Catty watched the woman leave. What she said was true. Catty hated rules.
A slow smile crept across her face.
“Thank you,” Catty said. First she’d sleep, and then she’d act.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE NEXT MORNING Catty awoke to the sound of sirens and the low rumble of fire trucks speeding down her street. She was surprised she had slept so long. Sunlight slanted through her windows in thick gold bars. She checked on Kendra, showered, and dressed, then crept downstairs to the kitchen. She took down the framed manuscript from the kitchen wall. It was Kendra’s prized possession, and part of her felt guilty for what she planned, but it had to be done. She carefully removed the parchment from its frame, then searched through the piles of translations and notes on the kitchen table. Finally she found the Secret Scroll on the chair where Kendra had been sitting the night before. She carried both manuscripts upstairs and set them on her desk.
Next she gathered paints and brushes and sat down. She studied the artwork on the Secret Scroll, then slowly began copying its rich patterns of gold, red, and blue onto Kendra’s old manuscript.
It was late afternoon when she finished. She studied her work. She had managed to copy the exotic birds and animals hidden in the foliage on the borders, and even the detailed picture of the goddess locking the jaws of hell. Her work was rough, but at a distance it would fool Toby or any of the Regulators, especially since they were afraid to touch it.
Satisfied, she went to her closet. She searched through her clothes until she found the strapless top with the slit in the front. She slipped it over her head, then grabbed a silky black skirt and stepped into it. She carried her stiletto boots to the bed and tugged them on.
At last she drew black liquid eyeliner over her top lid, added green glitter shadow, rolled thick mascara on her lashes, and brushed her hair. She added gloss to her lips and rubbed sparkle lotion over her arms and chest. Then she remembered the dragon stencils. Soon, she had a sinuous dragon adorning her thigh between the bottom of her skirt and the top of her boots. She liked the look. She turned in front of the full-length mirror behind the bathroom door.
“Dynamite,” she whispered. Her reflection thrilled her. She looked vamped-out and mystical. At once, she sensed the fierce power of the dragon rising in her. She felt like an invincible goddess-warrior.
She crept down the hallway and stairs, her heels clicking on the wood floors, then paused over Kendra, who was now curled on the couch, breathing uneasily. She kissed her forehead. The kiss was her seal; tonight she would release Kendra from the curse.
She started to leave when the doorbell rang. She opened the door.
Jimena and Serena stepped inside, their eyes smoky with makeup, star glitter on their arms and cheeks and hair. They were mysterious creatures of the night, now.
“We knew you’d need our help,” Jimena said.
“Thanks,” Catty answered, smiling.
“She saw you next to a carousel with Toby.” Serena seemed unsure. “Does that make sense?”
Catty nodded. “Toby asked me to meet him at the carousel in Griffith Park. He’s a Regulator. He’s got Vanessa and he won’t let her go until I destroy the Secret Scroll.” Then Catty told them the details of what had happened.
Neither Jimena nor Serena seemed surprised.
“Do you think all the Regulators will be there?” Serena glanced down at her moon amulet as she opened the door.
“No, just Toby,” Catty answered. “I don’t think he’ll want to share the glory with the others.”
Jimena nodded and followed Serena.
Catty stepped outside and saw Jimena’s brother’s blue-and-white ’81 Oldsmobile parked at the curb. That took care of one problem at least. They had transportation.
She glanced up at the Hollywood sign. Smoke billowed into the evening sky, close to the huge white letters. Another fire. It felt like an omen. She suddenly stopped and wondered if they shouldn’t turn back.
“¡Vayamos!” Jimena squealed and slid behind the steering wheel.
“Come on,” Serena called back to Catty. “Let’s go.”
Catty reluctantly climbed in the backseat. A feeling of foreboding twisted through her as the car shot away from the curb. She hoped she wasn’t leading her friends to their deaths.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
HEAT FROM THE DAY intensified the pungent smell of smoke from the fire in the hills near Griffith Park. The acrid fumes stung Catty’s eyes and the back of her throat as she stepped away from the car. Overhead, the smoke-clouded sky reflected the setting sun with a golden cast.
