Friday, July 15, 1994

Friday, July 15, 1994

1:56 p.m.

The sound of Ragesh's braying laugh is so loud it spooks a nearby flock of birds. They take flight in a flurry of startled cries and flapping wings, soaring over the falls. By the time they've passed, so, too, has Ragesh's laughter.

"I hate to break it to you, but ghosts don't exist," he tells Billy.

"Yeah, they do," Billy says with such conviction that even Ethan feels embarrassed for him, which then prompts feelings of guilt. Billy's his best friend. He should have his back. But Ragesh is right: Ghosts don't exist. Besides, Billy didn't have Ethan's back when they were all gathered on opposite sides of the road. The slight still stings even now that they're next to the falls, clustered close together on the outcropping in a way that makes Ethan claustrophobic.

"Can we just go?" he says, the words so meek he wonders if anyone has heard them. Ethan doubts it, because now Ragesh is talking.

"Prove it," he says.

"I can't," Billy replies. "I haven't seen one yet."

"But you want to, right?" A cruel glint flashes in Ragesh's eyes. "I know a place where that could happen."

Ashley cocks her head to give him a look. "You just told him ghosts don't exist. Make up your mind."

"Maybe Billy can help with that," Ragesh says. "Maybe where we're going will turn me into a believer. Come with me…if you dare."

He walks away, heading back into the trees without another word, as if he knows the others will follow. Which they do. Billy and Russ eagerly, Ashley slowly while emitting a sigh. Ethan again brings up the rear, grudgingly trailing behind them as they descend through the forest. He doesn't understand why they're moving deeper onto the property instead of turning around and going home. Nor does he understand why they're even here. Why did Billy bring them to this place? Is it really to look for ghosts?

Last but certainly not least in his thoughts is this: What will happen if they get caught? Ethan assumes it won't be good. But that's nothing compared to how his parents will react when they find out he's disobeyed them, which they surely will if they're caught. And his mother is upset enough over losing her job.

When they reach flat land and a gravel path meandering over the grounds, Ragesh turns left. "It's just up ahead," he says.

Sure enough, a structure sits around the bend. It's backed against the trees and flanked by a pair of giant willows, so it's hard for Ethan to see what it is as they approach. Only when they're directly in front of the structure does it become clear.

A mausoleum.

Built of marble and granite, it sits wide and squat in the dappled shadows of the willow trees. The front is adorned by two columns, around which climb tendrils of ivy. That and the drooping leaves of the willows brushing the peaked roof give the impression that the whole place is quickly being overtaken by nature.

Instead of a solid door, a simple wrought iron gate secured by a rusted latch covers the mausoleum's entrance. Ethan looks past the gate and into the mausoleum itself. It's dark inside. A discomfiting blackness that reminds him of a cave, inside of which waits something terrible. In this case, though, he already knows what that something is.

Dead people.

"It's so cool," Billy says, even though that's the last word Ethan would use to describe it. Mysterious? Yes. Creepy? Definitely. Scary enough to make him want to turn around and go the other way? Absolutely.

Billy, though, takes a step closer to the mausoleum. "Who's buried there?"

"Beats me," Ragesh says. "Why don't you go look?"

To Ethan's surprise, Billy does, shuffling to the iron gate and peering between the bars. "I can't tell. It's too dark to see."

"Ask your ghost friends," Ragesh says.

"They're not my friends," Billy says, adding, "Yet."

Ethan again feels a twinge of embarrassment for his friend. Billy's so sincere and so fully believes what he's saying that he can't see how everyone else thinks it's ridiculous. Especially Ragesh, who joins Billy at the gate. He lifts the latch, which emits a rusty creak as it rises from its cradle. Another creak comes when Ragesh yanks the gate open. Holding it ajar, he looks at Billy and says, "Maybe you should go inside."

"No," Ashley says. "Billy, don't do it."

"It won't be for long," Ragesh says, needling. "Just for a second."

Ashley crosses her arms and glares at him. "Why don't you get inside?"

"Because I'm not the one eager to make friends with a ghost."

"I'll do it." Billy flicks his gaze toward Ethan. "If he goes with me."

Ethan's stomach twists. With its iron bars and thick stone walls, the mausoleum more resembles a prison than a grave. Peering into the darkness, he's hit with a disturbing thought: Is the gate there to keep people out? Or to keep whoever's interred there in?

"No," he says.

He sees the others staring at him the same way they did when the road stretched between them, him on one side, them on the other. Just like then, he feels a palpable sense of shame. Like he's failing them somehow. Especially Billy.

"Come on," he says. "It'll be fun."

