“Hoo wow, no. No, not even slightly.”
“Kind of looks like I died five days ago and just don’t know it, huh.”
“Honestly that would be putting it in a polite way. The more realistic one is death occurred sometime last year. Because you drowned in gray paint,” she said, and did it as lightly as she could. But it didn’t matter. His face still seemed to collapse into despair on hearing this news. She actually got to see his mouth turn down at the corners, in some cartoon parody of pain and disappointment.
Though he seemed to recover quickly. He shook himself. And clapped his hands together. Like some sixty-year-old dad who was about to tackle a problem with real, practical gusto. Then sure enough: “Great. Okay. Well, here’s what we are going to have to do right now. Or more, what you’re going to have to do for me right now. Whether you like the idea of doing it—or not.”
“I’m gonna guess I’m really not.”
“Yeah,” he conceded. “I suspect the same thing.”
“You should, considering the last time you suggested I do something, it turned out to be a ruse designed to humiliate me in front of the entire graduating class of Hollow Brook High.”
“I know, I know. And frankly, I’m panicking really severely about the fact that you can’t trust me because of that. Considering that your life kind of depends on you being able to,” he said, and though she wanted to immediately scoff, she couldn’t.
Because, god, the anguish in his voice. And the way his eyes were almost begging her to listen. It was seriously convincing—to the point where it was starting to unsettle her. Really unsettle her, in ways she wasn’t ready for. Her hands were suddenly sweating so much that she had to set the hatstand down.
Then once she had, she kind of wished she hadn’t.You might need it soon, some scary part of her whispered. Though she tried to stay calm and cynical when she spoke. “Okay, fine. Let’s hear this probable bullshit.”
And thankfully, he followed her lead. He kept it light.
“Well, it starts with you going back upstairs.”
“Right. I see.”
“Then shutting the hatch.”
“Honestly, that makes sense to me. I mean, who would leave it open?”
“And once that’s done, you drag something heavy over it.”
“Okay, that’s slightly less understandable. But I guess I could.”
“Oh, and did I mention? You do all of that while I stay right here.”
She was still almost smirking when he said that last little part. But that dropped pretty quickly once she’d processed it.
Because he meant…
He meant that…
“You want me to trap you in this basement,” she said, all in a rush. And in a voice that sounded like a spooky ghost’s impression of her. But even more terrible: he was already nodding.
“That’sexactlywhat I want you to do.”
“And you’re not even gonna explain the reason.”
“Honestly, we do not have time to get into it. I have about thirty more seconds here before a lot of things happen that I really do not want you to experience in any way. And to be honest? You’re really not gonna want to experience it either.”
“Why? Is some weird part of you about to rupture out of another part?” she asked, and was kind of half joking when she did. Or at least she thought she was half joking. However, she could hear the rising panic in her voice.
And his answering expression did absolutely nothing to quell that.
He just stared, and stared. Before finally telling her what her thundering heart and churning stomach already knew. “That is so eerily close to the truth I don’t even know how you guessed it,” he said, to which she really wanted to reply that she didn’t either. But she couldn’t, because the truth was—she kind of did. Even though it was weird and impossible and like something out of a horror movie, she could feel it.
Heck, she could seeevidenceof it.
“I guessed it because you look like you’re trying to hold your guts in with your bare hands. Honestly, Seth, if you press your fists any harder into yourself you’re gonna push your spine right out of your back.”
