by Heidi Lang
“I mean,” he added, “I’d love to stand around chatting about how hot my brother is—really, it’s a favorite topic of mine—but it’s just that I’m super interested in this bug poop.”
Rae laughed, her agitation dissipating. “Fine. We’ll move on. We think the bug that produced it isn’t from Earth.”
Immediately Caden thought of Gary and his giant bug carcass. And the sense he’d gotten that it didn’t belong. That it was something wrong, something other.
“Since you’re the only one I know who’s dealt with creatures not of this world, you’ve become person of interest number one.”
“Back to detective talk, huh?”
She grinned at him.
“I thought a person of interest was a suspect.” Vivienne frowned.
“Not always,” Nate said. “Sometimes they’re just someone with valuable information that might help solve the crime.”
“This guy”—Vivienne jerked a thumb at Nate—“always has to correct me.”
“Not true. I correct everyone.”
“But mostly me.”
“It’s not my fault you’re wrong most often.”
Vivienne scowled.
“Please, please help us, Caden,” Rae cut in quickly. “You see what I’m dealing with here. I need you.”
Warmth filled Caden’s chest, chasing away the chill Aiden had left him with. “Actually, I think I might know what you’re talking about already,” he admitted. He stared at the three of them on his porch. It was something they had to see to really believe. “What are you doing tomorrow after school?”
“Nothing, as far as I know,” Rae said slowly, exchanging glances with the others. “Why?”
“Want to take a hike?” Caden asked. “There’s something I should probably show you.”
15. RAE
Rae hadn’t stepped foot inside the Watchful Woods since the afternoon she’d followed Ivan through it almost two weeks ago. Now as she hiked, she kept thinking she could see him waiting for her behind every tree. In her imagination, he looked the way he had at the end, his face stretched out, mouth full of teeth, the skin smooth and unbroken where eyes should have been. Each branch that caught at her hair or snagged on her clothes reminded her of his arms reaching for her, his palms split down the center, those gaping holes ready to pull her eyeballs out so he could wear them himself.
She still couldn’t believe she had walked so willingly into his trap. And here she was, marching through the Watchful Woods once more in search of monsters. She’d spent that entire day at school thinking of excuses to get out of it and had settled on a good one: it was pouring. Unfortunately the rain stopped just before school ended, and here she was. Even worse, the remaining rainwater kept trickling off leaves and sliding down the back of her neck like ice-cold fingers…
Ducking under another branch, she hurried to catch up with Caden, his black clothes turning him into a shadow as he led them through the trees. A few seconds later she heard Nate curse behind her.
“How much farther?” Nate asked. “I don’t know how many more branches I can take to the face.”
“Stop being such a baby,” Vivienne told him. “We haven’t gone that far yet. We barely passed the stone wall ten minutes ago.”
They had wasted a few minutes at that wall wondering if Alyssa and her team were nearby and how close they were to solving its mysteries. Vivienne had claimed the pattern shifted due to some kind of magnetic field. Nate had told her that was frankly impossible, and it changed because of tiny constant shifts in the tectonic plates below them. Rae had no theories at all. And Caden… he’d gotten very quiet. Which made Rae wonder if he knew its secret already but wasn’t allowed to share it.
“Actually, we passed the wall seventeen minutes ago,” Nate said, glancing at the cheap plastic watch he wore on his wrist.
“Close enough,” Vivienne said.
“No, it’s not! It’s a seven-minute difference.”
“Then I guess we’re seven minutes closer to our goal, right?” Vivienne grinned. She seemed more comfortable among the trees than any of them. Despite her heavy backpack, she loped along easily, dodging branches and roots like they were nothing.
Rae wished she could move so quickly and effortlessly. She felt like she were carrying several pounds of twigs in her hair alone.
“We don’t even know what our goal is,” Nate grumbled. “Or where, for that matter. We have been given zero specifics.”
