Nightfall

by Douglas, Penelope

  “Have you decided what you’re doing for your Devil’s Night prank tomorrow?” I asked as he pushed through the doors.

  But he just smirked. “I have ideas.”

  “I have one, too,” I told him.

  • • •

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked as we dumped our goods all over the grass. “Technically, it’s theft. A lot of theft. And vandalism.”

  “I’m shaking in my boots, Will. Really.”

  I set out the candles in a vigil on the step leading into the crypt, keeping my eyes peeled for the caretaker who lived on the grounds. No one was supposed to be in here after dark, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t strolling around.

  And it wasn’t like it was irreparable vandalism anyway. I had nothing against the McClanahans.

  I just wanted to freak them out a little, so they’d rethink their agenda. Will and I had the same goal, albeit for different reasons.

  The grave had become a local legend. In Will’s mind, Edward McClanahan belonged to everyone.

  In my mind, if he stayed in his grave, my brother would be shit out of luck on buying it.

  Will moved around the wrought-iron fence surrounding the crypt, fitting all the scarecrows we stole from Mr. Ganz’s Halloween yard display and the basketballs we also stole from the supply closet onto each head.

  I stared at the McClanahan tomb, its dark, stained-glass windows and smooth, new stone, unmarred and clean. Brand new and ready for use.

  “He shouldn’t be moved, right?” I asked, making sure we were still on the same page.

  “Right.”

  After we’d left the dance, I sent him to the gym while I raced to the bio lab and stole all the dead animals floating in jars full of formaldehyde. I put them on a cart, wheeled them to a window, and Will drove up with his truck and helped me load.

  After making a couple of more stops, we were here. Ready to show the McClanahans what would happen if they moved Edward.

  The vigil… would follow him. Year after year, unfailing, and complete with a Children of the Corn vibe.

  If they didn’t want their final resting place to become a pilgrimage for messy, destructive, sexually active teens, they’d change their minds.

  I took one more look around the cemetery, making sure we were alone as I lit the candles.

  Only the shadows of the trees on the grass—blue in the moonlight—moved as the breeze shook the leaves free off their branches.

  I half expected Will to try to take out his phone to film this, but thankfully, he didn’t. I didn’t want to wind up on one his videos.

  Adding the dead animal offerings, I checked to see that Will had finished the scarecrows, complete with basketball heads and scary faces drawn in Sharpie with forbidding eyebrows and teeth.

  I laughed and rolled my eyes, hearing him snort at his own cleverness as he moved around the fence.

  I stuck in the tiki torches from Will’s garage around the crypt, lighting them, and then fished some light green chalk out of one of the bags that I’d grabbed from bio lab.

  Running inside the fence, I raised the chalk to the stone, about to start the vandalism part, but I looked up at the stained-glass windows once more, hesitating.

  “It is empty?” I said again. “Right?”

  I didn’t feel bad about the vandalism or petty theft, but I would if people were laid to rest in there right now.

  But he just shook his head. “They just finished it. No tenants yet.”

  I nodded, squeezing the chalk. Go to hell, then, Martin.

  Hurrying, I drew triple Xs all over the wall, reading in one of my coffee table books about a ritual where you draw the symbols on a tomb, making a wish. If the dead grant it, you have to come back and leave an offering and circle the Xs.

  It was washable, and the tomb would be good as new when they cleaned it, but if the spark caught fire with the public, they’d be continually cleaning this tomb for a century.

  Will grabbed a blue piece and helped, both of us smiling and rushing, because it would be no good if we got caught, especially me, and he knew it.

  I grabbed the bag off the grass that I used to haul the candles, and we backed away, staring at the McClanahans’ newest nightmare.

  “Hey!” someone yelled.

  I sucked in a breath.

  “Oh, shit.” Will grabbed my hand and pulled me, running down the slope. I looked behind me, seeing a man in a khaki uniform jogging after us.

  Oh, my God!

  I squealed, laughing as Will dragged me through the trees, around a tomb, and past the fountain.

  I dug in my heels, trying to keep up as the cold air whipped across my face.

  Will yanked me behind a massive headstone, and we hid, Will peering around the corner to see if we’d made it.

  He’d left the truck parked just on the other side of the tree line, otherwise anyone would’ve known his vehicle. It was a pain in the ass, dragging all that stuff in three trips, but man, that was worth it.

  I hugged his arm, still shaking with laughter.

  He turned, smiling as he gazed into my eyes. “I love seeing you laugh.”

  I dipped my forehead to his, my body filled with excitement and more freedom than I’d ever felt in my whole life.

  “More,” I begged.

  He took my hand in his, caressing my jaw. “Yeah? I have just the place.”

  • • •

  An hour later, I laughed, squeezing his hand and feeling that drop in my stomach as the pirate ship swayed back and forth.

  Shit. I squealed, butterflies swarming my stomach as the ride slowed, the tires screeching against the bottom as we went up, caught air for a split second, and then fell back down, the wind blowing through my hair.

  Why the hell didn’t I come here more often? How many people could have roller coasters in their lives every day?

  It was kind of pricey, I guess. The cost for a ticket kept getting more and more expensive as Adventure Cove struggled to stay open over the years.

