The Last Night

Marcus's POV (Alive)

Glass shatters somewhere in the town hall as I creep down the dark hallway. Someone else is inside the building. Someone who isn't supposed to be here at midnight.

I press my back against the wall and listen hard. Footsteps above me. Heavy boots walking across the old wooden floors. Then voices - angry whispers I can't quite understand.

My heart pounds like a drum. I should run. I should go home and pretend I never saw anything weird about this stupid town. But I can't. Not after what happened to my friend Jake last month.

Everyone said Jake drowned in the bay. Accidental death, they said. But Jake was on the swim team. He could swim better than a fish. And the cuts on his chest when they pulled him out of the water... those weren't from rocks or boat blades.

Someone killed Jake. And I think I know who.

I sneak toward the downstairs door, trying not to make the old floorboards squeak. The town hall has been here for over a hundred years, and it creaks like a spooky house. Perfect place to hide terrible secrets.

The basement door is meant to be locked, but it swings open when I touch it. That's weird. Mayor Davidson always keeps this door locked. Always.

I pull out my phone's flashlight and start walking down the stone steps. The air gets colder with each step, and it smells like something died down here a long time ago.

The basement is bigger than I expected. Way bigger. It stretches back into darkness like a cave. And the walls... oh man, the walls are covered with symbols I've never seen before. They're cut deep into the stone, and they make my eyes hurt to look at them.

I hear more footsteps upstairs. The sounds get louder. I need to hurry.

My flashlight beam sweeps across the far wall, and I see something that makes me want to throw up. Photos. Dozens and dozens of pictures of kids from our town. Kids I went to school with. Kids who died in "accidents" over the years.

But these aren't normal pictures. Someone drew red rings around each kid's face. Someone wrote dates next to their pictures. Dates when they died.

My hands shake as I look closer. There's Jake's picture with a red circle and last month's date. There's Sarah Kellerman from fifteen years ago. There's Tommy Morrison from when I was twelve. All the kids who had "accidents."

This isn't an accident. Someone has been planning these killings.

I try to take shots with my phone, but my flashlight suddenly dies. The floor goes completely black.

But wait. The marks on the walls start to glow with a soft blue light. They pulse like a heartbeat, getting brighter and brighter until the whole room looks like it's underwater.

That's when I hear the voice.

"Marcus..." It's coming from deeper in the basement. A woman's voice, but not quite human. It sounds old and hungry. "Marcus Thorne... come closer..."

Every smart part of my brain screams at me to run. But my feet move forward anyway, like I'm being pulled by unseen ropes. The glowing symbols get brighter as I walk deeper into the darkness.

"You've seen too much, boy..."

I try to turn around, but I can't. My body won't follow me anymore.

"Just like your friend Jake. He saw too much too."

Terror shoots through me like lightning. "You killed Jake!"

"We fed the town with Jake. Just like we've fed the town for over a century. Young blood keeps old places going."

I manage to turn my head and see her. Eleanor Blackwood steps out of the shadows wearing a long black robe. But her eyes are totally white now, like fog, and her skin looks gray and dead.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I love this town more than individual children. Because some sacrifices must be made to keep everyone else safe." Eleanor lifts her hand, and I see she's holding a stone knife. "Your death will protect three thousand other people, Marcus. Isn't that worth something?"

"You're crazy!"

"I'm practical." Eleanor moves closer, and I can smell death on her breath. " Your friend Jake understood at the end. He stopped fighting when he understood he was saving his family and neighbors. " I try to run, but my feet are frozen to the floor. The figures on the walls pulse faster, and the blue light gets so bright it hurts my eyes.

"Please, I won't tell anyone. I'll leave town. I'll never come back."

"Oh, Marcus. You poor, foolish boy." Eleanor touches my face with ice-cold fingers. "You can never leave. None of the chosen ones can ever leave."

That's when I notice something horrible. The pictures on the wall are moving. The dead kids in the pictures are turning their heads to look at me. Their lips open and close like they're trying to scream, but no sound comes out.

"They want to warn you," Eleanor says, following my look. "They remember what it feels like to die. But don't worry. Soon you'll be just like them."

The stone knife gleams in the blue light. Eleanor raises it high above her head.

"Wait!" I scream. "What about the new detective? Sam Rivera? She's going to figure this out!"

Eleanor stops and smiles. It's the most frightening smile I've ever seen.

"Detective Rivera is exactly why you have to die tonight, Marcus. We need your soul fresh and angry to help us deal with her." Eleanor's white eyes seem to look right through me. "She's stronger than we expected. She has safety from the other side. So we need our own special help."

"What do you mean?"

"Dead children make great weapons, Marcus. Especially dead children who died angry and afraid." The knife starts coming down toward my chest. "You're going to help us destroy Detective Rivera. Whether you want to or not."

I close my eyes and wait for the pain.

But instead of the knife cutting into me, I hear Eleanor scream.

I open my eyes and see something impossible. All the dead kids from the photos are climbing out of the pictures. They're see-through and glowing blue, but they're here. They're real.

And they look really, really angry.

Jake floats in front of Eleanor with his hands clenched. "Not this time, you old witch!"

Eleanor stumbles backward. "Impossible! You're bound to me! You have to obey!"

"We were bound to you," says a girl I recognize as Sarah Kellerman. "But someone stronger is calling us now."

All the ghost kids turn to look at me. Sarah points toward the lower exit.

"Run, Marcus. Run fast. The detective needs your help, and you're going to die tonight no matter what. But you can choose how."

I don't understand what she means, but I run anyway. Behind me, Eleanor screams as the ghost children circle her.

I make it halfway up the basement stairs when Eleanor's voice booms through the building like thunder: "You cannot escape your fate, Marcus Thorne! If the dead children won't help me kill Detective Rivera, then I'll use your live soul to do it!"

I reach the top of the stairs and slam the door behind me. But as I run through the town hall, I hear something that makes my blood freeze.

My own voice, coming from the basement, screaming: "Help me! Please, someone help me!"

But I'm not in the basement anymore. I'm running toward the exit.

Which means Eleanor just stole something from me. Something important.

And somewhere in town, Detective Rivera is about to face an enemy wearing my face.