“Well, I’m not interested anyway,” Liam said, moving on again. “Probably a love letter from your boyfriend, right?”
He mentally patted himself on the back for bringing up the topic so nonchalantly. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said, and he quietly whooped. “Are you available?”
He stopped dead and swung around. “What?”
She slowed to a halt in front of him and, mere inches from his face, gazed at him with wide eyes. “I asked if you were available. To be my boyfriend.”
“Me? I mean . . . What? Are you—when you say—”
She laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “Relax. I’m kidding. Sorry. I just thought it was funny how you so innocently asked me about my boyfriend for the millionth time.”
“I did not!” He shrugged and scratched at his nose. “Well, I asked, but only once, maybe twice. I was just interested, that’s all.”
“I know, I know.” She gave him a gentle shove, indicating that he lead the way. “I’m just messing with you. Is the cemetery ahead?”
“Yes!” he said with a little too much relief in his voice. “Yeah, that’s it.”
It was a sorry-looking place, overgrown and forlorn, the headstones lopsided. Black iron railings surrounded it, the points on top clearly suggesting that passersby walk around rather than leap over. A decrepit church stood nearby, the ugly grey siding dark with green mildew. The muffled sound of a passing car reminded Liam that the church stood just off the main road.
“The way in’s over here,” Liam said, leading Madison around to the right. Though padlocked, the gate leaned inward because its top hinge had popped off, providing an inverted triangular gap to climb through.
Without a pause, Madison hoisted herself up and through the gap. She was on the other side in seconds.
“Coming?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
Liam nodded and clambered through the gap, feeling the gate sag a little farther as it strained against its remaining hinge. “So what are we looking for?”
Madison stared at him for a long time, and Liam began to shuffle his feet. Finally she dug into the pocket of her miniskirt and pulled out the folded scrap of paper. “It’s a bit like a treasure hunt only so much more,” she whispered. “Are you in?”
Chapter 3
Liam stood perfectly still as Madison nudged up alongside him and unfolded the paper. She was a few inches taller even with her flat shoes.
“See?” she said, pointing to the large handwriting. “It says here we need to look for a headstone belonging to Judith E. Chambers.”
“Who’s she?”
“I have no idea, and it doesn’t matter. We just need to find that headstone. If it’s here. This might not be the right cemetery. But it probably is.”
Liam frowned at her. “Why?”
“Because it’s close. It’s always close.”
“What’s always close? What are you talking about?”
She smiled and shoved the paper into his hands. “I’m going to look around. You can too, if you like.”
She left him standing there and headed off, glancing at every headstone she passed, sometimes pausing to brush away dirt or long grass. Liam watched her for a while, both mystified and thrilled. Was she crazy? If so, she seemed harmless enough—at the moment, anyway. As long as she didn’t start digging up dead bodies, Liam was happy to help her with her treasure hunt.
First he studied the scrap of paper. It was an ordinary notepad-sized sheet with spiral binding across the top, faintly lined. The large handwriting, written in pencil, read:
2:11 AM. Cemetery. Judith E. Chambers.
Liam stared and stared. Okay, so the message was pretty clear and explained why Madison was poking around each and every headstone. What puzzled him wasn’t so much the meaning of the message but the source of it. “Where did this come from?” he called to her. “Who wrote it?”
She had disappeared, and her voice came back muffled. “Me.” She straightened up from behind a clump of bushes over a grave. “That’s what I do. I write myself weird notes while I’m asleep. I wrote this one last night and discovered it this morning. At first I kicked up a fuss about moving house today. I just wanted to go hunting around all the local cemeteries. But then I figured that maybe the cemetery is here somewhere, near my new home.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
She sighed and moved on to the next grave. “My subconscious knew I was moving. It would have taken that into account. It knew I’d be here in Brockridge today, so this message must be about a cemetery in Brockridge.”
Liam watched her drop to her knees to brush some dirt from a headstone. He stared again at the message. “But it says 2:11 AM. What’s that about?”
