The sky opened up.

A torrent of hailstones fell from the ominous dark cloud, bouncing off the boat, and us, like Ping-Pong balls. Hard, sharp Ping-Pong balls. Along with it came cold, piercing rain.

“I can’t see anything,” Lu called out with her hand up over her eyes to try to ward off the pelting assault from the sky. “I have to stop.”

She throttled back, and after one last push forward from the wake, the speedboat drifted to a standstill.

The barrage of hailstones didn’t let up, hitting us hard and stinging our skin. I dug under the back bench and pulled out the canvas covering that had protected the boat in the slip. The three of us held it up like a limp umbrella for whatever lame protection it offered against the deluge.

“Where did this come from?” Theo yelled, wide-eyed.

“Guess,” Lu replied. “Did you think we were kidding about the Boggin?”

“The storm is growing,” I declared.

The sky darkened as the storm cloud expanded from within like a blooming flower. A giant, gray killer flower.

I lifted the binoculars and looked toward my parents.

The pelting rain and hail had hit them too. They did the smart thing and quickly lowered their sails. While Dad stowed them below, Mom dropped the propeller of the outboard. It was a small, eight-horsepower engine that was mostly used to get in and out of the marina. It didn’t offer much speed, but it was better than having sails up in a storm. That would be dangerous.

“They’re okay,” I announced. “They’re headed toward us under power, about a half mile away.”

“We can tow them in,” Lu said. “I’ll motor ahead slowly.”

Lu eased the throttle forward, and the propeller kicked in, pushing us gently ahead. The hailstones continued, pounding the canvas covering our heads. The incessant clatter of ice against the fiberglass hull was so loud that I could barely hear our engine.

None of us questioned what was going on or what might happen. All we could do was keep moving.

“Here comes the fog,” Theo announced.

The white mist enveloped us quickly. Oddly, as soon as we were engulfed, the rain and hail stopped. I threw the canvas cover off and looked around to see a whole lot of nothing. The fog didn’t create a complete whiteout, but it obliterated any view of my parents’ boat.

“Do you have an air horn?” I asked Lu.

Lu flipped up her own seat and took out an air horn. I grabbed it, raised it into the air, squeezed the trigger, and let out two sharp, ear-piercing blasts.

“Oww,” Theo wailed, sticking his fingers in his ears. “A little warning, please.”

Ten seconds later my signal was answered by two horn blasts from my parents.

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “We can guide them toward us with the horn. I’ll let out a blast every thirty seconds.”

“We shouldn’t go any faster than this,” Lu said. “I don’t want to miss them. Or hit them.”

“This is good,” I said. “We’ll reach them soon enough and—”

“Whoa, what is that?” Theo exclaimed.

He walked forward to the bow, looking dead ahead.

I joined him but didn’t see a thing.

“All I see is fog,” I said.

“The water,” he said, the tension in his voice growing. “Something’s down there.”

He pointed to a spot roughly twenty yards ahead of us. The water was perfectly calm, with no swells or even a ripple from the wind. But the spot he was pointing to, dead ahead, was bubbling.

“Stop!” I shouted to Lu.

She immediately shifted into neutral, then quickly slipped the engine into reverse. The water from our wake flowed around us, coaxing us forward, but the engine fought back until we were once again at a standstill.

Another foghorn sounded. My parents were asking for directions.

I lifted our horn and gave them a sharp return signal, but my attention was on the water ahead of us.

The bubbling grew more intense.

“That’s not a natural phenomenon,” Theo said.

“It’s her,” I said soberly.

The bubbling water began moving. It started out slow and very small, but it was plenty dramatic. It was a whirlpool. The water swirled clockwise, creating a funnel-like underwater tornado that quickly grew. And grew.

“Reverse!” I shouted to Lu.

Lu throttled up, and we backed away from the phenomenon.

“I feel the pull,” Lu said. “It’s trying to suck us in.”

“Fight it!” I ordered.

Lu gave the engine more power as the whirlpool continued to grow in size and strength. The movement was so strong that the fog in the air above it began to swirl, creating a strange weather event just for us.

Another sharp horn blast cut through the fog.

I lifted my own horn automatically to respond, but Theo grabbed my arm.

“No,” he warned. “You’re drawing them right to it.”

I turned to Lu and shouted, “Get us outta here!”

Lu didn’t have to be told twice. She instantly spun the wheel hard and accelerated to get away from the spinning water.

“We’re not moving,” she announced. “It’s holding us here.”

“Gun it!” I commanded.

Lu pushed the throttle back. The engine revved and complained, but we didn’t move. We were held in the claws of this swirling monster.

