07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

Something was shaking the room. Shaking Matt with it. Still half-asleep, he put his hand under his
pillow and pulled out the revolver. A hand grabbed it and he heard a voice.
“Matt! It’s me, Meredith! Wake up, will you?”
Groggily, Matt reached for the lamp switch. Again, strong, slim cold fingers prevented
him from doing what he wanted.
“No light,” Meredith whispered. “It’s very faint, but if you come with me quietly, you can
hear it. The crying.”
That woke Matt up the rest of the way. “Right now?”
“Right now.”
Doing his best to walk quietly through the dark halls, Matt followed Meredith to the
downstairs living room.
“Sh!” Meredith warned. “Listen.”
Matt listened. He could hear some sobbing all right, and maybe some words, but they
didn’t sound all that ghostly to him. He put his ear to the wall and listened. The crying was louder.
“Do we have a flashlight?” Matt asked.
“I have two, my dears. But this is a very dangerous time of night.” Mrs. Flowers was a
shadow against darkness.
“Please give the flashlights to us,” said Matt. “I don’t think our ghost is very
supernatural. What time is it, anyway?”
“About twelve forty A.M.,” Meredith answered. “But why do you think it isn’t
supernatural?”
“Because I think it’s living in our basement,” Matt said. “I think it’s Cole Reece. The kid
who ate his guinea pig.”
Ten minutes later, with the stave, two flashlights, and Saber, they had caught their ghost.
“I didn’t mean anything bad,” Cole sobbed, when they had lured him upstairs with
promises of candy and “magic” tea that would let him sleep.
“I didn’t hurt anything, honest,” he choked, wolfing down Hershey bar after Hershey bar
from their emergency rations. “I’m scared that he’s onto me. Because after you hit me with that sticky
note, I haven’t been able to hear him in my head anymore. And then you came here”—he gestured
around Matt’s house—“and you had amulets and I figured it would be better to stay inside them. Or it
could be my Last Midnight too.”
He was babbling. But something about the last words made Matt say, “What do you
mean…‘your Last Midnight too’?”
Cole looked at him in terror. The rim of melted Hershey bar around his lips made Matt
remember the last time he’d seen the boy.
“You know, don’t you?” Cole faltered. “About the midnights? The countdown? Twelve
days till the Last Midnight? Eleven days till the Last Midnight? And now…tonight is one day till the
Last Midnight…” He began to sob again, even while cramming chocolate into his mouth. It was clear
that he was starving.
“But what happens on the Last Midnight?” Meredith asked.
“You know, don’t you? That that’s the time when…you know.” Maddeningly Cole
seemed to think they were testing him.