Jinxed!: The Curious Curse of Cora Bell

by Rebecca McRitchie

  Chapter Ten

  ‘We don’t have much time,’ said Tock. He flew over to the nearest window in the house and looked out. Then he stopped flying and with a click of his fingers, the fairy was suddenly dressed in a smart grey jacket and black suit pants. He had a hat to match. Tick stopped flying too, snapped his fingers and was dressed just the same, but in the opposite colours.

  Cora stared at them.

  ‘We need something of yours,’ said Tick, grabbing her attention back.

  ‘What? Why?’ asked Cora.

  ‘For the Jinx,’ said Tick. ‘Hurry now.’

  Cora took off her pack and looked inside it. She pulled out a scarf. Dot had made it for her and would always sneak it into her pack in case she got cold. She couldn’t part with it. She pushed it aside and dug further down. She found a stray sock at the bottom. It was her spare. Something Dot had said would come in handy in case the socks she wore got holes in them. She handed the sock to Tick.

  Tick threw it on the ground, revolted.

  ‘Hey,’ said Cora.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Tick said.

  Their wings hidden from view beneath their clothes, the fairies walked out the door. With a final glance at her sock, Cora followed them. She looked hesitantly around the street and walked quickly to keep up.

  ‘What if someone sees us?’ she asked, stepping in time with them.

  ‘If anybody asks,’ said Tock, ‘we’re on our way to a business meeting.’

  ‘A business meeting?’ spluttered Cora. In Urt? If they ran into scavengers and told them they were on their way to a business meeting, they would definitely laugh them right out of the city. And she didn’t even want to think about what would happen if they ran into Trappers.

  ‘It’s when people meet to discuss business,’ explained Tick.

  Cora felt like telling Tick and Tock that they needed a better disguise but the closer they got to the city, the less Cora thought about scavengers and Trappers and disguises, and the more she thought about the Jinx. Her stomach lurched at every corner they turned. Were they getting closer to the Jinx? Or Dot? Or Scratch? She kept her eye out for any sign of them.

  It wasn’t long until they had left the outer boroughs behind and were walking along a street Cora recognised. Would it be the last time she would see these streets? These buildings? She couldn’t believe that she was really leaving Urt. It didn’t seem real. None of it did. That she was on the run? On the run from a creature made of shadows and burning, yellow eyes? A creature that wanted to eat her? And that two fairies were helping her? Dot would never believe it.

  Then Cora remembered how she got to the house in the outer boroughs in the first place. One minute she was in her home and the next minute she wasn’t.

  ‘Can’t you just . . .?’ Cora said as she snapped her fingers. ‘And make us appear somewhere else? With your magic?’

  The fairies shook their heads.

  ‘That takes a lot of energy,’ said Tock.

  ‘And we need to save our energy in case the Jinx returns,’ added Tick.

  Cora’s stomach twisted nervously again.

  ‘So we need to leave the city the old-fashioned way,’ said Tock.

  ‘Which is?’ asked Cora, glancing behind her.

  The fairies came to a stop and Cora bumped into them. She straightened and looked around. There was a grate in the middle of the road. It was just like the one she had climbed into to escape the Trappers.

  ‘Through the sewers?’ she asked.

  The fairies smiled, nodding.

  ‘We’re going to leave the city through the sewers,’ said Cora. Was that even possible?

  The fairies continued to smile, still nodding.

  ‘Below every city is a world of magic and wonder,’ said Tick, wiggling his fingers.

  Tock and Tick bent down and lifted the grate. They held it up and looked at her, waiting for her to get in.

  ‘The sewers?’ she asked again, just to be sure. ‘There’s magic in the sewers?’

  And again the fairies smiled, nodding.

  ‘Magic is everywhere,’ said Tock. ‘Now quickly, get in the sewers.’

  Cora made a move to step down into the grate but was stopped by Tick.

  ‘Wait,’ the fairy said, holding up a hand. ‘Before we go through, there’s one more thing.’

  ‘What?’ asked Cora.

  ‘What is your name?’

