Sure, it was winter in New England, it was going to be cold. But this strangeness was something more.
My friends felt it too. They stopped next to me and gazed around, Pep looking uneasy, Lark curious. As several of the people we had been talking to left the post office, they waved a cheery goodbye. Whatever the feeling pressing around us was, the folk of Shimmerfield couldn’t sense it.
I smiled automatically and said goodbye in return, but I wasn’t really paying attention to them anymore. My heart rang loudly in my ears and my palms felt sweaty.
“Are you feeling what I’m feeling?” Pep asked quietly out of the side of her mouth, as if she was worried about being overheard.
I understood why. Though there was no one standing close to us, I felt as if someone was listening in on our conversation.
The problems of living in a tiny town were numerous, including that there wasn’t much of a town to speak of. In Shimmerfield there was the post office, the general store, and a little gift shop. That was about the entirety of the main street. There were a couple of other buildings, but they weren’t commercial.
I peered into the cracks between structures to see if there was anything to account for the oppressive feeling we all sensed. As the sun sank low, the shadows were dark and getting longer by the minute. If there was a supernatural hiding somewhere nearby, there was a good chance I wouldn’t even be able to see him or her coming. Or it, if we’re being particular.
“Something is definitely wrong,” said Lark, frowning. “Is it possible that we’re about to be attacked?”
Pep turned fearful, shocked eyes on her sister. “That’s never happened before. Why would somebody attack us?”
“The Root of All Evil has changed things,” I said. We all continued to speak very softly.
I felt the shadows coming closer to each of us. The tingling up and down my spine got worse and my cousins moved closer to me so that our arms brushed against each other. Pep planted her left foot to give herself a better angle on the view stretching to her left. On my other side Lark planted her right foot to do the same in the other direction.
Now we had a complete picture of our surroundings.
“Did you notice that everyone is gone?” Pep whispered.
I looked around and realized that Pep was right. There were no townspeople anywhere in sight. What had been a bustling street a few minutes ago was now deserted. Not only that, but in the tiny space of time since we’d left it, the post office had been closed. The postmistress parked out back, so we wouldn’t see her when she left. With danger just around the corner, I hoped she was safe.
“There! I saw something,” said Lark, pointing across the street. Her voice was hoarse and for the first time she too sounded afraid.
Pep and I peered into the darkness again. “I didn’t see anything. Should we perform an enchantment?”
“Definitely not out in the open like this. We also don’t know what Lark just saw. We don’t perform any enchantments until we’re sure,” I said firmly.
“Come on,” said Lark. Now that she was on the scent she wasn’t going to be deterred.
Pep and I followed Lark across the street. The cracking pavement was light gray from years of sitting in the sun.
We ran half bent over to avoid being seen. Dusk had fallen and everything around us looked old and dull.
We had just reached the other side of the street when I saw movement. This time, we all saw it. Lark came to a dead stop, grabbed my arm, and pulled us down lower. “Did you see it that time?”
“I saw it,” I said grimly. It was clearly a vampire.
“I think we should go home. We shouldn’t be chasing after a strange supernatural by ourselves. All we were supposed to do was go to the post office,” said Pep. “And we were supposed to hurry back in case Cookie was up to something. You said so yourself, Jane.”
“We can’t go home now,” I said.
“Yeah, what if it’s the Root of All Evil? Mom and the others haven’t been able to find them. At this point they could be anywhere, including downtown Shimmerfield,” said Lark.
I didn’t want to say it, but that would be just like Mirrorz. He loved trickery and he had always loved Shimmerfield. To combine the two would be the ultimate win for him.
“They’ve found a few of the Root, but none of them were near here,” I said.
“What if they haven’t found them anywhere else because the Root never left Shimmerfield? What if this is their headquarters and they’ve been here all along?” whispered Lark.
Chapter Eleven
Pep and I didn’t like Lark’s theory, but we couldn’t tell her she was wrong because there was a good chance she wasn’t, so we just kept quiet and crept forward as slowly as possible. Luckily, the grass provided some padding for our feet and we were able to move along without making a sound.
Lark stayed in front. Pep went in the middle because she was too terrified to act as lookout. I brought up the rear, looking over my shoulder every couple of steps.
It didn’t take us long to figure out what we had seen moving: there were at least four vampires around on the other side of the small buildings.
When we reached the nearest house, we crept along the sidewalk, hoping to take up a position in the back of the building in order to see what the vampires were doing, while not being seen by them.
We squished in together and made ourselves part of the shadows.
“I can’t see anything,” complained Lark when we came to a halt at a corner spot from which we should still be able to see the vampires.
Pep braced her back against the wall of the old house. The siding was in desperate need of a paint job, but I told myself to ignore irrelevant details and focus on what was going on around us.
Pep covered her face with her hands and started muttering words about being just a shop clerk. Given that she was speaking quietly enough that only her sister and I could hear, we didn’t tell her to be quiet. Also, it was kind of funny.
But I did slide past her to get a better look at what Lark was seeing.
