The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable FIB

by Adam Shaughnessy

  At first, she couldn’t wrap her mind around it. How could the Middleton Stone be inside the Henhouse? Only then, remembering a half-­heard news report about a robbery, did she begin to understand the truth.

  Mister Fox had stolen the Middleton Stone.

  But why?

  An answer presented itself, there in the house in the cemetery. It shambled up from the depths of her mind like a zombie from the grave. Fox the Fibber and Loki the liar. Were they the same person, after all? Had Pru been wrong about ABE?

  For a long moment, confusion froze Pru in place. Then a sudden noise from outside the door spurred her into action. She swept up the Middleton Stone and slipped it into her messenger bag before doubling back and hiding herself within the maze of bookcases near the entrance to the library.

  Mister Fox tore into the room. The anger Pru saw on his face as she peered between shelves terrified her.

  “Where are you?” he shouted. “I know you’re here. There’s no use hiding. Come out!”

  Pru didn’t know how he knew she was in the Henhouse. But he did know, and he was furious. She held her breath.

  Instead of turning in Pru’s direction, Mister Fox did just as Pru had hoped he would. He set off toward the back of the library, where Pru had discovered the Middleton Stone. She raced for the door as soon as he was out of sight.

  Her luck held long enough for her to find her way back to the stairs and down to the first level without any trouble. Then luck abandoned her. She was halfway to the front door when a shout caused her to spin back in the direction of the library.

  “You!” the man called Mister Fox howled from the level above. He towered over her, his hands clenched on the railing as he glared down.

  Pru didn’t wait around to hear anything else. She took off at a sprint. As she passed the lanterns that hung on either side of the exit, she swung her messenger bag with all her might. The lanterns shattered in a satisfying shower of sparks.

  Still running at full speed, Pru escaped into the cemetery. She raced through the growing darkness, wondering how much of a head start her stunt with the lanterns had given her. She didn’t have to wait long for her answer.

  As she crested a hill that would lead her to the road through the cemetery, Pru glanced back. She immediately wished she hadn’t. Mister Fox was out of the Henhouse and running full speed in her direction. It wasn’t fair! His legs were so long!

  Pru ran on, but as she neared the bottom of the hill, a sense of futility weighed her down even more than the increasingly heavy stone in her messenger bag. She would never make it. Even if she somehow got to the main road, the town was at least a mile away. Mister Fox would catch her long before she got there. What would he do to her?

  The darkness around Pru deepened quickly, the way it often does on an autumn night. Pru was feeling close to surrender when she spotted a car and hope surged.

  Its headlights shone like twin beacons to Pru as she dashed toward them. She didn’t know who was in the car. She didn’t care! At that point, she’d have been happy to see Mrs. Edleman herself driving.

  Pru waved to get the driver’s attention. The car slowed to a stop and the driver’s side window lowered. Pru lurched to a halt as she recognized the person in the car.

  “Fay!” She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her whole entire life.

  “Pru, STOP!”

  The voice from behind froze Pru with its force. She turned to find her pursuer standing at the top of the hill she’d just descended, framed by the raging sky behind him. He held the fox-­head looking glass in his hand.

  “Pru, stop!” he repeated. “Do not get into that car! Do you hear me? DO NOT GET INTO THAT CAR!”

  Shaking off her shock at seeing him so close, Pru sprinted around to the passenger side as Fay reached across to open the door.

  “Pru, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Who is that man?”

  “He’s a liar and a thief and we have to go! Please, Fay. Drive!”

  Looking troubled but nodding, Fay shifted into drive and the car rolled forward.

  “Faster!” Pru urged. They weren’t safe yet. The road was too narrow to turn around on. They had to follow it deeper into the cemetery before it would circle around and lead them back out and to safety. She craned her neck in one direction, then another, looking for signs of pursuit as they drove. “Hurry!”

  “Pru, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

  They rounded the final bend. The main gate stood before them.

  “Please, just drive, Fay. I’ll explain later. I promise.” Pru clutched her messenger bag to her chest. They were thirty yards away from the gate. Twenty.

