The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

by Jessica Haight

  Nodding in agreement, they took a united step into the foyer. Another note rang out; it sounded like it was coming from under the grand staircase. Inching her way forward, Fairday thought she noticed something green glinting in the dark. Marcus had on his night-vision goggles and began pointing excitedly to the dark space under the stairs.

  “There’s someone there!” Marcus whispered as a pair of emerald eyes emerged from out of the blackness. Fairday’s shriek of terror reverberated off the walls as the group backed up and pivoted on their heels. They ran full throttle up the staircase, shoving and pushing each other as they tried to make their escape.

  A screech echoed through the house, followed by a raspy voice that shouted, “STOP!”

  “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” Fairday chanted as they ran. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw a tangled mane of wild, red hair streaking up the staircase after them. “Oh God! Oh God! She’s right behind us!” she belted out in gasps, forcing her legs to pump up and down even harder. Marcus was in the lead, bounding up the staircase with Lizzy just behind him.

  “STOP!” the voice repeated. It sounded maniacal and very, very close. Fairday imagined feeling the crazed woman’s hot breath breathing down the back of her neck as she leaped over the top step.

  “Yeah, right! I’m sure you just want to invite us for tea and pastries or something!” Marcus hollered over his shoulder.

  They rocketed down the second-floor corridor, backpacks banging into each other. Finally, they made it to the door and stopped, looking back to get a quick glimpse of their attacker.

  A rush of wind hit their faces as the ghastly pursuer flew down the corridor at them. “AH!” Fairday screamed, fumbling to get through the door.

  “Open it!” Lizzy yelled.

  Suddenly, Marcus threw down his pack and ran straight at the blur of red speeding toward them. His fists were held high out in front of him and his eyes were on fire.

  “Marcus, what…?” Lizzy yelled, but before she could get out the words, Marcus stopped; he was frozen in place, his eyes the only things moving as they bulged out of their sockets, staring wildly at the sight before him. It was as if his body had been turned into a wax statue. Lizzy and Fairday continued to back themselves against the door.

  “Where’s Auntie Em? What do you want from us?” Fairday shouted, her voice shaking. Panicking, she clasped the water bottle and chucked it at the lady. There was a thud as the bottle bounced off its target. Rats! It wasn’t open! Now, even the possibility of using water as a defense was gone.

  A crazed laugh escaped the lips of the terrifying woman standing in front of them. Her red hair slithered around her face like serpents being wooed by a snake charmer. Two hands reached out and grabbed for Fairday, the woman’s bony fingers squeezing into her arms. Opening her mouth to scream, Fairday found that nothing would come out. She’d lost her voice.

  Lizzy reacted fast, hurling her DMS pack hard at the woman’s head and yelling at the top of her lungs, “LET HER GO, YOU PSYCHO!” The backpack soared through the air, heading straight for its target. But just as it was about to strike, it, too, froze in midair and then fell limply to the floor. Lizzy tried to attack but suffered the same fate. She stood frozen, except for her eyes, which were frantically shifting back and forth.

  As Fairday hung inches from the floor, her heart was pounding in her chest. The red-haired woman held her up, squeezing her arms painfully to her sides. She was a breath away from her captor’s face. The deranged woman’s large pupils pulsed like black holes attempting to suck her soul into their depths.

  Fairday’s eyes were open, but everything was dark. She could hear Lizzy breathing hard next to her, and a moan came from somewhere to her left.

  “Marcus?” Fairday called out, reaching around for him blindly. “Where are you? Say something.” She felt panicked as her fingers pushed through tufts of soft patches strewn about on the floor.

  “Uh,” Lizzy moaned. “What’s going on? Where are we?” Her voice was weak.

  “I don’t know,” Fairday replied shakily as her hands finally fell upon Marcus. “Are you okay?”

  “Ooow,” he groaned. “Wha…Where’s this?” Fairday felt him move upright into a sitting position. “Why’s it so dark?”

  “Wait!” Lizzy said, causing Marcus and Fairday to jump. “Ugh, I was going to turn on my headlamp, but it’s gone.”

