Chapter 21: The Haunted House
The rain started to slacken a little as Philip finished his ghost story.
"And now," he said with a grand flourish, "prepare to meet the Wailing Woman in the Haunted House!"
The others didn't seem to mind too much that Philip had told the ghost story mainly about Antonia's character. He later said that it was because he didn't want to spoil the surprise of the headless monster in the mad scientist's lab and because the other characters in the haunted house were pretty straightforward.
The cast members for the haunted house were already in their costumes, except for Andy, who had left his fake shoulder pads in the mad scientist's chamber. Philip asked Lee to escort them outside so they could get into their positions before he started bringing their friends through the haunted house.
The kids carried flashlights with them as they made their way to the garage. There wouldn't be any lights inside until Jamie got up to the loft to turn them all on. Jamie had the flashlight that Lee had given him. Tom had a flashlight that he had brought from home, and Alice had Philip's. Lee unlocked the door to the garage to let everyone in.
Jamie headed off to the stairs to the loft, and everyone else went to their proper places. Lee followed Tom and Andy to the mad scientist's chamber and Tom helped Andy to get his shoulder pads on.
"Remember, you just lie there and wait until I hold up the fake head. Then, you get up to scare people," Tom told him.
"What?" Andy said. He was still having trouble hearing around his shoulder pads.
Tom said louder, "I said wait until you see the fake head! Then, get up and scare people!"
"Okay!" Andy said.
Lee shook his head and smiled at the boys.
The lights went on. The plasma globe positioned near Andy's head (the real one) started zapping, and the Christmas light mad scientist computer started blinking in its cheery, mad-sciencey way. Jamie was at his position in the loft, ready for action.
"Everyone ready?" Lee called.
There was a chorus of yeses, and Lee went to tell Philip that he could begin the tour of the haunted house.
Philip waited at the head of the group outside, wearing his magician's hat, a black cape with silver moons and stars that matched the hat, and a black mustache that Alice had drawn on his upper lip with a makeup stick.
When Lee reappeared, Philip turned to his audience and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen! You are about to enter into the Unknown! As your Guide to the Unknown, I assure you that nothing you see will harm you . . . or will it?" Philip cackled evilly.
The boys at the back of the group smirked and rolled their eyes, and the girls giggled nervously.
As Philip led the group inside, Lee looked around uneasily. The Agency van was still outside. The storm seemed to have passed, but somehow, things still felt off somehow. He thought about going down to the van to check on their status, but something told him not to. Antonia's parents were in the house with Amanda and Dotty, but Antonia was in the garage with the kids. If he left, even for a moment, she would unprotected, vulnerable.
Lee made up his mind. He went into the haunted house, after the kids.
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Stefan was nearby, watching. He had crouched by the back door of the house, listening to the boy's silly ghost story. Then, he had seen the children go to the garage in two groups.
The first group, he assumed were the actors, ready to play the parts of ghosts to scare the other children. Antonia would be one of those. There were only two girls in that group, one dressed as a witch and the other dressed as some kind of ghost, all in white. Which one was she?
The second group of children was led by a boy dressed as a magician of some sort. There was a man there, looking after the children, the same man Stefan had seen at the airport and at the hardware store and the electronics shop with his sons. If he hadn't been at the airport, Stefan would have thought that he was just another of his brother's neighbor. But, if he was there to meet Anton, he probably worked for the government in one way or another. He was probably the one who was responsible for getting the agents to keep an eye on Anton.
When Stefan had first learned that Anton had moved to this area, he hadn't imagined that they would actually have him living close to one of their own people. The man's presence was dangerous. Stefan hadn't counted on him being here tonight, and he'd been hoping for plenty of other people going from house to house, trick-or-treating, to provide a distraction.
The man stood alone outside the door to the garage. He looked down the driveway and seemed to be thinking of something. If Stefan had a gun, he might have shot him, although the men in the van would surely hear it if he had. The only weapon Stefan had was a knife, in his pocket.
