The Children of Hypnos

Chapter 27: The House on Fenhallow Hill

                   

There was no Grandpa Al waiting for them when they returned to the surface, and Lana let Emery go without any fuss, too busy muttering over the empty eyedropper and Klaus's waking water.

Emery ran back to Kirkland, where lights burned in the tall gothic windows, and Wes, Ridley, and the class eighteen student council sat around the TV in the lobby. Kris and Lewis were doing homework; Jacqueline was flipping through something on her phone; Wes and Ridley were watching the news, Wes as still and silent as a statue and Ridley bouncing up and down on the couch cushion beside him; and Joel was busy tying orange and purple Fenhalloween decoration streamers together until he looked up and saw her there, and then he tossed them away with a big smile.

Emery sat herself on Ridley's other side and explained quickly and quietly what had just happened.

"So Uncle Ares hasn't gotten him to say anything yet," Wes said.

Ridley looked worried. "Is he not trying? Or...does he not really want the information? Uncle Ares is supposed to be really good at finding things out."

"I don't know how Klaus resisted him, but we can't assume he's going to be able to do it for much longer," Emery said. "We need to find my doppelgänger before this gets out of hand. Joel, what do you have?"

"The perfect place." He pulled out a sheet of orange paper. One of the many fliers for Fenhalloween that had been tacked up on the Crossing's main bulletin board. On it was a creepy low-angle shot of Fenhallow Manor, and the date and time—Halloween, 9 PM—that Fenhalloween would begin. In all caps at the bottom, it said, COSTUMES MANDATORY.

Emery frowned. "Fenhallow Manor?"

Joel leaned forward. "Yes! Think about it: the class sixteen council just finished cleaning and decorating it for Fenhalloween, so we know it's in good shape. It's off-limits because it's just been decorated, so no one will go there at night unless student council members are there to fix decorations or anything. And you're technically not leaving campus, but it's far enough away that no one is likely to hear us or walk in on us."

He paused, then said, "And, you know, it's haunted and stuff. Which is cool."

"I guess this works," Emery said. "As long as the Wilmark Fox doesn't try to attack us inside the house."

"Ver did some experiments with the Fox. It only attacks you if you look at it," Jacqueline said.

"Why would Ver do experiments with it?"

"Why wouldn't she? You have to observe your enemies in order to learn how to defeat them. Just because the rest of you don't think before you leap..."

Emery let out the longest, most exaggerated sigh she could manage. Jacqueline glanced up, glaring. A moment passed. Her lip curled up at the corner.

"Well," Emery said, "are we going tonight or what? We know Ares isn't around; we might as well go now, even if it's just to check the place out."

Joel was already out of his seat and bounding toward the door; Jacqueline, Kris, and Ridley went next, leaving just Lewis and Wes to glance uncertainly at each other, then at Emery.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Wes asked. "Open a gateway? Go into the Dream again? It wasn't great for us last time, and what if opening a gateway from the inside is different than opening it from the outside? We could get stuck in there."

"You don't have to go in," Emery said.

A vein stood out in Wes's forehead. "We're not having this argument again."