Secrets in the Dark

by KD Blakely

  She pulled out her phone and looked at it hopefully, like she thought that wish would help. Then shook her head and shoved it back in her pocket. “I don’t know why I even bring it in here,” she muttered.

  I wasn’t surprised her wish didn’t work. The good ones never did. Ronny kept saying our wishes had to trigger an existing spell, but there seemed to be a lot more bad spells than good ones in here.

  Well…except for Brady’s wish on the map. Seeing the Rejects on it was cool.

  And of course, when I’d wished for help, we got our familiars.

  So good wishes could work. Occasionally.

  

  It was a long, slow walk back. We finally had to take turns helping Olivia. She kept muttering under her breath, and none of us wanted to know what she was saying. I was glad when I saw the huge fig tree in the distance.

  “Nothing else’ll go wrong now,” I told her. “You’ll be home soon.”

  “Don’t say that. You’re the one who always talks about jinxing things. I just wish I could rest.”

  “Oh no!” Brady had been scanning the map while we walked. We’d been so busy reading signs and almost getting smashed by rocks, we hadn’t even seen the Rejects enter Chimera. I didn’t know where they’d been, but I could see the little red dots heading back toward the tree. Toward us. And they could go a lot faster than we could with Olivia. No way could we beat them back to Santa Ramona.

  “Behind the fence,” Doug said.

  We climbed into the field and lay down, pressed up against the back of the low stone wall. The others grumbled they couldn’t see the road since we’d left it, but I had a small space I could reach between two rocks in the wall. I could get my finger through and as soon as I touched the road, I could see the road through that space.

  I held my breath as the Rejects went past, sure they’d discover us at any minute. I thought Carly might have seen us. She glanced over as they walked by and did a strange double take. She bit her lip, then faced forward and kept walking. My palms were sweating as I waited for her to tell Ray we were there, but they kept moving away towards the tree.

  Maybe Faith was right about Carly.

  Though it had been a scary few minutes, it ended up a good thing. Olivia’s ankle had a chance to rest, and after that, it was easier for her to walk. Olivia was so relieved she started babbling. “I was worried what I was going to tell Mom if I had to go to the doctor.”

  It was getting late by the time we got to the tree. We paused only long enough to tell our familiars goodbye. After we were all back in Santa Ramona, Faith said, “Did we learn something this time?”

  Olivia said, “Wait for Brady to read the signs!”

  The others laughed but I sighed, knowing I couldn’t put off what I had to do next. I had to call Ronny.

  Chapter 27

  There’s No Place Like Home?

  Ronny was horrified when I told her what happened. I knew how much she wanted us to reach the cave, and tried to apologize for failing again, but she wouldn’t let me.

  A soft moan escaped her before she reached up and rubbed her forehead. “What can be happening to my home? I never thought you could get on the right hand road. It was blocked by magick years ago. No one can go down that road. It has not been used since the accident that killed my father, and that was forty-three years ago. It created an energy hole, which causes rocks to fall whenever someone walks by. I am so sorry.”

  She looked so upset I quickly assured her, “We’re okay, Ronny. We’ll let Brady interpret all of the signs from now on. Don’t worry.” It bothered me to see her so upset. Although it had been scary at the time, everything turned out okay. Olivia was barely limping now.

  “I cannot promise it will not happen again. I do not know why some of the magick is failing. And I may not remember to tell you everything important. I have taken it all for granted for so many years.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Maybe this is not a good idea.”

  “Look, we should’ve let Brady finish translating. He tried to get us to listen. Really. We’ll be careful in the future.”

  She jerked her head up and pinned me with her eyes, like I was a butterfly displayed on a science room wall. “Promise! Promise you will be careful. Or you have to stop.”

  “We promise, Ronny.” I looked at the others, “Right?”

  I was afraid Faith would say we should stay out of Chimera. But she only hesitated a moment before she agreed.