Stefan was trying to decide what to do when the man went into the garage after the children. He waited a moment to see if the man would come right out again, but he didn't. Stefan crept closer to the door, hugging the side of the building. In the men in the van saw him, they gave no indication of it. They were probably watching the house more than the garage.
Stefan opened the door to the garage and looked inside. He saw the black curtains that he had seen before and the colored lights overhead. There were sounds of evil cackles and shrieks. The lights flickered, and the children screamed. Stefan supposed that they were having a good time, although it all seemed strange to him.
The man was nowhere to be seen. Stefan realized that if he was careful, he might be able to avoid the man and the other children in this small maze. Antonia was bound to be one of the last to leave . . .
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The first short hallway in the haunted house led off to the right of the door and had a bend in it.
"Did you just feel something?" one of the girls asked.
"Are these spider webs?" asked another, brushing thin strands away from her face.
It was one of the haunted house tricks that Philip had read about, hanging thin black threads so they would brush against the faces of the people who walked past.
"Possibly," their Guide to the Unknown said. "You never know what might be lurking in the darkness."
They rounded the bend and the girls shrieked when they saw the giant spider hanging there.
"Oh, that's just Lucifer," Philip said in a creepy voice. "You needn't worry. He just ate the last people to come through here."
"We're the first people to come through here," one of the older boys said.
"So you think," Philip taunted back. "You might just be the first who were able to leave."
The older boys rolled their eyes and bravely strutted past the spider the girls had ducked under. Lee, who was trailing behind the group, could see what they were doing. They were big boys now, and they weren't going to let any cheesy haunted house set up by their friend spook them. At least, not in front of the girls, they weren't!
The hallway led into the first room, which the Guide to the Unknown called The Dark Forest. He'd borrowed some garlands of fake leaves that Dotty had bought a few years ago for her harvest-themed Halloween and hung them up to give the impression of tree branches overhead. Jamie had a blue light shining down, mingled with a black light. When they came upon the witch stirring her cauldron, her face and the bones around her neck glowed. Jamie had propped her cauldron up with a couple of logs and put an orange light underneath so it looked like fire.
Alice the witch cackled. "Come children! Step into my cauldron! I haven't eaten in so long!"
"Watch out!" Philip said. "Skinwalkers use the bones of the dead to cast their evil spells."
"Skinwalkers?" one of the skeptics at the back of the group asked. The older boys were still refusing to be impressed by anything.
"Navajo witches," Philip explained. "They look like normal humans, but they can change into animals whenever they choose. Then, they use the bones of the dead to curse the living!"
The older boys started to laugh, but Mark, in full costume and decked out with more of Alice's glowing bones, jumped down from the chair in his hiding place behind them. He yelled and howled like a crazed animal while Jamie flashed the blue light on and off and played the sounds of thunder.
"Woah!" one of the boys yelled. Another actually shrieked and shoved against the girl behind him. The girls all screamed, and the oldest boy in the group laughed bravely.
As the group backed away from Mark, they backed right into Antonia. She came out of the corner where she was hiding, her costume glowing all over.
"Wheeeerrre are my chiiiiildren?" she wailed in her Romanian accent. "Wheeeere are my chiiiildren!"
It was an eerie sight, and the other kids in the group couldn't look away.
"In my cauldron, in my cauldron!" chanted the witch. "All the children! In my cauldron, in my cauldron!" Alice's voice wasn't loud, but the chanting was creepy.
The kids didn't know whether to look at the witch or the wailing woman.
"Wheeeeere are my chiiiildren!" Antonia wailed again.
Mark gave another wild yell and shook his bones at the other kids, tossing some of them in the air.
"More bones!" shrieked Alice, pulling out another string of glowing bones from her cauldron. "More bones! More bones of the dead!"
"This way!" Philip called to the group, leading them on to the next room before they could become too accustomed to this one.