"But I don't want to." Ethan wishes he'd been able to put it a different way. One that makes him sound sensible, if not brave. Instead, he comes off childish and whiny. Younger than even Andy Barringer. "Can't we just go home?"

"Sure," Ragesh says. "Once someone spends at least a minute inside this mausoleum."

He stares at them, his expression a dare. One Billy wants to accept. The only thing holding him back is his best friend.

"Please?" he says to Ethan. "It's kind of cool."

"It's not," Ashley tells him. "And just because Ragesh dares you to do something doesn't mean you should."

"But I want to."

"And I don't," Ethan says.

Russ, silent this whole time, suddenly pipes up. "I'll do it." He takes a long step forward, his puny legs stretching to bring him to Billy's side. "I'll go if Ethan's too afraid."

"I said I'm not scared!"

From the looks they give Ethan, it's clear Billy and Russ don't believe him. Russ's expression, like Ragesh's, is a silent challenge. Prove it then, it seems to say. Billy's look is more complicated, revealing dejection tinged with disappointment and, yes, pity. Ethan feels a twinge of recognition when he sees it. He's worn that expression plenty of times, including today. But to see it now from someone else brings a sobering realization.

Billy is embarrassed for him.

Shame burns Ethan's cheeks, and the twist in his gut becomes red hot. This isn't how it's supposed to be. It's Billy who's embarrassing, with all his talk about ghosts. Of the two of them, Ethan is the cooler one. The normal one. Or so he thought. But the longer Billy looks at him that way, the more Ethan begins to doubt it.

"I'm going, too," he says, hoping he doesn't sound as scared as he feels.

Ashley grabs his arm before he can join the others. "You don't need to do this," she whispers. "Peer pressure is bullshit, and only dumbasses go along with it."

Ethan pulls out of her grip and doubles down on the obvious lie. "I want to do it."

He joins Billy and Russ at the entrance to the mausoleum. Its interior remains as dark up close as it did from a distance. A chill emanates from the gloom, brushing Ethan's face. When he closes his eyes, he smells earth, water, decay.

"Right this way, boys," Ragesh says as he widens the gate. It opens about two feet before age and rust keep it from budging another inch, no matter how mightily Ragesh tugs. Still, it's enough room for them to slip past, which Billy does, continuing to display a fearlessness Ethan never knew existed. He doesn't even pause before stepping through the gate and disappearing into the mausoleum. Right behind him is Russ, proceeding with slightly more hesitation. Before going in, he turns around to make sure Ethan's still behind him, that he's watching, that he's not chickening out.

"Gnarly, right?" Russ says before slipping inside.

Ethan can't agree. Nor can he match Russ's feigned enthusiasm. He's only doing this to preserve his suddenly precarious friendship with Billy.

Still, he pauses in the doorway, nervous even though he tells himself he shouldn't be. Nothing inside can hurt him. Yet it feels like it could. That the unknown dead resting inside might not be so dead after all. That they might be capable of reaching out and grabbing whoever dares to invade their final resting place.

Beyond the gate, Billy and Russ shuffle around the interior of the mausoleum, their shoulders touching. For something that looks so big on the outside, it seems so small on the inside. All that space, Ethan knows, has been taken up by the dead, leaving little room for the living.

Before he can think about turning back, Ethan moves past the gate and into the waiting darkness of the mausoleum.

At first, he thinks it's fine. Weird but fine. There's a little bit of light coming through the half-open gate. There's air that, although musty and stale, remains breathable. Best of all, there are no dead bodies. At least none that are visible. Those remain behind marble slabs in the walls.

Four of them, Ethan counts. Two on each side. In the dim light trickling in, he can make out the name of the one closest to the door.

ELSA HAWTHORNE

Seeing those words etched into the slab and knowing a corpse rests just behind it fills Ethan with a deep sense of dread. So does the fact that still more lie hidden behind the three other slabs, which Billy and Russ are straining to read. They bump into him as they move about the mausoleum, reminding Ethan how small the space is. About the same size as the first-floor powder room in his house, which isn't very big at all.

He notices other things, too. How water has gathered in a corner, dirty and stagnant. How a single dried rose petal floats atop the puddle like a boat adrift. How the smell gets worse the farther back he goes. A sickly combination of mildew and dust. How at the back wall, the light coming through the gate doesn't even reach him. It's nothing but shadow there.

To make matters worse, a tortured groan rises behind them, snapping Ethan to attention. He whirls around, gaze skimming the marble floor, where the shadows of the gate's bars start to stretch.

Beyond the bars is Ragesh, silhouetted by the sun as he slams the gate shut. It rattles from the force, raining down bits of rust and flecks of iron. The gate's still trembling as Ragesh pushes downward on the latch, which hits the cradle with a dull clang.

