“Oh my God, move, move, move!” Cody shouts. I dodge to my side with no time to spare, landing chest and hands first on the floor. The force sends a strong stabbing sensation through my wrist and arm, which is marginally better than an actual stabbing. The knife connects with the wall, lodging itself inside.

“Mist!” a disconnected voice yells.

“We’ve got to go!” Holly says, diving behind a counter.

Two more knives raise themselves from a cutting block and float in the air. Cody ducks under an old barrel, and I scramble for cover on the opposite side of a nearby island.

For a moment, the room is totally quiet. There’re no moonbeams, which means no visibility, which means dodging knives won’t be easy. I’m surprised I ducked in time for the first one.

I peek from my barricade a little to spot where the knives are. A whizzing sound zips past my head, and the knife clatters to the floor ten feet behind me.

You’re an idiot, Tes.

I scoot back, but it’s too late. It knows where I am. The second knife rounds the corner and swings at me, barely missing my nose. I keep scooting, moving as fast as I can with one good arm and two legs. It hacks and slices at the air, coming dangerously close every time.

In between attacks, I glance to see where I’m going. The wall is closing in. It’s now or never.

I speed up and use my momentum to bounce to my feet before running away from the knife. It follows my movement. Thinking quick, I grab a cutting board from the counter Holly’s hiding behind and hold it in front of my face. It’s clearly seen better days. Let’s hope it still has one good one left in it.

The knife goes right through the board, nearly stabbing me in the forehead, but gets stuck inside. I toss the board in the direction of the door we originally came through and run the opposite way, passing Holly and Cody. They take that as a signal for them to join me on a panicked trek to the far side of the kitchen.

There’s a second set of double doors on this side, which we waste no time plowing through. It leads into a more sophisticated dining area than the diner we’d set up shop in.

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“They had a restaurant too?” Holly asks.

“That’s irrelevant right now,” Cody says. “Let’s get out of here, and pronto. There’s no telling when—”

A pair of scissors streaks through the air and scrapes against Holly’s cheek. She cries, a glistening spot of blood already forming. Cody scrambles to console her, and I look for the source.

Once again, two knives hover in the air, rushing towards us. Without thinking, I lunge for Cody and Holly and knock them over, hoping to protect them from the charging blades. They miss us with a second to spare.

“Good catch, Tes,” Cody says. Holly just stares in shock.

I gaze at the spot they were thrown from, and for a short moment, the outline of a man wearing clothes from the 1940s or ‘50s flashes into view, surrounded by dark blue wisps of ghastly smoke. I can’t make out any features, like facial expression or hair color, but his posture appears angry.

With my eyes fully adjusted to the dark, I can see our next escape route. If we keep running away from the ghost with knives, as I intend on doing, we’d be going right to an opening on the wall that leads into another hallway. I set my focus on that and point it out for them.

Cody nods, but Holly keeps staring. Is she alright?

I don’t have time to worry about her. I lift three of my fingers and start counting down. When I hit zero, we all jump from our spots and make a break for the exit. I don’t even entertain the thought of looking back. The odds of me being the one hit are pretty low, even if there are multiple knives. With the distance between us, it would be difficult—

A collection of knives lodge themselves in the floorboards at our heels, forcing us to move even faster. Cody reaches the exit first and waits around the corner for me and Holly to breach the doorway.

“Bäh! Dumme Kinder!”

One last blade flies out the doorway and clatters against the wall.

“Come on,” Cody says, “let’s go, before it follows us any further.”

“Was that German?” Holly asks, holding her hand to her face. The bleeding doesn’t seem too severe, but it’s more than a little.

“It sure sounded like it. I was only like sixty percent on board with the whole ghost thing when we heard the crying, but I don’t think there’s any explaining sentient knives away. I’m sorry I ever doubted you guys, Tes.”

I give him a thumbs up. I don’t have the energy for an “I told you so.”

We hurry down this new hall in search of a spot to hide, preferably one with water or a lamp, since we were interrupted.

After a couple minutes of cautious speed walking, we hop into one of the closest rooms and close the door.

“Okay, let’s take inventory,” Cody says. “Holly, you’re cut, we have no water or oil still, and our lamp is dry.”

“My cut has mostly stopped bleeding,” she says. “It hurts to talk, though.”

“Either way, we still definitely need a bandage and some sort of disinfectant.”

“Then we’ll stop by the medical center when we meet with Stacy.”

“Yeah, there’s one problem with that.” Cody sits down on the floor and crosses his legs. “We have no idea where we’re at.”