Lee was relieved to see that Antonia was safe and enjoying her role in the haunted house. He didn't see the dark figure lingering behind the curtains, watching. The dark figure recognized the wailing woman's accent. He crouched in the darkness and waited to see what would happen next as Lee followed the children into the next room.
The mad scientist's chamber was full of flashing lights, from the Christmas light computer to the plasma globe to the yellow, red, and green lights that Jamie switched on and off, apparently at random. There was a black light directly over Tom's head, making his white lab coat and shaggy white wig glow. The sound effects changed to the bubbling of various concoctions and the zaps of electricity.
"Gooood eeeevening!" Tom said to the other kids. "Step into my lab! You're just in time to see me finish my experiment."
The other kids drew closer. The girls peered at the body lying on the table. A couple of the boys couldn't help but put their hands on the plasma globe.
"This is awesome!" one of them said.
Tom knew that they would probably do that, and he was ready for it.
"No!" he cried. "You mustn't do that! It's too soon! The energy! I haven't attached the head yet!" He held up the papier-mâché head.
Andy saw the head in his hands and sat up with a groan. The girls shrieked and jumped back, bumping into the boys in the close confines of the "lab." Andy groaned again, and putting out his hands, he got off the table and shuffled toward the crowd. He didn't have a lot of shuffling room, but he did his best. The older boys laughed at how awkwardly the monster rose from the table, but the girls were still screaming and trying to get away from him as he lumbered forward.
"This way!" Philip shouted, leading them all toward the way out.
"Run!" Tom shouted.
The monster groaned.
As the kids ran through the short hallway that led back toward the door, hands reached out through the black curtains, as if they were trying to grab the kids as they ran past. It was another of Philip's ideas. Mark and Tom were the ones doing it, making sure the exit was as scary as the entrance. The girls screamed and the boys were laughing.
"That was fun," Jeff said when they got outside.
"I thought you said that you weren't scared," Philip said. He'd been annoyed when the boys had laughed at parts of the haunted house.
"I wasn't," Jeff said.
"Yeah," Ben said. "He always shrieks like a girl when a werewolf jumps out at him."
"It was a Skinwalker," Jeff said with dignity.
"It was still fun," Adam said. "The girls were kind of scared. Next time, you should invite more of them to come."
The other boys grinned at Philip, and Philip grinned back thoughtfully.
"You've got a point," he said.
The haunted house experience had gone pretty well, Lee thought. It would have disappointing if the kids hadn't been able to do it after all their hard work, but part of him was relieved that it was over. The wind was picking up again, and Lee still had that nagging feeling that something wasn't right.
He went back into the haunted house, where Tom and Mark were helping Andy out of his costume.
"Hold your hands up," Mark said, trying to pull off the coat so they could get to Andy's shoulder pads.
"What?" Andy asked.
"I said-"
"Maybe we should take him back inside like this," Tom suggested. "It's a pretty good costume, so he might as well show it off more."
"What?" Andy asked.
"I don't know if he's really enjoying it like that, guys," Lee said.
"I kind of am," Tom said with a grin.
"What?" Andy asked.
"Why don't you guys take him back to the house and help him out of his costume there?" Lee suggested. Something about the haunted house was bothering him now that most of the children were gone. He wasn't sure what was wrong, but something was, and he felt like he had to get the remaining children out as quickly as possible.
"Okay," Mark said. "Come on, Andy."
"What?" Andy said.
Tom picked up the flashlight that he'd brought into the haunted house and followed the two of them out. Lee went looking for Jamie and the girls.
Alice was still in the dark forest room, picking up her glowing bone beads. Mark had scattered the ones he'd been wearing on the floor.
"Alice, where is Antonia?" Lee asked.
"She went upstairs to talk to Jamie," Alice said.
"The storm is getting worse again," Lee said. "I think you'd better go back to the house. Take your flashlight. I'll help Antonia and Jamie finish up here."
