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for supper, Mom’s going to start calling people.”
    “At least somebody will come and get us,” I said. “Even if we get grounded for a year, it would be better than spending the night in here.”
    Little did we know, Riley’s mom was still throwing up at supper time, so my mom had to take her to the clinic—which meant no one was home at either of our houses to even notice we were gone.
    By the time the sun went down, we were huddled together on the fourth-floor landing, surrounded by pitch black, waiting for someone to find us. At the time, I told myself there were no such things as ghosts, but now, after everything I’ve been through, I’m not sure I was right.

Chapter Ten

    I had no idea what time it was when my eyes flew open in the darkness.
    “What was that?” I asked with fright, sitting up from my fetal position on the landing.
    “What was what ?” Riley asked.
    “You didn’t see it? A flash of light? It moved across the ceiling.”
    “Are you sure?” he replied.
    “I don’t know.” Was I dreaming this?
    We both scurried on our backsides into the corner under the window.
    “Do you hear anything?” Though I spoke in a whisper, the sound of my voice seemed to echo up and down the stairwell.
    “No. Do you?” Riley replied.
    I shook my head and hugged my knees to my chest. “It’s so dark in here. This must be what it’s like to be blind. I wish we knew what time it was.”
    I wanted to know how long it would be before the sun would come up. If we could just survive until then…
    Then whoosh ! Another flash of light swept across the ceiling.
    “There! See?”
    “Maybe it’s lightning,” Riley whispered shakily. “Maybe we’ll hear thunder in a second.”
    I counted out loud—one second for every mile—but reached twenty and there was nothing. Just silence when I stopped counting.
    Riley grabbed hold of my arm. “What are we going to do?”
    “Just sit here and be really quiet,” I replied. “The light can’t hurt us.”
    “But what if it’s more than just a light?” he asked. “What if it’s a ghost and he wants to murder us?”
    “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” I assured him, trying hard to believe it myself, which was no easy task through my blinding terror.
    “Then why’d you come out here with me?” Riley asked. “If you didn’t believe in ghosts?” He sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
    “I don’t know. I just thought it would be a cool thing to do.”
    Suddenly, there was a voice in the distance. It was crying out for help.
    “What’s that?” Riley clutched my hand and squeezed it so hard, he cut off the blood supply to my fingers. There was an unexpected, loud crashing sound and we both screamed our lungs out as light filled the stairwell.
    “Riley James? Josh Wallace?” someone shouted.
    We both fell silent at the sound of our names. Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs. The beam of light traveled jerkily up the wall.
    Slowly coming to realize that it was not a ghost, but a flesh-and-blood human being moving toward us, I leaped to my feet. “We’re here!” I squinted and shaded my eyes against an intense spotlight.
    “Hello boys,” the woman said good-naturedly. Immediately I realized she was a female police officer. “Your parents have been pretty worried about you.”
    All the breath sailed out of my lungs. We were saved !
    Bending forward, I fought to hold back the urge to vomit, while Riley sprang to his feet and dashed straight into the policewoman’s arms.
    o0o
    “You really saved our bacon,” I said to Leah after we got out of the cop car in front of Riley’s house. It was almost midnight and both our mothers had squeezed the daylights out of us and wept tears of joy.
    Leah folded her arms. “You might not think so later when my dad gets home. He was in the middle of a surgery when they told him you two were missing. My mom’s been a nervous wreck ever since we got home from the doctor.”
    We both looked over at Mrs.