“You think he knows we’re here?” Carter asked.
Angelo rubbed a hand across his forehead. Despite the cold, damp air, he and Carter were both sweating. “If our entrance made half as much noise here as it did in the cemetery, I’m guessing he will soon enough. When we first arrived, I could swear some of those…creatures walking up and down the hill turned in our direction.”
Overhead, the sky was a smudgy ash color that didn’t look like either day or night. There was no sign of the sun anywhere and the air had a sort of musty smell—like a damp towel that had been shoved into a corner where it could never quite dry.
“I don’t think we’re on Earth,” Nick said. It was a crazy thing to say. After all, where else could they be? And yet, both Angelo and Carter nodded, neither bothering to argue.
Grunting, Nick tried to push himself up. Carter and Angelo had to grab his hands and pull. And even then, it took all of his strength to keep from falling down again. His spine felt like someone had pounded spikes through it, and when he tried taking a step, his hip made a weird phit-t-t-t sound.
“Dude,” Carter said, “I didn’t know zombies could—”
“It wasn’t a fart,” Nick said. “Something’s messed up with my hip.” He tried walking. Step. Phit-t-t-t. Step. Phit-t-t-t. Step. Phit-t-t-t. Step. Phit-t-t-t.
Carter put a hand over his mouth and snorted. Even when Nick glared at him, he couldn’t stop giggling. “Sorry, it’s just…it sounds like you’ve been eating beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If we lit a match you could probably shoot all the way to the castle like a rocket.”
“I told you, they aren’t farts,” Nick muttered. When he noticed that even Angelo was trying to hide a smile, he shook his head. “You two are totally warped.”
Angelo and Carter burst into uncontrollable laughter. Soon even Nick found himself joining them. It was so wrong to be standing there with a broken body in an alien landscape, only a mile or two from likely death at the hands of a powerful zombie sorcerer, howling like an idiot. But somehow hearing himself and his friends laughing at it all made everything a little more bearable.
When the laughter had finally trickled away to a few stray snorts and an occasional hiccup, Carter wiped his eyes and said, “I seriously can’t believe you saved my life, man.”
Nick waved his hand. “You’d do the same thing for me. In fact, you did, coming here.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
Angelo pulled out his notes. “Grandma Elisheba said we take the amulet to the Zombie King. Once he gets it back, the curse will be removed from Nick.”
“You really think it’s going to be that simple?” Nick asked. “You think he’ll just say ‘Thanks for the amulet’ and let us go home?”
Angelo chewed his thumbnail.
There were a lot of things that had been bothering Nick about this. “That old lady never told us why the Zombie King wants the amulet. She never told us what she was doing in Pleasant Hill when I saw her in Louisiana just the week before. You think it’s a coincidence that she has a shop in the same town as us? And what’s in it for her? She never asked for any kind of payment. Not even for the black salt.”
“Those might have been good questions to bring up before we got sent to the Zombie King’s castle,” Carter said.
He was right. It was just that things had happened so quickly. One minute they’d been performing a ceremony to take away his curse. The next minute he was a zombie for life. When the old woman had promised a way out, he hadn’t been thinking clearly. Now it was too late.
The three boys stared silently at one another, all of their humor gone.
“You think you can make it that far?” Angelo asked, gazing up at the castle.
Nick put his hands on his friends’ shoulders and began to walk. On his third step, something fell from a rip in his pants pocket and landed on the ground. It was his aunt’s bottle. Angelo reached down to pick it up. Before he could, there was a cracking sound and the top of the bottle fell away.
“You broke it,” Carter said.
Gray smoke hissed out of the tiny opening at the bottle’s tip. It swirled uncertainly in the air for a moment before assuming a form Nick had seen only in pictures.
“Aunt Lenore?” he gasped.
“It’s a ghost,” Carter yelped.
Angelo held a finger to his lips. “I don’t think it’s a ghost. I think it’s Lenore’s spirit, her gros-bon-ange?”
Nick nodded silently.
The swirling gray figure looked around as if disoriented before focusing on Nick. “If my pot tet has opened, I must assume I am dead.”
