Peter and Lina took extremely deep breaths, gave each other a look of encouragement, and together they moved toward the unknown. The blue-green grass seemed a little grayer now, and the sun wasn’t shining as brightly.
Peter started to comment on his observation when, alarmingly, he felt out of breath. He felt Lina squeeze his hand hard in a death grip. He shut his eyes and gasped for air. He reopened them and found gloom and a vast land of gray, nothing familiar. No blue-green grass, no chirping marshmallow birds, not even a gummy worm…only silence. He felt the life sucking out of him and gasped once more, filling his lungs triumphantly with a thick breath…thick with stench. He started to gag and almost wished he still couldn’t breathe as his eyes watered in reaction to the pungent smell. It was one of the worst smells that had ever entered his nose, right up there with the time he had forgotten to take out the trash that contained tuna casserole before going on a two-week family vacation. He placed his right arm over his nose and remembered Lina, her grip much looser now. Was she all right? He hadn’t heard her gasp.
Peter positioned himself in front of Lina, never letting her hand go. To Peter’s horror, she looked a shade of faint purple. She can’t breathe! he thought.
“Disgusting, it smells like my brother’s sneakers here!” Lina gasped.
“You’re all right!” Peter exclaimed, pulling his arm away from his nose and grabbing Lina’s available hand with his. He was pretty sure he looked like a cheerleader the way he jumped up and down, holding her hands. But he did not care. His best friend was all right, and he wouldn’t have to trek through this dreadful place without her. Best friend—Peter had never thought about it before, but it was true. His best friend was a girl…Lina.
“You can let go of my hands now. I need them to cover my nose,” she said seriously yet playfully, squishing up her face with disgust. Peter let them go.
“What do you think that smell is, Peter?”
“I don’t know, and I’d rather not think about it. All I do know is the sooner we get to looking for Joe and Angela, the sooner we get out of here and back to some fresh, sweet-smelling air and sunshine,” Peter stated.
“Yeah, I can’t wait to get…” Lina’s eyes fixed on something in the distance. She finished her sentence under her breath, “out of here.”
Peter, curious and worried, turned around to see what she was staring at. There were three gigantic and eerie, grand, dark castles, each sitting atop its own enormous hill.
“They look painfully far away,” Lina admitted.
Peter and Lina both looked back the way they had come and saw that it looked no different from where they were; the same gray grass stretched as far as their eyes could see. They focused back on the castles.
“We can’t possibly go to all three castles. That would take forever. How will we know which one to go to or even if going to them is what we should do?” Peter whined.
“Look,” Lina pointed at Peter’s chest. “Your medallion.”
Peter observed his medallion; it was lit up with a golden glow.
“It started glowing when you said ‘castles.’ It’s as if it liked that idea.”
“Your medallion, it’s glowing now, too.” Peter gave a nod of approval.
“Well, that is that; we are going to those castles,” Lina commanded.
With their medallions’ reassurance, Peter and Lina headed toward the shadowy castles, trying not to mind the awful smell. As they approached the castles, their surroundings grew dimmer. The grass appeared dark gray, almost black, and so did the few trees that were scattered about.
Peter slowed in his tracks. “Listen.”
Lina answered abruptly. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Neither do I,” he confirmed.
The dead silence sent shivers down both their spines. They continued forward, more cautiously. The grass beneath their feet had disappeared and turned into dirt and gravel. They came upon a narrow crossing that branched into three paths. Each of the paths led toward a different castle.
“Great, now what?” Lina moaned.
“I don’t know.”
They stood there, taking in the sight of the three uninviting castles before them.
“They’re creepy. I don’t like the idea of having to go inside,” Lina said.
“Me, neither,” Peter responded, “but we have to, for Joe and Angela and their parents. Besides, I don’t want that mean ol’ Carol Winston strutting around, chanting how she knew we wouldn’t help them!”
“The castles all look the same, dark with hardly any light coming from them. This is like something out of a scary movie,” Lina said, spooked.
“Except it isn’t…it is real life.”
Lina sank down on a large rock. “I am pooped. Look how much farther we have to go, and the smell isn’t getting any better, either.”
“I am tired, too, but the sooner we find those two, the sooner we can go home and see our families.”
“True. I can’t wait to tell them about all this!” Lina exclaimed, springing up from the rock. “Let’s ask the medallions.”
“What?” Peter looked surprised.
“Come on, Peter, like we did before when we said, ‘castles,’ and the medallions glowed. So maybe we could sort of ask them which one to go to.” She raised her shoulders and gave a little shrug.
“It’s worth a shot, I guess. Should we go to the castle on the left?” The two fixed their eyes on the medallions but nothing happened. Peter looked up at Lina, and she gave him the “go ahead; try again” look his mother would give him when he couldn’t get a homework problem correct the first try. “Should we go to the castle in the middle?” Still the medallions did nothing. The children were beginning to think the medallions weren’t going to reply. Raising his hand, Peter pointed firmly at the last castle and asked more boldly, “Should we go the castle on the right?”
The two stared hopefully at the medallions. They both had been holding their breath and let out the air as their medallions started glowing. They rejoiced, giving each other high fives.
“I knew it had to work!” Lina sing-songed.
Peter was relieved to hear a cheerful pitch in her voice. There was still hope.
“Let’s get this party started!” Peter joked.
They both laughed nervously as they moved cautiously towards the medallions’ choice. The air grew frosty as they approached the castle.
“It’s closer than we thought it was and smaller than it looked from far away,” Lina stated.
“Yeah, it is,” Peter agreed.
The dark gray castle showed little life except for the occasional flicker of light. There were three towers. The center one was taller than the others. More light flickered from that tower than from any other room in the castle. They reached the massive castle doors, which looked an ill fit for the small-sized castle. The entire castle was composed of tiny gray pebbles.
“It must have taken forever to build!” Peter observed, touching his finger to a single gray stone.
“Jeez, it’s really cold right here,” Lina whined through chattering teeth.
“And really quiet, too.”
As if something was disturbed by what they said, there was a rustle in a tall gray bush behind them. Startled, the children jumped into the castle doors, and they responded with a crackling thud. The crackling turned into a cracking noise that continued to escalate.
Peter wrapped his arm around Lina’s shoulders and dove forward into the gritty dirt and grass. “It’s coming down!”
They hit the ground hard and shielded their faces. They were engulfed by puffs of dirt and smoke and the sounds of thousands of pebbles falling to the ground behind them. The ruckus lasted for a half minute, and it was that long before they were able to look back at the castle. Rubble coated the ground where the giant door had stood just moments before. In the midst of it all there was a thin, clear path leading inside the castle.
The bush rustled again and from it darted a tiny dark blur. A mouse.
“That was a rush!” Lina exclaimed, dusting off her knees.
“Well, I guess we don’t have to knock,” Peter said sarcastically, catching his breath.
“True,” Lina said, walking slowly toward the path. “You coming?” she said without looking back at Peter.
“Of course I am,” Peter stated with a newfound sense of curiosity. He shuffled toward her, taking in the scene. “I should go first,” he said boldly, “in case it is dangerous.”
She gave him the “you have got to be kidding” look. He had seen that look from her once before on Halloween, when they were about to ring Old Man Saget’s doorbell and run as punishment for him not giving out candy again that year. Peter suggested that he do it because it might be too dangerous. Lina rang the doorbell.
Now she continued forward cautiously, in front.