Stage Fright, page 8
“Are you kidding? Totally. And Jaylen might not know why, but he’s noticed, too, believe me. Things have been tense between you two the whole time I’ve been here.”
Tyler groaned. “You’re right. I hate it.”
“Now I get why you haven’t been in the tree house much, either.”
“Well, that, and it’s true, we’ve all been busy. Plus, Jaylen’s been hanging out with guys from sports camp lately and acting tough.” Tyler cracked his knuckles. “That’s not really my thing.”
Avery processed this. Tyler and Jaylen had been inseparable since preschool. She’d never ever dreamt they’d be at odds. Everything she believed about her friends had turned upside down in the last twelve hours.
Tyler straightened. “But what can I do? I can’t stop Jaylen from trying new stuff. And things change.”
“I wish they didn’t,” Avery said.
Tyler pushed away from the wall. “Forget it. I can’t deal with this right now. We have bigger problems.” He dashed up the next half flight of stairs.
He was right. Avery hastily went after him.
Tyler had already opened the door at the top. Luckily, no killer clown awaited them. Only another hall with two more closed doors.
“Great, more haunted house fun.” Avery tried to be light, but her joke fell flat.
Tyler checked his cell screen, all business. “Nothing yet. You?”
Avery pulled the two phones from her backpack. “Nope.”
“Okay.” He moved into the hall and clasped the doorknob on the right. “This probably goes to the balcony. Ready?”
“Yes.” Avery steeled herself for what might be there.
Tyler eased open the door, peeked inside, then pulled it wide. Ahead, the rows of red velvet seats extended to a wall opposite that held a similar door, probably to another hall. To the right, the rows sloped down to a low wall. On the stage below, Paige and Jaylen huddled together under the ghost light. His discarded backpack lay near the open grave. He hugged his knees to his chest and swiveled his head from side to side, as if he was searching for something.
Paige shielded her eyes with her hand and peered up at the balcony. “Is that you guys?” Her voice sounded tiny in the large space.
“Yes, just us,” Avery answered. At this level, the decorative details above the stage were clearer. The cherubs’ faces seemed haggard, the gargoyles’ menacing.
Tyler abruptly backed up and bumped into Avery. “Could he sit any closer to her?” he mumbled.
Avery wondered the same thing. But she couldn’t get distracted. “Let’s go.”
They exited the balcony. Tyler dawdled in front of the second door. “I think this is the tech booth.”
“Right,” Avery said. They both knew this might be the highest they could get in the building, their last chance to get cell reception.
Tyler cautiously opened the door. Inside, several steps led up to a long room with a window overlooking the stage. In front of the window was a control board featuring dozens of switches, dials, and sliders, even a microphone on a stand. Two office chairs faced a corner, like they’d been put in detention for misbehavior.
Avery immediately checked both phones in her possession. Neither got reception. The hope that she’d been clinging to withered away.
Tyler tapped the control board. “Maybe I can get more lights on.”
As he messed with the switches and dials, Avery zeroed in on a balled-up sandwich wrapper on the floor. She wasn’t hungry. Yet. “You didn’t bring any food, did you?”
“No. You?” Nothing Tyler did to the board had any effect on the auditorium lighting.
“No. I only have my water bottle. Which is almost empty.” Avery gulped. “Paige left hers at the tree house.”
“Maybe the water is still on in the building.” Tyler flipped a switch.
Avery highly doubted it would be. She gazed helplessly through the window at the stage, vaguely noticing that Jaylen and Paige had risen to their feet. The worries she’d been pushing down inside of her burbled up and poured out. “Tyler, we’re in serious trouble.”
“Naw.” He stayed intent on the controls. Now that he wasn’t focused on Jaylen and Paige kissing, his upbeat attitude had returned. “Someone will find us. The owners probably check this place all the time.”
“Come on.” Avery would’ve laughed if she weren’t so agitated. “Look at this place. No one has been here in months. Maybe years.”
