Suckers - J.A. Konrath

I walked slowly, carefully, making sure I didn't fall and kill myself, which would've been a
pretty major act of party pooping if this did turn out to be a joke. I reached the bottom without
any death on my part, then hurried over and retrieved the flashlight.
Then I waved the flashlight beam all over the living room, trying to catch a glimpse of Jarvis
Taywood or his ghost. Nothing. Rationally, I knew that the best course of action was to rush
outside and tell Becky's mom to call the police, but I also knew that Roger could be in immediate
danger. I headed into the kitchen.
Nothing there, either. No place to hide except the pantry.
Inside the pantry, something fell. I let out a rather embarrassing yelp.
I held up the flashlight at a suitable angle for bashing somebody's head if the need arose,
then threw open the pantry door and quickly stepped back.
It was empty. A can of spinach rolled against my feet.
Could a ghost topple spinach? Would it have any reason to?
And then, with a barely audible creak, the inside wall of the pantry slowly began to swing
open, like a door.
I pulled it open all the way, revealing another room slightly smaller than the pantry,
containing nothing but a ladder leading down into a hole in the dirt floor.
"Whoa," was the best I could think to whisper to myself, and I'm pretty sure I didn't even
pronounce it correctly.
This was definitely the time to call the police.
Roger screamed from down below.
There was definitely not time to call the police.
I peered down into the hole, but while there was a definite flickering below, I couldn't see
anything else. I didn't dare shine my flashlight down there, or even climb down the ladder, not if
I wanted to take the old man by surprise. Instead I turned around, praying that this meant I'd be
facing the right direction when I landed, stepped backward, and dropped down into the darkness.
I wasn't sure how far I fell. It was far enough that I dropped to my knees with a jolt of pain,
but not far enough to shatter any bones.
When I looked up, the first thing that caught my attention was the old man rushing at me
with a meat cleaver.
I jumped to my feet and swung the flashlight, bashing him across the face. The old man was
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