by KD Blakely
If l should fail a Sister’s plea,
A life of doom will follow me.”
Okay, none of us will become a famous poet — at least not for writing good poems. But we were eight, what do you expect? For us, it was much more than a promise. It was a vow we could count on, forever.
Like Faith was counting on us to keep her away from Andrew.
Chapter 4
Cemetery’s End
Olivia sighed and shook her head, but the arguing was over. For today at least. She raised her right eyebrow. Just the one eyebrow. Her so-what-are-we-going-to-do-now look.
Where could we go? Home would take us the same way as Andrew. Not good. There was really only one place we could go where Andrew wouldn’t want to follow.
I scowled at Olivia, and her eyes grew wide at my expression. She looked worried — she should. She was going to hate my idea! There was one place Andrew despised, but Olivia didn’t like it much better.
“The cemetery.”
Olivia stiffened and her mouth pinched up like she’d sucked a lemon. I spoke quickly, “Andrew probably won’t even go in, but if he does there’s plenty of places to hide.”
Olivia surprised me when she just nodded and muttered, “Oh goody, my favorite.”
So instead of turning left out of school, we went right. I hoped Andrew and his friends wouldn’t notice. Maybe they’d pick a spot on the way home and wait for us. And wait. And wait. And we wouldn’t come that way.
Cool!
It didn’t take long to go the five short blocks to Main Street. There, on the far side of the street loomed the huge old cemetery. We should be safe if we could get in.
A wall of rough grey stone nearly seven feet high enclosed the cemetery. Only the very top, worn smooth by more than 150 years of rain and wind, was supposed to be safe to touch. It was the only part that wouldn’t rub your skin raw like sandpaper.
The heavy metal gates at the entrance were standing open, and my breath whooshed out in relief. Once inside, we ducked down the narrow twisting driveway that ran along the north side of the cemetery, crossing the small parking lot where muddy puddles advertised the rain from the night before.
As we moved into the grounds, I felt a shudder work its way up my spine. How incredibly cliché! I wasn’t the one scared of the cemetery. Not like Olivia. But today it was like we’d entered somewhere…different.
The ground ahead rose and fell in low rolling hills, covered by trees, statues of crying angels, crooked headstones, and small stone buildings. Mausoleums — houses for the dead.
I could see all of this much too clearly. Here, inside the graveyard, the fog was strangely thin. A few grey ribbons drifted here and there, no more than knee high. Unfortunately. This would have been a good time to have a nice thick blanket of fog to hide in!
Darn it.
It was quiet in here. And too still. The air felt awfully thin, like the long dead inhabitants had sucked in a tremendous breath, trapping all the oxygen deep in their graves. What would happen if everything inside that cemetery suddenly exhaled?
“I don’t like this place,” Olivia whispered. “It’s totally creepy!” Actually, it was more of a whimper than a whisper.
“You watched The Wizard of Oz one time too many. You sound just like Dorothy.” When Olivia stuck her tongue out at me, I grinned and quoted in a high shaky voice, “I don’t like this forest. It’s dark, and creepy.”
I tipped my head back, looking at the sky. “Isn’t this when the flying monkeys show up?”
Faith relaxed enough to snicker when Olivia jerked her head back, glancing nervously at the sky. You had to give Faith credit. She might be afraid of bullies, but she was never afraid of things like monsters under the bed, graveyards, or flying monkeys.
I laughed. “Sorry, Olivia, no flying monkeys.”
She’s right though — it’s creeporific in here.
Today the normally peaceful cemetery was the perfect setting for a horror movie. Maybe it was the way the damp, gloomy weather washed the color from the grass and trees, making everything look grey. Or the constant sound of croaking frogs and the low discordant drone of insects. Perhaps it was the nasty smell of mold and mildew that rose from the wet grass with every step. Whatever the reason, it lacked only a few zombies rising from their graves to turn this into a total freak show.
Olivia was standing still, glaring at me. “Why must you always quote books and movies at us?”
