بگو سیب و بمیر فصل 28

Say Cheese and Die! - Chapter 28

Shari was the first to regain her voice. “It’s just the door!” she cried. “The wind—”

A gust of wind had made the front door slam.

“Let’s get this over with,” Greg whispered, badly shaken.

“We never should’ve broken into this house in the first place,” Shari whispered as they made their way on tiptoe, step by creaking step, down the dark hallway toward the basement stairs.

“It’s a little late for that,” Greg replied sharply.

Pulling open the door to the basement steps, he stopped again. “What’s that banging sound upstairs?”

Shari’s features tightened in fear as she heard it, too, a repeated, almost rhythmic banging.

“Shutters?” Greg suggested.

“Yeah,” she quickly agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. “A lot of the shutters are loose, remember?”

The entire house seemed to groan.

Thunder rumbled outside, closer now.

They stepped onto the landing, then waited for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.

“Couldn’t we just leave the camera up here and run?” Shari asked, more of a plea than a question.

“No. I want to put it back,” Greg insisted.

“But, Greg—” She tugged at his arm as he started down the stairs.

“No!” He pulled out of her grasp. “He was in my room, Shari! He tore everything apart, looking for it. I want him to find it where it belongs. If he doesn’t find it, he’ll come back to my house. I know he will!”

“Okay, okay. Let’s just hurry.”

It was brighter in the basement, gray light seeping down from the four ground-level windows. Outside, the wind swirled and pushed against the windowpanes. A pale flash of lightning made shadows flicker against the basement wall. The old house groaned as if unhappy about the storm.

“What was that ? Footsteps?” Shari stopped halfway across the basement and listened.

“It’s just the house,” Greg insisted. But his quavering voice revealed that he was as frightened as his companion, and he stopped to listen, too.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The shutter high above them continued its rhythmic pounding.

“Where did you find the camera, anyway?” Shari whispered, following Greg to the far wall across from the enormous furnace with its cobwebbed ducts sprouting up like pale tree limbs.

“Over here,” Greg told her. He stepped up to the worktable and reached for the vise clamped on the edge. “When I turned the vise, a door opened up. Some kind of hidden shelf. That’s where the camera—”

He cranked the handle of the vise.

Once again, the door to the secret shelf popped open.

“Good,” he whispered excitedly. He flashed Shari a smile.

He shoved the camera onto the shelf, tucking the carrying strap under it. Then he pushed the door closed. “We’re out of here.”

He felt so much better. So relieved. So much lighter.

The house groaned and creaked. Greg didn’t care.

Another flash of lightning, brighter this time, like a camera flash, sent shadows flickering on the wall.

“Come on,” he whispered. But Shari was already ahead of him, making her way carefully over the food cartons strewn everywhere, hurrying toward the steps.

They were halfway up the stairs, Greg one step behind Shari, when, above them, Spidey stepped silently into view on the landing, blocking their escape.