by T. S. Graham
“I might just do that.”
Their conversation faded to a dull drone as Sophina resumed her trek toward the dilapidated door. She took in the details of its surface as she neared: the peeling paint on its raised panels; the faded Star Wars sticker coming unglued above the glass doorknob; and the splintered puncture in its top left corner that looked disturbingly like a bullet hole.
Somehow, she knew that the stone the monster had held was waiting for her behind that door. She could feel it, as if it was calling to her without making a sound.
“Sophina, what’s wrong?”
She felt her mom’s hand on her shoulder but couldn’t stop—not when she was so close to getting what she wanted.
The next thing Sophina knew, she was facing her mother, having been forcibly turned around.
“Why are you ignoring me?” her mom asked. Chief Dresden and Mrs. Tanner, who suddenly looked worried, were standing behind Mrs. Murray.
Sophina wanted to tell her that the very substance used to lure Eliot away was here, waiting to be discovered, but she knew it would take more than that to compel Chief Dresden to act. She had to force his hand, and could think of only one way to do that.
“I heard a child cry—behind that door,” she said.
“That’s ridiculous!” Mrs. Tanner exclaimed. “She’s lying!”
“Maybe so,” the chief said with a sigh, “but I have to ask you to open that door anyway.”
“I certainly will not,” said Mrs. Tanner. “I refuse to be treated like a criminal. I had hoped this could be handled in a civilized manner, but clearly it can’t. I must insist that you leave, and don’t come back without a warrant.”
“I’m sorry, Kate,” growled the chief. “Three kids are missing—and she just gave me probable cause to search that room. You can unlock that door, or I’ll get the crowbar from my cruiser. It’s your choice.”
Sophina had never heard anyone sound more serious than Chief Dresden did right then. It didn’t take long for Mrs. Tanner to concede.
“Fine, but I’m doing this under protest. I told you, the girl is lying.” She pulled a metal ring brimming with keys from her cloak, quickly found the right key, and unlocked the padlock.
The creak of rusty hinges filled the basement as Chief Dresden opened the door with care. He hesitated as a glassy-eyed look crept over his face—a sight that made Sophina suspect that he sensed exactly what she did: They were in the presence of something magical.
The smell of stale earth permeated the air as the chief shined his flashlight into the small storage room that was exposed by the open door. The beam soon settled upon a metal lockbox that sat alone in the center of the dirt floor.
“I’m sorry, Kate,” said Chief Dresden. “The wind must’ve played tricks on her ears.”
“Look in the box,” demanded Sophina, unable to take her eyes off it.
“I think we’ve wasted enough of Mrs. Tanner’s time.”
“There’s something inside it that you need to see!” Sophina pressed.
Chief Dresden went beet red. Now he was angry. “Stop this nonsense right now, young lady!” he said. “I said we’re leaving, and that’s final! And if you harass Mrs. Tanner again I’ll haul you down to the station and throw you in the holding cell!”
Mrs. Murray gasped. “How dare you speak to her that way?” she scolded. “You have no right to threaten a thirteen-year-old with jail!”
Chief Dresden stepped back, as if he too were offended by his words. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Look in the box,” Sophina repeated, hopeful that he would listen now.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Mrs. Tanner chimed in. “I’ll show you what’s in the box—if you’ll all promise to leave me alone.”
She retrieved the box and set it upon the lab table with a clank. She unlocked it with another key from the ring, lifted the lid, and tipped the box forward to reveal . . .
Nothing.
Sophina stared into the empty box, her exasperation compounded by the fact that the relaxed sensation she was experiencing dissipated the instant the box was tipped in her direction. One moment the feeling was there, the next, it was gone. She knew she didn’t imagine it, so how could that be?
“If you hear any news about the kids, let me know,” Chief Dresden said to Mrs. Tanner. “Otherwise, you won’t see me again.”
He then stepped aside, giving Sophina and Mrs. Murray a clear path to the stairs.
