Midnight Ruling (21 page)

Phoebe and I stepped lightly through the blinding leaves, but neither of us replied.

I was glad that we weren’t running, because sometimes it felt like anything and everything jumped out at you when in a full-out sprint.

Since Phoebe was in the lead, I was going to offer her my stick, but she was too focused and waved my hand away. Her head was tilted down as she listened. The ground squished, and moisture soaked through my socks.

The sky was growing darker, like the sun was going down behind the clouds. If it became full dark, we wouldn’t be able to tell what was at our feet. In a Challenge called Snakes, I kind of wanted to see.

Phoebe halted and distracted me from my thoughts.

I glanced behind to find that the tiger had disappeared, or maybe she was waiting for us at the pathway.

In front of us was a small clearing of trees.

Phoebe hopped over a fallen log with the grace only long legs could provide. I, however, had to crawl over it. The bark had peeled off, leaving a smooth surface. The hop stretched the claw marks on my back, and I felt the flimsy new scab tear. I needed to watch myself; I couldn’t take too many injuries this early.

Phoebe panted and said softly, “He should be
here
.”

“Why?” I asked.

She glared as if I were wasting her time. Old Phoebe hadn’t always been this grumpy. I shrugged at her and raised my eyebrows in question. She shrugged in return as if to say she didn’t know why he should be here. Instincts were funny sometimes.

She turned her head and said in a level voice just above a whisper, “Where is he?”

“Are you two blind?!” said a desperate, hoarse voice that choked out.

Phoebe and I both jumped and looked to our left to see Cody Lewis.

His bleach blond hair stuck in all directions. His light brown eyes were wide, practically bulging, and his pale, freckled features were turning scarlet. Vines wrapped around him, constricting and trapping him to the tree. He held very still, his mouth opening and closing for air like a fish out of water.

“Hold on, Cody.” I held up my hands as if that could keep him calm and looked back and forth in a futile attempt to find something sturdy enough to pry him loose.

“We need something sharp,” Phoebe said. “What I wouldn’t give for a butcher’s knife right now.”

I nodded in agreement, but after a brief scouring of the tree line, I realized we were running out of options and Cody was running out of oxygen. I heard his struggled breath just in time to see the vines tightening, as if muscle twitched beneath the green flesh. The vines squeezed tighter with each breath he attempted.

Phoebe looked up the tree.

I followed her gaze to see the vine wrapped all the way up and disappearing in the leaves.

Phoebe moved first. She grabbed one of the vines that were as thick as my arm and tried to pull.

Dropping the stick, I rushed to her side and tried to help. We dug our fingernails into the green constrictor and pulled together. Green liquid coated my fingertips, like blood.

Pulling, we leaned back, grunting. I felt something loosen, but just a little.

“Hold it there,” I said, coming up with an idea. I let go of the vine, leaving Phoebe with the work.

“Fuller,” she warned through gritted teeth. The vine began to slide back into place. Phoebe’s face looked strained and red.

I looked for the stick I’d dropped, hoping to use it as leverage.

As I grabbed the stick, movement streaked out of the corner of my eye.

Shrieking, I jumped back in time to see at the large snake vibrating its tongue. The broad head bobbed between fronds as it took in my scent from the ground. The multi-colored dark brown and black patterns camouflaged the long, wide body.

“Fuller!” Phoebe whispered.

Having retrieved the stick, I adjusted my grip and decided to ignore the snake. Moving away, I was grateful not to feel a bite.

Focusing my efforts, I shoved the stick between the thick vines.

“What the hell?” Phoebe asked as I grabbed the stick and pulled back. Following my lead, Phoebe grabbed it, and we pulled. The stick bent but, miraculously, didn’t break.

The vines shifted reluctantly. I watched muscles beneath green skin quiver in resistance all the way up the tree, shuddering the leaves above us. We pulled it back just enough to hear Cody’s staggeringly deep breath.

Despite that plus, he wasn’t looking too good. His eyelids were drooping, his head was bobbing as if it was hard to keep upright, and his face was still red.

“We need something else…” I began when Phoebe screamed.

I jumped back in time to see a snake charge from under nearby fronds.

