Secrets in the Dark (12 page)

The cabin was one large
room, with a neatly made bed on the left and a small kitchen on the
right. The space on the left was mostly tidy, except for the thin
layer of dust over everything.

In the kitchen area, a
plate lay on a small wooden table. On it was part of an apple and a
few curled peelings. The half-eaten apple had obviously been there
a long time. It was brown and shriveled almost past
recognition.

Next to the plate were
several crumpled papers, covered with drawings and strange words.
The words reminded me of the sign near the cabin.

I had really counted on
finding Ghalynn. I didn’t know how much I’d counted on getting some
answers until I knew he wasn’t there. That he hadn’t been there for
a long time.

Olivia stared around, and
then said, “At least he wasn’t attacked.”

“
How do
you
know?” Doug said. He
really knew how to get that just-how-stupid-are-you tone in his
voice.

“
Duh. First, there’s no
sign of a struggle. Second, his knife is lying on his plate. If he
was attacked, don’t you think he’d have grabbed the
knife?

Faith said, “I think you
watch too much
CSI
.”

“
You’re just jealous
‘cause your mom won’t let you watch,” Olivia shot back. “I’m right.
You know it.”

“
Okay. You’re
probably
right,” Faith
told her.

Doug said, “Maybe he’s
dead.”

“
What?”

“
He ate a poisoned
apple!”

“
If he died from poison,
he’d be dead on the table.”

“
What’re you doing now?” I
asked as Olivia began looking through the papers on the
table.

Olivia said, “Look at
this,” and held up one of the pages. It was a small ragged map, and
it was obvious from its grimy, creased appearance that it had been
handled frequently. She put the paper down on the table and pointed
to some markings, “Do you think he’s gone there?”

When Olivia asked this, the
cat jumped on the table and put her paw on the map while the dog
gave an excited bark.

Olivia jumped at the cat’s
sudden appearance, and put her hand on her chest. “Did you see the
animals come in?”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t
paying attention.”

“
I only see two of them.
Where’s your owl and my fox?”

Doug glanced out the door,
“They’re out there, near the cabin. It doesn’t look like they’re
gonna come inside.”

I reached for the map, and
the cat moved aside. It lay down, its eyes half closed, an
inscrutable cat expression on its face.

“
You know, that’s a really
smart cat,” Faith said, and we all laughed when it sat up and gave
what sounded like a pleased meow.

Olivia pointed to the map.
“I think this is the cabin, here.” She pointed at a roughly drawn
building. “There’s the path to the cabin from the road. The road
goes back to this tree — that’s got to be where we came in. The
other direction, past the cabin, leads towards the mountains. See,
it looks like it goes up to that cave.”

The map had a number of
symbols that reminded me of
The
Hobbit
or
Lord of
the Rings.
They looked like they’d been
strung together into words.

“
I hope Ronny can read
it.” I glanced quickly around the cabin. “So, what now?”

“
We haven’t seen anyone,
and Ghalynn isn’t here. We should take the copy you made of the
sign and this map back to Ronny,” Olivia said.

I nodded in agreement. “Can
you think of anything else we should do while we’re here? Since
it’ll be a month before we come back.”

Doug said, “Let’s come back
tomorrow. Who wants to wait a whole month?”

Faith said sweetly, “I have
a soccer game tomorrow, but don’t let that stop you.”

Doug made a face. “I
forgot.”

“
The three of us could
come,” Doug started, but Olivia shook her head, and I told him, “No
way! We come together.
All
of us.”

Looking at Doug’s mutinous
face, I added, “Let’s make a pact. We only come here together. No
one comes without the others!”

“
I swear,” Faith said
quickly.

“
I swear,” Olivia said, a
little more slowly.

We turned to look at Doug,
who hesitated. “Don’t you think each of us should be able to come
and check things out whenever we can? There’s only a few days each
month we can get in.”

“
I wonder if that’s true,”
Olivia said. “We took Ronny’s word that we could only get in during
the week around the full moon. Maybe we can get in other
times.”

“
Uh, no, you can’t.” Doug
looked everywhere but at us.

“
What do you mean?” I
asked him. I tried to keep the suspicion out of my voice but didn’t
think I’d been very successful. I’d suspected he’d been up to
something.

“
Ronny’s mom was right. We
can only get in near the full moon.”

“
And how do
you
know that,” Olivia
said. Her eyes narrowed and her brows drew together as she glared
at him. Olivia could look pretty intimidating when she wanted
to.

“
Well, I… Um…” He took a
deep breath and the rest came out really fast. “I tried to get in
the week after we were here last time. I couldn’t get
in.”

The three of us glared at
him now. I said, “I can’t believe you tried to come in here without
us!” Well, actually, I could believe it, I just didn’t want
to.

“
I wouldn’t have done
anything.” His voice was almost belligerent. I knew that meant he
was feeling guilty. “I just wanted to check it out. I would’ve let
you know, but there was
nothing to tell. I
couldn’t get in!”

“
Sure,” I said, unable to
completely ignore my feeling of betrayal. It sat like a heavy lump
in the pit of my stomach. “But from now on, we only come here
together.
Promise
. All for one and one for all.”

“
Just because you three
want to wait doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to come when I have
time.”

“
I
knew
this was
going to happen.” I clenched my hands into fists and glared
at him. “You’re breaking your promise already. You promised to do
what we said in here.”

“
That
was
a big mistake,” Doug muttered.
Then he sighed. “Okay, fine. I won’t come in here on my
own.”

As soon as he said it, the
dog barked and looked like he was
grinning, his tongue lolling out. The cat began to
purr.