“We’re early,” Jimena announced and jumped on the carousel. She patted the neck of an outside horse and smoothed her hand over the glass jewels set in the bridle, then she threaded her way through the first and second row of ponies. “I used to love riding this carousel,” she announced.
“Me, too,” Serena agreed. She climbed on and swung her leg over a black steed.
Jimena and Catty laughed as Serena pretended to gallop away, but their laughter suddenly stopped. The silence in the park became overwhelming and the length of Catty’s back shivered with anticipation.
Jimena crouched beside a white horse. “What is it?”
The air felt permeated with a negative charge, as it had in the coroner’s office when the Regulators had entered the reception area.
“It’s Toby,” Catty said.
A security light unexpectedly blinked on. In the sudden brightness the wooden horses seemed to come to life. Their glass eyes blazed yellow and their shiny muscles seemed strained, as if the horses were trying to escape from whatever was coming.
“Did he do that?” Serena whispered in awe.
“What?” Catty asked.
“Make the light go on,” Jimena spoke in a low voice.
Catty shrugged.
The air became heavier and more electric. The small hairs on her arms rose and her skin prickled.
Then, the carousel creaked and groaned as if struggling against inertia. A cascade of sparks fell from the generator.
Serena let out a soft hiss of air. “Freaky.”
“¿Qué hay que hacer?” Jimena asked quietly. “Should we be doing anything?”
Catty shook her head. “Wait.”
Gears squeaked, and then the horses rose and fell. Serena climbed off hers in quick, jerking motions and stood beside it in awe.
They watched in amazement as the platform circled. Then the band organ pinged. Music sputtered and stopped. A trumpet squawked, then continued to play. Finally, cymbals and drums joined the brass. The horses moved up and down.
Serena and Jimena jumped off the slow-moving carousel and stood with Catty.
After the first rotation the platform circled with ever increasing speed, stirring a breeze that rushed over them. The manuscript flapped back and forth in Catty’s hands.
“Stay back,” Catty ordered suddenly. “He’ll know you’re here, but I don’t want him to think we came to have a standoff.”
Jimena and Serena stepped back until their faces were hidden in darkness.
“Catty,” Jimena warned and pointed.
Beneath the bulking trees, purple shadows clustered and grew thicker. Leaves on the bottom branches quivered. Suddenly Catty knew it had been a mistake to come here with the fake manuscript, a foolish, impulsive mistake. How could she fight something whose aura alone was strong enough to give a carousel life? She had put her friends needlessly in danger and there was little chance of success. She turned to tell Jimena and Serena to run; but before she could, the face in the shadows became whole.
Toby emerged in his disguise, holding Vanessa behind him. The whirling lights from the carousel cast a kaleidoscope of everchanging patterns over them. The breeze ruffled Vanessa’s hair, but Toby’s stayed rigidly in place.
He walked slowly forward. His feet made no sound in the dry grass. He stopped before he reached Catty. His eyes were the same as the wooden horses, lacking w
armth and light of their own, but stealing it from the environment and reflecting it back.
“You have it.” He glanced at the parchment in her hands but did not come closer to examine it.
Catty held it up. Was it only her imagination or had he glanced away? Could he be that frightened of the manuscript and its curse? But why? He seemed so all-powerful.
“Take off your moon amulet,” he ordered.
She hesitated. She never took off her amulet. Was it a trick? She glanced at Vanessa, hoping for some clue. But Vanessa didn’t appear to have heard Toby. She didn’t seem to even be aware of where she was. She was too deep inside herself. Toby sensed what Catty was thinking and pushed a strand of hair away from Vanessa’s face, then bent and kissed her lips.
Vanessa jerked back.
