The Perilous Polynesian Pendant

by Jason Lethcoe

  Andy backed away from the god as slowly as possible. A rotten stench emanated from Kapu’s mouth. It smelled like rancid meat, and Andy tried to stop himself from thinking about what Kapu’s last meal might have been.

  Andy’s knees were shaking, and as he continued backing up, he forgot to pay attention. He didn’t see the loose bit of hardened rock near his heel. And when his foot slipped from beneath him, his only thought was Don’t fall in the magma! Don’t fall in the magma!

  For once, Andy’s body listened to him. He stopped inches from falling into the sizzling river that flowed on either side of the rocky island.

  That was close! Andy thought. His legs shook, but he had a new resolve. No matter what, even if I have to die, I’ll never unlock that pendant. Phink will have to do it himself.

  Just then, Phink’s voice called down, “Andy, I have a gun pointed at Abigail’s head. If you don’t unlock the pendant, Albert Awol’s precious daughter will be killed. Do you want that on your conscience?”

  Andy gritted his teeth in frustration. He hadn’t anticipated Phink using Abigail against him. “Let her go!” he shouted.

  Suddenly, a scream rocked the cavern. “Please, n-n-no…” Abigail stammered.

  What should I do? Andy fretted. If I don’t unlock the pendant, Abigail will die! He imagined Albert’s reaction when he told him that he’d had the chance to save her but hadn’t taken it.

  Andy looked at the sleeping giant and the pendant that hung around his massive neck.

  “If I do this, how do I know that you won’t hurt Abigail anyway?” he called up to Phink.

  “You don’t!” Phink answered. “But are you willing to take that chance?” There was the sound of a gunshot and a sudden cry.

  “My leg!” Abigail screamed.

  “Abigail!” Andy yelled.

  “Now then, that little demonstration should convince you that I’m serious about killing her,” said Phink. “Next time, I won’t be aiming low. You have three seconds to make your decision, Andy Stanley.” He began to count. “Three…two…”

  Andy couldn’t let Abigail die. He reached into his pocket and removed the Kapu Key.

  “All right, Phink. You win! I’ll do it,” Andy called. “Let her go!”

  There was the sound of a scuffle far above. Andy hoped it meant that Phink had released his grip on Abigail.

  “Make it quick, Andy! I’m running out of patience!” Phink called.

  Andy examined the key. Unlike the Tiki Key, this one was metal. Its surface was rough and pitted, and the handle was unadorned. If he’d stumbled upon this key anywhere else, he would have thought it just a simple door key.

  Maybe that’s why it’s been secret for so long. Nobody would expect that a little thing like this was capable of releasing a monster.

  As if in a dream, Andy walked to the sleeping giant. He felt completely numb, like what he was doing was too much for his mind to comprehend.

  Andy took a deep breath. Here we go….

  He winced as he turned the key in the lock. There was a sharp click. And then, the Pailina Pendant fell from the giant’s neck, dragging a thin iron chain behind it.

  Kapu’s giant eyelids fluttered open, revealing glowing red eyeballs.

  This is bad, Andy thought as he backed away. This is really, really bad!

  With a rumble that shook the walls of the volcano, the giant rose from where he’d been sleeping and let out a tremendous roar.

  Rocks showered down around Andy, and a particularly large boulder slammed into the rocky floor.

  Fortunately, Kapu was so intent upon leaving his prison that he took no notice of Andy. The god was rising to his feet. Rising from the pit.

  The delicate spell that had held him captive was broken.

  —

  Professor Phink stood at the rim of the pit, staring down into the murky haze below. He raised his gun, preparing to shoot down at the boy again.

  Perhaps it was because Abigail sensed what the professor meant to do. Or perhaps it was because, after hearing the supernatural roar of Kapu, she knew that things had gone too far. Either way, something in her snapped. In spite of her injured leg, she mustered her strength and slammed into the professor with all her might. But Abigail was not strong enough to push him over the edge. Instead, the impact jarred Phink, and his finger pushed on the trigger of the gun. The bullet ricocheted off the cavern walls.