Olivia said slowly, “I
could almost believe they’re listening and approve.”

The dog barked again and
his whole body quivered with excitement. I bent down until my eyes
were on the same level as
the cats. “Can
you understand us?”

The cat stretched and
climbed elegantly to its feet. It made a full circle, then sat down
and meowed once.

“
Do that again if you
meant yes,” Olivia said, excitedly.

The cat stood again and
turned in a small circle before sitting down with a
meow.

“
Do you belong to someone
who lives here in Chimera?” I asked quickly.

The cat blinked but didn’t
move or make a sound.

“
Do you belong to Kat?”
Faith asked.

I turned to her. “That’s a
silly question.”

Faith pointed. “Not that
silly.” I turned to watch in amazement as the cat got to its feet,
made another full circle and meowed.

When I realized the cat had
said yes, I fell into the single chair by the table. I felt all
warm and tingly inside. “You belong to me?” How embarrassing, my
voice actually squeaked with excitement.

The cat circled and meowed
again. We laughed when the dog barked twice, trying to get Doug’s
attention. Doug crouched down and patted the dogs head. “Are you
mine?”

The dog gave two excited
barks and jumped up and down, his body wiggling so fast he
was
almost a blur.

Faith moved outside the
cabin, near the doorway. “You’re here for me?” she called to the
fox hiding beneath the bushes at the corner of the
cabin.

It moved several feet
closer and bowed its head. Faith turned to us where we crowded
behind her. “Did you see that?” she asked excitedly.

We all nodded. My eyes felt
like they might pop out of my head. Olivia pushed past Faith to
face the tiny owl perched in a nearby tree. “You’re my owl, aren’t
you?” she said and the owl hooted back to her.

She quickly turned back,
her face shining with excitement. “How cool is this!” she said.
“I
love
this
place.”

“
Me too.” But that
reminded me. “We should go back, we’ve been here awhile.” I folded
the map and slipped it into my backpack, taking a last look
around.

I scooped the cat up and
buried my face in its fur. “I’m so glad you belong to me,” I
whispered.

Note to self — Bring cat
treats!

I carried the purring cat
while we made our way back to the tree. I was only a few feet away
when I stopped. I looked at the cat in my arms while disappointment
welled up inside. “Oh no, you can’t go with me.”

The cat closed her eyes and
continued to purr. “My father’s allergic. I can’t take you.” The
cat continued to purr as it stretched and jumped gracefully from my
arms, rubbing its head against my ankles.

Doug asked the dog, “Can
you go home with me?” The dog whined and moved back a step. “I get
it. You have to stay here.” The dog barked twice and grinned at
Doug, tail wagging.

Faith waved toward the
meadow and called, “Bye Foxy.” Then she disappeared through the
tree.

“
Bye Pyg,” Olivia said,
and laughed as the little owl hooted at her, and she too
disappeared. I’d never get used to seeing that!

“
Bye, pretty kitty,” I
said, looking back as I took my turn going into the
tree.



I couldn’t wait for the
long, cold, suffocating darkness to end. I tried to hold still and
kept my eyes closed tight. It felt better somehow, choosing not to
see, rather than trying to see and feeling blind. It was easy to
tell when to open my eyes. Santa Ramona would have felt cold under
ordinary circumstances, but after the tree it felt almost
warm.

I jerked my phone out of my
pocket and glanced at the time. We’d been gone four hours. I told
the others, “I’m going to call Ronny.” I forgot to use the speaker,
and wondered what they could make of my side of the
conversation.

“
Hi. We’re back safe but
we really need to meet with you. … No, we still don’t have any news
about your mother. … No, Ghalynn wasn’t there. … No. … Ronny! We
have stuff to show you. Can we get together? …Okay. …Right. See you
in twenty minutes.”

I ended the call and said,
“She’ll meet us at Johnny’s in twenty minutes. Let’s stop by the
library. There’s a copy machine there — we can each get a copy of
the map.”

Chapter 16

You And What
Army!

Ronny’s smile was strained
when we got to Johnny’s. “Meeting like this is becoming a custom.
You must be getting tired of it. If we have to do this too often,
you will begin to think the grass is always cleaner on the other
side.”

It took a few seconds for
me to get that one — oh, always
greener
on the other side. That was
pretty close for Ronny, so I decided to ignore it. “I’m sorry we
don’t know anything more about your mom. We still haven’t seen
anyone in Chimera.”

Ronny made a choking sound.
“No!”

I said quickly, “It looked
like Ghalynn has
been gone a long time,
maybe weeks. But we have a clue how to find him.”

Doug said, “He might be
dead. He ate a poison apple.”

A fleeting smile crossed
Ronny’s face. “Not all apples in Chimera are poison.” She was
silent a moment. “It might help me to understand if you tell what
happened from the beginning.”

We took turns describing
the weather, the road, the lack of sounds, the four animals. I
showed Ronny the drawing I’d made of the sign outside the
cabin.

She laughed and almost
sounded like her normal self. “I had forgotten that sign. I used to
tease Ghalynn about it. It is written in Standard and says ‘Keep
Out Or Else’.” She chuckled and pushed the note back to
me.

“
Or else what?” Faith
asked, nervously.

What would an irritating,
rude, short-tempered elf do to people who didn’t keep
out?

Ronny smiled, dimples
showing at the corner of her mouth. “It is meant as a
joke.”

“
Riiiight,”
Faith said, rolling her eyes. “It’s a joke.
Excuse me.” She got up and stalked over to the soda machine,
refilling her cup with orange soda.