Chapter 4

Little Heath thought he had outgrown being afraid of anything, but now he knew different. His brother was gone, his father was gone, and he was alone in this falling down hotel his father's aunt and uncle had owned once long ago. Sure, he'd laughed at Nicky when his little brother talked about being afraid of ghosts, but now Little Heath had to admit, he was just as scared, because soon it would be getting dark.

He didn't know what to do. He hadn't heard his father's voice in a long time. His father told him to stay here, but he'd been gone for nearly half an hour and surely he expected to be back before now. His father didn't mean for him to stay here if he didn't come back, did he? But where should he go? Should he just wander from building to building in this terrible, ugly place until he found his father or Nicky?

What in the world had happened to them? Had the ghosts gotten them? No, there are no ghosts, Little Heath told himself.

But he couldn't stay there alone anymore. The sun would be going down anytime now, and then it would be getting dark. He had to look for his father and Nicky while he still could, so he went out into the street. He stopped in the middle, in front of the hotel, and he yelled.

"Papa! Papa, where are you?! Nicky! Nicky, it's Heath, answer me!"

No one answered him, not even the wind. The air was hot and still and no voice was carried on it. Heath thought he was going to start to cry.

But he fought it off. He started up the middle of the street toward the end of town they had come in from, yelling all the way, then waiting for a voice to answer. He didn't hear anything.

But he saw something, out of the corner of his eye. Something at the corner of a building. Someone watching him. He stopped. His heart pounded. He saw someone in the shadows.

XXXXXX

Nicky had begun to cry, and the more he cried the less he was able to get his bearings and get back to where he had left his father and brother. That didn't seem to make any sense. This town was not that big. He should have been able to remember what the building they had gone into looked like, but he didn't. Panic was taking away all his common sense.

"Papa! Heath!" Nicky called, but no one answered. For the longest time he wandered, calling but not loudly enough, getting no answer.

Then he saw someone, someone big, moving in the shadows. Terrified, Nicky ran in the opposite direction. He didn't watch where he was going, and he tripped and fell over some old wood. His hands hit the dirt before he did but he did not scrape anything. His ankle twisted oddly, though, and now it hurt. He sat up in the dirt and looked around for that big someone, certain that big someone was bearing down on him and he couldn't get away.

He yelled, "Help! Papa!"

Not hearing an answer, he got up onto his good leg and tried to limp away, but he didn't make it far before he had to lean against a building. Then he heard the voice.

"Nicky! Answer me!"

Nicky listened, and he looked and saw someone moving down the street. Calling him.

"Heath!" Nicky called.

XXXXX

When the form in the shadows called his name, Little Heath recognized his little brother and ran toward him. "Nicky!"

Little Heath hurried to support his brother, seeing that he was slumping in the shadows. He could see Nicky was dirty and crying and unable to stand up. "There's a man!" Nicky yelled. "Following me! There's a man!"

"Come on," Little Heath said and supported his brother as they hobbled together back up the street to the hotel.

As soon as they stumbled through the door, Little Heath put his brother into the broken down sofa and hurried to the desk where the lamp was sitting. He looked everywhere for the oil and matches and found them behind the desk, but the matches were so old Little Heath wasn't sure they would work. He heard his little brother sniffling across the room as he poured some oil into the lamp and tried to light a match. It took three tries, but it did work. Now - would he have to wait for the lamp wick to soak up some oil?

The lamp lit, and Little Heath could see he hadn't put much oil into it. There just wasn't much oil in the bottle in the first place. He had an idea.

"You stay here," Little Heath said. "I'm going to put some of this old wood in the street and light a fire. There's a lot of dry wood around here. We can keep the fire going all night."

"I want to go with you!" Nicky yelled.

"No, you stay here, I'll be right back!"

"Where's Papa?"

"I don't know. Just stay here. I'll be right back and we'll talk about what to do."

Nicky calmed down when Little Heath said they would talk. Little Heath put a comforting hand on Nicky's shoulder before he carried the lamp outside.

Little Heath gathered some broken wood and put it in a pile in the middle of the street. Using the lampfire, he was able to light the wood pretty easily – it was really dry. He gathered up more wood and put it in a pile on the boardwalk in front of the hotel, where it would be handy to keep the fire going. Then he went back into the hotel.

Nicky was calm now. Little Heath knelt on the floor in front of him and said, "Did you hurt your leg?"

"My ankle," Nicky said. "I twisted it."

Little Heath sighed. "I'm not gonna take your boot off in case it swells up. But maybe you didn't really hurt it too bad. Now, what's this about somebody following you?"

"I saw a big shadow coming after me. That's how I hurt my ankle."

"Well, I didn't see anybody out there now."

"But I did see him!"

"Maybe it was just a shadow and you just thought it was coming after you."

"It moved!"

"There's nobody out there now! But we have to find Papa. He went looking for you and now I don't know where he is. Where did you go, anyway? Why didn't you come right back here like Papa told you to?"

"I got lost when I came out of the outhouse. I didn't know what building you were in."

"It's the one right next to the outhouse!"

"I didn't remember!"

"Why didn't you call out?"

Nicky started to feel like he was going to cry again. "I did! You didn't hear me!"

Little Heath stood up. "All right, all right. I think we better look for Papa. He has to be around here somewhere."

"You don't think the shadow – "

"No, I don't think the shadow got him. Shadows don't 'get' people."

"Maybe it was a – "

"It was not a ghost! There are no ghosts!"

Nicky quieted down again, but only because he was making his brother mad.

Little Heath sighed. "Can you walk? We need to see if we can find Papa."

"I think so," Nicky said.

Little Heath helped him up. "Let's put a little more wood on that fire and go looking. We won't split up, got that? We're staying together."

Nicky nodded.

Little Heath put his arm around his brother. "Okay. Let's go."

XXXXX

At first, all Heath knew was that his head hurt, and then when he tried to push himself up his leg hurt. He ended up sitting back down, his head spinning as well as hurting and his leg in an awkward position. Then he woke up fast and hard.

He felt for his leg. Not broken, but his knee was out of place, and it hurt like the dickens. Something ran into his eyes, and he felt for it. It was almost too dark to see but he saw blood when he took his hand away. He wiped his eye and looked around, trying to figure out where he was.

Down in a hole was where he was, and he remembered. The floor had given way and he was falling and then he was here, looking up from a basement, up to where he had been before. Now he was sitting among the remains of the floor that fell down in here with him. He was stuck, in a basement, with his leg hurt and blood running from the top of his head into his eyes.

"Heath! Nicky!" he yelled as loud as he could. "Answer me! Nicky! Heath!"

He remembered leaving Little Heath in the remains of the hotel while he tried to find where Nicky had wandered off to. He remembered making it to the old saloon, and that was where the floor gave way. But he had no idea if Little Heath was still at the hotel, or where Nicky had gotten to. He didn't know if either boy could hear him yelling.

Yet, what else could he do? "Heath! Nicky! Answer me!"