“Afraid so,” Nick said.
Lenore’s spirit turned to look at the castle in the distance. “We are in the realm of the Zombie King. How did this happen?”
Nick scratched at his sewn-on ear. “I found the amulet in your graveyard and kind of turned myself into a zombie.”
Aunt Lenore gazed at him. “I always wanted to meet you. But I had hoped it would be under better circumstances.” She looked at the cat and her lips pulled into a frown. “Isabelle, what have you and Elisheba been up to?”
Nick hadn’t even realized Isabelle had come with them. Great, he thought, my aunt’s spirit is one of those old people that talks to cats. He nearly fell over with shock when a girl’s voice said, “What we needed to.”
“Eep,” Carter squeaked, jumping backward. “The cat talked.”
Nick rubbed his hand across the top of his head. Things had been weird enough with zombies and skeletons, but this was just plain bizarre.
“You haven’t introduced yourself, then?” Lenore said, her mouth a dark hole in the shifting gray fog.
The cat twitched an ear in obvious irritation. “It didn’t seem necessary.”
“Okay, I’m freaking out here,” Carter said, panting like a dog on a hot day. “Tell me that cat is not actually talking.”
“No. I’m moving my mouth and you’re imagining the rest.” Isabelle glared at Carter with emotionless green eyes. “I’m warning you though, if you try to kick me or throw a single rock in my direction, I will scratch you so hard you’ll think you got in a fight with a rosebush—and lost.”
It was like one of those Disney movies where the animals talk and sing. Only Nick couldn’t remember any of the animated creatures sounding quite this cranky. “Can someone tell me what’s going on here?”
Aunt Lenore ran her fingers through her long gray hair. “The last thing I remember, Elisheba asked to meet me. We were drinking tea and I felt a sudden pain in my chest.” She glared down at Isabelle. “She poisoned me, didn’t she?”
The cat flicked her tail. “You didn’t leave her much choice. You wouldn’t give us the amulet and only another family member could open the vault.”
Nick’s mouth dropped open. “It wasn’t the Zombie King that needed me to go into the vault. It was the old woman.” He’d been such an idiot.
“The witch,” Carter growled. “If I could get my hands on that crazy old bat—”
“Careful what you say.” Isabelle turned to look at the three boys. “That crazy old bat is my mother.”
“Okay, now I’m seriously confused.” Nick rubbed his aching leg. “Aunt Lenore is a spirit. You’re a cat. Grandma Elisheba is a…well, I don’t know exactly what she is. But I’m pretty sure she isn’t a cat. How can she be your mother?”
Isabelle licked her front paw, smoothing a patch of ruffled fur into place. “That’s a long story. We don’t have time to tell it.”
The smoke that was Aunt Lenore’s spirit darkened. “We don’t have time not to. You and your mother have put these boys in terrible danger. And I have some blame as well. The least we can do is to tell them what we’ve gotten them into.” She looked at Nick’s twisted leg. “Can you walk?”
“I think so,” Nick said.
“Then we shall start toward the castle while I tell you what I can. The Zombie King is expecting us to bring him the amulet. It might be best to
let him think that is your plan for as long as possible.”
The imposing building gave Nick the shivers, but he followed his aunt, hoping she was right.
“Long before you were born,” Lenore began, “a voodoo sorcerer arrived in the Louisiana bayou. He was always evil, but it wasn’t until he came across an ancient amulet that he gained his true power.”
Angelo, who had been writing furiously in his monster notebook, looked up. “The power to turn people into zombies?”
“That’s right.” Lenore nodded toward the horde of figures shuffling out of the castle gate in their direction. “The amulet gave the sorcerer the power to raise an army of the walking dead. And with each zombie he created, he became that much stronger, collecting their life essences in a green bottle, called an ‘astral,’ which he kept with him at all times.”
Nick shivered at the thought. “How many?” he whispered.
“Hundreds,” Lenore said sadly. “Maybe thousands.”
