Together they headed into Wardrobes, and the great Showroom silence settled over them like a shroud. Amy told herself she wasn’t scared anymore, but as they walked along the Path, she was increasingly certain they were lost again. She picked up her pace, panic crawling up her spine, and then a massive wave of relief washed over her when at last up ahead she finally saw the brightly colored bunk beds of Children’s. Even then, she wouldn’t allow herself to relax until she and Ruth Anne were back in the break area, all four walls clearly visible and close enough to touch.

“I’m glad that’s over,” Ruth Anne said quietly.

“Me, too.”

“And according to Basil’s schedule, we get a fifteen-minute break before starting the next patrol.”

Amy’s heart sank.

06: Kjërring

Basil was furious when Amy and Ruth Anne returned to the break room. “What part of ‘thirty minutes’ did you not understand?” he asked. “What have you been doing?”

“Talking to Matt and Trinity,” Ruth Anne explained.

“What?” Basil said.

“They’re the ones who gummed up the partners’ entrance,” Ruth Anne said. “But Trinity told me they’d clean it up before they left, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“What?” Basil repeated.

“They’re over in Bedrooms,” Ruth Anne said. “But it’s okay, they’re not vandalizing anything. They’re just filming a video for their ghost-hunting show.”

“What?” Basil asked again.

“You know how on A&E they’ve got those ghost hunters?” Ruth Anne said. “Oh, shoot, they don’t want to be on A&E, though. Right, it’s Bravo. Anyway, they say this place is built on an old prison and they’ve got cameras and microphones and all kinds of electromagnetic detectors and they’re shooting their own little ghost show. It’s real cute. We caught them kissing, didn’t we, Amy?”

“We did,” Amy said, sitting down on one of the Arsles and crossing her arms over her chest.

She decided that she was going to sit there and definitely, absolutely not go back out on the floor for the rest of the night. She resisted the urge to check her phone. The last time she’d looked it had been 12:20. She thought if she checked again and it wasn’t at least 1 a.m. she would go crazy.

She couldn’t check it again.

It felt too soon to check it again.

But finally, against her better judgment, she checked it again.

Twelve twenty-five a.m.

“This is unbelievable,” Basil said. “Why would they do this?”

“They want to make Orsk famous,” Ruth Anne said.

“It’s already famous,” Basil said. “You need to show me where they are. Right now.”