Berkley Street Series Books 1 - 9: Horror Bundle Series

809 pages

Chapter 3: Shane, September 15th, 1982

“Are you awake?”

Shane sat up and turned on his light. His heart beat quickly, and he looked around his large room. The curtains were drawn on the tall windows. His books were lined neatly on his shelves. Legos were scattered across the floor by the old fireplace.

“Are you awake?” the voice asked again.

Shane twisted around in his bed. Neither his mother nor his father was in his room.

He was alone.

He couldn’t tell where the voice came from. His mouth was dry, so he swallowed, wet his lips with his tongue, and said in a low voice, “I’m awake.”

“Good,” the voice said.

It came from behind his dresser.

“Why? Why is it good?” Shane asked.

“Because they don’t want you here,” the voice said. “They don’t want you. Here.”

His heart thumped heavily, and he managed to ask, “Who?”

“Don’t ask,” the voice said. “I want you here. I’m lonely.”

Shane tried to speak but couldn’t. The sound of his blood as it rushed through him nearly drowned out his own thoughts. “Why are you lonely?” Shane whispered.

“I’ve been here a long time. Such a very long time.”

The bureau started to move, inch by inch, into the room. It swung out slowly from the wall, and a dark shadow appeared.

It took Shane a moment to realize there was a passage in the wall.

A soft scrape slipped out of the darkness, and it was quickly followed by a sigh.

The speaker stepped into the room.

A girl. Perhaps eight or nine.

And dead.

Dead, dead, dead.

She smelled like death, and her skin was shrunken, pulled tight across her bones. Her lips were stretched in a gruesome smile, and long teeth protruded from her yellow jawbone.

“I’m lonely,” she said, stepping into the room. Bits of fabric fell from her ragged, gray dress. Her brown hair was tied back with a faded red bow, and the bones of her feet cracked as she walked. “I’m lonely. I want to play.”

Shane closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and screamed.

Suddenly his bedroom door was thrown open and bounced against the wall, and Shane opened his eyes. His father and mother charged into the room, their faces puffy with sleep and their hair disheveled.

“Oh my God, Hank,” his mother said, pointing to the bureau.

“What the hell?” his father asked. His father walked to the bureau as his mother hurried to Shane.

Shane sank into his mother’s arms and shook as she held him tightly. From the protection of his mother’s embrace, Shane watched his father.

“There’s a passage,” his father said, looking back at Shane and his mother. “Fiona, there’s a passage here.”

“What?” she asked. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. Looks like we put his bureau against a door of some sort. Couldn’t even tell. You’d think it was part of the wainscoting. Hell, I did.”

Shane’s father leaned into the dark hole the dead girl had come from.

His father backed out and looked at his mother. “It’s a real passage, Fiona. I can’t see much in there right now, but I thought I saw lights. It’s just wide enough for someone to walk through.”

“Servants’ passage?” she asked.

“Must be,” he answered.

Shane watched as his father pushed the bureau back into place.

“It wasn’t in any of the forms, Hank,” Shane’s mother said. “There wasn’t anything about servants’ passages. Just their quarters.”

“Yeah,” his father said. “I know.”

Shane’s shakes slowly went away, and his father came and sat down on the bed beside him.

“Did you get scared, kid?” his father asked.

Shane nodded.

“Would have scared me too,” his father said.

“There was a girl,” Shane whispered.

“What?” his mother asked.

“A girl. A dead girl,” Shane said.

“Shane,” his father started, and Shane heard the ‘now you’re seven, so you need to be a big boy’ voice, but his mother interrupted him.

“Hank,” she said, her voice harsh. “Not now.”

“Okay, Fiona. Okay,” his father said with a sigh.

“Is there a way you can block the bureau so it won’t pop open again?” his mother asked.

“I’ll figure it out,” Shane’s father said, nodding.

“Good. Shane,” his mother said. “Do you want me to lie down with you for a bit?”

Shane clung to his mother and nodded.

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