Secrets in the Dark (16 page)

Olivia interrupted him, her
hands over her ears. “Don’t say it! I can’t hear words like
that!”

“
What, will your delicate
ears fall off?”

The blazing red blush on
Olivia’s face made me jump to her defense. “It’s one of our rules —
no cussing around Olivia. If
we
start using words like that, she’ll slip and
repeat them at home. Then she’ll be grounded ‘til she’s
thirty.”

“
Sheesh,” Doug said,
rolling his eyes. “You girls have
way
too many rules.”

After that, we waited for
the Rejects in silence.



As they drew closer, I
could hear Ray yelling at his rat. “Get away you filthy flea
magnet. I’ll bash your head in.”

Thank goodness they hadn’t
figured out their animals could communicate. I hoped the rat was
smart like our animals. Maybe it would learn to keep its
distance.

Note to self – Think how
to keep Ray disgusted with rodents!

Just then, I caught a
glimpse of Ray near the beginning of the road. Faith saw him too.
To get his attention, she yelled, “Oh no!”

Ray whipped his head
around. He bellowed, “There they are,” and turned down the road
toward us.

Doug muttered, “Alright,”
as Andrew, Polly and Carly followed Ray. Behind them, their animals
trailed dejectedly after them.

We were committed now. I
yelled, “Run!”

Good thing we had a head
start. The Rejects were gaining by the time we hit the first turn
in the road. At least, according to the map, there were a lot of
hills and twists, so they shouldn’t be able to see far ahead. There
had to be a spot we could leave the road, out of sight of Ray and
the others.



After a few short turns, we
hurried down a hill toward the perfect area. The Rejects were out
of sight and there were plenty of bushes to the left of the road
that should hide us.

“
Do we have to go
in
there
?” Olivia
asked, eyeing the brush with distaste. “Couldn’t we pick a spot
without so much…stuff?”

Oh right, she hates to get
dirty these days.

Doug just ignored her. He
left the path and crossed the field at an angle that would take us
back toward the main road. I heard a dog barking behind us, but
didn’t pause. We had to get away from the road!

We followed Doug quickly,
threading through the trees until we knew no one could see us.
Finally, Olivia threw herself down, panting and gasping. I sank
down gratefully next to her.

At first, I only heard the
sound of panting as we settled down to rest. Then I heard the
anxious braying of a donkey. It was Andrew’s animal, and it sounded
upset. It reminded me of the excited barking I’d heard when we left
the road.

What was up with
that?

“
The donkey sounds upset.
I wonder if Ray tried to hit it with something. Have you noticed
how mean he treats them? Pretty soon they won’t want to help the
Rejects at all.” Olivia sounded gleeful. She looked back the way we
came and brushed a strand of sweat-darkened hair out of her eyes,
tucking it behind her ear. “Do you think they’ll be able to figure
out which way we’ve gone?”

Doug sat up and glanced
back where the road was now out of sight. “I wonder if they can
tell where we left the road. We’d better keep going. In case.” Doug
jumped up impatiently. The rest of us climbed to our feet, some
quicker than others, and followed Doug through the trees toward the
main road.

The going wasn’t easy. I
really missed having a trail.

In some places, the bushes
grew so thick they were like a wall, full of stiff twigs that poked
at my skin and tore at my clothes. When the twigs broke, they
released a bitter, pungent smell, like stinky cheese.

Whenever we had to force
our way through some of those bushes, I held my breath.

I rubbed absently at my
cheek where a scratch throbbed, watching as Olivia stumbled over a
small rock. She grabbed at a branch to keep her balance, and I was
glad it was her this time. I’d already tripped enough, and was
ready to be done with trampling through bushes and stubbing my toes
on things hidden in the tall grass and dead leaves.

Someone needs to take a
weed whacker to this place!

I had no idea how long
we’d been walking… stumbling…
staggering
through the trees. It
felt like hours. I tripped again and almost landed on my knees. I
decided it was a miracle when I kept on my feet. My poor, aching,
tired feet.

If this keeps up, I’ll be
crawling.

I had blisters growing on
my blisters. Every step stung, and I really wanted to stop walking.
For the next week.

At least I wasn’t wimping
out like Olivia. She kept asking, “When’re we gonna stop?” Although
you couldn’t really call it asking — she was
whining. I kept expecting Doug to let her have it.

It was Faith who finally
had enough. “Maybe if you spent some time outside, you wouldn’t be
such a wuss. It’s just walking. No one’s asking you to run laps
like soccer practice!”

That kept everyone quiet as
we kept walking. And walking. It might not be like running laps,
but the pace Doug set was wicked. Basketball-king Doug and
soccer-queen Faith were barely perspiring. I had sweat drenching my
face and stinging my eyes. I could feel it dripping off my nose,
and I could swear an entire river was pouring down my
back.

At first, no one except
Olivia suggested stopping — we were too worried about being caught
by the Rejects. Now, no one suggested stopping because we didn’t
want to discuss the real problem. We should’ve crossed the main
road a long time ago. After the hot, dusty minutes, hours —
whatever — pushing through trees and brush, I had no idea where we
were.

Doug stopped in a small
clearing, finally looking as sweaty and out of breath as Olivia.
Okay, and me too. I leaned back gratefully against a tree, my knees
quivering and my feet throbbing. I was half convinced I’d fall down
if I didn’t have something to lean on.

“
I don’t think…I can…walk
one more step,” Olivia panted, and threw herself on the ground. The
others sank down next to her. I was last, letting myself slide down
the tree, afraid I wouldn’t be able to get back up once I was down
there. As I moved down the tree, it made a loud groaning sound and
I sat much quicker than expected. I rolled away from it quickly,
grateful when nothing else happened.

