by James Riley
THANKS
FOR DOWNLOADING THIS EBOOK!
We have SO many more books for kids in the in-beTWEEN age that we’d love to share with you! Sign up for our IN THE MIDDLE books newsletter and you’ll receive news about other great books, exclusive excerpts, games, author interviews, and more!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com/middle
Dedicated to the fictional. Remember, you don’t have to do what your authors say.
CHAPTER 1
’ Kiel Gnomenfoot
the Magister
.
Charm
CHAPTER 2
The library
CHAPTER 3
WHERE ARE YOU?
CHAPTER 4
smiling half-robotic girl.
trapped in the nonfictional world
sidekick,
CHAPTER 5
Bethany!”
what she’d done
she couldn’t face them.
CHAPTER 6
Mr. Holmes
A pistol
CHAPTER 7
backup plan,
“Moira Gonzalez,”
CHAPTER 8
the key
Baker Street School .
found her dad
CHAPTER 9
scared
terrified
CHAPTER 10
Someone was trying to steal Owen’s life, and there was nothing Owen could do about it.
“Your life is mine now,” said the story thief, a brown-haired boy wearing the exact same T-shirt, the exact same jeans, and the exact same face as Owen.
“No!” Owen tried to shout, but he couldn’t move or talk. His body just wouldn’t respond.
The duplicate leaned in, hands reaching out for Owen . . .
And that’s when Owen woke up with a start.
Wait, he’d been asleep! It was just a dream! A scary, sweaty, awful dream.
Owen wanted to laugh. “It was all a dream” was the worst possible ending to any story, but right now, it definitely felt comforting. It had felt much too real, though he supposed that was dreams for you. Owen ran his hands over his sheets, happy to still be in bed.
Except his sheets felt a lot like carpet, and he wasn’t lying on a pillow.
Also, his carpet-feeling sheets were orange for some reason.
“Uh?” Owen said. He picked his head up a bit from the carpet, only to wince and drop his head back to the floor, squeezing his eyes shut. A huge ache pounded through his temples, and everything smelled weirdly smoky.
He tried opening his eyes again, but even the little bit of light in the room caused his headache to scream at him. But Owen knew that orange carpet. He knew it like the back of his hand. Which, admittedly, he didn’t know all that well, but still.
This was the library. He was facedown on the floor of his mother’s library.
And he had no idea how he’d gotten here.
Gathering all of his courage, Owen opened his eyes again to look around.
“Owen?” said a voice to his side, followed by a painful groan.
“Kiel?” Owen said, and groaned too as he turned slightly to face the direction the voice had come from.
Kiel Gnomenfoot, former boy magician and hero to millions as star of his own book series, looked like he wanted to burst into tears. “Owen,” Kiel repeated, as if the word tasted bad. “Why . . . head . . . hurt?”
Owen tried to bring up a word or two, something along the lines of I have no idea, but it’s obviously for evil, evil reasons, but all he managed to croak out was, “Unnh.” Figuring that wasn’t enough, he slapped his hand a few times on the floor, then cringed at the noise.
How had he and Kiel gotten to his mom’s library? The last thing Owen remembered was . . . wait, what was the last thing he remembered? It was like everything in the recent past was just gone. He remembered Kiel being introduced to their class as Kyle, a new student, but that was the last thing. How long ago had that been? And why couldn’t he remember anything else?
Thunder crashed, and Owen grabbed his head as it erupted in pain, which made him face-plant onto the floor. After a moment of pure agony, something more urgent than the ache seeped through his brain.
“Do you smell smoke?” he asked Kiel. Owen pushed himself up and over onto his back, so at least he wouldn’t hit his face again if he fell.
“Probably,” Kiel moaned from his side. “Is something on fire?”
Dark black smoke began to curl into sight above Owen on the library’s ceiling, and in spite of the pain, Owen immediately sat up. “Kiel!” he shouted. “The library’s on fire!”
“No yelling!” Kiel shouted back, and they both groaned. Kiel slowly pushed himself up too and looked around. “Oh. Fire. That’s not a good thing. Hold on, I’ll use . . . whatever it is I do. Magic. To put it out.”
“Holding,” Owen said, gritting his teeth and waiting. “Hurry. Hurty.”
A pause, and then Kiel gasped. “They’re not there!”
“What aren’t?”
“My wand-knives!” he said, then paused. “Owen, I can’t remember any magic, and my spell book’s gone too. I can’t do magic without it or my wands.”
“A brilliant observation,” said a too-deep, fake-sounding voice from behind them, as if someone was talking into a voice changer. “Which begs the question, what exactly can you do, Mr. Gnomenfoot? What use are you without your magic?”
Owen turned to find himself staring at a short figure wearing a brown overcoat, a Sherlock Holmes hat, and a white mask with a black question mark where the face should have been.
Well. That wasn’t good.
“Gentlemen,” the masked figure said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I would say the game is afoot, but unfortunately, your game is already over.”
CHAPTER 11
And you are?” Kiel asked, pushing himself to his feet a bit unsteadily. Owen followed his lead, but the whole room decided to spin at that moment, and he stumbled sideways into one of the library’s study tables.
