Five: Out of the Dark (8 page)

eth reminded us that it was again time for a full moon. The supernatural world always seemed to kick it up a notch during a full moon. Thankfully, they came only once a month. Okay, twice a month, once in a while—that would be the
blue moon
so often talked about.

Johnathan and I slept only a few hours after our adventure to Edwards High; our three companions couldn’t seem to keep quiet after they all woke up. It was late morning/early afternoon when I dragged myself out of my sleeping bag and showered in our makeshift bathroom. Seth was great at tinkering with things like water pipes. He almost always managed to tap into a functioning water pipe in the ceiling, below the main floor of the buildings on top of us, in order for us to have some sort of running water. It was easy enough to heat the pipe with a spell for a semi-warm shower.

I dressed in my clean set of clothes and carried the dirty ones out to my corner. It was a strict rule that everyone be fully clothed when in front of the others. That meant we undressed in the confines of the designated bathroom and carried our clean clothes in with us so we could re-dress before going back out. The rule was necessary, thanks to Alec. He used to love to parade around in his boxers. Johnathan put a stop to that when he saw how uncomfortable it made me.

I joined the others in a corner of the room where we could all sit on the floor with our backs against a wall. Johnathan had already briefed them on what we’d found and overheard.

“Well, there’s something going on there for sure. What’s our next step?” Alec asked.

“I’ve been thinking about it all morning,” Johnathan said. “I think we need to go undercover for this one. Any ideas how we can get into high school without parents to sign for us?”

I thought Seth was going to choke on his own spit.

“You want us to go to school? Like,
students
?” he asked.

“Well … yeah. That
is
what I was thinking. Do you have a better idea of how we can find out what’s going on there? We
are
teenagers, you know. We’ll fit in.”

“I know we’re teenagers, Johnathan. It’s just that … well … it’s been a while since any of us were in school. I’m having flashbacks right now of the entire computer lab going up in smoke when I tried to turn a computer on. And lights flickering out anytime I got too near. The office could never make an announcement over the intercom when I was within ten feet of it.” Seth shivered.

He was being a little dramatic, if you asked me.

“Yeah, I’ve thought about that, too,” answered Johnathan. “We’ll just have to be very careful about the classes we pick. No computer classes, obviously, or anything else that might include technology.”

I joined in the conversation. “I see a couple of obstacles to this plan. You already mentioned the parent thing. Even if we could get around that, wouldn’t we need our records from a previous school?”

“I don’t think it would be too hard to get our hands on some records,” Johnathan said. “We don’t
all
have to do this, although it would be best if we did. We could spread out that way and maybe find out what’s going on quicker. I’m going to spend a couple hours working on this. Alec, you come with me in case I need backup. Paige, you, Seth and Halli see if you can find us a new place for tonight. We’ve been here for a week now. It’s time to move.”

Yes, I was disappointed he didn’t ask me to be his backup. We
did
need a new hideout, though, and I was usually in charge of that.

With that, our meeting abruptly ended. We got our stuff ready to move, something we were very good at because, one, we had very little stuff, and, two, we moved around so often.

We left our belongings there, no sense in carrying them around with us while we looked. Johnathan and Alec headed up to the ground level street. Seth, Halli and I followed a sidewalk in a direction I hadn’t been before, deeper into the condemned area of the Underground. Most of the buildings here were dangerous-looking, with broken columns and bricks falling down. Seth crawled inside a broken doorway half-covered with debris.

“Seth! What are you doing? You’re going to get squashed in there!” I yelled.

“It’ll be fine.”
He always says that.
“I just want to see what’s in here.”

I saw the faint glow of the
star-bright
he’d conjured up in his hand through the fallen boards and bricks.

I stood there with Halli, tapping my foot in frustration.

“He’s such a pain,” Halli said, rolling her eyes.

“Yes, he is. If he gets pinned under falling debris in there, I’m just going to leave him.”

As if on cue, something crashed inside the room Seth was exploring. I bent down and peered through the small opening he’d crawled through.

“Seth? Are you okay?”

All I could see was a cloud of dust. I started to panic. I liked Seth. I would never
really
have left him in a pile of rubble.

“Seth! I’m coming in! Halli, stay here.”

She started to protest, but I gave her
the look
—I learned that from my mom—and she folded her arms and leaned against a post with a huff of annoyance.

“This is awesome!” I heard Seth exclaim, much fainter than before. He sounded a mile away.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “What in the world are you doing? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I just found some stairs—accidentally. They were covered with some boards and I kinda fell through them. You’ve gotta come see this, Paige!”

I looked at Halli, unsure of what to do.

“Let’s just both go see what he found,” she said. And, with that, she ducked into the crumbling doorway.

“Ugh!” I followed behind Halli.

She’d already conjured a
star-bright
and held her hand out in front of her with the glowing star of blue light. “Seth? Where are you?” she asked.

“Come straight back from the entrance, but be careful. Watch for the floor to disappear,” Seth answered.

We stepped carefully over broken chairs, fallen bricks, and other such garbage. Halli angled the light at the floor. She stopped abruptly and I almost ran into the back of her. I peeked over her head and saw why she’d stopped. There, in the floor, was a stairwell. I shook my head. I’d thought we were down as far as anything went in the city of Seattle without being under water. But there they were, a bunch of stairs.