  She stopped. She remembered the night Dot had found her, cold and alone. Dot had asked her what her name was, over and over. But she couldn’t remember. So Dot had given her a name. She said it was her favourite name in all the world and she hoped she’d like it. A pang of sadness hit her like a wave as she remembered. She had never told Dot that she did. She liked it very much.

  ‘It’s . . . it’s Cora. Cora Bell.’

  Chapter Eleven

  With a squelch, Cora plunked down into the sewers for the second time that day. The sewer was filled with even more water than before. It splashed up and over her boots with a mucky slosh.

  Ew.

  The fairies followed her inside and closed the grate above them. Then Tick and Tock snapped their fingers and their business clothes disappeared. Their wings fluttered out behind them and they hovered just above the muck and water. The muck and water Cora had no choice but to stand in. She wished she had wings.

  ‘This way,’ said Tock. He flew down the dark tunnel with Tick close behind him.

  Cora splashed through the foul sludge after them.

  ‘It doesn’t look very magical,’ she said. Disgusting was the word she would have used. It looked and felt and smelt very disgusting.

  ‘Just wait and see,’ said Tock.

  The tunnel became darker and darker the further they moved inside the sewer system. Soon Cora had no choice but to rely on only the fluttering noise of the fairies’ wings to guide her. The tunnel bent and turned this way and that. The gunk she trudged through clung to her boots like glue. She had to keep both her hands running along the sides of the tunnel for balance. Just as she had done when she had needed to get used to walking and running with one eye. Dot had helped her balance on all kinds of things. Chairs, tables, even the top of the wall in Urt.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Cora asked.

  ‘We might know someone who can help you,’ said Tock. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘But first we need to stop somewhere on the way,’ said Tick.

  ‘Stop where?’ asked Cora.

  ‘You’ll see when we get to the gateway,’ said Tick.

  ‘The gateway?’

  ‘Yes, many magic-users use it for travel,’ said Tock.

  ‘It is protected by a guardian,’ added Tick.

  ‘A guardian?’ asked Cora.

  Then suddenly the tunnel beneath her disappeared. The sewer had taken a turn, this time dropping down below her into a pool. She wasn’t paying attention and as she stepped one foot out in front of the other, there was nowhere for it to go but air.

  ‘Ahh!’ she cried out as she flew headfirst down the tunnel like a slide. Her arms outstretched in front of her, she slid through the filth and down the tunnel with a wet whoosh! The slide saturated her clothes, her hair, her face until she finally came to a stop, covered from head to toe, drenched in thick and stinky sewer water. She swiped the slop from her face and looked up at the fairies from the ground.

  ‘We’re here,’ Tock said cheerily. The fairies had flown down the drop easily.

  ‘We should have tried that,’ said Tick to Tock. ‘It looked like fun. Was that fun?’ he asked her.

  Cora could only groan in response. She stood up, sopping wet and dripping, and wiped what sludge she could from herself. Great.

  Ahead of them, Cora could see a small glow lighting up the end of the dark tunnel. The fairies flew towards it.

  With a squelching shuffle, Cora followed after them. They stood waiting for her by the light. It came from a small lamp resting on the ground.

  The fairies waited.

&n
bsp; Cora waited too. She looked around questioningly. Was there something she was missing?

  Then Tick said, ‘Guardian, meet Dora.’

  She was about to correct the fairy when a man stepped out of the shadows nearby.

  Cora stepped back.

  ‘Wilfred?!’ she gasped.

  Standing in front of her was the trader of free hugs, just as she had seen him that morning.

  ‘Hello, Cora,’ he said, with a smile.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

  ‘He is letting us through the gate,’ said Tock as though it were obvious.

  ‘Wait a minute . . . you’re the guardian?!’ she asked.

  Wilfred nodded proudly.

  Then he bent down and with what looked like a piece of chalk, drew a line over the ground of the sewer tunnel in the shape of a circle. The line then glowed a pulsating bright blue and the ground inside it disappeared, a swirl of blue light in its place.

  ‘Follow us,’ said Tock.

  ‘And don’t touch anything,’ said Tick.

