Tess and I lagged behind as we moved towards the cave.

          The night grew suddenly darker.  I looked up at the sky to search for the moon but it had vanished behind a cloud.

Inconstant moon! I thought.

Fog was settling in.  I tugged at my sweatshirt.  The breeze had turned into a howling wind.

“Are you absolutely insane?”  I whispered to my cousin.  “How could you agree to do this?”

“We have to find out what’s going on,” she reasoned.  “We have to solve the mystery.

“Ok, Nancy!  This is not one of your stupid books.”  I said angrily.  “And despite what you think you are not Nancy Drew.  We could be in real danger here.”

“We are in real danger,” she answered but I didn’t get it.  She said something else but the wind carried her words away and they were lost to me.

“Stop, Tess,” I looked at the others so far ahead now.  “Let’s go home.  We’ll tell them tomorrow that we changed our minds.”
          Tess kept walking.

“We’ll trap the ghost tomorrow…in the daylight.”  I pleaded uselessly.  “We’ll get our parents to help.”

“We have to solve the mystery,” she said matter-of-factly.  “Those two fresh graves…with our names on them.  I’m scared, Jake, really scared.  I have to find out the truth…tonight.”

“But Tess…the truth could get us killed!”

We stopped at the bottom of the cave.

“We’ll wait down here,” Miles said.

Sarah’s eyes kept a silent, steady watch on the cave opening.  I could tell that she was terrified.

“We’ll do a better job of watching…we promise.”  Miles said.

The fog was now so thick that we couldn’t even see the rocks on top of the landing.

“Come with us,” Tess told the three.  She had a plan.  I had no idea what it was…but she was up to something.  “You can’t help us if you are way down here.  Besides, it’s safer if we stay together.”

They lagged behind.  I could see fear in their eyes.  Miles was visibly trembling.

“Come up to the cave entrance,” Tess coaxed.

Sarah shook her head wildly, “I can’t!  It’s too scary!”

“We need your help,” Tess would not let up.  “We don’t want the ghost to know we are on top. Come and stand at the mouth of the cave…”

“No! He’ll hurt us!  He wants to kill us!”  Luke sobbed, but quietly.

“We can’t go up there again unless you come to help us.  It didn’t work last time.  It’s got to be my way now.”  Tess held her ground.

Sarah and Miles exchanged looks of horror!  Luke clung to his sister’s side.

“Ok,” Miles relented, “we’ll wait at the mouth of the cave.”

“We don’t mean to be babies…it’s just that we have been afraid of him forever.”  Sarah explained.

Thunder rolled in the distance and the fog lifted slighted to make way for a steady stream of rain.

“Let’s go inside and warm up for a second.”  Tess said.

Now, I was scared.  What was she up too?  I wondered.

“No way!” Miles said.

“We’re too scared!” Sarah said.

“Just to dry off for a minute.”  Tess all but pushed the three other Tilley’s into the cave.

Thunder sounded closer.  We all jumped.

This was the most insane thing I had ever done!  I vowed to never forgive my cousin for this.  This was the last of her crazy adventures.  If we made it out alive…

A glowing light flared up in an amber glow at the mouth of the cave.  The ancient ghost came into view.  A smile glistened in his translucent eyes.

“Well now,” he muttered in a voice loud enough to be heard over the rain.  “What have we here?”

Chapter 26

          “Hellppp!”  Luke screamed and climbed up into Sarah’s arms.  Sarah and Miles just stood there…terrified…frozen like statues.  The light from Mitchell’s candle flickered off of their faces…unmasking their horror.

          Mitchell Tilley stood at the cave entrance – blocking their…and our…escape.

          Bright flashes of lightening filled the night behind him as thunder shook the ground and rattled the cave.

          He looked Tess and winked.  “You brought the ghosts to me, young lady.”

          “You’re the ghost!”  Miles screamed wildly.

          Sarah and Luke just trembled.

