Amanda began to dart around him. But her left foot slid out from under her.
She struggled to keep her balance, but the soft muck slithered underneath her feet and she began to fall.
Her heels slid over the mud.
She screamed and waved her arms wildly.
But her hands grasped only air.
Screaming again, Amanda toppled back—and plunged straight down into the gaping hole of Sarah Fear’s grave.
Chapter 18
GOOD-BYE, AMANDA
Amanda landed flat on her back with a force that knocked her breath out.
Paralyzed, she squeezed her eyes shut.
A warm current of air flowed around her, making her feel as if she were tucked in bed under a soft comforter.
Not in bed, she told herself in a sudden panic. I’m in a coffin. Sarah Fear’s coffin!
Her eyes snapped open. Her breath came rushing back. She gagged at the putrid, rotting smell.
Clumps of muddy earth slipped from the sides of the grave and fell into the coffin. One landed on Amanda’s chest, another on her face.
With a scream of terror, she grabbed fistfuls of the stinking dirt and flung it away.
“Amanda!” Dustin peered over the edge of the grave. “Are you all right?”
“Help me up!” she cried, struggling to sit. The soft, moist earth kept spilling down. The putrid muck oozed through her hair and began to slide down her face. “Help me out of here!”
Janine appeared next to Dustin. “Don’t panic. We’ll get you out,” she called down. “Stand up, okay?”
Amanda rose to her knees and braced herself on the edge of the coffin.
With a crunch, the rotting wood gave way under her weight.
Crying out, she fell back. She glanced around in panic. I’m in a coffin! A dead woman’s coffin!
“Are you hurt?” Dustin called.
“I . . . I don’t think so.” Amanda’s teeth chattered, even though she could still feel the warm air flowing around her.
Why is it so warm? she wondered.
How can a grave be so warm?
“Come on, Amanda—stand up,” Janine urged. She and Dustin stretched their hands down into the grave. “Get on your feet and hold up your arms so we can grab your wrists.”
“Okay.” Amanda struggled to her knees again. She got one foot underneath her, then the other. Carefully, she rose to a standing position and raised her arms above her head.
Only a few inches separated her fingers from Janine’s and Dustin’s.
“Stand on your tiptoes!” Janine cried as she and Dustin strained to reach farther into the grave.
Amanda rose to her toes, reaching frantically. Her fingertips brushed Dustin’s.
“Almost!” Dustin cried. “Just a little bit more!” He and Janine peered down anxiously, urging her on.
Amanda knew she was getting hysterical, but she couldn’t help it. Desperate to get out of the stinking grave, she stretched her arms as high as she could.
Dustin’s fingers brushed hers again, then they slipped away. Amanda cried out and tried again.
But Dustin’s hands seemed farther away than ever. She couldn’t come anywhere close to them.
And then his face began to fade.
Beside him, Janine’s face grew smaller and smaller.
“No!” Amanda screamed, reaching up to them. “Don’t leave me! What are you doing?”
They didn’t answer. Their faces faded. Grew smaller. Farther away.
“Come back!” Amanda begged. “Please! Don’t leave me here!”
Their faces grew fainter. Smaller, like pale circles in the darkness.
“Don’t leave!” Amanda cried. “Janine! Dustin, please!”
Amanda couldn’t even make out their features anymore. They kept fading, farther and farther away—until they disappeared completely.
Amanda gasped. She was falling backward again. She braced herself for the sudden jolt of the coffin at her back.
But nothing stopped her. All she felt was the warm air wrapping her like a blanket as she kept falling and falling.
What is happening? she wondered, screaming in terror. What is happening to me?
PART THREE
* * *
Chapter 19
A HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD SECRET
As the warm air swirled around her, Amanda plunged through pitch-black space.
A nightmare, she told herself. That’s what it is. I fainted or hit my head and now I’m dreaming. But I’ll wake before I land.
In a dream, you always wake before you land.
Amanda closed her eyes against the swirling darkness and waited for the nightmare to end.