“It’s okay,” I said hopefully. “It’s an illusion. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It only looks real.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Theo said.

“The Boggin has no physical power,” I argued. “It can only create images. We’re looking at shadows.”

“Really?” he said. “Does this look like an illusion to you?”

He held up his arm to show me a slash that ran across his forearm. Blood welled in the deep wound.

“How did that happen?” I asked.

“I got hit by one of the hailstones. If the Boggin created that storm, it wasn’t just an illusion. She has some control over the physical world.”

I thought back to the hammer that the Boggin had lifted off my basement floor and flung at me. The rules of this war were changing.

We both looked toward the churning whirlpool, which was now ten yards wide. It was holding us in its grip. Anything caught in that eddy would be sucked down into the depths. I had no doubt that it was big enough, and powerful enough, to bring us down, along with the sailboat that was growing closer by the second.

Was this how my parents had died?

I stood staring at the swirling menace, not knowing what to do. This was my fault. I had put my family and friends in danger. I should have chucked that key and never gone back to that library, no matter what my biological father wanted. Going to the Library turned out to be a tragic mistake for him. And my mother. And the Swenors. Now the people who raised me were headed for the same fate. All because of a weird library that supposedly helped people in supernatural trouble.

In that moment, I didn’t care about Everett and his library of unfinished stories.

I cared about my parents.

“Stop it!” I screamed, looking up to the gray sky. “You want the key? Come on! Come and get it!”

“What are you doing, Marcus?” Lu said.

“Where are you?” I shouted to nowhere. “Show yourself. Face me!”

“Marcus, look,” Theo said, pointing into the swirling vortex.

A cloud of white mist drifted up from below, moving strangely against the downward spiral of water. It spun in the air and formed a small tornado that moved in the reverse direction of the whirlpool. It wasn’t a natural event. The thing was moving with purpose.

The swirling cloud rose up out of the vortex, then floated toward us.

“Tell me again how none of this is real,” Theo said nervously as he backed toward the stern of the boat.

I stood with my legs apart, facing it. Whatever the Boggin was sending our way, I wasn’t going to back down from it.

The spinning vapor rose up until it was over the bow of the speedboat.

“I can’t get away from it,” Lu announced.

“Good,” I said, standing firm.

The small tornado hovered over the bow as a shadow appeared from within. It grew quickly into a human shape. The vapor blew away, leaving the old woman in the dark-green dress standing on the bow of the boat. Or was she floating?

“Whoa,” Theo exclaimed, and fell back onto the bench seat.

“Well, that just happened,” Lu said, stunned, as she stood close behind me, peering over my shoulder.

“I…I didn’t really believe…” was all Theo managed to say.

Now he did.

“You can end this, child,” the Boggin said in a voice that cut through me like the shrill sound of a knife slicing metal. “Your parents do not have to die.”

“They won’t die!” Lu shouted. “It’s all just shadows.”

The sky opened up again, sending a shower of heavy, sharp hailstones raining down on us. They hit. They stung.

“Ow!” Lu screamed. She was hit directly on her forehead by a chunk of ice, opening up a nasty gash. The impact knocked her backward, and she fell on the bench seat, next to Theo.

Though I was being pummeled, I didn’t move or flinch. I kept my eyes on the Boggin.

The deluge ended abruptly.

“I have grown strong over the millennia,” the Boggin said calmly. “Fear is a powerful weapon that can destroy the strongest of wills.”

“Including yours,” I said defiantly.

The spirit laughed.

“You don’t truly believe that?” she said, scoffing.

“I do,” I said. “You can be frightened.”

“What could I possibly fear?” she said.

I felt like a fisherman who just got the first telltale tug on his line.

“You’re afraid of the Library.”

“That library is nothing more than an annoyance,” she said harshly.

I’d hit a nerve.

The fish had taken the bait.

“Then why do you want to destroy it?”

“Because I’m tired of the constant attempts to contain me.”

“So you are afraid of it!”

“There is nothing I fear!” she shouted, her anger rising.

“I don’t believe you,” I said, taunting her.

I knelt down, pulled the metal vessel out of the backpack, and held it up for her to see.

“You know what this is?” I asked.

It looked as though she stiffened with surprise, ever so slightly.

“You believe the sight of that crude prison is enough to frighten me?”

“No.”

I walked a few steps forward and put the metal box down on the deck directly below where she hovered. I kicked open the lid and stood back.

“But the idea of being trapped in there frightens you,” I said.

She shook her head dismissively. “Child, I have been imprisoned in vessels similar to that one for centuries at a time. There is nothing about it that frightens me.”

“Prove it,” I said. “Go inside.”

She stared down at the box. For that brief moment she seemed to be nothing more than a scared old woman and not the face of everyone’s worst fears.

