Moments later, his vision became somewhat better. When he was in very low light, the wolf vision allowed him to see almost like it was daylight. The problem was that, other than Steve's distant flashlight, there was no light at all. He could see only shadows overhead, where he knew the brick ceiling must be curving high above. He could see the tunnel itself running off into the distance, fading into a black that was far deeper than that surrounding him. He could see long, dark shapes on the floor, stretching away from him, their edges shimmering as if they were shadows cast by a flickering candle. The only problem was that there was no candle, and it was far too dark for any shadows.
If his wolf vision wouldn’t do the trick, there were always the other senses. Aiden closed his eyes and focused on his ears. It didn’t help. All that he could hear was a faint scratching noise. It was so quiet that he wasn’t sure that he heard it. By comparison, the sound of his own heart sounded like someone beating on a bass drum.
It was his sense of smell that finally convinced him that something was there. Even before transforming, the tunnel was ripe with the smells of age and decay. As a wolf, they became even stronger, almost overwhelming. Only after focusing on individual smells, not everything all at once, did he pick out something alive. He inhaled deeply and realized that there were two, maybe three somethings. Big somethings. Big somethings low to the ground, approaching him stealthily.
* * * *
“Morning,” Josh said, poking his head into the study, where his dad sat at the computer.
“Good morning, buddy,” his dad replied. “Nice hair.”
Josh reached up and could tell, by touch, that he had some major bedhead. “Where’s Mom?”
“Jogging with Jackson. You guys hungry? You almost slept till lunchtime.”
“We can get something.”
“Okay. Just let me know if you need any help.”
Josh went across the hall to the kitchen, where Nick was already pouring himself an overflowing bowl of Mallow Mateys. Nick knew that Josh’s mom didn’t allow sugary cereal and that Mrs. F-G sometimes had weekends off, so he usually brought his own breakfast when he slept over. “Want some?” he offered.
“Sure.” Josh grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and loaded it up with marshmallowy goodness.
They sat at the island, silently shoveling it in, until Rosemary floated in from the dining room on a wave of Celtic music. “Whatcha doin’?” she asked.
“Eating breakfast,” Josh answered. “Duh.”
“Wanna have a dance party?” she directed at Nick.
“Uh, no thanks,” he said, a scared look on his face.
“Everyone is so boring,” Rosemary pouted. “Dad is working. Mom is running. And Aiden and Steve went to some tunnel place in Brooklyn to look for Larry Fancypants.”
Josh’s spoon clattered to the island. He turned on his stool to look at Rosemary. “They went where?”
“I don’t know, some old tunnel. Aiden was looking for Larry, and Steve thought he might be there.” She wrinkled her nose. “Who’d want to go to a stinky old subway tunnel, anyway?”
Josh felt a surge of panic. From what he’d seen in the game last night, and the weird vibe he’d gotten from Larry before, he had a bad feeling about Aiden confronting him. He had to help Aiden, but had no idea how.
Just then, from the hallway, came the sound of the apartment door opening and footsteps heading for the kitchen. Mrs. F-G appeared in the doorway, arms laden with canvas bags full of fresh produce.
“Josh, dear, what’s wrong?” she asked, spotting the worry on his face.
“Can you take me to Brooklyn?”
“Brooklyn?” Mrs. F-G didn’t look too happy about the question. “Anywhere in particular? And why?”
For a second, Josh contemplated making up a fake story on the spot, as Aiden seemed to do so well. After a couple of blank seconds, though, he gave up. He hurried over to her and said quietly, “Aiden went off chasing Larry because he thinks there’s some connection between Larry and Mr. Midnight and, I don’t know, something’s just wrong.”
“Larry and Mr. Midnight?” She looked more confused than upset. “Why in the world would he think that? I mean, Larry’s certainly not what I’d call—”
“Please, can we go? Now?”
“Well…” She gave him another long look. “All right. We’ll drop Nick off on the way.”
“Cool. Nick, grab your stuff. We have to go. Now.”
“What? Now?” asked Nick, spitting a few chunks of semi-chewed marshmallow onto the counter.
