by Wesley King
She gave me a little frown but didn’t ask any more questions. When they were safely driving away in Mia’s mom’s car, I shut the front door and rubbed my forehead. That was close. I marched back up the stairs, walked into my room, and stopped.
Tom was standing in front of my closet door.
He turned to me. “I think there’s something in your closet.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Why do you say that?” I asked cautiously, walking into the room. I instinctively looked at the window, wondering if the Swords were outside. The panel was still rattling.
He looked at me. “Because I can hear it.”
“Right.” I paused. “It’s just a draft. I told Mom and Dad about it.”
“I don’t feel a draft,” he said, frowning. “And your closet door is closed.”
“Yeah, but it rattles. And since when do you just walk into my room?”
He shrugged. “Whenever I think there’s a monster in your closet.”
He really was a perceptive kid.
I walked over and took Tom’s arm, pulling him toward the bedroom door. “Well, I’m gonna get some sleep—”
“I see the light again.”
I stopped and looked at him. “What?”
“The light. It’s in your closet. I was just seeing it through the bathroom wall.”
I glanced at my closet. I suddenly thought back to the “door of light” he’d seen in the woods. Were they related somehow? Could Tom see the openings to the Under Earth? It sounded ridiculous, but here he was, staring at my closet. I felt goosebumps snaking their way down my arms. I considered asking Eldon about it, but I decided to keep it to myself. If it was true, he might want to get Tom involved with the war, and that was not going to happen. I wasn’t bringing my little brother anywhere near those monsters.
“There’s nothing in the closet. Just T-shirts and boxes.”
“You’re hiding something,” he said.
“No, I’m not.”
“Your voice just changed.”
“No, it didn’t.”
He looked at me suspiciously. “You sure, Giant Girl?”
“Absolutely, Bat Boy. Now go get some sleep. One of us has school tomorrow.”
He sighed. “I wish I was a delinquent.”
“Don’t we all?” I agreed, leading him into the hallway. “Good night.”
“Night,” he said, still sounding unconvinced. “Enjoy your sleep-in.”
I smiled. “Will do.”
I closed the door and listened to him slowly walk back to his room. I didn’t like lying to my brother, but there was no way I was telling him about the door either. He would definitely want to go through, and it was going to be hard enough keeping myself alive in there.
I decided I probably didn’t have time to go clean all the makeup off. Obviously Eldon wanted to get started earlier today, but I was definitely going to tell him to find some other way to get my attention. That was way too close.
I threw on my usual track pants and hoodie and was just heading for the panel when I decided to quickly check my profile. I doubted that Liam would have messaged me back so quickly, but it was worth a shot. I opened up my inbox and almost fell off my chair in delight when I saw a new message. I clicked on it immediately.
Dear Laura,
(HE SAID “DEAR”!)
Welcome to the suspended club. It’s my first time. Of course, I don’t go out or do anything fun, so it was hard to ground me. I think my mom was going to take my computer away, but she took pity. At least you got suspended for punching Allison. I got suspended for missing a punch at Tim. That’s way worse. Anyway, enjoy your day off tomorrow. Hopefully you didn’t get grounded either. See you Thursday. Maybe you can teach me how to punch for future reference.
Liam
I read that message, like, ten times. I know, I’m a weirdo. But I just smiled from ear to ear, read it, sat back and smiled, and then read it again.
When I was finally satisfied, I signed off and headed for the closet, wondering if I would ever have the courage to ask Liam out. Or at least ask Shal to ask Liam if he would ever ask me out. Why couldn’t I just be hot? Life seemed much easier for hot girls.
Instead I get to go crush monsters with a hammer.
I pulled the panel open, sparing one last satisfied look at my computer—I couldn’t wait to see Liam on Thursday. Pulling the lever, I descended into the depths of the earth once again, and I barely noticed the fact that I was floating off the floor.
—
The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed at the usual time. It had been a particularly difficult night at training, as Eldon wanted me to work a little more on my agility—not my strong suit. Needless to say I was really tired. When I walked into the kitchen, Tom was sitting there eating his English muffin with jam. He looked at me as I put some bread in the toaster.
“What are you doing?”
“Uh…making breakfast?” I said, glancing at him.
He smiled. “You forgot.”
“Forgot what…oh.”
I had totally forgotten I was suspended. I guess it should have been a good thing, since I wasn’t grounded and could probably go back to bed. But I had kind of wanted to go to school today. Liam was back. I slumped and grabbed the peanut butter anyway. Might as well stay up now.
“No monster in your closet?” Tom asked, taking a bite of his English muffin.
“No,” I said. “Or it didn’t try and eat me, at least.”
“That’s good.”
I scanned over him. His hair was done differently today; he usually just messed it up with his hand, but he’d actually kind of spiked it. Obviously it was still a little messy, but there was no mistaking the gel glistening in his sandy-blond hair.
“So…how’s Shannon?”
He stiffened a little. “What do you mean? Who?”
“The girl at school,” I said casually.
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Fine. Why do you ask?”
“New hairdo.”
“Is it really obvious?” he murmured.
I walked over and adjusted his spikes. “Just got to work the gel in a little. You have a crush or something?”
