Grim Hill: Carnival of Secrets

by Linda DeMeulemeester

“Follow me,” I told Jasper. The school appeared empty and our footsteps echoed alarmingly on the tiled floor. We crept up the staircase and stared at the long, endless passageway filled with green wooden doors.

  “How will we ever find them,” I despaired.

  Jasper did his glasses thing, and then snapped the frames back over his nose. “The same way we found Lea at the carnival.”

  Of course – our feathers! We pulled them out and used them like divining rods while we walked along the passage. After about ten doors, both our feathers glowed red at once. I rattled the doorknob, wondering if we’d have to try and kick in the door. But it opened easily.

  Inside a small room filled with cobwebs and dust, and an old-fashioned purple velvet sofa and chair, sat our two friends. Clive was gagged and bound to a wooden beam behind the chair, and he only stopped struggling when he spotted us. Most peculiarly, Lea sat on the couch with her hands folded neatly on her lap. She wasn’t tied up. Her eyes were red like she’d been weeping.

  I pulled off Clive’s gag as Jasper used his scout knife to saw the knots. Clive gasped for air. Then he said, “Thanks,” to both of us, but he held me in his gaze.

  “Why did they gag you?” I asked.

  “They had to shut me up,” Clive said ruefully. “I might have, um, insulted Bea a bit.”

  So Clive had recognized her as well. As he shook off his ropes and kicked them away, he gave a slight nod to Lea. “Something’s wrong with her,” he frowned as a shadow of worry slid across his face.

  “What is it, Lea?” Jasper flew to her side. “Get up!”

  But Lea wouldn’t budge from the couch. “C’mon, we have to hurry,” I urged.

  “I can’t Cat, I’m bound under Bea’s enchantment,” Lea blinked her red rimmed eyes.

  “We’ll carry you, then,” said Jasper and Clive. They started to hoist her off the chair.

  “Stop,” she cried. They dropped her in surprise.

  “Remember? The fairy wager was a trick. Now I am enslaved to Bea for seventy years. This is meant to be,” said Lea. “I understand now why I’m different from the other fairies,” she said in a rush. “It’s because of the time I spent with all of you here. That’s why when I am Bea’s apprentice, I’ll do my best to try and help the humans she ensnares.” Lea let out a soft sob. “That’s why, even though I will forget about this now, when we meet again Cat, we will become friends.”

  “No,” I said stubbornly. “We can change this.”

  Lea shook her head. “It was never déjà vu, Cat. I just had fragments of memories from now. You can’t change what’s already happened.”

  “Watch us,” said Jasper as he tugged on her arm.

  “Get out,” Lea rasped. “Bea’s enchantment is working its way up my body, and it’s almost to my lips. Then it will reach my brain, and I’ll forget you.” My friend smiled sadly. “But her magic never does reach my heart.”

  Then to our horror, Lea began to shriek. “Help! Humans are in the school trying to escape. Help!” As she cried out, she wept bitterly, and tears flowed down her face.

  An alarm bell began to clang.

  We had no choice.

  We turned and ran.

  CHAPTER 29 A Wicked Ride

  Tears leaked from my eyes making everything blurry. I missed the bottom step as we fled the school. Stumbling, I almost fell, but Clive reached out and grabbed my elbow, steadying me. When we hit the trees and I dared to pause and suck in a ragged breath, I wiped my arm over my face to dry my tears. That’s when I noticed Jasper and Clive were weeping too.

  We kept running down the hill and across the yard. With cold satisfaction, I saw the guttering candlelight in the kitchen window of the witch’s house. The flickering shadows on the wall did appear as if a circle of us were leaning over the Grimoire. Who knew I’d come to appreciate Sookie’s stupid poppet dolls.

  “Hurry,” Clive said between clenched teeth. He jumped through the hedge beside the graveyard and yanked me with him. It was only then I noticed he’d been holding my hand the whole time we’d raced down the hill. Beside a headstone, Jasper halted and went back to the hedge, peering over it.

  I could hear the fairies coming. I didn’t hear shouts, or the trampling of their troop. Instead, a chilling buzz was forming that grew louder and louder like an angry swarm of bees was on our trail. I went back for my friend. “Come on Jasper, we have to get home.” I placed my hand on his shoulder.