“That’s when it’s going to happen,” she said.
“When what’s going to happen?”
She pursed her lips. “The event.”
Sighing, Liam began trudging toward her, taking a different route to hers and glancing at the headstones as he went. “I guess you’ll tell me what the ‘event’ is in your own good time. But the note says 2:11 AM. It doesn’t say what day. It might have happened already.”
Madison shook her head as she climbed to her feet and edged sideways, peering all around. “I never specify days, only times. If I said 2:11 AM, that means the next time it’s 2:11 AM.”
“Yeah, but you said you wrote this in your sleep last night. What if you wrote it at 2:00 AM and this thing happened eleven minutes later? You might have missed it already.”
Again, Madison shook her head. “Good thinking, but my subconscious takes that into account too. It wouldn’t let me miss it. It meant 2:11 AM the next night, which is tonight.”
Liam stopped dead when he spotted the name Judith on a headstone he was passing at that moment. He stepped closer and pushed aside the weeds. Sucking in a breath, he let out a strangled cry. “She’s here. Judith E. Chambers, 1896-1975. She’s right here!”
Madison came running. She pushed him out of the way and dropped to her knees in front of the headstone. Grinning broadly, she pointed at it and looked up at Liam. “See? I told you.”
As she climbed to her feet and brushed her knees down, Liam looked again at the sheet of paper. “So now what?”
“Now nothing. I’ll come back at 2:11 and watch the event.” She tilted her head. “You can come too, if you like. Think you can slip out of the house?”
“At 2:11?”
“Well, before that. We need to be here at 2:11, so we’ll leave around 1:45, maybe? That’ll give us plenty of time. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
She led the way over the lopsided gate and back along the path. Liam followed, still clutching the sheet of lined paper. “Why are you letting me in on this?” he asked, unable to keep the suspicion from his voice.
She looked over her shoulder at him as she walked. “What do you mean?”
“If this is some kind of treasure hunt, why are you telling me about it? You don’t even know me.”
It was a moment before she answered. “I have my reasons.”
Liam sighed. “Yeah, whatever. Can Ant come, then? Just in case you’re a psycho maniac who kills people in cemeteries at night?”
“Is Ant a dog?”
“What? No, he’s my best friend.”
“And you’re prepared to put him in danger? If I’m a psycho maniac, aren’t you afraid I’ll kill him too?”
This caused Liam to falter, and he had to hurry to catch her up again. “You can’t kill us both at the same time, so maybe you won’t risk it at all,” he reasoned. “Are you a psycho maniac?”
She laughed. “No. And if it’ll make you feel better, I promise not to bring any weapons tonight.”
“How do you know I’m not a psycho maniac?” Liam countered.
“I just know,” she murmured.
The way she said it made Liam think she knew something she wasn’t telling him, but she changed the subject before he could question her further.
“What kind of name is Ant? Does he look like a bug?”
“Anthony Carmichael,” Liam said. “Ant for short. He lives over in the rich part of town.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s rich.”
Madison glanced back at him and made a face. “Is he snobby?”
“Not at all. He’s really cool. He hates being rich. He gets a ride to school in a limousine, but he makes Barton, the driver, stop around the corner out of sight. Ant’s just like any other guy. He just happens to have rich parents.”
An overhanging branch caught the top of Madison’s head, and she faltered a moment while she freed herself. She pulled at her long black hair and brushed leaves loose, then hurried on along the path. “I guess,” she said at last. “I’m not waiting around for you guys, though. I’ll be here at 2:11 AM no matter what.”
“For the event,” Liam muttered.
“Exactly.”
“And the event is what, again?”
She stopped and swung around. Her eyes were big and wide as she clamped her hands on his shoulders and gazed at him. She was so close he could smell her minty breath.
“I can’t explain,” she whispered. “And if I tried, you’d think I was crazy. You just have to see it.”
