Secrets in the Dark (2 page)

I couldn’t think of
anything to say. Not even a good line from a song or a movie.
Finally, I muttered, “Good save. I’d’ve planted my face in Carly’s
locker.”

Olivia rolled her eyes at
me and I glared back. It wasn’t
that
lame. Was it? Maybe I should
say something else. Yeah…like what?

The normally harsh buzz of
the bell calling us to class had never sounded so good. Totally
saved by the bell!

We just made it, rushing
in as the second bell rang. Turns out, we shouldn’t have bothered.
Andrew might have been in his seat if we were late. Instead, the
entire English class got to see him bump into Faith as
she took her seat. Her backpack fell off her
shoulder with a bang. At least people had to laugh a lot more
quietly in here than they had in the hallway.

Andrew gave her a
disgustingly fake apology. “Gee Faith, I’m sorry. I didn’t even
notice
you
there.” He smiled his mocking
my-dentist-whitened-my-teeth-way-too-much smile. Then he widened
his narrow brown I-am-such-a-great-liar eyes, and piled sarcasm on
his voice so thick he should be choking on it.

The teacher, Mr. Carter,
bought it of course. Grown-ups always believed Andrew when he acted
all goody-goody. I dug my nails into my palms. If I didn’t, I was
afraid I’d jump to my feet and call Andrew a dirty rotten liar.
Right in the middle of class.

It was bad enough that
everyone laughed at her. But after Faith scooped up her backpack
and rummaged through it, she stared in misery at her pencils. They
were all in jagged pieces.

Too bad we sat on opposite
sides of the room — I’d have given her one of mine. Instead, her
red cheeks clashed horribly with her auburn hair as
she made her way to the front of class to borrow
a replacement from Mr. Carter.

Andrew had been pretty
mean that morning, but on the way to fourth period, he
shoved
Faith out of his
way. He pushed hard enough to make sure she hit the lockers this
time. He raised his voice so everyone in the hall could hear him,
“Why is this stupid giraffe standing in the hallway like it belongs
here?”

Stupid giraffe? Faith
isn’t
that
tall.

Before the laughter could
start, Olivia snorted. Loudly. “Why is this ugly hippo blocking the
hallway? I’d like to get to class.”

My palms began to sweat as
Andrew’s face grew dark and tight. He glared murderously at Faith —
Faith, not Olivia.

Faith couldn’t miss that
look in his eyes. She muttered, “I hate him!” as she lowered her
head and pushed past him down the hall with Olivia and me on her
heels.

As we passed Andrew, he
murmured, “Watch your back goin’ home. We’re not gonna let stupid
giraffes wander around loose.”

Getting picked on at school
was bad enough. Now they were going to mess with us on the way
home?

Perfect.

Hopefully the smile I gave
Faith looked better on the outside than it felt on the inside.
“Ignore him. Who cares what he says.”

Okay, that really
was
lame.

Faith shook her head,
biting her lip, looking from Olivia to me. She rubbed her forehead
like her head hurt. The defeated look on her face made my stomach
ache. She lowered her hand and shook her head. “Forget it,
okay.”

Note to self — Do not say
lame things to your friends.



It was a minimum day.
Normally that would be great. But now, I couldn’t get excited, not
when Andrew would be waiting for us. Faith grew more and more
nervous as we gathered our stuff to leave. Her hands shook so bad
Olivia grabbed Faith’s backpack and shoved her books
inside.

Faith hung back when we
left school. Her eyes searched warily, looking for Andrew. But we
wouldn’t be able to see him until we stood right next to him. The
weather had grown increasingly cold and miserable during the day.
Now the wind picked up and whipped my hair into my eyes. Clouds
pressed close to the ground, mixing with the thickening fog. How
could we avoid him if we couldn’t see him?

Faith grabbed her long
curly hair. She dug the heels of her hands into her temples so hard
her dark brown eyes pulled into narrow slits. “Help me! Keep me
away from Andrew today!” She stared at us desperately.

Olivia’s green eyes
narrowed in frustration. “When’re we gonna stand up to him? That’s
whatcha gotta do with a bully!”

Faith clutched her hair so
tightly I was afraid she was going to rip it out of her head. “Keep
me away from him. Please. I’m asking as your Blood
Sister!”

That did it!

Chapter 3

All For One

What do you remember best
about being eight? I remember taking our Blood Sister oath, camped
out in Faith’s backyard, under a tent made of blankets. It still
made me feel queasy.

Now, people just call us
The Three. But it started as
The Three
Musketeers,
so long ago we couldn’t
remember why. What I did remember was Olivia’s dad laughing when he
heard about it. I got mad at him for laughing at us, but forgave
him when he taught us, ‘All for one and one for all’. That sounded
pretty cool.

“
It’s what firemen do,”
he’d told us. “Olivia never has to worry — my guys and I are there
for each other. If you girls are Three Musketeers, it should be
your motto.”

When you’re eight, taking
a motto demands an appropriate ritual. We planned a secret
ceremony, and created an oath to chant together. I still remembered
every bit of it, but what I would never forget was
the ‘blood’ part!

Olivia brought a pin, I
brought rubbing alcohol, and Faith supplied the campsite. After
swishing the pin through alcohol, I jabbed it — carefully — into my
finger. Too carefully. My finger burned where I’d stuck it, but no
blood came out. Not one drop. No amount of squeezing
helped.

I couldn’t believe I had to
stab myself a second time. Grosserific! And the second time stung
even worse. No way was I ever doing that again!

After watching my example,
Olivia got a little too enthusiastic. Her finger actually dripped
blood.

Ugh!

Faith was much better,
quickly squeezing up a single drop of blood. She shook her head at
Olivia, who was trying to keep hers from getting on her shirt.
“Keep it off the blanket or Mom’ll kill me!”

