“Did he say what happened?” Josh asked. Sabina shook her head. Must be pretty bad then, Josh thought.
As Josh pulled up in front of Dan’s house, they saw a pair of police cruisers parked in front. The seventies ranch-style home was one of the newest in the area, but it was literally falling apart. Shutters were hanging off their hinges, all the bushes in front of the house were dead, and the lawn looked as though it hadn’t been mowed in months.
The front door was open when Sabina, Josh, and Jackson arrived. They walked in. Dan was sitting on the threadbare brown couch. He was white and shivering.
Sabina sat down next to him. “Hey, Dan. What happened?” she whispered.
He looked up, obviously grateful to see her. “Mark kept saying they were following him. We didn’t believe him. No one believed him.” He shook his head as if unable to comprehend what had happened.
“Who was following him?” Sabina asked.
“A car. He kept telling us that some car was following him home from the factory every night. He said it was trailing him—right on his bumper. And he said he heard small explosions, like the car was shooting at him. My mom and I just thought he’d been drinking again.”
Josh could see Dan’s mother through the open kitchen doorway. She was sitting at the kitchen table, talking to two officers. She kept dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
“Last night he didn’t come home at all,” Dan continued. “And I was happy. For once, I didn’t have him breathing down my neck about my video games. I wished . . . I wished he wouldn’t come home at all.” Dan sounded like he was very far away, lost in his own thoughts.
“It’s okay, Dan. You had a right to feel that way. He’s been awful to you,” Sabina said. “So what happened?”
“This morning, the police found his car. In a ditch. There were tons of bullet holes. Mark was . . . he was dead in the front seat.” Sabina’s eyes widened. Josh felt sick to his stomach.
“They couldn’t find the other car. And the bullets—they weren’t like anything the officers had ever seen before. I overheard one of them talking to my mom. He said the bullets looked like something out of a science fiction movie or . . . or a video game.” Dan dropped his head into his hands.
“I’m so sorry, Dan,” Jackson said.
Dan lifted his head from his hands. “He was a jerk,” Dan said. “He beat my mom up a couple of times. He drank way too much. He was just a complete jerk. And now . . .” Josh shuddered as a slight smile crept over Dan’s face. “He’s dead.”
12
Josh, Sabina, and Jackson spent most of the day at Dan’s house, helping out. Sabina had insisted that they stay. Josh didn’t think it was necessary. Despite the few tears Dan had shed when they’d first arrived, he now seemed to be pretty normal. He just kept talking about the Club meeting again to play Black Magic.
“When is the Club gonna meet again?” he kept asking. “I want to try a new spell this time.” At first, Sabina, Josh, and Jackson just shook their heads. They didn’t want to upset him. But when Dan asked again for the fifth time, Jackson snapped.
“Dude, are you insane?” he said. “We cannot play that game ever again!” Jackson’s lips trembled, and Josh saw tears forming behind his glasses. Dan didn’t say anything. He just stared blankly at Jackson.
When they finally left Dan’s house, it was getting dark outside. Dan’s mother had locked herself in her bedroom earlier that day, and she still hadn’t come out. His little sister was watching cartoons in the living room.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Sabina asked as they stood in the doorway. “Do you want us to stay until your mom gets up?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Really,” Dan said. He smiled, but it was a strange, crooked smile. It reminded Josh of a psycho in a slasher film. “Let me know if you guys want the Club to meet again tomorrow.” Josh just stared at him. Jackson looked like he might vomit. Dan waved at them cheerfully as Josh pulled out of the driveway.
“This is not good,” Jackson said. And they were quiet for the rest of the ride.
That night Josh kept thinking about Ned. Would he be the next to die? Last Josh heard, Ned was still in the hospital and so was Lindsey. When Josh finally got to sleep that night he dreamed of Ned handing him his still-beating heart. After waking up screaming, Josh tried to get back to sleep. But every time his eyes closed, that same sick scene replayed. Over and over, Ned was handing him his bloody, dripping heart. Josh barely slept at all. And when he lay awake, all he could think about was playing Black Magic.
