Page 66 of Middle of the Night

Ethan’s stomach twists. With its iron bars and thick stone walls, the mausoleum more resembles a prison than a grave. Peering into the darkness, he’s hit with a disturbing thought: Is the gate there to keep people out? Or to keep whoever’s interred there in?

“No,” he says.

He sees the others staring at him the same way they did when the road stretched between them, him on one side, them on the other. Just like then, he feels a palpable sense of shame. Like he’s failing them somehow. Especially Billy.

“Come on,” he says. “It’ll be fun.”

“But I don’t want to.” Ethan wishes he’d been able to put it a different way. One that makes him sound sensible, if not brave. Instead, he comes off childish and whiny. Younger than even Andy Barringer. “Can’t we just go home?”

“Sure,” Ragesh says. “Once someone spends at least a minute inside this mausoleum.”

He stares at them, his expression a dare. One Billy wants to accept. The only thing holding him back is his best friend.

“Please?” he says to Ethan. “It’s kind of cool.”

“It’s not,” Ashley tells him. “And just because Ragesh dares you to do something doesn’t mean you should.”

“But I want to.”

“And I don’t,” Ethan says.

Russ, silent this whole time, suddenly pipes up. “I’ll do it.” He takes a long step forward, his puny legs stretching to bring him to Billy’s side. “I’ll go if Ethan’s too afraid.”

“I said I’m not scared!”

From the looks they give Ethan, it’s clear Billy and Russ don’t believe him. Russ’s expression, like Ragesh’s, is a silent challenge.Prove it then, it seems to say. Billy’s look is more complicated, revealing dejection tinged with disappointment and, yes, pity. Ethan feels a twinge of recognition when he sees it. He’s worn that expression plenty of times, including today. But to see it now from someone else brings a sobering realization.

Billy is embarrassed for him.

Shame burns Ethan’s cheeks, and the twist in his gut becomes redhot. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. It’s Billy who’s embarrassing, with all his talk about ghosts. Of the two of them, Ethan is the cooler one. The normal one. Or so he thought. But the longer Billy looks at him that way, the more Ethan begins to doubt it.

“I’m going, too,” he says, hoping he doesn’t sound as scared as he feels.

Ashley grabs his arm before he can join the others. “You don’t need to do this,” she whispers. “Peer pressure is bullshit, and only dumbasses go along with it.”

Ethan pulls out of her grip and doubles down on the obvious lie. “I want to do it.”

He joins Billy and Russ at the entrance to the mausoleum. Its interior remains as dark up close as it did from a distance. A chill emanates from the gloom, brushing Ethan’s face. When he closes his eyes, he smells earth, water, decay.

“Right this way, boys,” Ragesh says as he widens the gate. It opens about two feet before age and rust keep it from budging another inch, no matter how mightily Ragesh tugs. Still, it’s enough room for them to slip past, which Billy does, continuing to display a fearlessness Ethan never knew existed. He doesn’t even pause before stepping through the gate and disappearing into the mausoleum. Right behind him is Russ, proceeding with slightly more hesitation. Before going in, he turns around to make sure Ethan’s still behind him, that he’s watching, that he’s not chickening out.

“Gnarly, right?” Russ says before slipping inside.

Ethan can’t agree. Nor can he match Russ’s feigned enthusiasm. He’s only doing this to preserve his suddenly precarious friendship with Billy.

Still, he pauses in the doorway, nervous even though he tells himself he shouldn’t be. Nothing inside can hurt him. Yet itfeelslike it could. That the unknown dead resting inside might not be so deadafter all. That they might be capable of reaching out and grabbing whoever dares to invade their final resting place.

Beyond the gate, Billy and Russ shuffle around the interior of the mausoleum, their shoulders touching. For something that looks so big on the outside, it seems so small on the inside. All that space, Ethan knows, has been taken up by the dead, leaving little room for the living.

Before he can think about turning back, Ethan moves past the gate and into the waiting darkness of the mausoleum.

At first, he thinks it’s fine. Weird but fine. There’s a little bit of light coming through the half-open gate. There’s air that, although musty and stale, remains breathable. Best of all, there are no dead bodies. At least none that are visible. Those remain behind marble slabs in the walls.

Four of them, Ethan counts. Two on each side. In the dim light trickling in, he can make out the name of the one closest to the door.

ELSA HAWTHORNE

BELOVED MOTHER

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