  Shadows of a most sinister kind had emerged from the forest. Under the bright moonlight, the fairy phantoms looked worse than any nightmare with their shadowy, dangly arms and legs, and writhing hands with grasping fingers. The shades lurched toward the house. The decoy was working, but who knew for how long.

  This time I tugged Jasper’s shirt sleeve and practically dragged him along with me. Fairies couldn’t cross the graveyard’s consecrated ground, but they could still meet up with us on the other side, trapping us. The buzz began erupting into cruel shrieks and cackles. When the shadows poured into the yard and up the porch, the kitchen window cracked, then exploded in splinters of jagged glass. Jasper picked up the pace.

  We leapt over the graveyard’s iron fence and ran down the last street to the carnival. Even though it was late and the carnival grounds looked deserted, the ticket taker still sat in his chair at the gate. Breathless, I rasped to the man in the black captain’s hat, “Hurry, if you follow us and ride the carousel, you can escape from here.”

  The colored lanterns glowed along the deserted midway. Jasper, Clive and I ran down the lamp lit path, waving our arms and shouting, “If you want to escape the carnival, jump aboard the carousel!” When I passed the arcade with the bowling pins, Gordie dropped the pins and ran alongside me.

  The calliope cranked out its sorrowful music as the carousel revolved and green and black horses bobbed up and down in the flickering light. In seconds, people fled their tents and arcade booths to crowd onto the horses, even filling all the spaces in between.

  Circling the carousel, I could see that fresh dirt had been poured. Sookie and Skeeter, and Alice and Maggie had come through for us. When I spotted the sawdust that Sookie had left open for Lea to cross, I kicked some of the graveyard dirt over it.

  Now, no fairy could cross onto the carousel.

  Clive, Jasper and I took a running jump up onto the merry-go-round, and I gripped a striped pole. My friends stood at the center of the carousel with Sookie and Skeeter, and the Book of all Magic lay on the carousel floor.

  “Where’s Lea?” asked Sookie.

  Jasper hung his head. And though my own throat ached with grief, I told my sister, “Don’t worry, she’ll meet up with us soon.” At least that was the feeble hope I clung to.

  We went round on the carousel several more times while the rest of the carnival folk climbed on. A puppeteer from the magic wagon had gathered an armful of those creepy puppets and brought them on board. It got so crowded I could barely see past all the shoulders and heads. The music in the dance tent screeched to a stop as if somebody had dragged a needle across an old-fashioned record. Dancers stumbled out into the night, rubbing their eyes. Then they scattered and fled the haunted grounds.

  Once again a buzzing grew in the distance. The fairies were on their way! “C’mon Sookie, open the book and use whatever chant it takes to get us home.”

  The wind began to blast. Poplar trees shook, their yellow leaves rattling to the ground. Branches snapped and colored flags from the tent tops broke loose, flying like kites into the night sky. The temperature plunged as black swarming shadows gathered at the gate.

  “Cat, I can’t open the book,” Sookie shouted against the growing racket. “Remember, you joined hands with Lea and me when you commanded the Grimoire. So it will take three magical people to get us home. And now we only have the two of us.”

  What could we do? I wracked my brain. Then I remembered how on my Swedish school exchange a troll’s mouth to mouth resuscitation had given me magic. He’d breathed it into
me. I sucked in the bitter air that swirled around us until it reached the bottom of my lungs. In front of all my friends, I grabbed Clive’s face and smacked my lips against his. Then I blew the air out between our lips.

  Pulling away, I stared into Clive’s astonished eyes which grew round, then blinked in surprise. “Nothing personal,” I explained. “Oh, and close your mouth so you don’t let any of the air escape.” Clive clamped his lips tight.

  I noticed my friends’ stunned faces. “What?” It’s not like there was time to explain.

  Then we each took one of Sookie’s hands and I felt a jolt. Electricity swirled through our clasped hands and out into the air as my sister chanted. The Grimoire flew open with a loud snap and white smoke rose from its pages.

  But then a roar erupted down the midway and with a blast, the wind turned into a hurricane. Tents were wrenched from their stakes and rolled along the grounds. Poles fell and burning lanterns scattered across the sawdust. A small flame erupted on one of the tents and burst into a blaze that ate its way toward us.