  He burst onto the road ahead. His coat flared out behind him, making him seem even larger than he was.

  “STOP!” he bellowed.

  Fay slowed.

  “Fay, no!” Pru grabbed the woman’s sleeve. “Don’t stop. You can’t stop.”

  “Pru, I—”

  “Please, Fay. Trust me! I know I haven’t always been honest before. I know! But please, just this once—you have to believe me. Just this once. You can’t stop, I swear!” Pru willed Fay to listen to her. She didn’t care if anyone ever believed her again. Just this once!

  Fay looked torn for a moment. Then her hands tightened on the steering wheel and her foot pressed down on the gas. The car leapt forward and the man Pru thought had been her friend had no choice but to dive out of the way or be run down.

  Turning in her seat, Pru saw him roll to his feet and begin to run after them, but there was nothing he could do. The car had reached the gate and was turning onto the main road. Soon, they’d pick up speed and be gone. Her last glimpse of him was as they turned the corner. He was shouting her name.

  CHAPTER

  19

  FINALLY ABLE TO RELAX, PRU LOOSENED HER DEATH grip on her messenger bag and reached inside. She pulled out the Middleton Stone, relieved to see that she hadn’t broken it when she’d swung it against the lanterns.

  She’d done it. She’d escaped.

  Better.

  She’d stopped Loki.

  “Pru, what’s going on. Who was that man?”

  “He was a thief.” Pru didn’t want to lie to Fay, not after the woman had just saved her. But Fay would never believe the whole story. She gestured to the Middleton Stone. “He stole this from Winterhaven House.”

  “I don’t understand. How did you get it?”

  “I was in the cemetery,” Pru began, choosing her words carefully. “I found an old shack. Inside, I found this. I knew it was stolen. It was on the news this morning. So when I saw it, I took it. But the thief—that man—almost caught me. I barely got away.”

  “How did he know your name?”

  “I met him at the museum on my school field trip.” That was technically true. “He must have been casing the place.”

  “That man . . . Pru, did he hurt you?”

  “No.” Pru shook her head. “You saved me.”

  “Not me, Pru, your mother. She called the Earth Center worried when you didn’t show up at your house. Apparently, she’d heard about the robbery and was afraid you’d go on what she called one of your investigations.” Fay gave Pru a look that balanced disappointment and hurt perfectly. “You didn’t tell me you were supposed to go straight home from school today. Luckily, I knew where you were going.”

  “You’re not going to tell my mom what happened, are you?”

  “No,” Fay said, and Pru breathed a sigh of relief. “Because I’m going to give you the chance to tell her first. Then I’m going to tell her, if you don’t.”

  “But—”

  “Pru, listen.” Fay’s voice sounded gentle. It sounded concerned. But it also sounded very firm. “Something terrible could have happened to you today. You can’t keep sneaking off and wandering about. You and your mother need to talk, so that’s what you’re going to do. I’m going to take you home. Then I’m going to take that”—Fay pointed to the Middleton Stone—“to the pol
ice.”

  “Fine.” Pru was too tired to argue. It had been an impossible day, and the police station would be the safest place for the Middleton Stone, anyway. Thor was there. “Fay? I know I said this before, but thank you. Really.”

  “You don’t need to thank me, Pru. I’m just glad that everything worked out for the best.”

  Pru and Fay rode the rest of the way to Pru’s house in a comfortable silence. The silence, and the comfort, ended abruptly when Pru arrived home to her mother.

  Pru’s emotions were a jumble as she followed her mother into the living room, working on a slightly modified version of the story she’d told Fay: She’d been in town when she saw someone suspicious. She’d heard about the robbery on the news, and decided to follow the suspicious man to the cemetery. There she’d found the Middleton Stone.

  She was about to gloss over her escape when her mother brought her hand down hard on the sofa cushion.

  “Pru, are you insane?” Pru flinched. “You followed a strange man to the cemetery? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?”

  “I’m fine, Mom.”

  “You’re not fine, Pru! You haven’t been since . . .” Pru’s mother stopped and took a deep breath. She reached out and put her hand over Pru’s, but Pru pulled away.