* * *
Sophina stared at the hypnotic flames in the fireplace as footsteps moved along the porch outside the living room. She vaguely recalled her mom saying that Chief Dresden went down the street to see their neighbor, Mrs. Cousins, but couldn’t remember why. Her mind was occupied with other things.
There was a knock at the front door, but Sophina didn’t move; she knew her mom would answer it. She heard muffled voices in the foyer and then Mrs. Cousins entered the living room ahead of Mrs. Murray. The consummate grandmother type, Mrs. Cousins had stepped up in impressive fashion over the past two months, delivering freshly cooked meals to their doorstep and watching Eliot on evenings when their mom arrived home late from her job as a supervisor at the local lobster pound. For that, Sophina would be forever grateful.
“Mrs. Cousins is going to stay with you while I’m gone,” her mother said.
“But . . . I thought I was going with you.”
“I wish you could, but you can’t. A state of emergency has been declared. Only adults who volunteer to help look for the children can be outside.”
“That’s not fair,” Sophina grumbled. “He’s my brother; I should be able to help find him.”
“I’ll wait in the kitchen so you can talk,” Mrs. Cousins suggested. She accepted a thank you from Mrs. Murray and left the room.
The weight of the world was revealed in Mrs. Murray’s eyes as she turned back to her daughter.
“Sophina, no one wants Eliot back more than you and I do, but please, understand that it’s for your own protection. The kidnapper is still out there, and you could be a target.” She placed a hand on Sophina’s chin, guiding her daughter’s gaze back to her. “You can help me, by staying here with Mrs. Cousins and keeping all of the doors and windows locked. Can you do that for me?”
Sophina nodded, but it was against everything she felt inside.
“I love you,” whispered Mrs. Murray as she wrapped her arms around Sophina. “I know we’ll get Eliot back. Bad things shouldn’t happen to the same family twice—not when that family is as wonderful as ours.”
Sophina somehow kept her tears at bay as she followed her mother into the candlelit kitchen. Mrs. Murray thanked Mrs. Cousins one last time, then cinched up her raincoat and stepped outside.
“—Mom?—”
Mrs. Murray turned back to face Sophina. The tears in her eyes were obscured by the rain hitting her face, but not completely.
“I love you, too.”
Mrs. Murray smiled, then turned and trudged off down the cobblestone walkway as Mrs. Cousins waited for Sophina to close the door.
“Your mom told me that you like to pop corn in the fireplace,” said Mrs. Cousins when the door finally clicked shut. “I’d love for you to show me how it’s done.”
“Sure,” uttered Sophina, trying her best not to be rude. “I’m just tired right now; maybe after I take a nap.”
“Of course,” agreed Mrs. Cousins. “I’ll be tending the fire if you need me.”
Sleep was the last thing on Sophina’s mind as she climbed the stairs. She snatched a pair of binoculars out of a hallway drawer and crept through her mom’s bedroom to a hidden door at the back of the closet. She opened it slowly to deaden the squeal of the antique hinges and ascended a narrow staircase to the attic, where she stepped past stacks of boxes filled with mementos from years past to a window that overlooked Mrs. Tanner’s house. She raised the binoculars and peeked over the sill, scanning each of the upstairs windows for signs
of life. Seeing nothing unusual, she set her gaze on the basement window. Whatever was hidden behind that darkened glass was the only thing that could prove Mrs. Tanner had lied.
Just then, Sophina noticed something she had missed before: a crack in the top right corner of the window, through which a trace of candlelight flickered.
An idea blossomed in her exhausted mind, and she turned and hurried back to take the stairway down to the second floor. If the key to finding Eliot was still in Mrs. Tanner’s cellar, then now was the time to expose it.
* * *
Sophina lowered her head into the rain as she followed the garden path around the back of her house. In her jacket pocket was a piece of black cloth and a screwdriver she had found in her dad’s old toolbox. She had slipped past Mrs. Cousins when she got up to stoke the fire and, with a little luck, she would soon cross the short span between her driveway and Mrs. Tanner’s house, undetected.
