Moonlight Secrets (3 page)

“No,” she whispered, leaning into the hole. “It's a jewel. Some kind of jewel.”

I squinted into the darkness. The object had a blue glow.

Jamie lowered her feet into the hole and started to slide down the side. “I've got to check it out,” she said. “Look. It
is
a jewel. I think it's a pendant or a pin.”

“No—wait!” I shouted. “What's
that
?” I pointed.

Something curved and pale poked up from the dirt floor of the hole. “Jamie—wait.”

She saw it too. She stopped her slide, but remained perched on the edge with her feet dangling down. “Whoa, Lewis—” She let out a sharp cry. “Is it a bone?”

“I . . . think so.” I poked my head over the side of the hole. A cloud rolled away from the
moon. Yellow light washed over us, and suddenly the floor of the hole came into sharp focus.

And I saw bones . . .

. . . a lot of bones—ribs, maybe. Two sets, side by side. And a long arm bone poking up from under the ground. And beside the ribs, two skeletal hands, curled tightly as if gripping the dirt.

“Are they human?” Jamie asked in a tiny voice. “Human bones?”

“Yeah,” I murmured. It was suddenly hard to breathe. I had to force air in and out of my lungs. “Human bones. Two skeletons, I think. Let's go, Jamie. I think we should—”

“Fears!” Jamie exclaimed. “Don't you think? Members of the Fear family who were buried beneath the house? Oh, wow. Lewis. Maybe it's Simon and Angelica Fear. Maybe it's their bones. The workmen accidentally uncovered their graves.”

My chest ached. I still had trouble breathing. This was a little too creepy for me. I didn't want to admit that to Jamie. She thinks I'm some kind of macho guy because I like to climb mountains with my family and hike out in the woods for days and stuff.

But I really didn't want to be here staring at two skeletons half-buried in the dirt.

“Jamie, let's go,” I said. I tried to tug her arm. But she jerked it away from me and started to slide down the dirt wall, into the hole.

“Hey—stop! What are you
doing
?” I cried, and made another grab for her.

“The jewel,” she said. “It's a pendant. It . . . it's beautiful. I have to try . . .”

“No, wait—”

She started to slide fast. She flung out both arms to slow her fall. Her floppy cap caught on a twig poking out from the dirt wall and lifted off her head.

“Hey, NO—” Jamie uttered a cry as she landed hard on the bottom. Her knees gave way and she toppled forward.

I gasped as she fell on top of one of the skeletons. She landed face-down over the curving ribs. “Oh, help!” she cried, struggling to pull herself away.

Then I froze and stared in disbelief as a skeletal hand started to move. The hand slowly lifted itself from the dirt. The bony fingers uncurled—and grabbed Jamie's scarf.

“Ohhhh.” A moan escaped my throat as I saw the other bony hand reach up. The hands grabbed Jamie's scarf and tugged hard.

In the bright moonlight, I saw the confused expression on Jamie's face. Saw her eyes bulge in shock. It took her a while to realize what was happening.

But I saw. I saw
everything
!

And then the skeletal hands. . . .

The hands. . . .

They wrapped around Jamie's throat.

I leaped into the hole. I flew down the wall of dirt and landed hard on my feet beside Jamie.

Pain shot up my legs. But I ignored it and grabbed the skeleton hands. I struggled to pull them off Jamie's throat. But the bony hands wrapped tightly around her neck and held on.

I couldn't budge them.

And before I could try something else, the dirt beside me shifted. I heard a sick, hollow groan, like air escaping from a balloon. And the other skeleton—bones cracking, cracking, and crackling as it moved—lifted up from the dark floor of the hole.

I felt cold, hard bony fingers tighten
around my neck. I fell to the ground, twisting and thrashing, trying to squirm away, trying to fight it off. But my whole body was heavy with panic. And I couldn't breathe . . . couldn't breathe. . . .

Beside me, I saw Jamie—eyes wide, mouth locked in a wide O of horror—being strangled . . . strangled by the skeleton, a hideous grin on the dirt-caked skull.

The strong, bony hands tightened around my throat and squeezed.

