Hide and Shriek

by Alison Hughes

  “What?”

  I grabbed her hand. It was ice-cold. “Knocked him out. He’s in their car trunk! They shoved him in there. Oh god.” Tess was shaking with fear. Actually, more like shuddering. Tess, my confident, tough-girl sister. That scared me probably more than anything.

  “Go, go,” I whispered, pushing her into the backyard.

  The Boss called softly, “Playtime’s over, kids. Come on out. We got your friend. You know that. We need to talk.”

  I heard him fumbling with the catch on the gate. We had maybe three seconds, and then he’d be in the backyard.

  Talk. A shiver went down my spine. What kind of talk? Like this guy really just wanted a reasonable discussion.

  In the whirling racing of my mind, a few things stood out.

  We know this yard, even in the pitch black. He doesn’t.

  Distance, that’s what we need. We need to put distance between him and us. We need to get to a phone.

  The gate creaked.

  “Hop the fence. Now,” I said. Tess was shaking so badly I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to climb this fence we’d climbed dozens of times. But, thankfully, hopping fences is like riding bikes. If you’ve done it enough, you always remember how to do it. Even when you’re being hunted in the dark, that old fence-hopping habit kicks in.

  We sprinted to the fence, leaped, grabbed the top, hauled ourselves up, swung our legs over and dropped, sprawling on the other side. It wasn’t pretty, but now there was a fence between us and them. We were in Cam’s backyard. Next door to our house.

  Footsteps down the path. A flashlight played over the McGregors’ backyard.

  “The hole, quick!” I whispered urgently. We scrambled to the far corner of Cam’s yard. Behind a prickly, half-dead bush there was a spot where a few pieces of the wooden fence had broken off. You could swing a third piece to the side and slither through on your belly. Tess slithered, her legs kicking, scrabbling to get through. When she was through, I followed.

  “They’re in the next yard,” said a voice. Kev had joined in the hunt. At least we knew where both of them were.

  The flashlight swung over Cam’s yard. We were still one step ahead. I pulled Tess through our backyard to the side door. We were screened for the moment from the flashlight’s yellow beam.

  “Key,” I panted. “You have the key.” “I…I…” Tess reached fumbling hands down to her pockets.

  “Hurry! Hurry, Tess,” I whispered. I brushed her hands aside. I patted her down quickly like a cop, reached into her left pocket and grabbed the key. I opened the door with a quiet click, and we slipped inside. I locked the door behind us.

  “Don’t put on any lights,” I said. “Be as quiet as you can. Call 9-1-1. Then call Dad.”

  “Okay. Em…what are you—”

  We both jumped at a thudding sound out back. Did they hop the fence too? A murmur of voices.

  “They’re coming! They’re coming,” Tess whimpered. She was shivering uncontrollably.

  I hugged her. Then I shook her.

  “The door is locked,” I whispered. “They don’t know we’re in here—they don’t know which house we’re in. Go! Call 9-1-1!”

  Tess groped her way into the kitchen. She picked up the phone and sank down on the floor, away from the windows.

  They’re in the backyard, I repeated in my head, thinking hard. That means there’s nobody out front. Nobody near the car. Nobody but Cam in the trunk of that car.

  I ran down the hall to the front door.

  Chapter Eleven

  The last thing, the very last thing on earth I wanted was to leave my safe, locked house.

  But I didn’t hesitate. I slipped out the front door silently, locking it behind me and pocketing the key. Tess would be safe. They wouldn’t have time to break in. They didn’t know where we were. I listened. All I could hear was the wind rustling the leaves in the trees.

  No, wait. There was a murmur of voices in the backyard.

  I had to make them think we’d passed our house and gone on into the next yard. I had to lure them farther away from our house. From Tess. How? How?

  I remembered Dylan chucking the rock in the ravine. I picked up one of the decorative rocks from our front garden and hucked it high over our other neighbor’s house, directing it into their backyard. It rattled on the roof and made a satisfying thuk as it hit the fence. There was an immediate scrabble of scumbag activity in response.