Toby glanced at Catty and smiled. “My beautiful moon goddess doesn’t appreciate my kisses now, but she will learn to. Won’t you, Vanessa?” He rubbed the back of Vanessa’s neck and placed a possessive arm around her.
Vanessa began trembling.
Catty yanked off the moon amulet. “As soon as the manuscript is destroyed, you let Vanessa free.”
Toby nudged Vanessa gently. “Go wait under the tree.”
She obediently stepped back under the branches.
He turned to Catty, satisfied. “When the moon rises,” he commanded, “reflect the light of the moon from your amulet onto the manuscript.”
Catty gazed at the night sky. The moon edged over the jagged tops of the trees. She glanced at Toby to see if the time was right, then lifted the amulet and reflected the milky glow of the moon onto the manuscript. For a moment Catty worried that if Toby looked closely, he would know it wasn’t the real Secret Scroll. Then the parchment began to bubble and foam and she relaxed.
At last, a streak of purple light shot from her amulet. The manuscript pulsated, then exploded into a thousand fragments that rained down on the night.
Tiny wisps of white smoke curled in the air where the sparks had been.
Toby smirked.
“Now,” Catty shouted.
Serena and Jimena suddenly ran from the shadows. They quickly grabbed Vanessa and pulled her back to Catty.
“Go,” Jimena ordered. She and Serena held Vanessa’s hands and latched on to Catty’s shoulders.
Catty concentrated, trying to use her power of time travel for them to escape. Instantly, the carousel and trees roared away from them in a blinding shaft of light and they were falling into the tunnel.
Catty whooped as she clasped her moon amulet around her neck. “We did it!”
Jimena yelled, “We fooled him.”
“I can’t believe it was so easy,” Serena added.
Catty looked at Vanessa. Her eyes were blank and she didn’t seem to realize where she was. “Do you think Vanessa will be okay?”
“Claro,” Jimena reassured her and gave Vanessa’s hand to Catty. “We’ll take her to Maggie.”
Catty clasped Vanessa’s hand tightly.
As they drifted deeper into the tunnel, Catty became aware that something was wrong. She glanced down at her watch. The hands had stopped moving. Panic seized her. They were no longer traveling from one time to another but hovering. This had only happened before when she had tried to go too far back into the past.
“What’s wrong?” Jimena asked.
“I don’t know,” Catty answered. And then she felt a presence. She wrenched her head around.
Toby appeared behind her, grinning. “The tunnel is my realm,” he said.
Catty struggled to leave the tunnel and fall back into time, but her power wasn’t working.
Toby seemed to understand what she was trying to do. “I have even more power here. You can’t escape me now.”
Catty drew in a huge gulp of air. How was she going to save her friends? She felt as if she had led them into a trap.
Jimena tugged at her. “Drop back into time.”
“I can’t,” Catty answered. “He’s not letting me. He has more power than I do.”
The tunnel seemed to be heating. Catty could feel beads of perspiration gathering on her forehead.
“Is the tunnel always this hot?” Serena asked.
Catty shook her head. “No. It’s Toby. He’s building a huge electrical charge.”
“Look.” Serena pointed.
Blue and orange sparks crackled around the tunnel walls.
“You think he’s building a charge so he can zap us with electricity?” Jimena asked.
“Why not?” Catty answered. “We’ve all gotten electric shocks when he was around.”
“But that was static electricity,” Serena replied.
“Lightning is the same thing,” Catty explained. “Just static electricity suddenly discharging between clouds and the ground.”
Jimena turned quickly to Serena. “Maybe you can go into his mind and try to stop him.”
“I’ll try.” Serena concentrated. Her eyes began to dilate and then suddenly her body jerked. “Ouch!” she yelled.
Toby’s laughter filled the tunnel.
“What?” Catty and Jimena asked together.
“He shocked me.” Serena looked surprised. “It was like hitting an electric fence. He’s got some kind of shield.”
Catty watched Toby. The smile on his face told her that he had something horrible planned for them.