Below, Jaylen spun in a slow circle, scanning the stage, still searching. For what, Avery wasn’t sure.
Tyler turned a dial. “Once our families figure out that we’re gone, they’ll come get us.”
“How will they even know we’re here?” Avery said.
Onstage, Jaylen was saying something to Paige. She shrugged.
“They’ll track our phones. Oh, wait. No service.” Tyler slid a lever, unbothered. “Well, we’ll just have to wait until morning. We can bang on the doors and someone will hear us.”
Avery rubbed her eyes. Who was going to come by and hear them? Tyler was so positive he was almost delusional. “Why do you always think things will work out?”
Tyler’s focus lingered on the board. “Why don’t you?”
“I don’t know.” Avery adjusted her glasses. As far back as she remembered, she’d always expected the worst thing to happen. “Anxious Avery,” her family called her. This past year, it had gotten worse.
Below, Jaylen gestured at the lump the skull made under the drop cloth. Paige cocked her head, then took a hesitant step toward it.
The ghost light blinked once. Then went out.
Immediately, the ghost’s glowing figure materialized near the rear wall of the stage, scowling in Paige’s direction. Avery gasped.
The light flashed on. The ghost vanished.
“What happened?” Tyler yelped. “I wasn’t touching anything, I swear.”
“I don’t know…” The light had only been out a second. Avery wasn’t sure what she’d witnessed. Maybe she’d been hallucinating. Yet, while Jaylen still fixated on the drop cloth, Paige gawked at the spot where the ghost had appeared. She’d seen it, too.
The ghost light flickered and dimmed, then grew brighter.
“Oh no,” Tyler said. “It’s shorting out or something.”
Paige wheeled around to face the ghost light. It flickered once more, then everything went black. The ghost reappeared, now on the other side of the drop cloth, closer to Paige. The light sputtered on.
“Paige!” whispered Avery. She pounded on the window. Neither Paige nor Jaylen paid her any attention.
The ghost light began flashing on and off every second like a slow strobe, making all movements on the stage appear jerky. In the dark, Maddie’s ghost edged nearer to Paige. In the light, it disappeared while Paige ran to the light stand, and Jaylen—oblivious to the ghost—backed away from the drop cloth.
Tyler grabbed the microphone and lifted it to his mouth. “Jaylen, stop!” The microphone was dead.
“He’s going to fall into the grave!” Avery scrambled away from the control board, out the room, and through the balcony door.
“Jaylen!” she yelled.
He glanced toward her just as he took a final step back and tumbled into the hole.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
From the balcony, Avery heard Jaylen hit the platform at the bottom of the grave with a sickening smack. The ghost light burst on as the wood snapped beneath his body and gave way. He plummeted out of sight into the blackness under the stage.
“Jaylen!” screamed Paige.
Avery spun around and collided with Tyler, who was racing onto the balcony.
“What happened?” he asked wildly.
“He fell into the basement!” Avery pushed past Tyler to the stairwell. Images of Jaylen, broken and bloody, flooded her head. “Come on!”
She and Tyler hurtled down the stairs, their cell lights flittering around the cement walls. As they entered the lower hall, a frenzied Paige emerged at the other end.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” she begged. “We need your lights!”
“Is he okay?” Avery sprinted toward her, Tyler at her heels.
“I don’t know!” Paige flattened against the wall and let Avery and her light push ahead into the wings.
Onstage the ghost light was once again steady, no longer strobing, but Avery hardly noticed. The group barreled down the basement stairs.
“What was he doing?” Tyler demanded.
“H-h-he,” Paige stuttered. “He was acting bizarre, saying he could hear rats—”
Avery flung open the door to the area under the stage. The putrid stench of death again whacked her in the face. “Jaylen!”
The ghost light streamed through the hole in the stage floor, spotlighting heaps of lighting equipment, ladders, and scenery flats. In the middle of the room, Jaylen was sprawled on his back amid shards of wood and piles of blankets.
“Jaylen!” screeched Paige.
“They’re coming!” he yelled.
