The Talking House's Deadly Secret

At six that evening, Percy came.

He stood in the doorway, eyes red and voice shaking. "Your mom called me. She said you took out a loan-shark loan to buy that dump. Lydia, is something wrong with your head?"

"Come in. Come in and I'll tell you why."

He hesitated a few seconds, then stepped inside.

I pulled him over to the wall, crouched down, and pressed the metal detector against the base.

Beep, beep, beep.

Percy froze. "What's that?"

"A metal detector." I looked up at him. "There's something inside this wall."

His mouth opened. "So what your grandmother dreamed was real?"

I didn't so much as blink. "Yeah. I wasn't sure, so I came and checked. There really is something. Tonight I'm smashing it open. If it's really gold, the two of us go register our marriage tomorrow, buy a big place, make all your friends jealous."

His eyes went red and he lunged over and held me.

"I'd already decided," he said against me, voice muffled, "if you insisted on buying this run-down little place, I'd let you keep our savings. Treat it as what I owed you after we broke up."

"I came here today to say goodbye…"

"That won't happen. After tonight, everything's fine."

By nine, the whole complex had gone quiet.

I took the sledgehammer and the crowbar out of my bag while Percy stood beside me, rubbing his hands together, tense.

Before I swung, some impulse made me speak to the wall. "Sorry about this, buddy. Once I've got the money, I'll do this place up right."

But the old, aged voice didn't answer.

Something in me went uneasy for a moment.

The thought flickered and passed. The detector had beeped. How could that be wrong?

I brought the hammer down.

A big chunk of plaster split off, showing the red brick underneath.

I dropped the hammer and clawed at it with my hands, broken brick clattering down.

Behind the brick was empty.

My hands stopped in midair.

"Where's the gold?" Percy leaned his head over my shoulder.

I said nothing, tearing every brick out of the wall like a madwoman.

The hole got bigger and bigger, opening onto a hollow space behind.

Still nothing.

"This is impossible…" My voice was trembling.

Percy's face went from hope to a ghostly white. "Lydia, don't scare me."

I threw a brick up at the ceiling.

The plaster gave way at one jab, dust raining down over my head and face.

I reached my hand inside and came back with a fistful of grit.

Empty.

I sank down among the scattered bricks and plaster, shaking all over.

Percy crouched beside me, his eyes gone completely cold.

"Lydia… where's the gold?"

I opened my mouth, my face bloodless. "Percy, listen to me…"

He shot to his feet and wiped his tears. "Lydia, I'll explain everything to both our families. You're on your own now."

Then he turned and rushed out the door.

I sat alone in the wreckage, a gaping hole torn in the ceiling above me, the black gap of the crawlspace showing through.

The whole place stank of dust, mixed with the mold of old plaster.

My phone rang. It was my mom.

I picked up, and it was my dad's voice on the other end, hoarse from crying. "Lydia, come home now, your mom had a heart attack, we took her to the hospital!"

"The doctor says she needs emergency surgery, and I don't have enough money…"

The phone slipped out of my hand, the screen shattering across the floor.

"The detector beeped. How could there be nothing…" I muttered to the empty room, but the place gave back no echo at all.

I stared and stared at the wall I'd broken through.

Just when despair had numbed me nearly senseless, that familiar, aged voice came again.

When I made out what it said, a jolt went through me, and I froze where I sat.