  The carnival folk on the carousel clutched onto the poles and horses, shouting and groaning, and my friends hung onto each other as the whipping air buffeted us about. Somebody screamed as the horrific shadows surrounded the carousel.

  Those shadows morphed into grimacing fairy faces. They opened their mouths wide exposing sharp treacherous teeth. Their dead eyes were filled with hatred. Their screeches and cries grated in the air, making our ears ache and the breath in our lungs turn to ice.

  “They can’t cross the holy ground,” I shouted.

  “Watch out, Cat,” cried Amarjeet.

  Maybe their feet couldn’t cross the line of graveyard dirt, but their creepy, long arms reached toward me with grasping, claw like hands. Fairy fingers stretched and brushed against my dress. My dress had been signed by a fairy’s touch, and my skin burned cold and hot as if I’d touched dry ice.

  “Take that, you stupid fairies.” Skeeter jumped on a carousel horse and brandished his plastic pirate sword. He fought against the shadowy arms.

  “Watch out, Skeeter,” I screamed. One claw with long, crooked fingers and nails like talons had wrapped around his foot.

  “Yikes.” Skeeter slashed his sword at the hand as Clive grabbed his brother’s collar and yanked him back to safety.

  Flames erupted across the midway and surrounded the carousel.

  CHAPTER 30 A Perilous Crossroads

  Sookie screamed into the wind. “Cat, hold out your feather and command the Grimoire.”

  Shaking, I pulled my feather out and held it on its silver chain. It danced in the wind for a second then stiffened, waiting for my command. “I want to reverse my spell,” I shouted.

  Pages in the Grimoire flew until they stopped at the page I’d seen only a short while ago, though it seemed like a lifetime had passed … Say your magical command and then repeat the command widdershins.

  “Make sure you picture when you want us to arrive,” cried Sookie. “You have to picture it exactly in your mind.”

  Flames and smoke and a deafening roar didn’t help my concentration. Not to mention the calliope cranked faster, and the carousel began trying to throw us off, just like in my dreams.

  Close your eyes and let all these distractions wash over you like a wave at the beach, said that voice in my head. I imagined a cool wave. It worked. I could picture our own sunny kitchen, which, while it wasn’t as fancy as Alice’s, still seemed beautiful in my mind. Mom’s calendar had big blue numbers for the dates. I could almost see the month and day in our own time.

  Then that voice inside my head said something strange.

  Do you really want to go there, Cat? Wouldn’t you rather go back to a time before you moved to town, and before your parents divorced?

  I battled with the desire to be a little girl again, without any responsibilities and worries. Being back with both my parents was a dream that was so strong, it hurt from the tips of my toes through the strands of my hair.

  I could see the home I grew up in when my family was together behind my closed eyes – the fancy condo we’d left behind in the city. Back then, Mom would be bustling over our fun activities, and on the weekends our place would fill with friends. My father would come home from his travels, and we’d run through the hall to greet him. I could hear the sound of his voice …

  If I returned there, I’d never know about Grim Hill. I’d never have to become a Fighter of Fairies.

  Beneath my feet I could feel the spin of the carousel slam to a halt. People stumbled and cried out, falling over each other.

  “Cat?” the worried voice of Amarjeet broke into my memories.

  I tried to push that voice out. Why not return a few years back in time? Just because Lea and Lucinda had told me that events in time couldn’t be changed, didn’t mean I couldn’t relive my happiest years.

  It would be worth it just to forget my worries for a while. And who knew, maybe I could change my destiny and never live at the foot of Grim Hill. Hadn’t I been told once to fight the fates?

  Would that be fighting or giving up? “Shut up,” I yelled to that very confusing voice. “Make up your mind.”

  “Concentrate, Cat, please,” cried Sookie.

  “Help us.” It was the voice of the raggedy boy. I saw Gordie clinging to a carousel horse, and I saw the begging in his eyes that I had seen in the cemetery.

