Chapter 2

Andrea Prophett watched in amazement as the drama unfolded before her eyes. Albert and his friends were walking away now, vanishing into the trees from which they’d come.

The older woman was still lying in the brush. She could hear her weeping, soft and long, pitiful. For a moment she actually thought that guy was going to kill her.

Rachel was never going to believe this.

She had no idea what went on inside Gilbert House, but twice she’d heard screaming. Strangely enough, it seemed to her that the screams were coming not from underground or from the hole by which they’d entered, but from somewhere above her, from somewhere over those creepy, windowless walls. But of course that had only been her imagination. Wherever they’d gone, something bad happened in there, something scary…and did Albert say something about monsters before he left? She thought that was the word he used, but she couldn’t really hear him from where she was hiding.

After the four of them had been gone for a moment, the older woman stood up and left in the same direction. Andrea waited until she was out of sight and then followed after them as well.

She kept to the trees, circling the clearing, aware that there could still be more people hidden in these woods. She wanted to move faster, to catch up with everyone, to see where they were going, but she did not dare risk being seen. Not after what happened to that woman.

By the time she reached the parking lot of H & M Tires, there was no one in sight. Even the woman had vanished. They must have all been parked down here somewhere and she was too slow to catch up to them before they drove away.

For a moment she lingered, disappointed. It was all over now. She doubted that any of them would be back anytime soon, and she knew little more than she did when that envelope first appeared at her window.

She thought about the cellar door. She could sneak inside while no one was around and see for herself where they had gone. There must be some kind of room down there or something, someplace where they had spent all that time. Perhaps the answer to this whole weird mystery was right at the bottom of those steps.

She started back up the hill, not toward Gilbert House, but toward home. She knew she did not possess the courage it would take to go down into that creepy hole, especially with night falling. Maybe tomorrow she could gather the nerve to sneak inside, but not now. These woods were already giving her the creeps.

But as she approached the clearing where Gilbert House stood, she abruptly stopped. Something was there. A large, pale shape loomed in front of the cellar door. It looked vaguely human, but horribly disproportioned. It stood facing away from her, revealing only its broad, fleshy back in the fading daylight, but she saw enough to fill her instantly with icy terror.

Without warning, all the strength left her body. She fell forward onto the forest floor, suddenly and completely paralyzed. She tried to cry out, to scream, but nothing would come. She could not make her voice work. She could not even blink.

“Don’t be afraid.” The voice came not from any particular direction, but from everywhere at once, as though it were all around her. It was the voice of a man, but different from any man’s voice she’d ever heard before. It was deep and small, gentle and yet strong. It seemed coarse and gravelly, but also somehow musical.

She tried to ask who was there, but the words would not come. She could not even move her tongue. It lay useless against her teeth.

“Who I am is not important. Relax. Wait. The creature is leaving, moving away from you.”

The creature? What did it mean by “creature”? What was that thing by the cellar door?

What’s happening to me? Unable to form words, all she could do was think these things, but the strange, alien voice could apparently read her mind.

“You will be fine, but you must remain still. If it sees you, it will kill you.”

Fresh terror rushed through her.

“Relax,” said the mysterious voice again, and somehow she did relax. There was something soothing about the voice and she found herself embracing it. “It will be gone in a moment and it will not return. In the meantime, I need you to listen very closely to what I have to say. Lives depend on you.”