The Evil Lives! (10 page)

A
manda landed flat on her back with a force that knocked her breath out.

Paralyzed, she squeezed her eyes shut.

A warm current of air flowed around her, making her feel as if she were tucked in bed under a soft comforter.

Not in bed, she told herself in a sudden panic. I'm in a coffin. Sarah Fear's coffin!

Her eyes snapped open. Her breath came rushing back. She gagged at the putrid, rotting smell.

Clumps of muddy earth slipped from the sides of the grave and fell into the coffin. One landed on Amanda's chest, another on her face.

With a scream of terror, she grabbed fistfuls of the stinking dirt and flung it away.

“Amanda!” Dustin peered over the edge of the grave. “Are you all right?”

“Help me up!” she cried, struggling to sit. The soft, moist earth kept spilling down. The putrid muck oozed through her hair and began to slide down her face. “Help me out of here!”

Janine appeared next to Dustin. “Don't panic. We'll get you out,” she called down. “Stand up, okay?”

Amanda rose to her knees and braced herself on the edge of the coffin.

With a crunch, the rotting wood gave way under her weight.

Crying out, she fell back. She glanced around in panic. I'm in a coffin! A dead woman's coffin!

“Are you hurt?” Dustin called.

“I . . . I don't think so.” Amanda's teeth chattered, even though she could still feel the warm air flowing around her.

Why is it so warm? she wondered.

How can a grave be so warm?

“Come on, Amanda—stand up,” Janine urged. She and Dustin stretched their hands down into the grave. “Get on your feet and hold up your arms so we can grab your wrists.”

“Okay.” Amanda struggled to her knees again. She got one foot underneath her, then the other. Carefully, she rose to a standing position and raised her arms above her head.

Only a few inches separated her fingers from Janine's and Dustin's.

“Stand on your tiptoes!” Janine cried as she and Dustin strained to reach farther into the grave.

Amanda rose to her toes, reaching frantically. Her fingertips brushed Dustin's.

“Almost!” Dustin cried. “Just a little bit more!” He and Janine peered down anxiously, urging her on.

Amanda knew she was getting hysterical, but she couldn't help it. Desperate to get out of the stinking grave, she stretched her arms as high as she could.

Dustin's fingers brushed hers again, then they slipped away. Amanda cried out and tried again.

But Dustin's hands seemed farther away than ever. She couldn't come anywhere close to them.

And then his face began to fade.

Beside him, Janine's face grew smaller and smaller.

“No!” Amanda screamed, reaching up to them. “Don't leave me! What are you doing?”

They didn't answer. Their faces faded. Grew smaller. Farther away.

“Come back!” Amanda begged. “Please! Don't leave me here!”

Their faces grew fainter. Smaller, like pale circles in the darkness.

“Don't leave!” Amanda cried. “Janine! Dustin, please!”

Amanda couldn't even make out their features anymore. They kept fading, farther and farther away—until they disappeared completely.

Amanda gasped. She was falling backward again. She braced herself for the sudden jolt of the coffin at her back.

But nothing stopped her. All she felt was the warm air wrapping her like a blanket as she kept falling and falling.

What is happening? she wondered, screaming in terror. What is happening to me?

A
s the warm air swirled around her, Amanda plunged through pitch-black space.

A nightmare, she told herself. That's what it is. I fainted or hit my head and now I'm dreaming. But I'll wake before I land.

In a dream, you always wake before you land.

Amanda closed her eyes against the swirling darkness and waited for the nightmare to end.

After a few seconds, something hard slammed painfully against her back. Her eyes flew open.

Still dark.

But not the pitch-black darkness she'd fallen through.

A ribbon of pale gray clouds sat on the horizon, slowly turning pink as the sun rose behind them. The sky gradually grew lighter, and Amanda could see the
outlines of an enormous stone mansion several yards away.

Amanda frowned. There was no mansion in the Fear Street Cemetery. So where was she? How did she get here?

Amanda felt panic creeping into her. What was happening?

A creaking noise made Amanda jump, and she gasped in pain as her back scraped across something rough and hard. She realized she was sitting, leaning against something.

Carefully, she rose to her feet and turned around.

She was standing in front of a small stone house several yards from the big mansion. An oil lamp burned in the window of the small house, throwing a circle of yellow light on the cobblestones.

Near the front door stood an old-fashioned carriage, sort of like a stagecoach, but smaller. A breeze stirred, and the carriage creaked. Two long wooden shafts hung down from the front of it, their ends resting on the cobblestones.

It's where a horse would be hitched up, Amanda thought. An old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage. A mansion. A carriage house. Oil lamps and cobblestones.

What is this place?
Where
is it?

Amanda glanced back at the house. The lamp was out now, and she could hear voices. Women's voices, speaking urgently. The door handle rattled and the voices grew louder.

Amanda ducked behind a carriage wheel and crouched down, her heart pounding.

“I'm so afraid, Sarah,” one woman declared in a
high, nervous voice. “What will happen if I'm discovered?”

“You won't be, Jane,” a second woman assured her. Her voice was lower, more confident.

Amanda peeked out from behind the wheel. Sarah, the woman who was speaking, had blond hair and a stubborn tilt to her chin. Jane's hair was a flaming red and she had a sprinkling of freckles across her rosy cheeks.

