The Secret of Grim Hill

by Linda DeMeulemeester

  The white feather from my pocket was exactly the same as the feather bookmark in the enchanted grimoire book. A fairy possession helps keep away the glamour. I knew my feather had powers! Was it helping me resist a fairy spell?

  Suddenly there were voices in the hallway. I hid behind the door and peeked out of the skullshaped keyhole. A troop of girls straggled behind Ms. Maliss, the coach with the long, white hair.

  I had to do a double take, because I could see right through all of them!

  “Now girls, keep an orderly formation,” the coach said.

  “It’s hard when we’re like this,” complained one girl. As she spoke, her feet drifted up off the ground. She floated toward the ceiling until another girl grabbed her foot.

  Choking back a gasp, I practically poked my eye right through the keyhole as I spied on them. I held my breath so I could hear them better and more importantly, so they couldn’t hear me.

  Ms. Maliss stopped in front of the classroom right across the hall from me. She looked up at the girl who was bobbing in the air like a balloon on a string.

  “Now Ariel, you are a second-year student, and you should be able to manage your glamour better,” Ms. Maliss said.

  Ariel gave a sigh of dismay. “I’m trying … but lots of us second years are losing our control.”

  “Don’t worry too much,” Ms. Maliss said and barked a cruel laugh – “the Halloween match is less than a week away. Once the event is over, and the winning team is awarded their scholarship,” at this point she chuckled, “we’ll all be as solid as this door for another seventy years.” Ms. Maliss tried opening the door, but her fingers kept slipping through the doorknob.

  “Oh well,” she said. “I’d better save my energy for the soccer practices and the big game.” The coach and the girls drifted down the hall to a classroom where the door was already open.

  My throat felt like sandpaper when I swallowed. After a few terrified moments, I crept carefully back to the book. As my heart beat like a drum, I took my own white feather, held it in my shaking hand and said quietly, “I need to find out more about the students and teachers of Grimoire School.”

  Sure enough, the grimoire’s pages flipped forward. When they stopped, the open page in front of me was titled “Lesson 667: Tithes and Fairy Circles.” The illustration on that page revealed a large bonfire and a circle of what must have been strange creatures of the netherworld and human children dancing around the fire. I began to read:

  Creatures of Grim Hill: Every seventy years you must exact a tithe. Capture human slaves and you will keep the link from your world and their world open.

  On Samhain night, when the boundary veil between our world and the human world is thinnest, roam the hill and capture young sacrifices. Bring them to the fairy circle to dance with the fairies for the rest of their lives. The energy from this celebration will maintain the fairy link for another seventy years.

  An urgent thought hit me – I knew exactly which human sacrifices Ms. Maliss and her students were waiting for.

  I had to get away. Now.

  Slipping out of the library, I ran down the hall as if the demons of hell were after me. If those ghostly girls were fairies, I didn’t think they were the kind of fairies who brought kids money when they lost a tooth – not even close.

  But I slid to a halt just before I flew down the stairs and burst out of the main doors. My mom sat in the little cubbyhole and worked away at her desk. She looked like a robot or worse, like some slave under a spell.

  “Mom,” I urged. “Come home with me. Don’t stay here.”

  She looked up from her work. At first she seemed distracted again, and then she tilted her head as if she heard something.

  “Cat, you should leave. You don’t want my boss to see you here.”

  It wasn’t what she said. It was the way she said it. She didn’t have to tell me twice.

  As I ran out of the school and onto the field, tears stung my eyes. How could I ever have wanted to be a student at this school? I stumbled past the old picnic area that Sookie had been afraid of.

  Something stopped me in my tracks.

  In the darkening shadows, a girl with black hair, black old-fashioned clothes, and black eyes, stood in the middle of the thickets and brambles.

  It was Lucinda.

  CHAPTER 16 The Despicable Truth

  “YOU KNOW WHERE Sookie is!” I cried.

  “She was in danger and I tried to rescue her.” Lucinda sounded faint, as if she were much farther away from me.