  “My goggles are missing too! My dad’s gonna kill me,” Marcus said.

  Muffled fumbling came from Lizzy’s direction. “Aha! Yes, I have it!”

  “Have what?” Fairday asked.

  “The camera. I put it in my pocket earlier,” Lizzy said. “I can use the flash to take a picture; then we can at least get an idea of where we are.”

  There was a click, and a flash of light illuminated their surroundings, leaving ghostly traces floating through the blackness. Fairday could feel Marcus slide in next to her as Lizzy brought the picture up.

  They huddled together over the camera as the picture on the viewer appeared. Three faces lit up from the glow of the lights, and they all leaned in to get a better look at what it had captured. In the picture, right next to Fairday’s head, something long and thin hung in midair, a metallic shimmer glinting off it.

  “There’s something hanging next to your head, Fairday,” Lizzy said.

  What could be hanging from the ceiling? Could it be a trap? Fairday squeezed her eyes closed, bracing herself for the worst, and reached above her. Her fingers touched what felt like a long cord. Taking a deep breath, she yanked it.

  Soft yellow light flooded the room. It was a chain attached to a lightbulb, which hung down from the ceiling and flickered as it swung back and forth above their heads.

  The room they were in was small and dusty. Ah, thought Fairday, dust bunnies. Those must have been the soft patches she had felt. There was only one other object in the room. “The world’s oldest mop and bucket!” she shouted. “They still look the same.”

  “Huh?” Marcus said.

  “This is the closet across from my bedroom!” Fairday said as she jiggled the handle. “She’s locked us in here.”

  “Ugh! Our packs are gone!” Lizzy replied, stomping her foot. “Well, luckily we’re all in one piece.”

  The DMS looked at each other, trying to assess their situation. At least we aren’t in the dark anymore, thought Fairday. The unsteady beam of light gave her a glimmer of hope.

  “How did we get in here? The last thing I remember was some force stopping me in my tracks; then everything went blank,” Lizzy said.

  “Yeah,” Marcus said. “Everything went blank for me, too, like somebody shut off a switch in my head.” He reached up and touched his hair, as if he were actually going to find some kind of on/off switch he wasn’t aware of. “What’d she do to you, Fairday?”

  “Well, first I threw the closed water bottle at her, which didn’t quite have the effect I was going for.” Fairday smirked.

  “If I hadn’t been so scared, I would’ve burst out laughing,” Lizzy chuckled.

  “Of course, I missed the whole thing,” Marcus said. “My switch was off.”

  “I can’t believe I did that. Anyway, then she held me up close to her face. It was so scary—her eyes looked like black holes.” Fairday shivered at the memory. “Everything was happening so fast, and then it just stopped. The next thing I remember is opening my eyes, and it was dark.”

  “How can she do that? I mean, is she a witch or something?” Lizzy asked. “It’s so creepy how her hair can move by itself. Ugh! She does look like the red-haired lady in the picture. Only, you know, really scary instead of clever and fancy. So it’s possible the lady we saw in the mirror and this lady are the same. They both could be Ruby Begonia. Maybe she’s just different on this side. That’s who we’re dealing with, right?”

  “Or,” Fairday said, “it could be someone disguised as her.”

  “But why would someone disguise themselves as her and live in this weird place?” Marcu
s said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Well, whoever she is, we’re bound to find out. One thing’s for certain—she’s got her sneaker back,” Lizzy said. “Along with all the other evidence we’ve collected so far.”

  The DMS sat cross-legged in a circle on the floor, trying to think of a way out of the closet.

  “Okay,” Lizzy said. “The door’s locked, so we can’t get out that way, unless one of you knows how to pick a lock.” She looked up at Marcus and Fairday.

  “Actually, I do. My dad taught me about locking mechanisms,” Marcus replied. Fairday’s heart lifted, then instantly fell as he added, “But I would need something small and sharp in order to do it like a bobby pin.”

  All Fairday had on her was the elastic she tied her hair back with, which clearly wasn’t going to do any good. If only they had their DMS packs. There were all sorts of tools zipped up in them. Lizzy’s brother’s multitool key chain came to mind.

