A surprise: Although I don’t know how long the special price for this ebook will last, The Cemetery Club is on sale at Amazon for 99 cents. Here is an excerpt from that first Darcy and Flora cozy mystery:
Flopping onto my stomach, I squeezed, head first, down the first two stone steps. I heard my mother slithering along behind me. The passage through which we slid was narrow with barely enough room for us to pass through. Raising one hand over my head, I felt nothing but space. Cautiously, I rose to my knees, then to my feet. Unbelievably, I was able to stand. Stretching my hand as far as I could above me, I was not able to touch a ceiling. Although the height of this tunnel had increased considerably, it was barely wide enough to allow us passage. Slowly and carefully, I tested each step with my toe before moving downward. I inched along into silence as complete as a tomb except for the sound of my mother, breathing heavily behind me.
This was no labyrinth we traveled. No other tunnels intersected this one. The passageway led steeply down, with no twists and turns. With each step, we descended farther into the subterranean depths of Ventris County, and we were still as lost as we had been above ground.
I knew the moment our pursuers found our little hideaway. I heard that guttural voice exclaim, as if he were far away, “They aren’t here!”
Grabbing my mother’s wrist, we stood, hardly daring to breathe. Then, once again silence fell, as complete as the darkness that surrounded us.
Did we dare retrace out steps and crawl out? Was it safe?
Standing against the smooth walls of the tunnel for what seemed to be hours, I heard no further sound except the thundering of my heart and Mom’s breathing.
Finally, she whispered in a voice that echoed eerily in that chamber, “Let’s go on a little farther, Darcy. These stairs lead somewhere. Maybe there’s another way out.”
I couldn’t argue with that, especially since I was too weak to face the possibility that if we returned the way we had come, we might crawl right into the arms of death.
Forcing myself to focus on each slow, sliding step, I fought the panic that threatened to raise its ugly head. Claustrophobia had never been a problem for me, but I could not see where I was going and the sides of this tunnel seemed to be closing in. I was definitely claustrophobic now.
Mom’s hand pressed lightly on my back. I knew this was as much to comfort me as it was to be certain we were not lost from each other in the inky blackness. Would we suddenly step off into a bottomless pit and disappear forever? Silently, I prayed that God would guide us. What a time to remember stories of rattlesnake dens hidden far underground. My shivering shot into high gear.
I had always believed that I could choose my own thoughts. Unwelcome ones might come knocking, but I didn’t have to invite them in. However, I had never before been below the earth in an unknown, unrelenting darkness with death waiting above and who knew what waiting below. Now, memories of teenage tales told at slumber parties or around a campfire crept up on me and I could not dispel them. Stories of unexplained lights flickering near old graveyards, of strangers who mysteriously disappeared, of eerie nighttime noises, not only knocked at my mind’s door, they moved in and took up residence.
Sadly, I had not counted the steps as I descended. It was too late to do so now. Had we gone twenty or fifty feet under the earth? My head pounded and I labored to draw in each breath and expel it, fighting the urge to run back up to daylight and fresh air.
Mom saw it before I did. “Darcy,” she whispered in my ear. “Look.”
The blackness was no longer absolute. I blinked. Did I see a dim glow somewhere up ahead? Rubbing my eyes, I looked again. Yes, there was no doubt about it. A faint light flickered below us.
Speak Your Mind