  “What do you mean tried?” I said in alarm.

  “The coaches have terrible powers.” Lucinda’s voice grew even weaker. “Maliss and Sinster knew Sookie could see through the glamour to what was inside Grim Hill. And she was realizing the truth about the soccer match.”

  “So give her back to me and let her tell me herself,” I insisted.

  “I can’t,” Lucinda said mournfully. “Your sister was like a pesky fly that they were going to swat. I tried to help but –”

  “But what?” I asked dreading the answer.

  “I made a deal with the coaches.” Lucinda wavered back and forth as if she were a flimsy paper doll. “I bargained that I would stop trying to warn you about the match if they let me protect your sister.”

  “So you just waltzed into my party and took Sookie?” I was trying to understand.

  “The coaches tricked me,” Lucinda said in anger. “I brought her to the fairy circle, and now – ”

  “Just tell me!” I demanded.

  Lucinda began to fade like a watermark drying in the sand. “The problem is when I try to tell you anything directly – ”

  And then Lucinda vanished.

  I began running down the hill. At the bottom, I turned and looked at Grimoire School as the sun sank completely behind it and the sky grew dark. The fog that had flowed out of the grimoire book of enchantment began creeping down the hill as if it was following me. There was no way I’d go back to that school again.

  I sprinted past my house and back to Miss Greystone’s. Before knocking, I wiped my face with my sleeve, trying to keep it together for Sookie’s sake. When I knocked and Miss Greystone opened the door, she took one look at me and ushered me inside.

  Miss Greystone brought me a tissue and I blew my nose. Forcing myself not to sound hysterical, I told her about how Lucinda took Sookie so she could protect her from the coaches, who were evil fairies, and that Lucinda should have –

  “Slow down, Cat. Take a sip of water.” Miss Greystone handed me a glass, saying, “I don’t think I heard that last bit correctly.”

  After downing the entire glass, I told her the rest – about Grimoire’s transparent students and about what I’d read in the grimoire book about fairy hills and circles.

  “The book was magical,” I exclaimed. “But not in a happy, fun sense. There was a darkness about it.” I shuddered. “But I don’t get it,” I said. “If those students aren’t human, they aren’t like any fairies I’ve ever read about. They weren’t tiny creatures with wings. They seemed dangerous.”

  “My dear,” said Miss Greystone, “real fairies are dangerous. My mother was from Ireland and told me many fairy stories – and not the cute little tales one sees in movies and storybooks today. In the past, everyone feared fairies. When people called them the good folk, they did that because they didn’t want fairies to hear them say anything bad about them.”

  I blew my nose again. “But just what is the connection between fairies and Halloween?”

  “Halloween has everything to do with those creatures of the netherworld,” said Jasper who had slipped in quietly.

  Jasper seemed too upset to sit still and explain. Instead he paced the room and pulled at his glasses. That used to annoy me. But now I hoped it meant he was onto something.

  “I read that fairies are enchanters with supernatural powers who live in the netherworld, a kind of different dimension, which can be tucked inside a hollow hill,” Jasper explaine
d.

  I nodded. The grimoire was filled with information about the netherworld.

  Jasper went on, “In ancient Celtic times, a couple of thousand years ago, the Celts were onto fairies. The Celts knew how to protect themselves and take precautions. For one thing, when the veil got thin on Halloween night, called Samhain, the Celts threw a festival where they all stayed together. That festival must have been big because while most of us don’t know it, we still celebrate a lot of the same traditions.”

  “That’s what Lucinda said,” I explained. “And she said the traditions were important.” Whenever I mentioned Lucinda’s name, Miss Greystone got such a sad look.

  Jasper leaned forward with his face pinched so tight, I could tell he was extremely worried. “On Samhain night, the fairies will roam around to capture human slaves. That’s where our custom of wearing masks came from. People would hide behind masks to confuse fairies into thinking they weren’t humans, that they were also creatures of the netherworld.”

