The Hidden Door (6 page)

Tears flood my eyes. I blink rapidly but not before one has a chance to slip down my cheek. Justin reaches out to
wipe it away, but I step back—
the pain from the past year too real, too fresh. As Justin's hand drops. He just looks so defeated, I almost sway.

“What are you talking about?” he says a
gain,
standing solidly on the sidewalk in front of me. He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes briefly. When he opens them they look shiny…almost like he might cry.

Looking up into the face that I know so well, and yet is so foreign to me at the moment, I see only confusion. No pretense. He really doesn't know what happened between us, or why
I am hurt and angry right now.

“Never mind,” I mumble, turning away.

He catches me by the shoulders, turning me gently to face him. “No. I want to know. What is going on here? Was that not…okay?”

A gaspy laugh escapes my lips. “No, it was fine. Great.”

“Then…what?”

“Don't you remember what happened the last time we went Hidden Door hunting?” The words whoosh out of me so fast they sort of run together. I know Justin understands just by the look on his face.

“Of course I do,” he says, his voice so soft I can barely hear him.

The wind picks up again and I take a step closer to Justin for warmth. His arms draw me in as he continues staring down at me with a sorrowful look in his beautiful eyes.

My throat constricts. I can hear the blood rushing through my ears, louder than a timpani drum. The moment slows down in a cheesy romantic movie way.

This is not how I expected tonight to go. This whole confessional thing was never supposed to happen. But now that I've come this far there is no turning back. I miss my best friend. I miss what we could have together. And I miss this…these adventures we have together.

Waiting for Justin to respond is torture so finally I say, "How could you kiss me and then start dating someone else a week later? A week!"

My voice shakes, is full of anger and heartbreak. Justin's face twists with pain. He closes his eyes for a moment pulling me into a tighter hug.

"I'm sorry," he whispers pressing his forehead against mine. "I...I...there's nothing I can say to change the past. I never meant to hurt you. Geez, I wish I had known how you felt. I wish I hadn't been so dense."

I pull back long enough to look up at him curiously. What is he talking about? Wisely I keep my mouth shut, waiting for him to go on. Justin doesn't just open up, so on the rare occasion that he does, I know better than to interrupt.

He worries his thumb along the ridge of my knuckles. The movement warms me even as the bitter wind sneaks down the collar of my sweater, interjecting itself through the knit holes in my sleeves.

"I didn't know you liked me that way," Justin says, his voice still just above a murmur. "I thought you were mad at me for kissing you. My pride was bruised, I guess."

I try to laugh but the sound strangles in my throat. Whatever else Justin was going to say falls to the wayside as he leans down to kiss me again. His lips are gentle as they brush against mine. Then he moves in for the real kiss, and I swoon. Never has anything been so picture perf
ect.

"I knew I'd find you again."

We break apart at the sound of the voice. A tiny shriek escapes my lips. Standing among the shadows, mere feet away from us, is The Vampire. His costume has torn a bit, making him look disheveled. His cape flutters ominously in the wind, obscuring his masked face every few seconds. He raises a hand and the shiny silver
nails gleam in the streetlight.

Justin grabs my hand and we start to run, our sneakers pounding the pavement. Backpack thum
ping painfully against my back.

My mind is a blur as Justin pulls me into a side entrance of the law building. We dodge some chairs and garbage cans as we
sprint down a deserted hallway.

I can hear the strange clicking of The Vampire's feet as he races after us. Is he wearing dress shoes? What an odd thing to notice. We make a sharp turn only to be
faced with a flight of stairs.

My breath hitches in my chest, my sid
e aching. I am so not a runner.

There's no time to rest or think. We dart up the stairs, taking the first door we can find. This simply leads us down another deserted hallway. But suddenly the clicking of The Vampire's feet has ceased. He hasn't made it to this hallway yet. We run faster. Anything to put distance between us and him.

The hallway leads to another flight of stairs, and this time we go down. We stop at the bottom, chests heavi
ng, trying to catch our breath.

I can't believe we are being chased by this psycho. What can he want with us? I try to convey these questions to Justin with my eyes. He nods like he underst
ands perfectly.

My breathing slows, but the pain in my side remains. I rub at the area ineffectively until Justin reaches out. His hand slightly above my hip, massaging the sore muscle there, is enough to calm my shaky nerves. Nothing will happen to me while I am with Justin. He won't let it.

Then we hear the click-click of those shoes. We freeze. The sound is moving slowly down the stairs. He is listening for us. He's stalking his prey.

I start to shake again, tremors ripping through my body at a terrifying rate. Justin takes my hand as we ease through the door just behind us.

A blast of frigid air rushes at us. Outside seems somehow safer right now. More people. More
space. In here we are trapped.

This is a no brainer. Still clasping hands we rush outside and clatter down a short flight of stairs. Then we sprint along the darkened sidewalk. One of the streetlights must be out. I don't have time to look for it
though because we keep running—
past the spiny branches of pine trees. Past the fountain garden.

Finally Justin tugs me into a small garden on the side of the law building. This courtyard is hardly ever used. The walls are all overgrown with ivy. We creep along them now, trying desperately to blend in. The leaves crackle with autumn dryness and they sc
ratch the back of my neck.

Suddenly something hard thumps me in the small of the back. I start in fear but then I realize that whatever thumped me is inanimate.