“Are you hurt?” Avery bulldozed through the junk blocking her path and rushed to his side.
“Get me out of here!” Jaylen pushed up on his elbows.
“Don’t move,” ordered Tyler. “We have to make sure nothing’s broken.”
“Don’t you see them?” Jaylen pointed into the shadows.
Avery swung her cell light to the corner he indicated and recoiled in disgust. Dozens of squirming rats poured from a hole in the foundation into an opening in the cracked cement floor, their beady eyes glinting red.
“It’s okay,” she said, trying to reassure herself as much as him. “They’re more scared of us than we are of them.”
“That’s impossible.” Jaylen scrabbled halfway to his feet, then yelped and collapsed in a heap. “My ankle!”
His left ankle above his sock had already swelled to twice its normal size.
“Is that all that hurts?” Paige asked.
“Yes!” Jaylen yowled. “Let’s go!”
Tyler crouched, nudged his shoulder under Jaylen’s left arm, and hoisted him up. Jaylen hopped along on his right foot as fast as he could.
Avery peered up through the hole in the stage. There was no sign of the ghost. She hurried after the others into the hall, slammed the door behind her, and held her cell up high to light a path.
“It’s going to be okay, dude,” Tyler said.
“Are the rats coming?” Jaylen sounded desperate.
Avery pictured rats squeezing under the door and swarming after them. She twisted around to check. The hallway behind them was empty. “No.”
They floundered up the stairs, Jaylen bracing his right arm against the wall as Tyler boosted his left side. By the time they reached the wings, sweat poured down their faces.
Paige cowered on the top step. “Is the ghost gone?”
“Don’t even look,” Tyler said. “Let’s get him to the dressing room, where that couch is.”
They proceeded into the hall and the dressing room. The wig heads watched silently while Tyler eased Jaylen onto the nearest couch. As his weight hit the cushions, a small cloud of dust arose, clogging Avery’s lungs and making her cough. Jaylen had gone quiet, his eyes wide and dilated, the black pupils almost obliterating the brown irises.
“I think he’s in shock,” Paige said. “That’s what Brandon looked like when he broke his collarbone.”
“We should elevate his foot.” Avery heaped pillows under his ankle. Jaylen grimaced.
“He needs something to drink,” Tyler said. “I think he brought water. Where’s his backpack?”
“On the stage,” Paige said. “But I’m not getting it.”
Avery scrounged in her backpack for her water. The bottle felt light in her hands. She unscrewed the cap and held the opening to Jaylen’s mouth. He lifted his head, swallowed a couple of sips, then sagged onto the pillows.
Tyler turned on the faucets in the sink. There was a groan, a grinding squeal from the pipes in the walls, and an explosive sputter from the spout. A thin trickle of brown water began to run.
“At least they didn’t shut the water off,” he said.
Paige gagged. “I’m not going to drink that.”
“Let it run,” Avery suggested. “Maybe it will get better.”
Tyler checked his cell phone. “Still no service.”
Jaylen moaned.
“Guys.” Avery moved closer to the open doorway and waved Tyler and Paige over. She turned her back to Jaylen and lowered her voice. “This is getting serious.”
“Getting?” Paige let out a shaky breath.
“What happened on the stage?” Tyler asked her.
“I don’t know.” Paige tugged nervously on her ponytail. “Jaylen kept saying he could hear rats, but I couldn’t at all. Then the light started flashing and the ghost was there and—” Her face crumpled.
Avery drew Paige close in a hug. “The ghost is totally messing with us. Remember, it said it wanted to play? Well, it’s playing tricks. On us.”
“So it made rat sounds?” Tyler said doubtfully. “How is that possible?”
Avery sputtered. Sometimes Tyler was so reasonable, it was ridiculous. “I don’t know what ghosts can do! All I know is it’s trying to terrorize us.”
“Well, it’s working,” Paige said.
Behind them, Jaylen whimpered.
“What if his ankle is broken?” Avery said.
“I think it is,” said Tyler.