  I crept through the shadows of the front yard and peered down the street. There was the black Infiniti, parked the wrong way against the curb, at a drunken angle.

  I slipped from tree to tree, keeping to the shadows. Soon I was at the car.

  Diablo, pacing and whining in the backseat, started barking.

  “Shh, shh, good dog, good dog. It’s me, buddy.” I held out my hand, and Diablo sniffed it through the crack in the window. I heard his tail thump.

  I have to be fast. Oh god, I have to be so fast. I have to get Cam out of this car before they figure things out. Quick, quick…

  “You’re such a good dog, buddy, such a good, good dog,” I crooned. Diablo whined in response, slobbering at my hand.

  I crouched beside the car and tried the driver’s door. I couldn’t believe that it opened. I guess when a monster like Diablo is on guard, even criminals don’t worry much about locking up.

  I slid my hand in and fumbled around for the trunk release. I’d tagged along with Tess and Mom while Tess practiced driving, so I knew vaguely where to look. This car was different than our car though. I ran a shaking hand under the front dash. Nothing. I ran my hand down the left side of the seat and felt two levers. I yanked them both, popping open the gas cover and the trunk at the same time. The trunk sprang open a few inches.

  Sick with dread that the scumbags would be back any second, I closed the driver’s door, ran to the back of the car and hauled open the trunk.

  There he was. Lying curled up like a sick child in bed. Cam was very, very pale, and his eyes were closed. There was a red mark on his forehead and blood in his hair. I’ve known Cam for most of my life. I’ve grown up with him. I’ve fought with him like a brother, resented him, been jealous of him and Tess. He’s loud and bossy and sometimes a jerk. But then he’ll do something nice like take your side in a water fight or take the blame for something you did. He’d have been the first person to step up if I was in trouble. I teared up remembering how he had threatened to fight Reece Kowalchuk in my class, when Reece wouldn’t stop bugging me.

  But Cam wasn’t fighting now. He couldn’t help himself even a little.

  Cam looking like death, Tess being silently, shudderingly freaked out…this whole thing was terrifying me.

  I glanced up the street to make sure it was clear.

  “Cam, Cam,” I whispered urgently, shaking him. “C’mon, get out.”

  He rolled a bit at the shaking, but it was a dead-weight roll. It was like shaking a huge sack of potatoes. Oh god, don’t let him be dead, I thought. Panic bubbled up inside me. I felt his throat. There was supposed to be a pulse there somewhere. He was warm, and I thought I felt a throbbing.

  Not dead. Knocked out, like Tess said. Just knocked out. Like when I ran into a pole that time and got black eyes and a huge lump on my forehead.

  I grabbed Cam’s arm. If I could drag him out, if I could just…

  I hauled with everything I had and only budged him a few inches. I pulled again, getting desperate, stumbling and losing my footing.

  No time, no time, they’ll be coming soon. They’re coming…

  I looked around wildly. What was I looking for? A winch? A lever? A Cam-puller-outer? Who knew? I’d only thought as far as popping the trunk. I’d somehow figured if I could get that trunk open, Cam would bound out, and we’d just run off and find somewhere safe to hide.

  I tugged on his arm with all my might but only managed to shove his head into the side of the trunk. All the while I was thinking that when they get back, I’m screaming the neighbo
rhood down. Screaming louder than I’ve ever screamed before.

  And then what? Would someone run out of their house before the scumbags knocked me out and shoved me in with Cam?

  “Em!”

  I jumped as a voice shot into the night. I swung around to see Dylan sprinting across the street.

  “Hurry!” My mouth was dry, my tongue sticking to the roof. “Cam!” I gestured to the trunk.

  “Oh, man, is he—”

  “No, no. Hurry!”

  We each grabbed one of Cam’s arms and pulled desperately.

  Diablo started barking.

  “Shh, shh, good dog, good dog,” I said, sweat trickling down the side of my face. He kept barking in a deafening chorus.

  I looked around the open trunk lid to see two people running out of my front yard.

  “Oh no! Scum…scumbags,” I whispered, dropping Cam’s arm and crouching behind the car.

  “Hide!” Dylan said.