It didn’t strike, but it moved fast enough to let me know I was no match for its reflexes. The dark, thick snake stopped several feet from us, coiling and hissing. It separated us from Cody, but the stick allowed him some room to breathe, though not for long.

“Fuller, get away. Get behind me.” Phoebe barely moved her lips. Her eyes never flickered to me as she held out a hand as if to keep me back.

I did as I was told. “We can’t just stop.” I glanced at Cody.

“That snake is poisonous,” Phoebe said stiffly. “It’s a cottonmouth.”

She didn’t have to explain much beyond that. I was aware of cottonmouth snakes. They weren’t in Leland itself, but there were always stories from outside town. Some of the older residents called them water moccasins.

Phoebe’s tenor continued through clenched teeth. “We have to back away, slowly.”

“But Cody…”

“Do it!” Phoebe demanded and pushed back against me.

I shifted with her, ducking beneath the suffocatingly thick leaves above our heads.

“Sorry, Cody,” Phoebe said just before ripping the stick free from the vines. They snapped back in place, and I heard a whoosh of breath.

“He can’t breathe.” My whisper shook with apprehension.

Phoebe raised the stick, her body poised and tensed.

I heard a crack beside us. To my horror, I was certain it was Cody. Was that his bones? I felt ill as I realized he couldn’t even shout in pain.

I reached out to grab Phoebe to pull her back, but it was too late.

The snake’s white mouth was a shocking contrast to its dark body as it shot forward.

I screamed and grabbed my friend to jerk her backwards.

She slammed into me, off balance. Crying out, we toppled to the ground, away from the serpent.

Landing in the soft moss, we gasped in a breath as the snake recoiled. The forked-tongue fluttered like a flag in a hurricane.

I heard a whimper, and it took several seconds to realize it was me. Phoebe was struggling to her feet. She grabbed the vines that trapped our friend to the tree as the snake struck again. Its long fangs pierced the vines, missing Phoebe by a millimeter.

I backed away on the ground, grabbing the leaves around me to help me stand. They were useless in my endeavor, and I forced myself to use my wobbly legs.

As the snake struggled to free itself from the muscled greens, Phoebe darted behind the tree.

The snake reared back its head, angry yellow eyes narrowing on me. I noticed a series of red veins within the constricting vine behind its weaving head. The veins webbed outward from the bite mark like a rapidly spreading virus.

I caught sight of Cody’s face and froze. His bloodshot eyes were rolling up.

“Phoebe?” I asked as the snake hissed, revealing intimidating fangs.

I half expected them to be dripping with poison. Thankfully, they weren’t.

Phoebe darted out from behind the tree, having circled it while the snake was distracted. She raised the stick and brought it down hard.

The impact made the snake spasm, but it didn’t kill it. Phoebe kept it pinned as it wriggled in sharp twists, struggling to get free.

Raising her foot in her crouched position, Phoebe stomped on the broad head. The sickening wet crack was our morbid trumpet of success.

One last wiggle shot through the slithering body before it went still.

Phoebe and I glanced reluctantly toward our unconscious friend. At least I hoped he was unconscious.

Cody wasn’t breathing anymore.

Please, don’t be dead
, I thought, tugging at Cody’s weakening restraints.

Warmth swirled in my stomach, and I tried to keep it down. It was what Damien wanted, wasn’t it? When he made me emotional in the last Challenge, when he kissed me. It was all because of this.

I focused my attention on the vine. It flaked and bubbled like a sunburn and blushed around the snake’s puncture wound. It loosened at our tugs, emitting an unearthly groan that repeated up the length of the tree. The snake’s venom must have poisoned it like any other living thing.

Following my lead, Phoebe sank her nails into the vines and yanked. The green blood had turned orange against our fingers.

With frenzied persistence, we tore at the withering plant until we freed Cody’s upper body. He flopped forward, bowed, his legs still trapped.

I felt a sweeping hope when Phoebe dropped to her knees. “Catch him, Fuller.”

We freed his legs with four quick pulls, and then Cody’s body was unrestrained.

Cody was at least a head taller than me. His dead weight hit me harder than I was ready for. I fell to my knees, back arched and muscles strained, until Phoebe could help.

Together, we laid him on his back in the moss.

