The Twin They Erased novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Bell Rope

The trapdoor was painted shut, and I opened it with the handle of a stolen spoon.

I worked the blade into the crack and levered it until the paint split with a crack that I thought the whole school would hear.

Nobody came.

I stood on the bed frame and pushed up with both hands.

Dust and old pigeon feathers came down on my face, and then the trapdoor lifted and I pulled myself through.

The bell chamber was open on all four sides, with slats instead of walls, and a huge dark bell hung in the middle of it.

I had lived under that bell for three years and never once seen it.

Cold air came through the slats and it smelled of pine.

I could see the whole valley below, the town lights and the black ridge.

On the east side a rope was tied to an iron ring and dropped over the sill into the dark.

I tested the knot twice.

Then I took off my school shoes, tied them together by the laces and hung them around my neck.

I went over the sill backward with the rope wrapped around my wrists.

For ten feet it was easy.

At twenty my palms began to burn, and the rope was rough and wet from the night air.

At thirty my arms started to shake, the same shake they'd had every day for three years, and I told myself this was only the beam.

The last six feet I let go and fell.

Hands caught my shoulders from behind, and then let go at once.

"Rule two," Eamon said, very quietly.

"You caught me."

"I caught a rope." He bent and picked up my shoes, which had fallen off my neck. "Come on. Truck's behind the hedge."

We drove with the headlights off until the road turned.

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