  

  The month of July passed more slowly than any time I could remember. Ever! Santa Ramona was no different, but it seemed…boring. There were only a few things that stood out that month from the day-to-day parts of my life.

  In mid-July, Faith, Olivia and I had to duck into the library one more time. I knew Mom was serious about us spending at least ten minutes looking at books before we left, so I began pulling books off the shelf at random, flipping through them, trying to keep track of how long we were there.

  I wished I could find a book to help me embarrass the Rejects. I was tired of hiding from them all the time.

  The next book I pulled out made me laugh out loud, and I clapped my hand quickly over my mouth to stifle the sound. When I got myself under control, I spoke the title out loud. “Insults Unlimited.”

  “What?” Olivia hissed.

  “Tell you in a minute.” I opened the book and gasped at the long lists of words that could be combined into crazy insults. I motioned to Faith and Olivia that we could leave as I took the book to the front to check it out. I planned to memorize a bunch of insults to use on the Rejects.

  

  It was during the last week before Chimera opened that Santa Ramona got…weird.

  Wednesday night, all nine of the town’s VW beetles turned upside down. The Police Chief said he’d prosecute whoever was responsible, and asked the town to report any suspicious behavior. But no one had seen anything.

  On Friday, the electricity went off all over town. It stayed off for two hours and three minutes, or as they reported later, exactly 123 minutes. I thought I’d go crazy. No TV, no radio, no computer. The next morning, as I was getting ready to leave for Chimera, Mom was listening to the news. Normally I’m not interested, but this caught my attention.

  No one knew why the electricity had gone out.

  And they didn’t know why it suddenly came on again.

  I asked Olivia and Faith if they’d heard what was being said about the power. They didn’t understand why I found it so interesting. “But no one knows what caused it. Don’t you think that’s weird?” I asked.

  “Who cares, as long as it never happens again,” Olivia said. “In addition to no TV, Mom forgot to reset the time on her alarm clock and got up late. She hates getting up after all the kidlets. I was really glad to get out of there!” She grinned and moved next to the tree. “See you on the other side!”

  One by one, we followed her into the tree. Faith was the last one through. As she stumbled out, she said, “Hurry. The Rejects are coming!”

  We didn’t stop to welcome our familiars, but started quickly down the road. Brady pulled out the map and looked at it quickly. He passed it to Doug.

  Brady said, “So we take the second road to the right—“

  “No way!” Faith exclaimed.

  Olivia said, “Are you crazy? We did that before and got totally lost. We’re not supposed to leave the road!”

  “I’m not suggesting that. Stop assuming!” Brady said. “If we take the second road we can turn towards the mountains, and then take the second road to the left—”

  “What’s up with you and second roads?” Olivia asked.

  Brady glared at her, took the map back from Doug and all but shoved it in her face. “Look at the map.” He stabbed his finger on it. “Using the first road would take us out of our way.”

  “So if we take the second road where do we go?”

  “According to the map, we’ll reach the mountain road closer to the cave. That sho
uld keep us away from the Rejects.”

  Faith said, “Stop arguing and hurry up! We need to go before they get here.”

  Doug turned to Olivia, “We can take whichever road you like. As long as we stay on the road, no matter what.”

  Olivia shrugged. “Whatever.”

  As we turned onto the second road, I couldn’t help thinking about the last time we’d been there. Doug was right. There was no way I was going leave the road again!

  Other than our familiars, the only hint something else was alive in here was the horrible howling we’d heard twice.

  I frowned, considering this. We’d never actually seen anyone in here. Just how likely was it that we’d find Ghalynn at the cave? I asked, “So, what do you think we’ll find when we get to the cave?”

  “I don’t think we’ll find anything,” Doug said. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by his answer. “I just want an excuse to keep exploring this place.”

  I definitely wasn’t surprised by Brady’s. “I wish we’d find more signs in there. I could learn more of their language, and decipher everything much more expeditiously.”

