“We’re really going to end up in a horrible place,” Sally muttered.
“Maybe you shouldn’t go with us,” Adam said to Cindy. “You could stand guard on this side.”
“What am I guarding?” Cindy asked, although she sounded interested.
“You never know what might come back through the portal,” Sally said.
“It might be a good idea if one of us does stay on this side,” Watch said. “If we don’t return, the guard could go for help.” He added, “I don’t mind standing guard.”
Sally glanced over her shoulder at the approaching tombstone. “I bet none of us would mind staying at this point.” But then she suddenly let go of Cindy’s hand. “But it should be Cindy. The rest of us are experienced with this portal.”
“Are you guys sure?” Cindy asked, dropping Adam’s hand and watching them as they continued to trudge backward toward the tombstone.
“You’re the logical person to stay behind,” Adam said, trying to reassure her. “There’s no use going through the portal if you don’t want to do it.”
“Like we’re all having a barrel of fun here,” Sally remarked.
Cindy walked beside them as they stumbled backward. “I feel like a coward.”
“You should,” Sally said. “But I’ll try not to tease you about it.” She paused. “If Bryce should reappear before we do, send him back to look for us.”
“Have him bring his knife,” Watch said.
“No,” Adam said. “Cindy, grab the knapsack. I want to bring his stuff with us.”
Cindy hurried to the tombstone and grabbed the bag. She handed it to Adam.
“How long should I wait here before I go for help?” she asked.
“If we’re not back by dark,” Watch said, “find Bum, tell him what’s happened. He might be able to help.”
“If he can be bothered,” Sally added.
“We’re just about there,” Adam said anxiously. “Let’s hold on to each other tight. Goodbye, Cindy. Wish us luck.”
“Good luck!” Cindy called.
“I feel a whole lot better now that she’s blessed us,” Sally said.
They stumbled as they stepped onto the actual grave. Suddenly everything went black and he felt as if he were sinking. His friends seemed miles away. He couldn’t see them. He was in the eye of a hurricane, where everything was perfectly calm, although he knew madness raged all around him.
4
When everything returned to normal, Adam realized they were in a place that was far from normal. It was Spooksville and it was not. As they looked around in wonder, they realized they were in a heavenly version of their home. A sweet scent filled the air. The surrounding trees were a lush green. Everything seemed to be glowing with a faint golden light, radiating love and joy.
“This isn’t so bad,” Sally remarked.
“It looks like paradise,” Watch said, removing his glasses to clean them. “It’s amazing we ended up in such a wonderful place, considering how scared we were.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Sally said quickly, letting go of their hands. “I think it was me who lifted our overall vibes.”
“I liked the way your arms shook so much when you weren’t scared,” Adam said.
“They only shook because I was holding on to your arms,” Sally said, stepping away from the tombstone. She sucked in a deep breath of the sweet air. “I love this place! Look at the sky. It looks like one huge rainbow. I don’t know if I want to go home.”
Watch was concerned. “We tried the Secret Path to find Bryce. But if he’s off fighting evil, I doubt that he’s here.”
“That’s true,” Adam agreed. Then he stopped and stared down at some initials carved into the base of the tombstone—BP. He pointed them out to the others. “Bryce Poole. He must have been here.”
Sally bent over the initials. “It’s only a couple of letters, but he could have carved them.” She raised her head and stared out of the cemetery, which actually looked more like a park. “I wonder where he could have gone?”
“Let’s walk into town and ask for him,” Watch said, replacing his glasses. “I think I see people in the distance.”
“Wait a second,” Adam said. “We should figure out where we are before we talk to anyone.”
“That’s easy,” Sally said. “We’re in heaven.”
“You mean we’re in a heaven,” Adam said. “This place is beautiful but it’s still Spooksville. See, the castle’s over there, and the ocean is down that way.”
“What I mean is we don’t have to worry about getting killed here,” Sally said. “I think if Bryce is around, people will be happy to lead us to him.”
“Then why did he carve his initials on the base of the tombstone?” Adam said. “He could have just set out a sign announcing that he was here.”
“He might have been afraid of something,” Watch agreed.
Sally laughed. “Nonsense! This is one place where I’m not afraid. Let’s go explore. I think that Bryce is here, and when we find him he’ll probably be having the time of his life.”
“I hope you’re right,” Adam said.
They walked along the road that wound down toward the ocean and the center of town. Along the way they passed the castle. To their immense surprise they saw Ms. Ann Templeton—or this dimension’s version of her—supervising a picnic for a bunch of dwarfs and elves. She waved, and they didn’t know what else to do so they waved back. They were having a barbecue of chicken and fish. Each of the dwarfs had a can of Coke, but the elves were all drinking orange soda out of clear glass bottles.
“See,” Sally said. “Here she doesn’t have nasty goblins working for her.”
“I kind of liked Belfart,” Watch mused. “I hope the marines accepted him.”
“Maybe we should stop and talk to Ann Templeton,” Adam said, thinking out loud. “Get the scoop on this place.”