Behind the row of houses was an open field that was often used for local events, sometimes a potluck supper, sometimes a soccer game. Either way it was just an empty expanse, the closest thing Shimmerfield had to a town green. Shimmerfield didn’t have enough of a bustling downtown to deserve a real town green, but it certainly did have a whole lot space.
At the moment, I viewed the innocent expanse as a battlefield: a place of danger.
What I saw across the green made me stop and stare. Lark noticed my expression and looked where I was looking. When her eyes found what mine had, she gasped. Audibly.
Pep ceased her whispering. “Are we all going to die? Is it that bad?”
“We aren’t going to die. It’s pretty bad, though,” said Lark firmly.
We continued to stay still and just watch. There were no further signs of the vampires that had been moving across the green, but that didn’t give me much comfort now. It meant that they had disappeared and could be anywhere.
In front of us, across the green, was an old, dilapidated house that had once been painted a beautiful and vibrant purple. Now the paint was peeling, leaving splotches of gray interspersed with the original color.
I exchanged cloudy looks with my friends. “This is really bad,” said Pep. Then she ducked behind her hands again.
There were no lights on in the abandoned house and the whole place looked like a mess. Out front were a number of discarded items. A window in the second floor was broken. The green trim had been in need of a touch-up twenty years ago.
“The Old Bucket House,” said Lark.
She was staring at the house as if she couldn’t believe it. All this time we had wondered where the Root of All Evil had gone, and now we knew.
They hadn’t gone anywhere. They had simply moved to another part of Shimmerfield.
I guess it was only to be expected. Still, it was very, very bad for us witches.
“Do you think that’s where the vampires went?” I asked.
“It has to be. They were here just a minute ago,” said Lark.
“Under no circumstances should you say what you are about to say,” said Pep, through the palms of her hands.
“What could you possibly think I was going to say?” I asked.
“You want to go investigate. I know you do. You want to see if the Root of All Evil is really in the house,” said Pep.
“Now that you mention it, I think that’s an excellent idea,” said Lark.
Pep groaned. “I’m not going with you. Somebody has to live to tell the tale. We need witnesses.”
“We don’t want you to come with us if you’re just going to make noise and get caught,” said Lark.
I bit my lip, deep in thought. “It would be better if it was daytime.”
“So it’s easier for us to get caught?” asked Lark in confusion.
“No, all the supernaturals are more likely to be asleep in daylight. Especially the vampires. Even if they were awake during the day, they’d probably be in the basement,” I said.
“But we saw the vampires just now. I don’t think we should wait,” said Lark.
I was about to agree with her. It was just too tempting. Pep would be furious, but hopefully she’d get over it. Eventually. Maybe in five years or so.
“What’s that?” Lark asked.
Running across the green was a small, low-to-the-ground streak, moving very quickly. Maybe I was so shocked because it had been a few minutes since I had seen anything move in Shimmerfield. But I didn’t think so.
“That’s a cat. We know her,” said Pep, peering through her fingers again.
“So you are keeping an eye on things?” said Lark.
“When I’m with the two of you, yes, always,” said Pep.
“Good to know,” muttered Lark.
“What is she doing here?” I wondered, meaning the cat.
“If we’re at all lucky or a supernatural God exists, she’s here to make us come home,” said Pep, sounding desperate and hopeful at the same time.
Just then Rose reached us. She was dressed in a full green suit, complete with a green felt hat. As she had run across the grass she had been hard to spot, because she just blended in. She needed a minute to catch her breath. Not even her tail swayed.
“I wasn’t sure I’d reach you in time,” Rose said at last
“In time for what?” I said.
“Cookie sent me. The mansion is under attack,” said Rose.
The first thing out of my mouth was, “Is Grant there?”
“Of course that’s what you want to know,” said Lark.
“He is His Majesty of Magic. If anyone needs to be there, it’s him,” I shot back.
“I’ll explain everything as soon as we’re on our way. There’s no time to waste,” said Rose.
“Cookie sent you to get us?” Lark asked.
“She definitely did. She knew exactly where you’d be,” said Rose.
“Let’s go,” said Pep. She uncovered her face, stood up, scooped up Rose, and took off in the direction of the car. We just so happened to have parked in the exact opposite direction of the dilapidated Old Bucket House.
Lark and I followed right on Pep’s heels. An attack on the mansion was more important than anything else.
As I drove us home through the darkening evening, my mind was racing. Maybe somebody was watching Haunted Bluff and had seen us leave. Maybe Down Below had finally tired of trying to instigate a riot and started an open fight. Either way, we had to get home in a hurry.
I just hoped everything was okay when we arrived. I couldn’t stand the idea of being too late.
“Can’t you tell us anything?” Lark asked Rose.
“I don’t know anything. She sent me away too suddenly. She just said I had to find you three and bring you back as fast as possible, that it was a matter of life and death,” said Rose.
“So how long did it take you to run here?” I asked. It was pretty far from the mansion to town.
