Curse of the Broomstaff

  The morning drew on with little conversation and few breaks. Every time Daisy put down her left foot, she whimpered. When Spencer finally asked what was the matter, she paused just long enough to pull down her dirty sock to reveal a blister the size of a quarter.

  “Here,” Spencer said, unclipping the orange healing spray from his belt. “This should help for a while.” He sprayed the blister and watched it miraculously heal as the liquid foamed up.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I didn’t think of that.”

  Spencer was growing weary too, and the heat of the day already seemed stronger than yesterday. His thoughts turned once more to his conversation with Aryl. The Dark Auran had warned him about the girls. The Rebels had been tightlipped about Spencer’s secret. But Spencer’s thoughts kept straying back to his time with Jenna at the Academy.

  He decided to take a risk and try to get Rho talking— see if she suspected anything about him. The conversation would seem harmless, like reminiscing over old times. Especially if he included Daisy.

  Spencer waited until the two girls were side by side, and then he jogged a few steps to catch up with them.

  “This hike makes P.E. at the Academy seem like a cake walk,” Spencer said.

  “Actually, I think this is better,” Daisy said. “There’s no Dez here.”

  “Dez?” Rho asked.

  “He’s that annoying kid that came with us to New Forest Academy,” Daisy said. “Remember?”

  Rho nodded. “What ever happened to him?”

  “He stayed there,” Spencer answered. “Made a deal with Slick. Now he works for the BEM.” They hiked in silence for a moment, but Spencer refused to let the conversation dead-end.

  “You know,” he said, “we had some pretty good times at the Academy, didn’t we?”

  Daisy gave him a big-eyed look like he’d gone insane. “Good times? I only remember being chased, kidnapped, attacked, paralyzed, and scared out of my mind!”

  Spencer nodded. “There was that. But the Academy had a great library, I remember that.”

  “Didn’t you pass out in the library?” Rho asked. Good, she had taken the bait. Spencer had collapsed in New Forest Academy’s library when he had touched the bronze doorknob and unexpectedly gone into a vision.

  “How is your fainting problem?” Rho said. “Any idea what causes it?”

  Daisy nearly gave him away, but Spencer managed a quick elbow to her ribs.

  “I was under a lot of stress,” Spencer lied. “I’m better now.”

  The conversation was frustrating as they danced around the subject. Spencer couldn’t tell what Rho was thinking. And he couldn’t exactly come right out and say, “By the way, did you know I’m an Auran too?”

  Spencer didn’t dare probe further. He fell back a few steps and hiked in silence beside Walter Jamison.

  They journeyed on into a strange new landscape with high plateaus rising like cliffs on both sides of the trail. V paused before they entered, scanning the narrow slot canyon ahead for any signs of a trap.

  “Umm,” Bernard said, poking the vertical side of the nearest plateau. “This definitely isn’t stone.” He poked it again and it compressed, soft and spongy.

  “You’re right,” Rho said. “It’s a couple of mattresses. Queens, I’d guess.”

  Daisy made a surprised face. “Queen of England?”

  “Queen size,” Rho corrected.

  Daisy stared up at the towering mattress. “She must be huge.”

  “This canyon’s only wide enough to enter two at a time,” V said. “We should pair up and—”

  Suddenly, a huge black hose rose into view like a massive python. The hose was ribbed and flexible, dipping low between the mattresses. The head of the hose was wide like a mouth, with an underworking of spinning bristles.

  “That’s a vacuum hose,” Walter muttered.

  “With an attachment,” Penny added.

  “Why’s it so big?” Daisy said.

  As they watched, the hose swooped low, an insanely loud suction ripping through the canyon. Trash flew upward into the mouth of the vacuum attachment. The spinning bristles caught the debris, tearing it and sucking it out of sight.

  “Everybody hold still,” V said. “Maybe it’ll go away.”

  Everyone froze. Spencer slouched into a bulky lump of trash, hoping to conceal himself among the rubble. But the vacuum hose didn’t retreat. It dragged its attachment along the trail, sucking up every scrap of garbage on a path toward the travelers.

  “I don’t think it cares if we’re holding still,” Bernard said. “This isn’t Jurassic Park.”

