Phantom [h.s]

Thirty Nine

The wall breaks easily and soon Harry and I stand before a jagged hole about eyelevel with us. We peer inside, the room beyond bathed in darkness.

I bend down to grab the flashlight I brought up with us but Harry catches my wrist.

"It's okay," he says without taking his eyes off the hole in the wall.

"Can you go through?" I ask.

"Let's see."

Harry's hand drops from my wrist as he reaches forward towards the hole, stepping forward. I find myself wishing and hoping it will work with everything I have. This needs to work. He needs to go through.

I watch as his hand slides through the wall, followed by his arm and suddenly I'm alone in the hallway, peering into the room to see Harry turning back to look at me, his eyes widening.

"It worked," he says, sounding so relieved I almost want to cry. His face breaks into a grin and I smile back at him.

"Thank God," I sigh, shaking my head. "Do you want me to shine the light in there to look around, or...?"

"Not yet. Let me just...look for a second."

I follow Harry's silhouette with my eyes as he steps around what used to be his father's study. As my eyes adjust to the dark room with the help of the light from the hallway shining in, I see old furniture begin to take shape. A large desk is pushed to the left side, with a painting on the wall behind it. I can't tell what's on the painting in the dark. On the wall opposite of the desk are more paintings, along with what seems to be old weaponry-swords, spears, knives. I notice a space among the weapons that is empty in a large rectangular shape.

"My father had an interest in ancient civilizations, specifically their militaries and weaponry," Harry says, moving towards the wall of weapons. "He collected weapons like these for years and told me never to touch them. See, this axe is from an ancient Chinese empire. And this sword is from ancient Japan. They're thousands of years old."

"Interesting," I say. I nod to the empty space among the weaponry. "What was there?"

Harry stops, taking his bottom lip into his mouth and staring at the space. "I think..." He squints. Then his eyes slowly widen and he releases his lip from between his teeth. "I think the mirror was hung there."

I part my lips. "Oh my God."

"That means that...the reason I couldn't get through to here..." Harry looks at me. "I was killed in here."

His words feel like a punch in the gut as I watch him stare at the wall, his eyes moving down until they reach the floor. Suddenly he bends down, crouching and looking at something on the ground.

"Jane," he says. "Shine the light."

I fumble for the flashlight and click it on, aiming it towards Harry. He reaches down to touch something on the ground.

"There's blood on the floor," he says.

I accidentally drop the flashlight on the floor of the hallway and curse, bending down to pick it up and shining it back into the room. Harry is standing now and he's looking at me with his eyes wide and I know he's standing right where he died, it's his blood on the floor and he was killed there. My stomach churns and my heart pounds against my ribcage as we stare at each other.

"Do you remember anything?" I whisper.

He turns back to look at the empty spot on the wall where the mirror was and then at the floor. "No," he says and he turns back to look at me, frowning deeply. In a sudden movement, he walks briskly back towards me, through the wall and into the hallway, walking away from me and through the wall of another room. I click off the flashlight and quickly follow him, calling his name softly.