The Secret Path

  “Before it’s too late,” she said.

  The reservoir was creepy, the water an odd color, sort of grayish. Adam was unhappy to learn that all the town water came from it. The area around it was similar to the space inside the tree; it was unnaturally silent. Their words, as they spoke, seemed to die in the air. Sally wondered out loud how many bodies were buried under the water’s surface.

  “I don’t know,” Watch said. “But I do know no fish can live in this reservoir.”

  “They die?” Adam asked.

  “Yes,” Watch said. “They throw themselves onto the shore and die.”

  “They would rather die than live here,” Sally said.

  “Kansas City didn’t have these kind of problems,” Adam said.

  They returned to the beach. By this time the day was wearing on, and Adam thought his parents would be worrying about him. But Watch was against his stopping home and telling them he was OK.

  “We don’t want to wander off the path,” Watch said. “We might have to start over at the beginning.”

  “You might also be about to disappear permanently,” Sally said. “It’s better you don’t give your parents any false reassurances.”

  Bum was no longer at the beach, and Watch wasn’t sure where the angry crowd had tried to burn Madeline Templeton two hundred years ago. But Watch suspected they’d tried to kill her near the jetty because that’s where the wood from the ocean usually washed up on shore.

  “They were lazy in those days,” Watch said. “When they wanted to burn someone to death, they didn’t like to search for wood.”

  The jetty felt sufficiently creepy, but Adam was too distracted by the thought of the cemetery to worry about it. Ordinary cemeteries were not on Adam’s list of favorite places to visit, and he suspected Spooksville’s cemetery would be a hundred times worse than a normal one. As they walked toward it, Sally didn’t exactly try to put his mind at ease.

  “A lot of people buried in Spooksville aren’t completely dead,” she said. ‘The local undertaker is always out hustling business. If you have a bad cold, he wants you to come down to his showroom to pick out a coffin, just in case the cold goes into your chest and you choke to death. I’ve got to admit, though, a tour of his stock can make you get better in a hurry.”

  “I don’t believe any undertaker could be so crude and cruel,” Adam said.

  “I’ve heard scratching sounds coming from underground while walking in the cemetery,” Watch said. “I think a few people got boxed up a little too soon.”

  “That’s horrible,” Adam said, appalled. “Why didn’t you get a shovel and dig those people out?”

  “I have a bad back,” Watch said.

  “And you don’t want to go digging up people who’ve been in the ground for a few days,” Sally said. “They might try to eat your brains.”

  Adam began to have second thoughts. “I’ve had kind of a long day, moving and getting attacked by the tree and all. Maybe I should catch up with you guys later.”

  “Are you chickening out?” Sally asked.

  “No,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just stating a fact.” He paused. “Besides, you’ve been against this quest from the start.”

  “It’s my nature to be against anything unnatural,” Sally said. “And I think this Secret Path qualifies.”

  “If you really are scared,” Watch said, “I don’t want to force you into it, Adam.”

  “I told you guys, I’m not scared,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just tired.”

  “No problem,” Watch said.

  “We won’t hold your sudden and unexpected wave of tiredness against you,” Sally added.

  “It’s not sudden and unexpected,” Adam protested. “If you’d just moved here from Kansas City, you’d be tired, too.”

  “Particularly if I was about to visit a cemetery where people are often buried alive,” Sally said.

  “I told you, I don’t believe in ghosts,” Adam said. “They don’t scare me.”

  “Good for you,” Sally said.

  Adam felt cornered and humiliated. “All right, all right. I’ll go to the cemetery. But that’s as far as I’ll go. I have to get home right after.”

  “If what Bum said is true,” Watch warned, “you might not get home until very late.”

  9

  The cemetery was surrounded by a high gray brick wall. The front gate was made of wrought iron—rusted metal bars twisted upward into points. The few trees that littered the grave site were limp and colorless; they looked like the skeletons of real trees. Adam could see no way in and felt a moment of relief. They’d have to quit. Unfortunately, Watch had other ideas.

  “There’re some loose bricks around back,” Watch said. “If you suck in your breath, you can just squeeze through the space.”

  “What if we get stuck?” Adam asked.

  “You of all people should know the answer to that question,” Sally said.

  “The brick wall won’t hurt you,” Watch said. “It isn’t alive.”

  “Just like the people locked inside,” Sally said menacingly.

