39

 

My blouse caught on the jagged red glitter of the genie’s mouth as I ran through the funhouse entrance. Barely noticing the cold and wet from the storm outside, I pulled a flashlight from my bag and squinted in the wan light. Muffled behind black storm clouds, the sun provided no heat or light past the first few steps. I stumbled, my flashlight beam wobbling crazily in the dark as I struggled to remember the path I took before.

Where had I seen the maintenance office door?

As I slipped under the yellow warning tape Siyah put over the entrance to the hall of mirrors, I slid on shards of glass that still littered the floor. I had no time to feel the latent fear from the night I was nearly crushed to death under the falling walls. This time, I was running not for my own life, but for Sonja’s. Teeth gritted, I ignored the sharp pain as my hip struck a shadowed form in the tilting room. Something hit my shins, sending me sprawling onto the floor, and I tasted blood as my jaws snapped together. Scrambling to my feet, I swerved around a final corner, emerging next to the maintenance door.

Siyah said he’d sealed it off and my heart sank until I realized the lock holding the chain was a combination. I tried my birthday and it slipped open. Panting, I slipped my hand over the handle, listening with my ear to the cold door. Nothing. I pushed through, shone my light across the small room looking for something, anything, out of place.

Please let this be what Niklos meant.

I ran to the desk. Holding the handle of the flashlight between my teeth, I pulled out a drawer, sifting through old fast food wrappers, broken pens, and paper clips before moving onto the next one. Nothing. Hands shaking with fear and frustration, I scanned the room, the beam of light passing over a broken desk fan and an overturned trash can. No shelves, no closets or cabinets remained.

“Where would you hide it?” I asked the empty room, and then my gaze fell to the hole in the floor. Fear soared through me. “Not in the dark…”

Closing my eyes, I let out a shaking breath. The last time I was in the bowels of this place I’d been frantic. Dropping to my knees and shining the flashlight down, dank, dripping echoes floated out to me. Worry sent a shiver through me. What if there was someone down here? What if whoever hurt Luka was looking for the GPS, too?

“You are brave enough,” I said and dropped my feet into the chasm, my breath ragged. “But just barely.”

Please, Lord. Be with me in this dark place. Steady my resolve to do what I must.

The sickly sweet smell of rotting plants met me as I dropped down in the passageway, landing in the center of a puddle. I ran the light over the craggy walls looking for anything out of place. More trash, some discarded rags and a length of chain made a pile next to the wall. I kicked at it with my slippered feet. Nothing looked like a box.

“Where would I hide something down here?” Feeling along the tunnel’s surface, I shook my head, heart pounding in my ears. “Please…”

My fingertips struck something smooth in a dark crevice. Light snapping to the object, I saw a gray plastic box wedged between a support beam and the rock of the wall. Clawing at it with my fingers, I pried it loose and looked inside. Nestled in black foam rested a GPS signal tracker.

Panting with relief and urgency, I clutched it to my chest, and shone the light down the tunnel leading to the beach.

“I’m coming, Sonja.”