Secrets in the Dark (31 page)

He grinned. “We shouldn’t
have any problems.”

Faith bit her lip and
shoved her hands in her pockets. “Aren’t any of you worried about
being in the same cave as
Ray? He’s going
to trap us in here.”

Doug shook his head and
crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re not getting trapped in
here. Besides, there’s five of us and only four of
them.”

“
In a couple months
they’ll be sorry if they try anything,” Brady said, standing up
straight. “I’ve convinced my Dad to let me start
TaeKwonDo.”

“
Well, you don’t have a
black belt yet,” Olivia said, impatience clear in her voice. “For
now, we’ll just have to avoid them. I only wish we had a back door
out of the cave.”

We all came to a quick stop
as the owl flew down and circled Olivia before flying away. “Pyg is
trying to tell me something.” Olivia practically danced with
excitement.

I bent down and asked
Shadow, “Is there another way out of the cave?”

The cat circled my feet and
meowed. Rusty danced on his hind legs, barking
excitedly.

Doug smirked at Faith,
“See, we’ll hide in a cave or leave out the back.”

Brady said, “I’m going to
check the walls of both caves to make sure we haven’t missed
anything. I’m also going to draw the tunnels on the map.” He smiled
at me. “Come on. You can hold the, what did you call them?
Lightberries?”

We quickly split up,
agreeing to meet in a few minutes to explore the last two
tunnels.

I watched Brady as he drew
different parts of the cave on the map. Then I noticed the strange
neon light glinting off the large glass face of his watch. I said,
“I’ve never heard of buying a watch to honor someone before. Your
father bought that watch to honor your
great-grandfather?”

“
You heard the story about
my great-grandfather Arthur, right?”

I thought for a moment,
then shrugged. “No, I don’t think so. What about him?”

“
He disappeared. On the
fourth of July, in 1934. No one ever saw or heard from him again.
My Grandpa Chuck was only ten when his dad disappeared. It changed
his life.”

“
That’s like a Cold Case.
What happened to him?”

“
No one knows. Grandpa
Chuck used to say his dad would’ve been the greatest inventor of
all time. He created a watch like this.” Brady held up his wrist,
nodding at the bulky watch. “Grandpa Chuck used to tell me about
him.”

Brady cleared his throat
and spoke in a deep voice, very different from his own. “Nothing is
impossible, Brady. Determine the outcome you seek, develop methods
to reach it, and test each until you discover the one that works
best.”

“
So
that’s
where he gets it,” Olivia
muttered as she and Faith walked into the small cave where I was
sitting with Brady. I watched Brady quickly lower his head and
place the last few lines on the map. I was surprised how detailed
his drawing was. He didn’t look at Olivia as he stood up and headed
back out to the main cave.

We checked the other
tunnel we’d already entered. Brady kept checking the map, telling
us the Rejects were getting closer. As
if
they knew where we were, they kept heading toward the
cave.

Faith was thinking the same
way I was. “How do they know where we are?”

“
I don’t think they do,”
Doug told her. “They’re just exploring.”

“
So you don’t think
they’ll come in here?”

“
If they get close enough
to see it? It’s a cave. Of course they’ll come in here if they see
it.” Doug was giving Faith a
duh-do-I-actually-have-to-tell-you-this look.

“
What if we can’t find the
back exit in time?”

I spoke up quickly. “Don’t
worry, Faith. We can always hide in the secret passage in the
second tunnel. They’ll never know it’s there.”

Brady kept a nervous watch
on the map. At first, I was sure they’d stop long before they got
to the cave. But that pleasant thought began drifting away, like
smoke on a breeze, as they drew nearer and nearer. Finally, it was
clear they were coming straight here.

We crowded inside the
second tunnel and made our way to the hidden passage. It was a
tight fit with all of us crammed in there along with our familiars.
Doug reluctantly put the bag of lightberries in his pocket, while
we blew out the candles.

It was totally black
inside. We’re talking totally, absolutely, pitch black. I couldn’t
even see my hand in front of my face. I’d have been feeling pretty
spooked if I hadn’t been able to hear the quiet ragged breathing of
my friends crowded next to me.

I wondered how we’d know
when the Rejects got inside the cave. But that was a wasted thought
— it was obvious when they came in.

Ray yelled, “Hey, Dog. Oh,
sorry. You call yourself Doug, don’t you.” There was laughter from
the other Rejects. “Actually, I like dog better. Come out, come out
wherever you are. Come on, dog. Stop hiding like such a
scaredy-Kat.” More laughter rang through the cave, echoing
strangely from all around, like a haunted house at a carnival. Ray
tried again, “Can’t you answer me, dog? Kat got your
tongue?”

There were snorts of
laughter from Ray and Andrew, and ear piercing shrieks of mirth
from Polly. Only Carly was silent.

“
Hey, dog. I’m talking to
you. Don’t make me come after you!”

I gripped Doug’s arm
tightly. He was vibrating with the effort to ignore Ray’s insults.
I wasn’t sure if I was more worried about what Ray would do to us,
or what Doug would do to Ray.

“
We know you’re in here.
We followed your footprints right into this place.”

I felt like slapping my
forehead like some stupid commercial. I hadn’t even thought about
footprints. No wonder they always knew where we were!

“
What if they already
left, Ray?” Polly already sounded bored. “You never want to do
anything fun in here. All you think about is finding those
guys.”

Can’t she ever stop
whining? Note to self — Don’t ever whine like Polly!

“
If you don’t like it,
don’t come.”

Polly didn’t answer him. I
didn’t blame her — he’d sounded fierce.

I could hear Ray stamping
around in the main cave. Each time he got to one of the tunnels, he
started insulting us again. I suddenly wished we were back in town.
Then I’d be able to insult him back. It would be safer in town,
where other people could step in if Ray got too mad.