  I couldn’t ignore Gordie. He deserved a better fate than this. He wanted to go home, too. So did the other carnival folk. Not to mention, if I never did live by Grim Hill, what would happen to my relationships with Jasper and Amarjeet, Mitch and Mia, Clive and Skeeter? They were my friends now, and I cared about them a lot!

  I finally understood what a crossroads was. It was the carousel at this moment where I had to choose – move ahead or go back.

  Choose responsibility or selfishness? Bring the carnival back to our own time or give in to my heart’s desire – which should I choose? I realized in that moment a simple desire wasn’t that simple at all – it is what had got me into this mess. Selfish desire had also caused Lucinda to get trapped in the fairy hill.

  That was the mistake I had to learn from! If I couldn’t care about what happened to the others and chose only to get what I wanted for myself, then I knew it was not for the best …

  My eyes burned and I swallowed hard. Biting my lip until I could taste copper, I cleared my mind once more. Then using all my determination and focus, I pictured Mom’s calendar again.

  I extended my feather again and the pages of the Book of All Magic sizzled. The pages rippled until at last it settled on a page.

  “Ahead, turn, time,” I said widdershins.

  The carousel floor began spinning with such force we had to hang on tight to keep from being flung off the ride. As the carousel spun, I watched in amazement as the sun blazed across the sky in a fiery trail again and again. The carnival grounds melted away into flickering shadows of dark and light, as if days were fleeing by.

  “My wife, I see my wife,” cried the man in the black captain’s hat. He leapt off his carousel horse and jumped from the carousel into the haze.

  “Come along, children, I see your ma,” called the puppeteer, and he leapt from the carousel with his laughing family in tow.

  “There are my pa, and my mother and sister,” cried Gordie. He climbed down from his horse and before he stepped off the carousel, he looked back at me for an instant and smiled for the first time. Then he reached out his arms, ready for his family’s embrace. After he leapt, I heard a shout, “Thaaank yooooou,” as if from a great distance.

  One by one, the carnival folk took their leave as their trapped souls were released. Faster and faster, the carousel spun until I worried it would never end. At last, it slowed to a halt, and all of us collapsed to the floor.

  “I never want to eat again,” complained Mitch, clutching his stomach.

  Standing up, waves of nausea and dizziness made me stumble, and then lurch from
horse to horse on the carousel as if we were still spinning. I grabbed onto a pole and tried to focus.

  Jasper swayed back and forth and put his hand over his mouth. Mia looked like a Christmas ornament with her red hair and green complexion. Amarjeet remained hunched down on the floor. “I’ll just sit for a minute,” she said.

  Clive had his arm on my shoulder and I wasn’t sure if he was steadying me or himself. Then Sookie and Skeeter waltzed past us carrying the Grimoire. They leaped to the ground.

  “Some ride, huh.” Skeeter grinned. Sookie nodded with enthusiasm.

  We scrambled off the carousel. It was night, but under bright moonlight I could see that the carnival midway was long gone. In its place, a grassy field covered the ground. “Look at this!” Sookie held open the Grimoire. All of its pages were blank. “The writing’s gone again. Do you think we’re home?” she cried hopefully.

  Suddenly, the tinny, wild carousel music stopped. A buckling noise from behind me sounded as though a giant’s foot were crumpling a gigantic tin can.

  I spun around.

  Before my eyes, part of the carousel roof rusted and fell in. Poles twisted and snapped. The floor of the carousel seemed to melt into the grass.

  And I saw the wild, white eyes of the colorful carousel horses as they spun off the ride, thrown into the air as if flying.

  I could swear I heard them screaming as they soared into the turbulent, darkening atmosphere, and vanished …

  CHAPTER 31 Happily Ever After?

  We walked through the empty field onto the street, which we were glad to see was paved, and no longer a gravel road. Modern street lamps lit up the sidewalks. “Look,” cried Mitch, “no houses are missing!”

  We couldn’t help ourselves. Abandoning any sensible caution, we all hurried to check our own homes. Jasper ran alongside me and Sookie, until he darted up his own front steps. Before he opened the door he shouted, “Mom? Dad?”

  My sister and I hesitated on our doorstep. After all, the last time that door opened, we’d traveled back in time nearly seventy years. Not to mention that even if this was our own time, on the night we left our mother hadn’t even remembered her youngest daughter.