by LL Helland
Godfrey sauntered over to her cell. “You will not need that yet, my dear, but we will all have a rehearsal very soon. I feel my energy slipping away, Trisha. I need to get married by noon tomorrow.” He walked through the large door, laughing. “Soon, Trisha. Very soon, my dear.”
When he left, Jon immediately started looking for a way out. “We are each in separate, secure cells, so we each need to find our own way out.”
Brittany did her best not to whine. Her young age was showing. “I’ve already tried, and the stones aren’t working.”
Jon replied, “No, Brittany. You need to rethink the way you and your friend travel. We all got here on our own, and we will all be leaving on our own.”
Trisha did not bother thinking about escape. She knew she had to go through with the wedding. At least that way she could save her sister and brothers.
Jon said, “We all need to concentrate. All of us came here with something or someone else. We need to think about how that will get us back to where we started.”
Chris said, “Well, if you all came from a place like the one I was in, you wouldn’t want to go back.” He rubbed the healing burns on his temples and the palms of his hands.
Brittany did not have much patience for that attitude. “Chris, if you didn’t die there, you were still better off there than you are here.”
Trisha felt terribly guilty. She had gotten herself into this mess. More than anything, she had wanted to go to some dances, find a nice man, and get married.
Her brooch began glowing again; Godfrey must be coming for them. He entered with an armful of leg shackles.
“I brought you each a present.” He put a pair of shackles through the bars of each cell. “Put these on. We need to get this over with.”
As they filed out of their cells, they heard the ominous sound of their shackles dragging on the stones.
Chris whispered to Jon, “Think of something.”
Jon whispered back, “Chris, it wouldn’t do us any good to break free. We don’t even know where we are. We need to find a way for each of us to retrace our journey here. We need to think outside the box.”
Godfrey heard them talking. “Quiet!” He poked Jon’s back with his walking stick. “Get moving!”
They walked up a flight of stairs in silence. Godfrey led them into a chapel that looked like the one at their great-grandmother’s house. Once inside, Godfrey placed each of the Hellandback children in the right place for the wedding.
“Now, tomorrow you will be in these same spots, but I hope we can have the ceremony without these shackles. I would hate to bring a wedding party before the minister in leg restraints. He would have no problem with it; I pay him very well. But the noise does disrupt the ceremony.”
Jonathan frantically tried to think of something to gain them more time so they could come up with a plan.
“But you can’t marry Trisha! She, uh, doesn’t look very healthy. You need to give her time to recover. How are you going to suck the life out of her when she is almost gone now?” Jon hated saying that about Trisha, but he needed to buy time to plan an escape. He knew Trisha looked deathly ill when she was only extremely tired. She easily became pale and lethargic, with dark circles under her eyes. If she got a good night’s sleep, she would be back to her old self, but Godfrey did not need to know that.
Godfrey looked at Trisha. “It is too late to get another bride pinned by tomorrow. Hmmm. I may have to let Trisha rest for a few days.” Godfrey stood close to Trisha. “My love, you don’t mind waiting for me just a few more days, do you? I don’t want a sick bride.”
Trisha did not say a word as she walked slowly toward the dungeon with her chains dragging behind her.
When all four of them were locked back into their cells, Godfrey said, “I will come check on you tomorrow, Trisha. Maybe we can still be married by sunset.”
Chris had spent the time in the chapel thinking. He wondered if he could get through the stone wall the same way he made an opening in the ice wall. He started bouncing his lacrosse ball against the rock wall, but after ten minutes, he had not even made a dent. Frustrated, he said, “I’m in such tight quarters that I can’t get enough speed on the ball to make a difference. Jon, can you throw it from your cell?”
Jon knew Chris was trying to help, but he did not think the idea would work. Before Chris could pass the ball to Jon, Bihydrant picked it up and fired it at the wall. A large piece of stone fell to the ground. The force of the throw made the ball ricochet off of every wall in the dungeon. They could all see the progress Bihydrant had made, so each time he threw, whoever was near the ball when it stopped would throw it back to him.
