“You, too,” I said before following Ink down another set of stairs.
“When’s the last time you heard one of the others calling for Daphne?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve heard anyone since we entered the third door. You think that means they found her?” he asked hopefully.
“No,” I said. “I think it means we can’t hear them, and they can’t hear us, which means Daphne can’t either.”
“You’re probably right.”
After what felt like endless flights of stairs, we came to a door.
“It’s locked,” Ink said, jiggling the handle.
“Well, I hope you like it because this is where I live now,” I said. “I am not walking back up all those stairs.”
“Hello?” Ink called, hitting the door with his palm. “Dice! Daphne!”
He was trying to get the door open while I was searching for a hidden button or access panel when the lights went out.Again.
“Ink,” I said shakily. “Where are you?”
“Right here, baby,” he said. “Keep talking, so we—oh, there you are,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “I hope your mom leaves this place a shitty review.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I would leave the review when the sound of locks clicking stopped me.
“What was that?” I whispered.
The handle jiggled, and the door creaked open. Neither of us moved.
Then we heard voices. Familiar voices.
“Presley?” my dad called.
“Over here, Dad.”
After several minutes of playing Marco Polo in the dark, our initial search party was reunited.
“Where the hell is my wife?” Dice shouted, sounding like he was losing control.
“Right here,” Daphne said from somewhere in the dark.
When I turned toward her voice, a wraith-like creature dropped from above as a bright light flashed. The lights clicked on, revealing a small room with a large TV on the wall.
“What the fuck?” Ink asked and stepped closer to the TV.
On the screen was a picture of our group. Dad, Ink, Dice, Walter, and Buck looked scared to death, while the rest of us, including Pop and Ariel, were smiling.
“This was planned?” Dad asked.
“Yes,” Mom said proudly. “How’d we do?”
Ink threw his head back and laughed. “It was perfect.”
23
ARIEL
Iwas sitting in my last class of the day trying not to cry. Thankfully, Ms. Kiefer always let us have the entire class each Friday to read or work on homework.
