks above them. Pillars of rock hung down from the ceiling.
Derek’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my gosh...”
Sam’s arm turned to stone, the lantern dangling from his hand like a light post. He couldn’t move a muscle, except for his eyes, which darted around the deep room of shadows. A wide pool of water lay in the middle of the space as if it had been filled by a hundred years of rainwater working its way underground.
Lying all around the pool were alligators.
Dozens of them.
SIXTEEN
“Sam,” whispered Derek, “don’t move.”
Nathan didn’t say anything, he just stared.
Sam tried to find his voice, but his mouth was bone dry. He blinked his eyes, hoping he was dreaming. The beady, red eyes of the gators reflected in the lantern light. He could hear their breathing echoing off the rock walls in a low hum. One of the closest ones began to inch toward the doorway. Its nails scraped along the rocks as it moved.
“Derek...” Sam managed to say in barely a whisper.
The alligator started moving faster. Its mouth opened, showing rows of yellow teeth like knives. It was coming right at him.
Nathan whimpered, turning to take off back down the hallway.
“Run!” cried Derek, pulling on Sam’s shirt.
But Sam couldn’t move. His bare feet felt like they were glued to the dirty floor.
“Sam, run!” Derek yelled again, pulling him backward. As Sam tumbled into the hall, the lantern slipped from his grasp. Glass shattered and the small oil tank exploded into a fireball.
Sam and Derek lay frozen on the ground, watching the flames and shadows dance around the room in an eerie glow. The closest alligator snapped his head away from the fire. Behind him, long bodies dove into the dark pool of water.
“Let’s get out of here!” Derek cried.
They scrambled off the ground and followed Nathan down the hall.
“Which way is the hotel?” asked Derek.
“I don’t know,” Nathan panted. “There are so many hallways.”
This was what Sam had been afraid of. They were going to be lost underground forever. He looked back over his shoulder, the glow of the flames brightening the tunnel. He saw a shadow against the wall growing larger. The alligator was coming after them!
“Oomph,” Sam moaned, slamming into something solid. He bounced off, landing on his back. He stared up at the wooden beam in the crumbling opening they’d come to. He’d been so focused on watching behind him that he’d run smack into it.
“Look out!” shouted Nathan, just as Sam noticed the wood begin to slide sideways. Sam scurried to his feet and through the opening as an avalanche of rocks began to tumble toward the ground.
Derek tugged Sam’s arm again. “Let’s go!” he shouted, as he raced down the hall. This time, Sam didn’t turn around to see if they were being followed. He just ran.
“Which way?” called Nathan, when they came to a crossing in the tunnels. “I don’t remember how we came.”
Derek looked back and forth. “I’m not sure…but let’s try this one.” He turned down the left tunnel.
“How do you know?” said Sam.
“I don’t,” replied Derek, as they ran. “But any way is better than back there.”
They continued down the tunnel until they came to a door in the wall. Nathan pulled on the handle. “It’s stuck!”
“Here, let me try,” said Derek, pushing Nathan out of the way. He shifted all his weight and knocked into the door like a linebacker making a big hit. The door flung open. They hustled through, pushing the door shut behind them, the noise of it echoing through the tunnel.
Without the lantern, this new space was even darker than the passageway. Sam couldn’t see a thing. They all fumbled again along the walls, but there was no switch. Sam’s head banged against a metal pole. “Ouch!”
“I think we’re in a stairwell,” said Derek. He patted something in the darkness that made an iron clang. “It’s like in a lighthouse. The steps spiral upward.”
Sam’s stomach turned. He hated lighthouses. They made him dizzy. One time, they had climbed one at the beach, and Dad had almost had to carry him down, he was so scared.
Sam looked up and tried to see in the darkness. There seemed to be some light higher up, but not much. “Where do they go?”
“Up,” said Derek, moving past him. “Come on.”
Sam carefully felt his way one step at a time up the curve of the stairs. After a bit, he started to feel more confident. He tried to relax his
death grip on the railing. “Where are we going?” he panted, already winded.
“Anywhere but down there,” said Nathan. “Unless you want to be stuck in that flaming lake of alligators.”
Sam kept climbing. For once, he agreed with Nathan. But he couldn’t help getting discouraged. How many steps were there? It felt like they’d been climbing forever. He kept looking over his shoulder, imagining that he heard something crawling after them.
