by M. D. Massey
9
Following at a discreet distance on their bikes, the red caps soon led them to the other side of the neighborhood. Here, the houses were separated from the rest of the town by a creek that ran through a culvert under the main road. The two ditched their bikes and snuck behind a hedge, from where they watched the red caps drop down into the culvert.
“Oh man, I am not following them in there!”
“C’mon, Jesse—we’ve been in there before.”
“Yeah, but remember last time? That raccoon came out of nowhere and scared the daylights out of us.”
“Jesse, we’re chasing cannibalistic garden gnomes, and you’re worried about a raccoon? Seriously?”
Jesse pinched Colin on the arm and twisted viciously. “Hey, raccoons are mean, and they bite.” She made fangs with her fingers and rabbit teeth by biting her lower lip. Colin struggled to stay silent while his body shook with laughter.
Jesse rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. “Fine, be that way! I’ll go in the stupid tunnel with the rabid raccoons and man-eating oompa-loompas. But you better have some flashlights in that backpack.”
“Got ’em right here.” He produced two flashlights and handed one to Jesse. “Look, you don’t have to go in there with me.”
“Hah! And let you to get eaten by the Keebler elves from hell? Uh-uh, no way I’m explaining that to your mom. Gimme a flashlight and let’s do this.”
Colin grinned smugly. “After you,” he replied with a flourish of his arm and a mock bow.
“Yeah, ‘ladies first’—look who’s scared now.” Jesse got down on her hands and knees and began crawling into the culvert.
“Well, if I’d have said I was going first because I’m the guy, you would have raised a stink. So, this is officially an equal opportunity suicide mission.”
She stopped and looked back at Colin over her shoulder. “You are so getting it when we get out of here.”
Colin shrugged. “What are friends for?”
About twenty-five feet into the tunnel Jesse stopped abruptly, which caused Colin to collide with her backside. He quickly backed off and pretended nothing had happened, but Jesse turned and scowled.
He gave a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I was trying to avoid looking at your, um, backside.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him, which made him blush terribly. “Well, it appears you got an eyeful anyway, grace.”
“Hey, this time I really was trying to be a gentleman!”
“Whatever, nerd.” She leaned against the tunnel wall, gesturing toward an opening several feet ahead. “Anyway, it looks like they remodeled since we were here last. Shut off your flashlight and let me make sure no one is around.” Jesse dropped to her belly and inched her way further into the tunnel, army-style. Colin saw a dim light ahead, but it was difficult to see much from where he was. Suddenly, Jesse disappeared from view.
“Jesse!” Colin whispered frantically. “Jesse!”
Jesse’s head popped into view at the end of the tunnel and Colin jumped, banging his head on the roof of the culvert.
“Shush you big scaredy-cat, I’m right here. Now, get moving so we can find your mom.”
“Ow!” Colin exclaimed as he rubbed his skull. “Man, you didn’t have to scare me like that.”
“Oh, yes I did. Bet you thought I was the raccoon.”
He massaged his head as he clambered out of the tunnel and got to his feet. “I wasn’t scared, just surprised. I knew it was you.”
Jesse chuckled and punched Colin on the arm. “Big tough Colin. Now, what would you do without me to protect you from rabid raccoons and nasty red cap thingies?”
Colin had to admit, Jesse was the scrappier of the two. They’d actually become friends back in grade school. The day they’d met, Colin had been getting picked on for sucking his thumb, but on that particular day he’d had enough. He’d stood up to the kids who were bullying him, and ended up at the bottom of a dog pile getting pummeled. Jesse had saved him by beating kids off him with a plastic skateboard. They’d instantly become best friends, and although the teasing had eased up since, he was still glad to know she had his back.
“My hero,” he replied with a smirk, and then turned on his flashlight and whistled. Somehow, the red caps had excavated a huge cavern directly beneath their neighborhood. Light was filtering down from a drainage grate above. “Wow, this place is ginormous—I hope this is still here after we get rid of these guys, because this would make a killer hideout.”
