That was it. I was through with being the bigger witch in this situation. I didn’t care if I owed them or not for cutting me loose in the woods. It was officially on.
“I’ll put in a good word for you when I do my apprenticeship,” I said, confidently. “A powerful witch can always use a good janitor.”
As Eve’s face fell into a scowl, I turned to face Miss Peggy, Mrs. B, and Mrs. Jeanette as they lined up in front of us, signaling that the competition was about to begin.
“Will everyone please line up on the X in front of you,” Mrs. Jeanette said, pointing at the place on the ground where the letter was etched clearly into the dirt. As I looked up, a large stoplight appeared out of nowhere and hovered a few feet in the air in front of me. A glance at the lanes next to me showed that the other competitors had them, too.
“When the light turns green, please proceed to the first challenge,” Mrs. Jeanette continued. “And don’t forget, you will be timed, you will be monitored, and if you don’t complete an obstacle, you will be disqualified.”
“Everybody stand ready!” Miss Peggy yelled, raising her hands in the air toward the floating stoplights. We all crouched down like we were about to start a race. Some of us looked more at home as we prepped than others. For instance, as clever as Colette was, she had decided to wear a frilly, lime-green skirt that had about a dozen layers to it with a loose-fitting tank top showcasing large, bright yellow bananas. The outfit itself was bananas, and I had no idea how she was going to manage running around in it, but I wouldn’t have expected anything less.
“Off you fly,” the counselors said in unison, and the countdown began.
The stoplight in front of the first girl in line glowed from red to yellow and then green, and we all watched as she took off running into the woods. Once she’d disappeared, the next girl was signaled to go, and so forth. By the time it was Jinx’s turn to go, my heart was hammering in my chest and I had the same feeling I’d always gotten before performing with my cheer squad.
I so have this.
Jinx started off at a slower jog than I knew she was capable of, but I was happy to see that she appeared confident. At one point I’d wondered whether I’d ever see her this way again. And here she was, going off into the unknown and up for the challenge.
I was alerted back to my own stoplight, which had finally lit up red as Jinx sprinted for the trees.
Red.
Yellow.
Breathe.
And just when I thought it would never come, the bottom orb lit up in a vibrant green color and I began to run as quickly as my legs would take me.
I had no idea where I was going or when I would encounter the first obstacle, so I started by focusing on moving as fast as I could. Trying to stick to a straight path, I listened to the pounding of my sneakers against the ground, while straining to hear for the other competitors.
But all I heard was me.
We were all only about twenty feet away from each other in both directions, so the fact that I wasn’t able to make out the others as their breathing labored and they lumbered through the trails was a little disconcerting. But then again, the counselors had said they’d enchanted the forest for the duration of the competition. It was entirely possible that they’d isolated us from one another, so we couldn’t cheat or become distracted while moving through the course.
So, I pushed forward and tried to focus a hundred percent on what I was doing.
I’d been running for about seven minutes and was just beginning to feel the familiar burn in my legs and lungs that always came with an intense workout when I saw a monstrous thing start to grow right in front of me.
Here we go!
As I got closer, I could see that the wooden structure was flat and smooth and stood about twenty-five feet straight up in the air. It quickly became clear that I’d reached my first obstacle, since I’d hit a wall. Literally.
Knowing it was a long shot, I slowed my gait before going to the far right side of the wall and trying to move around it. But as I’d expected, as soon as I started to step into the open space on the side, my body was pushed lightly backward. Like an invisible rubber band pulling my body away from the easy way around.
No matter. It wouldn’t have been a challenge if it were that simple.
So, I rushed back to the middle of the wall to study the surface again, this time for clues on how I was supposed to get up and over it. The counselors had said to use a combination of our human skills and our magical talents to pass the obstacles, so I tried to quickly figure out what I was supposed to do in this case.
I looked around for something big to prop up against the wall, which would put me closer to the top of the structure. But there was nothing. There were plenty of trees to climb, but none were near enough to the wall for me to get up and over. Knowing I was already wasting time, I took a step back.
Magic it is.
“Revosio immersa!” I shouted, aiming the spell at the construction in front of me.
As the words to the revealing spell left my mouth, there was a little shudder in the surface of the wall. I blinked my eyes, not sure what I was seeing at first, and was momentarily mesmerized by the swirling patterns of the wood. But after a few seconds, the exterior, which had been smooth before, suddenly became riddled with holes. Holes that didn’t go all the way through to the other side, and were only about five inches in diameter. Without hesitating, I stepped forward and stuck one of my hands inside.
My fingers immediately closed around a groove in the gap of the wood and then my free hand found another hole and grabbed on. Taking a deep breath, I pulled up with my arms until my body was off the ground.
It was like rock-climbing—something I’d never done before, but had always wanted to try. And honestly, it wasn’t all that hard. After you’ve lifted another girl into the air and held her there as she balanced on one foot, lifting your own body weight is easy.
Once again, cheerleading saves the day!