****
“So is she crazy?” Ant asked.
Liam pressed the phone closer to his ear and started pacing up and down the deck. “She’s something. But she’s interesting and seems harmless, so I’m going tonight.”
There was a long pause. “Wait a minute,” Ant said. “She’s interesting? That’s what you said about Tamika Dunn. You said she was interesting when you really meant you were in love.”
“Madison’s my neighbor,” Liam said, scowling into the phone.
Ant laughed. “So what? That’s no reason to deny you have a huge crush on her.”
“Just quit. I don’t want things being . . . awkward. All right? Just lay off when she’s around.”
“Oh, man, you’re funny. Are all poor people like you? Afraid to express your feelings?”
“Are you coming tonight or not?”
Ant sighed. “It all sounds hokey to me. But I don’t want you being the victim of a crazy knife-wielding chick, so yeah, I’ll come.”
“Be here at 1:30 then.”
When Liam hung up, he wandered to the end of the deck and peered across the lawn at the neighboring house. Madison was probably in one of the upstairs bedrooms, unpacking and putting her stuff in order. A small child’s yell reminded him that five-year-old Cody lived there too. That kid had a lot of toys. When they’d unloaded the truck earlier that afternoon, Liam had personally carried several boxes with his name on them.
He checked the time on his phone. It was still early evening, but he knew time would pass quickly once they’d eaten dinner and watched a couple of TV shows. He would set his alarm for 1:00 AM, crawl out of bed, get dressed, and sneak outside.
Walking back from the cemetery, he and Madison had chatted about this and that—what movies they liked, favorite books, and so on. Their tastes weren’t a million miles apart. She loved anything to do with vampires and Gothic-style urban fantasy, and he was heavily into science fiction. He found her surprisingly easy to get along with. She listened to him and seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say. Either she was trying hard to get along with her neighbor or she was just a really nice person.
In a funny way, he found himself a little regretful about asking Ant to join them. It would be like sharing her . . .
He scoffed at himself. Sharing her? He needed to get a grip. She was fifteen, three years older and way cooler. The last thing he wanted was any awkwardness between them. He could see it now—the beautiful young woman politely rejecting the silly kid with a crush. Any ridiculous notions that she might be interested in him were best eradicated right now.
Having resolved his temporary confusion, he set his mind on the night ahead. What was this ‘event’ she kept harping about? He couldn’t imagine. It was probably something wholly underwhelming, something she thought was neat but anybody else might be indifferent about. Maybe a shooting star or something—though what a particular grave in a particular cemetery had to do with it was anybody’s guess. Whatever the ‘event’ was, Liam would fake interest if he had to.
As long as he wasn’t on the receiving end of a joke.
Chapter 4
The alarm on Liam’s mobile phone woke him at 1:00 AM. He rolled over and switched it off, then lay there in the darkness wondering if he could be bothered to crawl out of bed as he’d planned. The whole idea seemed so ridiculous now.
It was the idea of Ant showing up that forced him to stir. It was one thing not meeting Madison, who had said she was going to the cemetery no matter what, and that he could tag along if he wanted. Ant, on the other hand, was coming especially to meet him. By now, he would have gotten dressed and left the house, and would be here in half an hour.
Liam tiptoed around in the darkness, putting on his clothes and trying to avoid the squeaky floorboards. Just in case anything should happen while he was out on this crazy nighttime excursion, he wrote a quick note for his parents and left it in plain view on his bed:
Went to cemetery in woods. Didn’t want Madison going alone. Ant came too.
The note was suitably vague while being informative. He’d get rid of it when he returned home in an hour or so, but if something untoward happened to any of them, at least his mom and dad would have a clue where to search first.
After checking that his flashlight had a good battery, he left his room and sidled along the hall. He waited until he was out on the deck before putting his shoes on. By this time, his phone said it was 1:19 AM.
