by Heidi Lang
“Hey! You jerks!” Nate said, stomping over. “We’re supposed to be working!”
Nate’s mom had picked the three of them up from school and dropped them off here. Apparently the Cliffs lived in the townhouses just down the road from the mall, and Nate had suggested it as a place to try searching for something “hidden in plain sight,” whatever that was supposed to mean. Rae doubted they’d actually find anything at this sad little shopping plaza, but since she didn’t have any better ideas, here they were. After a few minutes of mindless wandering, Nate had decided they’d be more productive if they split up, and they’d all gone off on their own.
Rae had made her way to the end of the mall, where her former therapist, Doctor Anderson, had his office. A CLOSED FOR BUSINESS sign hung on his door, the office inside dark and empty.
Rae and Caden had found evidence that Doctor Anderson was the serial eye snatcher, and he’d been taken into Green On!’s custody. After the real eye snatcher was discovered, Rae had just assumed the doctor had been released. But staring at that sign made her wonder…
Vivienne had found her soon after, and they’d decided it was time for a pizza break.
Sitting in the food court, shoveling down melted cheese and tomato sauce, Rae was able to forget about Doctor Anderson. At least for now.
Rae took another bite of pizza and pushed the box on the table toward Nate. “Peace offering?” she mumbled around her food.
“Gross.”
“You don’t have to eat it,” Vivienne said.
“I wasn’t talking about the pizza. I was referring to the person eating it with her mouth open.” He gave Rae a disgusted look, then carefully took a slice out of the box and put it on a paper plate. He went over to the counter, then came back with a fork and knife and sat down at their table.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Vivienne said, watching him cut his pizza up into tiny squares.
“What?” Nate asked.
“Only serial killers eat their pizza like that.”
“It makes it less messy.” Nate took a tiny bite.
“Spoken like a true serial killer.” Vivienne shook her head.
“Actually, a true serial killer would probably be less obvious about it,” Rae said without thinking.
Vivienne and Nate stared at her.
“Know a lot about serial killers, do you?” Nate asked, his tone as dry as the crust on their pizza.
“Only a little.” Rae managed a weak chuckle. She had actually read quite a lot on serial killers. It was a favorite subject for her, along with government conspiracies, alien abductions, and unexplained missing persons. But one thing she’d learned at her old school was never to let anyone know about her unique research.
She’d broken that rule already with Caden. And look where that got her.
“Now that”—Nate jabbed a fork at her—“was a serial killer response.” He took another careful bite of pizza, chewed, and swallowed, then asked, “So did you find anything at all?”
“Of course we did,” Vivienne said.
“Like what?”
“Well, for starters, I saw our good friend slash mortal enemy Matt here,” Vivienne said.
“Mortal enemy?” Rae asked. “That’s a little strong, isn’t it?”
“He’s in the other group. Ergo,” Vivienne said, as if that settled the matter.
“What about Alyssa? She’s in the other group, and isn’t she your friend?” Nate asked.
Vivienne winced. “Yes, well… Alyssa isn’t really talking to me right now.”
“She isn’t?” Rae asked.
“She’s mad I didn’t stand at her table in the science room, especially since that meant we got put on separate teams.” Vivienne shrugged like it didn’t bother her at all. But Rae could tell she was just pretending. She recognized that forced casualness. “She’ll get over it. Probably just in time to be mad again when our team wins.”
“I like your confidence,” Nate said. “So, what about Matt?”
“Well, it turns out that he is a total nose picker. Also, our homeroom teacher’s husband, Mr. Murphy, was hitting up the New Age store.” She gestured toward Divine’s Divinations and Crystals. Its glowing, swirly purple letters were just barely visible to the left of the food court. “I wonder if Caden’s family shops there?”
Rae shrugged. The last thing she wanted to do right now was talk about Caden.
“Why are you staring at me?” Vivienne asked Nate.
“Please tell me that you didn’t write down ‘nose pickers’ and ‘crystal buyers’ on our notes for the internship project.”
“Of course I didn’t write that.” Vivienne beamed at him. “I wrote down exact details.” She pulled a heavily folded sheet of paper out of her back pocket and slowly peeled it open. “Ahem.” She glanced down at it and read, “ ‘At three twenty-eight, Matt went for the world record, digging at his interior nose canal for a solid forty-three sec—’ ”
“Okay! And you can stop there.” Nate turned to Rae. “And what did you find?”
“I found it odd that everything here looks so new.”
“That’s because it is new. What’s odd about that?” Nate finished his slice of pizza and gently placed the crust back in the box.
“How new?” Rae asked.
“Well, the Town Square behind us was cleared about twenty years ago,” Vivienne said.
“More like nineteen years ago,” Nate muttered.
Vivienne glared at him, then continued, “And they built a mall on the edge of it. But then they were forced to bulldoze that place and rebuild this one. I think it was finished about a year ago?”
“Closer to ten months,” Nate said.
“Would you stop?”
“I thought you liked ‘exact details.’ ” He made quotation marks next to his head as he spoke.
Rae could see Vivienne’s annoyance gearing up and quickly asked, “Why did they have to bulldoze the first mall?”
