22 - Ghost Beach (7 page)

The knots in my stomach seemed to tighten as I greeted our three friends.

Sam raised a finger to his lips and motioned for us to follow him. Silently,
we picked our way across the rocks to the base of the cave.

“Hey—look,” I whispered, staring up at the cave. The light flickered
brightly in the entrance.

The ghost was home.

I stared up at the cave and planned our route. We’d go up the same way we had
the other night. But instead of entering the cave, we’d keep climbing around the
side until we reached the top.

Terri fidgeted beside me. “Ready?” I whispered.

She nodded grimly.

“We’ll wait down here,” Sam whispered. “If the ghost comes out, we’ll be
ready to distract him. Good luck.”

The three of them stood huddled together. Their expressions were tense,
frightened. Nat gripped Louisa’s hand. “Bye, Terri,” he said in a tiny voice. I
think he had a little crush on her.

“See you in a few minutes,” Terri whispered back to him. “Don’t worry, Nat.
We’ll get rid of that bad ghost. Come on, Jerry.”

My legs felt rubbery as Terri and I made our way over the rocks. We climbed
steadily. Carefully.

I glanced back at Terri, a few feet behind me. She was breathing hard, her
eyes narrowed in concentration.

We reached the mouth of the cave. The light inside shone brightly.

I pointed to our right. Terri nodded. She followed me up the rocks on the
side of the cave.

The rocks were damp from the evening dew, and slippery. We were hunched on
all fours as we climbed. It was steeper than I had thought.

I struggled to keep from trembling. I knew that one slip could cause a rock
slide. The ghost would know something was up.

Hand over hand we climbed.

Carefully. Steadily.

I stopped to catch my breath and gazed down to the beach. Our three friends
hadn’t moved.

Holding on to a rock with one hand, I waved to them with my other. Nat waved
back. The other two remained still, staring up at Terri and me.

I reached the smooth rock surface of the top of the cave. Turning, I held out
my hand and helped Terri up onto the narrow ledge.

Together we checked out the situation. The rocks we were supposed to roll
over the mouth of the cave weren’t as big as I’d thought. They were piled in a
solid wall. It didn’t seem that difficult to get behind them and push them over.

As I started to move behind the rock wall, I caught a glimpse of our three
friends down below. To my surprise, Sam was waving his arms and jumping up and
down. Louisa and Nat were also motioning frantically.

“What’s wrong?” Terri cried. “Why are they doing that?”

“They’re trying to tell us something,” I replied, feeling a chill of terror
freeze every muscle.

Had the ghost appeared in the cave mouth?

Were Terri and I caught
already
?

I took a deep breath and, ignoring my fear, leaned over the edge to peer
down at the mouth of the cave.

No one there.

“Jerry—stand up!” Terri cried. “You’ll fall!”

I stood back up and peered down at the three kids. “Hey—!” I cried out as I
saw them running to the woods.

A stab of terror made me gasp. “Something’s gone wrong,” I croaked. “Let’s
get out of here!”

I turned in time to see the ghost step up behind us.

His entire body shimmered, pale in the bright moonlight. His vacant, sunken
eyes glared angrily at us.

He grabbed me by the shoulder and wrapped his other bony hand around Terri’s
waist.

“Come with me,” he said in a dry whisper, a whisper of doom.

He dragged us down to the cave entrance.

He’s so strong, I thought. So strong for someone old and frail-looking.

The rocks slid under my feet, a gray blur. The ground appeared to tilt and
sway. Long shadows seemed to reach out to me, to pull me down.

I tried to cry out, but my breath caught in my throat.

I tried to jerk free of his grasp. But he was too strong for me.

Terri uttered loud, sobbing gasps. She thrashed her arms, struggling to free
herself.

But the old ghost held her tightly.

Before I knew it, we were stumbling through the dark, twisting tunnels. The
flickering candlelight grew brighter up ahead. We were too frightened to fight
him, too frightened to break away.

My shoulder scraped against the narrow tunnel wall. Terror tightened my throat. I couldn’t even cry out from the pain.

The ghost released us as we reached the candlelit chamber. Glaring at us
sternly, he motioned with a bony finger for us to follow him to his driftwood
table.