  “Yes!” Lizzy blurted out, then stood up and shoved her hand into the back pocket of her jeans. She pulled out a bobby pin and handed it to Marcus. “I always keep a spare bobby pin on me in case I want to put my hair back,” she stated, flipping her springy curls away from her face.

  “Now we’re in business!” Marcus said, grabbing it from Lizzy and moving toward the closet door.

  They watched as he finagled the bobby pin into the keyhole and began jiggling it around. It seemed like forever until, finally, there was a click and the lock popped.

  The door slowly opened and they peered out. “All clear,” Fairday whispered.

  “Let’s go,” Lizzy replied, and they sneaked into the hallway.

  Carefully they made their way to the door at the end that led to the third floor. “What about Auntie Em? Oh, I hope she’s okay! And what about our DMS packs?” Fairday asked, stopping just before they were about to head up the stairs. “We can’t leave them here. I need my dog, and we need our stuff!”

  “We have to find a way back to the other side,” Marcus said. “We can come back for them once we know how to get in and out of this place.”

  “I think Marcus is right,” Lizzy said, noticing the look on Fairday’s face. “I mean, once we know how to get back, then at least we’ll know how to save Auntie Em and get away from Batty Begonia if she comes after us again.”

  Fairday smiled faintly at Lizzy’s nickname for the lunatic they were running from. “Okay. You guys are right. Let’s get outta here.”

  Up the spiral staircase and through the archway they crept. “The mirror’s still like a window,” Lizzy noted as she approached it and touched the cool glass. “Hey! There’s the brass key.” She pointed to it hanging from the lock on the balcony door on the other side. “What should we do?”

  “I wish we still had it. Then we could try using it on this side. If only we’d thought to grab the key,” Fairday said, frustrated.

  “Well, um, maybe it slipped our minds because we were being attacked by a freaky willow tree. Don’t beat yourself up, Fairday. None of us thought of it,” Marcus said.

  “I guess,” she mumbled.

  Suddenly, they heard footsteps from below and immediately froze. The sound of a door being flung open echoed through the house.

  “NOOOOOO!” bellowed the crazy Begonia lady.

  “What do we do? Where should we go?” Fairday looked around for someplace to hide.

  “There!” Lizzy pointed to her right, and they bolted into the third-floor room.

  They shut the door as quietly as possible. They could hear stomping footsteps heading up the spiral staircase as they tried to find a place to hide.

  “Over here!” Lizzy said in a frenzied whisper, racing across the room. She stood before the wardrobe, poised to knock. “Oh, oh, what’s the code to open it?”

  Marcus looked dumbfounded, but Fairday knew exactly what Lizzy was up to. “Knock thrice and three to open the door, knock thrice and four to lock it once more!” she exclaimed, thrilled she’d remembered the sequence. Lizzy knocked in fast repetitions: one, two, three…one, two, three, and the iron claws unclenched.

  Without a sound, they opened the wardrobe doors and piled in, quickly pulling them closed. Fairday held them shut as Lizzy softly knocked—one, two, three…one, two, three, four—and the claws clasped together on the other side just as the door to the third-floor room banged open.

  Pressing their ears against the wardrobe, they waited in anticipation. After several minutes of silence, Fairday whispered, “Should we check to see if she’s out there?”

  “I suppose. We can’t sit in here all day,” Lizzy said. “I’ll have to knock, though, which will point her in our direction if she’s waiting for us.”

  “Just do it,” Marcus replied. “We’ll have to find out who’s out there eventually.”

  “All right, then,” Lizzy said, and knocked three times plus three. The door unlatched and she pushed it open a crack.

  Three sets of eyes, striking gray, deep brown, and bright blue, peered into the room. Suddenly, Fairday flung open the double doors. “I don’t believe it! It’s a portal!” she gasped. “We’re back!”

  Quickly exiting the wardrobe, the DMS emerged into the familiar surroundings of the boxes filled with junk.

  “What do you guys think we should do?” Lizzy asked.