          “You’ve terrified people long enough,” the old man told the other Tilley’s. “For over three hundred years…in El Dorado and now here.  They brought you over but now it’s time to rest.”

          His words stuck in my head.  Who brought them over?

          “He’s nuts!”  Sarah found her voice.  “Don’t listen to him.  I’m your friend, Tess.”

          “Don’t let him fool you,” Miles tried.  “Look at him!  Look at the hollow eyes, their translucent glow.  Look at him!  He’s ancient.  He’s the one who’s 300 years old.”
          “Don’t hurt us!” Luke pleaded with the man.

          The rain subsided to silence as suddenly as it came.  Thunder rumbled and lightening cracked…but in the distance.  A steady drip of water was the only constant sound in the night.

          I looked to Tess.  She was smiling.  Her face satisfied.

          “The solution,” she whispered to me.

          It dawned on me why she had agreed to come back in this frightening cave.  She needed to face the old man again.  She needed to solve her mystery.

          But what was the solution?

          Was Mitchell the ghost?  Or was he telling the truth?  Were our new friends really the ghosts?

          “Let us go,” Miles demanded of the old man.  “Let us go and we won’t tell anyone we saw the ghost.”

          A gust of wind shot through the cave.  The candle flickered, darkened but came to life again in an instant.

          The old man shook his head.  “I’ve waited a long time to get you here,” he said ominously.

          Sarah turned to Tess.  “Help us!  You believe us don’t you?  How can we be ghosts?  We are your friends.”  She pleaded.

          “You know we are alive, Jake.  Help us get away from him.  He’s evil.”  Miles said.

          I turned from the old man to the other Tilley’s

          All Tilley’s some alive…some dead.  But who?  Was Mitchell telling the truth?  Where our friends?

          Mitchell carefully smoothed his beard.  He parted his dry, cracked lips and let out a long, high-pitched whistle.  Once, twice…he whistled long and loud.

          I head the rapid scratching of footsteps on the granite floor of the cave.

          A log, shaggy figure came bounding towards us from the depths of one of the long, dark tunnels.

Chapter 27

          Another ghost!

          A small, deformed, contorted death-machine!  How could Tess have gotten us into this?

          It surged, rumbling a low, guttural growl.  It crouched low – red eyes glowing in the candlelight.  I held my breath as it leapt into the light.

          I sighed.  A dog!  A fluffily black lab.

          The dog stopped directly in front of us and growled, showing its teeth at Mitchell.

          Dogs recognize ghosts, I thought.

          Dogs recognize ghosts and he’s growling at Mitchell!

          Then the dogs glowing eyes turned on Miles, Sarah and Luke.

          It reared back as I’d never seen a dog do.  It began to howl and bark.

          Mitchell let out a victorious howl.  “They are the ghosts!”  He shouted.

          The dog snarled.  He growled.  He leapt at Miles.

          Crying in fright, Miles covered his face but could not protect himself from the ferocious hound.

          The three backed further into the cave.

          The dog barked relentlessly…showing sharp, moist teeth.

          “You are the ghosts!” I called in stunned surprise.

          “We never had a chance to live!  The first winter…it was so cold…we were so young…we had no food…”  Sarah was sobbing now.

          “It wasn’t fair.”  Miles said.  “We never wanted to come.  We traveled so far.  We were so weak!”

          Thunder roared again.  The cave quaked under its power.

          I stared at the three other Tilley’s.  They were now in the light of the inner chamber…the sanctuary.  They began to change before our very eyes.

          Hair turned gray and then was gone completely, skin paled and eyes hollowed.  Next, their skin corroded, peeled away, curling and then decaying…until three grinning skulls stared at us menacingly.

          “Stay with us cousins!”  Louise’s deformed figure pleaded.  She reached for Tess.  “Stay and play with us.”

          “Please doooo,” hissed Miles.  “We dug nice beds for you.  Graves, so soft near ours.”

