Page 76 of A Mastery of Monsters

Bernie lives on King Street, only a few blocks over from McIntosh Castle.

It makes sense, since it’s close to both the museum that he and his wife run, and campus.

The street is quiet and abandoned. It’s a Monday night after midnight, and though students live in this section too, there are enough nonstudent residents for it to be calm at this time.

“It’s this one,” Corey says, looking up from her phone. She’s been texting and calling Bernie to see if Virgil might have said anything suggesting that he’d run away. We haven’t heard back.

Meanwhile, Margot is getting ready and rousing Isaac, and she’s supposed to drive over and meet us so we can search for him. “Any updates from Margot?”

“Yeah, she said Henry is getting his people to check the security footage on the house to see which way Virgil went, but they’re having issues.”

Right, the cameras. “Wait, they’re Henry’s cameras?”

“Yeah. Who else?”

“I thought they were the society’s or something. Since it’s one of their properties.”

Corey shakes her head. “No, Henry had them installed because he was worried about someone coming after Virgil as revenge for his parents. People in his Mastery group watch them.” She walks up the steps of the house and knocks on the front door.

Bernie’s house is one of six or so identical brick townhouses that line the block. They all have three stories and a basement entrance.

When no one answers, I come up next to Corey and try to peer through the glass doors, but there’s nothing but darkness. I knock harder on the glass, and Corey winces beside me.

I glance up and down the street, but no one’s come out or is paying attention to us. I search their front porch, but there isn’t anything that looks like it could be holding a spare key, including no front mat or even a ledge for a spare to rest on.

“You think he’s asleep?” I ask.

“Probably. It’s past midnight, and he’s been having health issues all year. And then I came over here and made him run with me to help Virgil. That probably took a lot out of him.”

She has a fair point. And he’s been looking worse lately.

I walk down the stairs and into the narrow alley between the houses, looking through the windows there. But it’s too dark in every single one.

Corey swears behind me, and I turn to her. “What?”

She’s looking down at the lit-up phone in her hand. “Someone took out the cameras at McIntosh Castle.”

“Took them out?!”

“Smashed them. There’s no footage.”

I stuff my hands into my jacket pockets. “Virgil.”

“He would have known where they were.”

Even a day ago, I wouldn’t have believed that he would run. But how he was earlier today… desperate and angry, it was different. I’ve never seen him like that before. “Fuck. What is even his plan? I would understand if he went to Henry or us or something, but this…”

I narrow my eyes at the window, and Corey must read something in my face, because she starts to shake her head. “August…”

“He’s the last person who talked to Virgil. Don’t you think these circumstances are dire enough? Henry can pay for the damages.”

Corey swallows before sighing. “Okay.”

“Keep a look out.” The last thing I need is some neighbor calling the police to say a Black girl is breaking into someone’s home. I don’t see that ending well for me.

It’s an awkward angle because the window is high. I take out my knife, aim handle first, and slam it into the window. Having never purposely broken a window before, I’m surprised when the whole thing shatters. Loudly.

I take my jacket off and use it to scatter the debris, then lay it on the ledge. “I need a boost! Quick! Before someone comes.”

Corey helps boost me in, and then I drag her through the window after. We’re in their ground-level bathroom. “Sorry, Bernie,” she mumbles. We go into the hall and head up the stairs to the main floor.

“Bernie?!” Corey calls out, but no one answers.

The first door we open is a small bedroom. Davy’s, I assume. It’s been preserved. Everything left as is, made obvious by the thin layer of dust on the surfaces. We get to the main bedroom, and it’s empty too.

“They’re not home,” Corey says.

“After midnight on a Monday? When he told us he was going home? What could he and his wife possibly be out doing?” I think back and say, “He also told us not to bother Virgil until the morning. The only reason I realized he was gone was because I didn’t listen to him.”

She shakes her head. “No… no… Why would he…”

“Virgil wouldn’t run on his own. He’s too pragmatic for that. But if someone promised to help him…”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit.” I look around the room, seeing if there’s anything in there that might hint at where Virgil and Bernie went.

“It’s weird that his wife is gone too.” I riffle through their closet, but it’s just filled with clothes.

