“Yikes!” He struggled to pull away, but only succeeded in dragging the person into the room with him. The magical door vanished.
“Roland! I’ve got the real one!” shouted Clive.
Angry at himself for letting his imagination run away from him, Chase kicked at Clive’s head. He rolled away, twisting Chase’s leg. Chase flopped to the floor and Clive pounced on him, grabbing Chase’s throat.
Chase swung his fists wildly, punching Clive again and again. “Let go of me, you jerk!” he croaked out.
Persephone dashed around the room, searching for something that might make a good weapon. The only thing she found was the magical mop, which, at the moment, was briskly scrubbing the floor next to a bed that looked like a giant-sized blue and orange plaid sneaker.
“Mop! Clean him!” she yelled, pointing at Clive. “Uh, please?”
The mop leaped into the air and began swatting Clive repeatedly across his face. Frothy bubbles flowed down his head and chest. He opened his mouth to yell, but it instantly filled with bubbles. “Urrrg,” he gurgled.
Chase scrambled away when Clive released him and staggered to his feet. He yanked the mop from his face. Cursing and growling, he hammered it on the floor. Chase thought he might have heard a cry of pain from the poor mop. Dropping the pieces to the floor, Clive kicked them aside. The kids stared, horrified, at what used to be an incredible, magical cleaning instrument, but was now a broken, splintered wreck.
“That’s what’ll bloody happen to you two if you don’t do as I say,” said Clive in a quiet, menacing voice, looking confident that he had things under his control. “Don’t try any more funny business or I’ll zap the—”
With one quick thought, Chase sent Clive flying across the room. He crashed into a table and fell to the floor, where he lay sprawled and unmoving. Blood streamed from a gash across his temple and splattered onto the floor. Looking at it, Chase felt slightly queasy. He wasn’t any better with blood than he was with ghosts. He’d barely got through helping Persephone wrap her shoulder injury.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, rubbing his stinging neck as he backed toward the door.
They ran out into the hallway, but immediately found their way cut off by the others.
Ethan caught Persephone in a painful choke-hold as Roland forced Chase to back away, ramming into the wall behind him. He gulped, and thought, Come on, Andy. You have to get here soon with the rescue squad, or we’re in deep trouble.
“Ow! Get your hands off me, creep!” snarled Persephone as she tugged on Ethan’s arm and attempted to stomp on his feet.
“That’s quite enough,” said Roland Marlowe. “Now, Chase Tinker, you will take us to the attic and let us in. I know you know its secrets.”
Chase licked his dry lips as Clive staggered into the hallway, pushing his stringy blond hair out of his eyes and wiping bubbles and blood from his face. He joined the rest of the Marlowes, hemming Chase in even more. Chase thought of using Aunt Clair’s power and melting through the wall, but leaving without Persephone was the last thing he wanted to do. And Chase knew he couldn’t keep running. These people had to be stopped, somehow. He closed his eyes, hoping to work up the same rage that had blasted Roland so far away the last time, but it was no use; he had too many other jumbled emotions going on inside his mind at the moment.
“Take us to the attic,” said Roland softly, “and you have my promise, we won’t hurt either of you. Trust me.”
“Don’t do it, Chase,” choked out Persephone. “He’s lying. You can’t trust any of them.”
Trying his best to ignore her, even though he wanted to attack Ethan and beat the daylights out of him, Chase’s mind worked frantically on a solution to get them out of this mess without either of them getting hurt. He decided to play dumb. “So…um…what’s in the attic you want so bad?”
“The Relic, you idiot!” snarled James.
“Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me, James. Very helpful of you,” said Chase, sarcasm in his voice. “You think using it for evil is much better than using it for good.”
“That’s none of your—” Roland began.
Maven stepped forward, glaring at Chase. Her face, surrounded by her wavy, golden-blonde hair, would have been pretty if it hadn’t been scrunched with hatred. “You know nothing about us, Chase Tinker,” she cut in.
“I know enough,” said Chase. “You’d be nothing without the Shard of Magic.”
