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She kept moving down the corridor, remembering the layout the soldiers had shown her. The basement was smaller than the main floor, a few classrooms and the cafeteria.
At the end of the hall she began to make out another shape in the darkness. A man, watching the other direction—she was behind him.
“There’s another guy with a gun,” she said. “He’s barricaded—lots of debris surrounding him, like a bunker. He’s afraid of something. ”
Aubrey was getting tired, and the darkness strained her already-poor eyesight.
“Shotgun,” she said, getting a little closer. “Pump-action. If it was brighter I could probably tell you the model. This guy is more alert, and he’s holding the gun like he means business. ”
“Okay, I’m passing the barricade now. He has a flashlight pointing at a smashed portion of the floor. ”
She paused for a long time. This was what everyone was scared of. This was the demon, and the floor plan that the Green Berets had wasn’t correct—it didn’t include this hole in the floor.
And her eyesight was going.
“Jack,” she said. “The maps are wrong. There’s this hole in the floor. I’m not sure where it leads. They’ve covered it mostly with a piece of plywood, and the wood is weighted with bricks. There’s a hole big enough for me to go in, but I don’t really want to yet. I’m going to follow the map and see if I can see more of what’s here. ”
She walked carefully around the hole in the floor, peering into the darkness below. All the images of demons she’d ever seen appeared in her mind. Leathery wings, horns, fangs, long tails. The balrog in The Lord of the Rings. Chernobog in Fantasia.
“Jack?” she asked, even though she knew he couldn’t answer back. “It’s a little scary down here. ”
She took a deep breath. “I’m okay, though. Don’t send in the cavalry yet. I’ll find this thing. ”
As brave as she was trying to sound, part of her wanted to walk out that door—to the other side of the building, where there wasn’t Jack, or anyone else who could find her. She wanted to be done. She could find a place to live like this—she could disappear into the night and not be putting her life on the line.
She could not climb down into the basement with a demon.
“I’m moving past the hole,” she whispered, the waver in her voice unstoppable at this point. “I’m heading farther down the hall toward the stairs. ”
Something ran across the rubble, and she froze. It was a rat, or a mouse, or a squirrel. Did they even have squirrels in the city? She didn’t really know anything outside of her hometown.
“Jack? When we get out of here, our next mission should be to Hawaii or something. And no demons. ”
She reached the stairwell and found it blocked by debris—through her tired eyes it seemed a blurry mass.
“It’s collapsed, Jack,” she said, as she took a couple of tentative steps onto the fallen bricks and beams. She moved away, and glanced at the wall. “There’s been some gunfire here. The wall over the hole got hit by a shotgun blast. Two of them, it seems like. Birdshot. Nothing that went through the brick. ” She forced a terrified laugh. “I don’t know about you, but if I were hunting a demon, I’d use slugs. ”
She started back toward the hole in the floor. It looked to be the only way down.
“Then again,” she said. “I guess I’m hunting a demon and I’m not armed with anything. How did we get into this?”
She stopped at the mouth of the hole, and looked back at the man with the shotgun. He was staring right at her, though he had no idea she was there. All she could see of him was the bright flare of the flashlight, but she knew that he was eager to fire.
“I should take his gun,” she said. “But then he’d freak out, and this whole school would clear out. It would probably wake the demon. ” She took a long slow breath and rubbed her eyes. “I can barely see anymore, Jack. I’m going down the hole now. ”
THIRTY-EIGHT
“DAMMIT,” JACK YELLED INTO THE mic. “She fell. She’s in water. ”
“Is she okay?” Rowley answered.
“She says she is, but the water is gross—there’s oil in it, and mud. I think it’s from broken pipes, and runoff from the street. She’s covered. I can’t smell the perfume. ”
“I’m moving the team up to get ready to follow her in,” the captain said. “Keep me posted. ”
Aubrey wheezed. “Jack, I don’t know how much more of this I can do. I’m getting really weak. I almost lost it there—I almost reappeared. ”
Jack relayed the information to the captain.
“And Jack,” Aubrey said, her voice straining to be flippant. “I was really liking these jeans. They’re ruined. ”
There was another noise in the basement—another set of breaths that were slower and calmer than Aubrey’s. It didn’t sound like a demon. Or maybe it did.
It was down there, with Aubrey, the two of them all alone.
“This is Cooper,” Jack said into his radio. “There’s another person down there. I can hear it breathing. ”
“How big?”
“No idea. The breaths are small—smaller than Aubrey’s. I mean, smaller than Parsons’s. ”
“Any idea where it is?”
“No,” Jack said, annoyed. “And I still can’t find her. She’s down there somewhere, and I think I can hear dripping from her clothes, but the whole place seems to be dripping. ”
Aubrey spoke again, quieter this time. “There’s a bed here—just some dirty blankets. No one is in it. And—it’s warm. ” Aubrey’s voice faltered. “I don’t know how to get out of here. I’m all turned around, and I can’t see. ”
“Captain,” Jack said. “You’ve got to go in. It has to know Aubrey is there. ”
“Has it seen her?”
Jack was panicked now, ready to run into the school himself.
“I don’t know. All I can hear is that low breathing. Aubrey’s trapped. She can’t see. ”
“We’ll be there in less than one. ”
Jack wished that he could relay the information to Aubrey, but there was nothing he could do. All he could hope for was that she could stay hidden.
“I know you’re here. ” That wasn’t Aubrey’s voice. It was a girl’s. Young, quiet. But there was darkness in the voice—a kind of wicked playfulness.
“Jack,” Aubrey whispered. “I can’t see anything. ”
THIRTY-NINE
THE BASEMENT WAS PITCH-BLACK, AND the few bits of light—the flashlight beams coming through from the hole above—were blurred and unfocused.
Aubrey was dripping wet, soaked head to toe in filthy water. She could taste mud on her lips, and she knew she didn’t smell anything like Flowerbomb anymore. Her only consolation was that she was still invisible.
She couldn’t even get back out—she could barely see the hole, and it was in the ceiling twelve feet above her. She was trapped until the Green Berets showed up.
“Jack,” she said. “Send them in. I can’t do any more. ”
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