The Secret Path (6 page)

Adam hesitated. “You really think I'm cute?”

“Yes. But don't let it go to your head.” She paused. “Don't you think I'm cute?”

Adam shrugged. “Well, yes, I suppose. You look all right.”

Sally socked him. “All right? I look all right? Brother, you have a thing or two to learn about insecure females.” She took his hand. “Let's do this quick before I lose my nerve.”

Adam could feel her trembling. “You are scared, aren't you?”

Sally nodded. “I'm terrified.”

Adam nodded. “So am I.” He tightened his grip on Watch's glasses. “But we've got to try. Our friend could be in danger.”

“You sound like a hero on a movie of the week,” Sally said.

“I've been called worse.”

Together they walked to the entrance of the cemetery. Then, still holding hands, they began to walk backward toward the tombstone. It was difficult because they had to keep glancing over their shoulders to keep from stumbling. Adam found, as they neared the grave, that his heart was pounding wildly. The sky seemed to dim more. Out the corner of his eye, he thought he saw red light flicker in the tower of Ann Templeton. He believed he saw her image beckoning him. Laughing at him.

The tombstone rose up behind them.

The wind stirred. Dust flew. Blinding them.

“Adam!” Sally cried suddenly.

Adam felt himself stumble. No, it was more as if he'd tripped and fallen off a cliff. An invisible precipice at the edge of the world. The earth disappeared beneath his feet; the sky
ceased to exist. He fell without moving. He continued to grip Sally's hand, although she could have been a million light-years away for all he could see of her. In fact, he could see nothing, not even the dark storm that lifted him up as swiftly as it threw him down. Dropping him in another time, in another dimension.

T
he tombstone stood before them. In a dark and dreary place.

“We've been turned around,” Sally whispered, standing beside Adam, still holding his hand.

“We've been more than turned around,” Adam whispered back.

He was right—boy, was he right. The sky was not completely dark, but washed by a faint red glow. It was as if the haunting light of Ann Templeton's tower had spread from horizon to
horizon. The trees were now totally bare, sharp sticks waiting to scratch whoever walked by. All around them the tombstones were toppled and broken, covered with spiderwebs and dust. Many had fallen, it seemed, because the bodies they marked had dug themselves out from under the ground. Adam shuddered as he saw how many broken and splintered coffins were scattered about the cemetery. In the distance, in the direction of the castle, they heard screams, the cries of the doomed.

“We have to get out of here!” Sally cried. “Let's go back through the tombstone.”

“What about Watch?” Adam asked.

“If he's here, it's probably too late for him.” They heard another scream and Sally jerked Adam's hand. “Quick, let's go! Before something dead eats us!”

Once more they approached the tombstone walking backward. But this time they just bumped up against the marble. It was solid, no longer a portal into another dimension. They were trapped.

“What's wrong?” Sally cried.

“It's not working,” Adam said.

“I know that, but why isn't it working?”

“I don't know. I just got here from Kansas City, remember.” Another cry sounded from the direction of the castle. Off to their left, in the corner of the cemetery, something stirred beneath the ground, scattering dirt and dead leaves. It could have been another corpse clawing its way to the surface. They didn't wait to find out.

“Let's get out of here!” Sally cried.

They ran for the entrance, which was now only a heap of rusted metal. Exiting the cemetery, they caught sight of the sea, far below. Only it no longer looked as if it were filled with water. The ocean glowed an eerie green, like liquid that had gushed from radioactive mines. A mysterious fog hung over it, whirling in tiny cyclones. Even from a distance Adam believed he saw shapes moving beneath the surface. Hungry aquatic creatures. He and Sally paused to catch their breaths.

“This is worse than
The Twilight Zone”
he muttered.

“I want to go to my house,” Sally said.

“Do we really want to go there?” Adam wondered aloud. “What will we find?”

Sally nodded in understanding. “Maybe we'll find this creepy dimension's counterpart of ourselves.”

It was a terrifying idea. “Do you think it's possible?”