Jesse nodded. “Sure beats the old treehouse in my backyard. Ugh, but what is that stench? It smells like old farts and rotten bacon.”
“I’m not sure—maybe they busted into someone’s sewer line or something. Anyway, let’s figure out which way they went so we can find Mom.” He saw three tunnels leading off from the room they’d entered. Colin searched the ground with his flashlight, looking for signs of where the red caps went. “Look, over here—these tracks look fresh.”
Jesse patted him on the back. “I guess all those dorky scouting trips actually came in handy after all.”
“Being an Eagle Scout is going to look good on my college applications. And besides, my dad wanted me to do scouting. It was sort of our thing.”
Jesse’s face fell. “Sorry, I didn’t know it was something that you and your dad did.”
“Hey, it’s no big deal. Honestly, you probably didn’t know because I don’t like to talk about it much. I feel like I have to finish things I started with him, because it reminds me of when he was here.”
Jesse put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his deep-set green eyes. “Hey, it’s okay to miss him. He was your dad.”
Colin looked away. “Yeah, but it makes me angry sometimes, and I get mad at him for leaving us. I mean, why did he have to go away to fight some dumb war? It didn’t have anything to do with us, not really. Now he’s gone, and all I have to remember him by are some stupid medals and a flag.”
Jesse grabbed him gently by the chin and turned him to face her. “Colin, don’t you think he believed in what he was doing? That it must have been important to him, if he did it even though he knew it would mean being away from you and your mom? I know I didn’t spend a lot of time around your dad, but the times I did see you together it was clear he loved you.”
“I know. I just wish he didn’t leave us. And now that Mom might be missing—I couldn’t take losing them both.”
Jesse gave him a quick hug. “Don’t worry, we’ll find her.” She stepped back, and handed him his bat. “C’mon, slugger. We have some red cap butt to kick.”
Colin wiped his face on his sleeve, nodded, and headed off down the tunnel with Jesse in tow.
10
The tunnel they followed was much larger than the culvert pipe, and almost tall enough to stand up in the center. It had been excavated from the limestone bedrock common to the area, so they assumed it was fairly stable. Since it was apparently dug for the red caps, it wasn’t quite man-sized, which meant they had to stay low as they followed it for a quarter-mile or more.
“How long do you think they were digging these tunnels?” Jesse asked.
“Hard to say, but with fairy magic involved I suppose there’s no telling. Have you ever read any of the old fairy tales and stuff? They’d do things like take care of all the house cleaning and farm chores overnight for people, all for a saucer of milk. Or they’d spin straw into gold and other weird stuff. And trick people with magic.” He paused for a second, and reached out to the wall, feeling it to see if it were real. “For all we know, this could all be another illusion.”
Jesse knocked on the wall with her knuckles. “Feels pretty real to me. Hey, do you hear that?”
Colin cocked his head to listen. “Sounds like voices, and if I’m right that’ll be the three stooges from Mom’s studio.” Motioning for Jesse to follow, Colin snuck further down the tunnel until he came to a bend. Peeking around the corner, he popped back and gestured for Jesse to back up a bit.
> “It’s them, alright—and they have my mom.” A look of grim determination crossed his face. “I have a feeling that a golf club isn’t going to do much against magical creatures with butcher knives and razor sharp teeth. You still go shooting with your dad?”
“Every Saturday, and Sundays when there’s a three-gun event at the range. What’s up?” Colin pulled a paintball gun out of his backpack. Jesse turned her nose up and scowled. “What, am I supposed to splat them to death?”
Colin shook his head. “Not with paint. This thing’s loaded with OC powder, the same stuff they put in pepper spray. I found them with some of my dad’s old gear, along with some smoke grenades. Plus, I hopped up the gun so it’d shoot harder and faster.”
A wide grin crept across Jesse’s face. “Some girls get diamonds, I get weapons of mass destruction. You are the man, Colin.”
“Yeah, just make sure to hit them in the head if possible. It’ll blind them and make it hard for them to breathe.”
“How many paintballs do these things carry?” she asked.
“About 200, but you only have 50 shots or so.”
