“Everybody’s got a mask on,” Theo complained. “We’ll never pick her out.”
“This is bad,” Lu said nervously. “We’ve got to clear this place.”
She looked around frantically, then spotted something and charged through the crowd of dancers, headed for the far side of the gym.
Theo was about to follow when Kayla grabbed his arm and held him back. She looked at him imploringly, wanting to know what was going on.
“It’s Ainsley,” Theo said. “Everything that’s happened, all the accidents. She caused them. But it wasn’t her fault. She was being…manipulated.”
Kayla’s look of confusion only deepened.
“I know it’s hard to understand, but she might try to do something bad tonight. A lot of kids could get hurt unless we stop her, so please, you have to leave right now.”
Kayla shook her head adamantly. She wasn’t budging.
Theo was stuck, and frustrated.
“Okay, then stay close to me.”
He grabbed Kayla’s hand and dragged her into the sea of dancers, trying to catch up with Lu.
Lu pushed her way through to the far side of the dance floor and broke out of the crowd. She looked around and quickly found what she wanted.
The fire alarm.
She steeled herself and went for it. The device was nothing more than a red switch on the wall with the word FIRE on it in bold white letters. Pulling the switch would break a small glass tube there to prevent the alarm from being triggered accidentally. Lu strode directly to the fire alarm, reached for the switch, curled her fingers around it, and held her breath as…
“Hello, Lu.”
Lu spun around to face…
…Ainsley.
“What are you doing?” Ainsley asked sweetly, without a hint of tension or anger.
“Where’s Marcus?” Lu asked, frantic.
Ainsley looked around as if searching for him.
“I don’t know, he could be anywhere,” Ainsley said. “Please don’t touch that alarm.”
“I know this isn’t your fault,” Lu said, breathless. “You can’t help yourself. But I won’t let you hurt anybody.”
She spun back around and reached for the switch again.
She never touched it.
Her body suddenly went stiff, as if all of her muscles had seized at the same time. Her eyes went wide with surprise as she tried to open her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She had no control over her movements. Her body twisted around until her back hit the wall, next to the fire alarm.
Ainsley stood with one arm raised, her tensed fingers pointing at Lu, channeling the power of the coven. She had no expression. She didn’t appear surprised or angry or sympathetic. It was as if Lu was nothing more than a minor problem to be dealt with.
“Sorry, Lu,” Ainsley said casually, as if she wasn’t sorry at all. “I can’t let you do that. I have a responsibility.”
Lu stood with her back against the wall, unable to move.
“But don’t worry,” Ainsley said brightly. “This won’t take long.”
She turned away from Lu to face the crowded gym. Slowly she raised her other arm, both palms facing up as if she were lifting a massive weight.
The gym lights flickered.
The orange Halloween lights strung across the ceiling blinked once, twice, then died.
The thumping dance music stopped abruptly.
A collective groan of annoyance went up from the kids.
The overhead lights flickered once more, then died, throwing the gym into near darkness.
There were gasps of confusion and a few surprised screams. Some kids laughed, but nervously. No doubt everyone was thinking the same thing:
Now what?
Seconds later, an emergency generator kicked in and restored power to the lights. A cheer went up, but it was only a tease. Within seconds the lights died again. But the gym didn’t go dark. Filling the space was an eerie white glow that came from the light of countless stars, impossibly bright stars that looked down on the students through windows near the ceiling.
The kids stood still, nervous, not knowing what to do. It was a frozen moment between what was and what would be.
A faint rumbling filled the gym. It sounded like a distant fleet of monster trucks. The ominous sound quickly grew louder, making the windows rattle in their frames. Whatever was causing the noise was closing in. Fast.
The kids looked around with growing concern. They made eye contact with one another, but no one had any answers. They were all too stunned to move.
The rumbling sound transformed into movement. The gym floor began to vibrate. The vibration swiftly intensified into full-on shaking.
It was an earthquake.
That was enough to kick the kids into action. There was screaming as everyone ran for the exits. The dance had become a panicked mass of bodies desperate to escape.
Slam! Slam! Slam!
Every last exit door banged shut. When kids reached them and pushed on the bars, the doors didn’t move.
They were trapped.
The shaking intensified. Some kids lost their balance and fell to the floor. Others continued to push against the doors, but it was futile. They were locked tight. Many kids ran for other exits only to find the same thing. Locked. It was the same with all of them. Nobody was getting out of that gym.
Crash! Crash!
The windows near the ceiling exploded, sending a shower of glass falling to the floor. The shards hit like hailstones, bouncing and scattering throughout the gym. Kids ran for cover, diving under tables or pressing themselves against the walls to avoid the deluge. They cried and screamed in fear and confusion, but there was no escape.
In the middle of it all was Ainsley.
As mayhem swirled around her, she walked serenely to the center of the gym. Her serene manner was in sharp contrast to the total chaos surrounding her. She was calm while everyone else was losing their minds.
Several kids spotted her.
They knew Ainsley.
Ainsley always had the answers.
They were drawn to her as if she were the savior who could lead them to safety.
As Ainsley stood at center court, the kids formed a wide circle around her not unlike the ring of brambles in the forest that circled the entrance to the coven’s lair.