“I do not need to prove anything to you,” she finally said.

The horn sounded from my parents’ boat. It made me jump in surprise, for it was getting dangerously close to the spinning waters.

I reached around my neck and grasped the leather cord holding the key. I pulled it over my head.

“Whoa, Marcus, are you sure?” Lu cautioned.

I held the key in my fist and said to the Boggin, “I’m doing this to save them, but you have to work for it. Prove to me that you’re not afraid.”

“How could I possibly do that?” she asked, almost giddy. Her excitement over getting her hands on the Paradox key was growing.

“I’m surrendering this key to you,” I said.

I tossed the key into the box. It hit the bottom with a metallic clatter.

“But you have to go get it.”

“Oh man,” Lu said, defeated.

The Boggin stared down at the container with a mix of fear and longing. She wanted that key. She needed that key. The Library represented her only challenge on the face of the planet. It was so close.

All she had to do was get it.

Theo and Lu got up and stood behind me. All eyes were on the Boggin, waiting for her to make the next move.

“You think this frightens me?” she said while staring down at the box. “No matter what happens, the final victory will always be mine, for I have something you mortals do not.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Time,” she said. “I have existed for thousands of years, and I will exist for thousands more. If there is one thing I have developed, it is patience. I will always be here, waiting, for I have all the time in the world.”

The old woman spun around and transformed back into vapor. The black shadow melted into white, and the swirling mist descended toward the vessel.

I held my breath.

Lu grasped my arm and squeezed.

The white cloud shrank down and entered the box.

“Do it!” Theo screamed.

I kicked the lid shut and dove to the deck. In my hand was the copper wire. I quickly slid it through the latch and gave it a twist to make sure it wouldn’t fall off.

“Make it tight!” Lu ordered.

I gave it another twist, then stood up and backed toward my friends.

We stood together, staring at the box, waiting for something to happen. Would it bounce? Would it explode? Would the lid flip open, and would the Boggin come flying out like an enraged Tasmanian devil?

“Are you sure that little wire’s strong enough to hold it?” Theo asked nervously.

“It’s not about how strong it is; it’s about what it’s made of. Are you sure it’s copper?”

“Absolutely,” he replied with confidence. “The cable companies use pure copper because it’s a great conductor and—”

The green box lit up. A warm light enveloped it, making it glow.

We all took a surprised step backward.

“She’s burning it open!” Lu exclaimed.

The warm glow grew brighter, lighting up not only the box but the deck around it.

“At least, I thought it was pure copper,” Theo said, his voice quivering.

The light grew so bright that I had to shield my eyes.

“It’s okay,” I said, and pointed to the sky. “She’s not going anywhere.”

We all looked up to see the dark clouds breaking apart, allowing rays of sunshine to sneak through. There was no more hail. No more rain. The warm glow wasn’t being made by the Boggin. It was sunlight hitting the boat.

The swirling vortex of water in front of us spun out. With a gurgle, the hole disappeared, and the surface of the Sound was once again calm.

“I knew it was pure copper,” Theo said, cocky.

“Look!” Lu exclaimed.

A sailboat appeared through the mist ahead of us, off the port bow.

“That was cutting it a little too close,” she said, exhaling with relief.

The boat seemed like a ghostly apparition as it appeared from out of the mist.

“Wait,” Theo said. “Why are their sails up?”

One look at the boat gave me the answer.

“It’s not my parents,” I said. “Our boat’s way smaller than that.”

This sailboat was nearly twice the length of ours. It looked to be a vintage craft, with lots of teak trim and a large silver wheel to the stern. Whereas our boat was designed for short cruises, this beauty looked as though it could navigate more challenging ocean waters.

“Where did they come from?” Theo asked.

The beautiful boat approached us smoothly, several yards off to port. I couldn’t take my eyes off it as it cut through the water with its sails perfectly trimmed and filled with wind.

But there was no wind.

Something was off.

“Who’s the guy?” Lu asked.

Standing in the very tip of the bow was a man I was surprised to see, only this time I understood why he was there. And I wasn’t frightened.

It was Michael Swenor.

He was wearing khakis and a sweater, standard sailing clothes. Unlike the other times I’d seen him, when he’d stared at me with sad, haunted eyes, Michael actually looked relaxed. And happy. As the sleek craft approached, he raised his hand, waved to me, and smiled.

“You know him?” Theo asked.

“I do,” I said.

“What’s he so happy about?” Lu asked skeptically. “He must have gotten hit by the storm too.”

“I think it’s because his story is finally complete,” I said.

“Oh,” Lu said. “Wait, what?”

