Junior's Luck - 15

The Barn

Photo by Lori Ayre at Unsplash.com

Links to previous chapters: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Summary of previous chapter, Chapter 14 - Secret Passageways

After Junior insists on exploring the secret passageways over Kelsey’s objections, the boys travel through the tunnel to a shaft that takes them to a first-floor passageway. They follow the passageway until it abruptly ends, causing Junior to bump into a partition. A man with a French accent in the room on the other side of the interior wall hears the noise. He argues with a second man who has an Oklahoma twang to his voice. Kelsey supposes it is the Frenchman he met when he and his father returned to the mansion to offer back the blueprints. He assumes the other man is Daniel Hartley.

Junior orders Kelsey to climb a ladder that leads to the next floor. Part way up, a slat that served as a rung breaks with a loud crack. Both men in the room hear the noise and suspect someone is in the secret passageways. Kelsey finishes climbing the ladder and helps Junior past the break and onto the second floor just before the wall below them erupts with the sharp sound of cracking wood accompanied by debris spattering against the floorboards below and an occasional pin and whiz. Kelsey interprets this as someone spraying the wall with bullets.

Chapter 15 - The Barn

The shooting stopped a few seconds later. From the floor below, the voices of Hartley and the Frenchman filtered through the ceiling. They argued, but Kelsey could not understand them.

"That was a machine gun with a silencer." Kelsey imagined bullets penetrating the boards on which he stood, ripping through his feet. "We have to get out of here."

Junior had his back to him, his arms outstretched, feeling along the edges of a door frame Kelsey noticed for the first time. Junior turned around, his eyes wide, his face stretched by a big smile, and said, "It's a secret panel."

Before Kelsey said or did anything, Junior slid his hand into a notch cut in the panel and jerked it open. He slipped through the gap, stuck his head out, and motioned for Kelsey to follow.

He's crazy, Kelsey concluded. I have the flashlight, and I'm not going in. He can't go far without light.

Junior withdrew into the darkness.. A click broke the silence and a wedge of light illuminated the passageway. It drew Kelsey to the opening, where he saw Junior standing in the middle of a walk-in closet, hanging on to a cord that dangled from a naked bulb overhead.

Now he got his first good look at Junior since they left the hospital. It frightened him. Junior resembled someone made-up for Halloween. The charcoal gray circles under his eyes contrasted ‌with his bloodless face. Perspiration glistened on his upper lip and forehead. The hand holding the cord twitched.

"You all right?"

"Neat, huh?" Junior surveyed the closet.

Except for the secret panel that formed the back wall of the enclosure, Kelsey saw nothing of interest: a few clothes hangers scattered along a wooden rod and a couple of empty shelves.

Junior stood by the closet door; his fingers clasped the glass knob.

"What are you doing?" Kelsey asked

"I already looked. No one's in the room." Junior had a mischievous grin planted on his lips. "Let's hunt for evidence."

In three steps, Kelsey was next to Junior. He touched Junior's cheek with the back of his hand. It confirmed what he suspected.

"Hey, don't!" Junior pushed Kelsey's hand away.

"You're burning up. You need to go to the hospital."

Junior's face revealed his disappointment at his friend's suggestion. He twisted the glass doorknob and unlatched the door. The light from the closet spilled into the room. Kelsey followed Junior through the open doorway.

A few boxes littered the wooden floor. Against one wall leaned a mattress and box springs. Standing in the center, looking lost, was a chest of drawers. Junior jerked out the top drawer. It was empty except for a paper liner. He checked the others and found nothing.

"I bet they hid the drugs in there." Junior pointed to the mattress and box springs.

They had started to inspect the bedding when the light dimmed and disappeared with a barely audible click. The closet door had swung closed. Kelsey fumbled with the flashlight. Before he switched it on, the sound of soft footsteps falling in quick succession came from the hall. Someone was running toward the room. He and Junior scurried behind the mattress and box springs as the person entered and closed the door.

Kelsey heard panting and whimpering. Who was it? Fortunately, whoever it was didn't bother to turn on the lights. Peeking around the mattress, he perceived the faint outline of a slender, graceful form. For a second, he wondered if it might be the ghost, but he remembered the footsteps and the door. Ghosts don't walk or run; they glide. And they pass through doors; they don't open them. Who was it?

More footsteps sounded in the hall. Quick and deliberate, they stopped outside the door. The person in the room sucked in air, making a squeaking sound.

In the silence of the next few seconds, Kelsey's heart beat against the bone and cartilage of his rib cage with such force that he crossed his arms around his chest, fearful the pounding would be heard. Sitting there waiting for something to happen, scared of getting caught, Kelsey's bladder began to ache. If he didn't pee soon, he'd wet his pants. But there was no safe place to relieve himself. He and Junior were trapped.

"Laura?" the person in the hall called. "Laura? Are you in there?"

