Chapter 5

The dark energy seeping out around the edges of the thick mag-steel-and-glass barrier stirred the hair on the back of Hannah’s neck. Perched on her shoulder, Virgil muttered softly.

The old tunnel entrance was a small, windowless Colonial-era structure that resembled a short, squat stone tower.

The faded green sign above the entrance read HIGH-PSI LOCATION. DO NOT ENTER.

“Obviously we didn’t come up from the Underworld through this exit,” Hannah said.

“No, but I think this is the first route we tried,” Elias said. “This is where we got psi-fried. I remember the energy.”

“I’ll bet it was the original entrance to the Midnight Carnival,” Hannah said. “I don’t think the explosion and fire was an accident. It was probably set to block the aboveground route that led directly to that particular gate.”

“Joe said the fire dates back to the Colonial era.” Elias shook his head in awe. “That means someone back in the day knew a hell of a lot about paranormal energy.”

“That someone was a Jones,” Hannah said.

“Okay, that explains the expertise.”

“After we were forced to turn back we found a third gate,” Hannah said. “Virgil led us to it, remember? It dumped us out in this very same street.”

“Which means the other tunnel entrance has to be around here somewhere,” Elias said.

They both looked at Virgil. He fluffed up, basking in the attention.

“Hmm,” Hannah said.

Elias glanced at her. “What?”

“You and I don’t know where the third dreamlight gate is located but Virgil does,” she said. “He led us out of the catacombs last night.”

Upon hearing his name Virgil blinked his baby blues.

“Can you actually communicate well enough with him to ask him a question like that?” Elias asked.

“I can’t expect him to understand a complicated question but he loves to play games like hide-and-seek.”

She took Virgil down off her shoulder and held him in the crook of her arm. With her free hand, she took the fortune out of her evening bag and held it up directly in front of his face.

“Where did I get this?” she asked. “Can you find the fortune-teller? Find, Virgil. Please.”

She tried to infuse a psychic plea into her words.

Virgil chortled gleefully, sensing a game. He sleeked out a little. His ears appeared out of his fur and his second set of eyes snapped open.

She put him down on the pavement. He immediately took off, dashing across the lane to a doorway vestibule.

Hannah and Elias hurried after him. Virgil stopped in front of a door and bounced up and down impatiently.

Cautiously, Elias pushed the door open. Shadows seethed in the unlit interior. The windows had been boarded up long ago.

Virgil zipped inside.

Hannah followed Elias into the space. She picked up a whisper of disturbing energy.

“It’s hot in here, too,” she said.

“But not nearly as hot as whatever is behind those steel doors across the street,” Elias said. “This place was close to the scene of the explosion and fire, though, so it absorbed some of the paranormal radiation. It’s safe enough. I’m pretty sure we came through here last night.”

He moved deeper into the darkness. Hannah followed close behind.

The darkened space looked as if it had once been a fast-food restaurant. There was a long counter topped with some old-fashioned cash registers and a number of plastic tables and chairs.

“No one bothered to salvage the tables and chairs,” Hannah said. “I guess they weren’t valuable enough to make someone push through this hot zone.”

A muffled chortle sounded from the kitchen area. Hannah moved around the end of the sales counter. Elias followed. They were both rezzed now, using their talent to suppress the surrounding currents of energy so they could continue to move deeper into the restaurant.

They went through an opening into an even darker space. Thanks to her other senses, Hannah could see the objects around her but the scene was bathed in an eerie, spectral light. The place looked as if it had been abandoned in a hurry. Pots and pans were scattered across the floor. The fryer basket was tipped on its side. Large knives and other utensils had been tossed aside in a chaotic manner.

“Looks like they didn’t get any warning,” Elias said. “They just ran for their lives.” He paused. “I think we were running, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Take a look at the floor.”

She glanced down. There was a thick layer of grime and dust on the tile flooring, but in the ghost light she could make out two sets of murky footprints that appeared to be fresh. Familiar dreamlight burned in both tracks.

“Those are our prints, all right,” she said. “And we were really burned. I can see it in the dreamlight currents. It’s a wonder we lasted long enough to get to the wedding chapel and the motel.”

“The good news is that no one followed us up from down below,” Elias said. “There aren’t any other prints.”

Virgil chortled to get their attention.

They followed him down a flight of cracked concrete steps that clearly dated back two hundred years to the Colonial era. At the foot of the steps they crossed a basement to a jagged hole in the stone wall. Familiar green energy illuminated the opening.

