"Here goes."
Lightly he put his full weight onto the first step. There was a slight protest, but the structure held. He began the downward spiral. When he got about a third of the way down, the moorings protested by shifting suddenly with a loud, creaking groan. The entire staircase swung around about twenty degrees, but the base stayed in its socket.
Expecting to hear a crash any minute, Zanita called worriedly into the darkness.
"I'm okay. It just shifted. It's holding."
The rest of the trip down was accomplished very slowly. When Tyber reached the bottom, Zanita heard his boots clang off the stone floor and sighed a breath of relief.
"How far down is that, anyway? It sounds like you're in a dungeon."
Tyber glanced around him in the dim light. He was surrounded by damp stone walls and musty air. Dungeonlike enough for him. "Close to it."
"I'm coming down now—are you ready to catch the light?"
"Just a second." He positioned himself to one side of the staircase. "Okay, just lean over the side and drop it straight down."
She did.
He caught it securely. Knew he would. Zanita smiled to herself. Tyber was just that kind of guy.
He steadily trained the beam on her while she carefully made her way down the looping stairs. In a way she was glad that it was mostly dark; she couldn't see all the sharp spiral turns. All she could view was the narrow patch of stars that Tyber illuminated for her as she stepped down.
It took a few moments for her to realize that he had twisted the head of the flashlight, adjusting the beam to a sharp, narrow focus for just that reason. He was helping her get down those stairs.
As she'd said before, it was hard not to love someone who was so smart.
At one point the stairs shook slightly, but all in all she had no problem. At the bottom, Tyber winked at her and trained the now widened beam on the stone walls and down the corridor.
"Where do you think we are?" She spoke barely above a whisper. Just in case someone or some thing was listening. There was no telling how many critters with beady eyes might be down here, and she didn't want to disturb them unnecessarily.
"I think we're under that other wing we saw from the window," he said in a normal tone. "Todd had said that the window ledge led to a closed-up section of the house. This must be part of it."
Zanita peered around cautiously, walking on tiptoe.
He chuckled. "If you're worried about rats, forget it. You saw how meticulously Todd keeps the house and… you know, that is odd. If he keeps the house so clean, why close off the other wing and not clean it? It's bound to cause trouble with infestation; especially in the winter months."
"You just said there are no rats down here!"
"Well, I wouldn't think so. I was talking more about the webs."
"Yes, that is strange. I don't see any down here, do you? And another thing: He certainly seems to do all right with the inn, or at least he did before the hauntings started."
Tyber frowned at her word choice.
"Well, that's what it is until you prove otherwise, Doc. So why did he close off the other wing in the first place?"
Tyber flashed the beam toward the end of the path. "We have to turn right here. He did say he was planning on renovating soon. So that might explain it."
"I don't know… it doesn't ring true. You would think he would want to have it open to fill with guests as soon as possible. Money doesn't seem to be a factor for him. Why not do it all at once?"
An ear-piercing shriek shattered the quiet around them.
Zanita almost jumped on top of Tyber. "My god!"
It sounded again from behind them. A hideous, wailing cry. "What kind of unearthly creature could make a sound like that?"
"Hambone."
"Hambone?"
Tyber exhaled in resigned patience. "He must have slipped in beside you before I closed the door. The rogue."
"Hambone can make that kind of split-your-eardrums-crackle-your-bones sound?"
"Yes, if the circumstances warrant it. Wait here; I'll go get him. It will just take a minute."
"Oh, no, you don't! I'm not going to be that stupid. I'm going right with you."
"Why?
"Don't you ever pay attention to all those horror movies we watch? This is exactly how the first victim always gets it. The person is left alone for a 'moment' while someone else goes and gets something, and whammo! Victim Pate. And it's usually a woman, too. For the scream effect."
He was trying very hard not to laugh. "I think you've been watching too many of those Gonna Git You movies, baby. C'mon."
"Well, you have to admit the first one was good. After that they kind of lost it with the sequels: Gonna Git You in the
"Uh-huh." He placed his hand on the back of her neck and steered her back down the hall.
Sure enough, there was their scruffy orange tabby sitting halfway down the stairs, tail swishing as he waited patiently for rescue.
"Must've gotten halfway down and realized he didn't like it very much." Tyber went up to get him after giving Zanita the flashlight. "Come on, you scalawag."
Hambone hissed-purred as Tyber hoisted him up, but all in all looked pretty happy that his human had come back for him.
As they reached the bottom, Zanita swung the light around and jumped. She almost dropped the light. Written on the stone wall—in what looked like dripping blood—was the word
Nan
. It hadn't been there a few minutes ago when they first came through.
"What is it?" Zanita showed him by illuminating the stone.
"
Nan
? Is that someone's name? Short for
Nancy
?"
"How did it get here?" she whispered. "It wasn't here before when we came through."
"It was here and we just didn't see it."
She threw him a "try another one" look. "There is no way we would have missed that! It's a word printed in dripping red whatever!"
Tyber set the cat down and firmly took the light from her. "Get behind me, Curls. Right now," he said in a low, commanding tone.
She did as he bade, nervously peeking over his shoulder. "What is it? Do you see an apparition?"
Tyber's arm encircled her, and he slowly turned them both in a wide circle, training the light into every dark corner.