  I told Jasper and Miss Greystone what I’d overheard the soccer coach say, about how they’d soon be capturing new slaves so they could all be strong for another seventy years.

  Miss Greystone gasped. “First they kidnapped my sister and her friends. Now seventy years have passed and they need a new tithe. So they’ve captured your little sister, and they’re looking for more sacrifices,” Miss Greystone dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.

  “So,” I added, “they can keep the bridge open between both worlds, which makes Grimoire teachers and students strong.” The whole time I was talking, I stared at the old photograph on the mantel and was sickened by the thought of Lucinda dancing year after year. I wondered if that was now Sookie’s horrifying fate.

  Following my gaze, Miss Greystone whispered with disgust, “And the fairies keep the slaves until their human lives are almost over. When they’ve used them up, the fairies capture more young people.”

  “The soccer match is how they pick us.” I held back my rage. “As soon as I overheard Ms. Maliss, I figured out that the soccer field is where they select the best slaves – by choosing the winning team.” And none of us, not Emily on the Ghosts team, not Mia or the other Witches, realized we were like plump turkeys being eyed by a farmer right before Thanksgiving.

  “But why hasn’t Lucinda changed at all?” I asked. “She looks to be my age right now, the age when she was captured seventy years ago. How can that be?”

  “Time passes differently in Fairy. If people manage to escape,” and then Jasper spoke in a gentler tone, “I mean, when Lucinda and Sookie come back, Lucinda will probably age quickly. So we’d better get Sookie back soon, while she’s still a little girl.”

  We all sat in silence. A cloud of doom settled over me as I mumbled, “What if there is no coming back?”

  “Wait, Cat,” Miss Greystone said and then walked over to the photograph of Lucinda and picked it up. “I’m wondering how my sister has managed to escape from Fairy, if only for short periods of time.”

  The cloud of doom slowed its descent – that was a good point. “Something about Sookie must have drawn Lucinda out,” I said. “We need more answers.” I stabbed my feather as if it was a sword. “We have to find out more about fairy circles. We have to help Sookie and Lucinda escape for good.”

  Miss Greystone reached over to her bookshelf. She brought down a very old volume and blew the dust off the cover. The title was Celtic Myth and Fairy Tales.

  “This was my mother’s book. I’ll start skimming through it right away, in case it offers any clues,” she said.

  “But we still need a lot of other information about Celts and tithes, and we need it fast,” said Jasper. “If you’ve got the book, maybe Cat and I can go online.”

  “Two of us searching separately will be faster,” I said. “Using my computer at home will speed things up.”

  “Then we’ll reconvene in a couple of hours,” said Miss Greystone.

  After I left Miss Greystone’s and walked to my house, I didn’t go in right away. Instead, I sat down on the curb on top of a pile of leaves. The tang of the leaves’ musty smell filled my nose. I bent over and put my head between my legs and let the blood rush to my brain. When would I wake up from this horrible dream? This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. When my eyes began to ache, I sat back up. Then I pinched myself – twice. It hurt.

  Unlike Miss Greystone, I wasn’t brought up on Celtic myth and fairy lore. Nor was I a bookworm like Jasper who always allowed his imagination to run wild. They say “Seeing is believing.” But despite what I’d seen, it was really hard for me to believe any of this. A better explanation would be that I had gone crazy or was in some grisly coma, stuck in a permanent nightmare. I looked at my house, it was unlit and empty. Mom was never home, and Sookie had disappeared. This was my reality.

  Sighing deeply, I stood up and brushed off the damp leaves that had stuck to my pants. There was only one thing to do.

  First I went into my dark house and turned on the hall light. I rummaged in the closet and took out the black Halloween mask that I had worn at my party.

  Then I began to trudge back up Grim Hill in the fog. Every step I took made my heart pound harder, but there was one book that held more information on fairies than anything I could find on the internet. Always check a direct source, my teachers often said.

  One more peek at the enchanted grimoire wouldn’t hurt – would it?

