Then darkness descended.

St. Elizabeth’s campus

February 2009

Midnight…

Kyle Baskin held the flashlight under his chin, beaming its illumination upward, highlighting the planes and hollows of his face.

“Bloody Bones entered the house,” he whispered in his deepest, most ghoulish voice. His eyes darted around the circle of boys seated on the ground at his feet, their scared faces turned up earnestly. “Bloody Bones crossed to the stairs. Bloody Bones looked up and could see the children through the walls.”

“Like X-ray vision?” Mikey Ferguson squeaked.

“Shut up.” James, his older brother, threw him a harsh look.

The branches overhead shivered. There was a moon but it wasn’t visible over the height of the maze’s hedge. Only the faintest trickle of light wavered through the leaves.

“I’m on the first step,” Kyle intoned, hesitating for maximum effect. He gazed across the beam of the flashlight at the kids he and James had brought to the center of the maze. They were supposed to be babysitting, but that was boring as hell. “I’m on the second step.” He drew a shaking breath and said slowly, “I’m on…the…third step…”

Mikey shot a look of terror over his shoulder and edged closer to James, whose smirk was fully visible to Kyle.

Tyler, that little pissant, started to snivel.

“I’m on…the…fourth…step…”

“How many steps are there?” Mikey cried, clutching at James’s arm.

“Shut the fuck up.” James tried to shake him off.

“I wanna go home!” Tyler wailed.

“I’m on…the fifth step!”

“I’m calling my dad.” Preston, the overweight prick, clambered to his feet, his normally toneless voice quaking a bit.

“The phone’s in the car, moron.”

“I’m on the sixth step, I’m on the seventh step, I’m on the eighth step!” Kyle declared in a rush.

The boys leapt to their feet as if yanked by strings, crying, heads jerking around, searching vainly for escape but the hedges loomed, branches sticking out like skeletal arms.