  Getting through the small opening proved easy. But once they were inside and making their way around the tombstones, Adam began to get the sinking feeling that nothing else would be easy. He definitely didn’t want to be fooling around the dead witch’s grave. He could see her old castle peering down at them. A tall tower rose from the rear of the huge stone building. He thought he caught sight of a dull red light glowing from a window at the highest point. The light of a fire perhaps, of many candles at least. He could imagine Ann Templeton sitting in that tower in a black robe and staring into a crystal ball. Watching the three kids who dared to defy her ancestor’s grave. Cursing them for even thinking about it. She was a beautiful woman, true, but striding toward her great-great-great-great-grandmother’s grave, Adam began to believe Sally’s warning about Ann.

  He began to believe that Spooksville really did deserve its wicked name.

  Madeline Templeton’s tombstone was larger than any other in the cemetery. Its shape was odd. Rather than having a cross at the top, or a half dome, the top of the dark marble was cut in the shape of a raven. The bird glared down at them as if they were its prey. Adam blinked up at the deep black eyes that seemed to stare back at him. Over and around the grave, on all sides, the ground was bare. Adam realized that no grass could grow so close to the remains of a witch.

  “What a nice place for a picnic,” Sally said sarcastically. She turned to Watch. “What do we do now? Wish ourselves into another dimension?”

  “I don’t think it’s that easy,” Watch said. “We have to figure out the last part of the riddle.” He paused and repeated Bum’s words: “ ‘Follow her all the way to her death, and remember, when they brought her to her grave, they carried her upside-down. They buried her facedown, as they do all witches. All those they are afraid to burn.’ ” Watch paused to clean his glasses on his shirt. “I don’t think any of us can walk in here upside-down.”

  “That’s a pity,” Adam said.

  “You look heartbroken, Adam,” Sally said.

  Watch began to walk around the large tombstone. He gestured in the direction of the cemetery’s entrance. “That must have been the entrance even then, so they must have carried her coffin in from over there. We should probably start there and walk this way. But I don’t think that’s going to work. Bum was trying to tell us something more with his riddle.” Watch frowned. “Do either of you have any ideas?”

  “Not me,” Sally said, pacing several steps away from the grave and plopping down on the ground. “I’m too tired, too hungry.” She patted the spot beside her. “Why don’t you rest, Adam?”

  “I think we’ve done pretty good to figure out any of the riddle,” Adam said, joining Sally on the ground. It was good to rest; he felt as if he’d just walked to the West Coast from Kansas City. He called over to Watch, who continued to stroll around the tombstone, “We can always decipher the last part later.”
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  Sally smiled at Adam. “Do you want me to rub your feet?” she asked sweetly.

  “That’s all right,” Adam said.

  “I have a gentle touch,” Sally said.

  “Save your strength,” Adam said.

  “We could get a coffin,” Watch suggested from behind the tombstone. “And I could lay inside it upside-down and the two of you could carry me over here.”

  “The coffins they sell in town lock when you close them,” Sally said, lying back and staring up at the sky. “Remember the scratching sounds.”

  “I don’t think we have the strength to carry you in a coffin,” Adam said, distracted as he watched the dull red light radiating from the top of the nearby castle tower begin to flicker. Actually, it wasn’t so dull anymore. Maybe Ann Templeton had decided to light more candles or throw another log on the fire. What did she do up there? Adam wondered. Was she really a witch? Could she really turn boys into frogs and girls into lizards? Adam couldn’t get her voice out of his head. While Watch continued to poke around behind him, and Sally lay snoozing, Adam thought of the strange things she had said to him.

  “Nothing is the way it looks. Nobody is just one way. When you hear stories about me—perhaps from this skinny girl here, perhaps from others—know that they’re only partially true.”

  But she had seemed to like him.

  “You have such nice eyes, did you know that, Adam?”

  Adam didn’t think she’d try to hurt him.

  “I will see both of you later—under different circumstances.”

  The light in the tall tower flared again.

  Candles didn’t usually burn so red.

  Adam found himself unable to quit staring at the light.

  At the tower.

  He thought he saw the shadow of Ann Templeton step to the window.

  “Would you like to visit me there someday?”

  She looked down at him. Smiled down at him.

  Her lips the color of fire. Her eyes glowing like a cat’s.

  “Oh no,” Adam whispered to himself.

  Sally nudged him in the side.

  “Adam?” she said, sounding worried.