“Oh, because it was totally haunted,” Vivienne said.
Rae glanced from her to Nate and back, waiting for the punchline. Then she realized Vivienne was serious, and Nate wasn’t correcting her, which meant he believed it too. “I see,” Rae said slowly. But it reminded her of an article she had read a few weeks ago about a woman walking her dog through the Town Square. Her dog had found a bone… a human bone. “Wasn’t this place originally an old colonial graveyard, or something?”
“Was it?” Vivienne said.
“It was. The town moved the graves to another location,” Nate said.
“I heard the town moved the gravestones but not the bodies.” Rae shivered.
“That would explain the haunting.” Vivienne smiled.
Rae wondered if she would ever get used to the matter-of-fact way people around here accepted hauntings and other supernatural strangeness. Maybe there was something in the water that just brainwashed everyone into thinking things like this were normal. “Would that be a secret hidden in plain sight?” she asked.
Vivienne frowned. “Maybe.”
“Hold up,” Nate said. “Are you suggesting we go out there and look for some human corpses?”
Rae shrugged. “It’s either that or Matt’s marvelous nose-picking feat…”
Nate shoved his chair back from the table. “Okay, let’s go find us some dead people!”
8. CADEN
Aiden settled back in his chair and took a sip of tea. Caden could tell he was enjoying the feeling of all eyes on him. He’d always liked being the focus of everyone’s attention. Yet another way he and Caden were so different.
“My time in the Other Place is all kind of a blur,” Aiden said at last. “Trying to remember it is like trying to remember a long-ago dream. All the details keep changing in my head. I just have a vague sense of the throbbing light, the constant pain, the endless terror. And the feeling of betrayal.”
Caden flinched.
“It could have been hours, or days, or months. Or maybe years.
Every moment impossibly long, and yet the whole thing ended in seconds. The rift tore wide open, and three people smashed their way through wearing very odd bright green suits with helmets and thick boots. They grabbed me, and the next thing I knew, I was out.”
“So Green On! managed to open the rift,” their mom said, looking sick. “I can’t believe it.”
“I don’t think it worked out well for them, if it makes you feel better. Those suits didn’t protect the people who went into the Other Place; all of them are dead. Or as good as.”
“Strangely, that does not make me feel better.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to sound cruel. But they were messing around with powers they shouldn’t have been, and they paid the price for it. I know how that goes better than anyone.” Aiden’s lips twisted. “I’ve learned my lesson. And hopefully Green On! has learned theirs. Although I don’t think so. I think they’ll try again. I’m not sure how much luck they’ll have, though.”
“Why is that?” his mom asked.
“They haven’t figured out how to create the right kind of energy needed to open the rift.”
“What do you mean?” his dad asked.
“I mean magic. They can’t create magic,” Aiden said. “It’s one thing their science and technology is unable to replicate. For now, at least.”
“Then how did they pull you out?” his dad asked, frowning.
“That would be thanks to our dear little Caden here.”
Caden could tell his brother wanted to see his reaction, so he did his best not to give him anything. He pictured himself as a wall, smooth and unfeeling. It was something Aiden had actually taught him back when Caden was little.
No special powers are needed to read your emotions, little brother. They are plastered all over your face, Aiden had said after finding Caden grinning in the yard at a pair of squirrels.
What’s wrong with that? Caden had asked, his grin faltering.
He remembered how Aiden had studied him for a long minute before smiling and ruffling his hair. Nothing is wrong. But it leaves you open. If people know what you’re feeling, then they can manipulate you. I can show you how to protect yourself, if you’d like?
Back then, Aiden was always teaching him little tricks, things to make himself stronger, safer, better. Caden used to believe it was his brother’s way of showing his love. Now he wasn’t sure what to think. When Rae was trapped in the cabin in the woods with the Unseeing, Aiden had helped him once again, guiding him through the first steps needed to open the rift that would send the Unseeing back to the Other Place where it belonged. But even there, Aiden’s assistance had been self-serving; he’d needed Caden to help him get out.
Not that it had worked. Aiden had vanished before the ritual was completed, leaving Caden to figure out the rest on his own. What if he’d messed it up somehow, given Green On! some kind of opening?
Caden managed to keep all these worries tucked away, his face as blank as he could possibly make it.
Aiden gave him a tiny nod now, almost as if in approval. “When Caden opened the rift, Green On! was able to somehow suction the power he generated into their lab. They used it to tear their own hole into the Other Place, and the rest…” He spread his hands wide.
“How do you know all this?” his mom asked.
Aiden fiddled with the ring on his thumb as if debating how much to say. Then he sighed. “After they pulled me out, they kept me locked in a secret underground lab.”
“They did what?” their dad demanded, his face darkening.
“They kept me ‘for observation.’ But really it was because they wanted to know more about the Other Place. About how it works, the power contained in it. They thought I’d be able to help them get back into it. But since my powers are gone, I couldn’t even if I’d wanted to.” He frowned. “I wonder if that’s why they haven’t tried to find me again. Maybe I’m not useful enough to them.”
“Didn’t they let you go?” his dad asked.
