Billy Bones: Beyond the Grave

Chapter 10

There was no way I was going to leave Goliath in the maze. I’d only known him a short time, but he was already more than just a pet. He was like family.

I ran over and pounded against the marble. It didn’t accomplish anything other than tenderize my fists.

Then the walls shifted about twenty feet from where I stood. Miesha and Kenji slipped through. I ran toward them hoping to slip back inside, but the maze sealed shut just as I arrived.

“No!” I yelled.

Again, I slammed my fists against the wall.

Goliath barked, and the walls shifted away from me. The grating of stone sliding along stone flooded my ears, followed by loud booms.

I tried climbing up the walls to get a look, but I just slipped along the surface of the marble.

“What’s happening?” I said.

Liz grimaced. “The maze is collapsing.”

“Goliath!” I called, trying to find a way back in.

Kenji seized me from behind.

I tried to shrug him off. “I have to get him!” I said.

He held tight. “You cannot save him. You will only perish in there.”

Goliath’s barking got faster.

“No! Goliath!” I called again. I tried to slip out of Kenji’s iron grasp. “He needs my help!”

I struggled, but it was no use. Kenji’s arms felt like an anaconda coiled around my chest. He wasn’t letting go. Goliath barked until the final stone clap, after which I heard no more.

I hung my head, and Kenji finally released me. I turned from the maze, walking away from the others. Tears slid down my face, and a terrible pain sat in my heart. I felt like I had betrayed Goliath, like I had let him down.

I walked past mounds of treasure, ignoring the talk of the others. I didn’t care about any of it.

Alone with my thoughts, somehow my feet wandered to where I had last seen our books.

They were gone, but a ripped corner of a page lay on the ground.

I picked it up.

On it was written the following:

…it keeps following me around. Not sure what to do with it. I can’t seem to remember anything since arriving here, but this mangy four-legged beast is constantly at my heels. There’s something odd about it, though. It’s like I know it, but I don’t remember having a black dog. Wish—

The rest of the page was ripped.

Wish I could have rescued him, I thought. Wish I had stayed in there with him. Wish he was still alive.

Then a powerful flood of memories inundated my head. I remembered having a dog. I’d always had a dog, and it had always been Goliath. He had been with me in both the Livingworld and the Afterlife — in a different form each time.

But somehow I’d been separated from him before. The circumstances were foggy. I remembered being alone and missing him, but I couldn’t get more than that. That made the sting of his death all the more painful. I swallowed it down and slipped the paper into my pocket before Liz and the others came around the corner. I didn’t want them to see it. I know it seemed trivial, and I didn’t feel like I was hiding anything from them, but this was a personal part of me that I wanted to keep to myself.

At least, for now.

Besides, Liz didn’t seem too keen on me finding my Lexicon. Best she not know I found a piece of it.