Read Spooksville 17: The Thing in the Closet Online
Authors: Christopher Pike
Spooksville 17: The Thing in the Closet (3 page)
Finally, getting worried, he forced the window open from the outside.
A glance inside showed no Cindy.
Quickly he jumped up and climbed inside.
The first thing he noticed about her bedroom was that her closet door was lying all the way open and that her desk chair lay on its side beside the closet. Almost as if the chair had been pushed over. There was no green glow.
'Cindy?' he called out softly.
There was no answer. Adam stepped out of the bedroom into the hallway. He moved into the living room, checked the kitchen and the den. The house was not that large, he covered it all in less than a minute. He even peeked inside her mother's and brother's bedrooms, on the off-chance she was waiting for him in there. But there was no Cindy.
Adam felt panic. He had to fight to resist it Back in her bedroom, he stuck his head inside the closet and turned on the flashlight he had brought. Yet even though the chair had been knocked over, it did not appear as if anything inside the closet had been disturbed. Her clothes were all on their hangers. Her shoes were neatly lined up on top of their respective shoe boxes. Even the hats Sally had tried on earlier were back in place. The closet, in other words, did not look like the scene of a crime.
Yet Cindy had said the green glow was back.
And now Cindy was gone.
Using his flashlight, Adam found the phone and dialled Watch. As he waited for his friend to answer, Adam reached over and turned on the lamp. The electricity seemed to be working fine. The warm yellow light flooded the bedroom. Watch answered on the second ring. He did not sound like he had been in bed. For all any of them could tell, Watch seemed to live alone, although he usually told people that he lived with his uncle or his grandfather. The relative changed with the account None of them really liked to pry into Watch's private life.
'Hello?' Watch said.
'This is Adam,' Adam said in a soft voice. 'I'm in Cindy's bedroom. She called me ten minutes ago, said the glow was back. I drove over here as fast as I could on my bike but by the time I got here she was gone.'
'Where did she go?'
'I have no idea. But someone knocked over a chair in her room.' Adam paused. 'I think something's grabbed her.'
'From inside the closet?'
'Yeah, from inside or outside. I don't know what to do. Can you come over here?'
'You sound scared.'
'I am scared,' Adam admitted.
'Sure, I'll come. Call the others as well. This mystery might take everyone's brain to solve.'
Adam paused. He knew how much Watch liked Tira yet he himself did not feel he knew Tira well enough to invite her into the dangerous side of their lives.
'Should I call Tira?' he asked finally.
Watch did not hesitate. 'I'll call her myself. We might need her sensitivity more than anything else.'
'But . . .' Adam began.
'But what?'
'It's the middle of the night. I think she's still recovering from the shock of being possessed for two centuries. Do you want to risk bringing her into this?'
Watch paused. 'Don't you trust her?'
'Sure. Why shouldn't I trust her?'
'Because she was, as you say, possessed only a short time ago.'
'I trust her, Watch, really. We just don't know her that well, that's all.'
'Look, I think she can help us on this one. I want her there. Cindy's safety is all that matters, you know.'
'I know,' Adam muttered.
But for all he knew, Cindy might already be dead.
The gang did not take long to gather. Twenty minutes after Adam called they were all present in Cindy's bedroom. Remarkably, Cindy's mother and brother continued to sleep peacefully in the adjacent rooms. Bryce and Watch examined the closet closely before they stopped to talk. Sally, Adam and Tira stood uneasily nearby. Sally was not joking any more.
Finally the boys were ready to report on the closet.
'There is absolutely nothing unusual about this closet,' Bryce said.
'There is absolutely no sign of what could have produced the green glow,' Watch agreed.
'Who cares about the green glow?' Sally said. 'Where is Cindy?'
'We are assuming the light got her,' Bryce said.
'And did what with her?' Sally asked.
Bryce shrugged. 'Maybe it ate her alive.'
Adam spoke strongly. 'We are operating on the assumption that Cindy is alive. I don't want to hear any talk about anyone being eaten alive.'
Bryce lowered his head. 'I was just stating a possibility. I care about her as much as you guys. I hope she's still alive.'
'Let us assume for a moment that the light took her,' Watch said. 'We have to ask ourselves why the light appeared here, in her closet, before we can even begin to imagine where it took her.'
'It might have been a coincidence that it was her closet,' Sally said. 'Weird stuff happens all over this town.'
'Like I said,' Bryce agreed, 'I can't find anything special about this closet.'
Watch considered. 'Maybe we are looking at this backwards. Maybe it is not the closet that matters here. Maybe it is Cindy herself.'
'What do you mean?' Adam asked.