  Fairday thought for a moment. “Well, the good part in all of this is we now know how to get in and out of the other side, and…” She paused, turning to face the door to the room. “Remember, the brass key is right out there. Wait a sec.” She bounded out of the room and returned with it hanging around her neck.

  “Good call,” Lizzy noted, glancing at the key.

  Marcus crossed his arms over his chest and said, “I think we should look for more clues. Why is this weird woman haunting your house and taking your stuff? At least on this side we can poke around uninterrupted.”

  “Yeah, I agree,” Lizzy said as she plopped down on the chair. “There must be something here that explains what’s going on. I mean, look around. There’s so much stuff in these boxes that belonged to the Begonias. I know we’ve already checked out most of it, but maybe we missed something.”

  “What if there are instructions for the mirror or the wardrobe?” Marcus asked. “Too bad we can’t look up the information on the Internet or just call a store or something.”

  “Yeah, right. Thurston Begonia bought that old mirror and the freaky wardrobe off the Internet, which didn’t even exist then. I think you should have fallen harder down the stairs, Marcus, to fix your brain,” Lizzy said, smirking at him.

  “Just thinking out loud, smarty pants,” he replied. “What I’m saying is, if someone will let me finish, is we should start checking out the evidence in here first.”

  “Wait! There may not be instructions for the mirror or the wardrobe, but we know there might be magical blueprints for the house hidden someplace. Those could be very helpful!” Fairday said.

  Marcus and Lizzy moved to different corners of the room and began searching. Noticing the broken doll staring up at her, Fairday bent down to look through the rest of the box. Other than some fancy teacups, the creepy doll was the only interesting item. Looking up, she saw Lizzy crouched down, peering under the wardrobe.

  Suddenly, Marcus shouted, “Hey! Have you already sorted through this box marked ‘bills’?”

  Shaking their heads, they both replied, “Nope.”

  Marcus began sifting through the papers. The girls walked over and each took a stack. After a few minutes, he blurted out, “Yes! I found something!” Grinning, Marcus waved a piece of paper in the air to grab the girls’ attention.

  “What’d you find?” Lizzy asked.

  “Check this out! It’s a letter, and it’s addressed to Ruby,” he said.

  “Another one?” Fairday asked. Their evidence was hidden in the oddest places.

  The three detectives knelt together, reading the letter:

  My Dearest Ruby,

  I am
sorry every day for what I have done to you. It all began when I was attacked by outlaws while traveling through the Black Forest in Germany. I wandered through the woods for days until I came upon a shack in the middle of a swamp. There I met a gypsy named Eldrich. She gave me shelter and then pointed me in the right direction. Before I left, she sold me a glass orb, claiming that if I ever spoke her name into it, she would appear and grant me a wish, at a price, of course.

  Fairday shot Marcus a quick glance as she recalled the blue glass ball that had rolled off the table and shattered into a million pieces. Could that have been what had broken? Marcus’s expression was one of pure innocence. She smiled, her eyes shifting back to the letter.

  The blueprints you found were designed by Eldrich for your mother. She was always so sick, and I loved her with all my heart. All I wanted was to take her to safety on the other side of the mirror, which is an enchanted parallel world. My plan was that after you were born, the three of us would be together forever. When the gypsy’s magic failed and I couldn’t save your mother, I refused to pay Eldrich’s price. Her revenge on me was taken out on you, and for this I have lost everything.

  Fairday’s mind skipped to the shadow hidden behind the willow in the picture Lizzy had sent her. That must have been Eldrich spying on the happy couple. Looking down, she finished reading the letter.

  Once I saw the brass key in the balcony door, I was sure Eldrich had somehow collected the debt I owed her and tricked you into going into the mirror. To make matters worse, I can no longer use the magic of the house or I would have come to you by now. I am sure Eldrich placed some sort of curse on me so I cannot access the magic. I only hope one day the curse will be lifted, and I will get to see you again. Please forgive me. I would do anything to take it all back.

  “So Larry Lovell was right. There was a curse on the Begonias. I wonder if Ruby’s been trapped in there since she went missing on her wedding day,” Fairday said, folding up the letter and slipping it into her pocket.