The friends squeezed together and waited for the end.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
UNEXPECTEDLY, TOBY grabbed Catty’s shoulder. The coldness of his fingers seemed to sink deep inside her, making her body cold in spite of the heat.
“Did you really think you were the only one with the ability to escape into a different dimension?” he sneered.
Catty closed her eyes in concentration and tried one last time to escape the tunnel. This time when she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find herself standing alone in a dreamscape.
Rolling mists circled her feet and the horizon had the same pinkish cast and line of craggy mountains that she remembered from a repeated nightmare. Only now forks of lightning cut across the sky. She knew if she took a step forward she would find herself sucked down into quicksand and suffocated. That was the way it had always happened in her terrifying dream. How many times had she awakened from it, gasping for air? Except now she wasn’t dreaming. She was awake.
She cautiously turned. She didn’t see her friends.
“Jimena!” she called. “Serena!” Her words echoed peculiarly around her, disturbing the mists as if her voice had become three-dimensional.
When no one answered, she turned back. Were they still in the tunnel? Or without her power, had they been forced back into time? She hoped they were safe.
She stared ahead. Something hidden in the mists was watching her, something malevolent. The feeling was not new to her. She had felt it in this dream before. Now she wondered if it had always been Toby or one of the other Regulators.
A fine tremor started in her legs and traveled up her spine. She feared what would happen next. She took a deep breath and waited. Was there any way she could exit the nightmare? She had to find some way. If she didn’t, Serena and Vanessa and Jimena might be trapped in the tunnel or worse, lost in another time with no way to get back to the present, and it would be her fault.
But she was awake. Maybe that meant she could do something. Perhaps she could turn and run away from the quicksand.
Slowly, she took one step backward. When nothing stopped her, she quickly removed her boots, and then spun around and ran. As she sped across the dreamscape, her steps became lighter, and soon she was sweeping over the dream world like a wind. She felt suddenly optimistic. Maybe because she was awake she would be capable of changing the outcome. If she concentrated hard enough, could she create an opening in the dream? One that would lead her back to the tunnel?
Without warning, lightning crackled and split the air in front of her. In the jagged light, grotesque faces formed and surged around her. She tried to
press through them but she felt herself being turned in the direction of the quicksand. Were these the undisguised faces of the Regulators? She struggled against their roiling faces, but in the end, their strength was too great.
As she was thrust closer and closer to the oozing quicksand, she tried to convince herself that even though she was awake what was happening to her was only an illusion. Nothing here could really hurt her.
She was only inches from the quicksand now. Her heart hammered inside her rib cage. Would she suffocate?
As if to answer her question, Toby abruptly appeared beside her. “I came to watch the end.”
His disguise was completely gone now. His face was cruelly distorted, eyes evil and piercing. “This isn’t a dream, Catty,” he smirked. “If you fall in the quicksand here, you die.”
Already she could feel the cold swampy waters lapping at her toes.
She tried to keep her feet from moving but they seemed to have an intent of their own.
“Just one step,” his voice urged.
Against her will, her feet inched forward, compelled by Toby’s voice. The sucking water and sand swirled around her toes and crept up to her ankles. Immediately, she started to sink as she had done so many times before in the dream.
The slimy waters quickly reached the top of her knees and edged up her thighs.
Her body tensed in an involuntary scream that came painfully and silently from her throat. She pressed her eyes closed against the nightmare and waited for death to take her.
She thought of the manuscript. At least the manuscript hadn’t been destroyed. It would be safe until another heir was born. That was the only thing she had managed to do right. She had failed miserably at everything else. If only Serena, Jimena, and Vanessa could be saved.
All at once Toby grabbed her arm. “What did you say?” His words breathed against her ear and she turned her face away from his fetid smell.
“I said nothing,” she answered and watched in horror as the spongy quicksand pulled her deeper and the sandy mire lapped at the top of her thighs.