At about two in the morning, his cell phone rang. It was Sabina. She’d had a nightmare too. Josh couldn’t sleep anyway, so he let Sabina tell him about her dream. Later he wished he hadn’t.
In Sabina’s dream, she was graduating from Bridgewater and had been accepted to Harvard. It was the night of graduation, and Sabina decided to congratulate Lindsey. Sabina approached Lindsey from behind. When Lindsey turned around, Sabina saw that her face was a mess of rotting flesh. Lindsey reached up to brush back a strand of hair, and a chunk of mangled skin and muscle fell off in her hand. Lindsey grinned, revealing a row of bloodrimmed holes where her perfect teeth had once been. Then she reached out for Sabina, pulling her in for a hug. Sabina felt the bloody pulp of Lindsey’s face, warm and pulsing against her cheek. She smelled decay.
“I’m scared,” Sabina told Josh over the phone. “Josh, I think Lindsey is going to die.”
13
Josh!” Josh’s mother called into his bedroom. Josh scrambled out of bed. He had finally gotten back to sleep, but the nightmare had repeated itself again and again. He opened his door and rubbed his eyes.
“Can you please watch your brother?” his mother asked. “I have to pick up some fabric swatches at the upholstery store.”
“No, I can’t.” he replied angrily. He was so tired he barely knew what he was saying. “I have to sleep!”
“Josh, it’s ten in the morning. You’ve had plenty of sleep.”
“All I do is watch Sam since we moved into this stupid house,” Josh grumbled. “You want someone to watch him? Hire a babysitter!”
“Josh!” she gasped. “I don’t know what’s going on with you these days. You’re cranky and miserable, and you’ve got dark circles under your eyes . . .”
“I’m fine,” he snapped.
“You’re not fine. Now, I’m asking you to watch your brother. So, please just do it, and we’ll talk about this later.”
Josh stared angrily at her. He didn’t say anything, but he was thinking about how much she had been bugging him since they moved to Bridgewater. She was always asking Josh to watch Sam, but she had almost no time for him. He was sick of it. She had no idea what he was going through these days. Still fuming, Josh turned away from his mother and headed back to his bed.
Behind him there was a loud thud, followed by two smaller, muffled thuds. Then he heard Sam scream. Josh raced out of his room to see what had happened.
His mother was lying at the bottom of the stairs. She was crumpled up on her side. One arm was twisted backward in a way that Josh knew had to be broken. A small sliver of bone was sticking out through her elbow. She looked up at Josh helplessly.
“Oops,” she whispered.
Josh ran for the phone.
Josh spent four hours at the hospital with his mother. He’d sat fidgeting in the overheated waiting area while she was repeatedly x-rayed and scanned by a bunch of machines with names he couldn’t pronounce. Thankfully, she only had a broken arm. She was going to be okay. For now.
14
That Monday, the Club members ate lunch together as always. Josh wasn’t hungry, but he went through the motions of getting a sandwich and drink. He carried them over to the table where Sabina, Jackson, and Dan were already sitting. Sabina and Jackson looked exhausted and miserable. Dan didn’t look too bad though. Josh winced. He didn’t know how they were going to take what he was about to say.
“My mom fell down the stairs and broke her a
rm,” Josh announced. He paused and then lowered his voice. “And I think I made her fall.”
Dan chuckled a little. “What? You mean you pushed her down the stairs?”
Josh glared at Dan. “Nothing happened to make my mother fall,” Josh explained. “I got angry at her, and she just fell.” He clenched his fingers into fists.
Jackson looked down at his salad like it was sawdust. Sabina’s eyes filled with tears.
“Yeah, Josh,” Dan said through a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, “It’s called gravity. Sometimes people fall down the stairs. Geez, man, you took physics, didn’t you? I mean, what is wrong with you guys? You’d think—”
“Lindsey died last night,” Sabina interrupted.
Josh’s head jerked up. “Did they find out what was wrong with her?”