  The bars came up, and Will and I climbed out, laughing down the steps.

  “It’s my favorite ride,” he said. “Nothing quite like the sensation of free falling.”

  Nope. It was better than the best roller coaster. I looked up at Will, seeing him pull cash out of his wallet and then take a stick of pink cotton candy, handing it to me as he took his change.

  “You want my jacket?” he asked as we started to walk again.

  I picked off some of the fluffy sugar. “I’m okay.”

  I stuck the candy in my mouth, honestly a little chilly, but I was loving the wind too much. I was like my grandmother that way.

  We walked, the sounds of the park raging around us—screams and coaster tracks and bells ringing from the game booths…

  The sea air wafted through my nostrils, and I looked past the Ferris wheel, deep into the dark where I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was there.

  The coast and the ocean and Cold Point—the edge that dropped off onto the rocks and into the sea.

  Will leaned over and picked off some candy, and I did the same, warming when his arm brushed mine. His other hand rested on the small of my back, and I felt his eyes on me.

  “Have you ever heard of The Carfax Room?” I asked, picking off more candy and eating it.

  “Sure,” he said. “It’s like Edward McClanahan and Blackchurch and EverNight. Another Thunder Bay urban legend.”

  I turned my head, looking up at him. “What’s Blackchurch?”

  “A house.” He shrugged. “Supposedly.”

  He paused, eating more, and we passed game booths where a few people played. The park wasn’t too crowded tonight, some middle schoolers making it louder than normal.

  He continued, “No one knows where it is, if it’s even real, but stories abound of rich, young men who can’t behave being ferried away there to be hidden.”

  He’d hesitated, like he couldn’t think of a better word.

  “Hidden?” I presse
d.

  He laughed under his breath. “Well, we can’t be arrested,” he pointed out as if I should’ve known. “It looks bad for the family, you know? So, moms and dads will send you to Blackchurch if you become too uncontrollable. You just disappear. Overnight. Legend has it that it’s remote, secluded, and wild.”

  I realized I’d nearly stopped walking as I stared at him. “And you get sent there forever?”

  “Until we learn to behave,” he said. “But for some, it has the opposite effect. They go feral. So yes, they would stay there forever.”

  I gaped at him. Who does that? Who sends their kid away because they’re afraid of publicity?

  Were they getting help while they were away, or were they just marooned and abandoned?

  He looked at me and started laughing. “It’s not real, Em. Just bullshit people like to spew because we’re bored.” He took some more candy, sticking it into his mouth. “And if it did exist, my parents would never send me there. Everyone loves me.”

  I shot him a look. He was too self-aware. But came off adorable.

  “But The Carfax Room,” he continued. “I can see that being true.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a fabled, hidden room somewhere in town,” he told me, “which is entirely plausible since this town has lots of hiding places. It’s like a panic room, from what I understand. It’s passed from one person to the next, each occupant searching for the next who has need of such a place. There are no limits on how long you can have it. Just pay it forward when you’re done. Or something like that.”

  Now the note made a little more sense.

  A panic room. Someone who needs it.

  Use it. Pass it on.

  But…

  Someone gave it to me. Out of everyone in town, someone gave it to me.

  I opened my mouth, tempted to tell Will I had found it.

  But I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to know I had it.

  “So it’s like the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter.”

  “No idea what you’re talking about,” he replied, “but… if it does exist, each occupant must be carefully chosen, and the place must command a lot of respect.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because we would’ve found it by now.” He looked down at me. “If it is real, the location would’ve been divulged at some point over all the years, don’t you think? Whoever it’s being passed on to must need it for more than just keg parties or…”

  I caught his eyes. Or hookups, he didn’t finish saying.

  That’s true. Whoever had it before me kept it quiet, and they trusted me—for some reason—to do the same.

  I took another bite of cotton candy but noticed Will still looking down at me. He stared at my arm, pensive.

  “Doesn’t seem like makeup,” he mused, reaching out to touch the bruise.

  I pulled away but flashed him a playful smile for good measure. “Take me on another ride?” I rushed to change the subject. “Something dark.”

  He broke into a grin and took my hand, the bruise forgotten, and pulled us back around, leading me toward the back of the park.

  I tossed the rest of the cotton candy into the trash and followed him past the boat races and the Gravitron, bells and whistles echoing in the night and middle school kids racing up and down the walkways.

  Heading up to Cold Hill, the ghost train, Will nodded at the blond guy running the ride, the man opening the gate and signaling the next person in line to wait.

  My cheeks warmed in embarrassment at cutting others in line. We could’ve waited our turn.

  But I kept my mouth shut, glancing up at Will.

  I’d never liked Cold Hill because it was dark, creepy, and you were confined indoors in a car that only allowed one vehicle per section, so by the time you pushed through the doors and entered the next theme, the car ahead of you on the track was gone. Not typically a big deal, unless you were alone. Then it was scary.

  Right now, though…I didn’t want to be anywhere else with him. Maybe his connection would even let us go around twice. Or more.

  Walking past the candelabras flickering their lights, we stepped onto the moving walkway and into an empty car, settling in as the bar came down on our laps.