He's just locked them inside.

Ethan rushes to the gate. He grips the bars and pushes, growing alarmed when they don't budge. Panicked, he looks outside to Ashley, only slightly relieved to see that she's already on the case. Stalking toward Ragesh, she wears an expression of pure fury.

"Hey, asshole," she says. "Stop being a complete dick for once in your life."

"I'm just messing with them a little," Ragesh says.

"Well, how about you don't. Open the gate."

Ragesh huffs with annoyance. "Fine."

But the gate doesn't open. Watching through the bars, Ethan sees Ragesh fiddling with the latch, seemingly unable to lift it.

"Stop messing around, Ragesh," Ashley says.

"I'm not."

"What do you mean?"

"What the hell do you think I mean?" Ragesh snaps. "The latch is stuck."

Billy and Russ cluster around Ethan, pressing against the gate. Ethan is far from claustrophobic. He loves being inside his tent, and when he and Billy play hide-and-seek with Andy, he's willing to cram himself into the tightest hiding spot. But the mausoleum, the stuck gate, and the two boys pushing against him on both sides are all too much for Ethan. A low simmer of panic takes hold, and all he wants to do is leave.

Now.

Only there is no exit. Ashley has joined Ragesh in trying to move the latch. Both of them tug upward, their arms straining, exertion turning their faces crimson.

"Shit," Ashley says. "It's not moving. What do we do?"

"I don't know," Ragesh says, panicked.

"Well, figure it out."

"Why me?"

"Because," Ashley says, "you're the dipshit who just trapped three boys in a goddamn mausoleum."

One word of that sentence—trapped—normally would send panic sparking through Ethan. But Ashley barely gets it out before Russ says, "I'm not trapped. See?"

Moving sideways, he slips between the bars like water through a grate. One of the benefits of being scrawny. Free of the mausoleum, he stands behind Ashley and Ragesh as they size up the space between the bars. They then do the same to Ethan and Billy.

"Do you think you can squeeze through?" Ashley says.

"Maybe," Ethan says, even though he doesn't think so. He's bigger than Russ in every way, and Billy is bigger than him. Not by much. Centimeters. But that could make all the difference. "We can try."

This time, Ethan goes first, approaching the bars from the side. He slides his shoulder between two of them, both surprised and relieved to find that it easily fits. It's the same with his knee, the leg twisted so that his toes point outward.

Things get trickier when Ethan's halfway through. The combination of his chest, butt, and head proves to be too much, and he finds himself caught halfway inside the mausoleum, halfway out of it.

"Don't panic," Ashley tells him. "Just turn your head."

Ethan does, pushing his face between the bars, wincing as the coarse iron scratches across his ears. Like someone's scouring them with the Brillo pads his mom uses. But once they clear the bars, the rest of his head is free. Now all he has to worry about is the other two-thirds of his body.

"Stand as straight as you can," Russ advises.

Ethan takes a deep breath, makes himself as straight and thin as possible, and slides the rest of the way out.

The others applaud. All but Billy, who peers between the bars like a dog in the pound. "I don't think I'll fit," he says.

"You will," Ethan says. "Just do what I did."

He guides Billy through it, starting with one shoulder and one knee. As Billy pushes his head between the bars, there's a moment in which Ethan fears he won't make it. The bars seem to catch on Billy's ears, pinning them against his head. Billy keeps pushing forward, all but forcing his head through, his ears scraped scarlet.

"You can do it," Ethan says when Billy pauses. "Just suck—"

He's interrupted by a voice cutting across the grounds, as loud as a shotgun blast. "Hey! You kids shouldn't be here!"

Ethan whips around to see someone in the distance, hurrying up the path. He looks official. Dark suit. Tie flapping as he runs, his dress shoes scuffing along the gravel.

"Shit!" Ragesh yelps. "Run!"

He takes off, sprinting away from the mausoleum and going back the way they came. Russ follows, his skinny legs pumping. Panicked, Ethan doesn't know what to do as the man in the suit keeps yelling for them to stop and his body keeps insisting he run. So he spins in place like a broken toy, bumping into Billy, who's still trying to wriggle his way out of the mausoleum, his body at an angle now, the gate's bars slicing across his chest and back.

Ashley latches onto Ethan's arm. "Let's go!" she says with a tug. "Grab Billy."

Ethan does, snagging Billy's hand and pulling as hard as Ashley's pulling him. Each tug only seems to lodge Billy tighter between the bars, his eyes widening as if they're about to pop out of his head.

"Stop," he hisses. "I can't move."

That's when Ethan realizes the awful truth of the situation.

They are in a place where they absolutely shouldn't be.

The others are leaving or have already left.

And Billy is completely stuck.