“The north face is forbidden. Danger waits there.” The Shroud’s voice echoed through the cave like the rustle of dead leaves and the snapping of dry twigs … or bones. The shape that rose up to prevent their escape was larger than Daniel remembered, its billowing black cloak snuffing out the light of their flashlights, its bulk blocking their path. Wisps of darkness seemed to undulate around its body, and its green heart of fire pulsed in slow rhythm.
Daniel had the dread suspicion that he and Mollie had just discovered the author of the Rules. The Rules weren’t meant to protect the children; they were meant to protect this thing, to keep its home safe. And the two of them had just been caught trespassing.
Mollie grabbed hold of Daniel’s cast. He put his good hand on hers to calm her, but he realized she wasn’t looking for reassurance; she was gently pulling him away. She was leading him slowly, slowly, toward the entrance of the cave, toward the Shroud.
“What are you doing?” he whispered.
“We’re cornered. Trapped. We need to get outside. Whatever you do, don’t hesitate. Follow me as fast as you can, then just keep running.”
Daniel stared at the shadow blocking their escape and wondered how they could possibly make it past. It nearly filled the cave. And it was getting closer.
“I just hope it’s solid,” she said.
“What? Why?”
“So that I can do this!” Mollie let go of Daniel’s arm and flew, straight as an arrow, toward the Shroud. She slammed like a bullet into the chest of the thing. As it turned out, the Shroud was quite solid, because Daniel heard it gasp as the wind was knocked out of it. Its great swelling blackness crumpled around little Mollie Lee as the two of them tumbled out of the cave’s mouth and out of view.
Despite Mollie’s instructions, Daniel didn’t move right away. He was in shock. One minute the Shroud was blocking their path, and the next Mollie was flying into the creature and disappearing down the hill….
Mollie!
Daniel snapped to his senses and ran for the mouth of the cave. When he reached the outside, he saw Mollie lying some twenty feet down the hill. She had landed in a bunch of tall grass, and though she was moving, she looked pretty dazed.
Unfortunately, the Shroud was still conscious as well. It had landed only a few feet from Mollie and was standing, or, more accurately, floating upright.
Daniel glanced to his left and saw the path clear ahead of him. The way out of the quarry was unguarded, and Daniel had plenty of time now to make his escape—just as Mollie had wanted. But that wasn’t what Daniel wanted. There was no way that he was going to leave her here with that thing. It had stolen the powers and memories of countless children just for the crime of turning thirteen. Who knew what it might do to Mollie, now that she had invaded its lair. But what could an ordinary boy with a broken arm do against such a monster?
“Hey! Hey, Ugly! Up here!”
It was not one of Daniel’s best plans. But in the heat of the moment, sometimes there isn’t time for thinking. Sometimes you just have to act.
The Shroud turned its head toward Daniel and seemed to be studying him, judging whether he was enough of a threat to warrant immediate attention. Daniel needed to get it away from Mollie, so he decided to stack the odds in his favor with some good old-fashioned trash-talking.
“You know, I’m not one of your Supers, so your stupid little Rules don’t apply to me. I think I’ll come around here all I want. Matter of fact, I might bring some other people, too, like the local sheriff, maybe even the Department of Homeland Security….”
It was enough. The Shroud hissed and reared back its faceless head before slinking across the ground and up the hill toward Daniel.
Unfortunately, this was as far as Daniel’s plan went. In just a moment, the Shroud would have him, and Daniel had no weapons other than his flashlight. Remembering the encounter at Simon’s window, Daniel decided to try a desperate trick. He waited until the Shroud was just feet from him, then he flicked on his flashlight full in its eyes, or at least where its eyes would be if it had them. Even this close up, Daniel could make out no more detail than before. It was as if someone had cut away a shroud of shadow and given it form, with only that sickly green heart to disturb the blackness.