Nick’s mouth hung open. Carter stared. Even Angelo stopped writing. Thousands? Thousands of people turned into zombies, their souls trapped forever?
“Didn’t anyone try to stop him?” Carter asked.
Lenore waved a misty hand that drifted apart as it moved before drawing back together. “Many tried. Neighbors, other sorcerers, family members of those he had taken captive. Even the chief of police. But the bokor, who called himself the Zombie King, was mad with power. Anyone who opposed him was added to his army.
“Using his zombies as labor, he built himself a huge stone castle and plotted to take over the world. But he made one mistake. He allowed two seemingly innocent women to trick him into taking off his talisman. Without its protection, he was vulnerable. The life force in his astral was too strong for them to kill him. But they were able to trap him, his army, and his castle halfway between Earth and the underworld.”
“Here?” Angelo whispered.
Isabelle and Lenore both nodded.
Nick stopped for a moment to catch his breath and rest his aching leg. “The two women, the ones who stopped the Zombie King. Was one of them you, Aunt Lenore? Were you a…voodoo queen?”
“I was,” Lenore said. “But not in the way you think. The chief of police was my father. When he was captured by the Zombie King, I began to study everything I could find about dark magic. That’s how I met Elisheba. I never intended to use it against anyone but the bokor, and I never did.”
“Where do you come in?” Nick asked the cat.
Isabelle wound her tail about her legs. “I was only a girl at the time my mother and your aunt trapped the Zombie King. I followed them into the swamp that night to see what they were doing. I was too young to understand the danger. When I realized what they’d done, I was so excited I jumped out from my hiding place. Unfortunately, the Zombie King had one last trick before he was sent away. With the last of his power he turned me into a cat.”
Nick rested his arm on Carter’s shoulder to take away some of the pain in his hip. The zombies were so close now that he could make out their hungry eyes and slobbering faces. “Why a cat? Why didn’t he change you into a zombie too?”
“He was too smart for that,” Isabelle hissed. “If he’d changed me into a zombie, I would have been sucked down here with the rest of his army. Instead I was left to spend the rest of my life walking around on all fours, lapping milk, and meowing. I was the perfect bargaining chip.”
“We did everything we could to turn you back.” Lenore’s voice sounded like a breeze blowing through a swamp full of hanging tree moss.
“You didn’t do enough.” Isabelle’s eyes flashed. “When my mother realized what the Zombie King had done to me, she wanted to give the amulet back right away. You wouldn’t let her. You locked it in the crypt where no one but a blood relative could ever retrieve it.”
“So you tricked me,” Nick said to Isabelle. “You made me get turned into a zombie, so you and your mother could trade me to the Zombie King for your freedom.”
“This is a really great story and all,” Carter said, “but can you get us out of here before we end up being turned into zombie chow?” He pointed to the army of undead chomping their teeth hungrily.
Lenore’s misty gray hair churned outward as she shook her head. “I am only a spirit. I have no power now.”
Nick held out the broken bottle. “But Mazoo sent me your pot tet. He must have had a reason.”
“The head jar was only intended as a way to keep my soul safe from the Zombie King. Mazoo should have released it when I died. He must have thought you needed my counsel.”
Angelo closed his notebook and glared at Isabelle. “How could you go along with something like that? How could you lead Nick into the cemetery, knowing what would happen there?”
The cat placed a paw over her eyes. “I was desperate. I knew if I didn’t do it, I’d be stuck as a cat forever.”
Nick’s stomach burned. “That’s no excuse. I’d do anything to get turned back from a zombie. But not if it meant someone else would be cursed.”
Isabelle studied him. “No one made you go into the cemetery in Louisiana. You deliberately disobeyed your parents. And you actually liked being a zombie. I watched you use your powers to scare that boy in the woods.”
Nick blinked. She was right. He had gone into the cemetery even though he knew it was wrong. He’d been thrilled to discover the amulet’s power. If it hadn’t been for his finger falling off, wouldn’t he still be using it now? Scaring kids and pulling pranks? Maybe he did deserve whatever happened to him.
