With Nix nestled on Gilbert’s lap, and Tamara in the jump seat next to them, they were just able to fit into Zach’s Jeep. Deegie sat in the passenger seat, thinking that it was probably a good thing that Flower begged off. The five of them took up every inch of seat space in Zach’s small vehicle; there wouldn’t have been room for one more plus Monica.
Zach guided the intrepid little Jeep up the muddy fire road that ran up the other side of the steep hill behind Deegie’s house. Its knobby tires chewed at the mud, found purchase, and spewed out a fan of brown muck behind it. It was slow going, but they were nearly at the top of the hill where the cave was. Although Deegie was impressed with Zach’s off-road skills, she held tightly to the grab bar on the dashboard with both hands.
Zach glanced at her and snickered. “You’re not scared, are ya?”
“No,” she lied. “Just trying not to get thrown out into the mud.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Zach said. “Besides, we’re almost at the top.”
The Jeep carried its cargo of passengers to the top of the hill, and Zach cut the engine. The same eerie silence Deegie had experienced in the woods had settled over the hilltop clearing. The breeze didn’t even dare to whisper. She felt an ominous sort of pressure up here, and the unsettling sensation of being watched. Just ahead was the huge granite boulder, split down the middle like a gigantic pair of buttocks. Deegie remembered joking about this with Zach and Gilbert, but it didn’t seem funny at all now.
Deegie got out first and walked to the front of the Jeep, staring hard at the narrow entrance to the cave while she waited for the others to join her. She recalled how she’d lain on the pebbled floor of that cave, not so long ago, half-dead from a massive attack of Witch’s Cramp. She remembered watching her father transform himself into a huge black Hell Hound, remembered how the portal to the Underworld had opened like an elevator door in the rocky back wall. Was it still there?
When the others joined her, they headed for the split rock, step by cautious step. Tamara was on her left. She had ceased her sobbing, and her face now wore a serious, determined expression. She held an opened ghost trap out in front of her like an offering. Deegie felt Zach’s fingers curling around her own, and she squeezed back, grateful for the comfort it brought her.
Nix was the first one to speak, and when she did, her voice sounded oddly out of place in the stillness. “Do you feel that? That weird pressure? She’s in there, I’m sure of it.”
They stopped a few yards in front of the cave, and Gilbert said, “Footprints. See them in the mud there? They lead right into the cave.” He knelt down to examine the prints more closely. They were on the small side, and the feet that had made them were bare.
“She doesn’t have any shoes on?” Tamara whispered. “Oh, Mom …”
A thought occurred to Deegie, and it was far from encouraging. “Envy grew so strong from my repressed emotions that it was able to manifest into an actual flesh and blood creature. If it hadn’t been for Tiger it would have killed me.” She looked up from the footprints and a fresh wave of apprehension brought goose bumps to her skin. “Mrs. Biggs’ mind has been in complete chaos from what Tamara tells me, and she was so pissed off when she found Tamara in the shop. We might be dealing with more than we can fit in a ghost trap.”
Before anyone could reply, the sound of heavy footfalls came from the woods at the edge of the clearing. Zach stepped in front of Deegie and Tamara, shielding them with his body; Nix and Gilbert raised their wands.
“What is it?” Tamara’s voice squeaked with renewed terror, and she clung to Deegie’s side. “Is it that … that thing?”
A thunderous roar echoed across the clearing, followed by the sound of snapping twigs and squelching mud. A pocket of shimmering air raced towards them, then disappeared.
“It’s Tiger,” Deegie said, relieved. Although he had been with her all her life, Tiger’s visits from the Spirit World were always dramatic; she never knew what to expect. “He’s close by. He must sense something too.”
“What? A tiger? Are you serious?”
“He is my guardian,” Deegie said. “He is a spirit animal. He won’t hurt you. I will explain more later.” She glanced down at the ghost trap in Tamara’s hand. “Let’s save your mom first.”
Tiger bellowed again, from the top of the rock this time, and he materialized just long enough for them to see his massive body with its brilliant orange and black stripes. Deegie knew that he was ready to leap from the top of the rock at a second’s notice and tear anything that threatened her into bloody rags.
“I think Tamara and I should approach the cave,” Deegie said. “Nix, you and Gilbert stand on either side of the opening in case she tries to make a run for it.” A sprinkling of gravel rained down from atop the rock, and she heard Tiger rumble softly. “Tiger’s got the top,” she added. “We’ve got this covered.”