After a few seconds, something hard slammed painfully against her back. Her eyes flew open.
Still dark.
But not the pitch-black darkness she’d fallen through.
A ribbon of pale gray clouds sat on the horizon, slowly turning pink as the sun rose behind them. The sky gradually grew lighter, and Amanda could see the outlines of an enormous stone mansion several yards away.
Amanda frowned. There was no mansion in the Fear Street Cemetery. So where was she? How did she get here?
Amanda felt panic creeping into her. What was happening?
A creaking noise made Amanda jump, and she gasped in pain as her back scraped across something rough and hard. She realized she was sitting, leaning against something.
Carefully, she rose to her feet and turned around.
She was standing in front of a small stone house several yards from the big mansion. An oil lamp burned in the window of the small house, throwing a circle of yellow light on the cobblestones.
Near the front door stood an old-fashioned carriage, sort of like a stagecoach, but smaller. A breeze stirred, and the carriage creaked. Two long wooden shafts hung down from the front of it, their ends resting on the cobblestones.
It’s where a horse would be hitched up, Amanda thought. An old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage. A mansion. A carriage house. Oil lamps and cobblestones.
What is this place? Where is it?
Amanda glanced back at the house. The lamp was out now, and she could hear voices. Women’s voices, speaking urgently. The door handle rattled and the voices grew louder.
Amanda ducked behind a carriage wheel and crouched down, her heart pounding.
“I’m so afraid, Sarah,” one woman declared in a high, nervous voice. “What will happen if I’m discovered?”
“You won’t be, Jane,” a second woman assured her. Her voice was lower, more confident.
Amanda peeked out from behind the wheel. Sarah, the woman who was speaking, had blond hair and a stubborn tilt to her chin. Jane’s hair was a flaming red and she had a sprinkling of freckles across her rosy cheeks.
Both women were around twenty. They wore their hair piled high on their heads, with silk ribbons twisted through it. Both wore old-fashioned dresses with pinched-in waists and long skirts.
“It will work, Jane,” Sarah insisted. “You were so clever to think of it. Don’t change your mind now. You want to marry and have children, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Jane agreed softly. “I want it more than anything. I envy you, Sarah.”
“And I envy you!” Sarah told her. “You’re going to travel to Europe. I’ve always dreamed of that. It’s so unfair—why should I marry Thomas Fear? I’ve never even met the man!”
Amanda tensed up. Thomas Fear? Was this woman Sarah Fear?
“But my grandmother arranged the wedding,” Sarah continued bitterly.
“Yes,” Jane agreed. “And she’ll be angry if you don’t do as she wishes.”
“Not as angry as I am.” Sarah paced a few steps, her long skirt swishing on the stones. She clenched her fists and her green eyes glittered with fury. “I hate being told what to do and whom to marry. I won’t do it!”
Amanda shivered, frightened and confused. What is going on? Sarah Fear lived a hundred years ago. So how can I be seeing this? How can this be
happening?
“And you devised the perfect solution,” Sarah said, turning to Jane. “You’ll be me—Sarah Burns. You’ll travel to Shadyside and marry Thomas Fear. I’ll become Jane Hardy and go live in London. We’ll both be happy. Isn’t that what you want?”
“Of course,” Jane agreed. “And yes, it was my idea, Sarah. But now that we are about to change identities, I’m so worried. What if someone in Shadyside finds out?”
“How can they?” Sarah demanded. “Remember, my grandmother is too old to make the trip with me. And no one there knows what I look like. Jane, please. We have to take the carriage to the train soon!”
“I know. But I’m frightened,” Jane confessed.
“Think about getting married, having a beautiful wedding and becoming Sarah Fear,” Sarah told her. “You’ll have a husband and children. You’ll live in a big mansion in Shadyside. It will be wonderful.”
“And you’ll be in London, going to the theater and dining out.” Jane’s lips suddenly curved in an eager smile. “It will be wonderful, won’t it?”