Olivia had rolled her eyes.
“Then hurry up already.”

The three of us stepped
into a circle and touched our fingers together, chanting the motto
we’d worked on all afternoon.

“
All for one and one for
all,

Blood Sisters will answer your call.

This I promise, friend to friend,

To stick together ‘til the end.

If l should fail a Sister’s plea,

A life of doom will follow me.”

Okay, none of us will
become a famous poet — at least not for writing
good
poems. But we were eight, what
do you expect? For us, it was much more than a promise. It
was
a vow we could count on,
forever.

Like Faith was counting on
us to keep her away from Andrew.

Chapter 4

Cemetery’s End

Olivia sighed and shook her
head, but the arguing was over. For today at least. She raised her
right eyebrow. Just the one eyebrow. Her
so-what-are-we-going-to-do-now look.

Where could we go? Home
would take us the same way as Andrew. Not good. There was really
only one place we could go where Andrew wouldn’t want to
follow.

I scowled at Olivia, and
her eyes grew wide at my expression. She looked worried — she
should. She was going to
hate
my idea! There was
one
place Andrew despised, but Olivia didn’t like it much
better.

“
The cemetery.”

Olivia stiffened and her
mouth pinched up like she’d sucked a lemon. I spoke quickly,
“Andrew probably won’t even go in, but if he does there’s plenty of
places to hide.”

Olivia surprised me when
she just nodded and muttered, “Oh goody, my favorite.”

So instead of turning left
out of school, we went right. I hoped Andrew and his friends
wouldn’t notice. Maybe they’d pick a spot on the way home and wait
for us. And wait. And wait. And we wouldn’t come that
way.

Cool!

It didn’t take long to go
the five short blocks to Main Street. There, on the far side of the
street loomed the huge old cemetery. We should be safe if we could
get in.

A wall of rough grey stone
nearly seven feet high enclosed the cemetery. Only the very top,
worn smooth by more than 150 years of rain and wind, was supposed
to be safe to touch. It was
the only part
that wouldn’t rub your skin raw like sandpaper.

The heavy metal gates at
the entrance were standing open, and my breath whooshed out in
relief. Once inside, we ducked down the narrow twisting driveway
that ran along the north side of the cemetery, crossing the small
parking lot where muddy puddles advertised the rain from the night
before.

As we moved into the
grounds, I felt a shudder work its way up my spine. How incredibly
cliché!
I
wasn’t
the one scared of the cemetery. Not like Olivia. But today it was
like we’d entered somewhere…different.

The ground ahead rose and
fell in low rolling hills, covered by trees, statues of crying
angels, crooked headstones, and small stone buildings. Mausoleums —
houses for the dead.

I could see all of this
much too clearly. Here, inside the graveyard, the fog was
strangely thin. A few grey ribbons drifted here
and there, no more than knee high. Unfortunately. This would have
been a good time to have a nice thick blanket of fog to hide
in!

Darn it.

It was quiet in here. And
too still. The air felt awfully thin, like the long dead
inhabitants had sucked in a tremendous breath, trapping all the
oxygen deep in their graves. What would happen if everything inside
that cemetery suddenly exhaled?

“
I don’t like this place,”
Olivia whispered. “It’s totally creepy!” Actually, it was more of a
whimper than a whisper.

“
You watched
The Wizard of Oz
one
time too many. You sound just like Dorothy.” When Olivia stuck her
tongue out at me, I grinned and quoted in a high shaky voice, “I
don’t like this forest. It’s dark, and creepy.”

I tipped my head back,
looking at the sky. “Isn’t this when the flying monkeys show
up?”

Faith relaxed enough to
snicker when Olivia jerked her head back, glancing nervously at the
sky. You had to give Faith credit. She might be afraid of bullies,
but she was
never afraid of things like
monsters under the bed, graveyards, or flying monkeys.

I laughed. “Sorry, Olivia,
no flying monkeys.”

She’s right though — it’s
creeporific in here.

Today the normally
peaceful cemetery was the perfect setting for a horror movie. Maybe
it was the way the damp, gloomy weather washed the color from the
grass and trees, making everything look grey. Or the constant sound
of croaking frogs and the low discordant drone of insects. Perhaps
it was
the nasty smell of mold and mildew
that rose from the wet grass with every step. Whatever the reason,
it lacked only a few zombies rising from their graves to turn this
into a total freak show.

Olivia was standing still,
glaring at me. “Why must you always quote books and movies at
us?”

“
Duh. Mom’s a librarian
and Dad’s watched every movie ever made. Lines from books and
movies get quoted all the time at my house. I can’t help
it.”

Olivia opened her mouth to
argue but Faith interrupted. “Shhh! They’re coming.” Her eyes were
large and frightened as
she gestured
toward a nearby mausoleum. “Hide!”

The three of us barely fit
behind the small building. My arm broke out in chill bumps as I
crouched down against the cold, damp stone, trying to make myself
as
small as
possible. Just how many friends was Andrew bringing with him?
The sound of several feet crunched through the gravel and splashed
through the puddles in the parking lot.

“
Yuck!” I recognized Carly
even through the disgust that distorted her voice. “I’m cold and
wet. Can’t we just forget about them?”

Andrew sounded so different
I didn’t recognize him for a moment. Where was his loud, bossy
voice? He sounded nervous. Almost…timid. “They’re not here. We
should go.”

“
Don’t be such a weenie,
Andy.
I
saw them
go in here.”

Oh no, that’s Ray. Faith’s
afraid of Andrew, but Ray really scares me.

Faith made an urgent
gesture to move deeper into the cemetery. She was biting her lip so
hard I was
afraid it might start bleeding.
Olivia and I ducked down and crab walked after her, keeping
low.