Kelsey recognized the voice as Hartley's. He remembered Laura was the name of Hartley's fiance, the beautiful woman who had shown him and his father around the mansion the previous Saturday.

Laura sniffled and sobbed.

"Laura, let me in. You're all upset about nothing. Let me in. I'll explain."

"Nothing? You call a machine gun nothing? You call shooting up a wall nothing?

"Let me in. You're acting childish."

"Why is that man here? This is supposed to be our house."

"It will be, Laura. I promise. Now please, let me in."

Kelsey rooted for Laura not to let Hartley in. The darkness protected Junior and him for now. If Hartley entered, he'd turn on the lights for sure.

Laura didn't answer, and she didn't open the door. After a few moments of tense silence, there came a loud bang on the door, like Hartley had thrown a fist into it. It startled Kelsey, who was trying to ignore the urgent need to use the bathroom. He almost peed his pants right there.

"All right! Stay in there if that's how you want it. Jean is not leaving until his work is done."

"Then I'm leaving you!"

"You're not going anywhere. Too much money is at stake. Don't try to sneak off, either. Jean doesn't like deserters."

"Is he running your life now?"

Hartley didn't answer. Laura continued to sniffle.

In a gentle voice, Hartley said, "You'll understand when this business is over."

Hartley's footfalls carried him away from the door, down the hall, and into silence. Laura whimpered as if she were an abandoned child.

Kelsey wanted to comfort her. She's too beautiful to be treated that way, he thought. Hartley deserved to get into trouble, but first he and Junior needed to find evidence they could give to the police.

"Business?" Laura said to herself between sniffles. "What business is worth destroying what we have? What business needs that creep, Jean, with the machine gun? God! A machine gun. He makes inappropriate comments and looks at me in ways that offend me. Danny, oh Danny, open your eyes and see what's going on."

Laura broke down and cried. Her bawling grew so intense, Kelsey didn't think she would ever stop. But after a few minutes, she pulled herself together and left.

"Let's go," Kelsey whispered to Junior.

To Kelsey's surprise, Junior agreed. "I need more medicine."

Chilly air rushed about them, and a pale blue light filled the room. The mattress and box springs vibrated against the wall, chasing Junior and Kelsey out into the open, where Junior fell to the floor. Everything around them seemed to be alive and moving. The floorboards rippled in waves, the chest of drawers hopped around like a kangaroo, the drawers opening and slamming shut in a staccato percussion. The closet door flapped back and forth like a bird's wing against a stiff wind. Cardboard boxes rocketed to the ceiling, then fell back to the floor.

The blue light grew brighter. Kelsey shaded his eyes. A roaring tornado of rushing air whirled about them, faster and faster, pulling all the blue light into a concentrated funnel cloud in the middle of the room, a spinning blue-white glare surrounded by total darkness. All the while, the roaring grew louder until it became unbearable.

Kelsey turned away from the spectacle, dropped to the floor, and clapped his hands over his ears. He didn't remember seeing Junior. Junior had fallen. Had the blue tornado already sucked him up? Kelsey kept his eyes squeezed shut. He wanted to check on his friend, but he was too scared. The whirlwind sucked the air out of the room. Kelsey couldn't breathe. He was going to get sucked up, too. Where was Junior? Don't open your eyes. Can't breathe...

The roaring stopped, and stillness supplanted chaos. Kelsey opened his eyes and found himself enveloped in blue light. His ears rang in the deathly silence. He turned his head to one side. There lay Junior, his eyes closed.

Kelsey rolled over.

A gauzy, blue apparition floated before him. The ghost bobbed with the pulsing rhythm of a heartbeat. It had a well-defined head with long, flowing hair; shoulders, frail arms, and the sad but eerily attractive face of a young woman. The rest appeared as a tapering vapor.

"J-J-Junior! L-L-Look!" Kelsey reached over and tugged at Junior's sleeve. Junior didn't move. He lay on his stomach with his arms wrapped around his head.

"No!" Junior said in a muffled voice.

"Look! It's the blue ghost!"

"It's here to kill us. It wants to turn us into zombies."

"No, it doesn't." The sight of the ghost transfixed Kelsey. "It doesn't act mean."

The specter stretched its arms out to him, palms up, and uttered a cryptic command in a low, rumble, "Bring him to me. Bring him to me."

The apparition vanished, leaving the room cloaked in darkness.

Kelsey blinked. "Who was it talking about?" He nudged Junior. "Hey, it's gone. It just wanted to tell us to bring someone here, but it didn't say who? Hey! Come on!" He grabbed his friend by the arm and jiggled him. "You all right?"

Junior rolled over and sat up, shaking his head. "I must have fallen asleep or passed out. I had a weird dream."

"It wasn't a dream. It was the blue ghost; it was real."