“Now.”
“Do you have any idea where we’re supposed to go?” asked Mrs. F-G, as she put the produce away in a rush.
Josh felt his plan start to unravel. There was probably more than one subway tunnel in Brooklyn. Mrs. F-G simply nodded and said, “That’s okay. I’ll find him if you finish putting away the groceries.” She left the room. Josh stared after her, wondering what sort of things she could predict besides the perfect meal.
Josh was alone in the kitchen when she returned. Nick was gathering up his stuff, and Rosemary had twirled away to pester their dad. Mrs. F-G came back with a laptop just as Josh put the last box of orzo pasta in the pantry.
“The phone your parents gave Aiden can be tracked,” she said as she navigated a series of screens. “Looks like he’s…at an intersection. He’s been there for a few minutes.”
“That must be where he’s meeting Larry.”
“Hmm. That’s odd.”
“What’s odd? That they’re meeting at an intersection?”
“Well, yes, that too. But what I meant was, I just lost his signal.”
Josh ran to the hallway and shouted, “Nick, hurry it up! We have to go now!”
* * * *
The ride to Brooklyn took just under a half hour, even counting the quick stop to drop Nick off at his apartment. Mrs. F-G had offered the driver a crazy large tip if he got them there in thirty minutes or less, as if they were a pizza delivery or something. The ride had been a wild one, full of sharp turns and sudden braking, swerving around cars that were going too slow, and narrowly missing several bikers. Josh felt like he’d been on a half-hour-long roller coaster ride, but at least they made good time.
Josh and Mrs. F-G stood on a street corner, both looking at her phone. She was running the same tracking program as before, only this time in a scaled down mobile app format. It showed that Aiden’s phone still could not be found, but that this intersection was its last location.
Looking around, frantic almost to the point of tears, Josh said, “So he’s here somewhere, right? He can’t have gone too far, right?”
“Josh, look,” said Mrs. F-G, pointing out into traffic.
“What? One of the cars?”
“No, Josh, look at the manhole.”
Josh’s mouth popped open. The cover had been taken off the manhole, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the street, blocked by an orange traffic cone. He started off at once.
A hand grabbed his shoulder. Josh turned, half expecting to see Aiden, but it was only Mrs. F-G. She had an odd look on her face as she said, “Don’t you think you should wait for the cars to stop before you go running out into the street?”
Josh nodded, looking left and right until there was a break in traffic. At once, he set off for the open manhole. He could hear Mrs. F-G’s steps right behind him. Josh felt just a moment’s hesitation before sliding into the open hole and starting the climb down. It wasn’t far before he felt packed dirt beneath his sneakers. “Come on down!” he called up to Mrs. F-G, who was already descending.
Josh looked around and, aside from the small area at the base of the ladder, saw nothing but a solid, impenetrable blackness. He hadn’t thought to bring a flashlight from home. Fortunately, Mrs. F-G had. “There we are, dear,” she said as she clicked it on. She stood beside Josh and turned on the spot, lighting up every inch of the low dirt tunnel they were in.
“This doesn’t look like an old subway tu
nnel,” Josh said, wondering if Steve had gotten it wrong.
“No,” Mrs. F-G answered. “But there seems to be more…”
Her flashlight had paused on a rough doorway at the end of the tunnel. It was a very rough doorway, its edges rent and torn like something beastly had busted through. Josh could swear he even saw claw marks in the concrete surrounding the doorway. He thought of Frank the wraith’s shadow-blade-hands and shivered.
“Well, we’ve come this far,” Mrs. F-G sighed. “I suppose we should see what’s through there.”
“I’ll lead,” Josh said in what he hoped was a brave voice. He took the flashlight from Mrs. F-G and started toward the door. Before he could reach it, snarling sounds came through the opening. He broke into a run, sprinting around an old metal door lying on the floor, launching himself through the doorway, and hurrying down the flight of steps on the other side. Snarling, grunting, and pounding echoed all around him.