“This is an emergency.” Paige sniffled, on the verge of tears. “Aren’t there, like, emergency exits in places like this?”
“There are, but everything’s locked,” Tyler said.
“Wait!” Avery exclaimed. “What about one of those fire alarms with a lever that you pull down? Maybe we can set one off!”
“Brilliant,” Tyler said.
Hope dawned across Paige’s face. “Then the fire department will come rescue us. And bring an ambulance for sure.”
Avery played her light across the dressing room walls. “There’s no alarm in here, though.”
“Maybe there is one by the back door.” Tyler poked his head into the hall and aimed his cell light to the end. As Avery and Paige peered over his shoulder, the light illuminated a small red box protruding from the wall, about five feet above the floor.
“Yes!” Paige said.
“I’m going to try it,” Tyler said. “Stay here with Jaylen.”
Avery and Paige hovered in the doorway, watching, while he ventured down the hall. The closer he got to the wings, the faster Avery’s heart beat. What if Maddie’s ghost was lying in wait, about to strike? “Be careful!” she hissed.
But Tyler passed the stage door with no attack from the ghost. At the alarm, he positioned his hand on the lever and glanced their way. “Ready? One, two, three!” He pulled it.
Avery cringed, bracing for a piercing wail. But nothing happened. Tyler uselessly shoved the lever up and down several times.
Paige sank into Avery’s side. “Oh no.”
For a split second, Tyler’s shoulders slumped in defeat. Then he straightened and trotted back to the dressing room. “Okay, we can’t hear it, but it could still be signaling the fire station.” He acted upbeat, but his voice wavered.
Paige nodded vigorously. “Right? They’re probably on their way.”
Avery gnawed her thumbnail. “How long will it take?”
“Five minutes? Or less? I mean, there’s no traffic.” Tyler attempted a smile.
“Let’s listen for the sirens,” Paige said.
Tyler settled on a chair near the makeup counter and jiggled his leg. Paige paced. Avery concentrated as hard as she could for the slightest hint of a far-off siren. Instead, the silence roared, louder than ever, broken every minute or so by Jaylen taking a hissed breath. He had fallen into a restless slumber on the couch, often shifting position and grimacing in pain.
They waited. Time crawled.
After about five minutes, Avery cleared her throat. “Nobody’s coming, you guys.”
“There must be more fire alarms,” Tyler said. “We should try all of them.”
“We can’t leave Jaylen alone, though,” Avery pointed out.
“I’m glad he’s asleep,” Paige said. “He’s exhausted. Avery, will you stay with him? I’ll go with Tyler and find the other fire alarms.”
“Awesome!” Tyler leapt to his feet, clearly flattered he’d been chosen, then faltered. He awkwardly flipped his hair. “That works,” he added casually.
“I gotta do something, instead of just waiting,” Paige said, wringing her hands. “It hurts to see Jaylen hurt. You know?”
Tyler wilted, but played it cool. “Totally. That good with you, Aves?”
“I guess,” Avery said doubtfully.
“You got this, Aves,” Paige said. “Someone has to stay with Jaylen, and Tyler can’t go alone.”
Afraid as she was, Avery couldn’t argue with that logic. “Okay. But please be careful.”
She walked them to the door, not wanting to let them out of her sight.
“Let’s try the lobby first,” Tyler said.
He and Paige drifted down the hall, their voices growing softer. Avery watched until the darkness swallowed them whole.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After Paige and Tyler faded away, Avery returned to the dressing room. Jaylen’s eyes were closed. If he wasn’t awake, she might as well be alone. A horrible thought occurred to her. What if…
She sped to his side. The rational part of her brain told her she was overreacting, but she still leaned over him, checking to make sure he was breathing. For one awful moment she couldn’t tell if he was, then she spotted a slight rise and fall of his chest. Okay, he wasn’t dead. Thank goodness.
Avery restlessly settled on the other couch. The room was sweltering. She ripped off her hoodie and stuffed it into her backpack.