Jesse nodded. “That’s enough then. Double-taps to the head. That’ll keep ’em down.”
Colin chuckled. “Remind me not to make you mad, ever. Okay, here’s the plan…”
Jesse and Colin soldier-crawled around the corner and hid behind some fallen rocks and debris. Colin’s mom sat in a chair at an old kitchen table in the center of the cave. The red caps were busy preparing a meal over a fire in the corner—from the looks of it, the raccoon was going to be the main course. The pair heard the red caps arguing from across the cavern.
Whiny-face licked his lips. “Mmmmm… I want a drumstick.”
Evil Jason Statham backhanded Whiny-face and sent him sprawling. “Idjit! Chickens have drumsticks, raccoons have haunches. Don’tcha ever watch Animal Planet?”
Whiny-face got up, pulled up a stool, and sat down. “Anyway, I still want a leg,” he mumbled under his breath.
Evil Jason Statham reared back as if to strike again, and Whiny-face flinched. “You’ll get what I give you. Now, what did the woman say?”
Deep-voice spoke up. “Nothing much. She says she doesn’t know where the book is. Maybe the boy has it?”
“Idjits, both of you! Then we should’ve been out looking for him, instead of trashing the woman’s home.” They continued arguing back and forth, and Colin tuned them out.
“Okay, Jesse, when I give the signal, open fire.”
“You’re the mastermind of this little rescue operation,” she replied.
Colin nodded, and raised his hand to count down. “Three—two—one—NOW!”
At Colin’s signal, Jesse rolled out from behind the rubble and landed in a kneeling position. The paintball gun hissed, and screams of misery came from the red caps on the other side of the tunnel.
Whiny-face shouted as he hid his face. “Hornets! We’re being attacked by hornets!” Jesse continued to lay down covering fire as Colin sprinted across the cave.
Evil Jason Statham was rolling on the floor rubbing his eyes with his palms, which was probably making it worse. “My eyes—they’re burning! It’s evil wizardry! The Avartagh has cursed us for not finding the book!”
The third red cap felt around blindly. “I can’t see! I’m blind! Arrrggghhh!” He took off at a run and blasted straight into the wall, falling into a dazed heap on the floor.
Whiny-face was splashing soda in his eyes from a two-liter bottle, which fizzed and made his eyes look like they had rabies. “It burnssss usssss! Makes it stop!” he cried.
Colin grinned and popped a smoke grenade, then threw it in the red caps’ direction. He rushed to the table where his mom sat and cut away the rope they’d used to tie her to the chair.
His mom’s face lit up as he approached. “Colin! What a nice surprise. I was just about to have lunch with these pleasant young men. They’re interested in my next art gallery opening, you know.”
“Mom, I don’t think those ‘nice young men’ are what they appear. C’mon, we have to go—now.”
“But I’ve ordered roast duck!”
Colin glanced at the raccoon roasting on the fire and grimaced. “Mom, I wouldn’t trust the chef. I believe he has hygiene issues.”
Mrs. McCool covered her mouth in horror. “Oh, my. I must tell the waiter when he comes back.”
“No time, Mom—we have to leave now because I’m double-parked.”
His mother turned to him and shook a finger in his face. “Didn’t I tell you not to get any more tickets?”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for a while. Come on, we have to go!” He dragged his mother down the tunnel, heading back the way they came. Jesse took up the rear while laying down more covering fire, stinging the red caps with pepper balls as they ran into the walls, furniture, and other junk in the cave. One of them even set himself on fire in the confusion.
They hurried off down the tunnels, backtracking until they came to the room with the culvert pipe and three exits. As they entered the room, they saw a shadow moving in the culvert. Then two sets of glowing, feline eyes fixed on them and they heard a loud hiss.
“Oh no—it’s the cat sith!”
Jesse shook her head. “I am not fighting Darth Vader, pepper paintball gun or no!”
“No, not that type of sith—but it’s just as bad. Head back the way we came!” They ran back down the tunnel, but after a few steps they heard the red caps coming toward them yelling angrily.
