Moonfin (24 page)

“I wasn't—”

“Oh
yes,
you were. The purple goo is full of acid and dangerous. Don't even think about it. I was kidding before.” But she could see he wouldn't let it go and would have an entire business proposal drawn up for his grandfather the minute he got back to the mainland. “Honestly, Jeff, you'd burn the hair off people's heads if it turned a profit!” Kai shook her head disapprovingly.

“No, I wouldn't!”

They started arguing about it.

Lizzy pulled back her mass of brown curls into a ponytail and scanned the dense forest landscape. She wasn't looking forward to another day of potential traps on the island of snares since they barely made it out of the pits alive. At least there was plenty of daylight to see by.

“Guys—enough about the purple hair goop already!—I think we should head west toward the center of the island and search from there,” she suggested. “That's where the map on my hand seems to point.”

So they packed up their gear and left the white shores behind. The morning was bright and cheerful. A few billowy clouds dotted the sky. The water was calm and glistened like diamonds bathed in sunlight.

“Too bad this island is off limits to the public. I wouldn't mind camping here on occasion,” said Jeff.

Both Kai and Lizzy disagreed and thought it too weird for their tastes.

“Don't worry, though,” said Kai, “if you fall into a glowing jello pit, we'll let the Pinkertons know where to find you.”

 

The map circling Lizzy's thumb led them to the volcano by mid-morning. Finding a grove of eucalyptus trees, they stopped for a water break in the shade beneath some feathery boughs, the aroma of tree oil fervent around them. The little brown bear had been following them the entire way, staying a safe distance away, but as they came closer to the volcano, he became fidgety and upset.

“What are we going to do when we find this frog place?” said Kai. “I mean, if the Waterpeople think Dr. Krell is hiding something—”

“Only that we need to set Moonfin free, that's all I know.”

Not that Jeff wanted to know all the details—the less he knew, the less he'd have to worry about. But then again, this whole Frog Mountain plan was new.

“Just so we're clear on the plan: we have to get into this secret place hidden in a lava rock, steal the key, and let a prehistoric dragon creature, which has the strength of a hundred whales, out of its jail.”

“Yep.”

“And she is where exactly?” he grilled.

Lizzy tipped her water bottle over her hand.

“See where that star is? She's there, hidden beneath the island in a sea cave.”

“Ahh, a walk in the park,” said Jeff sarcastically. “Even if we
do
manage to get in there and find a way to set her free, how will we get anywhere near a
dragon
without getting killed?”

Lizzy shrugged. She wasn't sure about anything these days.

“Let's just go with it.”

Jeff eyed her suspiciously.

“Right. Since when do you just
go with
things? You color code your socks to match the days of the week,” he gibed.

“Oh,
puh-leeze
, that was in third grade and—”

“I think I see Frog Mountain,” Kai cut in. She snapped a finger down the slope of the volcano toward a broad pitch of lava. It was round-looking, with chunky piles of molten glass, tangled vines, and scattered leaves cascading down its sides.

“That doesn't look like a frog to me. More like a meadow muffin,” grumbled Jeff.

They hiked down the side of the volcano. The black rock bulged and flowed in and out of the landscape, making it impossible to locate a doorway of any kind; plants flowed over it like an overgrown hairdo in need of a cut, of which they spent a good half an hour doing. They chopped and trimmed the spindly strands of plant-like hair, barely thinning its mangled layers.

“Whew!” Jeff wiped the sweat from his brow on his shirtsleeve (it wasn't a substance the Pinkertons were used to) and framed the mountain through boxed fingers. “I think I see the frog. If you stand here and look from this angle, it does look like a squatting amphibian.”

Kai squinted.

“I see something.”

“What?” Jeff and Lizzy chimed together.

“I believe … yes, it's definitely a small muscle developing on Jeff's arm.”

“Whatever.” He was buying a weight set when they got back to the mainland.

