Chapter 13: Forty Thousand Watching

The dark came back all at once, and it was exactly as heavy as I remembered.

I stopped breathing. Then I breathed too fast.

My knees folded and I sat down on the packed dirt with my arms over my head.

"Ronnie." Toby's voice came from my left, hoarse. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

I could smell coal dust and wet brick.

I was eight years old, and the door was shut, and nobody was coming.

"Count," I said through my teeth. "Count out loud with me."

"One," Toby said.

"Two."

"Three. Veronica, I've got you."

"Don't touch me."

I said it before I knew I was going to, and he stayed where he was.

I pulled my phone out with shaking fingers and woke the screen.

A thin white beam cut across the coal bin. It was the best thing I had ever seen.

It was also at two percent.

"Door," I said. "Get the door."

Toby went up the stairs two at a time and hit it with his shoulder.

The old white boards rang, and nothing moved.

"It's the bolt," he said. "She slid the bolt, Ronnie. It's on the outside."

"I know where it is. I've known where it is since I was eight."

Light flickered under the door. A phone's light, pink-tinted, from a pocket case.

"Don't be dramatic, you two," Lyla said, low and lovely. "Everybody stay calm."

Her voice was not aimed at us. It was aimed at something in her hand.

"Hi, everyone," she said, brighter. "Sorry to go live without warning. It's an emergency."

My stomach turned over.

"My best friend has had another episode. She dragged her brother down into the cellar of her childhood home, and now she has locked them in."

"I did not," I said, loud enough to shake the stairs.

"Listen to her, you guys." Lyla's voice cracked on cue. "She doesn't remember doing it. Look at that count. Forty thousand of you are here with me."

Toby hammered the door with both fists. "Lyla, open it! Right now!"

"Toby, honey, please. You're scaring her."

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