“Doyle Holmes,” the masked boy said in the strange voice. “You have, of course, heard of me.” He wasn’t asking.
Kiel shook his head, wincing at the pain. “No. Should I have?”
Owen shook his head too, but for a different reason. “No,” he groaned. “No, no, no, no, no. He shouldn’t be here. He can’t be here. Kiel, Doyle Holmes is, like, the great-great-great-something-grandson of Sherlock Holmes. He’s a . . . he’s like you.” Owen winced and lowered his voice so that only Kiel could hear. “Only he’s from a book that no one read. I heard it wasn’t good.”
Kiel straightened up, and his hands automatically flew to his belt, where his wand-knives usually were, before he sighed. “Maybe he’s wearing a costume,” Kiel said, not sounding hopeful.
“Ah, no,” Doyle Holmes said. “I am, in fact, fictional, just like you, Kiel Gnomenfoot. Though that is the only thing I imagine we have in common.”
Owen’s eyes widened. He knew Kiel was fictional? This was so not good!
“Not possible,” Kiel said, taking a step toward the boy in the mask. “You couldn’t have gotten out. Not without—”
“Your friend Bethany?” Doyle finished. “You’re very correct. Which brings up the question: Where might she be now?”
No! “What do you want?” Owen said.
Doyle shrugged, his mask betraying no emotions. “What does anyone want? To be the world’s greatest detective? To solve the most challenging mysteries of all time? To ensure that no one breaks a law ever again without me catching them?” He paused. “All of those things, of course. But right now I want to see you story thieves pay for your crimes.”
/> “Magic thief,” Kiel corrected. “Get it right. Kiel Gnomenfoot, Magic Thief. It’s right there in the title of my first book.”
“Don’t worry, your stories are now over,” Doyle said, and Owen could almost hear the boy smirking behind the mask.
Behind the detective, a flickering orange glow grew brighter, and the smoke along the ceiling began to thicken. And for the first time, Owen noticed that there were gas cans stacked around the library shelves.
And Doyle was holding a long match. He slowly lowered it to his fingers, snapped them, and the match lit.
“No!” Owen shouted, and grabbed his phone to call 911. Was a fictional character actually burning down his library? He punched in the numbers, but somehow, his phone had no service. Not even one bar, even though it always had service in the library.
“Don’t worry,” Doyle said, holding up a phone of his own. “I’ve already made the call. The police and fire department should be here momentarily. I’ve informed them that I saw two kids of your description setting fire to the library, so I imagine they’ll have some questions.” He nodded at the gas cans. “And once they discover Owen Conners’s fingerprints all over these, I’m fairly certain they’ll have all the evidence they need to put you away.”
What? He was framing them? Why was this all happening? And why couldn’t Owen remember anything that’d happened before he woke up?
“You know, I haven’t had to fight someone without using magic for a while,” Kiel said, stepping forward. “I think I’ve missed it. Owen, want to hold him down?”
“I wouldn’t,” Doyle said, pointing his match at the gas cans. “Not unless you want these going up prematurely.”
“Why would you do this?” Owen said, pulling Kiel back, away from the boy in the question-mark mask. “And where is Bethany?”
Doyle shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about her.” He held up his hand and tapped his watch. “Well, at least for the next two hours or so.” He glanced at his wrist. “Sorry, two hours and ten minutes. Don’t worry, I’ve put watches on both your wrists as well. Consider that part of the punishment. As soon as the timers reach zero, you’ll never see your friend again.”
Owen looked down at the rubber band on his wrist. The amount of buttons and markings on it made the band look far more complicated than just a watch, but the only thing on the face was a timer counting down: 2:10:09.
Kiel pulled his arm out of Owen’s grasp and stepped forward. “Where is she?” he shouted, angrier than Owen had ever seen him.
“That’s a good question,” Doyle said, stepping back into the burning section of the library. “But one you won’t need to concern yourself with. No, I’d worry far more about the police if I were you.”
Outside, the sirens grew louder, and Owen grabbed Kiel again. “What have you done to her?” Kiel shouted, struggling against Owen’s hand.
“It’s not what I’ll do, but what she’ll do,” Doyle said. “Figure out where you are, and you’ll have half the mystery solved.”
“Why are you doing this?” Owen asked. “And why can’t we remember anything?”
“The headaches?” Doyle said. “My apologies. I forced Kiel to use his little forget spell on you both. Couldn’t have you using what you knew to find Bethany, now, could I? No, this has all been planned out from the start.” He leaned forward, and in spite of the mask not having eye holes, Owen felt like Doyle was staring right at him. “Just remember, I did all of this by the book.”
Owen grimaced. Amnesia? Seriously? What a horrible cliché.
“The police won’t capture us,” Kiel said, pointing at Doyle. “We’ll rescue Bethany, and I’ll find my wands and spell book. And then you and I will have a pleasant talk, where you don’t say much, and I smile a lot.” He winked then, though it didn’t look easy for him.
