by P. J. Night
After walking around the store for a few minutes, Kristi joined Olivia in front of a locked display case. She gasped when she saw what was inside: an assortment of glittering stones, as big as plums and as red as blood.
“Are those rubies?” Kristi asked.
“I don’t know,” Olivia replied. “They’re so pretty, aren’t they? The best thing in this store. I was gonna buy one, but . . .”
As Olivia’s voice trailed off she pointed at a small sign near the bottom of the case. In thick black letters, it read FOR DISPLAY ONLY!!! NOT FOR SALE!!!
“Wow,” Tim said as he joined them. “Are those for real? I was looking at those geodes over there, but the ones they cracked open aren’t as nice. They’re just gray inside. They don’t even have a lot of crystals.”
Kristi moved away to look through a revolving rack of postcards. She hadn’t seen anything that she wanted to buy yet, but maybe there would be some cool postcards she could bring home to show her mom. She slowly spun the rack around, but every card seemed kind of . . . creepy. There was one with a freaky-looking crow standing in the mouth of the caverns. It read: QUOTH THE RAVENSBURG CAVERNS . . . NEVERMORE. And there was another one with a photo that appeared to be taken at the edge of a bottomless pit. It said: I SURVIVED RAVENSBURG CAVERNS . . . COULD YOU?
Before Kristi could check out another postcard, someone shoved a brown paper bag in her face.
“What is—!” she exclaimed in surprise.
Bobby’s face appeared above the bag. From the crinkles around his eyes, Kristi could tell that he was grinning. “Grab bag!” he announced. “Here. I got you one. I got one for everybody. They were only a quarter each.”
Kristi glanced over her shoulder to see Tim and Olivia holding grab bags too.
“They’re probably not going to be very good,” Bobby babbled on. “Only a quarter. That’s, like, nothing. But whatever. Might be fun. Or not. There’s only one way to find out. Who wants to go first?”
“I will,” Olivia said quickly, giggling a little as she stuck her hand into the wrinkled bag. She paused for a second before pulling out . . . a piece of cardboard with dented edges. Two long, sharp pins were stuck in it, securing a very large, very fuzzy, very dead moth.
“Ahhhhh!” Olivia shrieked. She frantically wiped her hand on her sweatshirt; her fingers were coated in translucent dust from the dead moth’s wings. “Get it off! Get if off!”
“Ewwwww,” Kristi said loudly, partly to cover Olivia’s meltdown and partly because the dead moth was pretty gross. She reached for the moth and the bag so that Olivia wouldn’t have to hold them for a moment longer.
“That was so—so—” Olivia stammered.
“Yuck,” Kristi finished for her. She looked more closely at the moth. It was very pale, almost completely white, with unusual markings—jagged silver stripes intersected by splotchy gray circles. Kristi shoved the gross dead moth back into the bag. “Well, I guess I’ll go next. I hope there’s nothing dead in my bag!”
“Would you rather get a bug that was still alive?” Bobby joked.
Kristi plunged her hand into her grab bag. She felt several bumpy, oval-shaped objects, but didn’t have a clue what they were. Her fingers closed around one and she pulled it out of the bag.
It was a miniature clown head. Its face was as white as death, with bloodred hair and lips and vacant blue eyes staring at . . . nothing. Instinctively, Kristi dropped the bag, only to watch in horror as a dozen more miniature clown heads bounced out of the bag and rolled around at her feet. The black cat that had been sleeping on a nearby shelf jumped down and began batting one of the clown heads around on the floor.
All the color drained from Kristi’s face. She couldn’t even speak. She started to back away from the clown heads, rolling and grinning at her with those bloody-looking mouths, when Olivia reached out and grabbed her arm.
That was all it took to remind Kristi that everything was okay. When their eyes met, Kristi could see sympathy and understanding in Olivia’s gaze. She took a deep breath. Olivia was the only person at school who knew what had happened in the fun house, back in kindergarten, and Kristi was determined to keep it that way.
Tim knelt down and examined one of the clown heads. “Oh,” he said, sounding a little disappointed. “They’re just erasers . . . you know, pencil toppers.”