“Cookie performed an enchantment. She sent me somewhere nearby and I ran the rest of the way. She knew you were going to the post office, but given how long it was taking you to come home, she didn’t think you’d still be there. She thought you might be on the green,” Rose explained. She had finally gotten her breath back and seemed awfully calm about the whole thing.
Rose he was comfortably curled in Pep’s lap, and for the first time in the last hour Pep wasn’t irritated or afraid. She was delighted to be going home, no matter what we were going to find there. This way she didn’t have to kill us after The Root of All Evil already had. It was nice when stuff worked out like that.
It didn’t take long to get home, mostly because I was speeding. Rose thought I was driving too fast, but I didn’t care.
The car had barely come to a stop in the long gravel driveway when we all jumped out and raced toward the front door together. Without a second thought I shoved the front door open.
“Cookie? Mom? Anyone?” I yelled.
“Maybe something has already gone horribly wrong,” said Pep.
“This is what we get for being curious,” said Lark.
“Why are you saying what I would normally say?” Pep asked.
“I thought I’d head you off,” said Lark.
Pep rolled her eyes.
Fear and anger coursed through me when I saw that there were no lights on in the haunted house. We never should have left! We shouldn’t have been so curious about random vampires! Why hadn’t we just come directly home, as I had meant to do in the first place?
I glanced at Rose. She merely looked at me in return.
“We stick together. We find everyone. Now,” I said.
The four of us immediately started heading in different directions. But before we got out of the foyer I stopped, as did everyone else. We looked at each other going in different directions and I repeated myself.
“We stick together. Everyone follow me. This way,” I said, and headed for the kitchen. If there was information to be found as to what had happened to our family, it would be there.
A gentle glow shone from underneath the kitchen door. Maybe when Audrey had been kidnapped, she had left something cooking. Now it was probably burning.
As usual, though, the hallway outside the kitchen smelled delicious.
Normally I would have stopped to say hi to Steve the skeleton in his cupboard, but there was no time now. If my family wasn’t there, we could retrace our steps and speak with him on our way out.
Fearing the worst, I shoved the kitchen door open.
And there was my family playing cards.
Chapter Twelve
Scratch that, former family.
I decided right then and there to disown them.
The four of us stood, open-mouthed, except for Rose, who started to sneak through our feet to get into the kitchen.
She was a cat. She didn’t need a distraction to be sneaky, but she sure wasn’t going to waste one.
Audrey was wise to her ways, though. Audrey hated cats. “Do not take another step further, furball,” she said through gritted teeth.
Audrey was sitting at the end of the island, glaring at Rose. The cat had come level with my ankle, but now she stopped. Cat and cook stared at each other. A battle for the ages.
Never breaking eye contact, Rose started to back away slowly
A defeat but not a loss.
“I thought there was an emergency! What do you all think you’re doing?” I demanded, bracing my hands on my hips.
Cookie was sitting across from me on the island. “I merely told Rose to fetch you. I told her you had to hurry. I never told her to tell you that anything was wrong. The only thing wrong is that your mother cheats at cards,” she said, glaring at my mom.
My mom protested that she did not, pulling her cards closer to her chest as she did so.
I threw up my hands. “We were in town! We rushed back for no
good reason.”
I thought of all the good spying we had just wasted.
This family was driving me to distraction!
“You call seeing your family not a good reason?” my mom asked.
I sputtered uselessly while my family kept playing cards.
“We had a lot to do. There was a murder at Edmund’s that we have to investigate,” I finally managed to say through the anger.
“You’re going back there tomorrow, right?” said Cookie.
I nodded once. Anything more and my head would have fallen off. “After I speak with Jefferson Judge. I thought that was happening this evening, but maybe now I’ll have to wait till tomorrow,” I said.
“No, he responded to your letter. You’re to meet him outside whenever you get home tonight. He’s going to come through the storm door,” said Cookie.
“Now you’re reading my mail?” I said.
“Of course. Don’t be naïve. I’ve been doing it for years,” said Cookie.
“I would hate to be naïve,” I muttered. “Next time don’t send Rose for me unless there are monsters at the gates who DON’T already live here.”
“I’ll send her for you if I want to. I think it’s a rather good thing that I did. You were taking altogether too long,” she said.
She fixed her sagging eyes on me over her large and ugly nose, looking unimpressed. I wondered if she knew more than she was letting on about why we had stayed in town. No one else in the family caught the look that passed between us.
“I’m too old to be told what to do,” she added.
“When did that start?” Lark asked dryly.
“When I was at the ripe old age of nineteen,” said Cookie sagely.
Everyone rolled their eyes at that.
“I for one am very happy to be home. I am also happy that there isn’t an emergency here. Unlike these two ladies, I don’t enjoy fighting with the Root of All Evil,” said Pep.
“Good for you. One hundred on your quiz. Don’t come back tomorrow,” griped Lark, also unhappy with the deception.
“If you don’t mind, we were in the middle of a card game,” said Meg. “You’re cramping our style. It’s bad enough that as grown women we have to live with our grown children, but now you’re coming into the kitchen and telling us what should be happening this evening. We are very happy playing cards without being mothered,” said Meg.
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