  “Why didn’t the scout team double back to warn us?” Alan asked.

  “The vacuum probably moved in after they passed through,” Rho said.

  “Or maybe the vacuum already ate the scout team,” Bernard said. When his comment was met with disapproving glares, he tried to amend it. “Or maybe they’re all happy and safe, having a picnic on the other side.”

  V turned her attention back to the massive vacuum hose. “I’ve never seen this thing before. I’m open to suggestions.”

  “Why don’t we find a different path?” Alan said. “Go around the mattresses?”

  “That’ll add a couple of hours to our journey,” Rho said. “We’ll never make it to the Glop source by nightfall.”

  “If it’s a vacuum,” Walter said, “maybe we can unplug it.”

  V shook her head. “Things don’t really run on electricity around here. That thing’s definitely Glopified.”

  “What we need is a distraction,” Penny said. “I bet I can scale one of these walls. I’ll climb up on top of the mattress and draw the vacuum after me. The rest of you make a run for it, two by two.”

  “Like Noah’s animals,” Daisy pointed out. “Except they had a flood. We have a giant vacuum.”

  Spencer could see the vacuum hose clearly as it drew even closer. It strafed along the trail, hovering about six feet high. In a heartbeat, the area below the hose was cleared out. Trash flew through the air, catching in the whirring attachment as it whipped hungrily toward them. The hose seemed to be in no hurry, and Spencer was pretty sure that it hadn’t spotted them yet. Did it even have eyes?

  “It’s as good a plan as any, I supposed,” V said. “You take one mattress, I’ll take the other. Two distractions are always better than one.”

  Without another word, Penny drew a broom and launched herself straight up. When the broom began to lose its power, she pulled out a plunger and leapt onto the side of the mattress. The plunger clamped on, and she clung like a bedbug as she drew a second plunger. Then, hand over hand, she clamped the plungers and pulled herself higher.

  V used the same approach to scale the other wall, and Spencer was amazed at how strong and coordinated she looked. Then again, she’d had almost three hundred years of practice.

  As Penny and V finished their climb, Walter turned to the remainder of the group. “Rho and I will lead. Alan and Spencer come next, but wait a few minutes for us to get through. Then Bernard and Daisy will take up the rear. Don’t enter the slot canyon unless you’re sure the vacuum is distracted. We’ll be sitting ducks in there.”

  Rho stepped up next to Walter at the mouth of the canyon. It wasn’t long before they heard Penny’s voice rising to a shout. She hurled a piece of trash at the vacuum, causing the attachment end to perk up. The long hose reared back and came sucking down blindly on the top of the mattress.

  “Now!” Walter shouted. He and Rho sprinted into the long slot canyon, trying to cover as much ground as possible before the distraction ended. In a moment, they were out of sight.

  Spencer and his dad stood ready, their eyes on the vacuum hose. After several long minutes, Alan took his son by the shoulder and said, “Let’s go!”

  They sprinted into the chute, Spencer bouncing off one of the walls as he grazed against it. Sound seemed muffled between the two oversized mattresses. All the dense foam and fabric held a stifling amount of
heat. And the smell was worse than a wet dog.

  Spencer’s feet pounded. A roaring suction sounded overhead, and his eyes flicked upward. The vacuum hose was right above them, the canister perched on the edge of the mattress. It must have grown tired of groping sightlessly for Penny and decided to return to the windblown scraps of garbage caught between the mattresses.

  Spencer shouted a warning to his dad, but his voice was whisked away as the attachment bristles whirred closer.

  Then mop strings streamed overhead, lashing out from V’s side. The strings whiplashed into the vacuum hose, causing it to rise once more in search of its aggressors.

  Spencer and Alan burst out the other side, stumbling in the trash and falling to their knees next to Walter and Rho.

  The warlock’s eyes were directed up toward the tops of the mattresses. “Two more to come,” he muttered. “Keep it up.”

  Spencer waited, patiently at first, but growing more anxious as time ticked by with no sign of Daisy or Bernard. V and Penny were growing desperate, throwing every attack they could to keep the vacuum hose from dipping down again.