“Let's forget about the frog
-
thing and focus on finding a door. I think I see some stairs cut into the side of this rock—it looks like they lead up to the top,” said Lizzy tensely. A bad feeling crept over her.
Why is this side of the mountain so wild and untouched
? “This doesn't look like the main entrance to me. Maybe it's a back way in …”

They slowly trudged up the stairs and found a tall arched doorway, partially concealed by thick, draping vines. They cut their way into the inky, cold nothingness of the lava caves.

“Looks kinda dark,” said Jeff. He rifled through his pack and pulled out a headlamp, strapping it on.

“You could stay here and keep lookout,” said Kai.

“Think I'll take my chances in the tunnels of black molten lava.”

Kai glanced down at the lame little pen light attached to her backpack then back up at Jeff's fancy headlamp. “So, you got anything else in that pack? A unicycle or a flying monkey, maybe?”

“No … and yes,” he said evenly, and they set off winding through the labyrinth of Frog Mountain.

 

A disturbing silence swallowed them, thicker and heavier than the very walls that held the lava within itself. And after walking for over an hour in the padded darkness, Lizzy noticed something very upsetting. They had been walking in circles.

“We've passed that funny rock several times … the one that looks like a crooked carrot hanging from the ceiling.”

“We should start marking the walls to make sure we aren't doing double-backs,” suggested Kai. She cast around for loose gravel to scratch the walls with, but Jeff had already pulled out a piece of chalk from his pack to more surprised looks from Lizzy and Kai.

“Good idea,” he said, “I'll mark an ‘X' every fifty feet or so.”

Kai ogled his pack.

“What? ‘Always be prepared.' That's the scout's motto.”

“Yeah, but you're not a boy scout.”

“I always wanted to be.”

They wound through the tunnels. Jeff carefully marked the obsidian walls, and not fifteen minutes later, they were back at the first ‘X' he had drawn.

“Oh, no,” groaned Lizzy. “How did
that
happen?”

Ggggrrrrrrrrrrrr

Kai perked up. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” said Lizzy sharply. “It's like walking through black cotton in here.” All she could hear was the muffled shuffling of their feet on the cold floor.

“It sounded like a low growl.”

“I thought it was Jeff's stomach again.”

“Do you think there are spiders in these caves? I hate spiders,” said Kai, shivering.

“No, most likely not—”

Lizzy never finished her thought because a humongous black thing crashed to the floor in front of Jeff and Kai, freezing them in their tracks. “Ouch!” cried Kai as Lizzy slammed into her back, sending them all forward into a clumsy tumble to the floor.

“Why did you stop!” snapped Lizzy. But she saw clearly why. Crouching low before Jeff were two luminous, amber eyes, staring hungrily at them. Through the eerie darkness they looked like floating, bodiless orbs at once numbering two … then four … then back to two again.

The atmosphere in the cave changed in seconds. A very real Cold Fear surrounded them and instantly jumbled their senses. Jerking back to their feet in a panic, they bolted blindly down the nearest tunnel, hearts pounding out of their chests!

But the black cat didn't move.

She sat lazily upon her haunches, waiting, preferring to let her prey marinate in their fear for a time. Her whiskered lips stretched into a broad and sinister smile as she watched the three humans scurry off.

“Like little mice to their holes,” she sneered aloud, yawning in feline fashion, glad to be awake from her frozen slumber. She had been following them from behind the lava walls for a while, enjoying the aroma of their confusion.

Then, in an instant, the form of a woman split off from the panther and stood tall beside her beast. What was one, now became two, with the spirit of the woman residing in the cat, ready to do her bidding.

“
Mrrrrrrrow
! Delightful, Spook! You know what you must do! Go!” she commanded the panther. “They will be weaker if they are apart!”

And off the woman-cat bounded from rock to rock, digging human and cat claws into the cold dirt after their new found spoil …

 

The three children ran deep into the tunnels until their lungs burned and their legs gave out. Kai and Jeff found themselves together in a small cavern somewhere deep within the lava maze.

“Where's Lizzy?” said Kai, gasping for air.

“Don't know—she was just behind me … but we have bigger problems!” cried Jeff, backing up against the wall.