Junior rubbed his eyes. "No ghosts. They were extraterrestrials. They had me in their spaceship."

"No! The blue ghost was over there." Kelsey pointed into the darkness.

"Yeah, sure. Let's get out of here. I need to take some medicine."

They slipped through the hidden panel and into the secret passage. At the rear of the mansion, they made a ninety-degree turn to the left and came to a partition. A trapdoor opened on a ladder down to the first floor and another trapdoor. Beneath it was a shaft that delivered them into a tunnel. It led to an intersection with another tunnel that veered off to the left at a forty-five degree angle.

Kelsey waited for Junior to say something. Up to that point, Kelsey had led the way, dragging Junior along behind, but out of habit, he expected Junior to decide whether to continue in the present tunnel or follow the other. Kelsey wanted to continue. If Junior said otherwise, he would object. But it had always been Junior's place to have the first word and the last.

Raspy breathing was all that came out of Junior.

"We should go straight ahead," Kelsey said in a tentative voice. He turned the flashlight on Junior, who squinted, shaded his eyes with his hand, and nodded approval.

The tunnel ended in a shaft similar to the ones they had encountered before.

"What do we do now?" Kelsey asked Junior, who slouched against the wall, resting.

"I got to—get to the—hospital."

"Okay, but this might open up in the middle of the yard and they'll see us. I don't know where we're at."

Kelsey had exaggerated. He was sure they weren't near the mansion. It seemed like they had been walking in a straight line away from it. At that moment, his stomach cramped. It reminded him of a matter he had been ignoring through all the excitement.

"I'll be right back."

"Where are—you going?"

"I got to pee real bad."

"No. Don't. They'll know we've—been here."

"Who cares if they find out?"

"They know who has—the blueprints, don't they?"

Junior was exhausted and sick, but he could out-think Kelsey any day. He had a point. The Frenchman might already be looking up Kelsey's address in the phone book.

"Okay, I guess I can wait."

Kelsey climbed the shaft and paused before he shoved against the trapdoor. What if he popped up in front of one of Hartley's men? Or worse, the Frenchman, Jean? He looked down at Junior slumped against the tunnel and took a deep breath.

The trapdoor offered no resistance, and Kelsey pushed it open. He crawled out onto a gritty concrete surface and found himself in a building that smelled of gasoline, dead grass, and dried wood. Moonlight filtered in through the cracks between the planks that formed the walls. The place resembled a barn with a loft, but there were no stalls or hay or animals. Kelsey recognized a riding lawn mower parked in a corner. An antique car, a Model A or T, or something like that, sat on the opposite side. Tools hung from the walls and rafters, and a pile of junk was stashed in another corner. Otherwise, the floor was clear of obstacles.

Kelsey helped Junior out of the shaft.

"This is a barn or garage. It's the building we saw near the back fence. How are you doing?"

Junior had closed the trapdoor and sat on it, his arms wrapped around his knees.

"Not too good. I'm breathing better, but I'm not doing so good."

"We can follow the fence to the bike and get out. Here." Kelsey offered a hand to Junior and helped pull him into a standing position. "Let's find a door." Kelsey clicked on the flashlight.

The beam splattered against the side of the structure. It was built like a barn: no insulation, no inside finishing work, just studs and cross-braces with planks of wood nailed to them that ran from floor to ceiling with sizable gaps between the boards.

Junior seized the flashlight and switched it off.

"Hey, what are you doing?" The image of the illuminated wall remained imprinted on the retinas of Kelsey's eyes. He assumed he was in charge. Now Junior acted like he wanted to be the leader again.

Kelsey grabbed for the flashlight. Junior held it out of reach.

"They'll see the light through the cracks," Junior explained.

Of course. Junior was right. Kelsey admitted to himself. How could he be so stupid?

"We'll have to feel our way around," Junior said.

That's what they did. They discovered two locked windows, one on either side, that had the panes painted over. Kelsey suggested breaking them. Junior said no; the noise would attract attention. They found a large double door that was secured from the outside. A padlock hung from a regular-sized door at the opposite end.

They were locked in.

"Junior, I can't wait any longer or I'll pee my pants." Kelsey didn't want to get caught or killed while wearing wet, stinky jeans.

He went over to an empty corner, unzipped his fly, and released a stream that splashed against the concrete. As he savored the growing relief of pressure on his bladder, the illuminated wall flashed on the screen of his mind. He saw a structure there he hadn't noticed before, a crude ladder of thick wood slats fixed to the studs leading to the loft. The loft! They might discover a way out in the loft.

Shafts of brilliant light shot into the twilight darkness of the interior. Tires ground on gravel. An engine growled. Brakes squeaked.

"Somebody's here!" Junior touched Kelsey's shoulder. "Come on, we’ve got to hide."

"Follow me," Kelsey said as he hurried to zip up.

*****

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