Sabina shook her head. She was crying now. “Her symptoms looked like some kind of flesh-eating virus,” she said, shuddering. “But when they tested her blood, they couldn’t find any evidence of a virus.”
“And the kind of symptoms she had have only been seen in people who live in Africa,” Jackson added gravely. His red-rimmed eyes looked hopeless. “Lindsey’s never been outside of the United States.”
“What have we done?” Josh whispered. “What did that game do?”
After lunch, Josh and Sabina were racing through the halls to their next class when someone caught the collar of Josh’s shirt. Josh skidded to a halt, nearly choking as he looked up. His heart sank. It was Principal Weston. Most of the students called her “Wicked Witch Weston.” She had gray hair that strung around her shoulders like old spaghetti. She always wore the same plain black dress with pointy witch-like shoes, and she was so thin that some kids joked that she was two-dimensional. She also had a reputation for getting a thrill out of sending kids to detention.
“No running in the hall!” Principal Weston barked. She started writing out detention slips for both Josh and Sabina. Josh nearly groaned out loud. As if things weren’t bad enough. Now he’d have to deal with detention and probably a lecture from his mother. Sabina looked like she was going to start crying again. Josh was pretty sure Sabina had never had detention before.
“Report to my office after school. I’ll direct you to your detention room. And no running!” Principal Weston shoved the bright yellow detention slips into their hands and marched away.
As Sabina and Josh headed slowly to their class, Josh took a deep breath. Having detention was going to make him miss his very first football practice. But he knew he couldn’t get angry at Principal Weston. He didn’t want anything to happen to her. He thought about happy things, like when he kicked the football straight through the goal posts. Or how he felt when Sabina held his hand or lightly brushed past him. Josh hoped Sabina was doing the same.
When Sabina and Josh arrived at Principal Weston’s office to report for detention, they wondered what was in store for them. At least they’d have to be quiet for an hour. They’d probably have zero chance of fighting with someone and causing another death, Josh decided. Sabina frowned at Josh as they knocked on Principal Weston’s door.
“I’ve never had detention,” Sabina whispered. Josh gave her hand a little squeeze.
They waited a few moments, but Principal Weston wasn’t answering the door. Josh knocked again. Nothing.
“Um, Principal Weston?” he tried. “We’re here for detention?” There was no response. Josh looked at Sabina. She just shrugged. Finally, Josh opened the door and stepped into the office with Sabina close behind him.
Dangling right in front of their faces were Principal Weston’s pointed black shoes. Sabina screamed. Principal Weston was hanging from a noose tied to a pipe overhead. Josh peered up at her face. Her skin was blue. Her blue lips were twisted into a horrifying grin.
Sabina started to shake uncontrollably. Josh instinctively put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She looked up at him in shock.
“I wished—” Sabina said.
“Oh no,” Josh whispered. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.
“I wished I didn’t have detention. I wished she’d leave me alone forever.”
“We have to stop this,” Josh said. “No matter what.”
15
That evening the Club met again. A thunderstorm was underway when Josh and Sabina arrived at her house. They dashed from the car, and they still got soaked. Rain was coming down hard, and the wind was bending tree branches at all kinds of odd angles.
Josh was nervous. While he knew that Sabina and Jackson would want to find a way to end the hexes, he wasn’t sure about Dan. Dan had become a different person since Mark had died. All he talked about was playing the game. He didn’t shed a tear at his stepfather’s funeral. Josh had even heard him yell at his little sister when she cried about the death. Dan wasn’t a person that Josh recognized. And that terrified him.
“So, get out the game board,” Dan said when he arrived. “Aren’t we going to play?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jackson asked. He was pacing rapidly around the room. “More people will die.”
“If more people like Mark die, I don’t see a problem with that,” Dan said. “Look, we just have to be more careful. We have the power to take bad people out of the world. We should use that.”
“I don’t want to be a murderer,” Sabina whispered. She told Dan and Jackson what had happened with Principal Weston. Jackson let out a quiet moan and clapped his hand to his forehead. Dan looked puzzled.