I started to move steadily along, finding one crevasse after another and slowly making progress. Until suddenly, there were no more holes above me. I searched around, but the surface remained smooth from that point on. I was about eighteen feet in the air by now and no matter how I worked it out, there was no possible way to reach the top from where I was.
Clinging to the wall, I could feel my muscles begin to twitch with fatigue. It had seemed easy when I’d been moving. But now that I was stuck, it was like my body weight had doubled.
I looked down at the ground. No way was I going back the way I’d come. Besides the fact that I didn’t want to have to start over again, I knew that the holes in the wood had gotten me this far for a reason. There had to be another way over. Something that I wasn’t seeing.
Tipping my head back, I squinted in the sun and tried to find a solution. I could blow holes in the wood and continue to climb my way up. But then I’d have to let go of one hand in order to cast accurately. And given how quickly I was starting to tire, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it another four or five times before I collapsed. There was also the possibility that I would blow the whole damn thing up. Would Mrs. Jeanette have made it that easy to get through, though? Just remove the object by blowing it up? It was hard for me to see them going that route.
No, I was sure they wanted us to go over the wall. So, how was I going to do that? And before my arms fell off?
I studied what I had at my disposal: This flat wall? No help there. A tree? As I’d noted earlier, the branches weren’t long enough and it’s not like they could stretch . . .
My gaze slowed as it ran over a group of vines that drooped down from a nearby sapling. Would they be strong enough to withstand my weight? I shook my head and laughed, as I wondered why I hadn’t noticed them before.
Taking a few deep breaths, I transferred all my weight to my left hand and pointed over to the creeper that was on the tree just over the other side of the wall.
“Elingua astonia!”
&
nbsp; The vine began to move, farther and farther until it had snaked its way over the wall and down toward me. When it was close enough for me to grab, I carefully tested its strength, first pulling on it while holding onto the wall, and then finally by gripping it with both hands.
Mustering up what was left of my strength, I planted my feet against the flat side of the wall and began to climb the rest of the way up. Every step was agonizing and my arms burned like they were on fire, but I forced myself to keep going. When I finally reached the top, I dragged my butt up and over until I was lying on it. As one of my legs hit the other side of the wall and dangled there, twenty-five feet above the ground, my wristband glowed a brilliant shade of purple, signaling that I’d passed the first challenge.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Getting my feet back on the ground was actually much easier than climbing up had been. I channeled my inner Jungle Jane and swung down using the vine. And just like that, I was moving again.
As I jogged toward the next challenge, I wondered how quickly the others had managed to get over the wall. I may not have been as fast as I would’ve liked, but I also hadn’t exactly been slow in figuring it out, either. I was confident that I was still in the lead or at least up there and that was good enough for now. I could always make up the time as the day went on.
The important thing right now was to keep moving.
So I did. I fell into a rhythm as I ran, synching the sounds of my feet with the inhalations and exhalations of my breath until they created a nice little beat. In my head, I began to compose a song that would fit in with the background noise, all about how I was going to win the Brighton Challenge and prove, once and for all, that I was better than Brooklyn and her cronies. That I was the head witch.
Just as I was perfecting the chorus, a sudden resistance came over my body and it became hard to move forward, until finally, I couldn’t at all.
I’d found my next obstacle.
“What do you have for me now?” I asked out loud, pushing my hand forward and feeling it bounce back to me softly. I walked to the right and then over to the left and found that I couldn’t move around it, either. Doubling back the way I came, I was perplexed to find that at some point the invisible force field had closed up behind me too, leaving me in a sort of locked box with nowhere to go. I’d never had problems with claustrophobia before, but knowing that I was stuck there, even momentarily, left me feeling nervous.
Nobody liked being caged, least of all, me.
Looking around, I searched for some kind of clue as to what the counselors wanted me to do here. I doubted I was supposed to go up and over the invisible wall. It was too much like the last challenge. And besides, what was I supposed to do? Fly? Standing a foot away from the back barrier, I studied everything around me.
Was I supposed to go through it?
Shrugging and feeling like I didn’t have any other options, I lifted my arm and took aim at the path in front of me.
“Exbiliby totalitum!” I yelled, feeling the power surge through my body, down my arm and out through the tips of my fingers.
The air crackled in front of me as the explosion hit what looked like nothing. Electric currents shot out to the sides like they were following an unseen maze. And then they evaporated.
Did it work?
I said a silent prayer and then sprinted full speed into the direction of where I’d just sent the spell. For a second, I thought it had worked. I was just about to pump my fists in the air, when without warning I was thrown backward like a snapped rubber band. Only, there was nothing to cushion my fall, and I landed on my butt several feet away.
“Well, that was an epic failure,” I muttered, frustration coursing through me. I got to my feet huffily.
With a determined look, I went back to the same spot I’d stood in before. I scuffed my feet in the dirt a few times and then concentrated before trying the spell again.
“Exbiliby totalitum!”
