“This hallway must lead to a way out,” Watch said, nodding ahead. “Or at least it must lead to one now. I feel a draft of outside air.”
“I would rather go under the moat than try to swim across it,” Sally said.
“How did you get across it in the first place?” Adam asked.
“I told the guard I was a personal friend of the witch and that I had an appointment.” Sally shrugged. “He was a troll. He was pretty stupid. He lowered the drawbridge for me.”
The ground convulsed again. All three of them were almost thrown to the floor.
Behind them the stairway collapsed in a pile of rubble. Adam helped Sally regain her balance.
“That decides it,” Adam said. “We have to go the way the others went. It’s
probably the smart thing. They know this castle better than we do.”
“Yeah, but half of them are blind,” Watch remarked.
Yet they had no choice and they knew it.
They raced forward, down the dark underground hallway.
Up ahead, they could feel fresh air.
Yet behind them, they could hear the witch.
Her echoing cries. Cursing them.
17
The passageway emptied onto the surface of the cemetery. That was both good and bad. Good because they had to get to the cemetery if they were to escape through the interdimensional portal. Bad because the remaining corpses under the ground were climbing to the surface now that the world was coming to an end. As they ran toward the tombstone, a bony hand clawed up out of the mud and grabbed Sally’s ankle.
“Help!” she cried as the hand began to pull her under.
Adam and Watch leaped to her aid. Unfortunately, the skeleton had lost none of its strength with the loss of its muscle tissue. He was one strong corpse. They couldn’t pry Sally free. Her right leg vanished up to her knee and she became frantic. Adam took hold of her arms and felt himself being pulled under.
“Don’t let go of me!” she pleaded.
“I won’t,” Adam promised. “Watch!”
“What?”
“Do something!” Adam said.
“Like what?” Watch asked.
“Get one of those sticks,” Adam ordered, referring to the dead branches lying around. “Jam it between Sally’s leg and the skeleton hand. It might confuse the thing.”
“I’m not that skinny,” Sally said, fighting hard to stay on the surface. Slowly, steadily, Adam was losing his battle with the unseen monster. A few more seconds and Sally would be in a coffin.
“Hurry!” Adam snapped at Watch.
Watch found a suitably strong stick and stuck it down into the hole that had
widened as more and more of Sally’s body disappeared into it. But because he was working in the dark and in the mud, Watch had trouble wedging the stick between the hand and Sally’s ankle. Finally he found his mark. Sally let out a scream. Watch was, after all, using her calf bone as leverage.
“That hurts!” she complained.
“Getting chewed on hurts more,” Adam said.
“Getting boiled hurts more,” Sally said sarcastically. “I’ve heard it all before.”
She slapped Watch on the back as he struggled with the subterranean creature.
“Just get this thing to let go of me!”
“It would help if you didn’t disturb my concentration,” Watch said.
Sally slipped deeper into the hole and Adam almost lost his grip. “Adam!” she cried desperately.
“Sally!” he cried back.
“If you love me,” she pleaded, “stick your own leg in the hole. Maybe it will go for you instead of me.”
“He doesn’t love you that much,” Watch muttered when Adam made no move to offer his leg. Watch continued, “Just hold on a few seconds more. I think—Yes!
It’s taking the bait! It’s grabbed the stick. Pull your leg out, Sally!”
“Gladly!” she cried in relief. The moment the creature let go of her, Adam was able to yank Sally free. He helped brush the earth off her as she stood up. She pushed away his hands.