“Why did you do it?” Isabelle asked suddenly.
“What?” Nick had no idea what the cat was talking about.
“Why did you put yourself in harm’s way when the statue was falling on Carter? Its weight could have destroyed you, zombie or not.”
“I don’t know,” Nick said. It was true, he hadn’t really thought about it. “I guess that’s just what friends do. Look out for each other.”
“Maybe it’s time you thought about someone other than yourself for a change,” Aunt Lenore told the cat. “It seems Mazoo was right. I am here to remind you that the selfishness of the Zombie King started all this in the first place. The only way to defeat him is by helping each other.”
Isabelle twitched her whiskers and Nick could have sworn the cat smiled. A long, low note blasted through the air. The horde of shambling creatures was almost on top of them. They only had a minute or two at most to come up with a plan.
“What do we do?” Nick asked. “How do we get away?”
“You can’t,” Lenore said. “The only way to leave the Zombie King’s realm is to destroy him. That would reverse all of his spells, including yours.”
“How do you destroy a being so powerful?” Angelo asked.
Isabelle pawed at the ground as though thinking. “There might be a way. Do you still have any of the black salt left?”
Angelo pulled the silk bag from his pocket and peered inside. “A little.”
“What do we do, throw it on him?” Nick asked. That didn’t sound too hard.
“No,” Lenore said. “All that would do is make him angry. You’ve got to put it in his mouth. Black salt on his tongue will turn him to dust.”
“That’s just great!” Nick said. “How are we supposed to do that? Sprinkle it on a serving of scrambled brains?” It seemed hopeless. “Okay, give it to me,” he said.
“No chance.” Carter stepped forward and took the bag from Angelo. “You’re a zombie too, in case you forgot. If it would turn him to dust, what do you think it would do to you? Besides, you’re in no shape to do anything.” Kneeling on the ground, he spit into the dust until it was wet enough to roll a small brown ball. He sprinkled the last of the black salt over the ball and kneaded it in.
“How are you going to get close enough to get that in his mouth?” Angelo asked, his eyebrows drawn low.
Carter shrugged. “I’m the smallest of us. No one ever suspects the little guy. But it w
ouldn’t hurt if you could provide a distraction.”
“What kind of distraction?” Angelo asked. Clearly things weren’t going the way any of his books described.
“Think of something,” Carter said. “Don’t you always brag about how smart you are?”
The zombie army was so close now that Nick could smell their rotting bodies. “What’s to keep the Zombie King from taking my amulet as soon as he sees me?”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Aunt Lenore said. “If he tries to take it from you or kill you, the amulet won’t function for him. You have to give it to him. But don’t do that. Once he has the amulet, he will never let you go and he will be free to turn the rest of the world into his own personal army of the undead.”
Before Nick could ask any more questions, cold, bony hands closed around him, Angelo, and Carter.
Nick knew he stank. But compared to the stench of the army of shambling creatures herding him and his friends up the hill to the castle, he thought he smelled like roses.
“You guys ever heard of deodorant?” Carter asked the zombie closest to him. “Not just on your pits, either. If I were you, I think I’d buy about a dozen sticks and spread them all over my body.”
The zombie turned a baleful silver eye on him, its other eye having disappeared at some point in the past. Nick was glad that at least that hadn’t happened to him. He didn’t think he could stand having Angelo sew his eyeball back in.
Angelo walked with his arms tucked close to his sides, his notebook clutched under one elbow. Nick didn’t blame him. Being a zombie himself, he shouldn’t have been as repulsed by the other undead as he was. But the thought of them touching him with their moldy bones and spongy flesh made him sick to his stomach.
Carter, on the other hand, appeared to be having a great time. “If any of you are thinking of eating my brain, don’t bother,” he called out. “I’ve been watching eight hours of TV every day since I was three. I’m sure I’ve rotted it completely away by now.” Something fluttered out of his hand and fell to the ground. Before it disappeared under the feet of the zombie masses, Nick recognized it as a Snickers wrapper. Leave it to Carter to be eating at a time like this.
Case File 13 Page 15