  “Pru,” her mother said as she tried to control her breathing, “I know you’re angry. I don’t understand why you’re angry at me, but if that’s what you need to feel right now, that’s fine. But you have to understand, I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

  That was too much.

  Pru stood up. She imagined that her eyes were as fierce as any thunder god’s eyes had ever been.

  “Yeah? Well, you’re not doing a very good job of it, are you?”

  She stormed up to her room.

  Pru tossed and turned all that night, trapped in a nightmare of giants and thieves and houses too small to contain all the lies that dwelt within.

  In her nightmare, Pru heard her mother’s voice calling her home as she ran through a dead forest beneath burned skies. Fox-­headed monsters in gray coats chased her and promised to be her friend, even as they reached out to drag her back to their crooked home where she’d never see the sun again. All the while, Pru screamed “How could you?” at the monsters over and over again. Deep down, though, she knew the answer. She’d known for a long time now. Because this was what adults did.

  They lied.

  Pru scrambled out of bed eager to escape her dream and more eager to act. Fortunately, the morning brought clarity. She’d made a mistake. She never should have put Fay in danger by letting her take the Middleton Stone. Fay had no idea what she was getting into. Pru should have insisted on bringing it to Thor herself.

  Hopefully, Fay had delivered the stone to the police station and Thor being there had been enough to keep Loki away. The world hadn’t ended yet, anyway. Pru took that as a good sign.

  Still, something had to be done about Loki. Pru couldn’t stand the thought of him lurking around town. Her only choice was to go to Winterhaven House, expose Loki to Odin, and hope that Odin would punish the liar.

  A lot.

  Pru dressed and crept down the stairs of her house. She paused as she passed the telephone. She desperately wanted to call ABE. Her hand hovered over the phone. She already felt relieved knowing she could confide in him again. She’d even find his squeaky voice reassuring. But that thought reminded her of how mean she’d been to him the day before. He probably wouldn’t want to talk to her.

  And even if he did, it occurred to her that she didn’t know his number. She also didn’t know where ABE lived. She’d never asked. She’d never taken the time to learn much about him at all, actually.

  If she were ABE, she wouldn’t want to talk to her, either.

  Turning from the phone, Pru slipped into the kitchen and scrawled a note to leave for her mom on the refrigerator. She explained that she wanted to get an early start for the first day of the Explorers’ Fair. As quietly as possible, she turned the front doorknob, shut the door behind her, and slipped away.

  Pru had been to the Explorers’ Fair before, of course. Pretty much everyone in town went every year, even if they didn’t like Vikings. This year felt different, though. She maneuvered through the growing crowd in a state of ever-­increasing anxiety. While some of the fairgoers’ outfits were obviously costumes, with their plastic horns and braided wigs, others were frighteningly realistic. People who she should have easily recognized as neighbors took on a more sinister appearance as they brandished costume weaponry and fierce looks. Were they people at a fair or other characters from Norse mythology poised to strike?

  Pru studied each face carefully, desperate to determine whether it was someone she recognized from town. And she kept a sharp eye out for ABE, hoping that maybe he’d appear in the crowd. He never did.

  Pru’s first thought had been to go immediately to the mansion and try to find Odin. But as she made her way through the crowd, Pru saw the booth for the Earth Center and changed course toward it.

  “Have you seen Fay?” she asked one of the adult volunteers she recognized. She thought his name might be Bob.

  Maybe-­Bob turned with a distracted look from the pyramid of aluminum cans he was building. “Who? Fay? No . . . no, I can’t say I have.”

  Pru sped off, trying to ignore that first, feather touch of actual fear. She soon encountered one more distraction on her path to Winterhaven House.

  “Roger!” she exclaimed, recognizing her dad’s old partner as she neared the stone mansion.

  “Hey, kiddo. You’re up early. Where’s your mom?”

  “She’s still sleeping. It’s Saturday, you know?” While Roger chuckled, Pru took in his pressed pants, jacket, and tie. It could only mean one thing. “You’re all dressed up—and not like a Viking. Are you on duty?”