'I am not sure,' said Watch, turning to Tira. He gestured to her, then to the closet. 'Do you feel anything here that you didn't feel this afternoon?'
Tira momentarily closed her clear blue eyes. When she reopened them she seemed a shade paler. She took a step towards the closet and touched the open door with her palm.
'I feel fear,' she whispered.
Watch stood close. 'Whose fear? Cindy's?'
Tira looked at him, her eyes wide. 'Just fear. This place is soaked in it.'
'How can a place be soaked in fear?' Sally asked.
'I don't know how to explain it,' Tira said. 'It just is.'
Adam stared at their strange new friend. 'Cindy said the green glow seemed to soak into everything in her closet,' he muttered.
'Interesting,' Watch muttered.
'Wait a second,' Sally interrupted. 'Are you guys saying that Cindy's fear created the green glow? If you are then I think you have lost your minds.'
'It may be that her fear did not create the glow,' Watch said. 'But it may have allowed the green glow to come here, to this of all closets.'
'I am not sure if I follow you,' Bryce said.
'It is what I was saying before,' Watch explained. 'We are assuming there is something weird about this closet. It seems a logical assumption. After all, the weird light came from here. But maybe Cindy had a part in that light showing up here, in the middle of the night, and not somewhere else. I remember how Cindy used to say how, at night, the sight of her half-opened closet used to scare her.'
'But that is not unusual,' Sally said. 'Many kids are afraid that something might suddenly come out of their closets and grab them. Many adults have the same fear.'
'You are right,' Watch said. 'And that fact makes what I am going to suggest even more plausible. I suspect that Cindy has been afraid of her dark closet ever since she moved back to Spooksville. What I am suggesting is that that fear built up over time, in this spot, and allowed whatever attacked her an opening into her bedroom.'
Sally shook her head. 'That is a wild theory to propose based on no evidence. Is it not possible that Cindy is just trying to spook us all by going for a long walk in the middle of the night?'
'Cindy was terrified when she called,' Adam said.
'She could have been faking her fear,' Sally said.
'That would have been unlike her.' Watch said.
'Let me see if I understand you right,' Bryce said to Watch. 'You're saying that Cindy's fear of something evil living in her dark closet slowly built up over time and created a rupture in the space-time continuum that allowed a real evil entity to cross over into this dimension and abduct her back to its dimension?'
'Exactly,'Watch said.
'Whatever that means,' Sally muttered.
'It makes sense to me if we start with the idea that it is Cindy that is unique and not the closet,' Watch said.
'Because she is the biggest coward in the group?' Sally asked.
'No,' Watch said. 'We are all afraid of something. It is just that Cindy's fear focused on this particular closet and caused, I believe, the rupture Bryce spoke of.' He paused. 'Tira is sensitive to things we are not Her senses back up my theory.'
Sally turned to Tira. 'Do you agree with this wild idea?'
Tira nodded solemnly. 'Watch is almost always right.'
Sally sighed. 'I hate hero worship among friends.'
Bryce spoke to Watch. 'But if what you say is true then we need Cindy — and her fear — to reopen this rupture.'
Watch was grim. 'It is possible we will never be able to reopen the rupture.'
Adam spoke up. 'I don't agree. If it is fear that caused whatever it was to invade our world, then we just have to generate that fear again.'
'But we cannot fake our fear,' Watch said. 'It has to be genuine. And I believe it has to have built up over time, like it was in this bedroom.' He added, 'That may be why she only saw the green glow in the dark. It was only in the dark that she felt really afraid.'
'I know a kid who feels afraid just walking to school in the morning,' Sally said.
Adam was interested. 'Who?'
'George Sanders,' Sally said. 'You guys remember him? He's the new kid in town. He helped us fight the Creature in the Teacher — Mr Snakol. George is afraid of his own shadow. If this green glow is out looking for victims in this town, then I bet it has George's address.'
Adam was excited. 'I do remember this George. He was a real coward. Maybe he is someone we can use to reopen the rupture.'
'Even if we are able to get his help,' Watch said. 'We may open a doorway into a place totally different from the one where Cindy is.'
'But that is a chance we have to take,' Adam said. 'We can't just stand here all night and talk and hope Cindy suddenly shows up. We have to take action.'
'But if George is such a coward,' Bryce said, 'how are we going to talk him into helping us?'
'He will help us even if he doesn't want to help us,' Sally said. 'In fact, it might be better if he doesn't want to help us.'
'I don't understand,' Bryce said.
Sally rubbed her hands together. 'Just leave George to me. I will have him so frightened that he will want to put a padlock on his closet door.'