Lee's uneasy feeling was getting worse. The sound effects were still playing even though Jamie should have turned them off by now. What was happening up in the loft?
Alice left with her flashlight, and Lee started toward the stairs to the loft. He slipped his hand inside his coat, ready to pull his gun if necessary. His heart thumped underneath his holster. He had no idea what he would find at the top of the stairs.
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Things seemed to be working out well for Stefan, or so he thought as he crouched in the darkness of the children's haunted house. He now knew which girl was Antonia. The accent was a dead giveaway. She was the phantom girl all dressed in white, wailing about lost children.
The man following the children through the haunted house hadn't spotted him. With luck, he might yet spirit Antonia out of there without being caught.
Luck was with Stefan again as most of the children left the haunted house. In the room he was watching, only three children remained. The boy dressed as some kind of weird animal wearing fake bones tossed the bones on the floor and ran out after the others. The girl dressed as a witch started to pick the bones up, and Antonia said something to her about going to talk to "Jamie."
Stefan had to crouch further into the folds of the black curtains as Antonia ran past him and ducked behind another curtain. Stefan slowly crept forward and looked where she had gone. There was a staircase hidden behind the curtain that led to the floor above. Stefan didn't know who Jamie was, but as far as he was concerned, the situation was perfect. Antonia was cornered. All he had to do was to keep her up there with her friend until the others left. Then, he could take her away with him.
He moved slowly up the stairs. They creaked slightly under his weight, but with the weird sound effects that filled this garage, no one would hear them.
At the top of the stairs, he could see Antonia sitting on the floor next to a boy. The boy was surrounded by cords and switches and a tape player that was making those strange sounds. There was a flashlight on the floor next to him, but otherwise, the room was very dark.
"Lee?" the boy asked, turning to look at Stefan.
Stefan pulled the knife from his jacket pocket. "Neither of you move!" he hissed. "Don't you make a sound!"
Antonia opened her mouth as if to scream, but Stefan said, "Don't you dare!"
"Who are you?" the boy, Jamie, asked quietly.
"That is no concern of yours," Stefan said. "You both will just sit there quietly until everyone leaves."
"He's one of my uncles," Antonia said softly. Her voice suddenly lacking the Romanian accent that had identified her for Stefan. "He's a resistance fighter in Romania."
Stefan moved closer to the children. "That's right, child. Do you remember me? I held you when you were small."
"I remember you from the school," Antonia said. "Jamie was there when you tried to grab me."
"I don't mean you any harm, Antonia."
"And that's why you're holding a knife," Antonia said. There was a hard edge to her voice.
Stefan chuckled. "You're right. I want you to come with me, and I couldn't risk anyone trying to stop me."
"What are you going to do with her?" Jamie asked.
"I'm taking her home, to Romania."
"She is home. She lives here." The boy spoke boldly, although it was still very much a boy's voice, not a man's.
"You don't understand!" Stefan hissed. "You don't know what's like to fight for your country every day, to risk death so that your country and your people can live under the 'freedom' that you Americans say that you prize. People like Anton Petrescu run and hide, thinking only of themselves. They want to enjoy freedoms that they haven't earned, raising their children in foreign countries while their own country suffers! Do you even remember Romania, Antonia?"
The children had backed away as far as they could from Stefan, scooting back along the floor until they sat with their backs to the wall just beneath the window. Stefan took another step toward them.
"I know you must be frightened, Antonia," Stefan continued. "But you needn't be. There are people in Romania who remember you, who have missed you all these years. We want a great future for our country, and you're going to be part of it. I just need you to convince your father to help."
Stefan didn't hear the man approaching behind him. He only saw something change on the boy's face. The boy didn't move his head, but his eyes widened in surprise. By the time Stefan turned around, the man already had his gun drawn.
"Drop your knife!" the man barked.
"Or what?" Stefan sneered. "You'll shoot? The children are behind me. If you shoot here, you could hit one of them." He took another step back, moving closer to the children.