“Gah! Back the other way,” Jesse shouted. As they turned back, the two big cats jumped out of the culvert pipe. The cats hissed and spread out, attempting to flank them and cut off their escape.
Out of options, Colin pulled Jesse and his mom back into the tunnel again, slugging one of the red caps over the skull with his bat. The gnome stumbled into its brethren, tripping them to the floor of the tunnel.
There was a bright flash behind them in the direction of the cat sidhe. They turned around and saw the two panther-like creatures blinking and shaking their heads as if they’d been stunned.
“Shoot them!” Colin cried.
Jesse looked panicked. “I can’t—it’s jammed!”
Colin scanned the room in desperation to find the source of the bright flash, and saw a dark figure gesturing madly at them from one of the other tunnels. He grabbed his mom and yelled to Jesse, “This way!” and ran off after the retreating shape.
11
As Colin ran off down the tunnel after the fleeing figure, his mom chatted with Jesse as he dragged her along. “Now, Jesse, you really have to make it to one of my openings. You can come over to the house beforehand and we’ll spend some time doing our hair and make it a girl’s night. It’ll be fun!”
“Not really in the mood to think about hair and makeup right now, Mrs. McC—I kind of have some other pressing issues here.” She was fiddling with the paintball gun as she ran, trying to get it to fire again. After having no luck, Jesse tapped Colin on the shoulder. “Babe Ruth, you might be up to bat again soon. This gun is toast.”
Mrs. McCool carried on, oblivious to the fact they were being chased by evil elves. “Oh, no worries, dear. I understand if you’re bogged down right now with school and sports. We can take a raincheck on it.”
Colin continued in pursuit of the mysterious figure, partially to escape, but also because he wanted answers. Blackwillow had hinted that someone was helping Colin behind the scenes, and with the apparent rescue they’d just received, Colin’s curiosity was definitely piqued.
As he was rounding another bend in the tunnel, a head appeared out of the wall in front of him and stage-whispered, “In here!”
Colin skidded to a halt as the head disappeared back into the wall. “Ack! Did you see that?”
“See what?” Jesse responded. “I was trying to fix the paintball gun—what did I miss?” The head popped out of the wall again.
“I said ‘in here’ not ‘wait
out there to be eaten.’ Are you daft?”
“Aaaagghh!” both Colin and Jesse screamed in unison, as two hands came out of the wall to drag Colin and Jesse in, with Mrs. McCool along with them. Once they passed through the wall, Colin saw they were actually in a small side tunnel off the main passageway they’d been running down.
In front of them stood the homeless man Colin had almost run into that morning. “You!” Colin shouted.
The old man put a finger to his lips and shushed him. “Quiet, fool! Those red caps may be bumbling idiots, but the cat sidhe are another matter. They are both crafty and expert hunters. So calm yourself until they pass.”
The group stood quietly in awkward silence, staring alternately at the ground, the ceiling, their watches, and each other. After a minute or so, the man beckoned them to follow him down the small tunnel, speaking mostly to Colin as he led them farther in.
“This leads to a natural cave system that goes under most of your town. Those tunnels back there were dug by the local buggane. I hid this area with an illusion before they began to dig, and later connected the cave system with their tunnels so I could keep an eye on them.”
“But who are you?” Colin asked as they hurried along behind him. “And, what do you have to do with the Avartagh?”
The old man led them into a small cavern that had obviously been adapted for use as a sleeping and living area. There was a cot in the corner, some bookshelves, and a desk and chair that was littered with old-fashioned documents, books, and maps. There were, however, several modern ballpoint pens and a spiral notebook among the older items. Colin also noticed an open can of Dr. Pepper on the desk as well.
The old man pulled up some stools and gestured for them to sit. “My name is Finnegas, although some call me ‘Finn the Seer.’ I’ve known your family for a very long time.” As he spoke, his appearance subtly began to change. Where a scraggly old homeless person had rested a moment before now seated an equally thin, yet very proper-looking, older gentleman. Instead of the rags the homeless man had been wearing, he now dressed in corduroys, a dress shirt, and a tweed jacket.