Secrets in the Dark (4 page)

We all turned to look at
the tree. This was not the cemetery, but the massive fig tree was
exactly the same.

I gave a quick glance
around, so fast I didn’t really see anything. Just an impression of
strange colors, plants, and trees. I felt the hair on the back of
my neck stand on end as I realized the only thing recognizable
was
the fig tree.

“
I’ve got an idea,” I
blurted. “Come on!”

I grabbed their hands and
dragged them back to the tree. Taking a deep breath, I started to
lean against the grey bark, while Faith moved next to me. Before my
shoulder could make contact, Olivia threw herself against the trunk
yelling, “Send us back!”

Olivia fell through first,
pulling us after her. Going through the tree felt even worse the
second time.

I’m stuck in a tree. I
can’t breathe.

My lungs screamed as I
tried to inhale the thick clammy air.

I can’t see anything. I
can’t feel my arms or legs.

My head spun
dizzily.

Are Faith and Olivia still
with me? They wouldn’t really leave me…not like my dream. Would
they?

I yelled their names — well
shrieked really — but still couldn’t hear myself. That’s when I
began plunging down.

We went down before,
shouldn’t we be going up now? What if we aren’t going
back!

I stumbled several steps
before I realized we were out. And definitely back home. The salty
air and gloomy cemetery made me want to do a happy
dance.

“
Wow,” I said, “did that
really happen?” I scrubbed my hands over my face, then shook my
head. No way. It
couldn’t
be real. Things like that only happened in books
and movies…or dreams. That was
it, I
was
dreaming. This whole day must be part
of my nightmare! I grinned in relief and pinched my arm.

“
Ouch!” I scrubbed at the
place on my arm that was throbbing and stinging. I’d been way too
enthusiastic. Not that it would have mattered if I’d been
asleep.

So, not a nightmare. Maybe
I’d gone crazy. That would suck, but at least it would explain
things. I turned to the others. “Did you notice anything…odd just
now?”

They both gaped at me.
Like I was
speaking Greek. Backwards.
Olivia said impatiently, “Of course we noticed something
odd
. Are you
nuts?”

Note to self - Apparently
I’m not crazy.

Faith ran her hands
through her hair, her gaze blank. She started to lean back against
the tree, but her eyes snapped back to awareness and she jerked
away before touching it. She took two small steps away before
saying, “
Something
happened. But I don’t have a clue what.” She hunched her
shoulders and slipped her hands in her pockets, a favorite position
when she got nervous.

So, it was all real. I
blurted, “Going through that tree was gross-i-mundo. I may never
eat jello again.”

Olivia said, “Jello?
You’ve gotta be kidding!
I’m
gonna be afraid of the dark for the rest of my
life! I was
blind in there.”

“
I can beat that,” Faith
told her. “Think Disneyland Teacups. Remember?”

Olivia and I both cringed.
Those teacups had been the start of a hard and fast rule — Faith
was
not
allowed
on rides that went in circles.

Olivia pinched her nose and
shuddered. “Yuck!”

I didn’t like being blind
or deaf, but maybe not being able to smell anything in there was a
good thing!

I asked, “Where do you
think we went?“

Their answer was muffled
by
the bells in the nearby church as they
pealed loudly, just once.

My mouth fell open and I
sucked in a quick breath. “That can’t be right!” I pulled my phone
out of my pocket and turned it on. It was working again, so that
was good. But something was wrong with it. It showed 1:00
pm.

It can’t be that
late!

“
What time do you
have?”

Olivia and Faith both
exclaimed in excitement when their phones worked too, but they all
showed 1:00 pm.

How did it go from 12:34
to 1:00? We were only — wherever — a couple minutes.

But I realized I hadn’t
heard any sounds from Ray or the others since we’d been back. We
must’ve been gone more than a few minutes. At least we’d kept our
Blood Sister promise. That
almost
made all the weirdness worthwhile.

Faith said, “Do you know
where—?” just as
Olivia yelled,
“H-e-double-eck. Its 1:00! I have to be home!”

I had no idea I could run
that fast, but Olivia’s mom would be
mad
if she wasn’t home in the next
five minutes. Olivia chanted, “Be green, be green,” as
we neared the traffic signal on Main. Someone
must have been listening. It turned green right before we reached
it

It was
1:04 when we got to the corner where we’d go our separate
ways. We’d never covered the five blocks between Main Street and
Olivia’s house so fast.

As
she ran up the sidewalk to her house, she made our sign for
‘call me’ — pinky to her mouth, thumb to her ear. “8:30!” she
yelled, then threw open the door and hurried inside.

Faith sighed, “I’ve gotta
go, too. You know how Mom gets when I’m not home from school on
time.”

“
Yeah, she’s the biggest
worrier in town.”

“
Actually, it’s the town
that makes her worry. I think it’s the TSYE’s fault.”

I nodded and said goodbye,
then crossed the street towards my house, one short block
away.

Chapter 6

Jinxed

My feet were dragging when
I got home. I locked myself in the bathroom and stared at my
reflection in the mirror. Why didn’t anything about me look
different?

I fell through a tree. I
was blind. I landed in the dirt. In a weirdorific place.
Shouldn’t
something
be different?

Other than a smudge of
dirt, my face didn’t look any different. I’d look better by summer,
but this was the dead of winter, and being only a few shades darker
than polar bear white was
totally
normal.

Darn it.

