by Vera Strange
“I don’t know,” Malik rasped. “Also, we have to find out why the shadow man wants that necklace. Grandma left it to you for a reason. What makes it so valuable? What power does it have?”
Jamal frowned. “Yeah, you’re right. It could be dangerous.”
“I mean, clearly the shadow man can’t be trusted,” Malik warned, thinking it over. “It could be really bad if we give it to him, right? Or what if he double-crosses you again?”
Suddenly, a shadow fell over them. A real one this time.
Then a voice rang out, making them both jump.
“Are you talking about that creepy old skull necklace?”
At first, Jamal was certain Dr. Facilier was about to pounce.
But his eyes fell on…Riley.
She was standing behind them. She cocked her head. Her eyes were locked on the skull necklace. In the bright sunlight, her hair looked even more vibrantly purple than usual and her brown skin almost glowed.
“You know, that isn’t just any ordinary necklace,” she said. “So be careful with it. It’s dangerous to just pull it out in broad daylight like that. Somebody might try to steal it.”
“W-wait, what?” Jamal stammered, clutching the necklace tighter in his fist. “How do you know about my necklace? And, well…yeah…that already happened.”
Riley frowned. Her eyes darted to the shadow at Jamal’s feet.
“Also, why’re you talking to your own shadow?” she asked.
“Uh, you heard that, too?” Jamal said, feeling self-conscious. Blood rushed to his cheeks, making them hot.
“Yeah, not much escapes my notice,” Riley added with a smirk. “I’ve been watching you. And today you were acting super weirdo. Like next-level weirder than usual. Then I noticed when you didn’t come out of the locker room after gym class.”
“So you followed me out here?” Jamal said.
“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m not a stalker,” Riley said with a dramatic eye roll. “Just curious. Plus, I pay attention when my friends are acting like something’s wrong.”
Friends. She actually thought of him as a friend.
“But why are you so interested in me?” Jamal asked. “Why are you the only one who seems to notice me?”
Riley shrugged. “I dunno, to be honest. But my whole life, I’ve been different. It kind of runs in my family, I guess. I can see things that nobody else can. So can my grandmother.”
Jamal took that in. He felt like she was a kindred spirit. He had always felt different, too. Though he’d never had any superpowers…until the skull necklace and the shadow man.
“Also, I noticed that skull necklace,” Riley went on. “The other day in the cafeteria. The way you were pulling it out. I was worried you didn’t know what it really was….”
“The necklace?” Jamal said. “What do you know about it?”
“It has special powers,” Riley said with a frown. “You gotta be careful with that stuff. You never know who might be drawn to it.”
“Jamal, she knows about the necklace,” Malik rasped excitedly, shifting around on the ground. “Maybe she knows something that can help us.”
Riley flinched and her eyes widened in fear. She glanced from Jamal to the shadow at his feet. “What the…Your shadow…can talk?” she said in shock, her eyes fixing on Malik.
“Wait, you can hear me?” Malik rasped hopefully.
“Whoa! No way! You’re Malik,” she said, recognizing his voice. “Jamal’s brother. But you’re…a shadow?”
“You remember him?” Jamal asked.
“Of course I do,” Riley said. “Why? What’s going on?”
Jamal hesitated, unsure if he could trust Riley. He had only known her for a few days. But she was the only person in the entire school who remembered that Malik existed. That had to mean something. Plus she’d been nice to him from the day she’d arrived at school. There was definitely something different about her. And she seemed to know things about the necklace that he hadn’t told anyone other than Malik. Maybe she had information that could help them.
And right now we need all the help we can get.
“Go ahead, spit it out,” Riley said with an impatient sigh. She crossed her arms and stared him down. “This day can’t possibly get any weirder.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Malik rasped. Even as a shadow, he still had his dry sense of humor.
“Literally,” Jamal said with a frown. “Okay, it’s a long story….”