“Tunnel entrance,” Elias said. “This must be where we exited the catacombs. Check your amber.”

It was standard procedure before entering the disorienting maze of the ancient catacombs. The amber was for navigational purposes. There was no need for flashlights. The Aliens had vanished a few thousand years earlier but their network of underground, psi-infused tunnels still glowed endlessly with the energy of the green quartz that had been used to construct them.

No one knew what had caused the ragged holes in the almost indestructible green quartz. The stuff was certainly impervious to human machines. The theory from the scientific community was that the openings had, at least in some cases, been made by the Aliens themselves. Others suspected that the occasional rips and tears in the quartz walls had been created by major seismic and geothermal forces.

Hannah touched her earrings and rezzed her talent a little. She felt the familiar resonance and nodded.

“I’m good,” she said.

“Same here,” Elias said. “At least we didn’t burn out our amber last night.”

They followed Virgil through the hole in the wall and were immediately enveloped in the senses-disturbing currents of paranormal radiation. Turn a single corner or go through an arched entranceway into another section of the catacombs and you were immediately lost unless you had navigational amber.

“There was no need to block this entrance with psi-fire,” Hannah said. “It didn’t lead directly to the Midnight Carnival. It’s just another hole in the wall. There are thousands of them in the Underworld. Once you enter the catacombs you’re in a maze. If you don’t know the coordinates of your destination, you’ll never find it.”

“Unless you have a dust bunny,” Elias said.

Virgil was already several yards ahead. Hannah and Elias went after him.

He wove a complicated path through a series of hallways and chambers before finally turning one last corner and disappearing.

Elias and Hannah rounded the corner and stopped short at the waterfall of seething nightmares that blocked the tunnel.

“Oh, yeah,” Elias marveled softly. “I remember this part.”

Hannah knew a flicker of relief. “So do I.”

They were several feet away from the torrent of pounding energy, but even from a distance, Hannah could feel the rush of raw power that roiled her senses.

“A dreamlight gate,” she said. “I’ve run into smaller ones from time to time. My talent has a way of drawing me to them when I’m in the Underworld. But the gates that seal the entrances to the carnival are special. They’re psi-coded. Only someone with a certain para-profile can de-rez them.”

Elias gave her a knowing look. “That would be you.”

“Yep.”

The nightmare energy crashed and churned. The currents that sealed the tunnel were composed of heavy waves of paranormal radiation that emanated from the darkest end of the spectrum. It was the energy of dreams that had haunted humankind since primordial times, the energy of nerve-shattering nightmares.

Hannah smiled. “What a rush.”

Elias looked at her. “Speak for yourself.”

“Right. I know dreamlight isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.”

“It’s like looking into a mini universe of nightmares.”

“Is the gate you want me to open at the Ghost City jobsite as powerful as this one?”

“Yes.”

“Then you came to the right dreamlight talent,” she said. The buzz of energy off the gate was making her feel cocky. She looked around. “Where’s Virgil?”

At the sound of his name he appeared out of the hot dreamlight, or, rather, half of him did. His fur stood on end. He chortled encouragingly and disappeared back into the nightmares.

“Obviously, dust bunnies don’t have a problem with human dreamlight,” Elias said.

“Nope. Are you ready?”

“Sure. Not like I’ve got anything better to do. Might as well sample a few nightmares.”

She reached for his hand. “Physical contact helps. Stick with me and enjoy the ride.”

“Just like last night.”

She was oddly pleased when he did not hesitate. He grasped her hand, his fingers tightening firmly, confidently, around hers.

“Here we go,” she said.

She rezzed her talent. Together they walked closer to the cascade of nightmares. Elias’s grip on her hand tightened abruptly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the stone in his ring suddenly blaze with paranormal light and energy.

The dreamlight stirred her hair, lifting it into a cloud around her face. The dark energy called to her senses, sending wave after wave of intoxicating thrills through her. She wanted to laugh and scream with delight.

She glanced at Elias and knew from the heat in his eyes that he sensed some of her own exhilaration.

She focused intently, searching for the psi-lock frequencies. When she identified them she went to work, deftly de-rezzing the currents until they flatlined.

The gate winked out of existence.

Hannah walked through the opening and swept out a hand. “Welcome back to my inheritance, the Arcane Society’s legendary Lost Museum, otherwise known as the Midnight Carnival.”