They were looking to her for help, unaware that she was the very cause of their terror.
Theo and Kayla ran to Lu, who stood with her back against the wall, frozen, staring straight ahead.
“What happened?” Theo yelled.
Lu couldn’t answer.
Theo shook her shoulders.
Lu didn’t respond. She was gone.
The responsibility of stopping Ainsley had fallen to Theo. He stole a quick glance at the mayhem in the gym, closed his eyes, then reached out and finished what Lu had started.
He pulled the fire alarm.
There was no sound. No alarm. No flashing lights. Theo could only hope that the alert had gone out and help would soon be on the way. But would it be too late?
“Stay with her,” Theo ordered Kayla, and ran for Ainsley. He had to fight his way through the mass of kids surrounding her, pushing through them just as he had fought through the brambles that circled the witch’s hollow, hoping to reach her before the disaster grew even worse.
Ainsley stood in the center of the circle of kids, turning slowly, making eye contact with those who stared back at her in wonder, hoping she would somehow stop the horror.
Theo broke through and into the circle.
“Ainsley!” he shouted. “Stop!”
The shaking stopped instantly. All was still. The gym grew deathly quiet.
Theo looked around with confusion as if he couldn’t believe stopping Ainsley were as simple as that.
The kids could breathe again. There was a collective sigh of relief. They had dodged a bullet and the earthquake had passed without major damage. The only sounds were a few random whimpers
and cries. The worst was over.
Until it wasn’t.
Boom!
The wooden gym floor erupted. Ten feet from Ainsley, a massive, pointed rock drove up through the floor. Kids dove out of the way, pushing and shoving to get to safety.
Boom!
Another eruption exploded on the other side of the gym as a mass of solid, sharp Massachusetts granite thrust up toward the ceiling. The sound of violently splintering wood drowned out the screams of the terrified kids.
The earthquake had come back with a vengeance. It tore the basketball court floor apart right under the feet of hundreds of victims…the sacrificial lambs of the Black Moon Circle. They were seconds away from plunging into the chaos below.
Ainsley was the only person not panicking. While the others scrambled futilely to find safety, she stood calmly at center court with her arms raised, channeling the power of the coven to rile the destructive forces of nature.
“Ainsley, stop it!” Theo shouted, and started toward her.
Ainsley casually flicked a finger his way. Instantly, the gym floor in Theo’s path splintered and broke apart to reveal a deep chasm.
Theo put on the brakes, but his leather-soled shoes skidded on the slick court. He tried to resist, but his momentum was too strong. He was headed straight for the rift and about to become the first casualty.
“Gotcha!”
Theo was tackled hard and knocked back from the abyss, hitting the floor with a bone-jarring thud. He looked up at the guy who had saved him.
“We’re not going down that easy,” his savior said.
Marcus O’Mara had arrived at the dance.
* * *
I sprinted away from the hollow and back through the woods, headed for the school, with only the light from the freakish stars to guide me. I kept working at the rope around my wrists, which wasn’t easy while running, but I finally got the knots untied. The whole time I kept looking around for fear a tree might reach down and grab me or vines would snake out and wrap themselves around my ankles. None of that happened. Either the witches didn’t know I was gone, or they didn’t care because I was already too late.
I blasted out of the forest and sprinted for the gym, following the thumping bass sound. I rounded the building and was nearly there when I saw the lights flicker inside. Then the music died. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. Ainsley was there and doing the coven’s dirty work.
A few kids in zombie costumes came running out, looking as though they wanted to be anywhere else but there. Fright Night. Yeah, exactly.
“What’s going on?” I called to some kid wearing a Superman costume.
“I don’t know,” he called back in a shaky voice. “The place is falling apart.”
So much for Superman saving the day.
As I ran for the gym, I saw Nate sitting on his three-wheeled ATV near the entrance. It didn’t look as though he had even tried to go into the dance. Lucky for him.
“What the heck?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said in a panicked voice that was two octaves above normal. “It sounds like the whole place is coming down. I swear I had nothing to do with it.”
Another giant FRIGHT NIGHT banner hung over the doors. Whoever put that up had no idea how true those words were going to be.
I looked to Nate, and to his ATV. An idea was forming. A desperate idea, but still an idea.
“Don’t go anywhere, all right?” I called to him as I continued toward the gym.
“Why?” he asked. “So the cops can blame this on me?”
“No. So you can help end this, and maybe prove you’re innocent.”
Nate had no comeback and I didn’t wait for him to think of one. I sprinted into the building, through the lobby, and straight into the gym. The second my feet hit the wooden floor I felt it rumbling like an earthquake. Nothing like that was going on outside. Whatever was happening, it was focused on the gym.
I stood frozen a few feet inside the entrance, when all the doors suddenly slammed shut. Instinctively, I spun back to try and reopen them, but they were locked tight. If I had gotten there only a few seconds later, I would have been trapped outside. Now I was trapped inside. I wasn’t so sure which was worse. A few seconds later, the windows near the ceiling exploded, sending thousands of tiny bits of glass crashing to the floor.
Being in the gym was worse.