"No. Hambone didn't come in with us. Someone else let him in, which means…"
"We're not alone down here."
Tyber kept searching the dark nooks under the stairwell, keeping himself constantly in front of her. There was another partially hidden smaller passageway under the stairs to the left, but it appeared undisturbed. He exhaled. "I don't see anything, and the passage is too narrow for anyone to have gotten by us. Whoever it is must have written that on the wall and left, not realizing that Hambone had snuck in underfoot."
"Or the ghost opened the passage to purposely let the cat in after it wrote this message, knowing that the cat would cry out for help and we would see it."
Tyber choked. "Would you listen to yourself?"
"What?"
He arched that eyebrow.
"It's as plausible an explanation as yours, given our circumstances."
"I'm not even going to respond to that."
He began walking the pathway again, but stopped momentarily to examine the dripping letters.
"Is it blood?" She gagged.
"I don't know. It might be. Don't touch it."
Zanita and Hambone followed slightly behind. Both of them kept looking behind their shoulders every few seconds. It appeared that Hambone didn't like spooks either. Despite what Tyber thought, that yell from the cat was pure fright. She had once read that cats have a special sense of the paranormal, and many believe that they can see things that humans can't.
Besides, Hambone was a pretty fearless cat. His chewed-off ear was testimony to that. Whatever he had seen had scared him!
"I believe you, Hambone," she muttered to the pirate tabby.
Hambone acknowledged her with a meow-purr.
After turning right, the passageway went on for quite a while under the main part of the house.
They heard rapping noises from the walls as the passage continued along. "Where is it coming from, do you think?"
"My guess is that there are heating ducts on the other side of this wall. The ghostly raps are probably nothing more than expanding and contracting pipes."
Zanita bit her lip. "I don't know, Tyber. They don't sound exactly the same as the ones we heard last night."
"Well, they wouldn't on this side of a stone wall."
She had her doubts.
The passage suddenly veered to the left. They all followed along. Actually, Hambone was starting to trot, happy to be in on an adventure with them. Strange how cats could always tell that. They must have adventure-o-meters built in, Zanita marveled, snickering to herself.
The floor started to slope and they began walking up an incline. Suddenly the passage simply ended. A heavy wooden trapdoor was directly above them. Tyber opened it and hoisted himself through.
"Well. Well. Well."
"What is it?"
"Hang on to Hambone with one hand and I'll pull you up."
Zanita was a little apprehensive about lifting the irascible cat, but he seemed to understand and let her. Tyber pulled them up.
Muted light trickled down on them through wooden slats. Above them was another trapdoor.
"Where are we?" she wondered.
"We are right beneath our veranda, baby. Unfortunately, I can't lift that door because I dragged the hammock back over it last night; remember?"
She bit her lip. "Try it anyway."
He stared at her. "Okay."
He did, and much to his surprise, the door swung open.
"How did you know?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I had a hunch that whatever it was that led us back through the passageway wanted us to see those letters. Maybe someone else didn't."
"What do you mean?" He helped her out onto the veranda. She blinked in the bright sunshine then shivered. It was winter and they did not have any jackets on.
"We would have gone straight through—if not for Hambone. Maybe Calendula;s right; there are two ghosts here. One that wanted to give us either a creepy warning or clue, another that wanted to help us get through or prevent us from seeing those letters."
"Some of that may be right in regards to motive, but I think our source or sources are living, breathing entities, and I think they are working together."
"We'll see." She let the cat down. "At least
I'll
keep an open mind." She walked off the veranda and began to trudge around the side of the house. Their room was locked from the inside, and they would have no entrance this way.
"What do you mean?" Tyber came up quickly behind her. "Are you implying that I am not open-minded?"
"Yes. No. I don't know."
"Huh?"
"It's just that you have these nice little explanations for everything, and I'm not sure they fit all the time."
"Don't you think it's better to accept a logical explanation when there is one to offer?"
"Not necessarily."
"Why not?"
"Because it may not be the right explanation. And being a reporter, I want the truth. Whether it fits into your scientific paradigm or not."
He put his hands up in defense. "Whoa. I want the truth, too. But if there's a logical explanation for the things that have been happening here, I'm not going to embrace a half-baked theory instead."
"Don't get pissy with me."
"What? I'm not getting pissy! I'm simply trying to get you to understand that…"
"What?" She stopped and stared at him with her enormous violet eyes.
"That while some things are unexplainable, it doesn't mean that they are paranormal."
"Excuse me, but I thought that was a definition you just gave."
She was good, he thought. He laughed. "Perhaps. We'll see. I promised you to keep an open mind and I will."
"I love you." She smiled up at him, taking his breath away.
Hell, for this woman he'd debate with Ghoul, that happy-go-mad TV horror host.
He just hoped he wouldn't have to.
"Oooo. You look cold." Todd greeted them at the front door. "What were you two doing outside without your coats?" Before they could answer, he put up his hands.
"Stop. Don't want to hear any more. I know you're newlyweds…"
"Todd!" Zanita feigned embarrassment, for which Tyber gave her high marks. "Actually, we were investigating that secret passageway. You know, the one that leads from under our veranda to the landing on the top of the spiral staircase in the library."