“I’m here too,” Zach reminded her. He’d taken a tire iron from the Jeep, and he brandished it menacingly. “Ready to crack skulls like I did the last time we were up here.”
“You’ve been up here before?” Tamara asked incredulously. “When?”
“Something else we’ll tell you about later,” Deegie said. “Let’s go. Call out to her when we get a few feet from the cave.”
The others took their assigned positions, and Deegie and Tamara approached the entrance to the cave. The crack in the rock still bore traces of soot from when it was used as a portal to the Underworld, and Deegie was sure she could smell a faint, leftover whiff of sulfur. Cold mud found its way into her boots, and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton. They stopped a few feet in front of the entrance.
“Okay,” she said in a low voice, “call out to her. Don’t be afraid.”
Tamara tightened her grip on the jar, nodded, and pulled in a deep breath. “M-Mom? Are you in there? Can you hear me? Mom?”
Something shifted inside the cave: a sound like canvas being dragged over pavement. Gravel rattled and clattered. A long sighing sound wafted out, as if something was awakening from a long nap. Shuffling, unsteady footsteps grew louder as they headed for the cave opening.
“Mom? Is … is that you?” Tamara took another cautious step forward. “Mom?”
“Wraaath? Tam-tam-tam … TAMARA!” The voice that issued from the narrow cave in the rock was anything but human. The voice they’d heard coming from Monica Biggs earlier had grown wilder, more strident; no living person could have made that sound.
And the thing that burst out of the cave a second later was not Monica Biggs.
The creature resembled a human being only in that it walked upright and had two arms, two legs, and what passed for a head. Open, suppurating sores covered its naked flesh. The arms, freakishly long, dragged on the muddy ground. It took a few shambling steps forward and roared out its namesake: “WRAAAAATH!”
Nix reacted first. Nimbly, she leaped out from her assigned post and raised her wand. A brilliant bolt of yellow fire screamed from the tip of her wand and sheared off half of the creature’s face. A wad of putrid flesh splattered against the rock behind it. Wrath fell to the ground, screeching in protest and clawing at the remains of its face.
“That’s not my mom!” Tamara’s voice was barely audible over the racket of the wounded sin-ghost. The ghost trap slipped from her fingers and smashed on the ground. “That’s not my mom,” she insisted again. “It’s NOT!”
Wrath scrambled to its feet again. Black, stinking ichor poured from its ruined face. “TAMARA!” It reached out for its intended victim with its claw-hands and shook its potato-shaped head from side to side, spraying gore in all directions. “TAMARAAAA! Tam-tam-tam! Wrath! So angry! Angry!”
Deegie and Gilbert fired simultaneously, but Deegie’s bolt went wide and exploded against a tree stump. Gilbert’s hit its mark, and Wrath’s arm spun away from its body and splashed down into a puddle of mud and slush. The severed arm flailed spasmodically. The claw-tipped fingers clutched at the ground, snatching up handfuls of grass and muck. The arm quivered again, then lay still.
Zach raised his tire iron and prepared to charge the shrieking, mutilated thing, but Tiger beat him to it. With a deafening roar, he leaped from the top of the rock, showing himself fully as he arced through the air. He hit Wrath squarely in the back, and brought it to what passed for its knees.
Deegie looked away, knowing what was coming next. Although her head resonated with a painful, high-pitched whine from her magical expenditure, she could still hear the wet ripping sounds and blood-choked gurgling of Wrath as Tiger ripped it to shreds. She felt Zach’s arms go around her in a protective embrace as the fetid odor of Wrath’s demise burned her nostrils.
When Wrath’s howls of protest had finally been silenced, Deegie opened her eyes to see Tamara standing directly in front of the crack in the rock and peering into its gloomy interior. “Tamara! Get away from there!” Deegie said as she went to the girl’s side. “Don’t go in there yet!”
“My mom’s in there,” Tamara whispered. “I can see her.”
Zach moved up next to them, followed by Gilbert and Nix, who still held their wands poised for action.
Deegie spotted Tiger then. He had returned to his perch atop the rock and was calmly licking his paws. He looked back at her, grunted a farewell, then, bit by bit, he disappeared and returned to the Spirit World.
Deegie let out her pent-up breath in a huge sigh of relief. If anything dangerous was still lurking about, Tiger wouldn’t have gone back to his own world. “It’s okay,” she said, deliberately not looking at the gory mess that Tiger had left behind. “Let’s take care of your mom now.”