Free House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo Page A

I’m not going in there.”
    David let out an exasperated breath. “I was going to scare you. I went in there and closed the door.”
    â€œI told you I looked.”
    â€œSomething happened. I went somewhere.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œJust go. Please?”
    Xander looked from his brother to the closet. He shook his head. “This is some kind of trick.”
    David’s eyes got big. “It is ! But not like you’re thinking.
    Do it!” When he realized Xander wasn’t budging, he said, “Okay. Just do what I do. Promise?”
    Xander closed his eyes. “Okay, okay.”
    David stepped into the closet and turned around. He pulled the door partially shut, said, “Do what I’m doing exactly.” He shut the door.
    Xander waited. “Okay?” he said to the door. “David?” He opened the door. His brother was gone.

CHAPTER

seventeen
    THURSDAY, 2:36 P.M.
    The closet shelves were empty. The walls seemed intact. The ceiling and floor showed no sign of harboring a vent or door.
    David was just gone. There one second, not there the next.
    Xander stepped in and felt the shelves. They were solidly mounted. He poked at the walls, on the sides, and behind the shelves. They felt firm and unmoving. “David,” he called.
    He sighed. “All right, I’m doing exactly what you did.”
    He pulled the door completely closed. Blackness engulfed him. The floor seemed to move as though the closet were an elevator. But his stomach didn’t lurch the way it did on elevators. A wind swirled around him and was gone. He felt dizzy. Someone wrapped his arms around him and squeezed.
    â€œDavid?” he said.
    But then he realized it wasn’t a someone . The walls of the closet had squeezed in, becoming so narrow he had to turn sideways. Slits appeared in the closet door. Level with his eyes. Light poured in, blinding him.
    â€œDavid!” he yelled, panicked now. He pushed against a side wall. It flexed a little and made a metallic popping sound.
    He pushed his behind into the back wall. The same kind of flexing. The same sound. He pushed his palm into the front door. It felt like cold metal. “David!” he screamed again.
    A metallic click and thunk . The door opened, but its width was now no more than eighteen inches. David stood smiling, holding the door, a step below him. Beyond David, sunlight came in from huge windows. This was not the second-floor hallway. He peered around. He was standing in something like a metal coffin. A coat hook almost snagged a nostril.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” he said to David. “Where are we?”
    â€œStep out and look.”
    Xander squeezed through the metal threshold and stepped down to a tiled floor. He was standing in a short corridor.
    To his right, the corridor met another, wider hallway, which
    disappeared around a corner. He walked to the corner. Windows lined one wall running the length of the hallway. What lay beyond seemed familiar to Xander, but he couldn’t immediately place it. He turned to see what he had just emerged from. It was a locker, one of a series that occupied the entire wall. They were all painted bright blue.
    He said, “What the—”
    â€œWe’re in the school!” David said.
    â€œWhat school?”
    â€œOur school. The one we’re going to next week.”
    Xander recognized it now. Outside the windows was the school’s yard of lush grass and picnic tables. Beyond that, the parking lot. In fact, Xander realized, their 4Runner was in one of the slots. He pushed his face close to David’s and whispered, “Dad’s here.”
    â€œWhat do we do?” David asked.
    Xander smiled. “Let’s look around.” He walked back to the locker and shut the door. “Remember this number. One-nineteen.” That made him think of something. He asked David, “That is how you got back, right? Through the