  The fairies jumped into the swirling blue light, which swallowed them up. And then with a loud POP!, they were gone.

  Cora looked from the swirling ground to Wilfred and then back again. I’m supposed to jump into that? She hesitated. Was she doing this? Was she really doing this? Leaving Urt? Leaving Dot? She looked over at the trader of free hugs, unsure.

  ‘You might want to jump soon,’ he said.

  ‘Wilfred,’ Cora said softly, ‘Dot is missing. There was this . . . creature, and I don’t know what happened but she, and Scratch, they’re . . . I don’t know where.’

  ‘I’ll look for her,’ said Wilfred with a stern gaze. ‘And your cat.’

  Cora looked at him, a tear filling her eye. She nodded a thank you as she brushed the tear away.

  ‘And Wilfred,’ she added.

  ‘Yes, Cora?’

  ‘If you find Dot, tell her . . . tell her I’ll be back. I promise I will. And that . . . and that . . . I’m sorry.’

  Wilfred nodded.

  Then, taking a deep breath and closing her eye, Cora jumped into the swirling blue light below.

  Chapter Twelve

  It felt like she was falling. The blue light around her was so bright she could see it from beneath her eyelid. All around her was the sound of rushing water. Loud, rushing water. Cora put her hands to her ears.

  Then, curious, she opened her eye and immediately regretted it. She didn’t just feel like she was falling, she was falling. Instinctively, she reached out to save herself from hitting a ground that could appear at any moment but this made her swirl upside down.

  ‘Ahh!’ she cried out but she couldn’t hear it. The blue light had snatched the sound of her voice away.

  She spun as she fell. She kept spinning. And kept falling. Then, suddenly, the blue light around her started to get smaller and smaller.

  Oh no?! Is it closing?

  Cora panicked. What would happen if it closed while she was still falling? She tried to right herself, to gain her balance in the swirling blue light. Then a small, black hole appeared below her and she spun towards it. It got closer and closer. She closed her eye as it sped up towards her.

  Please, please, please.

  Then there was a loud sucking noise, a POP! and an oof as Cora landed on something.

  ‘Ow,’ she said, rubbing the back of her head.

  ‘Finally,’ came a fairy’s voice from nearby.

  ‘We thought the gateway would close without you,’ said the other. ‘That would have been bad.’

  She opened her eye to find herself lying on her back, on top of a pile of rubbish bags. Tick and Tock looked down at her.

  ‘Where am I?’ she asked, sitting up.

  ‘You are in the trash,’ said Tock.

  ‘I can see that,’ she said, plucking and tossing aside a banana peel that was stuck to her hair. ‘But in the trash where?’

  ‘Mill Town,’ said Tick.

  Mill Town. Dot had said the trader who wanted the shoe polish was from Mill Town. Her head pounded. She put a hand to it. She felt queasy in her stomach.

  ‘Travel sickness,’ said Tock.

  ‘You’ll get used to it,’ said Tick.

  Slowly, Cora got out of the rubbish bags and carefully stood up. She stumbled. It felt like she was still spinning and falling.

  The sky was dark. Looking up, Cora could see that they were standing next to a large, white house in the middle of a field.

  ‘Stay here,’ Tock said to Cora. ‘We’ll be back.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Cora. She didn’t want them to leave. She didn’t want to be left alone in the dark somewhere in Mill Town while there was still a Jinx after her. ‘You can’t leave me here. What if the Jinx finds me?’ And how did she know they weren’t going to leave and never come back? ‘Take me with you,’ she said. ‘Please.’

  Tick and Tock looked at each other.

  ‘We have to be as quick as possible,’ said Tock softly. ‘In and out.’

  ‘But what if —’ Tick began, looking at Cora.

  ‘In and out,’ repeated Tock.

  Tick nodded.

  ‘Follow us, stay close,’ said Tock. ‘And keep quiet.’

  Then both of the fairies flew towards the side of the house.

  Cora took one step and stopped. Her legs felt all wobbly. When she looked down to make sure they were still her legs, she realised that she was no longer covered in disgusting sewer water. She was dry and clean. That was something, at least. Slowly, she followed the direction the fairies flew in and when she reached them, she was glad to feel her travel sickness start to wear off.