  “Afraid so. No rest for the weary. Did you hear? Someone stole some old stone out of the Grimnir Collection. Probably a crazy rock collector, or something.”

  “I heard.” Pru tried to sound casual as fear slowly tightened its fist on her insides. “But I also thought I heard someone found the stone and returned it.”

  “Returned it? I don’t think so. I’d be the first to know. Where did you hear that?”

  “Uh, nowhere,” Pru said. “I mean, I must have heard wrong. Look, I’ve got to go. Sorry!”

  Pru took off once more. Fear had her completely in its grip now. What had happened to Fay? Why hadn’t she returned the stone? Had Loki caught her before she made it to the police station?

  Lost in thought, Pru ran right into another fairgoer—a sturdy one, too, judging by the way Pru rebounded. She looked up, ready to let the offender have it, but she held her tongue when recognition hit. It was Hilde, from Winterhaven House!

  She wore a rough leather tunic and a long blue cloak that nearly hid the sword that hung at her side. Another year, Pru would have assumed Hilde was dressed for the fair. Now, Pru suspected that the woman was dressed in her usual way. If Hilde worked for Old Man Grimnir, there was a good chance Hilde was a Mythic, too.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Pru asked, noticing a leather pack slung over Hilde’s shoulder.

  “I am,” Hilde said, looking down at Pru without surprise. “Mr. Grimnir has already left. The event he came to witness has happened, as it was always going to.”

  “But you can’t go. And you have to get Odin back!” Pru bit her lower lip. She’d never outed a Viking god in public before and wasn’t quite sure of the proper way to go about it, but this was important. “Loki is here. He’s on Midgard! He defied Odin. And I think he might have hurt a friend of mine—”

  The words spilled out of Pru’s mouth with increasing speed. She took a deep breath, trying to force herself to slow down. Instead, Hilde stopped her altogether.

  “Be at ease. You have nothing to fear from Loki, child. He has left this place. The giants have gone with him. Odin told me.”

  Pru blinked, taken ab
ack.

  “He has? They did?” That was good news, wasn’t it? So why did Pru still feel so worried? “But what about my friend?”

  “You will discover the truth about your friend soon. When you do discover the truth, try not to be too hard on yourself. Loki has fooled us all at one time or another.” With that, Hilde took a step back as two Viking-­clad fairgoers walked between her and Pru. When the fairgoers had passed, Hilde had vanished.

  Pru spun in a slow circle, not sure what to do next. Around her, the grounds filled as more people joined the festivities. Noise, bustle, guilt, worry—and an absurd number of silly Viking hats with horns—made it impossible for Pru to think. She fled to the edge of the estate grounds, to the border of the woods, where she collapsed against a tree and slid down into a sitting position with her forehead pressed against her knees. One question rose above the clamor in her head.

  Where was Fay?

  Hilde had said Pru would find out soon and that she shouldn’t blame herself . . . But if something terrible had happened to Fay, then who else was to blame?

  As upsetting as that thought was, there was something else. Pru was missing something. She could feel it. Something didn’t make sense.

  “There’s something wrong, and I just can’t see it,” Pru said aloud. She didn’t expect a response. She got one anyway.

  “Well,” a voice replied from above, “don’t go blaming me if something’s wrong. You didn’t listen to me. I said you were in terrible danger. I tried to warn you. But does anyone ever want to listen to what I have to say? Ha!”

  Surprise lifted Pru to her feet and spun her around, already sure of what—or who—she’d see above. Sure enough, a small gray squirrel with a droopy tail lay sprawled across a branch overhead.

  “You! You’re Ratatosk, right?”

  “No,” the squirrel said, “I’m the other talking squirrel.”

  He was clearly in a mood.

  Unfortunately, so was Pru.

  “You know what? I don’t have time for this. I have one friend missing, one friend mad at me because I was mean to him, and one friend who isn’t my friend at all. He’s just a big, fat liar. Now I’ve got to figure out what to do about it all, so why don’t you go gather some acorns or something.” She turned her back on the squirrel.