Twisting to pull free, I felt something drop onto my back. And then something hit my shoulders. I saw dirt flying . . . dirt falling into the hole. Falling on my head, my back. . . .

I couldn't breathe . . . couldn't breathe at all.

The dirt fell into the hole from above.

And over the roar, I heard that ghostly woman's voice:
“You'll pay . . . you'll ALL pay now . . .”

The mountain of dirt was flying, flying and falling, filling up the hole again.

The two skulls grinned. The hard, bony hands tightened and squeezed.

And the dirt rained down.

My last thought: Jamie and I . . . no one will find us.

No one will ever know where we are.

We are being strangled—
and buried alive!

Ryland O'Connor, the bartender at
Nights, flashed me a thumbs-up as I stepped into the bar. “Hey, whussup, Nate?”

“Not much. The usual,” I said. We bumped knuckles.

Ryland is a tall, stocky, red-faced guy with spiky blond hair, a silver ring in one ear, and crinkled-up eyes that always seem to be laughing. He has three tiny, blue stars tattooed on his right temple. And a long scar on one cheek that he won't tell anyone how he got.

He wears tight muscle shirts so everyone can see he works out. Most nights he wears torn shorts and sandals, like he's going to the beach.

Ryland is a good guy.

He knows we're high school kids, and we flash him phony IDs whenever he remembers
to card us. But he doesn't care. He serves us our beers and winks about it as long as there's no trouble and kids don't start acting crazy.

Besides, the Night People are the only ones who give him an excuse to stay open all night. Everyone else in the town of Shadyside is asleep.

I stepped past the bar and glanced around, squinting in the dim, red glow of light. “Shark here yet?”

Ryland nodded. “The booth in back. With a girl.”

A girl?

“Not Candy, right? Any sign of Candy?” I asked.

Ryland pulled a bottle of Coors from the bar fridge, popped the top, and handed it to me. “Which one is she? The kinda chubby one with the black curls?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that's her.”

He took a sip of club soda. Ryland only drinks club soda. “Haven't seen her tonight.” He grinned at me and brushed back his spiky hair. “That the one you're hot for, Nate? I thought you were into the tall one with the long blond hair. Whitney Something.”

“Whitney's going out with Aaron,” I said. “And no way, man. I mean about Candy. No way. Really. She's bad news. Ask Shark.”

I saw Shark sitting with a blonde-haired girl in the red vinyl booth at the back wall. “Yo—Shark!” I called to him and started over there.

But Ryland called me back. “Nate, you forgot something.”

“Oh. Sorry.” I reached for my wallet.

“No. Not that,” Ryland said. He gestured with his head to the brass plaque on the wall next to the entrance.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” I backed up and kissed the plaque. Kissed Angelica Fear right on the lips.

The plaque shows the two original Fears, Angelica and Simon. Just their faces, young faces, like they're in their twenties or maybe thirties. Underneath the picture it says,
FIRST SETTLERS OF SHADYSIDE. FEAR MANSION BUILT ON THIS SPOT IN
1889.

We all kiss the plaque when we come into Nights. I mean, just about everyone kisses it. Partly as a joke, and maybe some of us think it keeps bad luck away.

“Hey, Ryland,” I said, “you ever feel funny about this?” I pointed to the plaque with my beer bottle. “I mean, this bar being right on the spot where the Fear Mansion used to stand? Does that ever creep you out?”

“Ooh, I'm scared. I'm totally scared,” he said, pretending to shake. His grin faded. “Like, no way, man. I could care less about the stupid old legends and scare stories.”

Ryland scratched the scar on his cheek. “Look at this place. The bar is doing business big-time. Fear Street Acres is amazing, man. I mean, the crowds are unbelievable. Talk about changing a whole part of town. Who remembers the old Fear Street? Nobody. That's ancient history.”

“That's great, man,” I said, glancing at the blank-eyed faces of the Fears on the plaque. Shark and Aaron and I and a few other kids spent one Halloween night in the Fear Street woods when we were in sixth grade. And I still remembered the strange howls and cries we heard coming from the Fear Mansion all night long.

We were scared that night. No kidding.