Jamal glanced around to make sure that nobody was watching them, but the athletic field was deserted, because everyone was still in class. Bright sunlight beat down on them, but soon it would be late afternoon and the sun would start to fade. He glanced around, scanning for the security guard, but he wasn’t lurking nearby.
So he took a deep breath and told Riley everything. He explained that Dr. Facilier had promised him that he could step out of his brother’s shadow if he gave him the skull necklace. But the necklace always glowed to warn him about the shadow man. So he’d traded his brother’s trumpet instead, but then he’d woken up and Malik was gone…until he revealed himself to be a shadow.
“We think he double-crossed me,” Jamal finished, digging the toes of his shoes into the field. “This wasn’t what I meant to happen when I made that deal.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been messing with the shadow man,” Riley said, her voice wavering with fear. “You can’t trust him. Everybody knows that.”
“Okay, I get it,” Jamal said, casting his gaze down. “I feel so stupid. I just wanted to know what it would feel like to have friends for once.”
“But you did have a friend,” Riley said in exasperation. “I’m your friend. Didn’t you notice?”
Jamal’s eyes darted to his brother. “Yeah, but you would’ve forgotten me, too, once you met my brother. That’s what always happens….”
Riley smirked. “Hey, hate to break it you. Your brother’s cool and all that jazz, but I like you way better.”
“Wait, you do?” Jamal said.
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Riley said.
“Uh, guys, I’m, like, right here,” Malik rasped. “Even if I am a shadow, I can still hear you talking about me.”
They all laughed—it felt good to laugh—but then Riley turned more serious. “Look, at least you didn’t give Dr. Facilier that skull necklace. That would’ve been way worse.”
“Uh, what could be worse than this?” Jamal said, pointing to his shadow brother. “Also, if he wants it so bad, why doesn’t he just take it? Why go through all of this?”
Riley frowned and studied the necklace more closely. Her fingers stroked the eye sockets; then she looked up. “My best guess is that it’s got a protection spell placed on it.”
“Protection spell?” asked Malik.
Riley nodded. “You said it glows and warns you when the shadow man is nearby?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Jamal confirmed. “Every single time.”
“Well, then maybe it also has a spell placed on it to prevent him from taking it,” Riley went on. “If that’s the case, then the only way he can possess it is if you give it to him.”
“That makes sense,” Jamal said, thinking it over. “Only I’m going to have to give it to him now. It’s the only leverage I’ve got to make him reverse the curse and bring Malik back. What other choice do I have?”
Riley chewed on her lower lip. “Look, I don’t know everything about that necklace,” she said, “but Grandma DeSeroux might know more. She has one just like it.”
“Your grandmother has one, too?” Malik rasped. “That’s crazy.”
Riley nodded. “Yeah, and we need to go see her. She’s…special. She lives deep in the bayou.”
Jamal exchanged looks with Malik, then turned back to Riley.
“But the bayou is filled with gators and poisonous snakes,” Jamal said.
But Riley had already started across the track toward the road.
“Just follow me.
And bring your shadow brother with you.” She gave them an annoyed look. “And don’t be such scaredy-cats. I know the secret path through the bayou. My grandmother showed me the way.”
“Uh, right, it’s not like I have a choice whether to bring him,” Jamal said, jogging to keep up with her. “He is a shadow now. He sort of follows me wherever I go….”
They traversed the athletic field, slipped under the perimeter fence, and crossed the road, ducking to avoid being busted by the security guard for skipping school. As they headed for the thick trees that marked the edge of the bayou with shadow Malik trailing them, Jamal felt goose bumps prick the back of his neck. He got the feeling someone was watching them.
That was when the skull necklace lit up.
Jamal glanced back—and his eyes fell on Dr. Facilier. He was standing on the roof of the school, watching them. The creepy dolls surrounded him like a flock. Their mismatched button eyes were also locked on them. They almost looked…hungry.
Dr. Facilier tipped his top hat toward Jamal. How much had he overheard?