“And you’d be nothing without the Relic,” said Roland coldly as he grasped Maven’s arm and pulled her back. “It’s meant to be ours, and with your help, it’ll soon be in our possession.”
Over my dead body, creep, thought Chase before saying, “So, uh, Roland—”
“Mr. Marlowe to you!” James broke in.
“—I know I’ve mentioned this before,” Chase continued, as if James hadn’t even spoken, “but I don’t mind mentioning it again. Why don’t you hand the Shard over to me? That way you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“It’s you who should be worrying,” said Clive with a sneer. “You’re the losing git here now.”
Chase narrowed his eyes. “That’s a nice scar you have there, Roland.” Even though he knew he might be causing more trouble for himself and Persephone, he still found it impossible to keep his mouth shut.
Roland rubbed his finger down the thick, ugly mark that ran from the corner of his right eye and across his cheek to his chin. “Hiram will pay for this!” he muttered, his eyes filled with loathing.
Chase fought the urge to spit in Roland’s face. “So, what did you guys do to Janie, anyway?” he asked, frowning at his cousin, who stood off to the side staring at the wall as if she had no idea of the things going on around her. “Did you take away her free will and turn her into one of those zombie people?”
“That is none of your business!” said Maven. “All you should be thinking about is getting us into that attic. You can either come peacefully, or we can drag you there.”
“Chase, you can’t help them,” Persephone barely spat out.
Chase glanced at Persephone and sighed. “Okay, Roland. Promise you’ll let her go and I’ll show you how to get in.”
“Oh, listen to him,” said Maven, laughing, “attempting to bargain with us.”
“He always was a fool,” James muttered.
“No!” cried Persephone, struggling even harder. “I’m not leaving without you.”
“Touching as this is, I would do what we want if I were you,” said Roland. “After all, as you can see, there are more of us than there are of you.” He spread his hands to indicate his accomplices.
“I sent Andy to get Grandfather and my dad to help us. We won’t be alone much longer,” said Chase recklessly. “So you better get the heck out of here before they arrive and kick your butts all the way back to the hole you climbed out of.”
Both Maven and Clive glanced nervously over their shoulders. “He’s right, Roland,” said Maven. “We must hurry and finish this.”
Roland’s eyes glittered like blue ice chips. “Maybe I’ll use a little persuasion, then. First the girl.” He raised one of his hands. Energy beams shot from the fingertips.
“No!” yelled Chase. He threw himself in front of Persephone. The silvery-red beams caught him in the stomach, and again, he felt the most agonizing pain he’d ever encountered in his whole life. When Roland had tortured him at Doctor Dan’s, he’d hoped to never have to go through it again, but now here he was, like a helpless baby, feeling as if red-hot flames were shooting through his body and out the top of his skull.
“Stop it! You’re killing him!” screamed Persephone.
Chase sagged to the floor as the pain ended. His mouth tasted like he thought burning tires might taste. He swiped the drool from his lips and gasped out, “So, what are you trying to do, Roland, tickle me to death?” Me and my big mouth, he thought, as the beams pounded him again. He was sure his brain was about to burst.
“Had enough?�
� asked Roland, dropping his hand. “I can make it much worse, you know. Until now, you’ve had but a small taste of what I can do.”
“Go ahead, kill me, you freaks!” said Chase, between clenched teeth, not caring how far he pushed them at the moment. He only needed to stall them long enough for help to arrive, and he was counting on the fact that Roland didn’t want him dead yet. “Then you’ll never get in the attic.”
“Oh, this is rubbish!’ snapped Maven. She pushed Roland aside. “How dare you speak to us this way, you rotten little twit.” She raised both hands.
The burning rage in her eyes told Chase that turning him into a pile of ashes would really make her day. He tried to scoot back, but he was too weak from the first two bombardments.
“No, Maven!” roared Roland. He thrust out his arm and shoved down her hands.
The powerful beams exploded into the floor in front of Chase, tearing a jagged hole in the wood. He felt the scorching heat of them and the sting of nicks and cuts as thick dust and splinters flew into his face.