“No,” Sally said. “I want to get into town. Bryce is probably there.” She added, “I wouldn’t mind going to my house to see what the Sally on this side is like.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Adam said, although the same thought had occurred to him. “It might complicate things if we met ourselves.”
“It might give us a mild case of schizophrenia,” Watch agreed.
“You guys are no fun today,” Sally said. “I’m dying to meet the heavenly version of myself—no pun intended. I bet I’m simply extraordinary.”
“Well, there is a lot of room for improvement,” Adam muttered.
Sally snorted. “I heard that. Come on, let’s at least get something to eat. I bet the food here is delicious.”
They ended up stopping at a fast food joint on the edge of town. In their normal Spooksville the place was called FRED’S FAT FOOD. But here it was called FRIEND’S FANTASTIC FOOD. Plus the guy at the counter didn’t look anything like Fred, who had tattoos, dirty fingernails, and an apron stained with human blood. The handsome young man who took their orders had long golden curls and eyes as clear blue as the sky. In fact, he didn’t even want to be paid. He pushed their money back when they set it on the counter. The food was on the house.
“I could get into living here,” Sally said.
“Maybe that’s why Bryce didn’t return,” Watch said. “He liked it so much he just decided to stay.”
“Whatever he decided doesn’t matter; we have to go back,” Adam said. “Cindy’s waiting for us. She’ll be worried.”
“If she hadn’t been such a coward she could be with us here now,” Sally said.
“You thought she should stay,” Adam protested.
“And I’m glad she did,” Sally said. “She was so scared—we probably all would have ended up in some dark corner of the universe.”
Their food arrived and it was wonderful. Really, it tasted better than any meal they’d ever had in their lives, and it was just hot dogs and french fries. Sally was so pleased by the food that she ordered a vanilla milkshake, which she refused to sha
re with Adam.
“You can still get fat in heaven,” she said. “I wouldn’t want that for you if we’re going to live forever now.”
When they were about to leave the place, Adam struck up a conversation with the young man who served them. He listened patiently while Adam explained how they were searching for a friend named Bryce Poole. Adam asked Sally to describe Bryce. When they were through, the man spoke in a sympathetic tone.
“You three aren’t from around here, are you?”
“Not exactly,” Adam replied. “We’re sort of from a neighboring city.”
The man nodded. “I understand. We get people like you now and then.”
“You do?” Sally asked, amazed.
“Yes,” the young man said. “And the best thing you can do is go find your counterpart in the city. Once you find him or her, everything will be all right.”
“That was exactly what I wanted to do,” Sally said, looking rather pleased with herself.
Watch was confused. “So you know we’re not from this dimension?”
The young man with the golden hair smiled. “That’s obvious to all of us.”
“You mean everyone in the city knows we’re strangers here?” Adam asked.
The man ignored the question. “Find your counterpart and everything will become clear.” He paused and stared off in the distance. As he did a strange light shone in his eyes. “I think they’re waiting for you at Adam’s house.”
“Waiting for us?” Watch asked. “How do they know we’re here?”
The man just smiled again. “You better hurry. You don’t want to keep them waiting.”
Feeling confused, Adam left the restaurant with his friends. Sally insisted that they head straight for Adam’s house. But both Watch and Adam were having doubts.
“He didn’t really answer our questions,” Watch complained.
“He said our other selves would help us,” Sally replied. “He was a nice man—we can trust him.”
“He seemed like a nice man,” Adam said. “But I agree with Watch. His answers were too vague.”
“I don’t care what you guys say,” Sally replied. “I’m going to see my better half. I can hardly wait to have a deep and meaningful conversation with her.”
“This will be one argument she’s finally going to lose,” Watch said.
Since they didn’t know why they were reluctant to go, Adam and Watch agreed to accompany Sally to visit their other selves. Finding Adam’s house wasn’t difficult because it was exactly where it was in the other Spooksville.
Their three counterparts were sitting outside Adam’s house.
They smiled when they saw Adam and Cindy and Watch.
All six of them smiled.
Then the counterparts stood up and slowly walked toward them.
As they did so, their faces began to change.
They began to melt. Into hideous demon forms.
5
It was too late. The three demons—they even had horns now—were on them in an instant. Adam was struck across the face with a scaly hand—his arms yanked behind his back. He felt a sharp pain in his spine, and he dropped Bryce Poole’s knapsack. For a moment everything went black, and Adam thought he would pass out. Then he realized he was being dragged toward a steel pole, which he had not noticed a second earlier. It stood in the center of his yard, spiked chains hanging off it.
The yard was no longer the same. All around him the scenery was changing, becoming darker and dirtier, lit with a chilling red glow. The heavenly version of Spooksville was turning into a hellish realm. The demon that had hold of Adam leered in his face. The creature’s teeth were sharp, his eyes like those of a wicked cat, green and splintered with thick red veins. The nails on his claws were sharp like razors. He hissed at Adam.
“We have you now, fool!” the demon said as he snapped Adam’s wrists into cuffs attached to the chains. Beside him, Adam saw the same torture happening to Watch and Sally. They both had demons leering in their faces. Adam’s demon giggled, “You’re never going to escape!”