Goose bumps erupted all over Jamal’s body. He reached up and clutched the necklace. It felt warm. It probably did have some sort of protection placed on it so Dr. Facilier couldn’t just take it from him. But it seemed like the shadow man was growing stronger.
Jamal couldn’t explain exactly how he knew that. It was more of a feeling. Maybe because the necklace linked them together somehow.
But then they ducked into the bayou and were swallowed up by the trees. The shadow man vanished from Jamal’s sight, but Jamal knew one thing for sure: Dr. Facilier was watching them.
He wants this necklace, Jamal thought with a shiver, and I bet he’s willing to do anything to get it back.
“You know, people stay away from the bayou for a reason—” Jamal started, but then he tripped over a ropy cypress tree root arced out of the soggy earth. He lurched face-first toward a puddle, catching himself at the last minute.
His face was one inch from the putrid, murky water. Mud splashed onto his clothes and face. He tried not to imagine what disgusting creatures lurked underneath the surface.
“There’s tons of Creole people and Cajun people who live out here,” Riley called out. “They just know how to do it right and not gripe. Like some people.”
She glanced back but didn’t slow her pace. She was agile and sure-footed as she led them through the marsh. And it was a good thing she knew the way. Jamal was already completely lost.
All around them spanned the massive wetlands. Brackish water that barely moved housed countless types of wildlife. Cypress and tupelo trees sprouted from the marshy ground. Though Jamal had grown up in New Orleans, he had never ventured this deep into the bayou. But Riley easily located the path that cut through the thick underbrush and led to her grandmother’s hut.
“Easy for you to say,” Jamal muttered, well, griping again. Even the path was hard to follow. “I’ve never been back here. And I’m starting to realize it was for a very good reason.”
“Hey, remember what I said about griping?” Riley said.
“Uh, she’s right,” Malik rasped behind him. “Little J, you are being, like, a major punk right now.”
“Even your shadow agrees,” Riley said with a smirk. “Now hurry it up. It’s gonna get dark soon. We don’t have much time.”
Jamal felt sweat erupt on his forehead. He remembered the shadow man, surrounded by his creepy dolls, watching them from the gym’s roof. She was right: they had to act fast.
He cast his gaze ahead, feeling the muggy air slick his skin with sweat. Their surroundings were like an ancient jungle. Moss dripped off the cypress trees that stretched overhead toward the sky, while their exposed roots looped out of the wetlands.
The sun was beginning its nightly descent into the horizon. Already the sky was stained pink. Clouds were building. Night would fall soon, and with the coming darkness the odds of them getting lost were higher.
“Ouch, watch out,” Jamal muttered as a branch smacked his cheek. It throbbed painfully.
“Griping again?” Riley said with a snort. “Toughen up, already.”
“Well, there are a few good things about being a shadow,” Malik observed, trailing Jamal. “No shoes. No splashing in puddles. And pretty sure poisonous snakes can’t bite me.”
“Uh, what kinds of snakes?” Jamal said, checking the marsh around his ankles.
“Cottonmouths. Copperheads. Rattlesnakes,” Riley said. “And don’t forget about the gators. Though usually they mind their own business…if you mind yours.”
“Just great,” Jamal groaned. “What other horrors are lurking back here?”
“Relax, I’ve come this way a thousand times.” She raised her arms over her head. “And look, I’ve still got all my limbs.”
“I feel so much better,” Jamal said, not comforted at all.
He marched forward anyway, following Riley. His brother, a dark smudge cast against the earth, trailed them. Malik vanished and reappeared with each patch of sunlight that filtered through the thick branches. Once the sun fell, it would be almost impossible to see him.
Every time his brother vanished, Jamal felt a thump of dread. He worried that this would be the time Malik vanished forever, and then he breathed a sigh of relief whenever Malik reappeared.
“Stay close,” Jamal whispered to his brother. “I can’t lose you…again.”
“Close as your own shadow,” Malik rasped back. “Don’t worry, Little J.”
