“I’m very okay.” George took a step forward, and Tyler tensed. Not used to children reacting to him that way, George looked at Andi for help. His partner sighed; the dark circles under his eyes had deepened since he had entered the bunker. George was immediately alarmed.
“He’s like me,” Andi said.
George felt his eyes going wide, staring at the chubby boy with the first hints of a jawline, the teddy bear, and the Spider-Man backpack at his side. “He is connected to them?”
“Not tothem, no.”
“Then how is he like you?”
“He talks to ghosts.” Andi made a sweeping gesture to encompass the room, probably the entire bunker. “That’s the reason he’s here. They called him in his dreams, asked him to come and play with them.”
George rubbed his face with both palms, trying to wrap his mind around what Andi was saying. If somebody had told him only a year ago that there were people talking to ghosts—mediums, he thought they were called—he would have laughed in that person’s face. After everything he had learned since he met Andi, he didn’t doubt for a second the truth in his partner’s words.
“I thought you talked to ghosts too!” Tyler sounded alarmed when he turned his body to look at Andi.
“Sorry, Tyler. I never explained, did I. The reason I know about the bodies down here is not because their ghosts have told me.” Andi looked Tyler fully in the eye. “You can’t tell anybody what I’m entrusting to you now, understood?”
That Andi even thought about confiding in a fourteen-year-old worried George deeply. What if Tyler blabbed to his mother about it? The chief would eat them alive. He opened his mouth to object when Tyler beat him to it.
“First of all, who would believe me? I’m still considered a child, a little behind in my development, I’ve run away, and I have an ‘overactive imagination.’ Everybody knows that.” He huffed, not completely able to hide the depth of his pain. “And secondly, you’re not only the first one who believes me, butknowsI’m not crazy. I wouldn’t want to lose that. Never.” There was so much longing in his voice, George felt his heart constrict. He also knew why Andi was willing to be open with Tyler. One wounded, lonely soul recognizing and talking to another. The knowledge that Andi had been like Tyler, an outsider in a world that wasn’t ready nor willing to accept the uniqueness he embodied, almost brought George to his knees, making his protective instincts flare. He nodded at Andi, showing him he was fine with what he was about to do.
“Fine, Tyler. I’m trusting you.”
The boy nodded with absolute sincerity in his eyes. “How do you know?”
“Because the arthropods—bugs and spiders and such, you know—have told me. Are telling me. One of them has died recently, perhaps two weeks ago? They’re still feasting on the body.”
Tyler’s eyes grew wide. “That’s Marco. He’s the newest. We started playing after New Year’s Eve.”
George looked at Tyler sharply. “They’re children?”
Tyler nodded. “Like in the book. With the other mother.”
George didn’t understand the reference but had a feeling it wasn’t important at the moment. “Andi, can you tell if it’s children in there?” If yes, the case would be nasty and brutal, and George started automatically planning in the back of his head how to get Andi and himself through it as emotionally unscathed as possible. He didn’t hold out much hope.
Andi shook his head. “No, they are adults.” When he saw George’s face, he shrugged. “Too much meat, the bones are too big.”
“But Marco and the others, they’re my age.” Tyler seemed confused, a faint tremor in his voice. Andi patted his back awkwardly.
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for it, Tyler. We both agree there’s twenty-six of them in here, so we definitely pick up on the same victims. Why they show themselves to you as children, I don’t know. Perhaps because you’re a child as well? As ghosts, they’re not bound to a shape, I would imagine.”
Tyler seemed to mull this over, staring at the lamp on the table. He cocked his head. “Izzy thinks it’s like Peter Pan.”
“Izzy?” George stepped to the sofa. This time, Tyler didn’t tense. He looked up at George, full of trust. Apparently seeing that Andi trusted him was enough for the boy.
“She’s been here pretty long. Many years. She knows more. Sometimes she speaks like a grown-up because she’s older than the rest.” Again he cocked his head. “She says being a child is happy. Safe.”
George shared a look with Andi, who shrugged. “Fine. You say there’s twenty-six victims down here?”
Both Andi and Tyler nodded.
“Where?”
Tyler gestured toward the shelf behind the sofa. “They come from there.”
“Secret room. I think I know where it opens.” Andi got up, then hesitated. “Tyler, George and I, we have to go in there and take a look. I don’t think you should come with us. Can you stay here and promise me not to peek?”
Tyler clutched his teddy to his chest while chewing on his lower lip. “Izzy says I don’t want to see what’s in there. I’m staying here with the others.”
