The Curse of Jenny Greene

by Kimberly Loth

“I guess that means we have to put up with him.” Chi thrust her chin at Foster.

  “It does,” I said with a small smile. An idea struck me. “Hey, what tribe is your family from?”

  “Algonquin.”

  I thought so. And her grandpa was a full-blooded member.

  “Any specific branch?”

  Mather’s book had mentioned the Abenaki.

  “Sophia Calla Howell.” Foster jumped to his feet.

  Chapter 34

  I stared at him, stunned. How did he know my full name?

  He jumped up and lurched for the door but stopped.

  “What?” I asked, frowning.

  “Is he having a stroke?” Chi shook her head at him.

  Foster reached down and scooped me up like I was a child. An arm around my back and one under my knees. I squeaked when he tossed me up onto the counter.

  “Look at the door and around the walls,” he said into my ear for only me to hear.

  I did as he asked but saw nothing out of the ordinary. I shivered. It was chilly in here.

  “Whoa there, Loverboy.” Chi threw her hands up.

  Foster didn’t give Chi any more time to protest. He grabbed her around the waist and tossed her up beside me. Something had freaked him out. On my knees at the edge of the counter, I squinted at the walls. Then I saw it. A thin, barely noticeable sheen of water slipping down, collecting in the crack where the wall met the floor. It blocked the door.

  Foster jumped up beside us and straightened to stare at the small bathroom window.

  “What the hell?” demanded Chi.

  “Foster?”

  “She’s coming.” He banged on the window, trying to loosen it from ages of disuse.

  Water bubbled up from a drain in the center of the floor not far from where we’d been sitting. The temperature took a desperate plunge now, turning the skin of my hands red in the brutal cold. The lights fizzled out and left us in a gray gloom with only a square of sunlight from the window.

  “Gross. The toilets are overflowing but not quite as dire as you make it out. Are your shoes expensive?” Chi moved to jump down, but I grabbed her arm. That gray water was not just a stopped-up toilet.

  Foster banged again on the one window. “I can’t get this thing open.”

  “Do you see how small it is?” I shouted. Even Sam wouldn’t have fit through that small hole. The water was rising quickly, already several inches deep.

  “Feet up. Don’t let it touch you,” I said to Chi and tucked my own feet under me.

  Foster squatted down beside me, cursing under his breath.

  “Okay, I need an explanation. Now.” Chi’s voice rose an octave. She tucked her feet up, her eyes wild with sudden fear. She quickly realized more was happening than she’d originally assumed.

  “Della was going on about a witch?” I said.

  “Della?”

  “Garner’s grandmother,” I clarified quickly. The water was getting deeper, well over a couple of feet now. Was it running out into the hall? Would someone see it and get help?

  “Oh. Yeah. A witch,” said Chi, but her eyes were glued to the gray water. There was something moving in it. Something that looked like black seaweed.

  Or black hair.

  Greenteeth was here.

  Suddenly, the water surged up to the very edge of the counter.

  Chi and I both pushed away until our backs collided with the mirror. Foster stood and smashed the window with his elbow. Glass rained down into the water.

  “It’s too small,” I shouted at him. A gray-skinned hand with green nails shot out of the water and gripped the edge of the counter. The tiles broke as Greenteeth flexed her fingers.

  “What the hell is that?” Chi squealed and tried to climb up the mirror. She wasn’t a spider, though.

  “The dragon?” Foster stomped on Greenteeth’s hand. We heard the water hiss. Her grip didn’t loosen in the slightest.

  I jumped up until my face was on the same level as the window, and I could feel the wind on my face.

  “Dragon?” Chi stared at me in horror, her dark skin as pale as I’d ever seen it.

  Another hand appeared on the counter.

  I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the golden dragon, his scales gleaming in the sun, on the salty tang in the air that came with him. That was when I remembered the lightweight feeling I got when I’d spoken to him. I tried to capture that wispy feeling with little luck.

  Titan? Please. I sent the thoughts out.

