I sprinted away from the hollow and back through the woods, headed for the school, with only the light from the freakish stars to guide me. I kept working at the rope around my wrists, which wasn’t easy while running, but I finally got the knots untied. The whole time I kept looking around for fear a tree might reach down and grab me or vines would snake out and wrap themselves around my ankles. None of that happened. Either the witches didn’t know I was gone, or they didn’t care because I was already too late.
I blasted out of the forest and sprinted for the gym, following the thumping bass sound. I rounded the building and was nearly there when I saw the lights flicker inside. Then the music died. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. Ainsley was there and doing the coven’s dirty work.
A few kids in zombie costumes came running out, looking as though they wanted to be anywhere else but there. Fright Night. Yeah, exactly.
“What’s going on?” I called to some kid wearing a Superman costume.
“I don’t know,” he called back in a shaky voice. “The place is falling apart.”
So much for Superman saving the day.
As I ran for the gym, I saw Nate sitting on his three-wheeled ATV near the entrance. It didn’t look as though he had even tried to go into the dance. Lucky for him.
“What the heck?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said in a panicked voice that was two octaves above normal. “It sounds like the whole place is coming down. I swear I had nothing to do with it.”
Another giant FRIGHT NIGHT banner hung over the doors. Whoever put that up had no idea how true those words were going to be.
I looked to Nate, and to his ATV. An idea was forming. A desperate idea, but still an idea.
“Don’t go anywhere, all right?” I called to him as I continued toward the gym.
“Why?” he asked. “So the cops can blame this on me?”
“No. So you can help end this, and maybe prove you’re innocent.”
Nate had no comeback and I didn’t wait for him to think of one. I sprinted into the building, through the lobby, and straight into the gym. The second my feet hit the wooden floor I felt it rumbling like an earthquake. Nothing like that was going on outside. Whatever was happening, it was focused on the gym.
I stood frozen a few feet inside the entrance, when all the doors suddenly slammed shut. Instinctively, I spun back to try and reopen them, but they were locked tight. If I had gotten there only a few seconds later, I would have been trapped outside. Now I was trapped inside. I wasn’t so sure which was worse. A few seconds later, the windows near the ceiling exploded, sending thousands of tiny bits of glass crashing to the floor.
Being in the gym was worse.
I didn’t know which way to turn or what to do. That’s when the shaking stopped. No sooner did I think the worst was over than the gym floor exploded in several places, giving way to sharp rock spires that drove up from below.
The coven’s plan was coming clear. They were going to wipe out every last kid in that gym. That was the sacrifice. Their presence would be announced to the world by a horrifying act that would prove their ability to control nature and dominate the human race.
And they were doing it all through Ainsley.
Ainsley.
She stood at center court in a circle of kids, calmly holding her arms out as she channeled the evil power of the coven to make the ground come alive.
I saw Theo break from the crowd on the opposite side of the gym and run for her.
“Ainsley, stop it!” he shouted.
That couldn’t be good. If she had the power to tear the gym apart, who knows what she’d do to Theo if he interfered. Without a second thought, I ran for him, hoping to stop him before Ainsley turned her destructive power on him. I was halfway across the empty stretch of gym when the floor broke apart and opened up in front of Theo. Ainsley wasn’t going to let him get close to her. If I had more than half a second to think about it, I probably wouldn’t have done what I did. But all I saw was my friend headed toward his doom. I sprinted forward and dove across the chasm, locked in on Theo.
“Gotcha!” I shouted.
I tackled him, hard, and the two of us tumbled to the floor. Safe. For a second, anyway.
“We’re not going down that easy,” I said.
Theo’s eyes were wide and wild. He knew how close he’d come to falling into the abyss.
“It’s about t-t-time you got here,” he stammered.
I scrambled to my feet, helped Theo up, and backed away from the chasm.
Ainsley stood, her arms outstretched, a serene look on her face as she gazed skyward. The gym was about to come crashing down on all of us, including her, and she couldn’t have cared less. The reign of the high priestess would be a short one. She was just another sacrifice. Her death would no doubt release the magic she’d been incubating so it could return to the original owners…a hundred times more powerful.
All around us, kids cowered in fear as the floor jumped and the walls cracked. Soon the heavy steel girders that held up the ceiling would buckle and fall. Nowhere was safe.
I looked up to see several of the glowing spirit-orbs floating in through the broken windows to hover near the ceiling and observe their high priestess from above. They were there to witness the revenge of their coven, and the sacrifice that would bring about its rebirth.
I didn’t know what to do.
But somebody did.
“Ainsley, stop it right now!”
The bold voice cut through the rumbling and cracking.
It wasn’t me. Or Theo. Or any of the kids who were whimpering and hugging one another.
It was Kayla.
She was on Ainsley’s side of the chasm, walking slowly toward her. It was a surreal sight to see this shy girl dressed as a princess walking straight and tall, showing no fear, while everyone else cowered.
