The Ever After

Chapter Seventeen: Into the Catacombs

MAY PULLED HER STARLIGHT OUT OF HER pocket and held it up to illuminate the walls of the tunnel they had entered.

"Ahh!" Pumpkin cried, and leaped as the walls of the Catacombs came into focus. They were lined with thousands of eyes, staring at them. May stumbled back a few feet, the light glinting along the walls. And then . . .

"Pumpkin?"

He had already run halfway back toward the opening of the cave.

"It's just skulls. Look."

May made a wide arc with her hand, showing that the thousands of eyes belonged to skulls that lined the walls like bricks.

"Whoa," May breathed. Pumpkin started to inch back toward her.

They were in a tunnel that led into shadows up ahead, the ceiling just barely arching above Pumpkin's hair, so that he stooped slightly.

"These tunnels are very ancient," Pumpkin pointed out. "Some of these skulls are thousands of years old."

May was impressed. Maybe she had underestimated Pumpkin. "How can you tell?"

"Look."

He pointed to a skull down at the level of his thigh. Somebody had carved into it with a tiny, sharp instrument: NEBUCHADNEZZAR WAS HERE. APRIL 4, 103.

Pumpkin started skipping along ahead.

"Pumpkin, be careful."

He looked perplexed.

"You should let me lead. I have the starlight."

They trudged forward, May lighting the way with her light, following the winding of the tunnel. A few minutes later they reached a spot where it forked off into two branches. She pulled out her compass. "Nine Knaves Grotto is between here and the city. So if we're headed toward the city, we're headed toward the grotto." May held up the compass toward the tunnel on the left. The needle tipped very definitely to Wrong Way.

"What about this one?" she asked, holding it up in the direction of the other tunnel. The needle tipped to Scenic Way.

"Well." May sighed. She remembered her mom's scenic routes, when they'd drive out into the counties that neighbored Briery Swamp to look for antiques, staying off the highways. What I wouldn't give for one of those boring trips now, she thought. Somber Kitty had always tried to sneak into the car in some way-jumping into Mrs. Bird's huge purse or leaping onto the roof of the car. Why hadn't May just let him come?

She choked back the lump in her throat. May didn't really want the scenic route now, but that seemed to be the only choice.

For hours they followed the twists and turns of the caves, May listening for the sound of anything that might be sharing the Catacombs with them. It was much cooler in here, and May shivered. "It's weird being in here without the sky for so long," she said to Pumpkin, who drifted along tentatively a few feet behind her. Every time she waited for him to catch up and walk beside her, he fell back, pretending his shoe was untied or acting like he'd seen something interesting on the ground, until May was again safely in the lead.

May had been hoping the caves would lead them back out into the open before it was time to sleep. She worried that her compass might be wrong and that they would end up going farther and farther into the heart of the cliffs and never come out again.

The route they were taking did seem to run parallel to the Dead Sea, though there was no telling for sure. Finally they were too tired to go any farther without at least a little sleep. She and Pumpkin lay right down in the middle of the tunnel. There was nowhere else to go. "I hope we get out of here tomorrow," she said.