Jon said, “I think that is going to work for Chris, but that leaves the rest of us stuck here.
Brittany put the colored stones on the ground and gave the top a spin. She tried this several different ways, but again nothing happened. She gave the top to the little boy, but still nothing happened.
“Brittany, you need to find a different way. The stones aren’t going to work.” Jon worried that Brittany would waste all her precious time on a dead end.
Advarika was fanning Trisha, who really did not look good. She had finally fallen asleep again. Advarika knew that Trisha’s brooch held the key to her escape. If she could only put the brooch in her hand and not let go, even if it burned her, she could get back to the roach-infested corridor. But for now, she needed sleep more.
Jon had no idea how to get back to the boardroom, but he knew that the large door in his cell meant something. If it did not, the other cells would also have doors. Jon needed to concentrate on that, but he wanted to make sure everyone escaped before tomorrow. Godfrey might decide that it did not matter whether Trisha was sick or not and go ahead with the wedding ceremony. Jon would not let his sister go through with this marriage. If he did, Godfrey would take Trisha’s life.
Jon turned back to his own escape. Bihydrant was helping Chris, Advarika was supposed to help Trisha, and the little boy would probably help Brittany. That could be the only reason for them to be there. Jon only had his briefcase with him. He picked it up and opened it. It held documents, ledgers, and a half dozen bony finger toothpicks. Something in his briefcase must be able to help him escape, but what?
Meanwhile, Bihydrant already had a small hole in the stonewall. He was making progress and showed no signs of being tired.
The door opened, waking Trisha. Mrs. Toddles came in.
Trisha jumped at the chance to ask the questions burning in her mind. “Why is Godfrey doing this to my family? Why didn’t he just marry me? Why is my family involved?”
Chris chimed in, too. “Do you know if we are doing this right? Are we supposed to return to the last place we’ve been?”
The woman answered them both. “Trisha, I can’t help you with your questions. Who knows why a madman does anything? I know he brought your siblings here to be a part of his sick wedding plans. Chris, to answer your question, yes, you all must go back. You can’t stay here, or you will die. I will bring you all whatever food you like to take when you escape.”
Mrs. Toddles could see that Bihydrant was working in the right direction. She knew Trisha had the power to return, but she was not so sure about Brittany and Jon.
Chris spoke up. “I’d like a couple dozen muffins.”
No one else wanted anything.
Mrs. Toddles walked over to Brittany’s cell. “Have you not figured it out? What did you have with you when you were transported to all of these places?”
Brittany answered impatiently. “Just the little boy.”
Mrs. Toddles just raised one eyebrow and did not say another word.
Brittany blushed, then bent down and said, “What is your name?” She could not believe she had not asked him yet. Things had been a bit busy for her, but she still should have known his name.
The little boy answered, “Chad Carrington, the Third.”
Brittany almost fell over. Chad spoke very well.
> “Chad, how old are you?”
“I’m five years old.”
Brittany sat down next to him on the stone floor. “You are small for five years old.” The boy looked down at the floor, but Brittany pulled him into her lap and gave him a hug. “You do not have to be ashamed that you are small.”
Chad looked up. “I have a sister. She should be fourteen years old now, and she had bright red hair.”
Trisha said, “Why do you say ‘should be fourteen’? Do you know where she is?”
“My mother said Bailey was stolen. We haven’t seen her for a few months.”
Brittany interrupted. “Do you know how to get us back to the hospital where I found you?”
Chad started twisting his fingers. “Yes, but I thought you wanted to stay with your family.”
Brittany hugged the boy. “Thank you, Chad. You are very sweet. Yes, I want to stay, but we have to go back very soon. Will you take us back when I tell you to?”
The boy nodded.
Mrs. Toddles smiled, satisfied. Then she moved on to Jon. “You need to find a keyword.”
Jon said, “What keyword?”
“You need to figure that out for yourself.”
As Mrs. Toddles left, she said, “It won’t be long now.”