Not only did his words reassure Jamal, but also his brother no longer seemed as angry with him. He was back to calling him Little J. Jamal felt a twinge of hope. Maybe if he did find a way to fix Malik, his brother would also find a way to forgive him.
He could hope, couldn’t he? What other choice did he have?
“Riley, please tell me you know where you’re going,” Jamal said, trying to discern their path through the bayou. As it grew darker, it got harder to see. “And that we’re not totally lost.”
“Of course I do,” Riley said with a derisive snort, not slowing her pace through the underbrush. “The bayou runs in my family’s blood. Some of us never left, like my grandmother. Her hut is just up this way…” she said, tramping ahead through the standing water.
Jamal followed her, less certainly. Water sloshed up to his knees.
“You trust her?” Malik asked, startling Jamal. He still wasn’t used to his brother being a shadow. He was nearly invisible in the darkness that was falling over the bayou.
“Uh, do we have a choice?” Jamal said, his gut churning with fear.
He was afraid, not just of the bayou and getting lost and whatever creepy, crawly, deadly creatures lurked underneath the brackish water, but also of what would happen if he didn’t find a way to help his brother and reverse the shadow curse.
Fear for his brother overwhelmed his fear of the bayou, so he kept plodding forward despite his discomfort. Right now, Riley and her grandmother were their best—their only—hope.
As they continued, the sun descended, casting longer and deeper shadows across the swamp. Jamal could barely see the path. He strained his eyes in the fading light.
Suddenly, something moved in the darkness.
Jamal startled and whipped around. Something small and fast was moving through the underbrush. Thwap. Thwap. Thwap. And then the skull necklace started to glow. That could mean only one thing: the shadow man had found them.
“Riley, look!” Jamal yelled, holding up the skull.
The reddish light illuminated the shadows, lighting up the bayou—and the button eyes staring back at them. Pair after pair of creepy eyes. There were too many of them to count.
“Oh, no, it’s them,” Riley yelped. She grabbed Jamal’s hand and yanked him back, away from the staring eyes. “Hurry, run!”
“But who are they?” Jamal asked, struggling to keep up and not trip.
“The dolls,” Riley repeated breathlessly, pulling him faster through the swamp. “They b
elong to the shadow man’s friends on the other side. He must have asked his friends for their help and they summoned the dolls to do their bidding.”
“Their bidding?” Jamal said.
“Yeah, they’re probably after that necklace,” Riley said. “We have to get to my grandmother’s hut. She can protect us…or at least…I hope so.”
Branches smacked his cheeks as they sprinted through the thick trees, but this time Jamal didn’t care. The dolls chased them, cutting through the underbrush. He could hear the rustling and splashing of their tiny feet. Shadows also reached out as if to snare them in their sharp claws.
Jamal waved the skull necklace around, the reddish light warding off the shadow monsters and protecting them as they fled through the marsh.
Suddenly, he felt something snare his ankle.
He glanced down. It was the one of the dolls.
It had its fingers latched around his leg. Its face, stitched from crude fabric, stared up at him. The button eyes looked empty. It stopped his blood cold.
“Get off me!” Jamal kicked hard, but the doll held on.
Then another doll leapt out of the cypress trees, landing on his shoulders. It scrambled for his neck, reaching toward the skull necklace.
The necklace flared brighter in response.
But the doll wasn’t affected by the light like the shadow monsters. The thing snagged the necklace and pulled it, strangling Jamal with the chain. More dolls leapt at him, latching on to his legs, his arms, his torso, his neck. They kept jumping out of the trees at him.
“No, help me—” he yelled.
Smack!
Suddenly, a branch whacked the first doll on his neck, sending it flying.
“Didn’t you hear him?” Riley snarled. “He said…get off!”
She clutched the branch like a baseball bat, knocking the dolls off him. Then she grabbed his hand, and again they set off, running through the bayou. But the dolls chased them. Their tiny feet rustled the underbrush all around them. The dolls were almost impossibly fast.