Excerpt
Trapped in the basement:
“Where’s Scott?” I asked.
“Over here, guys,” Scott yelled from behind the wall of the mounted deer heads. Cheyenne and I exchanged looks wondering how he got behind there. We followed the wall until we saw a curtain in front of the bookshelf stairwell, leading to an adjoining room.
I was in so much awe over the bookshelf, I hadn’t noticed the curtain. The room only had a sink and a bookshelf that he was trying to move out of the way.
“What are you doing?” Cheyenne asked.
“Look,” he pointed to the floor. “There is a faint light coming from behind the shelf. If I can just get to it . . .” He grunted as he pushed on it. It must have stood twelve feet tall and weighed a ton.
He managed to shove this humongous thing out of the way, and sure enough, there was a handle. It didn’t look like a door at first glance, but there it was.
“Good eyes, Scott. A way out,” I said. Things were finally looking up.
“I told you, guys, we needed to check out the noise,” I said, relieved the so-called trap turned out to be exactly what we needed.
“And I told you that I would take care of this,” Scott said.
Cheyenne actually smiled. I didn’t know she could do that. I almost went into shock when she ran up to hug Scott, but even more mind-blowing, he let her.
Her smile was short-lived because things turned for the worse before we knew what was happening. First, I saw the expression on her face twist from happiness to sheer horror in a second, then I heard it, and without turning around, I knew this was going to be bad.
The next few minutes seemed like they were a blur. Cheyenne was still in Scott’s arms, facing the opposite direction of us, staring right at it. As I was turning around, Cheyenne slowly let go of Scott who, at the same time, reached for the door. I don’t even think he knew what was about to happen.
From my side view, I managed to see a glimpse of darkness before it tossed me across the room, slamming me into the sidewall. I heard Scott yell as he flew clear into the other room, slamming into the bookshelf, breaking it on impact. I don’t know how many books fell on top of him. All I knew was what I heard, and I didn’t hear him move.
I slowly got up to see where it was. Time no longer slowed when I saw Cheyenne suspended in midair inside a cloud of darkness. She kept grabbing at her throat and trying to cough. Her eyes flooded with tears as it suffocated her.