Just then, Bihydrant made the hole in the stonewall big enough for Chris and him to get through. Even though Chris could not wait to go, he stopped and looked at Bihydrant. Some of the fur on his back was still missing after the last bat attack. Chris opened his lacrosse bag, took out his extra stick, put on the helmet and gloves, and rearranged his two-dozen muffins. Bihydrant looked sad; he had no equipment to put on.
Chris grinned at him. “Now there is enough room for you. Step inside your travel bag.”
Bihydrant happily got inside the bag. There was plenty of room for him, since he was only about two feet tall. Chris zipped it up, then went back to the cell door, his voice shaking. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
He needed to go, quick, before Jon made fun of his shaking voice. He held his lacrosse sick up in the air, grabbed his lacrosse bag, and went through the hole.
Within seconds, the wall had closed completely.
Jon said, “Trisha, it is time for you to go. I will go after you all escape.”
Trisha started to protest, but she knew how stubborn her older brother could be. With no idea what to do next, she slowly looked around her cell. Advarika put Trisha’s hand on the brooch. It started glowing and became red-hot. Trisha tried to pull her hand away, not because it was burning her—she was too upset to notice—but because she did not want to leave Brittany and Jon behind. For all she knew, Mrs. Toddles and Advarika could be working with Godfrey. Tears rained down on Trisha’s nightgown. She yelled, “I love you!” Then she and Advarika vanished.
Jon and Brittany had always been close, and Brittany always listened to her older brother. She looked up to him, and she did not know if she could go back without him. Jon still had not figured out a way to leave this place. She knew that, of all of her siblings, Jon was the one who could figure anything out. He always thought outside the box, and he always did things a little differently than most people. If he had already made a plan, she would feel better, but he had no plan, no idea, nothing.
Jon said, “Chad Carrington, the Third, I need you to take my sister back now.”
Chad, already sitting on Brittany’s lap, nodded. A gust of air filled the dungeon. Wind came from everywhere, throwing Jon to the back of his cell. Then came silence.
Jon looked around at the empty cells. Daylight began to come in through the windows. He needed to think of a plan, and quickly.
Jon knew that Godfrey had brought the Hellandbacks together for the wedding. It gave him great pleasure to ruin other people’s lives. If he found Jon the only one left, he would surely kill him.
He opened his briefcase and saw the half dozen finger bone toothpicks. He held them in his hand and thought. Six fingers and seven door locks in the dungeon. He tried one of the bony fingers in the lock of the huge door in his cell, and as he expected, the lock was too large. The finger just spun in the lock. Of the six smaller doors, four locks were on the cells, and one each on the door the woman used and the door Godfrey used. Maybe these finger bones, were for those doors. What had that woman said to him?
Something about a keyword—maybe she meant a word was the key. All the skeleton fingers had slightly different shapes. He tried the first finger on his door, but nothing happened. He tried the next one, and the cell door opened.
Finally outside his cell, he walked over to Chris’s cell and tried the remaining five keys. The last one he tried opened Chris’s cell. Jon walked in. Chris’s extra lacrosse stick lay on the floor. He picked it up and went to open Trisha’s door. He did not know why, but he wanted all the cells open. He unlocked the door and got an empty feeling. He hoped Trisha was all right. He knew they had foiled Godfrey’s plan to marry Trisha, but now where was she?
Jon had three keys left. When he opened Brittany’s door and stepped on something, he looked down. They had left the eight colored stones and top behind. He picked them up and put them in his pocket. He did not bother trying the other two keys. They were just the doors Godfrey and Mrs. Toddles used to enter the dungeon. He put all the skeleton fingers in the lacrosse stick netting and went back to his cell.
So he could open the cells, but it was a little late for that, and it did not bring him any closer to getting out. He threw the lacrosse stick against his cell wall. He sat down on the bed, his head in his hands, and stared at the floor. For a minute, he thought he imagined it, but it looked like the fingers were inching their way out from under the bed. They pulled themselves along by their fingertips, inching along like worms. As the fingers grew closer to each other, they assembled themselves into some type of configuration. It looked like one was missing. Jon looked under the bed. It was not there. And then he saw it.