“Makes it harder for you to nitpick, doesn’t it?” Vivienne said. “That’s your real problem right there.”
“Not true.”
“Don’t worry,” Caden told Rae quietly. “We really are almost there.”
“Should we tell them?” Rae jerked a thumb at Vivienne and Nate, still bickering behind them.
“Nah. Sounds like they’re having fun.”
Rae smiled. “So, what are we looking for?” She’d never admit it to Vivienne, but Nate was right: Caden hadn’t told them anything. It made her feel like she was hiking in the dark with her eyes closed. She hated that feeling.
“We’re looking for Gary,” Caden said.
“Okay… that was almost informative. Is Gary some sort of supernatural expert?”
“No, he’s the goat man.”
Rae frowned. “Are you being intentionally vague?”
“No.”
“Then what the heck is a goat man?”
“A man who owns goats.” Caden glanced sidelong at her. “That one was intentional, by the way.”
Rae laughed. It was either that or throttle him. “Fine. I can’t say I get the whole goat thing in Whispering Pines, but moving on. Why are we looking for a goat man?” But even as she said it, she was thinking of the goat they’d found, dead in a collapsed tunnel, its stomach torn out by… something.
Caden ran the back of one hand across his forehead, pushing his damp hair away from his face. “Because,” he said slowly, “the other day, one of his goats was attacked by a giant centipede.”
Rae rubbed at her arms, feeling sick as she pictured those large, bloodstained centipedes. Had they killed the goat they’d found? But how?
“I thought you should see its body,” Caden said. “So you can tell me if it’s the same kind of bug that you saw.”
Rae was quiet as she crunched through damp leaves. “Your brother is back,” she said abruptly, remembering the shock she’d felt at seeing him standing in Caden’s doorway.
Caden paused, one foot up. “Yeah,” he said, setting that foot down and glancing at her. “I meant to tell you about that. It’s kind of a weird story, actually.”
“Oh good. Those are my favorite kind.”
Rae listened as Caden told her about how Green On! had pulled Aiden out and then held him for days until someone at the company helped him escape.
“The lab had a false alarm a few days ago,” she said when Caden had finished his story. “I wonder if that was related?”
“Could be.”
“Your brother seemed…” Rae hesitated. She wasn’t sure how she actually felt about Aiden. He’d been a lot nicer than she’d expected after Caden’s stories, but it was the kind of nice that felt like it had strings attached. Like he was trying to sell something.
“I know what you mean.” Caden smiled wryly before shoving his way through a thick layer of brush. Rae followed him through and then across a small creek. The trees opened up ahead of them to reveal a large, grassy clearing. In its center hunched a strange circular structure with a cloth roof, which Rae assumed had to be a yurt. A blocky wooden pen stood next to it, the gate hanging open.
“The goats,” Caden said.
“What goats?” Rae asked.
He looked at her. “Exactly. They’re gone.” Frowning, he glanced at the yurt. “We’d better check inside.”
Rae looked at Caden’s tight, closed face, and realized he was scared. Caden, who had dealt with a literal eyeless monster. Suddenly the woods seemed extra creepy, the moisture in th
e air slowly building into an eerie fog that rose around the trees. Anything could be hiding in it.
Rae looked around. “Where are Vivi and Nate?”
“We’re coming!” Vivienne yelled. A moment later she and Nate caught up. “Sorry about that. Nate got his shoe stuck in a hole back there. Why are we staring at the outside of a yurt?”
“Because,” Rae said, “we’re afraid of what might be inside it.”
They all looked at one another, the silence thickening like the fog around them.
“I vote Nate goes first,” Vivienne said.
16. CADEN
Caden carefully shut the door of the yurt behind him. It had been empty, but the bed wasn’t made, and there were dishes in the tiny sink. He wasn’t sure if that meant Gary had been planning on coming right back or if he was just messy. But it felt wrong.
Caden looked around the clearing. Everything was quiet, the trees wreathed in mist, drops of rain softly falling from their branches.