Adam fought to remain calm. “Who are you? What is this place?” The town continued to change into a nightmare realm of ruined buildings and howling creatures. Up and down the street Adam could see many poles where people had been chained. Most hung lifeless, little more than skeletons, but a few still struggled to break free. The demon tugged at Adam’s hair and slobbered on his shirt.
“Who am I?” the demon asked. “I am you. I am your dark half. And this place is the Dark Corner. Those who come here from your world never return.”
“But everything was so nice at first,” Adam said.
The demon howled. “We always put on a show for newcomers! You humans are so stupid!”
Adam tried to sound brave even though he was terrified. Most of the other prisoners looked as if they had been there for ages.
“What are you going to do with us?” he demanded.
“Let you rot until the Gatekeepers come to judge you,” the demon said. He yanked hard on Adam’s head, pulling out a clump of hair. He held it up for Adam and the others to see. “With this I can enter your world, and become you! My partners and I will pass through the Secret Path and ruin everything that is yours!”
“No!” Adam pleaded. “Wait! Can’t we talk about this?”
But the demons weren’t listening. Along with his partners—who had also torn out clumps of hair from Watch’s and Sally’s heads—he put the hair in his mouth and slowly chewed it down. Then, by some wicked miracle, he began to change back into the form he had assumed when they had first seen him. Now he looked like Adam, and the other two demons once again resembled Watch and Sally.
“Now we have a piece of you inside us!” Adam’s demon sneered. “We’re free to go where we wish!”
“You can’t go into our world!” Sally shouted at the demons. “You’ll never get away with it! Our friends will spot you immediately, and you’ll be destroyed.”
Adam’s demon laughed in her face. “By the time your friends know who we are they’ll be here with you! Rotting in the Dark Corner!”
“But maybe we can work out a compromise,” Watch suggested. “I can see why you don’t like living here. It’s a nasty place. We have ghettos back in our world that are like this. Maybe we can help you find a better place to live, and you can let us go.”
The demons howled with delight. “We don’t want to let you go!” Adam’s demon said. “We love it when humans suffer! We live for suffering! Come, my pals, let’s go play with these fools’ friends!”
The demons danced away, heading in the direction of the cemetery and the interdimensional portal. Adam had never felt so miserable as he did right then. His wrists weren’t simply chained, they were pinned above his head, and the spikes in the wrist cuffs were digging into his skin. Watch and Sally looked equally uncomfortable. All around them the air was filled with fumes and ash, making it difficult to breathe. Adam coughed as his throat dried out. Sally hung her head as if she were weeping.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It just seemed like such a nice place.”
“The demons made it seem that way so that we would drop our guard,” Adam said grimly. “But don’t blame yourself. We were fooled as well.”
“But we probably wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for you,” Watch added truthfully.
“That’s true,” Adam had to admit.
Sally moaned. “I said I’m sorry. What else am I supposed to do?”
“If you could reach Bryce’s knapsack, we might get his knife and try to pick these locks,” Watch suggested. The backpack was closest to Sally. “See if you can catch the strap with your foot.”
“I’ll try,” Sally said and strained forward with her right foot for the bag. Just another two inches and she’d be able to reach it, but even arching her back and kicking out, the tip of her shoe just missed the straps. After a couple of minutes of struggling she gave up and sighed. “I can’t do it. What are we going to
do now?”
“Probably rot for eternity,” Watch said.
“Don’t say that,” Adam said. “We have to maintain a positive attitude.”
“I don’t know if a positive attitude helps when you’re in hell,” Sally mumbled.
“We’re not in hell,” Adam said. “We’re in a hell. That’s not exactly the same thing.”
Sally stared down the street at the other captured people. A few were moaning and a couple even had bird nests on top of their heads. Black ravens screeched in their dry hair. Sally sighed again.
“Right now I don’t think it makes much difference,” she said.
“Look,” Adam said, trying to sound upbeat, “we’ve been in difficult situations before and we’ve always managed to find a way out. We’ll do the same this time. We just have to come up with a plan.”
“We’re waiting,” Watch said.
“Well,” Adam said. “First we have to break out of these chains. Let’s concentrate on that.”
“I don’t think the power of our concentration is going to break these chains,” Sally said.
“I can’t believe you guys are ready to give up,” Adam complained.
Watch nodded down the block. “It looks like a tall demon is coming. I hope it’s not one of those Gatekeepers the others mentioned. They didn’t sound all that friendly.”
Watch was right. Another monster was approaching.
6
Cindy was lying in the grass beside Madeline Templeton’s tombstone when the others reappeared. Because she was resting with her eyes closed, she heard them before she saw them. She was surprised because they had only been gone a few minutes. She sat up when she heard them talking and watched them as they stood huddled together in front of the tombstone.
“You guys just left.” She was so relieved to see them again she broke into a huge grin. “Did you find Bryce?”
They paused and stared at one another as if surprised by her question. Then Adam said in a flat voice, “We weren’t looking for Bryce.”
Cindy got up slowly. “But that’s why you went on the Secret Path. Don’t you remember, Sally?”
The Dark Corner Page 2