  Leaving the last of the light behind, we traveled down the track and around a corner, the darkness and cold hitting me as I glanced side to side. Groans and howls filled the air as the wall to my right shook, a red light shining between the panels of wood like someone was banging against it from the other side. Then a shot of air blasted us as smoke drifted around and the sound of chains being wound cranked above us.

  The hair on my arms stood on end, and I huddled closer to Will, keeping my eyes peeled.

  We traveled through Hell, the Underworld, and Hades—masks and mirrors flashing their terror on the walls, while skeletons and beasts jumped out at us.

  I laughed, squeezing his hand and gazing up at the chandelier above us. Its faux candles cast a soft light against the black ceiling, changing the darkness from frightening to mysterious in a way that made me want to live in its beauty.

  I almost snickered at myself, but it was true. Will was right. Something changed in the air when nightfall came, but…

  The allure for me was in the glow that softened the shadows. It was more beautiful than the sun.

  A lantern, a candle, a—

  An idea occurred to me about the gazebo and the trees around it in the park—decorating them with chandeliers. A dozen chandeliers hanging in the branches above, lighting up the canopy of leaves.

  I smiled again, tipping my head back and gazing at all the lights glimmering across the crystals above me, suddenly excited to get back to work. I could do it. There had to be lots of old chandeliers collecting dust somewhere. I’d bet I could find them cheap and get it done.

  I looked over at Will to tell him my idea, but he was already staring at me. He gazed down with an entranced look in his eyes like he’d just been watching something so interesting as he stared at me.

  Something swelled in my chest, and all of a sudden, I could barely catch my breath as the chandeliers were forgotten. Red lights flashed across his face and then dimmed, his eyes barely visible and then lighting up again, still watching me.

  I…

  God, I just wanted to wrap myself around him and never let go.

  Screams and screeches went off around us, and my fingers tightened more inside his as I hovered over his mouth, letting my eyes fall closed.

  “Will,” I breathed out, the torture of the centimeters between us making my blood race.

  I took his hand and guided it under the bar as I tugged my dress up and slid his fingers up the inside of my leg. He exhaled hard, his nails immediately digging into my skin.

  I sucked in an excited breath, my clit throbbing, and I wanted him to keep going.

  Opening my eyes, I held his stare as he slid deeper between my thighs and I grew warm and wet the farther up he drifted.

  A werewolf caricature jumped out of the wall on the other side of Will, and I gasped, every inch of my skin on fire. His fingers peeled my panties away from my skin and dipped inside the fabric as I reached behind my back and unzipped the dress.

  I glided a hand around the back of his neck, leaning in and whispering again, “Will.”

  The doors in front of us opened, the room going dark again, and we entered Davy Jones’s Locker as I held his eyes and slowly peeled down the top half of my dress for him.

  Yes. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to.

  Cool air tickled my bare breasts, making the skin of my nipples tighten and harden as his gaze fell and his lungs caved.

  I loved his eyes on me. I didn’t know if he liked what he saw, but I didn’t care about anything right now. I knew this was over before it even started. I knew he’d lose interest eventually.

  I just wanted tonight.

  He dove in, grazing my lips with his, but not kissing, as I propped up my foot on the front of
the car, arching my back and opening myself for him. He rubbed me, soft and slow, between my thighs, teasing again and again as he worked his fingers inside to my clit.

  Reaching around with his other hand, he covered my breast with his palm, kneading and gently squeezing as his hot breath fell across my lips.

  He tickled my clit, and I moaned, pleasure sweeping through me and fire pooling between my legs. I needed more. I needed everything.

  He slid a finger farther down, teasing my entrance, but I grabbed his hand through my dress, stopping him.

  He tensed, his brow knit in pain. “Emmy…”

  “Not your fingers,” I whispered. “You. I want you in me.”

  He hissed, fisting the hand between my legs, and then he let out a painful groan.

  Taking both hands off me, he lifted the bars.

  But they wouldn’t give.

  He grunted, lifting them, fighting to free us now, and I leaned in, taking his face in my hands and kissing his cheek again and again.

  “Fuck,” he growled, jiggling the bar harder and faster so we could climb out.

  It was no use, though, and he attempted to try to slip out from underneath it, but he was too big.

  I laughed in his ear as I nibbled his lobe. “Get us out,” I begged. “I want you, and I’m not going to say no tonight.”

  “Shit,” he exclaimed, fighting the bar again and growling desperately. “Goddammit.”

  He grabbed me and kissed me, zipping up my dress as we devoured each other.

  “When we get off, we’re hurrying to my truck,” he breathed out. “And then to my house.”

  I caught his bottom lip between my teeth, his warmth and taste too intoxicating to even open my eyes. “Just to your truck,” I whimpered. “I can’t wait. I need you in my hands. In my arms…”

  The next set of doors opened, and light washed over us as we held each other.

  I opened my eyes, seeing we’d reached the end as the rain had started again, falling hard outside as people ran.

  I pulled away from him, and when the bar lifted, we jumped out. He clasped my hand, and I ignored the attendant’s eyes as I tried to right my dress again.

  It was all bunched up and twisted. Shit.