“Let me go?” Aiden laughed. “No. I escaped.”
“How?” Caden had seen pictures of the Green On! lab. It looked like a fortress, all concrete walls and chain-link fences.
“Apparently Mom did a favor for someone who works there.” Aiden winked. “She arranged a distraction so I could get out, but first made me promise to keep her name a secret.”
Caden glanced at his mom. She had her fingers steepled together, her lips pursed. He got the impression that she knew exactly who Aiden was referring to, secret name or no.
“This is unbelievable.” Their dad leaned back in his chair, scowling. It was an unusual expression for his face, pulling it into awkward lines that made Caden feel like he were looking across the table at a stranger.
“Could they have released the evil thing imprisoned inside?” Caden asked.
“The what now?” his dad asked.
Caden’s mom shook her head. “There are safeguards in place that will keep it trapped there, rift opening or no.”
“What kind of safeguards?” Aiden asked.
“What kind of evil?” their dad demanded.
She pressed her lips together in a firm, unyielding line.
“Seriously, Eleanor? Another secret?” Their dad stood abruptly, his chair scraping across the floor with a shriek of wood.
“Wait, Vincent—”
“You tell our son—our thirteen-year-old boy—truths that you won’t allow me to know. How can I possibly protect him if I’m kept in the dark? Unless that’s your plan?”
“You know that’s not it.”
“I don’t know anything.” He glared down at her, then shifted his gaze to Aiden. “I’m sorry, Aiden. I’m very tired, but I hope you know how glad I am to see you home. I couldn’t care less about your magic, I’m just happy you’re safe.” He put a hand on Aiden’s shoulder and squeezed before letting him go. Then he patted Caden on the head once before leaving. They could hear his heavy footsteps creaking up the stairs and down the hall above.
Caden saw the crumpled, defeated look that crossed his mom’s face before she quickly smoothed it out.
“Can you tell us more about this evil?” Aiden leaned forward eagerly, his elbows on the table.
“Not tonight.” She ran a hand back through her long dark hair, looking suddenly exhausted.
“Tomorrow?”
“Maybe, Aiden.”
“It’s just, it sounds dangerous, and I’d like to help. I might not have my powers, but I can still read spell books. If you’ll explain how the barrier was created and tell me more about these safeguards, then maybe I can—”
Caden’s head snapped up. “Someone’s here.” He could sense them approaching the front door. Whoever it was felt like a swirling cloud, the murky yellow color of fear. He thought of the scribbles he’d made on the bus ride home. They felt like that.
His mom stood so quickly, her chair clattered backward. “Aiden, hide.”
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“I’ll get it.” His mom straightened her shawl and waited for Aiden to vanish up the stairs and into his room. Then she opened the front door.
A man stood outside. He was probably in his early forties, with thinning brown hair and a short, badly trimmed beard. A musty animal smell clung to him. “Eleanor Price?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I believe I have need of your services. Immediately, if possible.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “It might already be too late.”
9. RAE
Eastbury Mall framed one side of the Town Square, sitting kitty-corner to another long row of buildings. Rae noticed a bank, a church, and an antiques shop in that row. The other two sides of the square were hemmed in by Whispering Pines’s ever-present trees.
The Town Square itself was a literal perfect square that had to be several acres, all of it flat and covered in nice, squishy grass. In the exact center of the square stood a giant concrete fountain in the shape of a goat sitting on its own square slab.
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��What’s up with the goats around here anyhow?” Rae asked.
“They have something to do with our town’s original founders, I think,” Vivienne said as they followed the long, wavy sidewalk that cut through the square, leading to the center. “Also they’re supposed to be lucky.” Her cell phone rang, and she stopped. “Give me a sec, would you?” She dug around in the front zippered pocket of her bag and tugged out her phone. “Hi, Mom,” she answered.
Rae and Nate waited while Vivienne gave short, one-word answers. Finally she hung up, frowning. “Apparently my mom took today off work to recover from the stress of yesterday’s malfunction, and she’s mad that I didn’t come home from school right away.”
“You didn’t tell her you’d be out here with us?” Nate asked.
“Nope.”
“Are you in trouble?” Rae asked.
“Yep.” Vivienne shoved her phone back into her bag. “How was I supposed to know my mom would be home now? She’s been working until late every day. But of course the one day I decide not to go straight home, she notices.” Vivienne scowled. “I don’t know what’s up with her. Did you know the other day I caught her arguing with herself in the mirror?”
“My mom does that all the time,” Nate said, shrugging.
“Yeah, well, my mom doesn’t. It was very odd. Between that and her overprotectiveness lately…” Vivienne’s scowl faded, her expression going thoughtful, then sad. “I guess I understand that, though.”
“Why?” Rae asked.
Vivienne blinked. “Oh, you know. I’m still grounded from that whole breaking-curfew thing.”
Rae frowned. It had seemed like there was more to the story.
“Aren’t you still grounded too?” Vivienne asked her. Rae, Vivienne, and Caden had all been exploring together when they violated the town’s code yellow alert. Only Caden hadn’t gotten in trouble with his parents. Apparently when your family owned a ghost-hunting business, you were given a little extra slack.