          “Play with me,” Luke said.  “Stay with me…forever!”

          The three ghosts moved towards us.

          We backed away…all three of us.  I could see that Mitchell was frightened too.  He stumbled.  A wind blew and the torch went out to blackness.

Chapter 28

          The heavy darkness made me gasp for air.

          I could the ghosts approaching.

          I could hear the hoarse, raspy pleas of our ancient cousins.

          Closer they came…closer…closer!

          An icy hand grasped mine.  I screamed.

          Then I heard a faint voice – “Run!  Run, Jake Run!”

          Before I could think, my cousin was pulling me through the darkness.  Through the musty tunnels and out into the fresh, steady rain.

          “Run!  Run!”  Tess cried.  Her eyes were wild with fear.

          “Run! Run!”  Her voice kept me going.

          I stopped and looked up at the big boulders above the cave.

          The rain made the climb harder than before, more treacherous.  I cut my hands.  My knees were bleeding as I pulled myself up to the top of the cave. 

          We pushed as hard as we could.  The earth quaked beneath us.  The rain had helped loosen the rocks and they tumbled over the side with ease.

          The cave mouth was no more.

          We waited to see if anyone emerged.

          No ghosts.

          No old man.

          Mitchell was trapped inside there with the ghosts.

          “Let’s go!”  I said.

          Tess stood staring at the cave.

          “Tess, it’s all over,” I pleaded, pulling her away from the cave.  “The horror is over.  Let’s go home.”

Chapter 29

          Our houses were uncharacteristically dark.  A single light glowed in my kitchen.

          As we approached the house, the back door flew open and we were ushered in by Grace – who explained that our parents had gone out leaving her in charge.

          Strange, I thought, but I was too shaken from our ordeal to pay it much mind.

          Grace made us hot chocolate as Ben stoked up the fire.

          “What has kept you out on such a frightful night?”  Grace asked.  “We were getting worried.”

          If you only knew the half, I thought.

          “It’s a long story,” Tess began.  “I have no idea where to begin.”
          “Beginnings usually the best place,” Ben said as he sat next to me.

          Tess and I did our best to explain the events of the past few days…and of today.  We explained about the other Tilley kids, the professor and the cave sanctuary.

          I felt uneasy, however, and really wished my mom and dad would come home.  They rarely left.  Why did tonight have to be the one night during the whole year that they weren’t home?

          I could see the worry on the faces of our old cousins.  I could see how unhappy they were they we put ourselves in such danger.

          When we finished the story the room fell silent.

          “Well, at least you are safe now,” Grace said.

          Grace moved towards me, arms outstretched to give me a hug.

          She stopped short…stunned by a sound outside the house.

          Barking.  There was barking in the backyard.

          Tess leaped for the door and pulled it open.  “It’s Mitchell’s dog!  He escaped.”

          I went to the open doorway.  The dog was shivering and wet from the rain.  It must be freezing, I thought.
          Tess and I reached out to pet the dog.

          We jumped back as it growled and snarled and reared its glistening teeth.

          “Whoa boy,” I said, “you’ve had some night, now, haven’t you?”

          “We’re your friends,” Tess tried.  “Remember?”
          “Yeah boy, we aren’t the ghosts.”  I said.

          The dog would not stop barking.  He would not calm down.

          I turned to see Grace and Ben pressed against the farthest wall – terrified.

          I smiled.  “That’s only Ben and Grace.  They won’t hurt you.  They’re good people.”

          Then my breath caught in my throat as I realized why the dog was barking like that.

          Grace stepped into the doorway.  “Bad dog!  Now look what you’ve done!  Now they know!  Now they know everything.”

          Tess winched.  She understood what Grace was saying.

          Grace slammed the kitchen door on the only thing that could protect us.

          “What a shame the dog had to show up,” she said sadly.  “Ben, now what are we going to do with these two kid? What are we going to do?”