“I think anything is possible here,” Sally said grimly. Another scream echoed from the direction of the castle. It sounded as if some poor soul had just been dropped in a vat of boiling water. Sally squeezed Adam's hand and continued, “But I had rather be there than here.”

“I agree,” Adam said.

So they headed for their houses, but it was like no walk through the gentle streets of the
real
Spooksville. In fact, they didn't even use the sidewalks. Instead, they darted from bush to bush, tree to tree, in case they'd be seen. Yet they saw no one, at least not clearly. But around every corner they thought they caught a glimpse of someone fleeing, or else the shadow of
something
following them.

“This place looks as if it's been through a war,” Sally whispered.

Adam nodded. “A war with the forces of evil.”

The houses were in ruins. Many had been burned to the ground. Smoke drifted up from the ashes, mingling with the fog that was moving in from the direction of the glowing green sea. Most of the houses, like the tombstones in the cemetery, were covered with dust and spiderwebs.

What had driven the people away? Adam wondered. What had taken the place of the people? Black shapes moved against the dull red sky; bats the size of horses screeched wickedly as they wheeled in search of living food. Holding on to each other, Sally and Adam hurried home.

They went to Sally's house first, which may have been a mistake. It was scarcely there. A large tree that she said didn't even exist in the real world had fallen across the roof and crushed the house flat. Searching through the ruins, they couldn't find any sign of her parents.

“Maybe they got away,” she said.

“Maybe you wouldn't have even recognized them,” Adam said.

Sally shivered. “Do you still want to go to your house?”

“I don't know what else to do. We may be trapped here forever.”

“Don't say that.”

“It's true.”

Sally was gloomy. “A lot of sad things are true.”

A
dam's house was still standing. He knocked on the door before entering. No one answered. Fog crept around them, glowing reddish orange like the sky. In this place Halloween could be a year-round holiday. Adam put his ear to the door, listening for talking vampires, for walking zombies.

“We don't have to go inside,” Sally said.

Adam frowned. “I have to see how they are.”

“They
might be more like
things.”

Adam reached for the doorknob. “You can stay here if you want.”

Sally glanced around from the dusty porch. “Why didn't you convince me to stay on the other side of the tombstone?”

“I tried.”

“I remember.” Sally nodded. “Let's do it.”

Inside it was dark. Big surprise. The lights didn't work. They moved through the living room to the kitchen. A roast turkey was set out on the table. The only trouble was a bunch of maggots and worms had got to it. The insects were crawling in and out of the dark meat and the white meat. Adam tried the faucet—he was thirsty. Steam bubbled out into the filthy sink.

“Cheery,” Sally said.

They went upstairs to the bedrooms. Adam peeked inside his first, holding his breath, waiting for a claw to reach out from the closet and rip open his face. But there was no one there. Only dusty books that he had bought years ago, in the real world. A favorite coat a friend had given him in Kansas City was held suspended in midair by a gigantic spiderweb.

“It's over there,” Sally whispered, pointing to the corner.

The black spider was the size of a cat and
covered with hair that stood up like greasy spikes. It glanced over at them as they peered through the door and clicked its bloodstained fangs. They quickly shut the door.

“I don't suppose we could call for an exterminator in this place,” Sally muttered.

Adam peered into his sister's room next. It was also empty, except for another giant spider. But in his parents' bedroom, on the bed, he saw two shapes lying under the dirty sheet. With Sally grimacing at his back, he approached the bed slowly.

“Maybe we shouldn't disturb the shapes,” she whispered, tense.

“I have to see,” Adam said softly.

“No,” Sally implored, grabbing the back of his shirt. Adam almost jumped out of his skin.

“Don't do that!” he hissed.

“I hear something outside. Coming this way.”

Adam paused. He heard nothing. “It's just your imagination.”

“My
imagination? I
don't need an imagination in this place.” She glanced toward the two forms beneath the sheets. “Come on, you don't want to look.”