I reach behind me and discover a doorknob. Something clicks in my head. I frantically tear ivy off the wall. A few seconds later a door—a Hidden Door—is laid bare in front of us. Justin makes an incoherent noise and pulls the key out of his pocket. He's so excited that he fumbles slightly, losing his grasp on the keybefore gripping it more tightly.

He inserts the key into the lock, which is horribly rusted. With a mighty, heaving turn the key moves in the lock and Justin twists the doorknob open. We peer into the gaping dark cave before us, unsu
re if we should proceed or not.

An unintelligible yell somewhere behind us convinces us to step into the unknown. We shove the door shut behind us, Justin struggling with the rusted lock in the pitch black. We hear the click with relief. I pull out my mega flashlight and shine the beam around the small space, landing back at the lock. Looking at it in the light I am s
hocked we were able to work it.

"Will we ever get out of here?" I ask, trying to make a joke out of it, but failing to k
eep the quaver out of my voice.

Justin pulls me into a warm embrace. "Right now this is safer than out there."

As our breathing slows, we realize where we actually are. I hand the big flashlight to Justin a
nd take out my mini flashlight.

"Do you think this is it?"

My question hangs heavy in the air. If this is it, we might be mere steps away from solving the mystery of
our lives. But if we are wrong—
if all these leads and the key are false, how can we keep ourselves motivated to keep looking?

"There's only one way to find out." Justin says, his voice shining with hope. The excitement in his
tone radiates through the room.

I follow the beam of Justin's flashlight down the stairs, which are simple concrete with a sturdy wooden railing. The space smells dank like any other basement would. The collections of spider webs I can see along the edges of the flashlight speak to the fact that no one has been down here in a long time. I try not to think about the spiders that would g
o along with those spider webs.

I reach for Justin's hand, which he offers readily, and squeeze. He squeezes back. I am reassured and feel the flutt
er of excitement in my stomach.

When we get to the bottom of the stairs, we look around a small space that probably once served as a storage space for the law school. No one has been down here in a long time, though, because most everything is covered in sheets that look like they have a good six inches worth of dust covering them.

Justin moves carefully among the various covered objects, shining hi
s flashlight into dark corners.

"Where do we start?" he asks, motioning for me to join him. As excited as I am, this place creeps me out. Who knows what vermin might be lurking under those sheets. I am not going to le
t Justin see me falter, though.

I still have my pride.

I weave my way gingerly through the messy space until I am standing next to Justin. He pulls on the edge of a sheet sending a spray of dust into the air. We both cough. When the air clears, Justin aims his light tow
ard the area we just uncovered.

A big wooden desk dominates the space. I'm no expert on antiques but this thing looks old and heavy. The desk has three massive drawers on each side. Something compels me to step forwa
rd and pull the first one open.

A flurry of spiders scurries past my hand, causing me to shriek and pull back. Justin moves in behind me, taking over drawer opening duty. I shine my light into the drawer. Nothing there but a stack of old books.
My stomach drops with disappointment.

If we weren't on a hunt for the gargoyle's missing head, I might have been intrigued by the old books. I would pick them up and admire their old bindings. I would inhale the old book smell. I would marvel at the history present in their pages. But right now I just slam the drawer shut. The sound rever
berates around the small space.

"Easy there," Justin chuckles. "We've still got five drawers to check out."

I huff at him, waiting while he opens the other two drawers on this side. He turns up nothing but more old books and some ancient looking pencils. I do snag a notebook that's yellowed around the edges. I'm hoping that later I'll be able to flip through it to quell the disappointment of not findi
ng the gargoyle's head tonight.

As Justin moves on to the fourth drawer I am debating telling him that I think this is another dead end. He pulls the drawer open and gasps. I crowd in n
ext to him to see what he sees.

And there it is—the gargoyle's head—
staring up at us with its be
ady stone eyes and manic smile.

Up close the thing is just plain creepy. What would have possessed anyone to want to steal this thing is beyond me. I hope it can't hear my thoughts.
Maybe it'll curse me. I shiver.

Justin reaches into the drawer reverently and lifts out the head. He sets it on the desk, where it tilts slightly to the left from the uneven cut of the neck. He sets the flashlight to shine directly on it. Then we stare at it in silence. I have no idea how long we stand there stari
ng at the hideous little thing.

Finally Justin says, "We have to put it back."

I want to protest that it is too heavy, too dangerous, too...something. But I know how much this means to him. And it means something to me too. We've been searching for this for as long as I can remember. And now we've found it. Justin makes the promise every time we pass the gargoyle's body. I suppose no matter how disturbing this thing is,
it deserves to be whole again.

Lifting the head, Justin finds a small piece of cloth to wrap it in, and we creep back up the stairs. At the door we both hesitate. What if he is out there, The Vampire, waiting for us?

"We'll stand up to him," Justin says as if reading my mind. "We'll run. Or drop this on his foot."

I let out a barking laugh despite the tension of the moment. I turn the lock this time, feeling the muscles in my arm burn as I struggle
against age and time and rust.

The door finally swings open, and we step back into the dark courtyard. My senses are disoriented. The damp smell from the basement clings to me and I can still taste dust. My eyes play tricks on me as I stare intently into the shadows looking for any sign of The Vampire.

Not seeing him anywhere, I whisper, "Let's get this thing back where it belongs."

"My thoughts exactly," Justin says, his smile has never been bigger.

How is it possible that we have finally unraveled the mystery of the Hidden Door? My mind boggles. Have we really unraveled anything? Really we just got lucky. If The Vampire hadn't chased us into that courtyard, I never would have felt the doorknob. How has that door been overlooked for so long?