Doyle shook his head. “Oh, Kiel Gnomenfoot. I’m a Holmes. There’s nothing you can do that I can’t see coming.” And with that, he tossed the match into the stack of books right next to the gas cans. “You have about thirty seconds before the fire hits the gas. I’d run.”
“NO!” Owen shouted, only to have Kiel grab his arm and yank him toward the library doors. Owen glanced back as they ran through the automatically opening doors, and he saw Doyle slip out the back way right as the fire reached the gas cans.
Kiel pulled Owen to the side of the building, just as an enormous explosion shattered the library doors and all the windows. The force of the blast sent Kiel and Owen flying, then crashing into the library’s bushes.
As sirens filled the air, Kiel groaned, then turned to Owen. “What did he mean, ‘a homes’?” he asked.
“That’s the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective who ever lived,” Owen said, his eyes wide as he turned back to watch his mother’s library burn in the night. “And if anything, I think Doyle was written to be even better. We’re in so, so much trouble.”
CHAPTER 12
02:04:14 remaining
As the fire grew, Owen pushed his way out of the bushes, staring at the flames in horror. This library was his entire life. He’d spent so many days here, after school, weekends, even vacations, helping out, waiting for his mother, and especially reading all of its books.
The sirens drew closer, and Kiel pulled Owen back into the bushes to hide. Kiel seemed less angry, though he was still breathing hard. “I think this Doyle guy just made things a bit hotter for himself than he realized,” he told Owen, then winked. “Don’t worry, we’ll find Bethany and then make him pay for this.”
Owen slowly turned to Kiel in disbelief. “Did you just make a joke? The library’s burning down! We need to help.”
“But we’ll be caught if we do,” Kiel said, his brow knit in confusion. “Doyle said the police are coming, and if they’re anything like the Science Police, that’s a bad thing. This will have to wait, Owen. If we get caught, we might never find Bethany and save her.”
“Then we tell the police the whole thing!” Owen said, realizing that tears were streaming down his face as smoke filled the air. “This isn’t a book, Kiel. This is my real life! We can’t just run, not from the police. We need to tell them what happened, and they can help us find Bethany.”
Kiel raised an eyebrow. “Think about what you’re saying, Owen. You’re going to tell the police that a fictional character escaped his story to kidnap your half-fictional friend, then set fire to your mom’s library?” He shook his head. “Who would believe you? There’s a reason Bethany keeps her powers a secret. This is something we need to take care of. By ourselves.”
“I don’t care if they believe me!” Owen shouted back. “This is my entire life! My mom’s entire life. She put so much work into this place. I can’t have her thinking I did this! I can’t.”
First a fire engine, then two police cars sped into the parking lot of the library, slamming on their brakes to skid neatly to a stop within inches of one another. As firemen poured off the truck and hooked up their hoses to a fire hydrant, four police officers leaped out of their cars, noticing Kiel and Owen instantly. “Freeze!” one shouted, reaching for his gun.
“Hands in the air!” another shouted.
“We didn’t do it!” Owen said, his hands flying straight up.
“Descriptions match the suspects,” one of the police officers said into the radio on his chest. “Moving to apprehend.”
“We’re not suspects!” Owen shouted. “And there’s no need to apprehend. We’re surrendering!”
“This is a terrible idea, Owen,” Kiel said, taking a step backward toward the bushes. “I don’t have my magic, so I can’t help you if this goes badly. You sure you want to do this?”
“No,” Owen whispered. Then louder, “The guy who set fire to the library ran out the back. You can still catch him! He’s wearing a brown coat and a creepy mask with a question mark on it.”
The four police officers moved closer, their guns drawn. “Don’t move!” one said.
; “Tell it to the judge!” another said.
Tell it to the judge? Even with his headache and the fire and everything falling apart, Owen couldn’t believe his ears. Who talked like that? Someone had seen too many cop movies.
“We need to get out of here,” Kiel hissed, backing away as the firemen began hosing down the library, not that it was doing much good: The fire was blazing out of control now. “Bethany’s depending on us. We have . . . two hours, exactly, to find her. There’s no time to waste with this.”
“The police will find her,” Owen said, not quite as confidently as before. He glanced at his watch and saw Kiel was right: 02:00:00, right on the dot. “This is how things work in the real world, Kiel. Kids don’t solve crimes here, the police do. We have to let them handle it.”
“Cuff ’em,” one of the officers said, and two pulled out handcuffs while the others kept their guns pointed at Kiel and Owen.
“We didn’t do it,” Owen said, practically pleading with the police. “You have to believe me. The guy who did is getting away!”
“Owen Conners, you have the right to remain silent,” the police officer said, then began to mumble something about an attorney and a few other things, getting so quiet that Owen couldn’t hear any of his other rights.
Handcuffs snapped around Owen’s wrists, and he was jerked roughly away from Kiel, who sighed and held his hands out in front of him. A second officer went to handcuff the boy magician, but Kiel didn’t take his eyes off Owen. “Sorry, my friend,” he said, shaking his head. “I want to believe you, but chalk it up to too many years living under the Science Police.”