The last finger had landed on the side of the bed and gotten caught. Jon picked it up and put it on the floor near the rest of them. The six bone fingers together formed one big skeleton key. This key would fit the huge door on the back wall! Jon picked up his briefcase and Chris’s lacrosse stick. He looked around to see if he had left anything behind. Then he put the key in the lock. The door swung open, and darkness swallowed him.
CHAPTER 26
Trisha did not want to leave her sister and brothers, but they all had to leave the prison or they would die. For her at least, she figured hard labor was better than marrying Godfrey and having the life sucked out of her. When he discovered that they had all escaped, he would be enraged. She hoped he wouldn’t take it out on the girls in the tomb.
Trisha had an idea she thought might drain Godfrey of his strength. She had noticed that each time she put her hand on the brooch, it lost some of its power over her. Her brooch did not burn nearly as much as the first time now, and with each additional touch, the brooch became weaker.
Trisha asked all the girls to gather in the center of the tomb. When she had their attention, she told them that they needed to put their hands over their brooches and not to let go, no matter how much it hurt. “It can’t kill you; it will just be very painful.”
The girls did not know if they should believe Trisha, but one girl cut to the heart of the matter. “Who else has a plan?” No one did.
As soon as Godfrey came close and their brooches were glowing, they would all put their hand on the hot piece of jewelry. As soon as those words came out of Trisha’s mouth, their brooches started to glow. They could hear footsteps coming.
Trisha yelled, “Hold on tight, and don’t let go!”
The girls screamed out in pain. Some collapsed, but they all held on to their brooches. After several minutes, all the brooches had stopped glowing, and the screams faded to moans. Godfrey must have left. Had he heard the commotion? Was he feeling weak? Had their plan worked?
Trisha recovered first. Her brooch had lost almost all
of its heat. Trisha noticed a small girl, who looked even younger than the rest of them. She cradled her hand, whimpering, in severe pain. Trisha turned to Advarika.
“You check the rest of the girls. I need to take care of this one.” As Trisha bent down, she could see that the girl’s hand was badly burned. This girl must have been Godfrey’s favorite. Trisha noticed the girl’s hair. It was dirty, but you could tell it was red, and she had a thought. “What is your name?”
She moaned a little and said, “My name is Bailey Carrington.”
One of the other girls sat up and said quietly, “She came here a few months ago. Godfrey wanted her desperately to be his bride, something about her red, fiery hair. He threatened to inflict some terrible disease on her family if she didn’t marry him. She doesn’t know what happened to her family—I doubt she ever will.”
Another girl said, “Godfrey said he had conjured up the black death for her family, but we don’t know if that’s true.”
Trisha looked at the girl’s hand. Most people would have let go in that kind of pain. Trisha knew that she needed to do something, or infection and gangrene would be likely in this filthy environment.
Trisha wished her younger sister Brittany was here. Brittany was always so smart, especially with anything to do with science.
Advarika said that the rest of the girls were fine. No other burns were that bad, and they would all heal soon.
Trisha was relying on her limited knowledge, but she hoped she remembered something she had written a few years ago. Trisha said, “I need about four strong girls to help me tip one of the large glass jars over.” Since all the jars held deteriorating corpses, no one volunteered right away. Advarika stepped over to help Trisha, but the jar was too heavy for just the two of them. Half of the girls came over to help then, their hands still throbbing. After several attempts, the glass jar fell over, crashing into pieces as it hit the floor. Despite the horrible smell, Trisha moved toward the spilled contents.
Advarika gasped. “Trisha, have you lost your mind?”
Trisha dug through the dirt, looking for something. It was too late to save the girl in the jar; there was not much left of her. Trisha was not hoping to save the girl. She was looking for maggots. As the dirt fell away from the skeleton, she saw a brooch on the ground between her ribs. It was no longer pinned to her clothes or her skin.