Obviously my hair hadn’t
changed. Light brown, way too and straight. Boring really. Even so,
I wasn’t going to agree with my mom’s suggestion to cut
it.

My height was the same —
short! I’d finally broken five feet. Barely. If I stood up really
tall. This year, for the first time, both Faith and Olivia were
taller than me.

And just like my hair, the
rest of me was thin and straight. When I turned sideways I could
still be described as
very…slender.

So okay, I wasn’t going to
be a super-model any time soon. And really, who wants to be a
super-model? I should be glad nothing was different. That
everything about me wasn’t changing, like Faith and
Olivia.

With a sigh, I dropped to
the edge of the bathtub and thought about my two best
friends.

Olivia Larson had been my
BFF since pre-school. She’d been the biggest tomboy in town — never
afraid to climb trees, scale fences or ride her bike down ‘suicide
hill’ without any hands. Lately, I’d watched in amazement as my
previous-daredevil-tomboy friend began to pay attention to
boys.

Olivia loved her
developing figure, and kept experimenting with different styles for
her thick, dark brown hair. Just last week, I’d seen her practicing
flirtatious gestures in the mirror when she thought no one
was
looking.

Ugh!

As
a reformed tomboy, she suddenly didn’t enjoy doing things
that could get her too dirty or messed up.

She’d even begun spending
her allowance on eye shadow and mascara instead of books and candy.
Not that her mother let her out of the house all made up. So we had
to wait a block from her house while she ‘put on her face’ each
morning.

Double ugh!

It was first grade when
Faith Xenakis turned Olivia and me into a trio. Until recently, I’d
been tallest. Now, Faith was nearly six inches taller and still
growing.

Faith wasn’t developing an
interest in boys. No, she’d turned into Ms. I’m-
all
-about-soccer. She devoted hours
every week, including most of Sunday, practicing with her team. I
really missed the time we used to spend together.

I wasn’t really sure
what
I
liked
anymore, but I wasn’t willing to lose my two best friends. The
Three would stay together. No matter who changed. No matter how
much.

No matter what.

I did know one thing. I
wasn’t going to think about that afternoon. Not until I could
talked to Olivia and Faith.

8:30 seemed
way
far away.

What I needed was something
to help me keep busy. Right now, maybe I should just think about
finishing my English essay. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t due
until next week. Getting it done early was being smart. Efficient.
Practical. And other words like that.

It did
not
mean I was
being a wuss.

Working on the essay
helped. A lot. By the time I was done, I didn’t feel all freaked
out. Instead, I’d started to feel curious about that place. It
might be cool to check it out.

Then I remembered what it
felt like going through that tree. I
hated
that part. If going back to
that place meant doing that again, I really wasn’t so interested
after all.

“
Kat, dinner.”

Mom’s voice was a relief. I
didn’t need to think about going back now. I only had to think
about eating.

At the table, I felt even
better once I sat at the table. Mom had a meeting that night, so
she’d brought home one of my favorites — pepperoni pizza. By the
time I finished eating, I was feeling pretty good.

I’d go to my room, put on
headphones, and chill with my favorite tunes until 8:30, when I
could finally talk to Faith and Olivia. I hated waiting so long,
but Olivia’s mom wouldn’t let her use her phone or computer until
she helped get her brothers and sisters in bed. I just would
not
think about anything
strange till then.

That sounded like a great
plan.

Too bad fate had something
else in mind.

Chapter 7

The Book of Light and
Shadow

It was nearly eight o’clock
when Mom stopped by my room after her meeting. When she asked if my
homework was done, I could virtuously say I’d finished all my
homework for the week. She didn’t do a good job hiding her
surprise. Normally, I like to wait to the last minute to do
homework, and we argue about it. A lot.

My left my room and
downstairs. I could hear her talking to Dad. I was glad she hadn’t
stayed to talk tonight. I was
too anxious
to know what Faith and Olivia would say about that
afternoon.

Time crawled the last few
minutes. It was 8:23 when I went downstairs for a glass of juice. I
was passing by the front door when the doorbell rang, and I stopped
in surprise.

Who’s at the door this
late?

Mom and Dad were watching
TV in the family room and I didn’t think they’d heard the doorbell.
Not over the sound of laughter from the television. I moved to the
door, placed my hand on the knob, and called quietly, “Who is
it?”

There was no
answer.

I glanced through the
peephole but couldn’t see anyone. My pulse increased as I reached
tentatively for the doorknob. Knowing Mom would ground me for a
week if she saw me, I opened the door a few inches and peered
out.

No one was there. But a
package wrapped in brown paper leaned against the house near the
front door. I could see my name, written in fancy script in thick
black ink. I reached out, my fingers cold and shaky, and picked it
up, carefully, like it might blow up in my hand. I gave another
quick look around, wondering who could have left it
there.

It was very dark past the
glow of the low-watt light on the porch. The clouds and mist from
the afternoon had thickened into a deep grey fog. The street lamps
could barely penetrate it, creating patches of dim light at regular
intervals that disappeared down the street.

Though it looked like a
muffling blanket, the fog amplified sounds. I could hear the
mournful drone of the foghorn in the bay. The sound of fast moving
traffic on Highway 101, even though it was at least a mile away.
Closer at hand, I heard the sound of fog singing on the electric
wires.

That was
all.

At first, I wasn’t sure
what I was listening for. With a start, I realized there should
have been footsteps. Where was the person who’d left the
package?