Moonlight Secrets Read Free Page B

woman’s cold, distant voice.
    â€œ. . . pay. If you took what is mine, you will pay.”
    Jamie clicked off the tape player. She held it tightly in her lap and turned to me. “You know what this means, don’t you, Lewis?”
    â€œNo. What?” I said.
    â€œSomeone was trying to contact us. Trying to connect with us. We have no choice. We have to go back there.”

4
    Jamie and I didn’t get back to the grounds of the Fear Mansion for another week. She had the flu for a few days, and I had to go with my family to visit my cousins near Detroit.
    The next Friday night, we both sneaked out of our houses a little after one in the morning and met on Fear Street. To my surprise, a lot of work had been done in the short time we were away.
    The ground was still littered with roof shingles and shards of window glass. But most of the bricks from the walls, the floorboards, and the slabs of sheetrock had been hauled away.
    And as Jamie and I made our way over the front yard, we saw a mountain of dirt beside adeep hole. The workers had begun to dig a foundation for the new building.
    Stepping over broken shingles, we made our way to the edge of the hole and stared down. Jamie held her tape recorder in one hand. She grabbed my arm with the other hand and held on to me.
    A dog barked somewhere down the street, the only other sign of life. We were surrounded by dark trees, still in a windless night.
    â€œThis mansion had such a reputation,” Jamie said softly. “So many rumors and stories. And now look at it. It’s just a pile of dirt and a hole in the ground.”
    â€œDid you play the tape for Christa and Elena?” I asked.
    She shook her head. She had a floppy, purple cap over her hair. She wore a baggy sweater pulled down over her jeans and had a long scarf wrapped around her neck. “I was sick, remember? I told them about it, but I couldn’t play it for them.”
    â€œAaron and Whitney said they were here Wednesday night,” I told Jamie. “I didn’t tell them about the ghost or anything. No way they’d believe me.”
    â€œWhat were they doing here?” Jamie asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. She let out a soft cry and dropped to her knees.
    She stared into the hole. “Hey, Lewis—what’s that down there?”
    I squatted beside her. At first I didn’t see anything. But then I saw a dull sparkle in the dirt. “Just a piece of metal, I think.”
    â€œNo,” she whispered, leaning into the hole. “It’s a jewel. Some kind of jewel.”
    I squinted into the darkness. The object had a blue glow.
    Jamie lowered her feet into the hole and started to slide down the side. “I’ve got to check it out,” she said. “Look. It is a jewel. I think it’s a pendant or a pin.”
    â€œNo—wait!” I shouted. “What’s that ?” I pointed.
    Something curved and pale poked up from the dirt floor of the hole. “Jamie—wait.”
    She saw it too. She stopped her slide, but remained perched on the edge with her feet dangling down. “Whoa, Lewis—” She let out a sharp cry. “Is it a bone?”
    â€œI . . . think so.” I poked my head over the side of the hole. A cloud rolled away from themoon. Yellow light washed over us, and suddenly the floor of the hole came into sharp focus.
    And I saw bones . . .
    . . . a lot of bones—ribs, maybe. Two sets, side by side. And a long arm bone poking up from under the ground. And beside the ribs, two skeletal hands, curled tightly as if gripping the dirt.
    â€œAre they human?” Jamie asked in a tiny voice. “Human bones?”
    â€œYeah,” I murmured. It was suddenly hard to breathe. I had to force air in and out of my lungs. “Human bones. Two skeletons, I think. Let’s go, Jamie. I think we should—”
    â€œFears!” Jamie exclaimed.