  Tick and Tock stood atop a pair of steps outside a small door on one side of the house. The door, Cora noticed, was fairy-sized. A gold plaque stood next to the entrance.

  Drake Manor, Cora read.

  Tock knocked once on the door, then twice and then once more.

  The door swung open with a creak and Tick and Tock flew inside. Awkwardly, Cora bent down to fit through the door and then shuffled inside on her hands and knees.

  She stood up on both feet when she got inside. In front of her was what looked like a small kitchen and standing nearby was a man dressed all in black. He wore a small set of glasses and a bored expression.

  ‘He is in his study,’ the man said to Tick and Tock.

  The fairies nodded and flew out of the kitchen, motioning for Cora to follow. Cora smiled politely at the man. He raised an eyebrow at her in response. Then as Cora walked past him, she noticed something that made her eye go wide. Poking out of the back of the man’s pants . . . was a long, furry tail.

  She stopped. Then Tick quickly grabbed her by the hand, a finger to his lips and led her out of the kitchen.

  ‘Did he —’ whispered Cora, when they were out of earshot.

  ‘This way,’ Tock whispered back, cutting her off.

  As they walked into the next room, three polished couches sat empty and large portraits lined the walls. Another man dressed all in black but without a tail, dusted one of the portraits with a feather duster. The portrait was of a woman and a child.

  They entered the next room and it was exactly the same. Three polished couches and portraits on the walls. Cora had never been inside such a strange house. There was nothing like it in Urt. And it was oddly cold and dark. Perhaps it was leftover travel sickness but there was something about the house that Cora couldn’t quite put her finger on. A feeling that crept over her.

  Soon, they came to a dark hallway. The floor and the walls of the hallway were covered in emerald tiles. As the three of them walked down it, Cora could hear her boots clipping and clapping along the tiled floor, her steps echoing down the hallway. She tried to walk more quietly.

  At the end of the hallway were large double doors. Tick and Tock looked at each other and then Tock repeated the knock from earlier. There was a pause. They waited.

  ‘Enter,’ came a deep voice from behind the door.
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  Chapter Thirteen

  Tick pushed open the double doors and flew into the room. Cora followed close behind. She had expected more green tiles, more dark and dim lighting, perhaps another man with a tail, but unlike the hallway and the rest of the house, the room they had entered wasn’t dimly lit or dark. There was a fireplace ahead of them and rows of books in tall bookcases that lined three out of the four walls. Cora looked around in awe. It was perhaps not only the biggest room she had ever seen but it was also most certainly the biggest collection of books she had ever seen. There were ten times the number of books that Dot had.

  At least.

  Standing with his back to them in front of the fireplace was a man. He wore a long cloak that came down to his knees and boots that came up to his knees.

  ‘Deliver what you need to and get out,’ said the man, his back still towards them. The light from the fire cast a stretched shadow of him across the floor and against one of the walls.

  Mr Drake, Cora presumed.

  Tick and Tock looked at each other, uncertain.

  Cora realised that since they had arrived in Mill Town, Tick and Tock had been looking at each other the same way they looked at each other when they found her in Urt right before the Jinx showed up. Like they were frightened.

  Who is this man?

  ‘Mr Drake, sir . . . we were instructed not to leave until you open it,’ said Tock.

  The man muttered a curse that Cora couldn’t quite catch. Then Mr Drake spun sharply around on one heel. His face looked like it was stretched across his bones. His dark hair was grey at the sides, long and untidy, and his mouth curved downwards into a grim line. He stared at Tick and Tock, annoyance in his eyes.

  Tock held out a box in his hand. Mr Drake strode towards him and snatched it up. He pressed a finger to the side of the box and just like Cora’s did, it opened. He pulled out a piece of paper from inside.

  As she watched him read it, a glint caught Cora’s eye. It was a black ring, wrapped around one of his fingers. It looked like obsidian stone. From what Dot had told her, obsidian stone was incredibly rare.