Oh yeah, and she was talking.
“Please don’t do this,” she called out in a calm, sweet voice that none of the kids had ever heard before.
It got Ainsley’s attention.
Her face had been lifted toward the ceiling, but when she heard Kayla’s voice, she dropped her chin, and her eyes snapped open in surprise, as if hearing Kayla’s voice was an outrageously impossible event. Because it was.
“You always tried to protect me,” Kayla said. “Now I want to protect you. Stop this before someone gets hurt.”
Ainsley stared at Kayla with a look of total confusion. I couldn’t tell if she understood what Kayla was saying, or if she was stunned because Kayla was saying anything at all.
Above us, the glowing orbs grew brighter. I don’t think anybody else in the gym noticed, or cared. They were too busy being terrified out of their minds.
But I saw it.
The witches weren’t happy.
Ainsley dropped her arms. Her entire body relaxed, as though she had been released from the powerful hold of the coven.
“Kayla?” she said. “You have such a sweet voice.”
Kayla smiled and shrugged.
The shaking slowly weakened. The floor felt solid again. The screeching, tearing sounds of the gym being ripped apart echoed into silence. None of the hundreds of kids who were scattered everywhere dared move.
Kayla approached Ainsley, slowly but confidently.
Ainsley shot quick, confused glances around the gym as if she was seeing it all for the first time.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice shaking with fear. “How did I get here?”
Kayla stepped up and took her hands.
“I don’t know,” Kayla said soothingly. “Keep looking at me. Listen to my voice. Whatever was happening here, we can’t let it start again.”
Tears grew in Ainsley’s eyes as she nodded in agreement.
The room suddenly grew bright as the overhead lights came back on with full power. The orange Halloween lights glowed once again and the DJ’s dance music boomed to life. The upbeat party music was an odd soundtrack to the scene of terror and destruction.
The exit doors flew open on their own, prompting a stampede of kids desperate to escape.
“What the heck?” Lu said as she ran up to us.
“You’re okay?” Theo asked.
“I think. I’ve never been paralyzed before. I don’t want it to happen again.”
The overhead lights grew bright. Brighter than normal. The huge room was lit up like it was daytime. I looked up to see the brilliant glow wasn’t coming just from the gym lighting. The multiple spirit-lights looked burning hot, as if enraged by Ainsley’s failure. They darted around like a swarm of angry bees, then suddenly swooped down as one and flew onto the stage and past the DJ, who dove out of the way. As the DJ hit the ground, the orbs kept moving and disappeared backstage.
“Uh…what was that?” Lu asked.
“That was bad news,” I said. “The spell over Ainsley might be broken, but the coven is still in business.”
I grabbed Theo by the shoulders and said, “Stay with Ainsley and Kayla. Don’t let Ainsley leave. Sit on her if you have to. Just keep her here.”
I pointed to Lu and said, “Come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
“On a witch hunt,” I said, and sprinted for the exit with Lu right behind me.
We fought our way out of there along with the hundreds of other kids.
“Witch hunt?” Lu called to me over the din of the multitude of people we were swimming along with.
“The coven’s been building up to this for years,” I said. “No way the witches are done. I think they’ll come after Ainsley again.”
“So how can we stop it?” she asked.
“We do what the books said and crush the core of their power.”
“Uh, you know how to do that?” Lu asked suspiciously.
“I have a pretty good idea,” I said.
We finally made it outside to see a bunch of fire trucks screaming up. There wasn’t any fire, but the gym was a wreck. No way it was safe. The fire department would make sure everybody got out and then seal it off.
We heard people shouting to the firefighters that the school had been hit by an intense earthquake. Nobody thought there was anything mystical going on or that Ainsley had anything to do with it. Just as well. It was way easier for people to believe a natural disaster like an earthquake had struck rather than that they had been targeted by a centuries-old supernatural force.
We jumped out of the flow of fleeing kids and I scanned the parking lot.
“What are you looking for?” Lu asked.
“Our last best hope.”
I spotted him sitting on his bike, watching the chaos with wide eyes.
“Nate Christmas?” Lu asked, incredulous. “The delinquent is our last best hope?”
“Hey, some of my best friends are delinquents.”
“Yeah, mine too,” she said, staring right at me.
We ran for him.
“What the hell?” Nate asked, totally amped up.
“Earthquake,” I said. “It’s over.”
“It’s a mess,” he said. “I know I’m going to get blamed for this.”
“You want me to bail you out?” I said. “If you help us I’ll make sure everybody knows you had nothing to do with this or any of the other disasters at school. I can even make you a hero.”
“Yeah?” he said skeptically. “What do I have to do?”
“Just cause a little mayhem,” I replied.
Nate looked me square in the eyes as if trying to decide whether he believed me.
“You know, I don’t really care what people think about me,” he said, then smiled slyly. “But I like mayhem.”
We were in business.