The panther pounced into the room and arched low to the ground, its massive, black body blocking the door and any hopes of escape. It let out an unearthly growl and bared gleaming, sharp fangs at Jeff and Kai, who crouched feebly in a corner of the cave in utter terror.

In the turmoil and darkness, Lizzy had taken a right turn down a narrow tunnel just as Jeff and Kai went left. An ominous shadow had suddenly appeared in her path and she veered to avoid its owner. Catching her shaky breath, she stopped and groped slowly along the wall. With her shoulder blades scraping against the rock, she moved into an open archway and froze—an icy breath gushed past her cheek. Trembling, she turned to find a woman squatting on a ledge, staring eagerly, her long black hair falling forward into her face.

Those eyes … I can't move
.

“Hello, Lizzy. I haven't seen you in quite a long time,” the lady mewed. “You're all grown up, I see.”

Lizzy gulped, but no words came out. She backed away from the wall, watching the woman. Lizzy could tell she was pretty, although something was off about her—it was her eyes—they were too big for her face and grossly inhuman.

“Ha-have we met?” Lizzy croaked.

“Oh, here and there,” the woman said airily, twirling a hand upward. “When you would cry alone at night, I would come for a superb feast! The fear was …
delicious
.”

She slid off her ledge, and moving in a cat-like sashay, sniffed the air around Lizzy, like an animal breathing in the scent of its food. She was very close to Lizzy's face now, staring unblinkingly—her wide golden eyes piercing—a blue streak pulsating, wave-like, across her right eye.

Lizzy began to convulse uncontrollably.

“
Yes
,” she dripped with vile sweetness, “we used to keep each other company.”

Lizzy watched as the blue streak in the woman's eye grew larger and washed over the gold pigment, flashing it completely white. A true terror, like nothing Lizzy had ever known, rabidly gripped her. It felt like several death-ropes of fear had bound her, cutting into her skin, bleeding the very life-force out of her.

“Wh-who are you?” Lizzy panted.

“I am your nightmares. I am your tragedies,” she said playfully, stroking Lizzy's curls. “My name is Samirrrrrra,” she purred, hunger rising.

The ravenous woman inhaled deeply, feeding, pulling the fright out of Lizzy's heart like a fulgid drink, sending searing pain throughout her arms and legs. She fell with a
thud
to the dirt floor and gave way to silent sobs.

“
Please stop
,” she whimpered.

“I will drain you until you are no more, Miss Grape.”

A dubious squeak escaped Lizzy's lips.

“Haaa—funny—you know—because my name is ‘Grape' and all,” she wheezed, somehow finding humor in which were very possibly the last moments of her life. Then, on the brink of blacking out, she heard the gentlest of utterances—

“
Lizzy …
”

Her heart leapt.

“
Lizard,
” she heard again.

Could it be
? Brandon was the only one who called her by that name.

The words floated in a whisper on the air …

“
Fight.
”

“But I can't move,” she sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“
Like the time you were little … you called, and it came
.”

Lizzy wasn't sure if it was real or an echo from her memories.

“What do you mean,
call what
? I don't understand.” As fast as lightning claws ripped the air behind Samira, and for a split second, Lizzy saw the backside of a bear falling to the ground.

Samira arched in agony and screeched out “How dare you!” to her attacker. Grim shadows flickered off the cave walls as two beasts in battle fell to the dirt floor. Echoes and howls filled the tunnels. Fangs and claws slashed forth, bringing yelps of pain from both animals.

Then silence.

A strange quiet filled the air. The cave walls closed in like a round, black cauldron. Samira, eyes full of cold rage, emerged from the shadows and slowly sauntered out of darkness.

Lizzy quite wisely decided she would rather not be held in the panther-lady's terrifying grip again, if she could help it, and so backing up slowly, felt her way into a crevice …

Crunch
-
crunch—
two steps in and she looked down to see she had been trampling over the damp and decaying bones of long forgotten victims.

“AHHHHH!”

She ran screaming and smacking into several tubular lava stalactites that hung from the ceiling, then tripping on a tall lava spike jutting up from the ground, fell backward into a puddle at her feet with a loud
yelp
!