I didn’t know which way to turn or what to do. That’s when the shaking stopped. No sooner did I think the worst was over than the gym floor exploded in several places, giving way to sharp rock spires that drove up from below.
The coven’s plan was coming clear. They were going to wipe out every last kid in that gym. That was the sacrifice. Their presence would be announced to the world by a horrifying act that would prove their ability to control nature and dominate the human race.
And they were doing it all through Ainsley.
Ainsley.
She stood at center court in a circle of kids, calmly holding her arms out as she channeled the evil power of the coven to make the ground come alive.
I saw Theo break from the crowd on the opposite side of the gym and run for her.
“Ainsley, stop it!” he shouted.
That couldn’t be good. If she had the power to tear the gym apart, who knows what she’d do to Theo if he interfered. Without a second thought, I ran for him, hoping to stop him before Ainsley turned her destructive power on him. I was halfway across the empty stretch of gym when the floor broke apart and opened up in front of Theo. Ainsley wasn’t going to let him get close to her. If I had more than half a second to think about it, I probably wouldn’t have done what I did. But all I saw was my friend headed toward his doom. I sprinted forward and dove across the chasm, locked in on Theo.
“Gotcha!” I shouted.
I tackled him, hard, and the two of us tumbled to the floor. Safe. For a second, anyway.
“We’re not going down that easy,” I said.
Theo’s eyes were wide and wild. He knew how close he’d come to falling into the abyss.
“It’s about t-t-time you got here,” he stammered.
I scrambled to my feet, helped Theo up, and backed away from the chasm.
Ainsley stood, her arms outstretched, a serene look on her face as she gazed skyward. The gym was about to come crashing down on all of us, including her, and she couldn’t have cared less. The reign of the high priestess would be a short one. She was just another sacrifice. Her death would no doubt release the magic she’d been incubating so it could return to the original owners…a hundred times more powerful.
All around us, kids cowered in fear as the floor jumped and the walls cracked. Soon the heavy steel girders that held up the ceiling would buckle and fall. Nowhere was safe.
I looked up to see several of the glowing spirit-orbs floating in through the broken windows to hover near the ceiling and observe their high priestess from above. They were there to witness the revenge of their coven, and the sacrifice that would bring about its rebirth.
I didn’t know what to do.
But somebody did.
“Ainsley, stop it right now!”
The bold voice cut through the rumbling and cracking.
It wasn’t me. Or Theo. Or any of the kids who were whimpering and hugging one another.
It was Kayla.
She was on Ainsley’s side of the chasm, walking slowly toward her. It was a surreal sight to see this shy girl dressed as a princess walking straight and tall, showing no fear, while everyone else cowered.
Oh yeah, and she was talking.
“Please don’t do this,” she called out in a calm, sweet voice that none of the kids had ever heard before.
It got Ainsley’s attention.
Her face had been lifted toward the ceiling, but when she heard Kayla’s voice, she dropped her chin, and her eyes snapped open in surprise, as if hearing Kayla’s voice was an outrageously impossible event. Because it was.
“You always tried
to protect me,” Kayla said. “Now I want to protect you. Stop this before someone gets hurt.”
Ainsley stared at Kayla with a look of total confusion. I couldn’t tell if she understood what Kayla was saying, or if she was stunned because Kayla was saying anything at all.
Above us, the glowing orbs grew brighter. I don’t think anybody else in the gym noticed, or cared. They were too busy being terrified out of their minds.
But I saw it.
The witches weren’t happy.
Ainsley dropped her arms. Her entire body relaxed, as though she had been released from the powerful hold of the coven.
“Kayla?” she said. “You have such a sweet voice.”
Kayla smiled and shrugged.
The shaking slowly weakened. The floor felt solid again. The screeching, tearing sounds of the gym being ripped apart echoed into silence. None of the hundreds of kids who were scattered everywhere dared move.
Kayla approached Ainsley, slowly but confidently.
Ainsley shot quick, confused glances around the gym as if she was seeing it all for the first time.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice shaking with fear. “How did I get here?”
Kayla stepped up and took her hands.
“I don’t know,” Kayla said soothingly. “Keep looking at me. Listen to my voice. Whatever was happening here, we can’t let it start again.”
Tears grew in Ainsley’s eyes as she nodded in agreement.
The room suddenly grew bright as the overhead lights came back on with full power. The orange Halloween lights glowed once again and the DJ’s dance music boomed to life. The upbeat party music was an odd soundtrack to the scene of terror and destruction.
The exit doors flew open on their own, prompting a stampede of kids desperate to escape.
“What the heck?” Lu said as she ran up to us.
“You’re okay?” Theo asked.
“I think. I’ve never been paralyzed before. I don’t want it to happen again.”
The overhead lights grew bright. Brighter than normal. The huge room was lit up like it was daytime. I looked up to see the brilliant glow wasn’t coming just from the gym lighting. The multiple spirit-lights looked burning hot, as if enraged by Ainsley’s failure. They darted around like a swarm of angry bees, then suddenly swooped down as one and flew onto the stage and past the DJ, who dove out of the way. As the DJ hit the ground, the orbs kept moving and disappeared backstage.