“What now?” Rae asked him, her eyes wide.
“I want to check the shed.” Caden led the way over to it. Inside, a carpet lay over a lump in the center of the floor. He pulled the carpet back, revealing a giant charred husk.
“Was this the bug?” Rae asked.
“Yeah,” Caden said. Even burnt to a cinder, it was clearly recognizable, the blackened legs all curled inward. So many legs. “Is this like the bugs you found?”
“Similar,” Rae said. “Only this is much bigger.”
“Maybe the ones we saw weren’t fully grown yet,” Vivienne said quietly. They all looked at one another.
“Why do you think Gary burned this one?” Rae asked, breaking the uneasy silence. “I mean, it was already dead, right?”
“It’s what people do. They destroy the things that scare them.” Caden shrugged, trying to be casual, but he could feel the muscles in his jaw tightening. It was a reminder to him to be careful. He had started to feel a little too relaxed, like he belonged with this group of kids. But he was different from them. He could never forget that.
If Rae knew about his abilities, would she freak out like the kids in his elementary class? She knew some of it already. She’d seen him open the rift into the Other Place and hadn’t been scared away. Maybe she’d be okay with the rest. But he couldn’t chance it. He didn’t want to admit it, but he liked having friends. He didn’t want to be alone anymore, like he used to be before, when it was just him and Aiden.
“I don’t think we can take this back,” Nate said. “It would probably fall apart if we tried to move it.” With a disgusted look, he prodded the bug with his sneaker, and the whole thing collapsed in a puff of ash and dust.
“Nice one.” Vivienne coughed. “Well, this turned out to be a bust. Great job picking this little mystery, Nathaniel.”
“Wait, you’re blaming this on me? We could have chosen something else! I was not attached to the bugs!”
“I’m glad we picked them,” Rae said firmly. “If there’s some kind of weird infestation going on in our town, then I want to know about it.”
“Hear, hear, Rae-Rae,” Vivienne said. “Can you imagine a whole swarm of those things creeping and crawling under our houses?” She pointed at the pile of ash, and even though Caden wasn’t trying to feel the energy of the group, their alarm hit him in little prickly spikes.
His mom didn’t think these bugs were from the Other Place, but Nate said they weren’t from Earth. So where else could they have come from? Caden knew the rift had been opened recently, both by him and by Green On! when they pulled out his brother. If these bugs had escaped during one of those times, then it was his job as a Price to look into it.
And if they’d somehow managed to drag Gary away…
He swallowed, hard. But according to Aiden, his mom and dad wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, and Aiden didn’t have any of his powers anymore. There was no one else. This was Caden’s responsibility. “Hey, guys?” He waited until they were all looking at him and then made himself say it. “I might know where more of these are.”
“Oh yeah?” Rae said.
Caden nodded. “Anyone up for a bit of spelunking?”
17. RAE
Panic bubbled up inside Rae’s chest. Vivienne had gotten way too excited when she heard the word “spelunking,” and now here they were, standing over a deep, dark hole in the ground, contemplating going in. Apparently Caden and his mom had found an abandoned giant bug exoskeleton in front of this very cave and were pretty sure the thing was living somewhere inside it.
This was madness. Sheer madness. Rae breathed in and out slowly through her nose. She tried not to stare at that hole but couldn’t help sneaking glances at it. It seemed to drink in the remaining light of the day, giving back nothing, and when she finally looked, really looked at it, it reminded her of an open mouth screaming.
She shuddered.
“It looks like it widens a few feet down, and then levels out just below that,” Vivienne said, straightening. “Shouldn’t be too bad of a drop.” She rummaged in her backpack and pulled out her trusty rope.
Rae took another deep breath. “Are we really serious about this?” she asked as Vivienne secured the rope around the trunk of the nearest tree, tying it off with some kind of fancy knot.
“Yep.” Vivienne dropped the other end of the rope down the hole. “Why not?”