  “Where are they?” Spencer said, trying to peer down the narrow canyon. “They should be here by now!”

  “Relax,” his dad said. “They’re probably just waiting for an opening.”

  Spencer pointed to the vacuum hose. “It hasn’t come down since we came through!” He might have been jumping to conclusions, but he said it anyway. “Something happened to them. We’ve got to go back.”

  “They’ll be fine,” Alan said. “Give them a minute.”

  His dad’s comment seemed insensitive, and that bothered Spencer. Was Alan even worried about Daisy and Bernard? They could be hurt . . . or worse.

  Spencer’s jaw tightened as he glanced at his dad. Talking got him nowhere. It was better just to act. With that thought, Spencer bolted back into the slot canyon, his dad calling after him.

  Spencer was halfway through when he saw the problem. Bernard was slumped in the middle of the pathway, unmoving. Daisy seemed frozen, her Glopified belt in a heap next to Bernard and her back to the mattress. She was weaponless and trembling.

  And right before her stood a growling Thingamajunk.

  Chapter 40

  “Say the meanest thing you can think of!”

  In his panic, Spencer tried to run faster. “Daisy!” he screamed. But his feet were moving too quickly for the rest of him to keep up. His toe caught a length of plastic webbing and he went down hard, stars dancing in his peripheral vision. His leg was tangled and stuck. In his haste, he’d ruined any chance of saving his friend.

  The Thingamajunk dropped forward onto its long arms and roared into the girl’s face. It looked similar to the other Thingamajunks they’d encountered: hulking scraps of garbage fused together by the Glop that gave it life. This one had a dented lunch box for a head, with a moldy textbook hanging on like a dislocated jaw.

  “Daisy!” Spencer shouted. “You have to trash-talk it!” She glanced sideways at him. “What?”

  “Trash-talk!” Spencer said. “Pretend like you’re tough!”

  Daisy’s hands balled into tight fists. She leaned forward slightly and shouted, “Hey there, big guy!”

  “No!” Spencer coached. “You have to insult it!”

  She took a deep breath. “You’re huge and scary!”

  “That’s not an insult, Daisy,” Spencer yelled. “That’s what it’s going for!” He drew his razorblade and started cutting himself free of the plastic webbing. “Say the meanest thing you can think of!”

  Daisy squinted her eyes and screamed at the trash, “You’re made of garbage!”

  The Thingamajunk reached out with its long arm and knocked her back against the spongy mattress.

  “I’m sorry!” Daisy’s voice was small and quivering. “But you are.”

  The Thingamajunk made a series of grunts and grabbed Daisy by the arm. With only words to defend herself, Daisy gathered her courage and made one final attempt.

  “Listen here, big buddy. You are big and scary and made of trash. But under all that yucky garbage, I bet there’s a really nice guy. Maybe you’re upset because you don’t have any friends. Maybe you’re mad because other people make fun of you. Maybe you feel like there’s not a single good thing about you. I’ve been there, buddy. I’ve felt like garbage. Dez Rylie made me feel that way every day of fifth grade. But I didn’t go around trying to eat people!”

  The Thingamajunk paused, its lunch-box head cocked curiously to one side. It snorted once as if in disbelief over Daisy’s pathetic resistance. Then the covers of the old textbook peeled back to reveal a crooked line of broken pencils that, more or less, formed teeth. But squirming between the Thingamajunk’s jagged teeth were at least a dozen pale worms, munching away on the decomposing paper.

  “Bookworms.” Daisy shuddered from head to toe. The Thingamajunk continued gnashing its teeth savagely, but Daisy was on a roll now.

  “There!” she said. “That’s better. At least you’re smiling now.”

  Spencer didn’t point out that the Thingamajunk was actually gnashing. Smiling and gnashing were two very different things. Spencer stood, at last free of the webbing. But Daisy didn’t seem to need help anymore.

  The Thingamajunk dropped the girl to the ground. Its mouth closed and then opened again, stubby pencil teeth jutting awkwardly in an attempted smile.

  Daisy cringed at its rotting mouth. But seeing the Thingamajunk’s nasty attempt at a smile seemed to spark an idea for Daisy. She dug into her pocket and quickly found the item she was looking for.