Coughing and sputtering, his eyes began to stream, and his nose began to twitch and itch. “A-A-ACHOO!” Blazing blue lightning bolts tore from his eyes and hit his sneakers. The rubber melted away. “ACHOO! ACHOO!” More lightning bolts shot from his eyes, barely missing Persephone’s toes. Ethan released her and danced out of the way. “ACHOO!” Chase became a thick puddle of yellowy-green goop. He oozed across the floor. “ACHOO!” He changed back into himself.
“What the crap?” said James.
“Magical flu,” Chase managed to wheeze out right before the wild sneezing started again. “ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO!” Dozens of scorching bolts smashed into the walls, ceiling, and floor. Wood and debris rained down on everyone. Screaming and shouting, the Marlowes dropped to the floor and threw their arms over their heads.
“ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO!” Ah, man, when’s it going to stop? thought Chase as more lightning bolts zipped around the hall, causing even more destruction.
Through the smoke, dust, and falling rubble, he caught a glimpse of Janie crouched against the wall. She looked completely out of it. She didn’t have a clue that lightning bolts, along with chunks of the shattered hallway, were flying all around her. He also saw James flailing his arms like a big, clumsy baboon. What an idiot! thought Chase.
Feeling slightly shaky, he pushed a hunk of wall off his leg and climbed to his feet. “ACHOO!” He now wore a pair of black roller skates. “Holy moly!” he exclaimed as he slipped and fell on Ethan, squashing the other boy’s face into the floor.
“You clumsy prat!” yelled Ethan’s muffled voice.
Grasping Chase’s wrist, Persephone tugged on him. “Chase, get up.”
Chase blinked dust from his eyelashes and took a quick second to wonder if he looked as bedraggled as Persephone. Her usually neatly combed hair stood on end, and she was dotted with bits of white plaster, wood chips and dust.
“Come on!” she yelled.
“I’m trying,” he said, sounding frustrated as his feet slipped out from under him again and again. He flopped over Ethan and scrambled across the floor on his hands and knees. “ACHOO!” The skates vanished and he was happy to see he now had on a pair of brand new sneakers.
“They’re getting away again!” yelled Roland, ignoring the blood dripping from a long gash in his arm as he shoved aside chunks of wall. “Somebody do something.”
James stretched out his body to grab onto Chase. “You better run, stinker, ‘cause when I get my hands on—” His sentence was cut short by a loose wall sconce breaking free and conking him on the head. He flopped to the floor in a cross-eyed daze.
Ethan grabbed for Persephone, but she kicked him in the eye, and then took a quick moment to grind his hand into the floor. “Take that, freak!” she said over Ethan’s cries of pain. Swinging around, she dashed down the hall after Chase.
“ACHOOOO!” Chase vanished.
“Chase, stop that! Where are you?” said Persephone.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help it,” said his disembodied voice. “ACHOOOO!” He reappeared and shrugged sheepishly. “I’m sure it’ll get better at some point.”
“We’ll talk about it later. They’re coming!”
Running down several more hallways and up another flight of stairs, they unexpectedly came up against a towering wall of fire. They leaped back.
Chase slapped a hand to his forehead to make sure his eyebrows hadn’t been singed off. “Whew! That was a close one! How do we get through?”
“I don’t know!” said Persephone.
The wall burned brilliant orange, yellow and red. Scorching heat poured from it, and yet it wasn’t damaging the floor, the ceiling, or the walls. Chase glanced over his shoulder. Stomping footsteps were coming closer by the second.
“We have to get going!”
Staring at the blazing flames, Persephone said, “We need to concentrate on either cool or cold things.”
“You said you didn’t know!” said Chase.
“Just do it!”
“Okay, okay. Let me think…ice cream sundaes.” He pictured mounds of chocolate fudge and vanilla topped with swirls of whipped cream.
“Snowmen,” added Persephone, “a swimming pool on a hot summer day...”
“…ice-cold lemonade…”
The hot flames changed to a cool, sky-blue.
“You’re not getting away again, you fool!” yelled Maven. She grabbed Chase’s shirt.
“Hey! Let go!” Chase heard a loud ripping as he wrenched free and jumped into the fire with Persephone.