As before, the flash of light seemed to make it hesitate. It slowed its attack and even pulled back slightly. But Daniel’s flashlight was still only a flashlight. On its second advance it dove to the right quickly, avoiding the direct glare of the beam. In one fluid move, the Shroud batted the light from Daniel’s hands, and all he could do was watch as it clattered down the rocky slope. Daniel felt his breath catch in his chest as he watched long fingers of shadow creep out from the thing’s hands, which were flexing and clawing eagerly at its side.
But to Daniel’s surprise, it didn’t turn those hands on him. Instead it stayed still, and Daniel could feel the monster’s stare even if he couldn’t see its eyes.
“Such a smart boy. So smart and so brave for one so weak. So soft, and so … breakable.”
The Shroud gestured to Daniel’s broken arm. Again, its raspy voice grated along his nerves, making the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. Something in its pitch, its timbre, made every impulse in him scream, “Run!” But he held his ground. If he tried to flee, he had no doubt that it would overtake him anyway.
“You’re … you’re right. I’m not one of them.” Daniel’s own voice had lost its earlier bluster. Now he couldn’t disguise the terror he was feeling.
“What are you, then?”
“I’m … I’m just a boy.”
“Ah, now there you are wrong.”
Daniel felt then a gust of wind, and the next thing he knew, he’d been knocked off his feet and yanked up into the air. Something had a hold of him, and that something was Mollie.
“We’re leaving!” she yelled. “Hold on tight!”
He wrapped his good arm around her waist and watched as the ground disappeared below them. Mollie’s face was red and the veins in her temple bulged with the effort, but pure adrenaline was giving her the strength she needed now. For Daniel’s part, he looked down at the disappearing ground and willed himself to think light thoughts.
They had broken above the tree line and Mollie was just making the turn toward Noble’s Green when Daniel saw the creature rising up through the trees. The Shroud was giving chase, and it was gaining. Ordinarily, Daniel wouldn’t have doubted that Mollie could outfly it, but with his extra weight, they were losing ground.
Mollie felt it, too. Without warning, she changed direction and flew up—straight up.
“Where are you going?” Daniel shouted, his voice barely carrying over the wind.
“An old trick of Michael’s! Hang on!” And with that she flew faster, aiming for a bank of low clouds that had settled around the peak of Mount Noble.
The Shroud was only a few feet behind them when they entered the clouds. The night sky disappeared in the black mist, and Daniel felt the little pellets of rain sting his face as the air turned cold.
They were twisting, turning, changing direction, but by now Daniel was too disoriented to know if it was on purpose or if Mollie was simply lost as well. They were flying blind, and Daniel even wondered if she knew which way was up.
The Shroud appeared out of nowhere. One second they were alone in the dense mist, the next the creature was blocking their path. Luckily, it seemed as startled as they were, and it hesitated for half a second. Half a second was all Mollie needed to drop below its reach and disappear once more into the murky vapor.
Daniel felt another lurching change of direction, and when they broke the cloud cover, they found themselves high in the sky, looking down at the storm bank. The cold wind up here was bitter and thin, and Daniel’s ears and fingers began to sting with frost.
“There!” Mollie shouted. “Found one!”
“Huh?” Daniel managed between chattering teeth.
“A current!” Mollie said with a smile. “Now we let
the wind fly for us!”
Then they were diving, barreling through the sky and clouds, past trees and mountain.
Daniel managed to squint behind them and see that they had escaped the Shroud with Mollie’s desperate dive. Once more they flew alone—alone while hurtling at a fantastic speed toward the lights, and hard ground, of Noble’s Green.
As they flew faster still toward the ground, Daniel noticed that Mollie was no longer smiling.
“Uh-oh, too fast,” she muttered. He couldn’t really hear her in the roar of the wind, but he could read her lips well enough, because it was what he was also thinking as the ground rushed up to meet them.
Uh-oh.