  “Is that all you boys think about?” Olivia looked ready to fight about it. ”We’re supposed to look for Ronny’s mom.”

  “I just wish we could find something in the cave to tell us where everyone has gone,” I said.

  “They could be hiding in the cave,” Faith said, but she didn’t sound like she believed it. “We don’t know what happened. There must be a reason we haven’t seen anyone.”

  The road began twisting and turning, making conversation more difficult. I remembered that from last time. Then the low rolling hills started. As we reached the bottom of one of the hills, I pointed to the left. “That’s where we left the road last time, isn’t it?” My voice had dropped nearly to a whisper, but I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because just looking at that field creeped me out.

  Doug nodded, “Yeah, that’s the place.”

  Faith bit her lip and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Check the map. Where are the Rejects?”

  Brady pulled the map out of his pocket. It was already showing signs of wear — the edges were getting tattered and there was a new tear where it had been folded one time too many. On it, the red dots were hesitating near the place where this road left the mountain road.

  “You don’t think they’ll follow, do you?” Faith asked.

  “No, they’re staying on the Mountain Road,” Brady told her. We watched as the dots began to move past this road.

  “No Rejects to bother us today. Yoo hoo!” Olivia told Faith, and they exchanged a high five. I glanced around and saw everyone smiling or laughing as we started moving again.

  Too bad all our time in Chimera couldn’t be like this. We didn’t have to rush. We didn’t have the Rejects chasing us or things howling at us. We weren’t lost.

  I’m having a good time!

  Chapter 28

  Don’t Go There!

  The road continued to twist and turn over hills that were growing in size. Sometimes we could see the road crossing in front of us in the distance. It would be a much shorter walk if we could cut straight across, but no one suggested it.

  It felt like we’d been walking a long time. Finally, I said, “I wish there was something interesting to see on this road. At least the mountain road has strange rocks and signs and poison apple trees to look at.” I finished talking as we climbed to the top of the tallest hill so far.

  I stopped, staring where the road should have been at the bottom. There was no sign of it — all I could see below was a thin yellow mist. It wasn’t a nice color, like lemon or sunflower. Instead, it was a filth yellow-brown.

  “Well, that’s certainly interesting.” Olivia said, sliding her eyes over to look at me.

  Note to self — Next time define “interesting”.

  “Do you think we’ll be able to see where the road goes once we’re inside that?” I asked.

  “I don’t see any way around it.” Olivia looked worried as she scanned both sides of where the road should be.

  “It doesn’t look like this stuff goes very far past the road on the left. See?” Doug pointed where I could see just a tiny strip of road showing. “We could just walk around it.”

  “No way!” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “You know Ronny told us not to leave the road. Don’t you remember the ‘you can get lost forever’ part?”

  “We’ll only be a couple steps away. How could we get lost?”

  Brady cleared his throat. “We need to get closer and inspect it. It may be easy to get through. Or it may be easy to stay on the edge of the road. We need more data to decide.”

  When we neared the bottom of the hill, I got a whiff of something rotten. As we got closer, my steps slowed. The smell was much worse here — a mind-numbing-puke-inducing reek. Just like the fabled Bog of Eternal Stench. That made a hysterical giggle burst from my lips.

  If I touch it, will I smell bad forever?

  I came to a halt a few feet away, breathing through my mouth. I was afraid I’d lose my breakfast if I inhaled through my nose. I couldn’t stand the thought of walking into that stuff — maximum grossitude!

  The fog moved like something alive. It covered most of the road, and the area on the right was completely hidden from view. But to the left, the woods were mostly clear. Mostly. When thin tendrils of the mist weren’t hiding the view as they advanced then ebbed.

  A small ripple within the fog caused it to swirl closer, and a thin wisp brushed up against my arm. It was deathly cold. It stuck a moment, stinging, like the time my finger got stuck to a metal ice tray in our freezer. Even worse, it left a disgusting greasy smear on my skin. I jumped back, but not before I’d gasped at the feel of it.