“No,” Tom said quickly. “Well, not completely sure. Never had one.”
I finished with his hair and took a step back to examine it. “Do you think about her a lot?”
“Kind of.”
“Before bed?”
“Maybe.”
“When you wake up?”
“That’s why I did my hair.”
I smiled and patted his shoulder. “Then you have a crush.”
He sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“It’s no big deal,” I said as my toast popped. “It just guides your entire day, enters your dreams, and generally makes you do stupid things.”
“Oh,” he said, “well, that’s fine then. Is that how you are with Liam?”
“Pretty much. Except I also want to marry him. Hopefully you’re not there yet.”
He wrinkled his nose. “I just want to talk to her more.”
“Good.” I thought about something and glanced at him. “You think she’s pretty?”
“She is in the only way I care about. She’s nice and funny and smart.”
“And me?” I asked, smearing the bread with peanut butter.
“A radiant beauty,” he said.
I smiled and took a bite of toast. “Thanks, Bat Boy.”
I spent the day helping Stache with the basement renovations, which actually wasn’t that bad. Well, freezing cement floors and spiderwebs weren’t great, but I did like spending time with my dad, even if that meant holding a flashlight while he screwed in a toilet.
I don’t think Stache really knew what being suspended meant, since he seemed thrilled to have me at home and even got us takeout for lunch. Actually he never even really asked about the fight, except if it was a left or right punch.
But the best part of the day was a text I got from Shal at recess:<
br />
Liam asked about you!!! Mostly if you were going to be back tomorrow, but still!!!! He loves you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought about that for the entire day, and Shal and Mia called me the second school was finished. We spent a solid hour speculating about what this meant, and then another twenty minutes talking about Allison’s evil doings, Ashley’s risqué outfit, Carl’s new haircut, and other things that Shal wanted to cover. Mia also filled me in on the homework, which was slightly more productive. Math. Ugh.
So really it was a pretty good suspension day in general, and when I got back to school on Thursday, things were right back to normal. Liam kind of nodded at me, Allison and her seagulls gave me evil smirks, and Mia, Shal, and I went right back to our spot in the corner. That became the routine again, and for awhile it started to feel like I was having a normal kid’s life. Well, I was still heading into the elevator every night to train to crush monsters, but besides that.
—
Things in Derwin were getting a little better, though my progress was slow. The Warrior’s Way was still taking me about nine minutes, and that was probably leaving half of the monsters alive to eat me—if they weren’t stuffed with straw. Lee was giving me pointers, but I spent most of that time stealing glances at his warm brown eyes and wondering again why his sweat smelled like cologne. Needless to say it wasn’t helping that much, and when I almost hit him with an arrow, he kind of gave up and went back to talking about normal things. The fact that he talked to me at all was kind of surprising, but I wasn’t going to complain. It made training much more enjoyable.
But I was definitely getting stronger, and though I wasn’t losing much weight with all the muscle I was gaining, I was starting to very slowly look a little trimmer. I think I could still have eaten two Liam R. Kelps and had room for Mia, but it was a start.
Allison was just as evil as ever, of course, and she seemed to be making it her life’s mission to make me suffer. I probably cried three times through the rest of September, which really wasn’t bad. I didn’t punch her again at least, even though I wanted to. Liam and I talked pretty infrequently, with our longest conversation being about a math problem I was pretend having, and that was only about two minutes. So we weren’t exactly madly in love like I’d hoped, but he always smiled at me in the morning and said hi, and I still looked at his profile picture more than was probably advisable.
Mia, Shal, and I spent almost every weekend together now, hanging out at my house mostly. I made sure to keep them out of the closet, and everything was fine. Thankfully there was no more rattling while they were around.
There were a couple of incidents, of course: I passed out on my desk one day at school, much to the amusement of the class. I woke up, horrified, to find Ms. Haddock asking me politely if I was feeling all right. Even Liam was laughing. Thankfully Shal said I hadn’t been snoring, though she did shoot Mia a stern look right after.
I had to pretend work out in my bedroom to explain why I was constantly washing so many pairs of shorts and hoodies. Whenever my mom walked in, I started doing sit-ups and stretches, and she would just smile and tell me to keep it up. Yeah…on it.
And probably the hardest one to explain was when Stache asked me for help carrying some bags of concrete down to the basement, which apparently we were supposed to do together to make sure no one got hurt. He almost dropped his hammer when he saw me walk downstairs with a bag under each arm. I told him I was doing a lot of curls. He just went back to work, shaking his head.
Eldon kept me updated on the activity of the monsters around Riverfield, but as of yet, the Swords—both mine, who I still hadn’t met, and those from the Protectorate—hadn’t found the tunnels the monsters were using to access the surface. At least I didn’t see any yellow eyes for a few weeks, which was good. Uncle Laine even started coming over a lot to help Stache, and he and I would sit in the backyard and chat. I had a feeling that even a goblin would hesitate to attack with him sitting next to me.
We were sitting outside one afternoon when I asked him about the factory.