  Phink turned, fury blazing in his yellow eyes. “That was a mistake,” he growled.

  Looking at the man, Abigail was reminded that he was much more physically formidable than she. She started to back away, but the cavern was small, and Abigail soon found herself backed against a wall.

  Phink stalked toward her, an expression on his face unlike any Abigail had ever seen before. She steeled herself for an attack. But it never came. Instead, a gigantic tattooed hand grabbed the professor from behind. The man screamed in surprise as he was lifted high into the air!

  Abigail’s eyes grew wide as she saw the monstrous head emerge from the pit.

  Kapu was awake, and he was hungry!

  “Put me down!” Phink screamed. “I command you to put me down!”

  But it didn’t work. Kapu wasn’t listening. The panicked Professor Phink yelled once more, trying in his most authoritative voice to command the god to release him. He wriggled his hand free and shot his pistol directly at the evil god, but the bullets bounced harmlessly from his stony body.

  Kapu raised the professor toward his rows of razor-sharp teeth, howling with hunger and fury.

  Seconds later, Phink was gone. All that remained of the villain was a single black glove that fluttered down, down, down into the steaming crack in the earth below.

  Abigail ducked behind a large stone outcropping as the giant climbed to the surface of the pit and, with a tremendous roar, shot through the top of the volcano like an eruption.

  The echo of Kapu’s cry died away and was replaced by an eerie silence. From somewhere far below, a boy’s thin and frightened voice shouted, “Can someone please get me out of here?”

  Andy stood face-to-face with the young woman who’d nearly killed him. Neither one knew what to say.

  “Are you okay?” Andy asked, gazing with concern at the blood that stained her trouser leg.

  Abigail winced and nodded. “The bullet grazed me, but I’m all right.” She gave Andy a wry smile. “That last will and testament idea was pretty good. It was easy to decipher the code you sent.”

  Andy grinned. “I thought you might figure it out.”

  She nodded. “I’ve been trained in all of the Society’s secret codes and languages. My father was grooming me to be a member….” Her voice trailed off at the mention of her father, and she gazed thoughtfully at the floor.

  Andy shifted uncomfortably, unsure what to say.

  “If what you said was true,” she said quietly, “about him still loving me and wanting my forgiveness, I…well…I mean, there’s nothing I’d rather…”

  “You don’t have to say it,” Andy told her, finding his voice. “I know you and your father had a difficult relationship after your mother died….”

  Abigail looked up sharply. “He told you about that?”

  Andy nodded.

  Abigail flushed with embarrassment. “I was upset. I needed someone to blame for what had happened, and…I guess I didn’t know where to put my anger.”

  Andy was startled to see tears forming in Abigail’s eyes. “I knew deep down that working for the Collective was wrong. But I just couldn’t let go of my anger toward my father. Your letter reminded me of how much I’ve lost. I guess I’ve known it for a long time, but didn’t want to think about it.”

  They were both quiet for a long moment. Andy could see that talking about the old wounds she’d nursed for so long was tough for Abigail, but it seemed she wanted to talk to someone about how she felt.

  “I should have known better than to trust the professor,” Abigail continued, wiping her eyes. “And
when I saw that he actually would have killed me back there, it only made things clearer. My father was right about him. I should have listened.”

  Abigail glanced at the spot where Kapu had appeared moments before. Her gaze hardened. “He got exactly what he deserved. You know, up until that thing came out of the volcano, I thought this whole search for the pendant and the key was no more than an eccentric superstition.”

  Abigail turned her gaze back to Andy. Her lips were pressed tight in a determined expression. “I want to make things right,” she said. “What can I do?”

  “You really want to help?” Andy asked.

  Abigail nodded. “I do. It’s the only way I can make up for the mistakes I’ve made. Do you think the Society will allow me to make amends?”

  Andy grew thoughtful. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m new to this whole thing myself.” He gave Abigail a small smile. “But I’ll vouch for you and tell them how you helped me back there. Maybe having Ned Lostmore’s grandson on your side will count for something.”