“It will be perfect!” Sarah cried excitedly.
Amanda shivered again. The words were finally starting to sink in.
Sarah sailing to Europe in Jane’s place. Jane going to Shadyside, pretending to be Sarah. Marrying Thomas Fear.
They’re talking about switching places, Amanda realized.
Switching identities!
Jane laughed, her voice high and excited. They seem so real, Amanda thought. I can smell their perfume. I can hear the swish of their skirts. The sound of their high-buttoned boots on the stones. I can feel the carriage wheel digging into my shoulder.
Did I travel back in time?
But that’s impossible!
Isn’t it?
Sarah clapped her hands, interrupting Amanda’s thoughts. “Quickly now, we don’t have much time, Jane. We have to hitch up the carriage or we’ll miss the train.”
They’re coming toward me! Amanda realized. What if they can see me? What will they do?
Hide! she told herself.
Amanda stood up, ready to run behind the house as soon as they turned their backs. But her legs were numb from crouching so long and she stumbled, falling hard against the carriage wheel.
With a loud creak, the carriage began to roll forward. Amanda grabbed hold of the wheel. But the carriage kept rolling, the two long shafts scraping noisily along the cobblestones.
Amanda stumbled along beside it for a second, hoping to keep herself hidden. Then her toe caught in one of the uneven stones and she tripped. With a cry, she fell to her knees.
The carriage rolled a few more feet, then stopped.
Slowly, Amanda glanced up.
Sarah and Jane stood on the drive, gazing at her. Jane had turned pale, and her eyes were wide and frightened.
Sarah scowled, her eyebrows forming a V over her nose. She pressed her lips together and put her hands on her hips.
Amanda rose to her feet, her legs trembling.
They see me!
Chapter 20
AMANDA DROWNS
Jane twisted her hands together and laughed. A high-pitched, uneasy laugh.
“What on earth happened?” Sarah demanded. “What made the carriage roll?”
Amanda licked her lips. “I did,” she admitted nervously. She glanced down at her muddy jeans and sneakers. “Listen, I know this sounds crazy, but . . .”
“Do you think it was a sign?” Jane asked Sarah. She ignored Amanda completely.
“Of what?” Sarah ignored Amanda, too.
“A sign that we shouldn’t go through with our plan,” Jane replied.
Sarah scowled at her, annoyed. “Don’t be silly.”
Both women glanced back at Amanda.
They’re not looking at me, Amanda realized. They’re looking through me. They can’t see me at all.
Am I dead? A ghost? What is happening?
“It must have been the wind,” Sarah declared firmly. “You can’t be superstitious, Jane. You have a wedding to go to, and I must sail to Europe. We have to catch that train and begin our new lives!”
In only a few minutes, a big chestnut horse was hitched up to the carriage and the two women climbed aboard. As she watched them drive away, terror gripped Amanda.
I can’t stay here! she thought. What will happen to me? Am I stuck in the past forever?
Amanda took off after the carriage, running as fast as she could. She knew they couldn’t hear her, but she waved her arms and yelled anyway. “Jane! Sarah! Wait! Let me come with you. Wait!”
Jane and Sarah didn’t look back. The carriage moved steadily down a tree-lined drive.
Amanda pushed herself to run faster. Her chest began to ache and she felt a stitch in her side. Keep going, she told herself. I can catch it. It’s not going that fast.
Gasping for breath, darkness swept around Amanda.
That’s weird, she thought. It’s morning. It’s sunny. It can’t be getting dark.
She blinked hard and shook her head. The darkness grew around her. Thick and inky, it blotted out her side vision until she felt as if she were peering down a long tunnel. At the end was the carriage, rolling along in a patch of sunlight.
The darkness closed in. Amanda felt a warm current of air surround her. The same warmth she’d felt in Sarah’s grave.
Ahead of her, the carriage grew dim and hazy. Amanda couldn’t hear her feet pounding anymore. Couldn’t see the carriage at all now.