When they tore down that old house, I
expected them to find a huge pile of dead bodies inside. And I expected weird creatures and mutants and vampires and things to come flying out.

But none of that happened.

It was kinda disappointing. Just piles of bricks and shingles and broken glass, chunks of plaster, and wallboards. And a lot of old junk in a hidden room that used to belong to the Fears.

I took some cool, old photographs. And I found a belt that had a silver skull for a buckle.

Shark has a pistol he found in that room. He says Simon Fear probably killed dozens of people with it. He showed it to his dad, and his dad made him put it in a lockbox in the basement.

I glanced at the yellow neon Budweiser clock hanging on the wall behind the bar. It was a little before two in the morning.

I had to grin.

My parents are divorced, and my mom doesn't get home from work till seven every night. Sometimes she tells me I look tired and should get more rest. She doesn't have a
clue
that I have this secret night life. None of our parents do.

Yeah, we're all wrecked a lot of the time. But it's totally worth it.

I took another sip of my beer and headed to Shark's booth in back. He was busy talking to the blonde girl, spinning his beer bottle between his hands and tapping his feet. Shark is a tense guy; he's always moving.

Like a shark, I guess. Ha.

But before I got back there I heard footsteps behind me, and someone called my name.

I turned and saw Jamie Richards smiling at me. Jamie is one of the prettiest and one of the nicest girls at Shadyside High. She still walks with a slight limp from her accident last year.

I guess she's lucky to be alive.

A year ago she and her boyfriend, Lewis Baransky, were hanging out at the wreckage of the Fear Mansion late at night. And they accidentally fell into the open foundation hole. When they fell, it started a landslide of dirt, all crushing in on them.

I mean, that's what they
think
happened. Neither one of them remembers that night at all. I guess it was too terrifying, and their memory was wiped clean.

Luckily these two off-duty cops came by at
just the right time. The cops saw Jamie and Lewis fall in the hole. Somehow, they pulled them out before they were buried alive.

A miracle. They both had broken bones and things busted inside them. And psychological issues, I guess. They were both in the hospital a long time, and they didn't get to graduate with the rest of their class. I think they're really bummed to have to do twelfth grade all over again.

They both had to recuperate at home for months. Jamie said it wasn't a total waste of time. She took up sculpting with clay and found she was really good at it. Her father set up a studio with a kiln for her in the garage, and she spent most of her time there.

I think Lewis spent the time playing video games, watching the Japanese anime movies that he loves, and begging his parents to let him out of the house. He's a tall, wiry, active kinda guy, and I think he went nuts being trapped in the house for so long.

So now they're both doing okay. A few weeks ago, they started sneaking out of their houses after midnight again and meeting up with the rest of us at Nights.

“How's it going, Jamie?” I asked.

“Not bad,” she said, tossing back her dark hair. “Filling out college applications. You believe I had to start all over again?”

“Weren't you accepted at Brown?”

“Yeah. But they wouldn't hold my place for a year. It was so obnoxious.” She turned to Ryland. “Diet Coke?”

“Where's Lewis?” I asked.

She frowned. “I don't think he's coming tonight. He's been kinda messed up.”

“Messed up? You mean sick?”

She shook her head. “No. Nightmares. Lewis has these weird nightmares. He gets totally creeped out by them, then he can't sleep.” She sighed. “He still dreams about the accident. We both do. I . . . I just can't put it behind me.”

“Sorry,” I said. I didn't know what else to say. I really liked Jamie. I guess I had a crush on her. But she and Lewis had been going together since junior high or something. No way I stood a chance there.

She took her Diet Coke from Ryland, and I led the way to the back. “Who's that girl with Shark?” I asked her. “Ever see her before?”

Shark and the girl were laughing about something. The girl had her back to us. All we could see was her streaked, white-blonde hair down over the collar of her red sweater. Then she turned and we could see her face.

She had straight bangs across her forehead, high cheekbones like a magazine model, and big, round green eyes. A
babe
!

“Oh, yeah. I know her,” Jamie said. “Nikki Howitz. She's friends with Ada, but she doesn't go to Shadyside. She goes to Waynesbridge.”