“Duh. Mom’s a librarian and Dad’s watched every movie ever made. Lines from books and movies get quoted all the time at my house. I can’t help it.”
Olivia opened her mouth to argue but Faith interrupted. “Shhh! They’re coming.” Her eyes were large and frightened as she gestured toward a nearby mausoleum. “Hide!”
The three of us barely fit behind the small building. My arm broke out in chill bumps as I crouched down against the cold, damp stone, trying to make myself as small as possible. Just how many friends was Andrew bringing with him? The sound of several feet crunched through the gravel and splashed through the puddles in the parking lot.
“Yuck!” I recognized Carly even through the disgust that distorted her voice. “I’m cold and wet. Can’t we just forget about them?”
Andrew sounded so different I didn’t recognize him for a moment. Where was his loud, bossy voice? He sounded nervous. Almost…timid. “They’re not here. We should go.”
“Don’t be such a weenie, Andy. I saw them go in here.”
Oh no, that’s Ray. Faith’s afraid of Andrew, but Ray really scares me.
Faith made an urgent gesture to move deeper into the cemetery. She was biting her lip so hard I was afraid it might start bleeding. Olivia and I ducked down and crab walked after her, keeping low.
We hid behind the largest headstones and monuments as we moved further into the graveyard, trying to be quiet. I don’t think we were totally successful. It’s hard to be stealthy while your feet make disgusting squelchy noises in the rain-soaked grass.
It was especially hard if you were Olivia. I had to keep my eyes focused on my own feet. If I looked at her, I was going to laugh out loud and give us away.
Olivia couldn’t stand walking over a grave. After watching the original Carrie, she’d admitted she was terrified hands would reach out of a coffin, grab her by the ankle, and pull her down under the ground. Olivia was the opposite of Faith. She wouldn’t hesitate to take on a bully, but cemeteries and zombies and flying monkeys totally freaked her out.
She tiptoed ahead of me in a strange zigzag pattern, bent almost double to remain out of sight. Occasionally she sprang sideways, making a quiet, strangled sound in her throat when she realized she was on a grave.
We kept moving deeper inside, getting to the oldest part where you could no longer read some of the names and dates on the crumbling tombstones. The sound of voices stayed behind us, sometimes closer, sometimes farther away, but always following. I’d been sure Andrew would wimp out long before this. Now I was getting worried. We’d nearly reached the far end of the cemetery, as far back as we could go.
What’re we going to do now?
We’d made Faith a Blood Sister promise to keep her away from Andrew, but the back wall was only a few feet away. There were no mausoleums or tall statues in the old section to hide behind. The only cover was the huge old fig tree, supposedly older than the town itself.
Its massive trunk grew in strange thick folds covered with smooth grey bark. We weren’t climbing this tree, the trunk was too smooth and the branches too high to reach. And we couldn’t climb the cemetery walls, not if we liked skin on our arms and legs.
Faith’s shoulders were hunched and she had her hands jammed into her pockets. “Andrew’s bound to turn back soon.” Her words sounded positive, but her voice shook slightly, and she’d begun nervously chewing on her lip again.
Olivia must have noticed too. “Yeah. Andrew totally hates this place!” She snickered, stifling the sound with her hand. She loved knowing there was someone
more creeped out by the cemetery than she was.
“Actually,” I reminded them in a whisper, “he hates the mortuary next to his dad’s garage even more. He can’t stand any place that has coffins.”
“Serves him right,” Faith hissed. “Who tries to touch a dead body when you’re seven years old?”
“Come on, you know his brother dared him,” I reminded her. “Then Jason turned off all the lights and locked Andrew in. He left him there, with a Halloween CD playing screams and growls and spooky sounds all night.”
Faith smiled weakly, “Jason was in so much trouble!”
I grinned and whispered, “Yeah, but his friends sure thought it was funny. It was all over the school for weeks.”
Olivia murmured, “Remember all the cops and firefighters looking for Andrew? Dad was on the team that found him. It took six hours. All that time, Jason kept telling everyone he didn’t know where Andrew was. Big fat liar.”