At the bottom of the stairs, he found a discarded flashlight lying on the ground, pointing at nothing. He picked it up and shone both lights down the tunnel, one in each hand. The two beams of light played around the cavernous space as Josh tried to find the source of the snarling, which he could only assume was Aiden. All he saw were the stone walls on either side of the tunnel, topped with a curved ceiling. The place looked deserted, but the scary noises continued.
“Josh,” said an out of breath Mrs. F-G as she caught up to him and grabbed his shoulder, “go back up.”
“No, Aiden’s in here somewhere!” He pulled himself from her grasp, shoved one of the flashlights into her hand, and ran farther down the tunnel.
Ignoring Mrs. F-G’s shouts to stop, Josh sprinted down the tunnel, aiming the flashlight downward so he wouldn’t stumble over a fallen brick or into a hole. If he had been aiming more forward, he might have been able to see the snake before nearly running into it.
It was a snake in the sense that it was an elongated, legless reptile. Its immense size, however, made it something else. He couldn’t judge how long it was, since his flashlight could only take in part of it at any given time, but it looked as thick as Rosemary was tall. Its writhing, thrashing body was twisted with another, and the two giant snakes moved in one large circle. Shining the light into the center of the circle, Josh saw what he didn’t want to see: Aiden, in werewolf form, the snakes rising to block his exit.
Josh let out a long exhale. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but at least Aiden was still alive, and that fact alone made Josh believe they would all get out safe. That sense of security lasted long enough to register in his mind. It melted away the instant the two snakes stopped, and as one, lifted their heads to stare at Josh, their tongues flicking the air to smell the newcomer. Their circling stopped, although they continued to block Aiden’s escape.
Aiden let out a series of short barks. They sounded like the sounds he had made when talking to Siegfried.
“What?” Josh asked.
After taking a few seconds to return to human, Aiden asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Mrs. F-G brought me. I heard you were coming after Larry. So, you know, I wanted to help.”
Aiden shook his head. “We’re going to have to talk about boundaries. Let’s get out of here first. Shine the light up at the ceiling so I can see it. Then shine it right in their eyes.” He changed back into wolf form.
Josh did as he was told, aiming the flashlight upward and letting it linger there for a brief moment. He then shone it at the snakes’ heads. Their eyes were a milky white, appearing sightless. Their reaction suggested otherwise. As he swung the flashlight back and forth from head to head, their heads recoiled as if struck.
Concentrating on the snakes, he was barely aware of Aiden jumping off the sides of the snake and finding some sort of handhold in the ceiling, hanging there. He swung his legs back and forth, creating momentum, and let go. He sailed over the snakes in a gentle arc and, human again, made a not-so-gentle landing in a heap beside Josh.
“Run,” muttered Aiden.
Josh ran, glancing over his shoulder to see Aiden stumble to his feet and run. He heard Aiden shout, “Steve! Ann! Get though the door!”
He couldn’t hear the snakes, but Josh could hear Aiden’s footsteps gaining on him. “We’re not going to make it,” Aiden said between panting breaths. “Those things are too fast.”
Without a warning, Josh felt an arm circle his waist. He felt the hand attached to that arm, warm and furry with long claws. Aiden lifted Josh from the ground, his feet still making a pointless running motion. Aiden accelerated and, once they were close enough, heaved Josh through the opening in the concrete wall. Not a moment later, he dove through himself. As soon as Aiden’s feet had cleared the doorway, an enormous serpent’s snout collided with the frame, sending concrete chips flying. It repeated this high impact collision several times before giving up. The snake sat with his head wedged through the door as far as it would go, tongue probing the air and mouth opening and closing to reveal fangs almost as long as Josh's entire arm.
Aiden, once again human, watched the snake for a few moments before laying down on the stone floor and letting out one long breath. “Thank you for being so skinny,” he said to the door.
Josh remained in the spot where he had landed, staring at the snake in the doorway. “What is that thing?”
“Titanoboa.” Aiden sounded strangely elated. “They’re extremely rare. Most people think they’re extinct. And I'm pretty sure they’re not supposed to be here.”
“Larry put them there?”
The euphoria left Aiden’s voice, replaced by a dull depression. “I don’t know. One more thing to ask him, I guess.” With a last look at the snake, he said, “Let’s get out of here. Ann, Steve, you guys okay?”