Finally, they reached a small landing. It was wide enough for the three boys to squeeze onto next to each other. They tried to catch their breath.
“Where are we?” asked Sam.
“I don’t know,” answered Derek.
“Do you think alligators can climb stairs?” asked Nathan.
“No,” said Derek. “I think we’re safe.”
Sam wasn’t so sure. He might have agreed with Derek before this, but not after seeing a lake of alligators below the hotel. Who knows what else could happen?
They started climbing again, and after a minute, they reached the end of the stairs. There was no door, just a narrow opening in the stone wall.
“Come on,” called Derek, crawling in.
Sam shook his head as Nathan began to follow Derek into the hole. “I’m not going in there.”
“It’s okay,” called Derek. “I’m through.”
Sam swallowed hard and crawled on his knees. He certainly couldn’t stay at the top of the metal stairway alone. He inched along, trying not to think of what might be in the tunnel with him. After a few feet, he bumped into Nathan’s shoe as he stopped to exit.
“Told you,” said Derek.
Sam ignored him and stood up, looking around. He saw more stairs, but these were different, looking more like the side stairs that led to the guestroom hallways in the hotel.
“Do you think we’re above ground now?” asked Nathan. “In The Jefferson?”
Derek pointed to some light above them in the stairway. “We have to be. That’s moonlight. Or city light. One or the other.”
Sam stepped toward a door next to them.
“It’s locked,” said Derek. “I already tried.”
Nathan groaned, pushing past them to the next staircase. “Let’s see if there’s a way out up here.”
When they reached the next landing, its door was locked too. So was the next one. And the one after that. It was hopeless.
“What do we do now?” said Sam. They were at the top. There were no more stairs, just a metal ladder on the wall that led up to the ceiling.
Derek shrugged and stepped over to a big window that was on the side of the top landing. He pressed his nose against the glass, looking up at the night sky. “I think we’re in a bell tower.” He turned back toward them. “Remember when we drove in, there were two clock towers?”
Sam nodded. They’d looked kind of like church steeple towers but without the steeples.
Nathan placed a foot on the crusty ladder rung and started up. “Then this must lead to the bells. There’s no way an alligator can follow us up a ladder.”
Sam shook his head. “We don’t need to go up. We need to get out.” He stared up into the shadows of the ceiling, following the crusty metal bars with his eyes until they vanished somewhere in the roof. “Where does it even go?”
Nathan ignored him and kept climbing. Derek put a foot on the ladder and started up behind him.
“Where are you going?” Sam hissed.
“We might as well follow him,” Derek answered.
Sam shook his head. “Just great.” He looked up. Nathan was almost to the top.
Something hard hit Sam on the head. “Ouch!” he yelled. Whatever had hit him clanged down on the cement floor. It made a distinct metallic sound.
“What was that?” called Derek from halfway up the ladder.
“I don’t know,” said Sam, rubbing his forehead. “Something bonked me on the head.” He crouched down and felt around on the floor with his hands, trying to find what had hit him. He touched something hard and round.
Maybe it was a coin. He remembered the Indian Head penny that Derek had once found in a cave. This could be another rare coin. The building was definitely old enough. But as he picked it up, his fingers curled around the narrow edges. It wasn’t a coin.
It was a ring.
SEVENTEEN
Sam held the ring up toward Nathan in the ceiling. It looked like he and Derek had found some kind of trap door that led to the bell tower. Before Sam could call out, a loud bang echoed from below. Something was coming.
Sam’s heart raced. What was it? Had one of the alligators broken through the door? Maybe it was Mo.
He couldn’t think straight, but he knew he had to act fast. He stuck his foot on the rusty ladder and began scaling the wall. He didn’t dare look down. He knew that if he slipped he’d plummet to the concrete landing and, likely, his death. He just kept climbing, trying to block out the sound below him.
“Come on,” whispered Derek from the space above.
Sam swallowed hard and reached up. The metal bars on the ladder hurt his bare feet. He started to feel dizzy. Was the bell tower spinning? He began swaying backward, like a magnet was pulling at him from the ground below. He was going to fall!
Suddenly, Derek’s hands grabbed his arm, pulling him back to safety.