“Wh-what are you going to do to us?” Terri managed to choke out.

He didn’t reply.

He brushed the long, stringy white hair from over his face. Then he motioned
for us to sit down on the floor.

I dropped down quickly. My legs were shaking so hard, I was grateful not to
have to stand.

I glanced at my sister. Her lower lip was trembling. Her hands were clasped
tightly in her lap.

The old ghost cleared his throat. He leaned heavily against the crude table.
“You are both in serious trouble,” he said in a thin, reedy voice.

“We—we didn’t mean to do any harm,” I blurted out.

“It is dangerous to get involved with ghosts,” he said, ignoring my words.

“We’ll go away,” I offered desperately. “We’ll never come back.”

“We didn’t mean to disturb you,” Terri added in a shrill voice.

His sunken eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

“Me?” A strange smile played across his pale face.

“We won’t tell anyone we saw you,” I told him.

His smile grew wider. “Me?” he repeated. He leaned forward on the large chunk
of driftwood. “
I’m
not a ghost!” he cried. “Your three friends are!”

“Huh?” I gaped at the old ghost in disbelief.

His smile faded. “I’m telling you the truth,” he said softly, rubbing his
pale cheek with a bony hand.

“You’re trying to trick us,” Terri replied. “Those three kids—”

“They’re not kids,” the old man interrupted sharply. “They’re over 350 years
old!”

Terri and I exchanged glances. The blood was pounding so hard at my temples,
I couldn’t think clearly.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” the old man said, lowering himself onto the
table edge. His lined face flickered in the shifting candlelight. “I’m Harrison
Sadler.”

“Another Sadler?” I blurted out.

“We’re Sadlers, too!” Terri cried.

“I know,” he said softly. He coughed, a dry, hacking cough. “I came here from
England quite a while ago,” he told us.

“In 1641?” I demanded.

He
is
a ghost, I realized with a shudder.

My question seemed to amuse him. “I haven’t been here
that
long,” he
replied dryly. “After college, I traced my ancestors here. I study ghosts and
the occult.” He sighed. “It turned out there was plenty to study here.”

I stared hard at him, studying him. Could he possibly be telling the truth?
Was he human—not a ghost?

Or was this an evil trick?

His black, sunken eyes didn’t reveal anything to me.

“Why did you drag us in here?” I demanded, climbing to my knees.

“To warn you,” Harrison Sadler replied. “To warn you about the ghosts. You
are in great danger here. I have studied them. I have seen their evil.”

Terri let out a low cry. I couldn’t tell if she believed the old man or not.

I realized that I didn’t believe him at all. His story didn’t make any sense.

I climbed to my feet. “If you are a scientist studying the occult,” I said,
“why are you shut up here in this weird cave?”

He slowly raised his hand and motioned toward the shadowy ceiling. “This cave
is a sanctuary,” he murmured.

Sanctuary? That was the word that Sam had used.

“Once inside this cave,” Harrison explained, “ghosts cannot escape through
the rocks.”

“So that means you are trapped in here,” I insisted.

His eyes narrowed at me. “My plan is to trap the ghosts in here,” he replied
softly. “That is why I stacked the rocks above the entrance. I hope some day to
trap them in here forever.”

I turned to my sister. She stared thoughtfully at Harrison.

“But why are you
living
here?” I demanded.

“I am safe here,” he replied. “The sanctuary keeps me safe. The ghosts cannot
surprise me by coming through the rocks. Didn’t you wonder why they sent
you
up here instead of coming up themselves?”

“They sent us up here because they’re terrified of you!” I shouted,
forgetting my fear. “They sent us up here because
you’re
the ghost!”

His expression changed. He pushed himself away from the driftwood table and
moved quickly toward Terri and me. His deep, sunken eyes glowed like dark coals.

“What are you going to do?” I cried.

Harrison took another menacing step toward us. “You don’t believe me, do
you?” he accused.

Terri and I were too frightened to answer.

“Wh-what are you going to do?” I repeated, my voice tiny and shrill.

He glared at us for a long moment, the candlelight flickering over his pale
face. “I’m going to let you go,” he said finally.

