Curses and Crosswords (A Spooky Games Club Mystery Book 4) by Amy McNulty

Author:Amy McNulty [McNulty, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crimson Fox Publishing
Published: 2021-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I woke in the darkness of the roomette as I almost rolled off the top bunk and onto the floor below me, Cable’s cries as he also jostled to the side echoing out in my ears.

Broomie chirruped in warning and soared out from the top bunk to float under me, catching me. Cable was less lucky, his head rolling onto the toilet cushion seat beside him and his legs slamming onto the floor.

“What’s going on?” he asked, scrambling to his feet. An alarm rang out overhead, just as it had when January had opened the dining car window.

“NO,” I said, extending my arms toward the light switch and righting myself on Broomie’s back as we lowered slightly so I wouldn’t hit my head. The lights flickered on.

Cable was seated at the edge of his bench seat bed, pulling his glasses out of their case in his folio bag.

“No what?” he asked, blinking. He reminded me of those big men I’d dubbed “pallbearers” and their stony, slow-on-the-uptake looks. But anyone would feel that way roused from the depths of sleep.

“Not ‘no,’ ‘on,’” I explained quickly, sliding down Broomie’s back to my feet. “The lights. Why is the train going so fast?”

On unsteady feet, I gripped Broomie for support. The onyx pike clattered back and forth between the bunk and the toilet where we’d wedged it, rattling like an empty, hollow tube.

“I… I don’t know,” said Cable, his eyes widening.

Something didn’t feel right.

The intercom crackled again. “Everyone, this is the conductor speaking. I ask that you remain calm. Please stay seated. If currently in a sleeper car, please get down off the upper bunks at the earliest opportunity and sit up. Hold on to the armrests and stay seated.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Cable worried his lip.

“What time is it?” I wondered. Like that was important right now.

Cable turned on his phone, unplugging it as he did.

“Two in the morning. But there’s no service,” he said blankly. “Another tunnel?”

I stared outside. We were rounding another curve, and pineapple broomsticks, those back cars were not taking the curve very well, teetering sideways as they rounded the bend.

“Dahlia, you should sit,” he said, making room for me beside him.

“We’re going too fast!” I shouted, and the conductor clearly knew it, telling everyone to sit down. “Something’s—” I stopped myself.

There. Right before the caboose took that turn, wobbling this way and that as it did so.

The figure on the roof of the train.

“Dahlia…?” Cable asked.

Behind the door leading to the hallway, pounding footfalls indicated a series of people running through the walkways between cars, even if we’d been ordered to stay put.

“I have to go out there,” I said, sliding on my boots. Broomie must have seen it, too. Her bristle head nodded. I jumped up on Cable’s bed, my toes barely missing his bag, and combed through the overhead luggage compartment to drag my own bag out. “Someone’s on the roof.” I pulled out my witch’s hat, muttered a “SELKNIRW ON” enchantment over it, and placed the black conical hat with its purple band atop my head.

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