Secrets in the Dark (8 page)

I’m glad that doesn’t work
on me!

Even so, I knew there was
no way we’d discourage him now. Just to be contrary, I asked, “What
makes you think you’d be able to get in?”

He snorted. “You’re
kidding, right? I was born here the same year you were. You got in.
Why wouldn’t I?”

“
Fine,” I said. Darn! I
sounded like I was
pouting. Hopefully I
didn’t
look
like
it. “You can go with us.”

I ignored Faith and
Olivia’s protests, knowing it made more sense to have him go on our
terms. “Just don’t forget, we’re the ones Ronny asked to solve
this. And
we
get
to decide what to do. Understand?”

“
I agree. Unless you start
to do something stupid.”

I rolled my eyes, but
turned to Faith and Olivia. “That’s the best we can do. He’ll just
follow us or tell someone if we don’t let him come.”

“
Fine,” Olivia snapped.
She pressed her lips together tightly and breathed in loudly
through her nose.

“
Fine,” Faith repeated.
But she sagged back against the booth in relief. I knew she’d
prefer to be completely surrounded by people the next time we
entered Chimera. None of the things that scared most kids bothered
her. But give her something new, or make her deal with bullies, or
even give an oral report in class, and she got more nervous than a
mouse in a cage full of hungry cats.

And I could tell the idea
of going back to Chimera had her
really
nervous.

Now that I knew where we’d
gone and more important, knew how to get home, I was
actually excited about the idea of going back. I
just hoped it would be easier to get through that tree next
time.

“
We should go today,” Doug
said.

I sighed loudly. “Faith
can’t go tomorrow, so if we don’t go today we’ll have to wait ‘til
next month,” I told him.

“
Like I said! We should go
today. We don’t want to wait a month.”

Urrrgh! He’s already
trying to take over.

“
Yeah, what a shame,”
Faith muttered next to me.

Trying to keep Doug from
butting in again, I asked quickly, “
When
do you want to
meet?”

Faith sighed, resigned.
“I’ll be ready in thirty minutes.”

“
Let’s meet next to the
cemetery,” Olivia said.

“
Thirty minutes. By the
cemetery. I’ll be there,” Doug assured us.

“
Oh goody.” I hoped there
was enough sarcasm in my voice. Sometimes Doug could be totally
oblivious.



It was
10:00 am when Olivia, Faith, Doug and I met across from the
cemetery.

“
Should we take some
lunch?” Faith asked. “What if we’re there a long time?”

“
We can come back and get
whatever we need,” Olivia said reasonably, a hint of irritation in
her voice. “Come on, let’s go.”

“
Yeah, let’s go!” Doug
definitely sounded bossy.

“
Don’t push it.” I knew I
sounded impatient, but I didn’t care. “I just spent several minutes
on the phone with Ronny, vouching for you. I told her you promised
to do what The Three say.” Doug rolled his eyes at me, then turned
to follow Olivia across the street.

We hadn’t gotten far into
the cemetery when I stopped. I turned around slowly, trying to find
whatever was making me so uncomfortable. The skin on the back of my
neck was
twitching.

Doug said, “What’s the
matter with you.”

“
I swear we’re being
watched.”

“
So what?”

Faith stopped and said,
“That’s not good. What if it’s Andrew or the others?”

“
Who cares if they’re out
there?” Olivia asked, sounding annoyed. “As long as
they don’t see where we go.”

I turned around again to
look, but didn’t see anyone. “You’re right. It just makes me
nervous, that’s all.” When we reached the tree without seeing them,
I relaxed.

Olivia leaned against the
tree first. This time, I got to watch her disappear. It looked
completely and totally freaky, like the tree was swallowing her up.
Faith and Doug followed her quickly, and then it was my
turn.

The feeling of plunging
through something cold, thick, dark and damp was just as nasty as
the last time. In fact, it felt even worse than I remembered. Did
it really take this long last time? I felt panic creeping through
me. Sweat broke out on my forehead, then chilled in the cold
darkness.

Note to self — Wear a coat
next time.

Then I realized we hadn’t
warned Doug. For a moment, I forgot the terrible feeling of being
blind, deaf and tumbling through space. I was glad I could feel the
smile spreading across my face.

Serves him right— No one
asked him to come.

“
Holy Cow!” Doug yelped as
we suddenly fell onto the dirt road in Chimera.

“
I thought your mom told
you not to watch
The
Simpsons
.”

“
Don’t have a cow, man,”
he told me, turning to look around in amazement.

Faith made a gulping sound
and I looked at her quickly. Then looked away. She was a pale
sweaty green. Her stomach hadn’t liked this trip through the tree
any better than the last one.

The four of us climbed to
our feet, the huge fig tree behind us. This time, I was able to
look around with interest. The sun was higher in the sky than at
home and it was much warmer. The air was sweet, like a room spray
made of strawberries and cinnamon toast. So different from home! A
tingly sensation chased from my feet to the top of my
head.

I murmured, “Toto, I don’t
think we’re in Kansas
anymore.”

Doug’s grin practically
stretched ear to ear. “I don’t believe this!”

The dirt road we stood on
stretched into the distance, looking narrow and indistinct where it
finally veered to the left and out of sight. On the right, open
fields were covered with strange brightly colored flowers, unlike
any I’d ever seen.

Some were larger than
dinner plates, while others were too small to make out individual
shapes. Huge sections of the field were layered in shades of
yellow, orange and purple. There were even colors I couldn’t name.
It looked like a crazed painter had splashed an entire paint store
over the meadow.