As I listened to him
prattle away, I had to stifle a laugh. It wasn’t much of a laugh,
but in that place, I was amazed I was able to find anything funny.
But really, Ray was
not
good at insults. They were all so…ordinary. Ugly.
Buttface. Stupid. Dog breath. Idiot.
Stupid
idiot.

Boring!

When we got out of here, I
was going to share my insult book with Doug and Brady. Maybe we
could all gang up on Ray in front of his friends. We could have an
insult contest.

It felt like a long time
had passed when Polly finally said, “Forget it, Ray, they ain’t
here. I’m going.”

“
C’mon, Ray,” Carly
urged.

Andrew added his voice.
“There’s plenty other places to check out. Let’s go.”

Ray wasn’t having any of
it. “You go if you want, but
I
have the flashlight. And
I’m
gonna find those
creeps.”

He made a few more nasty
comments, comparing Olivia to a fat hippo, Faith to a ginormous
giraffe, and calling Doug a pus bucket. But he sounded like he was
losing interest. We kept very still, waiting for him to
finish.

When we heard them move
away, I slumped back against the tunnel wall in relief. Faith
whispered, so quietly I had to strain to hear her, though she
was
standing right next to me. “Wait a bit
longer. They might hear us.”

Olivia started to move
around her. She sounded irritated. “I’m tired of
waiting.”

Faith stopped her by
blocking the way. The passage was so narrow no one could get by her
unless they could shove her out of the tunnel.

Finally, when I was
convinced Olivia was going to lose it and start screaming, Faith
said, “Okay, I think its safe now.” She moved and we all rushed
out.

Brady was the last one out
of the hidden passage. He hesitated in the small cave and asked
Doug for the berries. He blocked most of the light with his hands
and body so it wouldn’t show outside, and pulled out the map. He
whispered, “Wait.”

Suddenly Andrew’s voice
came from near the main cave entrance. “Do something about that
light. I can’t see a thing.” Ray’s flashlight was casting strange
shadows, flickering on and off, and giving out only a dim
glow.

Polly whined, “Come on,
Ray, they aren’t in here. We’d’ve seen their flashlight. And if
ours goes out, it’ll be
really
dark
. Let’s get out of here.”

It happened so fast — Ray
dropped the flashlight, cursing and swearing. He yelled, “That
stupid thing burned my hand. What’s wrong with this place? Nothing
works right!”

They were using a regular
flashlight. That’s why it wasn’t working. I remembered how hot my
cell phone was the first time we came here. Batteries really didn’t
like Chimera.

A moment later, Brady
folded the map and placed it back in his pocket. He said, “They
left. We can talk now.”

“
Dirty rotten rat finks!”
Faith growled. “If Ray keeps calling me a giraffe, I’m going to do
something scary to his face.”

“
Get in line,” Olivia
said. “
I’m
gonna
break the rest of his teeth.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help
it. “Don’t let him get to you. He was soooo lame. I’ll teach you
some
real
insults
when we get back to town.” Just the thought of it made me
smile.

That idea didn’t make Faith
smile, not even a little. “We don’t want to insult him. That would
just piss him off.” At Olivia’s groan, Faith realized she’d broken
the no cursing rule. “Sorry, Olivia.” She nervously tugged her hair
over her shoulder, picking at the rubber band at the end of her
braid.

“
Ray won’t be any
different than he is now,” Doug told her. His hands were still in
tight fists. I knew how hard it was for him to stay hidden while
Ray insulted us.

Olivia grabbed Brady’s arm
and looked at the watch on his wrist. “Can we check the upper
tunnel before we go back?”

“
I think so. Just let me
finish drawing all the tunnels on the map. I added the main part of
the cave last time, and I could see the Rejects.”

“
Maybe there’s nothing up
there,” Faith said. “For all we know, we won’t be able to stand up
in there. It might only be a few feet long.”

“
Well that’s just great,”
Doug told her. “Are you
wishing
we won’t find anything else?”

“
No, that’s not what I
meant!” Faith said, sounding cross. “We’ve already found stuff at
the cave. Ronny said there’s a lake and a forest and other places
in Chimera we can check out. We should go somewhere
new.”

I forgot, Faith really
hates high places.

“
We’ll go somewhere else
next time. But you know we promised Ronny we’d finish with the cave
first,” I reminded her. “Brady brought climbing stuff. It won’t be
hard.”

“
I know,” said Faith
quickly. “I just don’t think we’re going to find
anything.”

As we headed for the short
tunnel on the right, Brady pulled a long coil of rope out of his
backpack. “Who wants to climb to the top and anchor the rope?” He
asked like this was a great prize.

No one answered. We all
just stared. He looked disappointed at our lack of
enthusiasm.

Finally Faith said, “Uh,
it’s your rope, Brady. You do it.”

Brady’s shoulders drooped.
“Fine. I’ll do it.”

He slung the rope over his
shoulder, looking like a young, skinny version of Indiana Jones. He
walked up to the cave wall, and hesitated for a moment.

“
You can do it,” Olivia
encouraged.

He looked at her like she
was crazy. “Jeez! I know how to do this. I’m just checking for the
best handholds.”

I watched as he reached up
the wall and found a small jut of rock where he could grab on with
his right hand. As he pulled himself up, he found a horizontal
crack where he could jam his foot. He stood up, raising his left
hand above his head, searching with his hand until he found another
small point of rock where he could put his hand. He continued to
find cracks and ridges as he inched his way up the rock
face.

When he finally made it to
the top, he did a slow pull up. One moment he was hanging there by
his arms, and then he disappeared into the wall. There were some
quiet rustling, then his head popped back out. He looked like a
disembodied talking head as
he yelled down
to us, “I found a place to tie the rope. It should be safe for you
to start climbing.”