The same thing happened, and I watched the power of the spell spread across the air. I didn’t have to humiliate myself to know it hadn’t worked. Again.
But before I could try another tactic, I felt something hit my back. It wasn’t hard. More like a pressure building up behind me. Confused, I turned around and brought my arm out, only to find it bounce back toward my body.
That can’t be right.
I knew for a fact that a few minutes before, this wall had been several feet away from where I was standing now. Yet, here it was, at my back. I looked down at the dirt to make sure I hadn’t gone back further than I’d thought. But the markings were there, same as before.
What the spell . . .
A lightbulb went off in my head and my heart began to race. I hadn’t moved; it was the invisible wall that was pushing itself forward. Closing me in.
I took a step forward to test my theory and counted the seconds as they went by. Birds chirped nearby and the sun shone through the trees, warming my arms through the sleeves of my shirt. I was getting hot and uncomfortable and my head was screaming to move. But I stayed put and counted.
Twenty seconds passed by before I felt the wall at my back again.
Panic began to build inside me. The invisible box that I’d found myself in was getting smaller and smaller, and if I didn’t find a way out of here fast, I was going to be stuck in here with nowhere to go.
And then I’d lose.
Fighting off the fear, I forced myself to focus on the matter at hand. I had to get out. And there was a way—that much I knew—I just had to solve the puzzle first. Looking ahead, I took in everything around me. Where was my clue? What could be used to get out of this? Where was the key to unlocking this challenge?
Searching the area as if it were one of those pictures where something just doesn’t belong, I began to consider every object in front of me until I found the answer.
I almost didn’t even notice it. In fact, my eyes had swept over the spot nearly a dozen times since I’d been standing there, and I’d never picked up on it. But now, while I was looking for things that didn’t fit in with the surroundings, it made total sense.
I’d found my target.
It wasn’t red and white like the targets we’d had during our practice sessions. The circular-shaped board actually blended in with the tree it was hanging from, but clearly showed a circle within a circle within a circle, just like a bull’s-eye. And I was positive that I’d have to hit it in order to move on.
I felt a pressure at my back again and took another step forward.
I needed to work fast.
Lining up my hand with the target that hung in a tree about twenty feet away, I said the exploding spell again, this time as loudly and potently as I could. My aim was perfect, and with a deafening boom, the object blew to pieces. This time the air in front of me glowed purple before fading back to the clear path beyond. Hurrying to the spot where I knew the invisible force-field had just been, I paused before cautiously taking a step forward. Scrunching up my face, I waited for my body to hit resistance.
But there was nothing.
I took another step forward.
Nothing.
And another.
Still nothing.
Then, I started to run.
About thirty feet ahead, I began to feel the pressure grow in front of me again. So, I slowed down and tried to find the target. This time there were two. One hidden in the bushes of a nearby shrub and another just behind a tree branch. I’d have to destroy a limb before I could hit the target, but it wouldn’t be too difficult.
As I started to take aim, I was pushed off balance. Only this time, the wall continued to move me forward. It was slow, but constant, with no counts between its movements. Which meant I didn’t have time to waste. I had to find the targets and destroy them as quickly as I could.
I took aim and wasted the board in the bush and then switched over to the tree in front of the second target. Squaring up, I shattered the branch into a thousand little toothpicks
and then did the same thing with the board that had been located directly behind it. The air glowed purple and I started to sprint again until I could tell I was supposed to stop.
This time I feverishly combed the woods, trying to find the next targets. Only, there weren’t any that I could see. Yet. Alarms were going off in my head, telling me that I needed to keep moving otherwise I’d be trapped. The back wall was moving more quickly now, and it would catch up to me any second.
“Come on! Where are you?” I shouted to the empty forest.
Just as I said it, there was a flash of movement to my right. My head flew around and I saw it. The bull’s-eye. It had popped up above a large rock. But as I watched, it dipped back down again and out of sight.
Curious.
Another flash had me turning in the opposite direction and I saw another board poke out from behind a small tree-trunk. This time, I was ready for it and sent the exploding spell its way before it could disappear like the other one had. The sound the wood made as it splintered was satisfying, but the air didn’t glow purple like before, which meant the section hadn’t been cleared yet.
Seconds later a third bull’s-eye appeared more than thirty feet away and I had to squint just to get a good look at it. Taking aim, I said the spell, but missed. Blinking a few times to clear my sight, I set back up and this time hit the target.
Without seeing it, I could feel the force coming up behind me.
Gotta move!
But the air still hadn’t turned purple yet, so I had no other choice but to wait impatiently for something to happen. Finally, the first target that I’d seen, popped back up from its place behind the rock and I sent a spell its way, hitting it dead-on.
“Boom!” I yelled as the invisible wall turned purple and allowed me to finally move forward.
After that, I alternated between running and shooting, running and shooting, all the while knowing that at any moment the wall behind me could box me in. I was playing magical Whac-A-Mole, only the prize was power and bragging rights.
The Witch Is Back Page 25