  Foster backed into us protectively, spreading his arms out in front of Chi and me. Unfortunately, Greenteeth wouldn’t have a problem plowing through him.

  I opened my eyes. Greenteeth’s head crested the water. She rose out of it slowly, her hair streaming in front of her face.

  Chi screamed and buried her head in her arms.

  Titan. I screamed in my mind and repeated it out loud.

  Greenteeth froze. She stood at our level, either very tall or using the filthy water to buoy herself. Her clawed hand stretched out to me.

  “Sophie,” Chi screeched and reached for me.

  “No.” Foster shoved me into Chi before the tips of Jenny’s jagged nails could scratch my face. Greenteeth tilted her head in Foster’s direction.

  “Foster,” I cried. The witch leaned in close to him. With a deep sigh, she relaxed her hands out of their clawed form and lifted a hand to touch his face. Not out of anger or a wish to hurt him as she had with me, but to pet . . . a caress.

  Before she could touch him, a strong wind filled with salt rushed in through the open window and blew Greenteeth into the far wall. She tossed her head back and screamed.

  I am here.

  Titan, thank goodness. I sagged into Foster with relief.

  “He’s here,” I told them.

  “Who? What is happening?” Chi demanded.

  “The dragon, he’s here,” I said, though it wouldn’t make any sense to her.

  She lowered her hands. “I don’t see him. Is that a good thing? Dragons instead of witches?”

  The broken window reflected the sunlight into the mirror. The whole bathroom became blindingly bright. Greenteeth screamed again. This time, Titan let her sink back down into the water. I watched his outline glisten in the reflection. He tried to stomp on her, but the water receded so quickly that he was left stomping in empty puddles.

  “Remember that invisible wall you ran into?” I asked Chi. She nodded. Her hair had begun to frizz in the sea breeze.

  The boy must be more careful. Titan’s outline whipped around to me. If she had touched him, I would have lost him again.

  What? I frowned.

  We must take better care of him.

  The sunlight dimmed, and the sea air left out the window with a whoosh.

  Titan had left.

  I stared at Foster. He’d relaxed his shoulders and was leaning back against the mirror.

  “No one heard any of that?” He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Do you know Titan?” I asked him.

  “The dragon? No. I don’t have scaly friends.” He shook his head.

  “That thing recognized you too,” said Chi.

  Foster shook his head as if we’d both lost our minds, and he hopped off the counter. Could he be hiding something from me? And what had Titan meant? How was I supposed to take care of Foster?

  “The claw marks are gone.” Chi placed her hand where the tile had broken under Greenteeth’s fingers. Foster offered to help Chi off the counter, but she declined and jumped down on her own.

  “But the window is still broken.” He held out a hand for me, and I took it.

  As soon as my feet hit the floor, I checked my watch. Only fifteen minutes had passed since we’d left class.

  “We should go,” said Foster. He stared at the smashed window and all the glass on the floor. “I can’t talk my way out of that.”

  “Ha. You could charm your way out of a prison sentence,” I said.


  “Can we leave now?” His pretty blue eyes pleaded with me.

  “Yeah, I’m done with school for the day.” I snatched up my backpack. “Chi, can you and Garner meet us after school? I’ll explain everything then.”

  Hopefully, Foster and I would be done with Max by that time.

  “Nope. Can’t wait that long.” Chi shook her head. “I’ll get Garner after this class ends and meet you at my house. Mom’s at work, and Dad is with Grandpa at the doctor’s.”

  “Sounds good.” I squeezed her hand. “Be careful.”

  “We’re going now, right?” Foster took my other hand and began pulling me toward a side door.

  “Yes,” I said. I glanced behind me to make sure Chi was gone. Instead of my friend fleeing, I saw Hannah Grimm. She stood in front of the lockers that were across from the bathroom we’d just been terrorized in. Her hair was free and wild around her head today. She held a finger to her lips.

  “Come on, Sophie.” Foster tugged on my arm.

  “Foster,” I said and glanced at him.

