The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(3)

The violent energy storm still seethed at the entrance. The chamber was filled with currents, too, but they were not nearly as violent as those that formed the gate. Hallucinations danced in the paranormal shadows, but they were manageable. Catalina could not entirely suppress them but they did not overwhelm her senses.

She listened closely. There was no sound from the tunnel on the other side. Either the killer had abandoned the hunt or else he had become disoriented and lost. For the moment, it seemed she and Olivia were safe.

The ultraviolet light seeping out of the cavern walls sparked and flashed on shards of some reflective material scattered around the chamber. Olivia picked up one of the jagged slivers and cautiously wiped off the grime.

“It looks like a piece of a mirror,” she said.

Portions of the walls were paneled in the same material. Large rocky formations projected down from the ceiling and thrust up out of the floor.

“Stalactites and stalagmites,” Catalina said.

She got to her feet and went to the nearest formation jutting upward from the mirrored floor. She wiped away a thick accumulation of dirt, exposing a small area of the crystal underneath. The gem-like stone sparked with the colors of dark fire.

“I think the creep with the gun gave up,” Olivia whispered.

“He may have decided that he couldn’t follow us, but what if he decides that all he has to do is go back to the main cavern and wait for us to come out?” Catalina said in the same low tones.

“In that case I guess we’re stuck in here until morning,” Olivia said.

“If he waits that long he’ll be in for a shock, because if we’re not home before breakfast, the whole town will be out searching for us. The caves are the first place they’ll look.”

“It’s going to be a long night,” Olivia said. “But I think we’re safe in here. It’s weird, though, isn’t it? The rocky things hanging down from the ceiling look like crystal chandeliers that someone hasn’t dusted in a very long time.”

Catalina touched one of the broken mirrors on the walls. “Like a ballroom that was once lit up with paranormal light and music.”

Olivia shuddered. “The devil’s ballroom.”

________

Their low-tech, old-fashioned mechanical watches were not affected by the energy in the atmosphere. The night seemed endless but eventually they realized that dawn had arrived.

“He’ll be gone now,” Catalina said. “The whole town will be out searching for us. He won’t dare hang around. We have to go back the way we came, though. That means another trip through that miniature hurricane.”

Olivia studied the energy gate with a thoughtful expression. Catalina knew that she was viewing it with her new senses.

“Hmm,” Olivia said. She went forward cautiously. Her hair lifted in response to the energy in the atmosphere. “I don’t think it’s going to be as scary to get through from this side.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. It’s as if it was made to keep people out but not lock them inside.”

Olivia held out her hand. Catalina grabbed it. Together they hurled themselves into the storm—and emerged without incident on the other side.

They found the currents of energy that had led them to the Devil’s Ballroom and followed them back out. They stumbled out of the maze and into the cavern where the murder had occurred. One of the search parties arrived at about the same time.

There was no sign of the killer.

That was the good news.

The really bad news was that there was no evidence of the murder. The body had vanished into the river. The device that the two men had set up in the main cavern had disappeared. There was no indication that anyone other than Catalina and Olivia had been in the caves during the night.

________

Later that afternoon, Catalina met Olivia at their favorite place on the edge of the lake. They sat on the rocks and contemplated the gray mist that hung over the water. Some of the old-timers in town claimed that before the Incident, the lake had not been perpetually shrouded in fog, but neither Catalina nor Olivia could recall a time when sunlight had sparkled on the water.

The gray mist on Fogg Lake was omnipresent, night and day, regardless of the time of year. It made boating a treacherous business. Navigation instruments didn’t work. A few people in town had small boats with outboard motors, and some had rowboats, but they only went fishing in the summer, when the fog retreated somewhat. And even on the brightest, sunniest day of the year, boaters were careful to stay within eyesight of the shoreline. If you got lost in the fog, odds were that you would never find your way back. You would spend whatever was left of your life drifting in the mist.

The fog got heavier at night. It slowly enveloped the town and shrouded the narrow, winding road that led down the mountain to the main highway. No one with any sense tried to drive in or out of Fogg Lake after dark.

“It wasn’t one of your visions, was it?” Olivia said. “We both saw that guy with the shaved head murder the man with the glasses. I’ll never be able to forget the way the dying man’s aura sort of flickered and then just … disappeared. It was as if someone had blown out a candle.”

“I won’t be able to forget it, either, but we’re going to have to stop talking about it, because we don’t have any proof,” Catalina said. “No one believes us. They think we still lack control or that we were under the influence of the energy in the cavern.”