  It was a pink retainer. The one from Bernard’s strange dumpster collection.

  “Here.” Daisy held it out. “It might be a little small, ’cause you’ve got a huge mouth. But you seriously need some dental work.”

  The Thingamajunk leaned forward, examining the small item in Daisy’s outstretched palm. It cocked its head to the other side and grunted in thought.

  “Take it,” Daisy insisted. “It will help your teeth get straighter. Then maybe there won’t be enough room for the worms.”

  Spencer dropped to his knees next to Bernard. With a shot of orange healing spray, the garbologist began to revive.

  “What’s she doing?” Bernard muttered, sitting up.

  “She’s bargaining for her life,” Spencer said. “With a retainer.” It was absolutely ludicrous!

  “One of my dumpster retainers?” Bernard asked. “Those are special edition! Carefully collected in more than forty states!”

  The Thingamajunk’s hand was hovering just above Daisy’s. It seemed frozen, like it was expecting some kind of trick.

  “Go ahead,” the girl coaxed. “Take it.”

  The garbage hand closed around the pink retainer. And just like that, the Thingamajunk exploded.

  It happened so unexpectedly that Daisy was knocked backward against the wall. Trash fell to the floor around her like shrapnel.

  Daisy’s eyes were big as she staggered back to her feet. “What happened?”

  “He blew up,” Spencer pointed out. It didn’t make much sense.

  “Because I trash-talked him?” Daisy asked.

  “You couldn’t even insult a pile of garbage!” said Spencer. “I don’t know what that was, but it definitely wasn’t trash-talking.”

  “Trash-whispering?” Daisy tried.

  “I suggest we finish this debate in a safer location.” Bernard pointed upward as the huge vacuum hose dropped into the slot canyon, bored of Penny’s and V’s distractions.

  Bernard led the way, with Spencer and Daisy close behind. The vacuum attachment was bobbing up and down, gobbling trash between gasps of fresh air. The trio paused, trying to time their escape perfectly.

  The garbologist went first, diving and rolling through the trash as the vacuum hose lifted. Spencer was right behind him, feeling the suction lift his hair as he barely made it past.

  Daisy came last, but her timing was off. She rolled forward
just as the vacuum attachment came down. The girl screamed, her braid flying upward as her feet left the ground. Spencer doubled back, calling her name, but he realized that she would be swallowed long before he could reach her.

  Abruptly, a pile of garbage directly beneath the vacuum hose sprang to life. It leapt straight into the air, bits of scrap and trash forming together into a Thingamajunk.

  The garbage figure caught the neck of the vacuum hose in both apelike arms. It roared, a rustling sound that outmatched the whirling attachment. The vacuum hose bucked under the attack, but the Thingamajunk continued to squeeze, pinching off the hose and stopping the suction.

  Daisy dropped to the hard trail as the vacuum hose went slack. The Thingamajunk swung sideways, its garbage feet kicking off the wall and pulling the hose so that it doubled over itself. Then, with a final roar, the Thingamajunk dropped down, tying the vacuum hose into a tight knot.

  The vacuum reared back, pulling its knotted hose over the top of the mattress and out of sight. The Thingamajunk dropped onto all fours and lifted Daisy back to her feet.

  She stared at the garbage figure, too stunned to say a word. Then the Thingamajunk smiled at her. And there, wedged into the moldy textbook that formed its mouth, was a pink retainer.

  Chapter 41

  “You gave it a gift?”

  Rho, Walter, and Alan came sprinting down the slot canyon. The Auran girl at the lead saw the Thingamajunk and instantly started trash-talking.

  “Get out of here, you clumsy pile of scrap! You’re a disgrace to garbage!”

  The Thingamajunk started growling. The pink retainer, clipped between two stubby pencils, started rattling as the garbage figure drew itself up to full height and roared.

  “That’s right!” Rho carried on. “I’m not afraid of you or your smelly excuse for a body! You can go—”

  “Stop it!” Daisy screamed, stepping between the Auran and the Thingamajunk. Rho backed up, surprised that Daisy would stand so close to the dangerous creature. Daisy reached back and put a steadying hand on the Thingamajunk’s arm.