I don’t know how long I’d
been staring at the flowers in amazement, trying to find even one I
recognized when Olivia asked, “How’d they do that to the
rocks?”

That’s when I saw them. In
places, unbelievable rock formations thrust out of the grass. As if
the sculptor decided to create the most bizarre shapes ever. Rocks
were bent, twisted, curved, and braided. Some as thin as paper,
delicately carved into patterns and shapes I didn’t recognize. More
than one balanced on a tip no bigger than a needle. There was no
way a rock should be able to stand like that.

“
I like it,” Doug said
suddenly. I blinked, feeling like I’d been staring a long
time.

I wanted to show Doug
something…

“
Oh! Check this out!” I
pulled out my phone and grinned. Doug’s eyes grew wide as he
watched the screen going haywire. Olivia and Faith held theirs out
as well.

He immediately pulled out
his phone, just as mine gave that strange whining sound and died
like last time.

“
What?” Olivia’s hands
were on her hips, and she glared at him. “You think we messed up
our phones just to fool you?”

“
Well…” He paused and
shrugged with a grin. I rolled my eyes as
Olivia started to snap back at him.

Faith interrupted, “Shhh,
listen!”

After several moments of
quiet, Olivia asked, “So what is it I’m supposed to listen for? I
don’t hear anything.”

Faith shoved her hands in
her pockets. “Exactly!” she said. “’There’s no sound.”

We were all quiet again,
then I said, “That’s creepy. I’ve never, ever been anywhere there
wasn’t
some
noise.”

Doug sounded like he
was
talking to a group of little kids.
“Well, there’s no wind. And this road isn’t paved. It doesn’t look
like cars normally drive here. I don’t think it’s
strange”

How can he be so
thick?

“
Doug!” Frustration made
my voice come out like a growl. “There’s no sound! No birds, no
crickets, no frogs, no wind, no cars, no ocean, no airplanes, no
stereos. Nothing! Nada! Zip! Zilch!”

“
That’s not all,” said
Faith, sounding worried. “I don’t hear any people. Ronny said there
would be people we could ask about her mom.”

“
I guess we’ll have to
start searching for someone,” I said, trying to sound matter of
fact rather than nervous. “Should we go straight or use that path
to the right?”

“
We should go straight,”
Faith said.

“
I say we should go to the
right,” Doug declared, and actually started to turn that
direction.

Olivia, Faith and I all
looked at him, then spoke together. It sounded like we’d been
practicing it. “Straight!” It sounded so great, we gave each other
a high-five.

Doug rolled his eyes.
“Okay, okay, we can go straight,” He muttered something else under
his breath and I was glad I couldn’t hear it. I didn’t think he was
giving us a compliment.

The road was made of smooth
hard-packed dirt. When I scraped my foot against it, there wasn’t
even the smallest puff of dust. It made very little sound beneath
our feet. On the left, a low stone wall bordered the road about six
inches wide, just higher than my knees. Beyond the wall, towering
out of waist-high grass, were a dozen enormous apple trees, covered
with the largest red apples I’d ever seen.

“
Hey Faith, you wanted
lunch,” Doug said. “Why don’t we stop and pick some
apples?”

Faith shook her head at
him. “You watch
The
Simpsons
, but not
The Wizard of Oz?
You
never
steal apples from
trees in a magic forest!”

Doug laughed at her and
moved over to the wall. I could tell he was going to jump over and
pick an apple from the nearest tree.

Faith was right. Who knew
if something was dangerous. But I couldn’t think of anything that
would make him listen. I muttered, “I wish we had something to help
us figure out what’s safe in here!”

A sudden intense gust of
wind whipped around us, tossing leaves and dust into the air. It
was so strong I covered my eyes and held my breath. Dirt and twigs
stung my hands, and the exposed parts of my face felt raw as it
swept past with a high-pitched shriek. It certainly wasn’t quiet
now!

I sucked in my breath to
yell that we should get back in the tree when the wind died as
abruptly as it began. My ears rang in the sudden silence, and I
pulled my hands away from my eyes.

As the dust settled, I saw
Doug had one foot resting on top of the low wall. But he was just
standing there frozen, staring down the road. Before I could look
that way, I heard an odd sound to the right. It was the first sound
I’d heard in here besides that terrible wind, and it gave me a
sinking feeling in my stomach.

I turned, dimly aware that
Faith and Olivia had turned also, but I didn’t pay them any
attention. I was too busy looking for the source of those furtive
rustling noises coming toward us through the colorful
meadow.

Then Doug gave a quick
exclamation and yanked his leg back onto the road. He pulled a
slingshot out of his pocket and scanned the ground. “I need a
rock!”

Chapter 12

Who’s Afraid of the Big
Bad…Fox?

Faith gasped and pointed
into the field. Where she aimed her finger, black-tipped triangular
ears and a long red muzzle peeked above the grass.

She threw herself in front
of Doug and poked her finger at him. “You’re
not
going to shoot that fox! No way!
My nickname is Fox. That’s my favorite animal.”

“
Okay.” When Faith didn’t
immediately move back, he glared down before repeating, “Okay! I
won’t shoot your precious fox.”

Faith looked down at her
hand in surprise where her finger was still shoved against his
chest. “Okay then,” she said, a light flush spreading up her neck.
She dropped her arm and moved back. She looked back at the spot
where the fox had been, then sighed. There was no sign of
it.

“
So what’s with the sling
shot?” Olivia asked.

“
I got it for Christmas. I
figured this would be a good place to try it out.”

I jumped as a high-pitched
hooting sound came from one of the trees far to the left of the
road. Olivia’s eyes were wide when she said, “I totally wish I knew
what that was.”