I waved to Michael with pride, knowing he could now rest in peace.

As the boat swept past, I saw that there were two other people aboard. A man and a woman. The man was at the wheel, toward the stern, and the woman was at his side. His arm was around her waist. Like Michael, both wore boating clothes, looking like a couple who couldn’t be happier while out for a morning sail.

And they looked familiar.

As they drew closer and I got a better look at them, I felt certain I’d met them before. They were definitely familiar to me, yet they weren’t at all. It wasn’t until they were directly across from us, as close as they were going to get, that it hit me.

The guy looked like me. An adult me. He gave me a big smile and a thumbs-up.

The woman blew me a kiss and waved. We were close enough that I could see she was smiling through bittersweet tears.

“You know them too?” Lu asked, incredulous.

I waved back numbly. I wanted to laugh, and shout, and maybe cry a little myself. I felt completely whole and, at the same time, very alone. If there was one overriding emotion that swept over me in that moment, it was pride. I had made them proud.

“They’re my parents,” I said.

“No, they’re not,” Theo said, scoffing. “They don’t look anything like…”

Theo’s words caught in his throat as we watched the boat glide past.

“…ghosts.”

The image I will always keep with me is of two happy people out for an afternoon sail with their friend, looking at me with huge, loving smiles.

My father raised two fingers to put bunny ears behind my mother’s head.

Then they were gone, disappearing into the mist of the chilly fall day.

“And that just happened,” Lu said, stunned.

The harsh sound of an air horn brought us all back to the moment.

Mom and Dad’s sailboat puttered up to us as the fog dissipated and bright sunlight painted the surface of the water.

Mom leaned over the side with a line at the ready.

“Are you kids all right?” she called, sounding frazzled.

Theo, Lu, and I exchanged looks and laughed.

“We’re fine,” I called back. “What about you?”

“Scared to death!” Mom exclaimed as she tossed me the line.

We all worked to bring the sailboat up alongside the powerboat. Dad cut the outboard motor, and we drifted together.

Mom immediately leapt into our boat, threw her arms around me, and hugged me close.

“That was horrible!” she exclaimed. “I was so worried for you kids.”

She opened her arms out wider so that Lu and Theo could get the benefit of her motherly hug. They both went along with it while we all exchanged smiles. Nobody rolled their eyes.

“What did you see?” Lu asked.
“Hail!” she said. “I’d never been through such a thing. Theo, you’re hurt. And, Lu, you’ve got a cut on your forehead.”

“We’re okay,” Lu assured her. “Just some nicks.”

“I’ll get the first-aid kit,” Mom said.

“That’s all you saw?” I asked.

“What else was there to see?” Dad said as he leaned in from the sailboat. “It was pea soup fog. I was afraid we’d ram you. What are you all doing out here, anyway?”

Lu and Theo looked to me. This was my call. I had to answer.

“It was so calm, we thought you’d be stuck out here. That little outboard is useless, so we came out to see if you’d need a tow. We had no idea that storm was going to come out of nowhere.”

I exchanged looks with Theo and Lu. They nodded. They got it. I wasn’t about to tell my parents the whole story. Especially not since it was over and everyone was safe.

“Well, thank you,” Mom said as she pulled away. “You kids are the best.”

“Yes, we are,” Lu said with a smug smile.

“I’m just relieved we’re all safe,” Mom said. “But I’m freezing. We’ve got enough dry sweatshirts for everybody.”

She gave us one last squeeze and let us all go. She then took a step toward the bow and accidentally tripped over the metal vessel that was on the deck between the seats.

The three of us gasped, fearing the thin copper wire might break.

I lunged forward and caught Mom before she went crashing to the deck.

“Ow!” she yelled. “I’m such a clod.”

“Sorry,” Lu said, and quickly picked the box up. “It’s a gearbox. Shouldn’t have left it out like that.”

She shoved it into Theo’s arms.

“Don’t drop it,” she said while staring him down.

“Don’t worry,” Theo replied.

While Lu and Dad worked to lash together a tow, Mom grabbed both of my shoulders and leaned in close.

“Thank you for coming out here,” she said.

“No problem,” I said with a casual shrug. “You’re my mom. Maybe you still need me too.”

I thought I actually saw tears grow in her eyes. She pulled me in and gave me another hug. It was embarrassing, yeah. But that was okay. I guess she was a hugger after all. Theo and Lu weren’t about to give me a hard time.

They knew what I had sacrificed to save my parents.

Mom climbed back aboard our sailboat to get the dry sweatshirts and the first-aid kit. It gave Theo, Lu, and me a moment alone.

“I love happy endings,” Lu said.

“Me too,” I replied. “Except this story isn’t over just yet.”