I had to give Phoebe credit for not freaking out, because I was. Cody’s lips were blue, and vessels in his eyes had popped, making him appear ghoulish. He couldn’t die like this. We were here.

Phoebe tilted his head back, reaching into his mouth to make sure his tongue wasn’t choking him. She did everything to the book, and in my state I focused on what she did to stop my own swell of hysteria.

He isn’t dead yet. He isn’t dead yet
, I repeated, focusing on the mantra.

Phoebe plugged his nose and pressed her mouth to his. I watched his chest rise with her first breath and began to curl up, hugging my knees to my chest.

Chest compressions came next while Phoebe counted out loud. Cody’s body jolted with each chest compression, making me feel inutile and sick to my stomach. Neither of us could look away. I bit into my kneecap. The pain in my back wasn’t distracting enough.

He wasn’t moving or responding to her mouth to mouth.

Blinking back tears, I peeled my teeth from my knee and wiped away the saliva. “Do the chest compressions again,” I whispered.

She glared at me. “You want Cody with broken ribs?”

“You want him dead?” I accused, my voice rising.

“He’s dead already if he can’t run,” Phoebe snapped back.

Phoebe was back to mouth to mouth, and I refrained from asking her what I could do. I knew that if there was something, she’d tell me.

Instead, I reached for Cody’s wrist and felt for a pulse. I’d never checked another person before. It took me several tries to find the dull beat beneath my orange-stained fingertips.

Phoebe lifted her face to try chest compressions again, looking green, when we heard the painful gasp. His eyes wide and frightened, Cody took another breath, which wasn’t as harsh as the first.

Phoebe sat back on her legs, looking exhausted but relieved.

“Thank goodness,” I said, trying to get her to look at me, but she was entranced by Cody’s struggle for another noisy, wet breath.

Rolling onto his side, facing me but not looking at me, Cody wheezed, “Thanks.”

Phoebe swallowed. “You’re welcome, buddy.” She patted him on the back. Her hand made a sucking sound on his sweat-drenched shirt. A blue shirt that wasn’t the same as the one I’d seen him in last.

Wiping at my face, I felt the strained smile. Cody wasn’t dead. I looked to Phoebe, catching her eye, and mouthed, “
Thank you
.”

She winked at me, looking tired and pale.

Cody tried to sit up, but his arm went limp, and he grimaced.

“Did you break it?” I asked, remembering the crack.

He shook his head. “No, it’s just sore, hard to move.”

“Did you dislocate it?” Phoebe shuffled to his side and mechanically felt his shoulder with nimble fingers.

He shook his head again, but Phoebe wasn’t paying attention. “Nope,” she concluded. “Does this hurt?” She raised his arm, and he winced.

“I’m okay,” he assured her, though Phoebe wasn’t satisfied.

I was the first to stand on shaky legs. “How did you get out of the shadow, Cody?”

In the previous Challenge, Aidan had lost Cody to a shadow creature while I was busy puking my guts out in front of Damien.

Cody licked chapped lips and said, sounding like an old man, “I woke up here. Found a door but…locked.”

“We got it open,” Phoebe said, eyeing his shoulder.

Cody used his head to motion in the opposite direction. “There’s a meadow over there.” After shaking his head, he said, “I hate snakes.”

Phoebe and I helped him to his feet. Stumbling between us at first, he was able to catch his bearings, and he rotated his sore shoulder.

“Watch the ground,” Phoebe instructed as we made our way toward the door.

“And the trees,” Cody advised.

I looked up uneasily. Vines wrapped around all of them in the thick vegetation. I squeezed my shoulders in when I nearly brushed up against a tree.

I heard the hissing of snakes all around us, but they didn’t emerge from the dark underbrush.

The opened black door came into view at last, and Cody shuddered with relief. “Have you guys found Robin?”

Phoebe and I shook our heads at the same time.

Robin was Cody’s girlfriend. I was assuming, if my dreams were all true, that Phoebe lost Robin just like I’d lost her in the first Challenge.

Stepping through the door, I shut it with a firm tug and latched it back in place.

“At least we didn’t have to
run
through the door,” I said, trying to sound positive.

Phoebe nodded, somewhat distracted. Her yellow eyebrows furrowed before she asked, “Where’s your pet, Fuller?”

“She’s not here.”

I live for the obvious.