A cold, tingling sensation rippled through his body. For a moment, he felt as if he were moving in slow motion; like he was in one of those dreams where he’s running and running, yet getting nowhere. But three seconds later, both he and Persephone emerged safely on the other side.
The Marlowes, along with James and Janie, jumped in after them. The flashing blue flames switched to fiery colors again. Roland and Janie made it through safely, but Maven, Clive, Ethan and James weren’t so lucky. Now trapped in the inferno, they contorted in agony. They looked like twisted, flickering shadows as they struggled to escape. Chase barely recognized James as he clawed madly at the blazing wall, his mouth open in a silent scream.
Roland rushed to pull them out and away from the ravaging flames. Clouds of gray smoke drifted from their tattered clothing as each of them slumped to the floor, crying and moaning. Their skin was now streaked with soot and long, puckered scorch marks. Red, bubbling blisters oozed slimy gray pus. Maven looked the worst of all, with her hair melted into oily black clumps.
Chase winced at the sight as he and Persephone huddled together down the hall. It was one of the most horrifying things he’d ever seen.
Crouched on the floor, Roland Marlowe turned his blazing eyes to the two frightened kids. In the flashing firelight, his scar looked like a glowing, ruby-red snake slithering across his face. “This is not finished,” he said so softly they had to strain to hear. “One day your luck will run out, Chase Tinker. And I promise, I will be there to see it.”
Chase shifted his eyes from Roland to Janie. Looking deep into her chocolate-brown, red-rimmed ones, he jerked when the blankness in them sent chills skittering up and down his spine. His gaze darted back to Roland. For a moment, the hallway around Chase seemed to tilt and wobble as he watched Roland reach out and transform himself and the others around him into a rippling blanket of deep purple smoke. Seconds later, the smoke drifted into the nearest room and slipped up the chimney, taking Janie and James with it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Free Will
“Oh my God!” screamed Persephone. “He took Janie!” She ran to the spot where the Marlowes and Janie and James had just been. “This is terrible! It’s worse than terrible. It’s—it’s horrible! It’s unbelievable!” She turned to Chase. “What are we going to do?”
Feeling as if every drop of energy had been sucked out of him, Chase collapsed to floor
. “I dunno.”
Persephone was right. The whole thing was way too hard to believe. What would cause Janie to go with the hated Marlowes without putting up a fight? Especially now, with all the resentment and anger brewing inside her?
He raked his hand through his hair. “Something strange was going on between her and James. But I just can’t figure out what.” If only he’d heard more of their conversation in the library, then maybe things would make more sense. “When I looked at her just now, her eyes were like she was dead inside or something. It was really weird and scary.”
“But why would she leave with them? Why didn’t she try to get away? I just don’t understand!”
“It looks as if James is working with the Marlowes,” he answered. “She might’ve gone along, hoping to convince him to stop.” He shook his head. “Maybe she didn’t have a choice.”
“We usually do have choices,” said a quiet voice behind him.
Chase whirled to see Grandfather, Benjamin and Andy. Grandfather was leaning on Ben’s arm. Chase thought he looked a little sicklier than usual. “Grandfather! Andy! Am I glad to see you guys,” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “And Dad,” he added awkwardly, before continuing, “The Marlowes were here. They transformed into smoke and escaped up the chimney. And they took Janie!”
“They really kidnapped Janie?” said Andy, looking horrified. “How did that happen?”
“Mr. Hiram!” exclaimed Persephone. “The wall of fire helped us get away.” She turned to point at it, but it was gone. “Where did it go? It was there a second ago.”
“I was able to conjure walls of fire throughout the house after Andy told us it, and you, were in danger,” said Grandfather.
“We might’ve been caught in them!” said Chase.
“Between the two of you, I knew you had the ability to work it out,” said Grandfather.
“Even so…” said Chase, feeling his eyebrows again.
“The magical answer to get through popped into my mind, like I knew it all along,” said Persephone.
“It’s your necklace,” said Grandfather. “Even that small piece of the Relic is more powerful than anyone can ever imagine.”
Chase Tinker and the House of Secrets Page 6