  “What?” He stopped finally and looked at me. He’d be able to see Hannah standing there, watching us. When I turned back, Hannah Grimm was gone.

  “I…” I started but trailed off. I had seen her, hadn’t I?

  “What, Sophie? Did you see something?” Foster pulled me in close and studied the empty hallway. He was probably still looking for water bubbling out of drains or black-haired witches stalking us. But there wasn’t anything except the empty school hall.

  “No.” I turned back to him. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter 35

  “We don’t have to be at the Inquisitor till two, right?” Foster asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Yeah.” I shivered. My coat was in my locker, but I was shaking from our encounter in the bathroom more than the cold. I wrapped my arms around myself.

  Had Hannah been there? Was my mind finally breaking? What would she want? I shook my head, trying to clear out the confusion.

  Foster drove too fast away from the school and down a small alley behind the bank. I stared at him as he shifted the car into park and jumped out. What was all this about?

  He yanked my door open and pulled me out of the car, into his arms.

  He was trembling too.

  “That was a close one,” he whispered. On some level, it was nice to know he had been as scared as me. I wrapped him in a hug and leaned in close.

  His lips brushed my forehead, right at my hairline.

  When I closed my eyes, I could still see Greenteeth’s gray hand reaching for Foster’s face. If Titan hadn’t come, I was certain she would have snatched him away from me. I tightened my grip around him. Greenteeth had taken more than her fair share from me, and I vowed she wouldn’t get Foster.

  We stayed there clinging to each other till the bank’s back door banged open, and a woman in high heels clomped out. She had a cigarette in her mouth.

  “Get lost, kids,” she sneered through her smoke. “I’m having a bad day.”

  Foster laughed but let go of me. We climbed back into the car, and I gave him the directions to Chi’s house.

  On the way, I called Leigh Kate and asked her to meet us.

  Foster took the long way around the town; driving seemed to soothe him. By the time we got to Chi’s the others were all waiting for us. I quickly gave them a rundown of everything that we had learned about Greenteeth so far, leaving out details of Gram’s nighttime visits and the eyeless children. It pained me to imagine Sam as one of them; I wanted to spare Garner and Leigh Kate from that pain if I could.

  “You’re telling me that a ghost witch took my little brother because three hundred years ago, my ancestor threw her in a lake?” Garner rubbed his eyes.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in, baby,” Chi wrapped an arm around his shoulders and scooted closer. “But after what I saw this morning, I believe them. I just wonder, what about him?”

  She nodded at Foster. He quickly frowned and turned his focus to the tips of his shoes.

  “His family is involved too. They own the land where the pond is. The first person taken was from his family,” I said but secretly wondered if I was missing something. Titan had spoken of Foster as if he’d known him. Did he? It was a crazy notion; everything felt that way. Foster wasn’t three hundred years old, then again, I was talking about a sea dragon who was helping me fight a ghost witch.

  As if he felt my eyes on him, Foster glanced up. He looked as disheveled as I’d ever seen him.

  “Chi, you never told me what branch of Algonquin your grandfather is.” I turned toward her.

  She shrugged. “I don’t pay that much attention to him.”

  “Jenny Greene was taken by the Abenaki,” I said. “The book said she learned some of their magic.”

  “I don’t know any of that. Granddad doesn’t have any magic. The tribe just meets now to sing songs and smoke pipes.” She rested her head on Garner’s shoulder. “I sometimes wonder what they are smoking in those pipes.”

  “Could we talk to him?”

  “I could,” she volunteered. “I doubt he would appreciate anyone outside the tribe asking. Native secrets and stuff.”

  “Could you ask him about the Abenaki and see if there are any stories that go back that far?” I asked her. Maybe if we could learn something from the tribe, we could understand a little bit of the magic that Jenny used.

  “Of course, I will.” She sat up straight as though she was glad to have a job.

  “Great.” Hopefully, she could get us more pieces of the puzzle.

  “What can I do?” Garner leaned forward.

  Foster took this one.

