Chris Grabenstein - The Black Heart Crypt

Judy narrowed her eyes. “I’ll call the motel.”

“My, aren’t you congenial?” And with that, Aunt Francine stormed out of the house, furiously flicking her cigarette lighter the whole way.

“What a monster,” muttered Judy.

“Yeah,” said Zack with a smile. “But you know what, Mom?”

“What?”

“When it comes to slaying monsters, you and me make a pretty good team.”

The threegreat-aunts paraded back into the kitchen.

“Judy? Zack?” said Aunt Hannah. “We need to go up to the Haddam Hill Cemetery and deal with the Icklebys.”

“Like you guys did back in 1979?” said Zack.

Aunt Ginny looked surprised. “What do you know about 1979?”

“Zack and I talked to Father Abercrombie today,” said Judy.

“Really?” sniffed Hannah.

“He told us that you three were the ones who arranged to have the Ickleby caskets moved to North Chester.”

“We had to,” said Sophie. “Those twelve ghosts were making so much mischief up in Massachusetts. Why, they even killed a cat. Grizzmaldo.” She made a slicing gesture across her throat.

Pyewacket, Mister Cookiepants, and Mystic meowed in disgust.

“So are you guys gonna go fumigate the whole crypt with sage candles?” asked Zack.

“No,” said Aunt Hannah with a scowl at Aunt Ginny. “We’re going to lock them back up. Zack, we need the sealing charm.”

Now Zack was confused. “Huh?”

“When we put the Ickleby coffins into the abandoned Spratling crypt, we fashioned a special lock to prevent their spirits from ever escaping their new resting place.”

“Even on Halloween,” added Aunt Sophie.

“Now, it seems,” said Aunt Hannah, “someone has broken open that seal.”

Aunt Ginny turned to Zack. “I’m sorry, dear, but it’s true: Pyewacket and I conspired to have you and your friends pry open the sealing stone.”

“Really?” said Zack. “ ’Cause I don’t think we did.”

Ginny smiled. “Oh, you did. That’s why the Ickleby spirits are on the prowl. I had hoped we might be able to take them out, one by one—like we did with Eddie Boy and Little Paulie.”

“We don’t blame you or your friends,” said Hannah.

“But we need to lock ’em back up, Zack,” said Sophie. “Before they cause any more trouble.”

“Like whatever happened at the cemetery tonight,” added Hannah. “All those police cars you saw.”

“Zack,” said Ginny, “we need the charm back.”

“But I didn’t take it.”

Now all three Jennings sisters were staring at him.

The way Zack’s mother used to stare at him when she swore he was lying.

Zack heldup his right hand like he was taking an oath.

“I promise. I did not take a ‘sealing charm.’ ”

“Did you happen upon a black stone shaped like a heart?” asked Aunt Ginny.

“Oh, you mean the 3-D puzzle?”

“You could call it that.”

“It had all sorts of interlocking pieces and a smaller, even blacker heart hidden in the middle?” Zack said.

“That’s right. And what did you do with this black heart stone, Zack?”

“Malik, who’s really good with puzzles and junk, he took it apart.”

The three sisters nodded. The cats meowed.

“And thus the spell was broken,” said Hannah. “Zachary, we need it back.”

Zack remembered what Mad Dog Murphy had said in the corn maze: Little Paulie’s a pal of mine. Now Paulie wants out. So give his people what they’re looking for .

The black heart stone!

“Um, I don’t have it.”

“Oh, dear,” said Aunt Ginny. “Who does?”

“Oh my goodness,” said Judy.

Something on the TV news had caught her eye: security camera footage of a man robbing a diner.

And not just any man.

Norman Ickes. Malik’s friend at the hardware store.

“Turn it up,” said Zack. “Hurry!”

Judy pressed the volume button.

“Police are searching for North Chester resident Norman Ickes in connection with the robbery of the Hi-Way 31 Eat and Run, even though, while committing the crime, Ickes attempted to throw police off his track by using an alias.”

The shot moved in tighter on the footage and captioned what Norman was saying:

“Nobody rats out Crazy Izzy Ickleby. Nobody!”

“Ickleby?” said Judy.

“Oh, dear,” said Ginny, holding on to the counter so she wouldn’t faint. “This is worse than we could have imagined. They found a body. A blood relation.”

“That’s right!” said Judy. “Father Abercrombie told us Norman Ickes was actually an Ickleby!”

“Oh, my,” gasped Sophie. “They’ve gone dybbuk on us, too!”

“Zack,” said Ginny, “we need to retrieve the black heart stone. We need to do so immediately.”

“Who has it, Zack?” asked Judy. “Malik?”

Zack shook his head and pointed to the face on TV. “No. His friend. Norman Ickes.”

“This isthe place,” rasped Jack the Lantern as the car he had hijacked pulled into what was left of the asphalt driveway leading down to Saint Barnabas church.

A man holding out a trembling flashlight came out of the ramshackle rectory house. Flickering shadows danced across his anguished face.

“Who’s there? Who are you?”

Even from fifty feet away, the soul inside Norman Ickes’s body recognized the nervous old man.

“Father Clayton Abercrombie,” he whispered with great satisfaction.

He turned to his driver.

“Mr. Lawson?”

“Y-y-yes?”

“Thank you very kindly for the ride.”

“Bop him on the head!” urged Norman’s voice inside Jack’s head. “Use the gun Izzy stole!”

“What an excellent suggestion,” said the masked highwayman.

“What?” said the driver. “I didn’t suggest any—”

Jack the Lantern knocked the man out cold with the butt of his pistol.

“Ooh,” purred Norman’s voice. “I love doing that.”

“What’s going on up there?” Jack the Lantern heard Father Abercrombie cry.

Taking strides as long as Norman’s legs would allow, he swept down the hill toward the churchyard, where Father Abercrombie stood quaking like a branch full of dead leaves.

The church building behind the priest was not at all as Jack remembered it. The stained glass windows lacked life or color, for there were no lights burning inside the house of God. How fitting , he thought. God has lost. The darkness has won .

“Good evening, Father Abercrombie.”

“Who are you?”

“An old friend of this humble chapel.”

“Why do you wear that mask?”

“So you might know who I truly am.”

Father Abercrombie’s lips quivered. “Wh-wh-who, then, are you?”

“In my time, many called me Jack the Lantern. Though here, in this place, I was known as Saint Barnabas’s most generous benefactor.”

“What?”

“Allow me to introduce myself, Father Abercrombie.” He dipped into a grand bow. “I, sir, am Squire Barnabas Ickleby, the man for whom this church was named!”