“Yeah, nothing yet,” he said, sighing deeply. “Got a couple more months and that’s it. Sandra’s been looking, but she’s been out of work for years. Between the two of us, we’re a couple of dinosaurs. I’ve been doing the same job for so long I don’t have any other skills. I might have to head out to a logging camp or something, if they’ll take me.”
“It’ll work out,” I said encouragingly, but he just smiled from behind that thick black beard and changed the subject. “Liking the house a bit more yet?”
I shrugged. “It’s okay. Still looks like the setting of a B horror movie, but I haven’t been eaten by spiders yet, so I can’t complain.”
Uncle Laine laughed, glancing up at my bedroom window. “You get that rattling fixed yet?”
“Yeah,” I said, shifting a little. “It’s gone now.”
He looked at me for a moment and then turned back to the yard. “Nice to have the forest behind you. Even with the whole hiker thing. Terrible. You never know what’s creeping around in the dark, do you?”
“No. That’s why you turn a light on.”
Uncle Laine laughed again. “Right you are.”
—
As the brisk October air swept in and the forest turned a fiery red and orange, I started to think that being a Monster Crusher wasn’t so bad after all. I didn’t get as much sleep as I might have liked, but I was getting in shape and had friends, and even Eldon was being a little nicer to me, though he still seemed dubious about actually having me fight monsters, which was fine with me. I was still hoping to skip that part anyway.
Halfway through October I stepped out of the elevator on a quiet Thursday night, the guide tucked under my arm as usual. I brought it everywhere for reference, since Eldon was always firing monster-related questions at me while I was training. I nodded at Porton, who flashed his crooked, yellow teeth.
“Evening,” he said brightly.
“Do you ever sleep, Porton?” I asked curiously.
Porton laughed. “Most of the time. That’s why I have a rocking chair.”
I laughed and hurried through the meadow, watching the butterflies flit across the pathway. Derwin was starting to feel like a second home. Some of the villagers had actually started nodding at me, and once a little girl even ran up and gave me a beautiful blue flower that I’d never seen before. Most of the adults still looked at me a bit condescendingly, but at least some of them had accepted that, like it or not, I was training to be a Monster Crusher. Maybe they were even secretly cheering me on. I reached the gate to Arnwell and stopped immediately. Something was wrong.
The Monster Crushers and Swords were all standing in a closed ring against the walls, leaving the courtyard empty. Eldon stood at the far side, and he was flanked by three old men in dark, violet robes. I could see their eyes flashing at me even from here.
Eldon walked toward me, his face disconcertingly grim. When he reached me, he didn’t say hello or smile or even give me his customary nod. He just met my eyes.
“Two days ago one of our scouts spotted an army of goblins moving through the tunnels. We have reason to believe they are approaching Derwin and, in turn, Riverfield.”
I looked behind him at the three mysterious robed men. “So what’s going on?”
“Your training is being sped up,” Eldon said, sounding perturbed. “Those three men are the last of the Brotherhood, and they will determine if you are worthy of the Iron Hammer. They test different Monster Crushers in different ways, depending on their weaknesses. For you, they have chosen one particular test.”
I already knew what it was, but I had to ask. “What test?”
He sighed deeply. “They want to watch you run the Warrior’s Way.”
“Perfect,” I muttered. “When?”
He turned and strode toward the start of the course.
“Right now.”
Chapter Twenty
“Are you ready?” Eldon
asked, eyeing me from beside the three members of the Brotherhood. None of them had betrayed the slightest expression since I’d been there.
I looked out over the Way, feeling my stomach knot up. “Not really.”
“Begin!” he shouted.
I was really nervous, and it showed. I stubbed my toe on the first log and then half-ran, half-limped over the rest of them, just trying to keep my balance. Usually the warriors would be snickering by now, but when I snuck a glance, they just looked disgusted, as if I was reflecting on all of them. The old men were still expressionless.
Next up were the series of wooden barriers that you ducked under then climbed over and so forth. I slowed right down and crawled under the high ones, and then threw myself over the other ones and flopped onto the other side. Very graceful.
I was definitely failing. The Brotherhood would send me home and forbid me from ever coming back. Maybe that was for the best. But I was at least going to finish.
Next was the archery stop, and I got my arrow within a metre, which was major progress. I stopped to admire my shot then a shout from Eldon got me moving again. The ropes were next, and I actually tried today, though that just meant swinging from the first rope right into a puddle. Great, white sneakers ruined.
I snuck a quick glance at the old men. Yep, not impressed.
After the ropes was the dagger throw, and I managed to hit the fake ogre, even though it was the hilt and it just bounced off into the courtyard. Hey, I was definitely making progress. A few days ago I missed by two metres. From there was a bunch of vertical spears that you weaved in and out of—I knocked over four instead of the seven of last time—and another set of logs that I managed to get over without falling. I would have been proud of myself if I couldn’t feel all those condescending glares on me.
Eldon was just folding his arms and scowling.
The last stop was to attack a fake goblin—the one that looked like a scarecrow. There was always a sword or a spear on the little table, and you would scoop it up, charge, and stab the goblin or swing at it or whatever. The goblin was covered with holes and tears and was fraying a little on its head where the warriors had been hitting it.