“Because it’s a terrible idea!”
“I gotta say, I’m with Rae on this one,” Nate said. “I have never seen a horror movie where a pack of kids goes into a cave and all of them make it out okay.”
“Wow, Nate, I’m surprised,” Vivienne said. “I never would have pegged you for a horror movie guy.”
Nate looked away. “Fine, so I don’t actually watch horror movies—”
“Of course you don’t.”
“They give me nightmares, okay? But so will going into a creepy hole in the ground! I vote we leave here, find Doctor Nguyen, and tell her about this cave. Then she can send some Green On! people to check it out. Grown people, with proper equipment and training.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Vivienne said.
Relief enveloped Rae like a warm bath.
“After we do a bit of reconnaissance.”
All of Rae’s relief drained away immediately as Vivienne tossed her an ugly headband with an attached light and put a similar one around her own head. She glanced at Nate, standing white-faced away from the hole, and Caden, silent and brooding right next to it. “Sorry, I only have two headlights.”
“You know, if even Rae thinks this plan is reckless, then maybe we’d better rethink it,” Caden said slowly.
“Hey!” Rae said, even though she secretly appreciated the backup.
“What if Gary the Goatman is hurt down there and needs our help?” Vivienne asked. “We should at least look around a little. Especially since it’s not night yet, and there are four of us. It’ll be safe.”
“You didn’t see this bug,” Caden said.
“Safe-ish,” Vivienne amended. “And you boys don’t have to come. You know, if you’re too scared.” She looked at Rae.
Rae swore there was a gleam in Vivienne’s brown eyes. Like she was daring Rae to try to stop her. But now Rae was thinking about Gary, potentially stuck down a deep, dark hole, even though realistically she knew there was a much better chance that he’d just hightailed it out of the woods. Still, maybe they should look around a little, just in case. Reluctantly, she nodded, and Vivienne grinned wildly. “Catch you on the flip side, my friend.” Then with a whoop of excitement, she swung down into the hole and was gone.
Rae slid the other headlamp around her head, carefully tugging her ponytail free, her hands trembling. She did not want to go in there.
Vivienne was counting on her to follow.
Rae grabbed the rope and squeezed her eyes shut. For a second she thought of Ava, remembering the last time they’d gone to an amusement park together.
It had been a year befor
e their dad disappeared.
Neither of their parents liked heights, so when Ava had asked who was up for the Sky Flier, only Rae had been willing to go with her. Back then, Rae was willing to go anywhere with her older sister, even though she secretly didn’t like heights either. The two of them had been clipped inside a harness side by side. Rae could feel her sister vibrating with excitement. And then they’d been hauled up into the air, so high they could see the entire park, with nothing but that flimsy harness and a long bungee cord keeping them from an untimely death.
“Ready?” Ava had asked, sounding so confident.
“No,” Rae had said, but then Ava pulled the cord and they were falling.
Rae felt that same rush of terror now, but this time she didn’t have Ava here to pull the cord for her. She would have to do the fall herself.
She opened her eyes. The hole stared back at her. Hungry. Waiting. “Are you guys staying?” she asked.
“No, I’ll come,” Caden said.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I told you, I’ve got your back.” He smiled. She could tell he was scared too, and somehow that made her feel a little better.
“Nate?” she asked.
“Let’s see, option A, go into a hole to search for large carnivorous bugs, or option B, wait in the creepy woods alone, where large carnivorous bugs hunt for food… tough choices, but I think I’ll take my chances with you.”
“There’s always option C: trace your steps back through the woods and go home,” Rae said.
Nate sighed. “Yeah, I did think about that. That would definitely be the smart option. But you know how I feel about social loafers.”
“Social loafers?” Caden asked.
“You know when you get assigned a group project how there’s always that one kid who doesn’t do any of the work and still gets the same grade as the others?” Nate said. “That’s the social loafer.”
Rae laughed. “The worst.”
