Terror Town by James Roy Daley Page B

light over the hole and when he lowered it, he kept his arms steady. As the light descended the weight in his hands increased. Soon, the light became quite heavy and he asked Daniel for assistance. Dan took the cable in his hands, relieving Roger of the full burden. The two men released more and more cable. The knots tightened. The light fell farther into the pit, slowly spinning in a circle, knocking out webs and lighting the area around it. Looking down, there wasn’t much to see: just a ladder and four walls, really. Nothing more.
    “I can’t believe how far the light is dropping,” Cameron said with her eyes wide. “It’s like a bottomless pit.”
    “That’s what I thought,” Daniel laughed, still releasing cable.
    Soon, the cable was unraveled, all ninety-something feet of it. When the men released their grip, the strain the cable put on the pickets was more than they anticipated. The pickets bowed in the middle, threatening to snap. There was no way the cable’s male end would have stayed in the outlet without the pickets help––no chance, not in one hundred million years.
    “What now?” Cameron asked.
    Dan lifted an eyebrow. “Still want to go down?”
    “I do,” Cameron said, sounding slightly unsure.
    “I do too.” Roger confirmed, offering happy a smirk. “I’m just wondering what the smart thing to do might be.”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning, what should we do? Drop a flashlight? I’d like to know where the bottom is, don’t you?”
    After a moment of silence, Daniel said, “I’ve got an idea.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. Hold on. I’ll be right back.”
    Daniel ran to the kitchen and opened the cupboard doors beneath the sink. There was a bag of sponges sitting in a milk crate, along with some cleaning materials and rags. He grabbed the sponges and closed the doors. After riffling through a couple of drawers he found a half-roll of duct tape. He took the tape and the sponges downstairs, unrolled a long piece of tape and dropped the roll on the floor. After opening the bag of sponges he pulled one out and dropped the bag onto the floor by his feet. With the line of tape against the sponge, he picked up a flashlight.
    “Wait,” Cameron said.
    “Why?”
    “I know what you’re doing.”
    “And?” Dan pressed the flashlight against the sponge and began taping them together.
    “And it’s a great idea: wrapping sponges around the flashlight. You’re going to sponge it and drop it, right? You want to drop the flashlight without breaking it.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, you know what we should do?”
    “No, what?”
    “Do you have a Nerf football, or better yet a beach ball? If we could deflate a beach ball halfway we could put the light inside the ball a bit, you know… giving it more protection. Or we could wrap the light inside a couple of plastic balls I guess. What do you think?”
    “Not bad,” Dan said.
    “We could do both,” Roger said. “We could wrap the flashlight inside the sponges and between a couple of balls. How about that Dan, do you have any balls?”
    “I think so. Want me to look?”
    “Yes,” Roger said, taking the sponge/flashlight/tape combination from Dan’s hand. “You look and I’ll tape the sponges to the flashlight.”
    “This is exciting!” Cameron said. “I feel like I’m starting an adventure!”
    Dan nodded. “It’ll be interesting to see what’s down there.”
    “Absolutely,” Roger agreed. “I never expected to be on a quest today.”
    Dan slapped his hands together. “You want to come to the garage with me, Cam? Help me look?”
    “Sure.”
    “Okay then, let’s go!”
     
     
    9
     
    Nicolas Nehalem drove along Stone Path Road slowly, inspecting every car parked in every driveway. If the driveway was long and he needed a closer look, he parked and approached the building on foot. He was systematic and methodical. Cameron was located in a perfectly terrible position, and the only way she’d escape would be due to negligence on his