Adam shook her off. “I have to.”

He stepped forward and reached over and slowly removed the sheet.

He gasped.

They'd been dead a long time. These man and woman skeletons. Ants the size of beetles crawled over their bony arms. Their hair hung over their dry skulls like dried-out straw soaked in rust. Their jawbones hung open. Adam quickly replaced the sheet as tears filled his eyes.

“That's not my mother and father,” he said, sobbing.

Sally put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Of course not. Your parents are alive in the real world. When we get back to them, you'll see that. It will be like waking from a bad dream.”

Adam shook his head. “This is no dream.”

Sally suddenly froze. “Something is coming this way!”

Adam heard it now. It sounded like the beating of horse hooves.

“It is coming this way,” he whispered.

“We have to hide,” Sally said, getting frantic.
It's coming for us.” She pulled on his arm. “We have to get out of here!”

Adam grabbed her. “Wait! This is as good a hiding place as any. Let's stay here.”

She pointed to the bed. “With them?”

Adam cautioned her to speak softly. “We'll just wait until the hooves pass.”

But the sound did not pass. Instead it stopped directly outside the house. “Now we're in trouble,” Sally moaned.

They heard footsteps, the pounding of a human in boots on the walkway. Whoever it was reached the door and, without pausing, kicked it in. The sound of the splintering wood made Adam's heart skip. Grabbing Sally, he pulled her out of the room and down the hallway. He barely knew the layout of the house, having just moved in—in that other dimension. But he did remember there was a window beside the hall closet, one that led out onto the roof. From there it was a quick hop into the backyard.

Adam got to the window just as the thundering steps reached the top of the stairs.

At the far end of the hallway he saw a tall figure clad in chain mail turn their way.

It looked like a knight. A black knight.

In his right hand he carried a long silver sword.

He didn't look friendly.

Adam yanked the window open and pushed Sally headfirst through it and onto the broken wood roof shingles. As she groped over the slippery roof, Adam tried to squirm out the window, too. But the knight was coming closer. Before Adam could get all the way out the window, something hard and heavy knocked his legs out from under him. Toppling back inside the house, he caught a glimpse of the knight raising the sharp silver sword.

Adam felt sure he was about to have his head cut from his body.

There was a flash of light and everything went black.

W
hen Adam awoke, he felt cold and sore. Opening his eyes, he found himself in a stone dungeon. He heard someone breathing beside him and rolled over on his back. He squinted in the poor light.

“Who's there?” he whispered.

“Watch. Is that you, Adam?”

Adam felt a wave of relief. Until he realized his hand was bolted to the wall with a steel wristband. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw that they were ringed in by metal bars, trapped tight in a tiny prison.

“Yeah, it's me,” Adam replied. “Where are we?”

“In the basement of the witch's castle,” Watch said, moving closer, He, too, was bolted to the stone wall, but he had enough slack to maneuver so he could actually reach out and touch Adam. His eyes blinked as he stared at him. “You wouldn't by any chance have my glasses, would you?” Watch asked.

Adam felt in his pocket. “As a matter of fact, I do,” he replied. He handed the glasses to Watch, who had to bend them to get them to fit his face. Adam figured he must have crushed them when he was knocked out. He checked his head for injuries, glad it was still attached to his neck. He had a large bump on the top of his skull but otherwise seemed OK. His back and legs, however, were cold and stiff from having lain on the hard stone floor. “How long have I been out?” he asked.

“They brought you in two hours ago,” Watch said, still adjusting his glasses.

“What about Sally?” Adam asked.

“Did she come through to this dimension?”

“Yes. I tried to stop her. Have you seen her?”

“No,” Watch said. “But that might be good.”

“Why?”

“I think the witch has an unpleasant surprise in store for us.”

“Have you seen her?” Adam asked. “What does she look like?”

With his free hand Watch scratched his head in the dark. “She looks like Ann Templeton, but with red hair instead of black. But for all I know Ann Templeton looks just the same as Madeline Templeton did.”