“Oh my gosh!” cried Sam, breathing hard on the floor of the bell tower. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
Nathan was sitting by the wall, shaking his head. “Classic,” he muttered.
Sam remembered why he’d come up. “Quick, shut the door! Quietly…something’s coming!” Derek lowered the wooden door back over the opening.
Sam leaned forward, peering around the new room. It was cold and dark. A mixture of moonlight and light from the city created a hazy glow all around them. A chilly breeze blew in from the windows all around the tower. There was no glass, just wide-open spaces to let out the sound from the bells. He shivered, his pajamas too thin to protect him from the cold.
Sam felt the ring in his pocket. He pulled it out, holding it in front of Nathan’s face. “Know anything about this?”
“What is it?” asked Derek, looking closer. “A ring?” He tilted his head. “Where did you get a ring up here?”
“It fell on my head.”
“It fell on your—oh!” Derek’s face brightened. They both stared at Nathan.
“It feels like a wedding ring,” said Sam. “Know anyone missing one of those, Nathan?”
Nathan sat silently in the shadows.
“Well?” asked Derek.
A faint sound came from Nathan’s side of the room. At first, Sam thought it was a mouse squeaking. When he realized what it was, he tried to soften his voice. “Are you crying?”
Nathan gave a big sniff. “No.”
“Yes you are,” said Derek. “You stole the rings, didn’t you?”
“Why?” asked Sam.
Nathan let out a long breath. “I don’t want this bloody wedding, that’s why.”
“Why not?” asked Sam.
“Because things were fine the way they were! My dad and me. Ever since Mum died, it’s just been us. Together. It was fine.” He sniffed again. “Then he had to go and fancy Anita and decide to move to America.”
“What’s wrong with America?” asked Derek.
“Yeah,” said Sam. “And Anita seems nice, isn’t she?”
“Oh, sure, she’s lovely,” said Nathan. “But I don’t want to move again. I don’t know anyone here. I liked it how we were.”
“That does sound hard,” said Sam. “You know, when Derek and I moved to Virginia from up North a few years ago, we didn’t know anyone either.”
“At least you had each other,” said Nathan.
“Yeah, but it’s Sam…” said Derek.
Sam ignored him. “True, we did have each other, but it was still hard to be in a new place.”
“Then we started having adventures,” said Derek.
“And we met new fr
iends, too,” said Sam. “It worked out okay.” He reached over and handed Nathan the ring. “Here. I think you should give it back. Your dad really does seem to love her. Taking the rings isn’t going to stop the wedding.”
Nathan took the ring from Sam’s hand. “I guess you’re right.”
“But setting a wild alligator loose to roam free in the hotel,” said Derek, “that was a much better move. Pretty stupid, but effective.”
“What do you mean?” asked Nathan.
“Oh, please,” said Derek. “You don’t have to pretend. You let it out, didn’t you? To stop the wedding.”
Nathan scooted closer to them. “No, honest, I didn’t do that. I don’t know how it got loose.”
Derek shook his head like he wasn’t convinced. “I think that if you stole the rings, you probably set the alligator loose too. And then you blamed all of it on poor Sam.” He patted Sam on the back.
Sam nodded in wary agreement. He always got suspicious when Derek spoke up for him.
“Now, ordinarily,” Derek continued, “I’d be all for sticking something bad on Sam, but this has gone a bit too far. Even for me.”
“I told you. I didn’t do it!” exclaimed Nathan, standing up. “Why don’t you just shove off.” He pushed away from them, as if to head back down the ladder. His foot caught on a board sticking up in the floor, throwing himself off balance. He went sprawling onto the floor, the ring flying from his hand and across the room. It bounced once on the brick window ledge, and then was sucked up into the night.
EIGHTEEN
“No!” Nathan shrieked. He lunged for the window and the ring, but he was too late. He stared blankly into the darkness, shaking his head.
Derek came over and carefully leaned out the window. “Wait, there it is, sitting on the ledge!”
Sam peered over Derek’s shoulder. Sure enough, the ring had landed on a ledge, several feet away from the window. It glimmered in the city lights on the cold, dark ledge of the bell tower.
“What are you doing?” asked Derek.
Secret of the Staircase (The Virginia Mysteries Book 4) Page 7