  CHAPTER 17 Dancing to Death

  IT WAS BAD enough crunching over leaves up Grim Hill in the dark with only a thin thread of light bobbing from my flashlight, not to mention that I was slipping on slimy things I didn’t even want to see. But when the school loomed ahead in the shadows, I wondered how I ever thought Grimoire was beautiful. At night, the building lost its inviting appeal. Under the moon, it appeared haunted.

  After forcing myself toward the front door, I tugged on the frozen handle. Part of me, a very large part, hoped the door would be locked, but it wasn’t. I slipped inside.

  Before I walked up the stairs, I put on the Halloween mask, hoping those ancient Celts were right about a disguise confusing the spirits of the netherworld.

  The school sounded a lot more populated in the evening. Voices rang out of every classroom. Shadows of barely visible girls gathered at the end of the hall, so I hid behind the staircase until several of them passed by. Once they were gone, I came out of hiding, determined to make my way back to the library.

  “You’re missing the riddling session,” said a voice near me.

  I turned in surprise. A girl wearing the Grimoire uniform – a black silk tunic with purple and orange pinstripes – had crept up from behind. The girl wasn’t completely solid looking, but she was less transparent than the students who had followed Ms. Maliss around when I was here earlier.

  “You’ll be late.” She stared at me unfazed by my mask, as if it was completely normal.

  Struggling to find my voice, I said, “Um … I just forgot something,” and glanced vainly down the hall.

  What a relief when the ghostly girl only shrugged her shoulders and scurried away. Okay, score one for the Celts. They knew what they were talking about with the masks. I headed for the library, hugging the shadows of the hall, not particularly wanting to meet up with anyone else.

  Once I got to the library, I allowed myself a tiny sigh of relief as I crept inside and shut the door. The grimoire sat open and fog was no longer drifting out from its pages. Instead, the fog was pouring out. Part of me wondered, if I slammed the book shut, could I stop the enchantment of the town? Then I remembered the main reason I was here and that I couldn’t risk anything until I found Sookie.

  The grimoire was still open to the section on fairy circles. Slipping my mask up so I could see better, I pulled my feather out of my pocket, trying to decide exactly what I had to know about fairies in order to get Sookie and Lucinda back.

  Suddenly, the handle of the library door clicked.

  Someone was coming
in.

  Desperately, I searched the tiny room for a place to hide. The empty bookshelves stood right against the wall; there wasn’t even a desk to crouch behind. After another click and a soft hiss, the door cracked open. In a flash I ducked behind the thick green velvet curtain that hung from the narrow library window.

  From behind the curtain, I could hear the muffled patter of footsteps across the marble-tiled floor. Dust clogged my nose and scratched my throat. My eyes watered, but I didn’t breathe, let alone flinch, terrified of causing a ripple in the heavy cloth.

  First a tap, then a rolling thud and a loud crash echoed through the room as the floor shuddered and the curtain shook. I gave the curtain the slightest tug and peeked around it.

  An entire bookcase had opened up like a door, revealing a dark passageway with stairs spiraling down. The Grimoire girl I’d just seen ducked inside and disappeared into the darkness. A few moments passed, and the bookshelf began to rotate back toward the open wall, gears groaning and wood creaking. Without hesitation, I leaped from behind the curtain and ran toward the shrinking doorway.

  But then I wasn’t sure what to do. Here was a secret passageway inside the school – what was Grimoire hiding? Did I have the courage to follow the girl? Not even close. But I wanted answers, so before I could change my mind, I shoved my body between the closing bookcase and jammed my flashlight between the shelf and the wall to keep the hidden doorway slightly open – not enough to draw attention to anyone passing by the room, I hoped, but enough to keep the door from slamming shut. Once I stood on the top step, I noticed it was a good thing the passage door was ajar. Otherwise I’d be surrounded by complete darkness. No, it wasn’t exactly pitch-black, for down the endless staircase far below, I could see the tiniest prick of orange light. There wasn’t enough light to tell how far the Grimoire girl had gone, so I made myself count to one hundred twice before beginning my descent.