  Abigail offered a contrite smile. “Thanks for rescuing me. Phink really would have killed me—I know that for sure now. What you did took a lot of courage.”

  Andy smiled back. “I know you tried to stop him—to save me. Consider us even,” he said, extending his hand. Abigail smiled and shook it. An awkward pause descended between the two of them.

  Finally, Abigail broke the silence.

  “We’ve got to hurry if we’re going to stop that thing,” she said.

  “But what about the pendant?” Andy asked. “It’s still down there.”

  Abigail gazed back down into the pit where Kapu had been sleeping just moments before.

  “I’ll go back down there and get it. If it put him to sleep once before, my guess is that it will do it again. We just need to find the spell to lock it around his neck,” Abigail said.

  Andy nodded solemnly. “Madame Wiki will know what to do!”

  Andy and Abigail ran from the cave. When they got to the clearing where the others were, they were surprised to see that the rest of Phink’s mercenaries had gone. Rusty, breathing hard from the recent battle, indicated the many fallen enemies that surrounded them.

  “The rest ran like cowards,” Betty said grimly. Andy noticed that she was busy tending to a wound on her sister’s arm, winding it with bandages.

  “Listen, I need to tell you something,” Andy said. He gestured to where Abigail was standing a little away from the group, fidgeting nervously and staring at her feet.

  “I wondered when you’d be getting to that,” Rusty said coldly.

  “She saved my life and turned her back on Phink,” Andy explained. “I would have never escaped if it hadn’t been for her. I really think she wants to make amends and help fix all this.”

  Cedric spoke up, giving Abigail a wary glance. “How do we know we can trust her? What if this is an elaborate ruse by Phink to gain our trust and betray our secrets?”

  Andy folded his arms. “There’s more. Professor Phink is dead. Kapu woke up and ate him. Which means we have bigger problems. Abigail went back into that pit to get the pendant back. I give my word as Ned Lostmore’s grandson that I believe her when she says that she’s changed. She wants to help defeat Kapu.”

  Andy gazed around the group with a defiant expression. “Does anyone want to challenge me on that?”

  The group fell silent. Then Rusty Bucketts grinned and smacked Andy so hard on the back that he thought he might have dislocated something.

  “HA! That’s the spirit, boy! Sounds just like his old grandfather, doesn’t he?”

  Andy smiled and was relieved to see that the others were smiling, too.

  The twins tilted their heads in unison, studying Abigail for a long moment. Finally, Dotty spoke up. “She could be dangerous. But for Albert’s sake, I think we should do it. If there’s any chance at healing the rift between them, we should try.”

  At the mention of his name, Andy realized Albert was missing. “Wait a minute. Where is he?” he asked.

  The others exchanged puzzled glances. “He and Hoku were fighting just over the ridge. I haven’t seen either of them since the battle ended,” Rusty said.

  Andy glanced over at Abigail. He knew she had been looking forward to making peace with her father. It seemed that would have to wait. Andy hoped that wherever Albert was, he was okay. But with Kapu on the loose, he couldn’t spend too much time worrying about one missing friend.

  The boat ride back to the base camp was subdued. The nervous energy they’d felt on the way to the island had been replaced by fear. They had a big job to do, and none of them was sure they were up to it.

  When they arrived at the docks, they found Madame Wiki waiting for them. She’d seen the top of Nanea explode when Kapu flew out of the volcano, and she’d suspected that something had gone wrong with the plan. One look at their faces confirmed her fears.

  “It seems we have a problem,” she said with a grim smile.

  Just seeing her, Andy felt a wave of relief.

  She’ll know what to do.

  “Do you know how to make the magic work to put Kapu back in his prison?” Andy asked when he had explained what happened. “We have the pendant….”

  Madame Wiki stared at the pendant in his outstretched hand. For the first time since Andy had met her, she looked like she didn’t have an answer.