She grinned at Faith. “You’ll totally like this. Andrew was hiding in a closet, crying like a baby when they found him. He kept saying the dead body was talking to him. That it climbed off the table and tried to kiss him.”
“You never told us that!” Surprise made Faith’s voice squeak.
Olivia made a shushing motion before she continued, “I heard Dad tell Mom. He wasn’t happy when he realized I’d heard too. I had to promise I wouldn’t tell anyone. But you’re not anyone, you’re Blood Sisters.”
Faith’s grin showed how much she liked that story. But I felt almost sorry for Andrew. Almost. No wonder he hated the cemetery. What would he do to us if he caught us in here? We were running out of places to hide.
How much longer could we keep away from them? I pulled out my cell phone to check the time and whispered to Olivia, “When do you have to be home?”
“Mom wants me to help with the kidlets at 1:00. Why?”
“We should be okay, it’s only 12:34 now.”
“No way are we hiding in here until 1:00!” Faith’s whisper was probably supposed to sound determined. Instead, it sounded like she was begging.
I ducked behind the huge trunk of the fig tree, relieved to be safely out of sight for the moment. I leaned against the massive trunk just as Faith and Olivia crowded in next to me.
“I just wish we had somewhere safe to hide!”
That was the moment everything changed.
Chapter 5
Over the Rainbow?
Through the Looking Glass?
Down the Rabbit Hole?
Well, not exactly…
One moment, the three of us crowded in against the huge tree. I felt the strange grey bark that looked so smooth chafe against my fingers while I desperately wished for somewhere safe.
The next moment, I could no longer feel the tree. Instead, the nightmarish sensations began.
The horrible feeling of having my face pushed through jello.
Being unable to breathe, or hear, or see.
Robbed of my senses, my imagination started going nuts. The darkness that surrounded me was totally black. Like a raven’s eye, floating in a pool of black ink. Blackness that took on a life of its own, thick and heavy. Constricting around me like I was being smothered in a cold, damp cocoon spun from sticky black spider silk.
That’s when the terrifying feeling of plunging through space began. My stomach felt like it was still twenty feet in the air above me. I thrashed around trying to feel the sides of the tree. Trying to feel anything. What a mistake! Was the sudden whirling sensation inside my head, or was my body actually spinning out of control?
All I’d wanted was to help Faith. Why was this happening?
I no longer knew which way was up. I struggled, yelling, trying to breathe. Trying not to panic.
Could I die in this horrible place —?
Fortunately, my unsettling thoughts were interrupted by a sudden flash of warmth and bright light. I tumbled into the dirt with the huge fig tree at my back. I lay there, shaking and gasping, completely disoriented.
A strange gurgling sound made me whip my head around to the right.
What now!
Olivia and Faith were on the ground next to me. I was so relieved to see The Three still together, it took a moment to recognize what I was seeing. Faith was clutching her stomach, her face a pale green. As I watched, she made another soft sound and gulped convulsively, one hand pressed to her mouth.
I had to clear my throat before I could ask, “You okay?”
“I…I think so.” The raspy sound of her voice didn’t inspire much confidence.
Olivia scrambled to her feet. “Just don’t puke on me!”
Faith got up shakily. “Oh please! I haven’t done that since we were nine.”
“Try last year!”
I stood up too, concentrating on brushing dirt off my pants. Trying to ignore the two of them as they argued over the last time Faith had lost her lunch. I jumped and bit my tongue when Olivia exclaimed, loudly, “Oh, oh…shi—, I mean shoot!”
Faith’s eyes flew wide with shock, and I whirled to stare at Olivia in amazement. Olivia never used swear words. As in not ever — her mom was death on swearing.
I glanced around to see what upset her. My breath gushed out like someone had punched me in the stomach. For a moment, it felt like someone had.