Chapter Fourteen
Journey Home
A good soak wasn’t too much of a price to pay for surviving a high-speed chase with a shadowy, memory-stealing monster. Daniel was so sure of this that he repeated it to himself over and over again as he sloshed his way along the long road home to Elm Lane.
Their landing had been rough, to say the least. It was only due to Mollie’s extraordinary flying that they weren’t impaled on a bunch of trees or flattened against a roof. As it was, she had managed to steer their fall into Tangle Creek, skidding along the water’s surface to slow their momentum, until the only damage done was a record-setting splash.
All that was left was the walk home. Mollie was so exhausted that she could barely stand, much less fly. So Daniel helped her along, his good arm around her waist. The fact that she accepted his help at all was proof of just how worn-out she was.
With every step, dirty creek water squirted out of Daniel’s sneakers. He looked down at his dripping cast and grimaced. Even if Daniel managed to make it home and into his bedroom without being noticed, even if he managed to hide his soggy clothes, the cast would be a dead giveaway. The mucky water of Tangle Creek had given the plaster a greenish tinge that would be impossible to hide. No matter what, his bad arm would rat him out.
It took a while, but eventually his one-foot-in-front-of-the-other strategy paid off and they made it back to Elm Lane, although it was a good two hours past his curfew. Daniel wasn’t surprised to find his parents waiting for him.
Daniel had expected Mollie to go straight home, as her parents were probably worried as well, but instead she walked with him all the way to his front porch, where he found his father pacing back and forth.
“Daniel,” his father said. Daniel decided that a preemptive strategy would work best—throw himself at his father’s feet and hope for mercy.
“Dad, I’m sorry I’m so late. But Mollie and I were taking a walk after dinner, and we lost track of where we were.”
His father glanced at the children’s damp clothing, their streaked, muddy faces. “A walk? Which lake were you walking in, exactly?”
“Well, like I said, we got a little lost….”
“Never mind about that now. Mollie, you’d better run along home, your parents are worried sick.” Something in his dad’s tone bothered Daniel. He seemed distracted … and much, much too calm. He should’ve been furious with him.
At that moment Daniel’s mother appeared at the door. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face puffy—she had been crying.
“Mom,” Daniel said. “I’m all right, I’m okay.”
“Oh, honey,” she said, and then went back into the house. Daniel could hear her sobbing as she went up the stairs.
Bewildered, he looked back to his father, who put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Daniel, we need to talk. It’s about Gram.”
“What?” Daniel demanded. “What about her?” His earlier fear was gone, replaced by something fiercer. He didn’t even notice that he was practically shouting at his own father.
“Daniel … she’s gone.”
Daniel didn’t hear what his father said after that. His world suddenly got very small, and the pounding of his own heart made him deaf to anything else. He turned back to Mollie—had she heard the same thing? Perhaps Daniel was imagining all of this and Mollie could simply punch him in the arm and tell him to snap out of it.
But Mollie wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.
One minute she was right behind him, and then the next, she was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
Flowers and Casseroles
Daniel’s shirt collar was overly starched and scratched against his neck, and his shoes were too tight, forcing him to keep flexing his toes so that they wouldn’t fall asleep. He had already gotten rid of that awful tie—a blue and black one that he’d had to wear to church back in Philadelphia—and he wondered if it would be rude to take off his shoes as well and just walk around in his socks. There was a hole in one of them, over his right pinky toe, but that shouldn’t matter. A boy should be able to walk around his own house with holes in his socks.
What prevented him from doing so was that his house was full of strangers—Daniel refused to call them guests. Guests were people you invited to a party or some other kind of joyful event, but these people all came together because something awful had happened. And now they were all in Daniel’s house, eating and drinking together for some reason that Daniel couldn’t begin to understand.
The funeral had been earlier in the day. Daniel’s parents drove them out to the small church that Gram used to go to, before she got sick. There was a reverend who said some nice things about Gram, and then he said a whole lot more about God and heaven and stuff. Daniel thought he spent far too much time on God, and wished he’d talked a little more about Gram, but he seemed kind enough and he shook Daniel’s hand when it was over and told him to be brave.