"Drop your knife," the man said firmly, taking another step closer to Stefan.
Stefan also moved back a step. "Maybe you don't care about the children."
"Drop the knife!" the man insisted, moving forward again.
Stefan stepped backward. "I wo-AAAAAAAaahhhhh!"
Stefan had been so focused on the children that he hadn't paid attention to where the trapdoor was. Backing up, he stepped through the open hole. One foot was still on the attic floor, and the other was dangling in open space. He had to drop the knife in order to grab the edge of the trap door in order to avoid falling through the rest of the way.
Quick as a flash, Jamie grabbed the dropped knife.
"Good work!" Lee said.
Stefan struggled to pull himself up again. As he flailed, he reached out toward Jamie and the knife. Lee kicked Stefan's supporting leg, and he fell through the trap door to the concrete floor below.
"I warned you that trap door was dangerous," Lee said to Jamie. "Your mother's right about that."
Antonia leaned over to peer at her uncle through the opening. "He's moving!"
Lee looked down and saw Stefan getting unsteadily to his feet. He limped off in the direction of the side door. Lee swore.
"I'll take care of it," Lee said. "You two, stay here."
Lee charged down the steps, taking short cuts through the curtains as he followed Stefan.
Outside, Philip and Alice were approaching the garage, Philip lighting the way with his flashlight.
"I wonder what's taking them so long," Philip said.
Stefan burst out of the garage door, limping. He knew that he couldn't jump the fence again with his injured leg. He had no choice but to try to make it down the driveway to the sidewalk. He also knew that he didn't have much time before the men in the van spotted him. Spotting Alice, he grabbed her, thinking that he could use her as a shield to keep the security team back until he could get to Vasile and make his escape. Alice screamed as Stefan grabbed her and tried to push her along in front of him.
Suddenly, there was a heavy weight on Stefan's back and someone yelling in his ear. Something hard hit him in the side of the head, shining its light in his eyes. Stefan's injured leg gave out under the extra weight, and he toppled to the ground, his breath going out of him as he hit the driveway. Alice also fell to the ground, hitting the wet pavement with a hard smack.
Lee arrived in time to see Alice sitting on the driveway, just staring at Philip, who was sitting on Stefan's back, holding his flashlight and pinning Stefan to the ground. The men from the van were running up the driveway. Lee managed to tuck his gun back into his holster before Philip could turn and see it.
"You can get up now, son," Agent Wheeler said, helping Philip to his feet while Agent Johnson cuffed Stefan.
"Wow, it's the police!" Philip said, recognizing Wheeler as one of the "plainclothes policemen" from the incident at the school. "Were you guys staked out here the whole time?"
The agents looked at each other.
"Well," Wheeler said, "there are always pranksters out around Halloween. We were just checking the neighborhood to make sure everything was alright."
"Glad you were here, officers," Lee said.
Looking past them, Lee saw a gray car drive off down the street. With a sinking feeling, Lee suspected that Vasile had seen the men running to catch his brother and had decided to take off. Was he still a threat?
Philip went over to Alice and helped her up as the Agency men walked Stefan down to their van. The palms of her hands were skinned where she tried to catch herself as she hit the ground.
"Come on," Philip said gently. "I'll help you get cleaned up."
"That's a good idea," Lee said. "Take her inside, and tell your mother I could use her help out here."
Lee spoke to the agents, arranging for them to send another security team to take over when they took Stefan back to headquarters for questioning. With Vasile still on the loose, Lee didn't want to leave either the Petrescu house or the King house unguarded.
When Amanda came to see what was going on, Lee explained everything to her.
"I can't believe that I missed everything! Philip is already bragging to the other kids about how he saved Alice and stopped a runaway criminal," Amanda said as they went to the garage to tell Jamie and Antonia that it was safe to come back to the house now. "I don't know what I'm going to tell everyone's parents."
"How about that everyone had a great time, Philip is a hero, and that Dotty's idea for a neighborhood watch is a good one?"