Page 63 of The Midnight Knock

“Now do you see why you need to be so careful?” Adeline had whispered in Penelope’s ear in the back of Stanley’s van. “You need to do what I say. You have no idea how important it is.”

Penelope had swallowed. It was crazy, but it was hard to argue with a girl who clearly wasn’t lying. “What do I need to do?”

There had been a lot of screaming tonight. First Tabitha, and then what sounded like Stanley getting eaten by a bear (scary, of course, but Penelope hadn’t been as upset as she would have thought to realize her grandfather was dead). There had been some weirdSHRIEKSthat had made Penelope think of nails on a chalkboard, and some weird moans that sounded like a massive animal getting crushed under a big rock.

“What the heckisthat?” Penelope had whispered.

“Trust me,” Adeline said. “You really don’t want to know.”

She’d gotten bored (who wouldn’t), and for old times’ sake she thought they could play The Game, but Adeline hadn’t gone along with it for long. “You have to stay quiet. Please. You have no idea.”

“What are you so afraid of?” Penelope said. “Aren’t you, like, dead?”

“Not as long as you’re alive.”

Fair enough, she guessed. But the silence left Penelope with nothing to do but think about all the strange things Adeline had made her do today. It made Penelope think of the shower, and sneaking out of Stanley’s room, and the things they’d done in room 4.

Penelope really, really did not want to think about room 4.

Dark as their hiding place was, Penelope had known when the motel’s lights had died. There was a wave ofSHRIEKSand screams and some weird hisses and gunshots and more screams and then—silence. The desert was quiet. Penelope understood, in a way that was hard to understand, that everyone was dead.

Now Penelope was scared.

“You’re the last one standing,” Adeline said. “And you need to keep it that way until it’s too late. Don’t move a freaking muscle.”

Overhead, Penelope had heard footsteps. They sounded close. A man called her name even though Penelope was certain she’d never met him before. She would know. She was good with voices.

“It’s not too late, Penelope!” the strange man shouted.

Adeline hissed in her ear, “Don’t make a sound. It’s almost over.”

“The ritual is failing!” the man shouted outside.

There was another moan from the direction of the mountain. The man had to shout over it.

“We can’t keep doing this forever, Penelope. One way or another, the seal is going to break.”

Panic was rising in Penelope. She didn’t like this voice. How did he know her name?

How did he know her name?

“Just come out, Penelope. I won’t hurt you. I just need to know where you are.”

Another moan came from the mountain, louder than the any of the others, and this one didn’t stop. A tremor shook the earth so hard it threw Penelope from her seat and slewed her sideways. Her head hit the wall of her hiding place. Hit it hard.

Her shoulders sank into cold.

The tremor, like the loud noise from the mountain, didn’t stop. It seemed to be growing stronger and stronger, an earthquake, but didn’t earthquakes stop at some point? Penelope stopped trying to be sneaky. She was too scared for it.

“What is this?” she said. “What’s happening?”

“Relax, Polly,” Adeline said. “It’s just the end of the world.”

A new sound came, a great crash of breaking stone. It was the last sound the planet would ever know.

All sound stopped, then. In the final silence—in this new, absolute hush—a great flash of silver light flooded the world over Penelope’s head, followed by an explosion so powerful it flattened her against the wall of her hiding place. She was about to die. The entire world, she realized, was about to die.

Penelope started to scream, even though there was no one left to hear.