Then they drove out to the cemetery and some more people said some more nice things. Daniel’s mother started to say something, but she got too upset to talk, so his father stepped in and put his arms around her. Daniel heard her saying, “My mom’s gone,” over and over, and this struck Daniel as strange for some reason. Gram was just Gram—he didn’t think of her as someone’s mom. In the same way, Daniel’s mother was just Daniel’s mother—he didn’t think about her being someone’s daughter.
When they came home, everyone came with them.
They all brought over food—sandwiches, potato salad, cakes and pies and too many casseroles to count—which Daniel figured was supposed to be a nice gesture. But he wondered what they would do with all that stuff since there was no way one family could ever eat so much. It seemed like an awfully big waste.
So with a house full of strangers bearing food, Daniel found himself sitting on the back porch with Georgie, tugging at his over-starched collar. Georgie was lucky, Daniel thought. Their parents had changed him out of his nice clothes the minute they got home. They were probably afraid that he would get them all dirty, which in fact he would have. He was sitting in the dirt right now, putting one of his favorite balls into the back of a toy truck, dumping it and then starting all over again. He had been at it for twenty minutes and seemed nowhere close to quitting.
When the back door opened, Daniel turned around, expecting to see another of the adults offering their condolences and some more food, but he was surprised to find a strange girl he didn’t recognize standing behind the screen. She was wearing a dark dress with a lacy collar and white stockings. Her hair was done up in braids.
“Are you one of my cousins?” Daniel asked.
“Are you a moron?” the girl snapped back.
Daniel did a double take.
“M-Mollie?”
Mollie came out onto the porch and let the door clang shut behind her. She sat down next to Daniel on the steps and smoothed out her skirt while tugging at her stockings.
“I didn’t recognize you. In that dress, and your hair …”
“Not. Another. Word.”
Daniel said nothing, but he couldn’t resist a smile. It was the first time he’d smiled in days.
“My mom and dad are inside talking with your parents. They brought over a casserole and told me to see if you wanted anything to eat.”
Dani
el rolled his eyes. “No thanks.”
“Rohan’s here, but some woman has him cornered and won’t stop pinching his cheeks.”
“That would be my mom’s great-aunt Flora. She never had any kids of her own and, well … I got the Flora treatment earlier.” Daniel rubbed his left cheek. It was still sore.
“So. Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” answered Daniel. Then the two of them sat together for a while and watched Georgie and his dump truck.
Eventually Rohan joined them. He was wearing a smart little bow tie and a dark suit that was too big in the sleeves.
“That woman must be stopped,” he said, rubbing the feeling back into his cheek. “She’s just lucky I don’t have super-strength.”
The three of them sat on the porch and chatted about nothing for a while. Daniel had hoped that people would get tired and go home early, but instead the noise from inside the house just got louder. More people were showing up every minute, and Daniel was glad that they hadn’t yet spilled out to the backyard.
Eventually the conversation turned to the night at the quarry. Daniel couldn’t believe that it had happened only three nights ago—to him it seemed like something out of another life entirely. Someone else’s life.
Mollie had already told Rohan about the Shroud and the tunnel with the solid-rock door, but now was an opportunity to fill him in on the details. Mollie went through their whole adventure together, play by play, while Daniel sat silently, picking at the paint peelings on the porch steps. Occasionally Mollie would ask Daniel if she was getting some little detail right, and he would nod or offer a clarification. But all this was a story Daniel had no desire to be a part of again, even if it was just in its retelling. His mind was on Gram. He’d meant to spend more time with her, but there always seemed to be something else that needed doing. His friends, his super-powered friends, had needed him while his gram got sicker and sicker. Apparently Daniel had chosen his priorities, and he’d chosen wrong.