Both women were around twenty. They wore their hair piled high on their heads, with silk ribbons twisted through it. Both wore old-fashioned dresses with pinched-in waists and long skirts.

“It
will
work, Jane,” Sarah insisted. “You were so clever to think of it. Don't change your mind now. You want to marry and have children, don't you?”

“Yes,” Jane agreed softly. “I want it more than anything. I envy you, Sarah.”

“And I envy you!” Sarah told her. “You're going to travel to Europe. I've always dreamed of that. It's so unfair—why should I marry Thomas Fear? I've never even met the man!”

Amanda tensed up. Thomas Fear? Was this woman Sarah Fear?

“But my grandmother arranged the wedding,” Sarah continued bitterly.

“Yes,” Jane agreed. “And she'll be angry if you don't do as she wishes.”

“Not as angry as I am.” Sarah paced a few steps, her long skirt swishing on the stones. She clenched her fists and her green eyes glittered with fury. “I hate being told what to do and whom to marry. I won't do it!”

Amanda shivered, frightened and confused. What is going on? Sarah Fear lived a hundred years ago. So how can I be seeing this? How can this be happening?

“And you devised the perfect solution,” Sarah said, turning to Jane. “You'll be me—Sarah Burns. You'll travel to Shadyside and marry Thomas Fear. I'll become Jane Hardy and go live in London. We'll both be happy. Isn't that what you want?”

“Of course,” Jane agreed. “And yes, it was my idea, Sarah. But now that we are about to change identities, I'm so worried. What if someone in Shadyside finds out?”

“How can they?” Sarah demanded. “Remember, my grandmother is too old to make the trip with me. And no one there knows what I look like. Jane, please. We have to take the carriage to the train soon!”

“I know. But I'm frightened,” Jane confessed.

“Think about getting married, having a beautiful wedding and becoming Sarah Fear,” Sarah told her. “You'll have a husband and children. You'll live in a big mansion in Shadyside. It will be wonderful.”

“And you'll be in London, going to the theater and dining out.” Jane's lips suddenly curved in an eager smile. “It
will
be wonderful, won't it?”

“It will be perfect!” Sarah cried excitedly.

Amanda shivered again. The words were finally starting to sink in.

Sarah sailing to Europe in Jane's place. Jane going to Shadyside, pretending to be Sarah. Marrying Thomas Fear.

They're talking about switching places, Amanda realized.

Switching identities!

Jane laughed, her voice high and excited. They seem so real, Amanda thought. I can smell their perfume. I can hear the swish of their skirts. The sound of their high-buttoned boots on the stones. I can feel the carriage wheel digging into my shoulder.

Did I travel back in time?

But that's impossible!

Isn't it?

Sarah clapped her hands, interrupting Amanda's thoughts. “Quickly now, we don't have much time, Jane. We have to hitch up the carriage or we'll miss the train.”

They're coming toward me! Amanda realized. What if they can see me? What will they do?

Hide! she told herself.

Amanda stood up, ready to run behind the house as soon as they turned their backs. But her legs were numb from crouching so long and she stumbled, falling hard against the carriage wheel.

With a loud creak, the carriage began to roll forward. Amanda grabbed hold of the wheel. But the carriage kept rolling, the two long shafts scraping noisily along the cobblestones.

Amanda stumbled along beside it for a second, hoping to keep herself hidden. Then her toe caught in one of the uneven stones and she tripped. With a cry, she fell to her knees.

The carriage rolled a few more feet, then stopped.

Slowly, Amanda glanced up.

Sarah and Jane stood on the drive, gazing at her. Jane had turned pale, and her eyes were wide and frightened.

Sarah scowled, her eyebrows forming a V over her nose. She pressed her lips together and put her hands on her hips.

Amanda rose to her feet, her legs trembling.

They see me!

J
ane twisted her hands together and laughed. A high-pitched, uneasy laugh.

“What on earth happened?” Sarah demanded. “What made the carriage roll?”

Amanda licked her lips. “I did,” she admitted nervously. She glanced down at her muddy jeans and sneakers. “Listen, I know this sounds crazy, but . . .”

“Do you think it was a sign?” Jane asked Sarah. She ignored Amanda completely.

“Of what?” Sarah ignored Amanda, too.

“A sign that we shouldn't go through with our plan,” Jane replied.

Sarah scowled at her, annoyed. “Don't be silly.”

Both women glanced back at Amanda.

They're not looking
at
me, Amanda realized. They're looking
through
me. They can't see me at all.

Am I dead? A ghost? What is happening?

“It must have been the wind,” Sarah declared firmly. “You can't be superstitious, Jane. You have a wedding to go to, and I must sail to Europe. We have to catch that train and begin our new lives!”

In only a few minutes, a big chestnut horse was hitched up to the carriage and the two women climbed aboard. As she watched them drive away, terror gripped Amanda.

I can't stay here! she thought. What will happen to me? Am I stuck in the past forever?

Amanda took off after the carriage, running as fast as she could. She knew they couldn't hear her, but she waved her arms and yelled anyway. “Jane! Sarah! Wait! Let me come with you. Wait!”