No false back to it either. Not even shoeboxes that might hold something hidden.

“There’s a basement.” Corey starts toward it without waiting for me. I turn and rush after her. Both of us have to duck on the staircase because of the overhang, and neither of us is even that tall. There’s a door at the bottom of the stairs without a lock on it. But when I push, it won’t open.

I look at Corey with a raised brow.

“You do know that you can kick doors open too, right?” she says.

“But you do it so well.”

She rolls her eyes and kicks at the door, but instead of it busting open, her whole foot goes through the thing. “Shit!” She loses her balance, and I grab a hold of her, helping her stay upright while she pulls her foot out.

“That did not happen last time,” I say.

“No, it did not.” I let her go, and Corey kicks again and again.

It’s a normal hollow interior door, made of thin wood that splinters under the pressure of her attacks.

She opens up a hole big enough for us to crawl inside.

Once we’re in there, it becomes clear why the door didn’t just give.

There are three deadbolts on the other side.

“Deadbolts on a cheap hollow door.” I shake my head. “I guess they didn’t expect anyone to physically attack it.”

“But they also didn’t want anyone to come in.”

It’s a mundane room. They seem to be using it as a sort of flex/rec space, though it’s not much bigger than the main bedroom upstairs.

There’s a stacked washer and dryer on the far end, a squishy couch, a double bed shoved in the corner, and even a tiny, unfinished bathroom.

The drywall hasn’t been painted or anything.

Just naked sheets, screwed onto two-by-fours.

Corey goes over to the bed and grabs the duvet, shaking it out and then lifting it to her nose.

“Is there a reason we’re smelling the bedsheets?” I ask. “Or are you about to reveal a fetish to me?”

She scowls. “They’re sweaty. Someone’s been sleeping here recently.”

“Why would they sleep down here when there’s a perfectly good bedroom upstairs? Unless Bernie and his wife are fighting, and this is his man cave or whatever.”

Corey moves faster around the room, going over to a chest of drawers and opening it, staring at the contents, and then grabbing another shirt from the floor. She snatches up more things in the room. Some random acoustic guitar and then drawings. And the more she does it, the paler she gets.

“What is it?” I ask.

“The clothes… they’re like… graphic T-shirts and hoodies. And they smell. Someone’s been wearing them. Have you ever seen Bernie wear clothes like that? He doesn’t draw or play guitar… but… but Davy did. He loved art and music.”

I chew on my bottom lip. A secret room in the basement.

If it were locked from the outside, that would be suspicious, but from the inside…

and the feel of this place, like it was built in a hurry.

I look at the windows. They’re not just covered with curtains, the curtains have been nailed into place, like someone wanted to be sure they wouldn’t fall.

“How is he getting out?” I look around the room. “The door locks from the inside, and it was still locked. But no one is here.”

“How is he alive is a better question,” Corey says, wrapping her arms around herself. “We were sure he was dead. They went after him. They reported him dead.”

“Was there a body?”

Corey sighs. “I mean, no.”

“There was no body, and no one questioned that?!”

“Sometimes you never get a body, and you still know someone is gone!”

I grit my teeth. I know that, of course I know that.

She continues, “They found evidence that Davy had been camping, way over on the island. Probably trying to get on the ferry to New York, cross the border. But it was below freezing. He wouldn’t have survived the night, and even if he had, he would have turned.

He was already on the edge. We would have noticed a sudden uncontrolled monster popping up. They didn’t need a body.”

“Let’s just keep looking for how he got out.”

Corey joins me as we search the room more aggressively, pulling posters off the wall and shoving furniture, and then finally, I find it. A trap door on the floor behind the couch. When I open it, there’s a ladder leading into the darkness.

“I’m going in,” I say.

“No, you’re not. We need to call Henry and Margot.”

“Fine, you stay and call, and I’ll go in.”

“You can’t go in alone!”

“And if we both go and are viciously horror-movie killed, no one will know what happened. You wait, and I’ll go.”

Corey groans, squishing her cheeks with her hands. “Okay, okay, fine. You go. Fast! I’ll call. Any sign of danger, come back right away.”