  But he didn’t hide.

  He darted out into the street, pausing under the streetlight. Then he took off down the street that intersected ours.

  A decoy! Dylan’s being a decoy, leading them away, trying to give me a chance.

  “Hey,” Kev shouted, starting to run after him.

  And then he stopped.

  He and the Boss both stopped. They stared at each other like comical bad guys in an old movie, bleached into black and white by the streetlight. One big guy, one little. They stopped because they were hearing what I was hearing. Over the deep sound of Diablo’s barking there was the high, keening wail of a siren in the distance.

  “Shit! Forget him,” panted the Boss. “Car.”

  The hide-and-seek instinct kicks in like the fence-climbing instinct. Like the riding-a-bike instinct. When Dylan said hide, I sized up my options at lightning speed.

  Can’t run left or right. They’d spot me running, like they spotted Dylan.

  Not in the trunk with Cam. They’d find me immediately.

  But they’ll bang the trunk shut and drive off with Cam. And what would happen to him?

  I couldn’t leave Cam. He was defenseless. Someone had to protect him.

  I hid the only place I could think of—the only place they wouldn’t expect anyone to hide. I slid to the side of the car, the one on the opposite side from the streetlight. Under the cover of shadow, I opened the rear door, slipped into the backseat with Diablo and closed it, all in one smooth motion.

  It was either the worst or the most brilliant place I’d ever hidden.

  Chapter Twelve

  It started out leaning toward disaster.

  Diablo was surprised—that much was clear. When he heard the door open, he barked like a maniac. But then he saw (probably smelled) me, and he stopped barking to investigate his new backseat buddy who was burrowing down into the footwell.

  He lowered his huge head to sniff me. No growling. I heard his tail thump, heard him whine. He padded the length of the backseat. I got the feeling he was more excited by all this activity than anything.

  I wasn’t afraid of him. But this was the first time we didn’t have a fence between us. And he was a huge, agitated dog.

  “Shhh, buddy, you know me, right? Shhhh.”

  I sank as deep as I could into the foot well. It was full of garbage. A gym bag that smelled disgusting. An old blanket. Gloves. Old coffee cups. A huge dog bone.

  Maybe three or four seconds passed.

  Bang! The Scumbags reached the car and slammed the trunk on Cam, then ripped open the front doors.

  The car lurched heavily. Twice. Once as the Boss got in, then again a split second afterward when Kev jumped in. They were both breathing hard. Angry. Tense. Too tense even for swearing.

  Diablo, who had been licking my fingers (we’d had chicken for dinner, which seemed several years ago now), barked a greeting.

  “Shut up,” Boss Scumbag snarled. I heard a smack. Diablo recoiled, whining.

  I hate you even more now. What kind of person hits his dog?

  The Boss turned the key, revved the engine and slammed the car into gear. He floored it, and we took off.

  There was grim silence in the car as we tore down the street, squealed left, then right, then left again.

  I concentrated on tracking the streets we took. I could at least be useful there. I knew this town pretty well, even better since we’d been going out so Tess could practice driving. I closed my eyes and painted a mental map. Left on Broadview, right on Forest, left on Carter. I forced my body to relax and lurch with the motion of the car.

  Boss Scumbag was heading out of town, of course, but not by the main highway. Smart. He obviously knew that would be the first place the police would go. He was probably going to use one of the smaller highways that branched off into the country. By my mind’s map, we were on the highway leading out past the golf course and the new houses.

  I’d partially covered myself with the gross blanket and pulled up the hood on my hoodie before the men rocketed into the car. But I didn’t need any camouflage. It was pretty dark, for one thing. The car’s windows were only lit with patches of light from the streetlamps we sped past. For another, neither of them even thought to glance over into the backseat. After all, nobody would be stupid enough to mess with a giant pit bull, right? Well, ha-ha, Scumbags, one up on you! I’m stupid enough apparently.

  Neither of them knew I existed. It was a weird, lonely, secret feeling, like being a ghost.

  When we left town, the darkness became more intense. The car sped up as we hit a long straight stretch of road. This was way better than lurching and thudding back and forth as we took corners on two wheels.