“Oh. Duh,” Kristi said as a flush of embarrassment crept up her cheeks. She tried to laugh. “Of course. I was just, like, ahhhh, there’s a head in my hand!”
It worked. Everyone else started to laugh too. Tim and Bobby finished picking up the clown heads. Then Tim said, “Me next!”
His bag was bulging, filled nearly to the brim with whatever mystery item it contained. Tim stuck his hand in and pulled out a heaping handful of matchbooks. A few of them slipped through his fingers and tumbled to the floor.
“I don’t—” Tim said, frowning at the matchbooks.
Kristi picked one up from the floor and looked at it too. The cover read GUARANTEED TO BURN HOTTER, STRONGER, AND LONGER! and there was an illustration of a grinning devil’s head engulfed in a flame.
“Exactly what do you think you’re doing?” said someone behind them.
It was Mr. Tanaka!
Kristi jumped a little as she shoved the matchbook into her pocket. But Mr. Tanaka didn’t even seem to notice that she’d been holding one. His eyes were focused on Tim, who had gone very pale.
“I’m extremely disappointed, Mr. Hendricks,” Mr. Tanaka said sternly as he grabbed the matchbooks out of Tim’s hand. He shook them in Tim’s face. “You just broke a big school rule, young man. I know you know that matches are prohibited at all times. I have no choice but to send you home. Let’s go call your parents. You can explain to them why they have to come pick you up.”
“No—” Tim croaked.
“And then I think we’ll call Principal Bryer,” Mr. Tanaka continued.
“Mr. Tanaka, wait,” Kristi said. She was so scared that Mr. Tanaka would find out that she had a matchbook too—she could practically feel it burning in her pocket—but she couldn’t let Tim get in trouble for this. “It’s not his fault. We got these grab bags—”
“I bought one. For everybody,” Bobby interrupted her.
“And they were all filled with, like, really freaky weird things,” Kristi spoke over Bobby. “Like mine had all these clown-head erasers. And Tim’s was stuffed with matches. But he didn’t know that until he looked inside.”
“Is this true, Tim?” Mr. Tanaka asked.
Tim nodded vigorously. “Yeah. I had no idea my grab bag was full of matches. I would never bring matches on a school trip, Mr. Tanaka. Or buy them or anything like that. I know the rules. I promise,” he said in a rush.
Mr. Tanaka was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “Okay, Tim, I believe you. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. But I’ll be taking these, if you don’t mind”—the matches made a rustling noise as Mr. Tanaka took the bag from Tim—“and I think I’ll have a word with the hotel manager about the contents of these, uh, ‘grab bags.’ ”
“Thanks, Mr. Tanaka,” Tim said gratefully. “I never wanted them to begin with.” As soon as Mr. Tanaka had turned away, Tim sighed with relief.
“Man, I’m sorry about that,” Bobby said right away. “So sorry, dude.”
“Whatever,” Tim said. He shrugged, like it really didn’t matter, but Kristi could see that he still looked pale. “Not your fault. No big deal.”
“No, it is,” Bobby argued. “You could’ve gotten in serious trouble.”
“But I didn’t,” Tim replied, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. “Can we drop it?”
“Bobby, what’s in your grab bag?” Kristi asked quickly.
“Oh. Right. I almost forgot to look,” Bobby said. He shook the bag gently. “Whatever it is, it’s pretty light.”
The three other kids watched as Bobby peered into the bag. It was hard to read the expression on his face. Finally, he looked up. “Nothi
ng,” he reported, holding the bag upside down and shaking it to prove that it was empty. “What a rip-off.”
“At least they were only a quarter,” Olivia pointed out. “Come on, it’s almost time to meet for dinner . . . or whatever they’re serving in that diner.”
As the friends wandered out of the gift shop, Kristi drifted toward the back of the group. She paused as they passed by the cashier; then, in one fast motion, Kristi dropped the clown heads, the moth, and the book of matches onto the counter. The cashier gave her a curious look.
But Kristi didn’t even notice. She didn’t want anything to do with the “gifts” in those grab bags.