Halli hesitated only a split second before starting down the stairs. I waited until she reached the bottom before following. I didn’t want to risk too much weight on the rickety steps. I conjured up my own
star-bright
, hoping not to fall and break my neck.

But the stairs were quite sturdy, which was surprising, given the condition of the room above. I descended to the bottom and looked around, and, well … Seth was right. It was awesome.

My guess is the enormous room surrounding us was once an illegal gambling hall hidden beneath a legitimate business. Seth had likely fallen through what was left of the secret trap door. The room was in surprisingly good shape—the best of any of the buildings I’d seen in the Underground. There were plenty of usable chairs and tables that looked fine other than a huge layer of dust and rat droppings. It wasn’t very often we found even one usable chair down there. On the far side of the room, a dirty, but probably beautiful, dark wood bar spanned at least twenty feet along one wall. The glass shelves behind the bar were all shattered, but part of a mirror was intact.

Reinforced with multiple support columns and huge ceiling beams, the building’s frame gave me confidence in its structural soundness. There were small chandeliers with dangling crystals hanging from the ceiling, covered in dust and cobwebs, but otherwise fine. This was the perfect hideout for us. I’d been looking for a place like this, somewhere the five of us could stay more permanently. The entrance upstairs was so dilapidated that no one—except Seth—would even think about entering there. Plus, we would make it look like something besides an entrance anyway, with our wards.

I couldn’t help myself. I hugged Seth. Hard.

A huge grin formed on Halli’s freckled pixie face as the realization of what I was thinking dawned on her.

“We can stay here, can’t we?” she asked.

We all acted like we didn’t mind moving around so much, but everyone wants a secure place to stay, a place to call home. I was sure we’d found that.

“I think so, Hal. We’ll have to run it by Alec and Johnathan first, but I think it’s wonderful!”

“Good. Let’s go get our stuff, then,” Seth said, smiling from ear to ear.

A few hours later, after we’d hauled our meager belongings to our new hideout, I sent Seth back to wait for Johnathan and Alec, so he could show them where we were. Halli and I set to cleaning, which was something we usually didn’t bother with when we moved. What was the point if we were just leaving in a few days? The most amazing thing was that we actually had running water! I guess an illegal gambling hall, hidden from the authorities, had just been hooked into someone else’s water line and it had never been shut off. We found scraps of cloth and set to work straightening chairs and tables and cleaning all the dust off them. The worst part was cleaning up the rat droppings—and hearing the scuttling of the vile rodents in the walls.

It wasn’t too long before we heard footsteps above. And then voices.

“Seth, what in the world could possibly be in
here
that you are so excited to show us?” Alec asked.

“Just wait. You won’t believe this!”

“It really doesn’t look safe,” Johnathan said, his voice wary. “I thought you said the girls were here. Where are they?”

I heard the guys stop at the opening to the stairwell.

“Ta da! They’re down there!” An image of Seth gesturing grandly down the stairs passed through my mind.

No one moved for a moment, and then Seth said, “I guess I’ll go first … sissies.”

He clopped down the steps as only boys can do. Halli and I stood a little ways from the base. I couldn’t wait to see Johnathan’s face at the sight of this place. Johnathan stepped down into the room after Seth. He stopped, eyes widening as he took it all in. Alec pushed him out of the way so he could step off the bottom step and come all the way in.

Never one for speechlessness, Alec said, “This place is too cool! Wow! Good job, Seth.” He took off to inspect the bar.

“Well, what do you think, John?” I asked.

“It’s amazing. Do you think it’s safe?”

“It seems to be. The supports are stronger than any we’ve seen down here before. I think it was built to resist an earthquake! Oh, and the best thing, even better than having actual chairs to sit on? Wait for it … wait for it …
running water!
” I was unable to contain my excitement. The boys were great about rigging water pipes for our use. But, having a real sink with working pipes made it seem almost like a real home.

“Seriously?” He was awed by my proclamation.

I just smiled, grabbed his hand and led him over to the sink behind the bar where I turned the rusty faucet and, voilà! Running water!

He squeezed my hand and smiled down at me. “This is amazing. We might actually be able to stay here a while.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” I said. “It’s structurally safe, it’s well hidden, it’s huge. There’s even a gas stove and a small ice box here behind the bar. Hey, wouldn’t it be perfect if there was actually a flushing toilet, too?”

“Do you think … that’s possible? Did you look for one?”

“No, not yet. It’s been so long since I’ve had that luxury I didn’t even think to look until now. Could you imagine? No more
buckets
?” I said dreamily.

Halli must’ve heard our conversation because she dropped her rag and ran to look for a bathroom. Johnathan and I stayed where we were. I was really enjoying his warm hand holding mine and he must have felt the same way because he made no move to let go.

The distinct sound of a toilet flushing preceded Halli’s “Woo hoo!” from a doorway half the distance across the room from the bar.

Johnathan laughed. I laughed. Lost in relaxed laughter, and surrounded by the comfort of the first place we’d been able to call home in a long time, Johnathan’s grip on my hand tightened and he pulled me to him. My breath caught in my throat as he wrapped his arms around my waist, then lifted me up and squeezed me tightly. His unrestrained joy and his arms wrapped around me so perfectly were my idea of heaven. He so rarely laughed, and we’d had so few moments of this kind of closeness.