CHAPTER 18: HOLD YOUR HEAD ABOVE THE GROUND
"Great," Joe groans. "More ancient enemies to deal with. Wait...you said he's Crane's son? How is that possible?"
He's wondering about the man's visible old age, I'm thinking. "How is any of the shit we deal with possible?"
"You talk about this 'Crane' guy," Nikki says, "but I still don't know who he is. An old friend? Well, yeah, stupid question, but-"
I hold up my hand. "No, Nikki, not a stupid question. Crane is...well, he's a singular man."
"Came from the Revolutionary War-" says Joe.
"Yeah," I add. "As in the American Revolution. He was, uh, frozen in time. Sort of. It's hard to explain...but the point is, he died and was revived in, uh, 2013. About 230 years later." I tap my head, trying to see if I've got my timeline correct. I think I do, so I press on. "When he died, he left his wife pregnant, and their boy, well, he got taken in by dark witches or something, and then the demon Moloch enchanted him and turned him against his father..." I blink, seeing Nikki's eyes glazing over as she looks beyond me and Joe. I could just be boring her with the details (most of which I don't even fully remember myself), but... "He's right behind me, isn't he?"
"No," Joe says, "but I think he's hearing us, so he's coming this way."
I swivel around rapidly, cross my arms, and stand up straight to maximize what little height I have, relatively speaking. "Whatever you're here for, Henry, stow it." I watch his eyebrows crinkle at the sound of my voice. "We're not here for the hangman's party. We're not even here permanently."
"I know that." His voice is still as unique as ever. Deep, melodic, and just a tad hypnotic. But I can't let myself be taken in.
"You're kinda in the way." I uncross my arms just long enough to make a small gesture with my index and middle fingers. Looks a little prissy, I know, but I don't mind. "Move."
"Or what?"
"You heard the lady." Nikki sticks her hand in her pocket, looking like she's about to grab some kind of weapon when we all know she has none. "You should listen."
"Yeah, I don't wanna have to Wendigo the shit out of you, Mr...Crane."
Henry visibly winces at Joe's deep cut. "You seek the way out of this world, do you not?" He gestures to the gallows where he was just playing master of ceremonies. "I know a shortcut."
I shake my head. "Uh-uh. We are not going down. We've been trying to go up this whole time. You're not foolin-"
"Sometimes," Henry intones, "up is down."
"Yeah, but this ain't one of those times." Joe is the first to walk past Henry and climb onto the wooden platform behind him. "Stop screwing around, Hank. You're just distracting us-"
Annoyed by yet another dumbass nickname, Henry clicks his fingers at the big, hooded man standing by the mechanism to open the platform's trapdoor.
"JOE! MOVE!" Nikki and I scream simultaneously.
He does, but a second too late. One of his feet is still on the trapdoor when it opens, and he tumbles right in, banging his arm on the way down. A loud, sickening crack is the last thing we hear before he vanishes from view.
"Dammit, Henry!" I run up to the platform myself and gaze into the trapdoor's depths, where beyond, all I see is what looks like infinite darkness.
"Maybe I was telling the truth about that shortcut," Henry says. "Or maybe I was lying. Either way, if you want to reunite with your dear friend Joe, I'd say-"
"Yeah, shut up." I sit on the edge of the trapdoor, waiting for Nikki to sit on the other side. "You ready?"
"Not really."
"Neither am I. Allons-y?"
She grins, grabbing my hand over the very center of the trapdoor's entrance. "GERONIMO!" she cries as we push ourselves over the edge simultaneously, dropping into the same darkness and following the faint sounds of Joe's distant yells.