She peeked around the corner to confirm that the coast was clear, then darted across the driveway and ducked behind a hedge that was adjacent to the cracked cellar window. She paused to find her courage, and then used the screwdriver to pry up the pinkie-width molding that held the broken corner of glass in place. When the glass was loosened, she placed the black cloth over the shard with one hand and slipped it out of the frame with the other. She then carefully peeled back the cloth to reveal a slice of Mrs. Tanner’s basement.
It didn’t take long for Sophina’s eyes to find the partition door. She hoped that seeing it again would stir that indefinable sensation of tranquility she had already experienced twice that day, but it wasn’t to be.
Of course you don’t feel it, she screamed in silence. She’s on to you! She moved the stone to a place where it’ll never be found. You may be smart, but she’s smarter.
Approaching footsteps drew her attention to the staircase, where Mrs. Tanner was descending into the basement with all but her mouth and chin obscured beneath the hood of her cloak. She reached the bottom of the stairs and glided across the dirt floor, reaching out to snatch a garden spade off a shelf as she neared the white storage cabinet. She then knelt down and opened the cabinet’s bottom door, revealing a patch of bare earth beneath.
Mrs. Tanner reached under the cabinet and dug into the soil with the spade. There was a clank of metal hitting metal, and then she stood up with the dirt-covered lockbox in hand. Sophina’s heart fluttered as Mrs. Tanner placed the box upon the lab table and unlocked it with a key from the ring. She then lifted its lid to reveal . . .
Still nothing. The box was empty.
Sophina was about to look away in disappointment when Mrs. Tanner did something unexpected. She wedged her fingernails into a tiny gap along the back edge of the box’s bottom panel—and lifted it away.
A false bottom! Sophina was overwhelmed with elation as Mrs. Tanner removed two glass vials filled with glistening red powder from a foam insert that lined a previously hidden compartment. She extracted two more vials, each containing a clear liquid, and set all four onto the table before returning the box to the hole beneath the cabinet. She dropped the keys on top of the box and covered them with dirt before closing the door.
Sophina’s eyes followed the vials as Mrs. Tanner snatched them off the table and strode toward the lead-walled apparatus. On the way, she passed an antique mirror that was propped against the wall. The image it reflected made Sophina gasp.
Mrs. Tanner’s eyes gleamed red—not with the trace of color that she had glimpsed twice before, but with a crimson as lurid as the eyes of the beast that had stolen Eliot away.
Conflicting emotions gripped Sophina as Mrs. Tanner placed a vial of powder upright on the center of the bottom lead panel. The aggressor in her wanted to kick in the window and confront the woman who had so blatantly lied, but she knew that doing so would cause more harm than good. She had the advantage now. If she remained invisible, Mrs. Tanner might unwittingly reveal the truth about what had happened to the children. The choice was clear, but staying quiet wasn’t easy when you were itching for a fight.
Mrs. Tanner stuffed two of the remaining vials inside her cloak—one holding powder, the other liquid. As she did so, Sophina noted the bottles’ unique shape: flared and narrow at the top, with corks fitted down their necks to keep the materials they trapped from spilling out.
Mrs. Tanner removed the cork from the neck of the resting vial and quickly did the same to the liquid-filled one in her hand. Then, she poured the fluid into the powder-filled vial.
A bright red flame shot up from the resting vial with a crackling hiss, instantly expanding to fill the entire lead structure with a wall of intense, pulsating light. Swirls of visible energy spun off of its shimmering surface and dissipated into the surrounding air as Mrs. Tanner stood stock-still before it.
Just when Sophina thought the wall of light couldn’t grow any brighter, it burned out. Left in its place was a dark, rectangular void with smoldering edges. The back panel of lead was nowhere to be seen.
Mrs. Tanner then stepped into the void—and disappeared.
Sophina tried to coax Mrs. Tanner’s shape out of the nothingness, but a devastating flash of white light sent her stumbling backwards into the prickly hedge. Her eyes burned like hot needles had been plunged into them as she crawled back to the window and sat on her knees, with her hands pressed to her face until the pain ebbed enough for her to look back inside. More blobs of phantom light obscured her vision, but she saw just enough to know that not a single candle was left burning.