What is happening to me?
As the inky darkness swallowed her up, Amanda screamed in panic.
• • •
Still surrounded by darkness, Amanda felt the earth pitch and roll underneath her. She tried to keep running, but staggered to the side. The pitching, rolling motion continued. Amanda planted her feet apart and held her arms out to keep from falling.
The warm air retreated. A stiff, cold wind whipped through her hair. Drops of water pelted her face. Amanda licked her lips. The water tasted salty.
A man’s voice spoke close to Amanda’s ear. “We’re in for it now,” he declared anxiously.
“In for what?” Amanda asked.
The man didn’t reply.
“In for what?” Amanda repeated, raising her voice. “What’s wrong? Can’t you hear me?”
Still no reply.
A gust of wind plastered her hair across Amanda’s eyes. Frustrated, she peeled it away.
With a gasp, she realized that the darkness had lifted and she could see.
She stood on the deck of a large ship, surrounded by women in long dresses and men wearing straw hats and old-fashioned suits. Most of them stood at the railings, staring down in fear at the surging waves below.
The ship rose on a swell of slate-gray water, hung there for a moment, then plunged into a trough between two waves. Amanda’s stomach plunged with it. Cold water swept across the deck, swirling and frothing around her ankles.
Women screamed and hitched up their skirts. Men’s hats blew off their heads and spun through the air, disappearing into the chilly mist.
The man standing next to Amanda held on to his hat with one hand and stuck his other arm out for balance. “We’re in for it now!” he shouted again. He seemed to be staring at her, but she realized he didn’t see her at all.
It’s just like before, she thought. I’m invisible to these people.
The ship rose again, climbing the wave slowly, like a roller coaster on the first big hill. Amanda steadied herself for the plunge. But when it came, she couldn’t keep her balance. She staggered across the deck and slammed into the railing.
Her stomach churning like the waves, Amanda held on to the slick railing and tried to prepare for the next roller-coaster ride. She felt too sick and cold to worry about where she was or how she’d get out of it.
The next wave came and the ship slammed down. But when it landed this time, it landed at a tilt.
People screamed again, lurching across the sloping deck and cr
ashing into the railing.
“We’re capsizing!” someone shouted. “We’re going to go down! Get the lifeboats!”
“It’s too late!” someone else called out.
“Nooo!” a woman’s voice screamed. “It can’t be too late. It can’t be!”
At the sound of the woman’s voice, Amanda turned.
Sarah Burns stood next to her, braced against the railing on the high side of the ship.
She’s on her way to London, Amanda realized. Heading across the ocean to a new life as Jane Hardy.
Sarah’s hair had come down and blew around her head in wet, tangled strings. Her green eyes flashed with fear and frustration.
“Where’s the captain?” she shouted angrily. “What is he doing? Can’t he save his own ship?”
“He’s trying,” a man screamed back. “He can’t fight the ocean. It’s too strong!”
The ship tilted farther to the side. A wave rose up and crashed to the deck.
Amanda clung to the railing, gasping and terrified.
Beside her, Sarah screamed again. “I’m not supposed to die now! How can this be my fate? I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon with Thomas Fear!”
No one paid any attention to her. Their screams almost drowned out her words as they tried to climb to the high side of the ship, away from the churning ocean.
“Why?” Sarah lifted a fist and shouted to the sky. “Why did I trade places with Jane, only to die in her place?”
Another wave swept over the deck. Men and women struggled to hold on. But the force of the wave washed them into the ocean like rag dolls.
A shudder passed through the ship. It tilted again, until it lay on its side. People fell screaming into the ocean.
Amanda crashed to her knees, clinging to the railing. But she could feel her fingers growing numb. I can’t hold on much longer! she thought desperately. Please let this be a nightmare! Please let me wake up now!
The ship began to nose downward. Water rushed over the bow, slamming into Amanda with so much force it knocked her legs sideways. She could see Sarah next to her, struggling to hold on too.