The Hidden Door by Liz Botts Read Free Book Online Page B

making him look disheveled. His cape flutters ominously in the wind, obscuring his masked face every few seconds. He raises a hand and the shiny silver nails gleam in the streetlight.
    Justin grabs my hand and we start to run, our sneakers pounding the pavement. Backpack thum ping painfully against my back.
    My mind is a blur as Justin pulls me into a side entrance of the law building. We dodge some chairs and garbage cans as we sprint down a deserted hallway.
    I can hear the strange clicking of The Vampire's feet as he races after us. Is he wearing dress shoes? What an odd thing to notice. We make a sharp turn only to be faced with a flight of stairs.
    My breath hitches in my chest, my sid e aching. I am so not a runner.
    There's no time to rest or think. We dart up the stairs, taking the first door we can find. This simply leads us down another deserted hallway. But suddenly the clicking of The Vampire's feet has ceased. He hasn't made it to this hallway yet. We run faster. Anything to put distance between us and him.
    The hallway leads to another flight of stairs, and this time we go down. We stop at the bottom, chests heavi ng, trying to catch our breath.
    I can't believe we are being chased by this psycho. What can he want with us? I try to convey these questions to Justin with my eyes. He nods like he underst ands perfectly.
    My breathing slows, but the pain in my side remains. I rub at the area ineffectively until Justin reaches out. His hand slightly above my hip, massaging the sore muscle there, is enough to calm my shaky nerves. Nothing will happen to me while I am with Justin. He won't let it.
    Then we hear the click-click of those shoes. We freeze. The sound is moving slowly down the stairs. He is listening for us. He's stalking his prey.
    I start to shake again, tremors ripping through my body at a terrifying rate. Justin takes my hand as we ease through the door just behind us.
    A blast of frigid air rushes at us. Outside seems somehow safer right now. More people. More space. In here we are trapped.
    This is a no brainer. Still clasping hands we rush outside and clatter down a short flight of stairs. Then we sprint along the darkened sidewalk. One of the streetlights must be out. I don't have time to look for it though because we keep running— past the spiny branches of pine trees. Past the fountain garden.
    Finally Justin tugs me into a small garden on the side of the law building. This courtyard is hardly ever used. The walls are all overgrown with ivy. We creep along them now, trying desperately to blend in. The leaves crackle with autumn dryness and they sc ratch the back of my neck.
    Suddenly something hard thumps me in the small of the back. I start in fear but then I realize that whatever thumped me is inanimate.
    I reach behind me and discover a doorknob. Something clicks in my head. I frantically tear ivy off the wall. A few seconds later a door—a Hidden Door—is laid bare in front of us. Justin makes an incoherent noise and pulls the key out of his pocket. He's so excited that he fumbles slightly, losing his grasp on the keybefore gripping it more tightly.
    He inserts the key into the lock, which is horribly rusted. With a mighty, heaving turn the key moves in the lock and Justin twists the doorknob open. We peer into the gaping dark cave before us, unsu re if we should proceed or not.
    An unintelligible yell somewhere behind us convinces us to step into the unknown. We shove the door shut behind us, Justin struggling with the rusted lock in the pitch black. We hear the click with relief. I pull out my mega flashlight and shine the beam around the small space, landing back at the lock. Looking at it in the light I am s hocked we were able to work it.
    "Will we ever get out of here?" I ask, trying to make a joke out of it, but failing to k eep the quaver out of my voice.
    Justin pulls me into a warm embrace. "Right now this is safer than out there."
    As our breathing slows, we realize