  “Yes,” he mumbled, feeling hypnotized.

  Sally shook him. “Adam!”

  He looked over at her. “What’s the matter?” he said.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Sally looked up at the castle tower. “She’s trying to put a spell on you.”

  Adam shook himself. The red light was gone, as was the image of the beautiful woman. The structure could have been deserted for two hundred years. “No. I’m fine, really.” He did feel kind of cold, though. “But I think we should get out of here.” He glanced around. “Where’s Watch?”

  Sally frowned. “I don’t know.” She jumped to her feet. “Watch! Watch! Adam, I don’t see him! Watch!”

  They called for ten minutes straight.

  But their friend was gone.

  10

  They found Watch’s glasses in the dirt in front of the tombstone. Adam half expected to discover a bloodstain on them when he picked them up. But they were only dirty.

  “Watch can’t walk ten feet without his glasses,” Sally whispered.

  “But he must have walked out of here,” Adam said.

  “No,” Sally replied gloomily.

  “What are you saying? He’s gone.”

  “But he didn’t walk out of here. He vanished.”

  “I didn’t see him vanish,” Adam said.

  “What did you see?”

  Adam was confused. “I don’t know. I was staring up at that tower.” He pointed through the skeleton trees toward Ann Templeton’s home. “There was a red glow coming from the highest window.” He shook his head and peered up at the sky. “It seems later than it should be. Did we fall asleep?”

  Sally, also, appeared puzzled. “I didn’t think so. I know I just lay down for a minute. But then—I think I dreamed.”

  “What did you dream?” Adam asked.

  Fear entered Sally’s eyes. “About the day they buried the witch. I saw them carry her body in here. They were all scared. They thought it might come back to life and eat them.” She shook her head. “But it was just a dream.”

  Adam gestured with Watch’s glasses in his hand. “We have to find Watch.” He turned toward the back of the cemetery, where they’d entered. Sally stopped him.

  “Watch didn’t leave the cemetery,” she said firmly.

  “Then where is he?” Adam asked.

  “Don’t you see? He found the end of the Secret Path.” She pointed at the witch’s tombstone. “He went through there.”

  Adam shook his head. “That’s impossible. Why would he be the only one to vanish? Why not us?”

  “He did something—special. You’re sure you didn’t see him?”

  “I told you, I didn’t.”

  Sally walked around the tombstone, talking all the time. “He was trying to figure out what the end of Bum’s riddle meant. He must have hit upon the solution, maybe even by accident.” She paused to consider, reciting the lines once more. “ ‘Follow her all the way to her death, and remember, when they brought her to her grave, they carried her upside-down.’ ” Sally shook her head. “Watch couldn’t have walked up to the tombstone upside-down. There was no one to carry him.”

  Adam had an idea. “Maybe we’re looking at the riddle too literally. It is a riddle, after all. ‘Upside-down’ is—in- a way—another way of saying ‘backward.’ ”

  Sally came closer. “I don’t understand.”

  Adam pointed toward the cemetery entrance. “Bum might have been telling us she was brought in here backward. Maybe all we have to do, here at the end of the Secret Path, is approach the tombstone walking backward.”

  Sally jumped. “Let’s try it!”

  “Wait a second. What if it works?”

  “We want it to work. We have to give Watch his glasses.” Sally paused. “You’re not getting scared again?”

  Adam spoke impatiently. “I wasn’t scared to begin with. What I’m saying is even if we do go through the doorway into another dimension—how do we know we’ll end up in the same dimension Watch is? Bum said there were many Spooksvilles on the other side.”

  “I guess there’s no way to tell unless we try it. We’ll just have to risk it.”

  Adam shook his head. “I’ll risk it. Alone. You stay here and stand guard.”

  “What am I standing guard against? All the danger’s on the other side. I’m coming with you.”

  “No. You said it yourself—it could be dangerous.”

  Sally stared at him. “You’re not just trying to impress me, are you? Because if you are, it’s not necessary. I like you already.”

  Adam sighed. “I’m not trying to impress. I’m just trying to keep you from getting killed.”

  Sally snorted. “Adam, you just got here. I grew up in Spooksville. Dark doorways are an everyday occurrence for me.” She reached for his hand. “Come, well go together, holding on to each other. That way if we end up in the witch’s evil realm, I’ll have someone cute to keep me company for the rest of eternity.”

  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 entranc
e 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.

  11

  The 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.