CHAPTER 3
At dinner Kristi ordered the meat-loaf sandwich, hoping that it would be halfway decent. One bite told her that she was wrong. She scraped the soggy gray meat off the sandwich and ate the bread instead, thankful for the generous portion of French fries and coleslaw on the side of her plate. When Kristi glanced around the diner, she saw that most of the other kids had done the same.
“This molasses cookie is actually awesome,” Olivia said during dessert. “I’ll be honest, I’m surprised.”
“Well, it would be hard to make anything taste worse than that meat loaf,” Kristi joked.
Afterward, Mr. Tanaka, Ms. Pierce, and the chaperones herded everyone into a conference room on the second floor for the most ridiculous game of charades that Kristi had ever played. A few of the kids from the drama club got really into it, but everyone else seemed bored—or at least pretended to be.
“How long are they going to keep us here?” Olivia whispered.
“Ugh, I don’t know. Until lights out?” Kristi guessed. She glanced at her watch. It was only eight thirty. That meant they could be stuck playing charades for another hour!
“We’re not babies,” Olivia replied. “They don’t need to entertain us every second.”
“It could be worse,” joked Kristi. “At least we’re not playing heads up, seven up!”
Finally, at nine o’clock, Mr. Tanaka told everyone that they could go to their rooms and get ready for bed. “But remember, lights out is in half an hour,” he reminded them. “And we will be checking.”
Kristi and Olivia walked down the hall to their room.
“That was so lame. And I’m not even tired,” Olivia said. “I can’t believe we’re supposed to go to bed at nine thirty. Isn’t this, like, supposed to be a vacation?”
“Well, Mr. Tanaka said ‘lights out,’ ” Kristi said slowly as she opened the door to their room. “He didn’t say ‘go to sleep.’ ”
Olivia grinned at her. “Good point! We can still text people and stuff, huh?”
“Yeah, I don’t see—” Kristi began.
Suddenly the hotel phone on the nightstand rang. Both girls jumped.
“Who do you think it is?” Olivia asked. “Should we answer it?”
“I guess so,” Kristi replied. “What if it’s somebody from home?”
She lifted the receiver and said, “Hello?”
There was a long silence. Then an unfamiliar male voice said, “Kristi Chen?”
“Yes, this is Kristi,” she replied.
“This is the hotel manager. You know why I’m calling, don’t you?”
“Um, no,” Kristi replied as her heart started to beat a little faster. She racked her brain, trying to think of anything she’d done that might get her in trouble. “I honestly have no idea.”
“I think you know.”
The matches, Kristi suddenly thought. Somebody saw me put the matches in my pocket and they think I stole them. And they’re gonna tell Ms. Pierce and Mr. Tanaka, and Mom will have to pick me up from here and she’ll be so mad at me—and everyone will think I’m a thief—
Kristi cleared her throat. “Please,” she replied. “Please tell me.”
There was a long silence. Then the person on the other end dissolved into giggles—and hung up the phone!
Kristi stared at the phone in her hand for a moment before she started laughing too. Then she hung up.
“What was that about?” Olivia asked.
“Prank call!” Kristi exclaimed. “I can’t believe they got me. I wish I knew who it was! I totally didn’t recognize the voice at all.”
“Maybe it was Tim.” Olivia guessed.
“Maybe,” Kristi said. “I wonder if he has that voice-disguise app on his phone?”
“Oh, he totally does,” Olivia said, nodding vigorously. “I know it for a fact.”
“How rude!” Kristi said—but she wasn’t really mad.
The phone rang again.
“Let me get it!” Olivia cried as she lunged for the phone. “Hello? Hello?”
With a slight frown, she hung up. “Nobody’s there.”
Then there was a loud knock at the door. Both girls had silly grins on their faces.
“Okay, this is getting ridiculous,” Olivia said. “I’m going to tell them to leave us alone—”
“Wait, don’t answer it!” Kristi exclaimed. “Not until you look through the peephole.”
“Oh, right,” Olivia said. She peered through the little hole in the door, then turned around and walked back to the bed. “Nobody’s there. Again.”
There was another knock, and goose bumps spread down Kristi’s arms.