And one other thing was crystal clear: Mrs. Tanner was gone. Sophina had watched her vanish without a trace, just like Eliot and the monster. It would have been far less shocking had she seen Mrs. Tanner wave a magic wand and disappear with a puff of smoke; at least then she would’ve known for sure that it was all nothing more than an elaborate illusion.
But this was no illusion.
Sophina pried the remaining glass from the frame, got down onto her stomach, and backed through the opening. The answers to all her questions lay buried beneath that cabinet—and nothing was going to stop her from unearthing them.
She slid down to the floor and ran to the lead doorway, where an empty vial now sat on the bottom panel. There was no sign of the luminous powder within, or the liquid that had been poured over it. She snatched up the vial and inspected it closely. Beyond its shape, there was nothing peculiar about it; it was ordinary glass. She tossed it aside and roughly pressed her hands along all five panels. They were solid as a rock. No hidden doorway, no secret passage.
Sophina’s mind raced as she hurried to the cabinet, opened the bottom door, and dug up the box and key ring with her bare hands. She dropped the box onto the table and tried several keys before finding one that fit the lock.
An undulating glow bathed her hands as she lifted the lid, and a glorious feeling of serenity swelled within her as she spotted the vials of powder that were set into the foam. Three of them remained, plus three vials of liquid. She lifted a lustrous vessel and studied the matter through the glass. It seemed to call to her telepathically, telling her to run away with it and hide so that no one else could experience the joy it offered. All of her problems would go away forever, if she would only do what it asked . . .
Get ahold of yourself! Sophina’s voice of reason yelled between her ears. This stuff proves that you were right about Mrs. Tanner!
But what should she do next—take the evidence to Chief Dresden?
She discarded this thought the instant it formed. Minutes had passed since Mrs. Tanner had disappeared, and who knew how long it would take to find the chief and convince him to return, if that was even possible. If Eliot was in danger, then there wasn’t a moment to waste. She had to act now.
Sophina scooped a vial of liquid from the foam and turned to face the doorway. As she spun her elbow bumped the lab table, knocking the vial of powder from her hand. It bounced on the rubber mat and rolled beneath the cabinets that supported the slate countertop. She d
ropped to her stomach and peered into the gap where it had disappeared. Its glow emanated from deep within the cobweb-choked void, but the opening was too narrow for even her skinny arm to squeeze through.
Forget that one, she rationalized; there are still two more vials of powder left.
Sophina rose to her feet and snatched up another gleaming vial. She dug the cork from its neck and placed it upright upon the bottom lead panel, just as Mrs. Tanner had done. She then removed the cork from the vial of fluid and, with a flick of her wrist, poured its contents over the powder.
She jumped back as a singular flame shot up from of the vial and filled the space within the panels. She watched, awestruck, as wave after wave of red-hued energy coursed before her eyes at dizzying speeds.
Just when Sophina was sure her eyes would be scorched, the blaze dissipated—and she found herself standing before a doorway that led to a massive cavern, where stalactites the size of buses hung from the ceiling. Straight ahead a beam of reddish sunlight streamed through a vertical fissure in the stone, casting a tinge of color throughout the cave.
Knowing what came next, Sophina slapped her hands over her eyes just as a blast of warm, humid air blew back her hair in unison with the dreadful ripping sound.
When she peeked through her fingers, she again found herself staring at a lead panel. Her fingers trembled as she reached out and touched its cold surface, unable to digest what had been there just moments ago. The cavern was colossal, with a ceiling that dwarfed even the tallest tree in Thomasville. It simply couldn’t have existed.
But it did exist, she was forced to admit, and so did the skyscraper trees I saw this morning. Mrs. Tanner didn’t walk through a wall of solid lead!
Sophina grasped the last vial of powder and extracted its cork as she turned back to face the mysterious doorway. She brushed aside the empty vial and replaced it. She then yanked the cork from a liquid-filled vessel—and poured.