The night was mild, perfect for a walk. The half-moon shed a little light on the grass as he hurried out to the lane, avoiding the gravel driveway. There he waited, hunched under a tree, feeling like he was a spy on a secret mission.
Ant was punctual as usual. The black limousine’s headlights illuminated the lane long before Liam heard the soft rumble of its engine. It eased along, the driver clearly trying to be quiet.
When it pulled up, the rear door opened and Ant jumped out. After carefully closing the door, he tapped on the passenger’s window, which slid down a few inches. “You can park a little farther down,” he whispered, leaning in. “I’ll be back in a while.”
If the driver, Barton, said anything in reply, Liam didn’t hear it. The window rolled back up, and the limousine eased away, continuing down the lane toward the lake. The only place for Barton to turn around beyond Liam’s and Madison’s driveways was the very end of the lane by the water’s edge where it widened into a circle.
“He won’t tell your dad?” Liam said as Ant approached.
“Nah. Barton’s my man. He doesn’t approve of this little outing, but he won’t say anything unless Dad asks him directly.”
Ant was red-haired, freckled, and a little plump. Though eight months older than Liam, he was usually the more carefree—and some might say immature—of the two. Tonight, though, he had thought ahead. He was wearing a lot of dark clothing and really looked like someone on a secret mission. Liam kicked himself for grabbing the first things that had come to hand—a bright white Doctor Who T-shirt and jeans, probably visible for miles around in the darkness. Some spy he was!
“When’d you get all that?” he asked his friend with an up-and-down gesture of his hand. “Looks like you went out specially and bought a 007 Secret Agent outfit.”
“Well, I thought about it,” Ant said seriously. “I dug out these old things after you called, but I really wanted a pair of night-vision goggles. Should I have sprung for some?” He looked pained and shook his head. “I wish I had. The cheap ones are only about eight hundred bucks. It would have been cool.”
“You’re such a cheapskate,” Liam said. “Now we’ll have to make do with my three-dollar flashlight.” He pulled it out of his pocket and switched it on briefly. For such a ch
eap thing, its LED light was super-bright, and Ant squinted.
“So where’s Madison?” Ant said. “Oh—is this her?”
Liam swung around. Emerging into the lane from the neighboring driveway was a silent shadowy figure. It was only when she stepped up close and Liam switched his flashlight on again that her identity was confirmed. Madison wore the same black clothes again, though she’d switched out her T-shirt for something with longer sleeves. Now only her hands and face stood out in the half-moon’s light.
“You must be Ant,” she said softly.
“And you must be Madison,” Ant murmured.
A brief silence fell as the two looked each other up and down. The Madison said, “Well, we’re all early, but it’s better than being late. Lead on, boys.”
“After you,” Ant said with a flourish.
“Up the lane,” Liam offered, “then turn right onto the narrow path through the woods and keep walking until—”
“I remember,” she said shortly. “All right, stay close.”
The boys followed her in the darkness. Ant gave Liam a sharp nudge and nodded vigorously, smiling while mouthing something Liam couldn’t understand. He frowned at his friend and put a finger to his lips.
As if sensing the silent conversation, Madison spoke over her shoulder without looking back. “I hope you’re not whispering about me back there. And if you are, I hope you’re saying nice things.”
“We’re not,” Liam said.
“You’re not saying nice things about me?”
“Yes! I mean no, we’re not whispering.”
“We are too!” Ant said. “And yes, we’re saying nice things. Liam is, anyway. He’s been going on about you all day.”
Liam gritted his teeth. “Ant, shut up. Don’t listen to him, Madison. I’ve hardly even mentioned you.”
She was silent while she walked ahead, not looking back. “You hardly even mentioned me? I’m hurt.”
Ant chortled.
They turned off the road onto the narrow path that led through the woods. Safely away from the houses, Liam switched on his flashlight. The others pulled out flashlights of their own, and suddenly there were three beams dancing about as they walked single file between the trees and bushes.
Into the Wormhole Page 2