The rain continued to blow in. I stumbled to the window, crunching on broken glass, my legs weak. What if he was lying on the ground with a broken leg? Or worse. But a soft flash of lightning revealed nothing below.
I fumbled around until I found my flashlight and shined it about, searching for the owner of the hand that had grabbed me. Again, nothing—or no one—was here. Who was that man? Where had he taken Finn?
I had to do something, but what? I rushed back down the stairs to the living room. It was still dark in the house and my flashlight was dying. The thunder and lightning had stopped, but the steady rain continued to pound the roof. It grew louder in its attack as if trying to get in. Wind raced around me from the open window, and I shivered despite the muggy air that blew across me with the scent of fresh cut grass.
Bo Chez—I needed my grandfather. My trembling fingers punched in the number for his cell phone, but the phone line was dead. If only he had let me have a cell phone. I ran to the front window. The driveway was empty.
I ran to the kitchen and looked out back. The creek was a wall of mud and water, the path now washed away. I could push through the thick brush to Finn’s house or take the long way around on the road to get his family’s help, but how could I explain the weird thing that had happened in the attic? And what could they do? It struck me then how lucky Finn was. He had a whole family who would miss him. Only Bo Chez would miss me, and if I had a brother I would protect him, no matter what.
A lingering toast smell filled me up, reminding me of my aloneness. Think!
There was no time to wait for Bo Chez’s help. What if the road had been washed out, too, and Bo Chez wasn’t coming back soon? What if Finn was dead? Time ticked faster as my head reeled with so many questions.
My one terrifying choice: to try and get Finn back by myself. I took off to my room and, with no idea what could come in handy, snatched up mini chocolate bars and a pen flashlight, and crammed them in my pockets along with my favorite drawing pencil. Would the lightning come back and take me? It’s not supposed to strike in the same place twice. But that scary voice told me it would, and it hadn’t sounded like it was kidding.
Bo Chez’s crystal! He said it had the power to command the very heavens. I just thought it was part of the stories he made up. He told me that I would know what the crystal’s abilities were in time, but who knew when that would be? I needed power—needed to believe it had power—and I needed it now. I ran downstairs, pried open the case with scissors, and with shaking hands took the crystal. It pulsed through my fingers, then glowed blue and grew warm.
I gasped and almost dropped it when a shiny square of paper tucked inside the corner of the case in its seam caught my eye. I tugged it out to turn over a laminated photo and sucked in my breath. I had never seen a picture of my mother, but Bo Chez had described her so often it was like staring at the exact image I created in my head. I ran my fingers across the smooth surface of her face.
Bo Chez told me we lost all our photos in a fire when I was a baby. Why would he have kept this from me? My mom smiled at me with big, blue eyes and wavy hair, the same colored eyes and dirty blond hair as mine. Diana. Her name was Diana. She died just after I was born. I bugged Bo Chez for more stories about her, but he gave me only vague details, except one: my mother never told anyone who my father was, not even him.
I’d lived my life without a mother, but I needed her now. I shoved the photo and crystal into my pockets and ran back up to the attic.
Sweat ran down my back as the warm August air washed over me and the scent of earthworms filled my nose. Thunder rumbled far in the distance. I pushed aside the broken glass and knelt where Finn had stood. Water bled into my jeans from the rain pooled on the floor. It seemed like forever ago that I wished Finn would hurry up and get here.
Lightning flashed. I welcomed and feared it. My chest tightened, but there was no time for panic. The crystal warmed my fingers through the deep pocket of my jeans. Bo Chez had to be right—the crystal had powers. What would they be?
Thunder crackled.
“Yeah, just come and get me!” I yelled into the storm, and a bolt of light took the tree across the creek. The top exploded in a fiery ball, then sizzled black. Thunder broke loud over my head like a giant clapping his hands together, and blue light exploded through the broken window. Two rough hands yanked me up.
Light blazed everywhere and heavy, scratchy material bound me tight as I was pulled upward into a swirling wind tunnel.
Anger felt better than fear, so I kicked my kidnapper. “Where’s Finn?”
“You’ll find out soon, Reeker.”
Daring a peek, I saw a wide gray hat slung low over one green eye that blazed at me. Where the other eye should have been was a crater. One side of his face oozed red, melted mush! The man from my nightmares!
“Finn!”
The man held me tighter, choking off my words. His stink made me want to throw up. I strained to see over his cloak, wondering where his smell had struck me before. It hurt to breathe, and dizziness engulfed me, knowing the monster in my dreams was real.
Yellow and white ribbons of fire snaked before us in a black tunnel, and I froze in absolute terror. Lights ricocheted through the darkness on either side of me like shooting stars. We moved faster and faster. Wind roared everywhere.
“Stop looking around!” The man in gray knocked me hard upside the head.
I sank into darkness.