Josh shook his head. “Do you see, Dan? We can’t control this. Look at what happened to my mom. Look at what happened to Principal Weston. We’re killing innocent people. Let’s find a way to stop this.”
“You don’t know that your anger or Sabina’s anger caused anything,” Dan reasoned.
“Come on, Dan.” Jackson was shaking. “Don’t be stupid. We do know. And you know it too.” He was walking closer to Dan, getting in his face. “We cannot control this. So, are you going to help us end this or not?”
The storm outside was growing stronger. Lightning flashed into the dark basement through a lone window. The thunder seemed to shake the whole house. Sabina grabbed Josh’s hand and held it tightly.
“Settle down, you guys!” Sabina yelled. “Let’s work this out.”
But Dan and Jackson weren’t listening. “This isn’t fair!” Dan yelled above the storm. “Just give me the game. I’ll play it myself! I don’t need you guys.”
“We can’t let you do that, Dan.” Jackson lowered his voice and glared into Dan’s eyes.
Just then, there was a loud crack of thunder. The entire house seemed to rattle and groan. Sabina held tighter to Josh’s hand. And then the basement window shattered. A cold gust of wind blew the glass shards into the room. They shot through the air like flying daggers. Sabina screamed and threw herself to the ground. Josh ducked. When the wind stopped howling, Josh uncovered his face and looked up. He gasped.
Jackson had been standing by the window. But now, he was at the opposite wall. Glass shards pinned him by his T-shirt to the wall. They seemed to outline his body, except for one long piece of the glass. That piece was buried in Jackson’s right arm. Blood dripped to the floor.
16
Dan had disappeared moments after the glass had started flying. Josh and Sabina didn’t waste time trying to find him. Instead, they got Jackson off the wall and rushed him to the hospital. Jackson had the piece of glass removed from his arm. Luckily, he hadn’t been too badly hurt.
Josh knew now that they could not count on Dan’s help to stop the hexes. They’d have to figure out a way on their own.
“The Club meets again,” Josh said as they left the hospital. “Tomorrow after school—minus one member.”
The next day, after Josh was done with football practice, he, Sabina, and Jackson met in Sabina’s basement again. The boarded-up window was an all-too-present reminder of how serious their situation was. They had to keep their emoti
ons in check. And they could never play the game again.
They had decided to start at the source—the game. Sabina carefully pulled off the box’s cover. She pulled out the board, the cards, the handwritten hexes they’d used, and the crystal. Josh’s fingers itched to pick up a spell card or try a hex again. But he sat on his hands instead and tried not to stare at the crystal. The still-visible image of the girl’s face in its center seemed to be winking at him, mocking him.
Carefully, they read through the hex instructions again, looking for any clues they might have missed. There were none.
“Let’s see if technology can help us.” Jackson pulled out his laptop and picked up a signal from the wireless router Sabina’s mom had recently installed in their house. He Googled “Black Magic.” Sixty-eight million links came up. They ranged from instructions on satanic rituals to Web-design companies. He tried narrowing the search using words specific to the game. Nothing that came up was even close.
“Great . . . ,” Sabina said. She smacked her fist hard against a sofa cushion. The handwritten instructions that had been wedged behind it poked up. Sabina pulled out the paper and examined it. There was something written on the back: MG
“What’s MG?” Josh asked.
“Looks like someone’s initials,” said Jackson. “Maybe the person who wrote the hex instructions?”
Sabina shook her head. “But what would the G stand for? My family—the Lawstons—have been in this house for eighty years.”
“What about before your family moved in?” Jackson asked. “This looks like a really old game. Could the previous owners have left it behind?”
Sabina thought for a few seconds. “I do remember my mom telling me about the people my greatgrandmother bought this place from. What was their last name?” She looked at the ceiling, trying to remember. “Ummmm . . . Greenfeld! That was it.”
The Club (Night Fall ™) Page 3