نفس خون آشام فصل 04

Vampire Breath - Chapter 4

I expected to find a room in there. A storage room or an old furnace room. Some old houses—like my aunt Harriet’s—have coal rooms where coal was stored to feed the furnace.

But that’s not what we saw.

Squinting into total darkness, I realized I was staring into a tunnel.

A dark tunnel.

I reached out and touched the wall. Stone. Cold stone. Cold and damp.

“We need flashlights,” Cara said softly.

I rubbed the cold, damp stone again. Then I turned to Cara. “You mean we’re going into the tunnel?” I asked.

Silly question. Of course we were going into the tunnel. If you find a hidden tunnel in your basement, what do you do?

You don’t stand around at the entrance and wonder about it. You explore it.

She followed me over to my dad’s workbench. I started pulling open drawers, searching for flashlights.

“Where could that tunnel lead?” Cara asked, frowning thoughtfully. “Maybe it goes to the house next door. Maybe it connects the two houses together.” “There is no house next door on that side,” I reminded her. “It’s an empty lot. It’s been empty for as long as I’ve been living here.” “Well, it has to lead somewhere,” she replied. “You can’t just have a tunnel that goes nowhere.” “Good thinking,” I replied sarcastically.

She shoved me.

I shoved her back.

Then I spotted a plastic flashlight at the bottom of a tool drawer. Cara and I both grabbed for it at the same time. We had another battle, a short one this time. I wrestled the flashlight away from her.

“What’s the big idea?” she demanded.

“I saw this one first,” I said. “Get your own.”

A few seconds later, she found another flashlight on a shelf above the workbench. She tested it by shining it in my eyes till I screamed at her.

“Okay. Ready,” she said.

We hurried back to the door, our flashlight beams criss-crossing each other over the basement floor. I stopped at the open door and shot the light into the tunnel.

Cara’s light bounced off the stone walls. They were covered with a layer of green moss. On the smooth stone floor, small puddles of water glimmered in the darting rays of our flashlights.

“Damp in there,” I murmured. I took a step into the tunnel, moving my light along the walls. The air instantly felt colder. I shivered, startled by the change in temperature.

“Brrrr,” Cara agreed. “It’s like a freezer in here.”

I raised my light and aimed it straight ahead. “I can’t see where the tunnel ends,” I said. “It could stretch on for miles and miles!” “Only one way to find out,” Cara replied. She raised her light and blinded me with it once again. “Ha-ha! Gotcha!” “Not funny!” I protested. I beamed my light into her eyes. We had a short flashlight battle. Neither of us won. Now we both had bright yellow spots in our eyes.

I turned back into the tunnel. “Helllloooooooooo!” I shouted. My voice echoed again and again. “Annnnnnybody hommmmmmmme?” I called.

Cara shoved me against the damp stone wall. “Shut up, Freddy. Why can’t you get serious?” “I am serious,” I told her. “Come on. Let’s go.” I bumped her with my shoulder. I wanted to knock her into the wall. But her feet were planted hard. She didn’t budge.

I lowered my light to the floor so we could see where we were walking. Cara kept her light aimed straight ahead.

We made our way slowly, stepping around puddles. The air grew even colder as we walked deeper into the passageway.

Our shoes made soft, scraping sounds. The sounds echoed eerily off the stone walls. After about a minute, I turned back and glanced to the basement doorway. It was a narrow rectangle of yellow light, very far away.

The tunnel curved, and the stone walls appeared to close in on us. I felt a shiver of fear, but I shook it away.

Nothing to be afraid of, I told myself. It’s just an old, empty tunnel.

“This is so weird,” Cara murmured. “Where can it lead?”

“We must be under the empty lot next door,” I guessed. “But why would someone build a tunnel under an empty lot?” Cara raised the flashlight to my face. She grabbed my shoulder to stop me. “Want to turn back?” “Of course not,” I shot back.

“I don’t, either,” she said quickly. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to.” Our lights played over the damp stone walls as we followed the curve of the tunnel. We leaped over a wide puddle of water that covered the entire tunnel floor.

Then the tunnel curved one more time. And a door came into view.

Another dark wood door.

Our flashlight beams slid up and down the door as we hurried up to it. “Hello, in there!” I called. “Helllooooo!” I pounded on the door.

No reply.

I grabbed the doorknob.

Cara held me back again. “What if your parents get home?” she asked. “They’ll be really worried. They won’t know where you are.” “Well, if they come down to the basement, they’ll see the cabinet on the floor,” I replied. “And they’ll see the open door that leads into the tunnel. They’ll figure out what happened. And they’ll probably follow us in here.” “Probably,” Cara agreed.

“We’ve got to see what’s on the other side of this door,” I said eagerly. I turned the knob and pulled the door open. This door was heavy, too. And it creaked eerily as it opened, just like the first door.

We raised our flashlights and sent our pale beams of light ahead of us.

“It’s a room!” I whispered. “A room at the end of the tunnel!”

Our lights danced over the smooth, dark walls. Bare walls.

We stepped side by side into the small, square room.

“What’s the big deal? It’s empty,” Cara said. “It’s just an empty room.” “No, it isn’t,” I replied softly.

I aimed my flashlight at a large object on the floor in the middle of the room.

We both stared straight ahead at it. Stared at it in silence.

“What is it?” Cara demanded finally.

“A coffin,” I replied.