  I lay there, mere inches from the men in the front seat, too scared to think. My mind just galloped and jumped randomly.

  I hope Cam’s okay. He was so pale.

  There’s a disgusting sticky spot on the floor by my head. My hair keeps getting stuck in it.

  Those guys absolutely reek of smoke.

  Dog hair. So much dog hair. It’s tickling my nose. I pawed desperately at my face to avoid sneezing.

  What’s that dropping on the back of my head? Drool. It’s Diablo drool.

  The engine was powerful. I could feel its vibrations in my belly. There was no sound of shifting gears, so the car had to be an automatic. Mom’s car was a standard.

  An automatic will be a piece of cake after this, girls, she had said. She had taught us both, even letting me drive a bit in the parking lot. Guarantee it. You shove it in Drive and hit the gas. Couldn’t be simpler.

  The Boss and Kev had been dead silent until this point. Even Diablo had settled down, lying on the backseat. All I could hear was his heavy panting and the occasional whine deep in his throat. And the rev of the engine as it sped us away from town.

  The Boss shifted sharply in the driver’s seat. I felt his seat hit my shoulder.

  “Anybody behind us?” he growled in a tense voice.

  For a terrifying second I thought he was actually asking Kev if there was anyone in the backseat. Like, right behind them.

  A pause. The sliding sound of a body swiveling around. A hand slid over the backseat.

  “Nah, nothing on the road at all,” said Kev.

  I relaxed. He was talking about someone following us. Nobody was. I tensed up again. I was alone with these guys.

  “Good,” breathed the Boss. “Those frickin’ kids. Hope we gave them the scare of their lives. Still gotta deal with that little jerk in the trunk though. That was stupid, Kev. Stupid. When the hell will you learn to think?”

  “What else could I do?” Kev muttered. “He comes at me swinging like a boxer. Protecting his little girlfriend. So I just smacked him one. Jab. Self-defense. Not my fault he went down hard on the bumper.”

  “Yeah, tell that to the cops. But shoving him into the trunk was the really stupid part. That’s what I’m talking about.”

  “I was putting the stuff in there. It was open, he fell half in there, then you ran out.
I panicked, okay? Just pushed him the rest of the way in. There wasn’t time to deal with him. The girl was running, screaming. I didn’t think—”

  “You didn’t think at all! We’re technically kidnapping him right now, if you haven’t figured that out!” The Boss’s growl became a roar. I could feel Diablo shrink back in the seat. I reached up and patted his massive paw. He licked my hand.

  Oh, Cam, I forgive you for every single time you drove me crazy. I’m sorry for all the times we fought. You let Tess get away. You stood and fought a pair of criminals. Well, Kev anyway. You stood and fought Kev…

  Kev had the sense to shut up.

  We sped on in silence for a while.

  “Figure that kid got the license plate?” Boss Scumbag said. He was clearly going over it all in his head.

  “Nah,” Kev said quickly, like he was trying to get back into Boss’s good books. “I smeared it up pretty good, and it was pitch dark back there. Nowhere near the streetlight.”

  “Still.”

  Silence while they both thought about this.

  “Nah,” Boss Scumbag said finally. “He was trying to be the big hero and get the kid out of the trunk. Ran like a rabbit when we showed up. No time.”

  Even though he sounded certain, I felt the car pick up speed. We were really flying down the highway now.

  It was strange. Lying on my front, I really felt the speed. I felt every bump and jolt. I felt the pavement flying away under the spinning wheels.

  Two criminals, a dog, an unconscious kid and a ghost, racing down a highway into the night.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Silence for a long time.

  I lay dead still. Tense. Ears peeled for any sound. But I’d calmed down enough to be able to think, to plan.

  What were they going to do with Cam? That was the big question. Deal with him. That’s what the Boss had said. What did he mean? Not…killing him. That couldn’t have been what he meant. No, they couldn’t be planning that. They wouldn’t be that stupid. The Boss was freaked out enough at the thought of kidnapping. They couldn’t seriously be planning murder. Could they? I shied away from the thought, shut it right down.