Jayden puttered around her bedroom, trying to figure out which items she should ‘transport’ to the dream world. One of Max’s suggestions was to bring ribbons to tie around trees, but she never used ribbons in her long, black hair. She did, however, have a small selection of coloured shoe laces. She tied half a dozen to her left wrist and stuffed the rest in her jeans pocket. I’m not puttin’ on pjs tonight – jeans and t-shirt for this cross over. Rummaging through her sock drawer, she spied her dad’s referee whistle, the one he used for refereeing soccer games when she was a kid. She draped the braided cord around her neck and allowed the whistle to dangle on her chest. The thought of being strangled with it caused her to remove it quickly. She rolled the braid into a small ball and shoved it in the other jean pocket.
She studied the contents of her room once again. “What else could I use in that spider-stuffed, snake-swarming, wolf-packed dream world?”
The electric garage door opener began its squeaky jangle and Jayden knew her father had returned from driving the guys home. “The garage!” she said out loud. “My baseball gear!”
Jayden hustled downstairs, meeting her dad at the door leading from the house to the garage.
“You’re not dressed for bed,” he remarked, pointing to her jeans.
“Yeah, I forgot something in my ball bag. Can you open the trunk?”
“Sure.” Mr. Nanjee flicked the remote control as Jayden strode to the car. She removed the bag and hung it from the appropriate hook on the garage wall, then unzipped the top and pulled out her favourite bat. Her team had nicknamed it ‘The Beastess’ due to its large barrel and extraordinary sweet spot. It was the preferred choice for most of the heavy hitters. It’s my choice for tonight too.
“Um, what are you doing with that?” asked her dad.
“I thought that... well, I thought I’d bring it to bed with me.”
Mr. Nanjee puckered his lips in confusion and waited silently for Jayden to enlighten him.
She swung the bat loosely from left to right but remained quiet.
Her dad sighed. “Right then, off to bed with you.”
Jayden kissed him lightly on the cheek and her dad squeezed her shoulder. “Call me if you need me. For anything,” he reminded her.
Jayden nodded and scooted up to her bedroom, closing the door behind her. Clutching the bat in her arms, she lay on the bed and pulled up the covers.
I’m ready.
* * *
Jayden sensed the brightness through her eyelids. She peered out of the corner of one eye, expecting to see her cross over ‘Protector’ outlined against the glare. Instead, the Swiss-cheese face of the moon beamed down. What the heck? Am I back in the Valley of Tired, already?
Her arms were embracing something tightly. Ah, The Beastess.
She snuggled more closely.
“You can let go now.”
Jayden stiffened and opened her eyes. It was not The Beastess she was groping. It was Connor’s neck.
The three were lying on the ground, with Connor in the middle and Max clutching Connor’s right leg. The upside-down vine bridge was behind them.
Max released Connor and sat up. He prodded the ground with one hand and ran his fingers through his hair with the other. “My goggles... where are they?”
Jayden struggled to her feet. “My bat... where’s my bat?”
Connor spat out a chuckle. “You brought your bat... your baseball bat?” He threw his head back and laughed.
“Shut UP!” responded Jayden. “And what did you bring?”
Connor’s face took on a serious note and he smoothed his hands over the ground, searching. He came up empty-handed. “My uh, my hockey stick.”
“Well, aren’t you the arrogant one?” Jayden sneered. “Laughing at me for bringing a bat and you bring a stick.”
Max put his finger to his lips. “Ssshh!” he whispered, peering back at the bridge. The moonlit dream land was quiet and he turned back toward them. “Did anyone bring anything over?”
Jayden felt the pockets of her jeans, searching for her dad’s whistle and the spare shoe laces. They were empty. She was about to shake her head when the moon rays caught a rainbow of colours stemming from her wrist.
“My shoe laces!” Jayden exclaimed. “They crossed over with me!”
“Ahahahahahaha!” It was Connor again, snickering and struggling to keep the sound down. “Shoe laces!” he chortled. “We don’t even have shoes on our feet and you brought laces!”
Jayden folded her arms across her chest and glared at Connor. “I think I liked you better before I met you in the real world. Now, you’re just a d...”
“Don’t say it,” Max cut her off. “We’re a team, remember?”
Connor rose to his feet, a contrite look crossing his face. “You’re right, Jayden. I’m a ‘d.’ Sorry... I’m so desperate to find Georgia that I’m not being rational. Or nice.”
Jayden nodded reluctantly. “Apology accepted.”
“I know what you were thinking, Jayden,” piped up Max. “The laces are for marking trees and stuff, right?”
“Yup.”
“So this is really important what we’ve discovered,” Max announced. “We can’t ‘carry’ anything when we cross over – but we can wear something.”
Connor kicked the brush on the ground. “Let’s hope we find Georgia tonight and we won’t have to worry about coming back here ever again.” He kicked the brush again and then knelt, puzzled.
“Hey, we’re standing on vines,” he said, pointing to the brush at their feet. “The same kind from the Twisted Pine forest and the same kind used to make that suspension bridge.”
Max frowned. “They look different.”