  “Saturday, we are going to take my boat to the sea cave. I have a couple of maps that show where it’s located. Do you think you can help me get some gear?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got some climbing and hiking stuff. Do you know how to drive a boat?” asked Garner.

  “Yeah, I do.” Foster nodded.

  “What about me?” asked Leigh Kate. They were the first words she’d spoken since I’d finished my story. “I can go to the Inquisitor with you.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Max wants an interview with both of us.” A detail I didn’t share . . . Mom wouldn’t deal well if she knew I was even going to his office.

  “Then we let him think we will give him the interview,” she smiled sweetly.

  “Only if you’re sure . . .” I said in slow, uncertain words.

  “Why don’t you two take care of the newspaper while Foster and I get stuff for the boating trip?” It was Garner’s idea.

  “Yeah, that would be fine,” Foster said.

  “When will Greenteeth go after another child?” asked Leigh Kate. The lightness of the moment had evaporated.

  “Hard to say. There were only two days between Cassie and Chase,” I said. “What about the Penningtons, do they have a younger sibling?”

  “Yeah. She’s ten. Lila,” Leigh Kate answered.

  “Who else?” asked Garner.

  “Alex Adair, of course. That only leaves the Nortons,” I said.

  “My friend Daisy babysits Quinn Norton,” Leigh Kate added. “She’s not quite two.”

  All of us were quiet. Not even two. As hard as losing Sam was, I couldn’t imagine losing baby Connor. Quinn’s parents would be devastated to lose their only child in infancy. No one would know what to do in that situation.

  “What about the old man, Jennings?” Chi asked. All eyes were on me.

  “Turns out old man Jennings is my mom’s dad,” I said after a long pause. “Sam is the Jennings’s payment of Greenteeth’s curse.”

  “Do we need to keep an eye on the others?” Garner asked. “We could split up. Foster and Sophie. Me and Chi.”

  “That would leave Leigh Kate on her own,” said Foster.

  “Or Leigh Kate and I could team-up. Then Foster, you could stay with Luke and watch over Lila Pennington,” I suggested. The stare Foste
r shot my way told me that idea wasn’t happening.

  Leigh Kate laughed. “Actually, I live close to the Penningtons. I could stay the night with Lucy and watch over Lila.”

  “That would work better,” said Foster without taking his gaze off mine.

  “I’d hate to send you all into something that might get you hurt,” I said, looking away from him and to Leigh Kate. Especially for her. At least in teams, we’d have someone with us who knew what we were up against. Leigh Kate would be on her own, and if something did happen, it wasn’t as if she could tell Luke and Lucy that a ghost witch was trying to abduct their sister.

  “You aren’t. That witch bitch did when she took our family.” Garner curled his hands into fists.

  It was decided. We would divide and conquer. Chi was going to catch up with her dad and grandpa. Foster and Garner headed out to start collecting supplies to go to the sea cave. Leigh Kate and I went straight to the newspaper office. Then we’d all meet up later that afternoon to prepare for our night of guarding the remaining kids.

  Chapter 36

  Leigh Kate and I arrived at the newspaper office about an hour early.

  Even outside, the building smelled musty like old laundry. A small bell tinkled over the door, and through a window, we noticed there was no reception area, only four old desks scattered around in one big room. None were currently occupied.

  “Out doing reporter stuff, I assume.” Leigh Kate flashed me her smile. In the car on the way here, she’d called Lucy Pennington, who had immediately proceeded to tell Leigh Kate about how she’d shown me up. Leigh Kate had listened to the whole thing, all the while sending me an apology with her eyes. The only important item in the entire conversation was that Leigh Kate would spend the night with the Penningtons. She’d be there to keep an eye on Lila.

  “Very important reporter stuff,” I grinned,

  We each sat at desks across from each other.

  “You’d think they would lock the place up when they were gone,” Leigh Kate wrinkled her nose at the mess of old Chinese takeout containers littering the desktop.

  “Maybe they’re in the back,” I said, then yelled, “Hello? Anyone here?”