“This is getting kind of weird,” she said. “Should we—should we call Mr. Tanaka? Or Ms. Pierce?”
“Don’t get freaked out over nothing,” Olivia replied. “Just ignore it.”
But when the knock came a third time, Kristi couldn’t resist. She strode over to the door and flung it open.
Sure enough, there was no one there. But there was something there.
A brown paper bag, sitting in the doorway.
Not another grab bag, Kristi thought with dread. She still hadn’t totally recovered from those creepy clown heads.
Her name was printed on the bag, in thick block letters.
“What is it?” Olivia asked as she came up behind Kristi.
“Another grab bag,” Kristi replied. “I don’t even want to open it.”
“But you have to,” Olivia said. “It has your name on it.”
“Let’s open it together,” Kristi suggested.
Olivia shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.”
Kristi carefully opened the bag. At the same time, both girls peered inside it. Then they started laughing. The bag was filled with rock candy!
“Well, that’s a relief,” Kristi said.
“Totally, except we can’t eat it. It’s all dusty. It’s probably been in that gift shop since our grandparents were kids!” Olivia giggled. “Hey, look—there’s something else written on the back.”
It was a short note, in the same block handwriting.
SORRY THE GRAB BAGS WERE LAME.
“Whoa. You know what this means, right?” Olivia asked. “This is from Bobby! Bobby got this for you! I bet Bobby likes you!”
“Shut up. He does not,” Kristi said as she felt the back of her neck get hot.
“He so does!” crowed Olivia. “It’s obvious! I mean, my grab bag was really lame too, and he didn’t bring me any candy!”
“Yeah, because he figured we would share!”
“But my name isn’t on the bag,” Olivia pointed out.
“Liv. Please, please, please don’t tell anybody, okay?” Kristi begged. “Let’s just—let’s just forget it.”
Olivia immediately grew serious. “Of course I wouldn’t tell anybody!” she exclaimed. “I would never do that to you. God, how embarrassing. Bobby Lehman, like, loves you. Don’t worry, nobody will find out from me.”
“Good. I’m gonna go brush my teeth,” Kristi said.
In the bathroom, Kristi stared at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. Her mind was racing. Is it possible? she wondered. Can Bobby really have a crush on me? I hope Olivia won’t say anything to anybody . . . and I really hope she didn’t guess that I kind of like him, too.
After Kristi finish
ed in the bathroom, there was another knock at the door—but this one was quickly followed by Ms. Pierce’s voice. “Lights out in five minutes, girls!” she called through the door.
“Okay!” Kristi and Olivia replied.
“So . . . do you want to text Tim?” Olivia whispered after the girls had climbed into their beds. “And tell him that his prank call was totally stupid?”
“Ehhh . . . you can,” Kristi replied. “I’m really tired. I might just go to sleep.”
“Oh,” was all that Olivia said, but Kristi couldn’t miss the disappointment in her voice. “Okay. Night, Kristi. See you in the morning.”
“Night, Liv,” Kristi replied as she turned out the light.
The soft glow from Olivia’s phone illuminated the room. Kristi was glad. Sometimes, when she was home alone at night because her mom was working late, Kristi went to sleep with the hall light on. And tonight, lying on a lumpy, musty mattress in the Ravensburg Motel, Kristi felt that same gnawing loneliness in the pit of her stomach, even though Olivia was just a few feet away.
She suddenly missed the familiar sounds of her own house, the familiar smell of her own sheets, the familiar feel of her own bed.
Kristi squeezed her eyes shut tight . . . and fell asleep faster than she expected. Instantly, she began to dream. . . .
She was in an unfamiliar place—a place that was equal parts shadow and rock, neither indoors nor outdoors. Not sure what to do, she started to walk. One step, then another, the empty echo of her footsteps was the only sound she could hear.
Where am I? she wondered.
Kristi had no idea.
The intensity of her longing to escape, to go home, was unexpected. It wasn’t such a bad place—wherever she was. It was quiet. It was cool, but not cold. She was alone, but that wasn’t so bad.
Was it?
Then, suddenly, Kristi stopped. She thought she heard something—there it was again—