It was difficult to determine how many vines were on the ground. Some lay flat but some were on their side, outstretched in a semi-circular shape, like they were when they were wrapped around the host tree. Others were loosely looped as though in the process of strangling each other. More were sprawled out as if they had sputtered to a stop from a slow death-crawl. The centre of the pile stood about half a metre tall – a collection of dead and dying vines, no longer able to kill anything but each other. Their twisted, snaking tentacles merged under the light of the moon, creating a duplicate, shadowed layer. The combination of moonlight and shadows brought to life their slow death, and the air was thick with a mirrored, sinister energy.
One by one, the teens took a step back. Then another.
The hostile energy was palpable and Jayden gulped deeply, terror etched on her face. “They’re not alive, are they?”
Where the vines separated and forked into two or more segments, the snaking, twisting contortions became more pronounced, giving them a creeping, slithering look. Jayden scrutinized the thick, brownish bark, following where it became lighter in colour, making it appear two-dimensional. Fingers and strings of vine criss-crossed below their feet in an undulating wave of shadows and Jayden took another step back.
“Did it just move?” she cried out.
Skipping a step, Jayden staggered to one side, falling heavily. She stifled a scream and rolled away from the pile. “Please tell me they’re not alive!”
Connor kicked the mound, shoving a few tentacles to one side. He reached out and cautiously prodded the closest one. There was no retaliatory movement.
“They’re not alive,” Connor said, putting on his most convincing tone.
Max leaned over and helped Jayden to her feet. She moved away from the snake-like vegetation.
“Wait a minute,” Max began. “What’s this?” He shoved aside some of the smaller vines and peered closer. “It looks like another conduit for a shield. The invisible shield.” He brushed away more of the material, exposing a section of heavy-duty PVC pipe. Tiny sproggets spiked intermittently along its path. “It is part of the shield!”
Connor hunkered down beside him. “Is that a good thing?”
“Maybe... but I don’t get it,” Max said, perplexed. “This part has deliberately been covered in vines. Why?” His gaze followed the conduit trench as it ran perpendicular to the bridge, potentially preventing access to the tall rock face ahead of them. “The rest of the shield, on either side of these vines, is covered in dirt, just like the other places we’ve crossed.”
Jayden rubbed at the prickling sensation at the back of her neck. “Do you feel that?”
The guys stood at attention, each experiencing a similar sensation.
“I know what that means!” shouted Connor in response. “That Dick-guy is here somewhere!” He lunged back toward the bridge, shoving Max with him in the process. They landed in the dirt just as a crackling sound jolted their eardrums.
The shield had been activated.
The air began to hum with a fierce vitality and a glimmering shimmer of energy wavered upward from the conduit.
Except over the vines. There, the shield fizzed and sparked and popped while the vines jerked and thrashed in a convulsive frenzy, fuelled by the electricity that shot upward from the conduit in the ground.
Jayden crouched beside the guys, trembling with fear. “What does that mean?”
Max scrambled to his feet. “The shield can’t penetrate the vines – that’s our way across!”
“Hold on there a minute, Master-Genius,” Jayden said. “I hate to be a downer, but how do you know for sure we won’t get zapped by that thing?”
“I know,” responded Connor. He selected a small rock from the ground and held it up to Max.
“Yeah,” acknowledged Max. “Do it.”
Connor lobbed the rock over the vines and the sparking shield. It sailed across unimpeded and landed on the other side.
“See?” Max turned to Jayden. “That’s our way.”
The electrical surge from the shield continued unabated, but its power raised the mound of thrashing vines from ground level to well over a metre high.
“We’re going to have to take a run at the mound and swan dive over it, kinda like we’re diving into a lake,” Max instructed. “Got it?”
Jayden hesitated, transfixed by the spastic rhythm undulating before her. “Uh oh,” she whispered, “the shield is pushing them higher.”
The vines were levitating above the shield and inching higher as the teens stared helplessly. The shield’s powerful force shimmered below the bucking vines, eliminating the possibility of crawling under it.
“We have to move now,” thundered Connor, “one after the other.”
Max nodded.
“Are you ready?” Connor asked Jayden.
“I guess,” she replied.
“Roll through your landing when you get to the other side,” Connor cautioned them. “The face plant’s gonna hurt but the roll will lessen the blow.”
“I’ll go first,” said Max. He backed up a few paces and then sprinted forward until he was a few feet in front of the shield. He took a final step and then lunged into an awkward dive. His body followed the straight position of his arms but Max neglected to instruct his legs to do the same. They drooped below the angle of his body as he sailed over.
“Oh, no,” whispered Jayden.
He almost cleared the snapping surge by correcting his angle midway through the dive. But it was too late. One dragging foot touched an electrified vine, igniting a tremendous spark followed by an agonizing scream.
He disappeared in the flash of light. The smell of scorched something hung in the air.
“Max!” screamed Jayden. “MAX!”
The smoke cleared but there was no sign of Max.
“We have to get over, right now!” Jayden grabbed Connor’s hand. “Together?”
“Together,” he responded.
Matching stride for stride, they raced to the electrified shield. At the last moment, they disengaged hands and lunged upward. The smell of scorched vines assaulted Jayden’s nostrils as she sailed upright over the shield. Making a conscious effort to keep her feet elevated, she tipped her upper body in a downward ‘V’ and catapulted through.
There was darkness on the other side and Jayden plunged down, head-first.