The sound of their breathing fills the room, and Nathan wonders whether the sound of other breath might underlie their own. Someone could be standing in the center of that spacious darkness, someone attentive and silent like them. Listening.
Roy edges forward. The others follow.
The air is stale. Burke follows close behind Nathan. His body radiates heat.
Roy freezes.
There is a figure ahead. They can see the outline of a shadow, a broad shouldered man standing perfectly still. Nathan cannot determine whether or not he has his head.
The figure is visible even in the darkness of the room, and they are very close to it. Then it slowly raises its arms.
Someone grips Nathan's shoulder, hard.
Roy presses back against Nathan, raising the flashlight.
The figure turns and flees. A silent gliding motion carries it toward further darkness.
The boys remain where they are, hardly breathing.
"Shit," Randy whispers. The single word echoes. They hold their breath. They stand perfectly still, listening.
"Did you see that?" Roy asks Nathan.
Nathan whispers, "Yes," since no one can see him nod his head.
"What was it?"
"I don't know."
"That thing didn't make any noise when it moved," Randy says.
"Shut up," Burke says.
"The fuck I will. It's still out there."
"Shut up." Roy switches on the flashlight without warning. Splashing the yellowish circle methodically, he reveals that they are in a large room with the windows boarded from the inside. The room is as tall as two floors of the house, and the beams of the ceiling cast looping shadows. Leaves and dirt litter the floor. Bare of furnishings, pitch dark, the room shrinks the flashlight beam. Nothing else. No figure of a man, nothing.
At last Roy finds the door again and trains the flashlight on it.
Once they reach it, he cleans cobwebs from the frame with a stick. Spiders are moving along the strands of web. Roy turns off the flashlight, and they wait for a moment while their eyes adjust to the dark.
Again, the sense of someone listening is immediate. Nathan can almost find the direction in the darkness, the place where the shadowed figure has returned out there in the black expanse they have crossed. He searches, but his eyes are still learning to read shadow, he sees nothing in the murk.
"He's there." Nathan's voice hardly carries at all.
"Where? Do you see him?" Roy searches the darkness too.
No, he sees only shadow within shadow. But the one who is listening is there. As if he knows who they are. As if he has known they were coming, as if he was waiting for a sign. No one moves. The silence has filled everything, every space in them.
"Nathan's full of shit," Burke whispers, "there's nothing out there."
"Be quiet."
"I mean it," shoving Nathan forward a little, into the dark space again, "he's trying to scare us. The little sonofabitch. Use the flashlight."
"No. We already used it." Roy barely controls anger in his voice.
"Give it to me then, if you're a coward."
Roy and Burke are suddenly squared against each other in the darkness, blowing, and they lock together.
They are fighting over the flashlight quicker than they could have chosen, it is as if the moment has been waiting for them to find it. They strain back and forth, shoving each other in concentrated silence, convulsive, sudden motions, testing each other's strength. Burke strains to take the flashlight but Roy fiercely grips it. They are grunting, swearing, but the sounds are plush and quiet.
Then, suddenly, a resounding thump from the darkness beyond, followed by the sound of footsteps running toward them. A thrill races up Nathan's spine. Burke tears the flashlight free of Roy's hand. Randy makes a noise and runs, and Burke releases Roy and runs, and then they are all running. Into the darkness.
Nathan is hardly aware that Roy has taken his arm, that Roy is guiding him.
They pass through a doorway, then down a passageway through which moonlight falls in slatted patterns onto dusty floorboards. They are alone now, Roy and he, they have lost the others. Roy stops and pulls Nathan to a halt as well. Breathless, they face each other. He can make out Roy's grin in the shadow that is his face. Roy is listening.
For a moment they hear distant voices, maybe Burke and Randy. Afterward, silence falls again.
"That sure scared the shit out of me," Roy whispers, panting. "Did you really see something?"
Nathan shrugs. Roy rests a hand on Nathan's shoulder, laughing quietly. He is still listening, too.
"My uncle told me he saw a ghost here one time. The one in the book. I didn't believe him."
"You think that's what he saw?"
Roy shrugs. "Who knows? But if it's a ghost, I bet it's that old man. If somebody cut my head off, I would want it back."
"I think it's more ghosts than that." "How do you know?"
"I don't. But it feels like it. It feels like there's all kind of ghosts."
This makes Roy think again. "Are you trying to scare me now?"