There was no answer. Aiden sat up and shone the flashlight around. It landed on Mrs. F-G, who lay in a heap near the bottom of the ladder. Steve was nowhere to be found.
“Ann!” Aiden said on a sharp intake of breath. He rushed over and knelt beside her. “Can you hear me?” Aiden’s voice sounded more scared than Josh had ever heard it.
“Wha…?” Mrs. F-G said in a daze.
“Josh, can you shine your light over here?” Aiden still sounded worried, but a little less panicked. By the light of Josh’s beam, Aiden put his arms around Mrs. F-G and raised her into a sitting position, helping her lean against the ladder. Josh could see that her eyes looked weird, almost unfocused. A dark, thick-looking liquid had been splashed across both of her forearms. He realized it was blood and felt like he was going to be sick.
“Stay with me, Ann,” Aiden said. “I need to get you out of here.”
“I’m…” Mrs. F-G started, but seemed too weak to say anything more. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, they looked a little more normal. “I’m okay,” she said.
“Did a snake get you?” Aiden asked. “Is there another one in here?”
“No,” Mrs. F-G said quietly. “It was…him.”
“Him? Mr. Midnight?”
Mrs. F-G nodded.
“Okay, we have to get out of here, and I mean now. Josh, can you give me a hand?”
Josh didn’t want to get any closer to the blood-splattered scene before him, but at the same time, he knew he’d do just about anything to help Mrs. F-G. He knelt on the other side of her from Aiden.
“Put your arms around her,” Aiden directed. “On three, we’ll help her up. Ready? One. Two. Thr—”
“Hey, you ain’t supposed to be down here!” The shout came down from the manhole. Aiden and Josh both looked up. A police officer was crouched at the opening to the street, his flashlight focused on the trio underground. “City employees only. For crying out loud, you brought a kid down here?”
“Uh, yeah, officer, you see—” began Aiden as the officer clambered down the ladder. No doubt, Aiden would get them out of this.
His explanation, however, was cut off by a loud hiss. The officer’s f
lashlight moved to find the source, which was a gigantic snake wedged in a nearby doorway. “Babe Ruth’s underpants!” he exclaimed, losing his footing on the ladder and making a less-than-graceful dismount, nearly kicking Mrs. F-G’s head in the process. “What is that thing?”
“Babe Ruth’s underpants?” repeated Aiden with a slight chuckle. He sounded a lot less stressed now. Josh wondered if the sudden appearance of the police officer had made him go into some sort of calm act. “Sure you want to go with that one?”
The officer didn’t seem to hear Aiden. He continued staring at the snake. It continued to stare back at him.
“That, Officer Huff,” said Aiden, reading the policeman’s name badge, “is one of those alligators that people flush down the toilet, then they live down here. This one, as you can see, has grown to an above average size. I’m studying them for my Ph.D.”
“That ain’t no gator,” spluttered Huff. “I gotta call this in.” He reached for the radio on his shoulder.
“Uh, hold on a second,” said Aiden. “If you’re going to call it in, send it to the Twenty-First Precinct.”
“The Memo Squad?” asked the officer, his eyes finally torn from the snake.
“You know the Memo Squad?”
With a nonchalant shrug, Officer Huff said, “Yeah, sure. Everybody knows about them, but nobody really knows what they do.”
Aiden stood and said, “Well, you’re about to find out.”
“What do they do?” asked Josh.
“Memo,” answered Aiden. “M-E-M-O. It's short for Memory Modification.”
“Memory modification?” Officer Huff didn't sound too pleased with this.
“Just kidding,” said Aiden. “They got that nickname because they do lots of paperwork.” Aiden winked at Josh, letting him know that changing memories was exactly what they did.
The call was made. Aiden and Officer Huff spent the twenty minutes it took for someone to arrive talking about baseball, coming to the consensus that as good as the Yankees were this year, they weren’t nearly as good as the 1998 team. As Huff talked about home runs and shutouts, a new voice floated down from the manhole. “Okay, what am I here for?”
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