The Evil Lives! (11 page)

Jane and Sarah didn't look back. The carriage moved steadily down a tree-lined drive.

Amanda pushed herself to run faster. Her chest began to ache and she felt a stitch in her side. Keep going, she told herself. I can catch it. It's not going that fast.

Gasping for breath, darkness swept around Amanda.

That's weird, she thought. It's morning. It's sunny. It can't be getting dark.

She blinked hard and shook her head. The darkness grew around her. Thick and inky, it blotted out her side vision until she felt as if she were peering down a long tunnel. At the end was the carriage, rolling along in a patch of sunlight.

The darkness closed in. Amanda felt a warm current of air surround her. The same warmth she'd felt in Sarah's grave.

Ahead of her, the carriage grew dim and hazy. Amanda couldn't hear her feet pounding anymore. Couldn't see the carriage at all now.

What is happening to me?

As the inky darkness swallowed her up, Amanda screamed in panic.

• • •

Still surrounded by darkness, Amanda felt the earth pitch and roll underneath her. She tried to keep running, but staggered to the side. The pitching, rolling motion continued. Amanda planted her feet apart and held her arms out to keep from falling.

The warm air retreated. A stiff, cold wind whipped through her hair. Drops of water pelted her face. Amanda licked her lips. The water tasted salty.

A man's voice spoke close to Amanda's ear. “We're in for it now,” he declared anxiously.

“In for what?” Amanda asked.

The man didn't reply.

“In for what?” Amanda repeated, raising her voice. “What's wrong? Can't you hear me?”

Still no reply.

A gust of wind plastered her hair across Amanda's eyes. Frustrated, she peeled it away.

With a gasp, she realized that the darkness had lifted and she could see.

She stood on the deck of a large ship, surrounded by women in long dresses and men wearing straw hats and old-fashioned suits. Most of them stood at the railings, staring down in fear at the surging waves below.

The ship rose on a swell of slate-gray water, hung
there for a moment, then plunged into a trough between two waves. Amanda's stomach plunged with it. Cold water swept across the deck, swirling and frothing around her ankles.

Women screamed and hitched up their skirts. Men's hats blew off their heads and spun through the air, disappearing into the chilly mist.

The man standing next to Amanda held on to his hat with one hand and stuck his other arm out for balance. “We're in for it now!” he shouted again. He seemed to be staring at her, but she realized he didn't see her at all.

It's just like before, she thought. I'm invisible to these people.

The ship rose again, climbing the wave slowly, like a roller coaster on the first big hill. Amanda steadied herself for the plunge. But when it came, she couldn't keep her balance. She staggered across the deck and slammed into the railing.

Her stomach churning like the waves, Amanda held on to the slick railing and tried to prepare for the next roller-coaster ride. She felt too sick and cold to worry about where she was or how she'd get out of it.

The next wave came and the ship slammed down. But when it landed this time, it landed at a tilt.

People screamed again, lurching across the sloping deck and crashing into the railing.

“We're capsizing!” someone shouted. “We're going to go down! Get the lifeboats!”

“It's too late!” someone else called out.

“Nooo!” a woman's voice screamed. “It can't be too late. It can't be!”

At the sound of the woman's voice, Amanda turned.

Sarah Burns stood next to her, braced against the railing on the high side of the ship.

She's on her way to London, Amanda realized. Heading across the ocean to a new life as Jane Hardy.

Sarah's hair had come down and blew around her head in wet, tangled strings. Her green eyes flashed with fear and frustration.

“Where's the captain?” she shouted angrily. “What is he doing? Can't he save his own ship?”

“He's trying,” a man screamed back. “He can't fight the ocean. It's too strong!”

The ship tilted farther to the side. A wave rose up and crashed to the deck.

Amanda clung to the railing, gasping and terrified.

Beside her, Sarah screamed again. “I'm not supposed to die now! How can this be my fate? I'm supposed to be on my honeymoon with Thomas Fear!”

No one paid any attention to her. Their screams almost drowned out her words as they tried to climb to the high side of the ship, away from the churning ocean.

“Why?” Sarah lifted a fist and shouted to the sky. “Why did I trade places with Jane, only to die in her place?”

Another wave swept over the deck. Men and women struggled to hold on. But the force of the wave washed them into the ocean like rag dolls.

A shudder passed through the ship. It tilted again, until it lay on its side. People fell screaming into the ocean.

Amanda crashed to her knees, clinging to the railing. But she could feel her fingers growing numb. I can't hold on much longer! she thought desperately. Please let this be a nightmare! Please let me wake up now!

The ship began to nose downward. Water rushed over the bow, slamming into Amanda with so much force it knocked her legs sideways. She could see Sarah next to her, struggling to hold on too.

But the ocean was too strong. The next wave pried Amanda's hands from the rail and swept her off the deck.

As the icy water closed over her head, Amanda saw Sarah thrashing next to her, her long skirt tangled around her legs.

“This isn't fair!” Sarah shouted.

But we're underwater, Amanda thought. Her mouth is closed. How can I possibly be hearing her?

“I'm going to die! But this is Jane's fate, not mine!” Sarah's words were clear and loud as she struggled in the churning water.

It's her thoughts, Amanda suddenly realized. I can hear what she's thinking.

“It shouldn't be me!” Sarah screamed again. “It should be Jane who drowns, not me!”

The fear had disappeared from Sarah's voice. All Amanda heard now was anger. It burned in her eyes and twisted her face into a hideous mask of fury.

“It's not fair!” Sarah screamed. “Not fair. Not fair! Not . . .” Her voice suddenly stopped.

She whipped her head back and forth, trying desperately not to breathe.

But her lips parted.

Her eyes widened.

Her body thrashed crazily for a few moments. Then it went limp, and a stream of bubbles drifted from her mouth.