  Big mistake.

  I thought it smelled bad before. But when I sucked some in, my throat felt greasy. The stink of something rotten almost knocked me down. Like last summer, after a week of record heat, when I waited too long to take out the trash.

  I’d only wrestled the overstuffed garbage bag halfway across the yard when I dropped it on my feet. It burst open, spilling slimy table scraps dripping with spoiled milk and disgusting goo onto my shoes.

  I’d never forget that nauseating smell — rancid meat, sour milk, putrefying fruit — not if I lived to be a hundred. I’d thought I’d never smell something that gross ever again.

  But this was worse.

  I smelled my arm frantically, and then sighed in relief. It still smelled normal. I yelled, “Don’t touch it. It’s grossiferous. We do not want to go in there!” The others stopped, watching as the dirty yellow mess writhed and pulsed across the road.

  Faith stepped next to me and shuddered. “It feels…bad here.”

  Bad? What a wimpy word!

  As if something heard Faith, there was a sudden skittering sound, a scuttling from inside the fog. The mist began to swirl in dizzying eddies, full of pale shadows and murky shimmers of light.

  It almost looked as though there were…faces…in there. Faces peering at us, and then slowly disappearing from view.

  No, not bad. Creepulsive. Creeporrific! No way am I going in there!

  I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Olivia sounded alarmed, “We have to go in there?”

  I was relieved when all four of our familiars raced in front of us, blocking the way. Rusty began barking at Doug in obvious warning.

  “Guess not,” Doug told her. He backed up and asked Brady, “Where are the Rejects?”

  Brady’s eyes tracked back and forth, looking for the four small red dots. Then his mouth fell open. He looked at Doug, raising his hands defensively. “They must have doubled back. They’re coming right toward us.”

  “Can we go back to the first road?”

  “No, the Rejects are behind us. Besides, that road goes back to the tree, remember? We don’t want to do that.”

  Doug sounded like his teeth were clenched together. “So what do you su
ggest? We can’t make it to the second road without going through that!” He thrust his finger at the seething vapor.

  Olivia snapped, “Stop yelling, Doug. The Rejects’ll hear you.”

  He turned on her, a sneer twisting his lips, but his voice was controlled. “Want to go through the woods again?”

  “Are you nuts?” I asked. “We’re not leaving the road! Although if you want to get lost in there, be my guest.”

  “That’s cold,” Doug said, and had the nerve to smirk at me. My teeth ground together as I tried to think of a good come back. I don’t know what I would have answered, but Brady interrupted.

  “Look, it’s too late to go back, we’d run into the Rejects. We have to go ahead!” Brady pointed to the left where the edge of the road could still occasionally be seen as the fog surged then receded. He pointed to the map. “It doesn’t look like this stuff covers much of the road, probably a few feet.”

  “How can you tell?” Doug raised his eyebrows, both of them, and gave Brady a make-me-believe-it look.

  “The map is totally blank where the fog is. See?” Brady pointed at the map.

  Olivia frowned in confusion. “How can fog hide what’s on the map?”

  I said, “Maybe it’s magic.” And I was suddenly sure I was right. It was magic — evil magic.

  Faith said, “I don’t remember it looking like that.”

  Brady pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Part of the map, on the right, was always blank. But I know the road showed last time.”

  “I really don’t want to go in there,” I said, feeling sick.

  Brady had been staring intently down the left side of the road. “We can make it, we just need to keep our toes on the road. We’ll be able to do that! It’ll be no problem.” He watched a long strand of mist drift across into the woods on our left. “Uh…most of the time.”

  “If we face it we can see if it comes toward us, and can keep away from it.” Doug sounded excited at the idea.

  “Keep away from it? What if we have to step back?” I gulped. “We’d be off the road.” This was a very bad idea.