The cemetery was gone. Just...gone! The scent of brine, ever present this close to the ocean, was gone as well. Instead, the air smelled sweet, like flowers. I glanced up at the too bright sky. It was a sunlit blue rather than the grey, stormy sky of moments before.
“Beam me up, Scotty!” I blurted, and peered down at my feet. I did not want to see anything else! Unfortunately, refusing to look didn’t help. It felt different here, warm and dry. I should probably be too hot in my sweatshirt, but I wasn’t. I felt cold. That had to be the reason my teeth were chattering hard enough to break.
Faith must be cold too. She was shaking so hard she stuttered, “Wh…where are we? What is this…this place?” She stepped back, shaking her head in disbelief, and bumped into Olivia. They both shrieked in surprise, then threw their arms around each other.
I glanced down where I’d been absently rubbing my thigh. It was getting hot. Really hot. From inside the pocket where I kept my cell.
I pulled out my phone and stared in confusion as the screen flipped from one app to another. It stopped briefly on the main screen, but didn’t look right. I didn’t have a chance to figure out why. I was way too busy moving the phone to my other hand as it started to burn my fingers.
When I looked at the screen again, the apps were changing so fast they were just a blur.
What’s up with my cell? And where are we?
Just then, my phone stopped on the main screen and I tried to read our location. It should be listed right under the time, which appeared to have frozen at 12:34 pm.
I shook my head, not believing my eyes. The location was blank. The space where ‘Santa Ramona’ should be was empty. Like my phone didn’t know where we were.
The symbol for ‘no signal’ flashed at the top of the screen, which kept growing bright then dim. While I stared in confusion, the time finally changed, but not in a good way. It raced several minutes ahead, then spun back to 12:34, like it didn’t know what time it was either.
How can it not know the time?
When it let out a sudden blinding burst of color and piercing high-pitched whine, I almost dropped it. I cringed and held it as far from me as possible. Then it went silent and the screen went black. I pushed frantically at the On button, but it was dead. Totally, completely dead. Like the Wicked Witch of the West, it was really-most-sincerely dead.
Maybe Faith or Olivia’s phone was still working. “Hey, check your phones.”
They stared at me like I’d grown a second head. Olivia snorted. “You want us to look at our phones? Now?”
“Just let me see them!”
With identical shrugs, they held out their phones. Faith held hers carefully, touching
as little of it as possible.
“Yeooow!” Olivia looked at me like I should have an answer. “Why’s my phone so hot?”
I held my phone out and said, “Mine’s dead.” I watched as they tried to turn theirs on. My stomach felt like it was doing a long slow roll. “Looks like all of them are dead.”
Faith shook her head. “No way, I charged it last night.”
I could hear panic growing in her voice. That was one thing to remember about Faith — although the thought of monsters didn’t scare her, real life could really freak her out.
Not that I could blame her today. Not after dealing with Andrew at school. Worrying about what his friends were going to do to us on the way home. Playing creepy hide and seek in the cemetery. Going through that dark, disgusting place after leaning against the tree.
Another shudder worked its way up my spine. That made twice in one day.
Faith babbled, “What’re we gonna do? How’re we gonna get out of here?” She held out her phone, “We can’t even call anyone—”
Olivia interrupted in a high sing-song voice, “Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!” I almost stuffed my fingers in my ears. Olivia really shouldn’t sing. She couldn’t carry a tune if someone gift boxed it for her.
I interrupted, “I’ve got a better question.” I took a deep breath then raised my head, looking only at Faith and Olivia. “How can we get ourselves back?”
We all turned to look at the tree. This was not the cemetery, but the massive fig tree was exactly the same.
I gave a quick glance around, so fast I didn’t really see anything. Just an impression of strange colors, plants, and trees. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end as I realized the only thing recognizable was the fig tree.
“I’ve got an idea,” I blurted. “Come on!”
I grabbed their hands and dragged them back to the tree. Taking a deep breath, I started to lean against the grey bark, while Faith moved next to me. Before my shoulder could make contact, Olivia threw herself against the trunk yelling, “Send us back!”