  The old medicine woman shook her head slowly. “This kind of magic is very ancient and powerful. It is kept by the spirits of the islands. We mortals don’t know its secrets!”

  “But if the legends are true, then Kapu will destroy the world!” said Betty. “We won’t be able to stop him!”

  Dotty nodded in agreement.

  “Where do you think Kapu has gone?” Abigail asked.

  Madame Wiki turned to Abigail, her face grim. “There’s only one possible place that Kapu could be,” she said. Her expression darkened and her voice grew quiet. “The legends say that when he’s released upon the world, his hunger will know no bounds. He will go where he can find the most people.”

  Andy thought about the geography of Hawaii. As far as he could remember, Molokai, the little island they were on, was largely uninhabited. But there was another island nearby.

  “You don’t mean…?” he began.

  Madame Wiki nodded.

  The others exchanged confused glances. Abigail was the first to understand. “Oh, no,” she said, turning pale. Then, turning to Rusty, she said, “We’re gonna need that boat!”

  The gentle sounds of tropical music lulled Mrs. Peggy Benson into a light doze. Her chubby, sunburned legs were slathered with a generous amount of sunscreen, and she was sipping a tropical drink from a hollowed pineapple.

  Her trip to Honolulu had been an impulsive decision. Everyone at the bank where she worked in Toledo, Ohio, had been green with envy when she had announced that she’d be taking all the vacation days that she’d managed to save up over the last fifteen years of employment.

  She’d relished the looks on their faces—especially Gertrude Butts’s. Peggy and Gertrude had hated each other for years, and that dislike had only been aggravated by the fact that their desks were right next to each other.

  The ground beneath Peggy’s painted toenails shook. She glanced at her pineapple, noticing that the drink had sloshed over the side.

  Peggy stared at the frozen concoction for a moment and then called out in a shrill voice, “Waiter! I’m going to need another…”

  She’d been about to say “drink,” but the word turned into a scream of panic as a horrifying monster, larger even than the hotel in which she was staying, reached into the swimming pool and grabbed a handful of swimmers.

  Kapu chomped delightedly, obviously relishing the cries of his victims as he grabbed at the crowd of sunburned humans.

  —

  Andy and the members of the Jungle Explorers’ Society came ashore at a sandy cove near Waikiki Beach.

  As Andy stepped out of the boat,
he noticed that Abigail wasn’t moving. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Actually, no,” she confessed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Abigail hesitated. “I’m worried about my father. No one has seen him. For all we know, he’s still on the island with a volcano that could erupt any minute. And now we’re supposed to face off against this horrible monster that I’m responsible for waking. And if we can’t stop him, he’ll destroy the world. And it will be my fault. And…I’m scared.”

  Andy nodded. “I’m scared, too. But Albert is a member of the Society. He knows how to take care of himself. And they’d never let him stay lost. For now, we need to stop Kapu. If you want to prove to the Society that you’ve changed, helping now is the best way to do it.”

  Abigail nodded. Andy could tell by her resolute expression that she intended to follow his suggestion.

  Andy offered Abigail his hand. Holding it tightly, she stepped out of the boat. The two took in the evidence of Kapu’s destruction. Roofs were smashed and debris was everywhere.

  It’s even worse than I thought it would be, Andy thought. It looks like an entire army came through here.

  The others must have been feeling the same way. Every member of the Society wore the same hopeless expression.

  Then Andy had an idea. Wasn’t his pen meant to summon help? Why hadn’t he thought of it before? His grandfather seemed to know all about magic and curses. He might have an answer!

  Andy removed the pen from his pocket. Its jade barrel gleamed in the afternoon sun. Placing the cap on the back of the pen, Andy turned to the others. “My grandfather said that if I press down three times on the cap, help will come. I’m not altogether certain what form it will take, but seeing as it helped me once before when I nearly drowned…”

  The others crowded around to watch. Andy took a deep breath. He was about to press down on the cap when a familiar voice interrupted, stopping him short.

  “That won’t be necessary. I’m already one step ahead of you. Ha! Good one, what? A-head of you?”