Dead, Amanda thought. She floated easily under the water, staring at Sarah's body as the motion of the waves rolled it over and over. She's dead.

Sarah's body rolled again, turning on its back. Her eyes were still open.

And still filled with rage.

A vicious, white-hot rage that Amanda could almost feel.

I
do
feel it! Amanda suddenly realized. Sarah is dead, but I can still feel her anger. It's pouring out of her eyes. It's turning the water hot.

The water began to churn and bubble. Amanda felt its heat sizzle on her skin as it grew hotter and hotter.

It's boiling!

Sarah's anger is so powerful, it's boiling the water.

As the heat grew stronger, Amanda suddenly noticed the smell. A foul, putrid odor that reeked of death.

She stared at Sarah and gasped.

A green, snakelike liquid was pouring from the dead woman's mouth.

Thick and reeking, the horrible stuff kept twisting up from between Sarah's lips like a giant snake.

Amanda shuddered with terror.

It's Sarah's rage. I can feel it inside the green form. Pulsing. Throbbing with life.

With hate.

With revenge.

As the green form kept rising, it reared up like a cobra, hovering over Amanda's head.

And then it began to spread, turning the boiling water green.

Filling the water with its hatred.

Pouring out of Sarah's corpse. Surrounding Amanda with its evil, undying rage.

Evil, Amanda realized in horror.

It's the Evil!

A
manda opened her eyes to darkness.

Sarah's body no longer floated in front of her. The horrible green liquid that poured from her mouth had disappeared. Amanda couldn't feel Sarah's rage now.

Was the Evil gone?

“Amanda?” an anxious voice called out.

Dustin's voice.

“Come on, get up!” he urged.

“She can't get up!” Janine's voice snapped. “Didn't you see her fall? She must have hit her head and blacked out. Amanda, are you okay?”

The darkness began to fade. The warmth disappeared. Amanda shivered and began to sit up.

Cold water streamed from her hair and ran down her neck. She shivered again and glanced around.

Walls of dirt rose on all sides of her. Moist, smelly earth lay in clumps in the wooden box she sat in.

The box!

Amanda shuddered as the memory came rushing back. I fell into Sarah Fear's grave. I'm sitting in her coffin!

She glanced up. Janine and Dustin hung over the edge of the grave, worried expressions on their faces. “Can you stand?” Janine asked.

“Yes!” Amanda scrambled to her feet, frantic to get out of the grave. Her jeans and sweatshirt were drenched. She felt chilled to the bone.

And the water that trickled over her lips tasted salty.

Ocean water.

It wasn't a dream! she realized with a shudder. I really did go back through time.

I saw the birth of the Evil!

Terrified at the memory, Amanda stood on tiptoe and stretched her arms high above her head. “Please! Get me out of here!”

Her fingertips brushed Janine's, then Dustin's. Finally, Dustin inched himself farther over the lip of the grave and managed to catch hold of her wrist.

As Dustin pulled, Amanda jammed the toes of one sneaker into a muddy wall and rose up a little higher. Janine caught her other wrist. Together, she and Dustin pulled Amanda from the grave of Sarah Fear.

Amanda stumbled out and sank to her knees, panting with relief.

“Are you all right?” Janine asked.

“No.” Amanda's teeth chattered. She couldn't stop shaking. “I'm not all right.”

“You hit your head, didn't you? I'll take you to the hospital,” Janine declared. “You might have a concussion.”

“I don't,” Amanda insisted. “I didn't hit my head. Something happened to me, but not that.”

“Well, what?” Dustin asked.

Amanda caught her breath and stood up. “I traveled back in time.”

“Huh?” Janine frowned at her. “Whoa!”

“It really happened!” Amanda insisted. “There's something supernatural about that grave. When I fell into it, something—some force—pulled me back in time. And now I know what happened. I know how the Evil was born.”

Dustin raised his eyebrows. “What evil?”

“Sarah Fear's Evil,” Amanda replied, pointing to the grave.

Suddenly Amanda realized something. Something horrible. “But this isn't really Sarah's grave. Sarah drowned—she never lived in Shadyside with Thomas Fear. This grave . . . it must be
Jane's
grave.”

Janine frowned again. “Amanda, you're babbling.”

“Listen to me!” Amanda cried. “When I went back in time, I saw Sarah Fear. Only she wasn't married yet—her name was Sarah Burns. And she never became Sarah Fear. She switched identities with her friend, Jane Hardy.”

“Amanda—” Dustin cut in.

“Don't you get it?” Amanda cried.
“Jane
came to Shadyside and married Thomas Fear. She pretended her name was Sarah. But the real Sarah sailed for London. Only she never made it. Her ship went down and she drowned.”

Janine and Dustin stared at her, astonishment in their eyes. “That's enough, Amanda,” Dustin declared. “Stop this crazy talk.”

“I'm telling the truth,” Amanda insisted. “I was right there. I saw Sarah drown. And she was so furious! It was horrible. Terrifying. Even after she died, the fury just kept pouring out of her. I could actually see it and feel it! She was dead, but it was alive. And it was the Evil!”

“Amanda, you were only in the grave for a few seconds,” Janine told her. “You must have blacked out and had some kind of nightmare or something.”

“Look at me!” Amanda shouted, grabbing her hair and wringing the water from it. “I'm soaking wet. How do you think I got that way?”

Dustin shrugged. “There's water down in the grave.”

“No. I was in the ocean,” Amanda insisted. “I saw the Evil being born.” She paused, frustrated. They don't believe me. Do they think I'm lying? Or crazy?

She glanced at the grave. “Okay, if you don't believe me about the time travel, look at the grave. It's empty. So is the coffin. How do you explain that?” she demanded. “What happened to this grave?”