“
Anyone know where our
animals are?” I asked as
I slumped onto my
back, letting myself go limp. “I haven’t seen them since we left
the path.”

“
You’re right,” Doug said,
sounding surprised.

“
That’s not important
right now! Where’s the road? We should have reached it a long time
ago.” Faith’s voice sounded pinched and she was glaring out of eyes
scrunched half shut. “We’ve been wandering in circles.”

“
No, we haven’t. I’ve been
watching landmarks.” Doug sounded tired and discouraged.

Now there’s a bad
sign.

“
Do you think we could
actually get lost in here? There’ll be no one to help.” Faith
shuddered and looked like she was going to cry. “I’d rather meet up
with Andrew than get lost in here!”

I refused to think about
really getting lost. I sounded angrier than I meant to when
I said, “We just haven’t reached the road
yet!”

“
But we should have. I
wish we could just magically appear on the road!“

For a moment everyone
paused, waiting to see if
that
wish would work. It didn’t, of course. Wishes
never seemed to work the way you wanted in here.

Doug’s tone was fierce as
he told Faith, “We’re not lost. And stop being so scared. We
don’t
want to see the others.”

“
I don’t know that! I wish
you knew just how wrong you are.” Faith snapped back at
him.

I was
right. Wishes never worked like you wanted in
here.

Chapter 19

I Take It Back!

A sudden distant howl
shattered the stillness I had started to take for granted. We all
leapt to our feet.

“
What was that?” Faith
whirled around, trying to figure out where the sound came
from.

Doug’s face was a mask of
anger. “If this is because of your stupid wish, Faith, it’s not
going to work.”

“
If this is because of my
wish, I take it back!” She sounded freaked out.

“
It sounded pretty far
away,” I told her. I was amazed how calm I sounded. Because the
idea of something running around this place, howling, was totally
creeporific.

“
It was one of the animals
with the Rejects,” Doug said dismissively. He might as well have
said ‘you’d have to be really stupid to think it was
something else’.

Olivia was only a couple
feet away from him, but that didn’t stop her from shouting at him.
“You’re so full of it! The Rejects have a pig, a cow, a rat and a
donkey. When have you ever heard one of those
howl
?”

The eerie sound came again,
off to our left, louder than before. Or was it…closer? My heart
stopped a moment, then resumed, racing like I was being
chased.

“
Could the Rejects be
trying to scare us?” Faith was staring uneasily to the
left.

“
No, they’re behind u—”
Another howl cut Doug off. This one was not far away. From our
right. Was there more than one…something…out there?

I opened my mouth, ready
to suggest we leave, but new sounds had everyone’s heads jerking to
the left. These sounds were
close.
Loud, splintering noises — like small trees being
crushed by something huge, moving just out of sight.

Faith’s shoulders were
hunched so tight, they were up around her ears. She said, “I wish
those sounds would stop!”

Another howl shattered the
stillness.

Why don’t
good
wishes work in
here! Note to self — Give up making wishes! It’s
pointless.

I kept my voice quiet, not
wanting anything out there to hear me. “Okay, that’s not their
animals. But couldn’t it still be Ray and Andrew trying to scare
us?” How crazy was that. I was hoping Ray and Andrew were trying to
freak us out!

“
It can’t be them.”
Olivia’s voice was just above a whisper. Though her voice was
steady, her hands were trembling. “There’s
no
way
they could sound like
that.”

More trees crashed loudly
to the ground on our right, cracking and shattering as they
fell.

We were nearly surrounded!
With Ray and his friends behind us, and the sound track from a
horror movie playing on both sides, there was only one way out of
here.

I pointed the way we’d been
going, my hand shaking wildly like a stop sign in a hurricane.
“Let’s go. That way!”

The sound of a large tree
smashing to the ground just outside the clearing made us all jump.
Dust and dirt billowed up, filling the air and making my eyes
water. To my right, Faith and Olivia were coughing
loudly.

From behind me, Doug choked
out, “Hurry.” He grabbed my arm and started towing me across the
clearing. I yanked away from him, but kept jogging by his side. I
could hear Olivia and Faith following behind.

After several minutes, I
had to stop for breath. I was panting so hard I could barely talk.
“That…was
not
…Rejects!”

Doug’s voice was
impatient. “They could’ve done something to scare
us. Nothing else has been alive in here.”

I snorted. “What, our
familiars are CGI?”

Doug rolled his eyes. “Come
on, what else could it be?”

“
Lions and tigers and
bears?” Faith suggested.

Olivia glared at him. “Try
ogres and goblins and trolls!” Doug and Faith both rolled their
eyes at that.

My voice shook, but I
wasn’t sure if it was fear or
anger.
“Doug. This is a magic place. Those sounds could’ve been made by
anything. But that was not the Rejects. And whatever it was, it
didn’t sound friendly.”

“
Don’t start acting like a
bunch of girls,” Doug muttered.

Olivia’s lips pulled back
from her teeth. She looked like she wanted to bite him. “Don’t call
us a bunch of girls like that’s a bad thing! Of course we worry
when strange things start howling. And breaking trees.
Right next to us!”

Faith stepped next to Doug.
“The last thing we need is for you to act like a know-it-all.” She
jabbed her finger at Doug’s chest. “Pretending there’s nothing to
worry about doesn’t make it true.”

“
Stop. Poking. Me.” Doug
spoke between gritted teeth and took a deliberate step
back.