The Secret Path

“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.”

  12

  Adam’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 spli
ntering 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.

  13

  When 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.”

  “You mean, the witch who died two hundred years ago might be holding us captive?”

  “Yeah. Or else Ann Templeton’s counterpart in this dimension is keeping us prisoner. It’s hard to tell which.”

  Once more, Adam remembered Ann Templeton’s words to him.

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

  “I think it’s probably Ann Templeton’s counterpart,” Adam said, thoughtful. “I hope it is. Ann didn’t seem that mean.”

  “You haven’t met her,” Watch said. “I have. She sends her black knight out to collect boys and girls. I’ve seen some of the kids who’ve been here awhile. They’re all missing at least one body part—either a nose, or eyes, or ears. Or even a mouth.”

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

  Adam was horrified. “What does she do with these—parts?”

  Watch shrugged. “Maybe she just collects them, the way I collect stamps.”

  “You collect stamps? I collect baseball cards.” Adam shook his head. “I don’t suppose she’d want to trade our collections for our freedom.” He paused. “How did you get here? Did the black knight grab you?”

  “Yeah. He got me as soon as I came through to this side. He was waiting for me in the cemetery.”

  “Then he must have known you were coming,” Adam said.

  Watch was thoughtful. “I was thinking that myself. That means Ann Templeton must have been watching us from her castle and realized what we were doing. She must have been able to communicate that information to the witch on this side.” Watch shook his head. “But I don’t see how we can use that fact to escape.”

  “Were you awake when they brought you in here?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah. The castle is bizarre. Besides having this dungeon, it’s filled with clocks.”

  “You must feel right at home,” Adam remarked.

  “There’s something funny about these clocks. They all run backward.”

  “That’s interesting. We followed you here by walking toward the tombstone backward.”

  Watch nodded. “That’s the key. That’s the answer to the riddle.”

  “But when we tried to go back through the tombstone the same way, nothing happened.”

  “You tried to go back? You were just going to leave me here?”

  “We took one look around and figured you were as good as dead.”

  Watch was understanding. “I would probably have done the same thing.” His head suddenly twisted to one side. “I think she’s coming.”

  14

  It was not one figure, but several, who appeared through a large iron door at the end of the dark corridor. The black knight led the way, the metal soles of his boots ringing on the hard floor with a sound all too familiar to Adam. Behind him stumbled three kids, girls, all chained together. The first was missing her mouth, the second her eyes, the third her ears. But where the parts had been removed was not gory and gross. Rather, each of the girls looked as if she had been sewn up like a doll. Where the parts had been removed there was just skin.

  Behind them all strode the witch.

  It was Ann Templeton—and it was not.

  Her face was the same, but, as Watch had remarked, her hair was red instead of black. It flowed down her back, moving like liquid fire over her seamless black cape. Also, the way she held herself was different from that of the woman he had met earlier in the day. Ann Templeton had seemed easygoing, possessed of a wicked sense of humor, true, but not scary. A pale light shone from this woman’s face. Her eyes, although green like her interdimensional sister’s, glittered like emeralds. She certainly didn’t look like the mother type.

  Across from them, the three deformed girls were thrown into a cramped cell and chained to the wall, where they huddled together, broken. The witch stopped in front of Watch and Adam’s cell, the black knight at her side. For a long time she stared at them both, her eyes finally coming to rest on Adam. A faint smile touched her lips, as cold as her eyes.

  “Are you enjoying Spooksville?” she asked. “Seen all the sights?”

  Adam had to remember to breathe. “It’s very nice, ma’am.”

  Her smile widened. “I’m glad you approve. But tomorrow it might not look the same to you. It might look very black indeed.”

  Adam realized she was talking about removing his eyes. “But, ma’am,” he stuttered. “Remember how I saved your car from the shopping cart? You said to me, ‘Thank you, Adam. You have done your good deed for the day.’ ” He added weakly, “I thought you were my friend.”

  She threw back her head and laughed. “You mistake me for someone else. But that mistake is understandable. All the mirrors in this castle are dusty. One reflection can look much like another.” She moved closer to th
e bars that separated them and put a hand on the metal. Adam saw that she wore a ruby ring on her right hand. The interior of the stone burned with a wickless flame. “I am not Ann Templeton, although I know her well. The skeletons you found in that house do not belong to your parents, although they might in the future. But none of that should concern you now. You are about to enter eternal darkness. You have only one chance to escape. That is to tell me where your friend Sally is hiding.”

  Sally must have escaped, Adam realized. He was happy for that at least. He stood proudly as the witch waited for his response. The chain held him close to the wall.

  “I don’t know where she is,” he said. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Not if you threatened to boil me in a pot of water.”

  “You don’t want to emphasize the pot of boiling water,” Watch muttered.

  The witch smiled again, this time maybe a little sadly. “You have such beautiful eyes, Adam. They look so nice where they are.” Her voice hardened. “But I suppose they will look nice on one of my dolls.” She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. “Take them upstairs. We will not wait until tomorrow to operate.”

  The black knight drew his sword and stepped forward.

  15

  Chained together, Adam and Watch were dragged up a long stone stairway to what appeared to be the living room of the castle—if castles had living rooms. It was a place of shadows, of candles that burned with red flames, and of paintings with eyes that moved. The dark ceiling, high above their heads, was all but invisible. While the witch watched, the knight chained them to an iron post in one corner of the room.

  All around them, as Watch had said, were clocks that ran backward.

  And there was something else. Something that appeared to be magical.

  In the center of the room, on a silver pedestal, was an hourglass. Tall as a man, it was wrought of polished gold and burning jewels. The sand that poured through its narrow neck sparkled like diamond chips.

  Not only that. The sand flowed from the bottom of the hourglass to the top.

  The witch noticed his interest in the hourglass.