Terri let out a cry of surprise.

I edged back, toward the tunnel.

“I’m going to let you go,” Harrison Sadler repeated. “So that you can examine
the east corner of the old graveyard.” He waved a bony hand. “Go. Go now. To the
graveyard.”

“You—you’re really letting us go?” I stammered.

“Once you’ve seen the east corner, you’ll come back,” Harrison replied
mysteriously. “You’ll come back.”

No way, I thought, my heart pounding.

No way I’ll ever come near this frightening cave again.

“Go!” the old ghost cried.

Terri and I spun around and scrambled out of his chamber. Neither of us
looked back.

As we hurried out of the cave and down the rocks, I couldn’t get Harrison’s
face out of my mind. I kept picturing his glowing, evil eyes, his long, stringy
hair, his yellow teeth when he flashed us that eerie smile. With a shudder, I
remembered the inhuman strength of his grip as he dragged Terri and me into his
chamber.

I also couldn’t stop thinking about Sam, Louisa, and Nat. There was no way
they were ghosts. They were our friends. They had tried to warn Terri and me
that the ghost was sneaking up behind us.

They said they’d been terrified of Harrison their whole lives. And I
remembered Nat’s sad face as he told us how much he was scared of ghosts.

Harrison Sadler is a liar, I thought bitterly.

A 350-year-old ghost of a liar.

Down on the beach, Terri and I stopped to catch our breath. “He—he’s so
scary!” Terri gasped.

“I couldn’t believe he let us go,” I replied, bending over, pressing my hands
against my knees, waiting for the sharp pain in my side to fade.

I searched for our three frends. But they were nowhere to be seen.

“Are we going to the graveyard?” I asked.

“I know what he wants us to see,” Terri replied, gazing back up at the dark
cave. “I know why he wants us to check out the east corner. That’s where we
found the gravestones for Louisa, Nat, and Sam.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Harrison is just trying to scare us. He thinks if we see the old graves, it
will prove to us that Louisa, Nat, and Sam are ghosts.”

“But we already know the truth about those old graves,” I said.

We stepped off the beach and into the trees. The air grew cooler. Moonlight
trickling through the branches overhead made strange shadows stretch across our
path.

We reached the cemetery entrance and stopped.

“Might as well check it out,” Terri murmured. I followed her through the
graveyard, stepping over footstones and loose brush as we made our way to the
east corner.

A pale beam of moonlight played over the three old Sadler kids’ graves. “See
anything strange?” Terri whispered.

My eyes roamed the area. “Nope.”

We stepped up to the Sadler kids’ graves.

“These look the same as yesterday,” I said. “Neat, square… whoa!”

Something caught my eye in the corner.

“What’s your problem?” Terri demanded.

My eyes struggled to see in the pale light. “I think there’s something…”

“Huh? Do you see something?” Terri cried.

“Some fresh dirt,” I said. “In the corner. On the other side of that fallen
tree. It looks like a fresh grave.”

“No way,” said Terri. “I’ve checked out all these gravestones. No one’s been
buried in here for the last fifty years.”

We took a couple of steps toward the fallen tree.

“Jerry! You’re right! It
is
a grave,” Terri whispered. “A fresh
grave.”

We stepped over the fallen tree trunk, keeping close together. A narrow shaft
of moonlight lit up the freshly dug ground.

“It’s two graves!” I gasped. “Two fresh graves with little markers on them.”

I squatted down to try to read them. Terri moved behind me. “What do they
say, Jerry?”

My mouth went dry. I couldn’t answer her.

“Jerry? Can you read them?”

“Yes,” I finally choked out. “It’s us, Terri. The names on these markers
read, ‘Jerry Sadler and Terri Sadler’.”

“Wh-what does this mean?” I stammered.

“Who dug these graves?” Terri asked. “Who put up these markers?”

“Let’s get out of here,” I urged, grabbing her arm. “Let’s go tell Agatha and
Brad.”

Terri hesitated.

“We
have
to,” I insisted. “We have to tell them everything. We should
have told them a long time ago.”

“Okay,” Terri agreed.

I turned to leave—and gasped when I saw the three figures staring at us
from the shadows.