Curse of the Granville Fortune (4 page)

“I don’t think so. There’s a big blank spot above the fireplace where the painting used to be. Mom’s bound to notice it. She’ll figure out what we did. Especially if she goes to the park and finds the painting on the merry-go-round.”

“Should we turn around and head home?” Holly asked.

“We can’t. We’d have to walk back past that cave, and we definitely wouldn’t be lucky enough to get by those stone wolves again.” I couldn’t believe I’d said that out loud. Holly and I froze, afraid the forest would create more stone wolves or that the ones Holly had made earlier would magically appear. Nothing happened. “I guess the forest knows the difference between talking about the past and voicing our fears.” I relaxed a little, but Holly still looked nervous.

“What if Mom comes looking for us? All those things our fears created might get her.”

I had to bite my tongue when Holly said
our
fears—as if
I
had anything to do with the bears or wolves. I’d learned my lesson after the living tree people. “I don’t think Mom would come after us by herself. She knows there are hundreds of different paths in these woods. She wrote about them in the journal. She wouldn’t have any way of knowing which paths we took. We should keep walking and try to find another way out.”

Holly nodded, but I could tell by the way she chewed on her lower lip something still bothered her. “Hey, J.B.? When I asked you why you kept looking at the sky, you said ‘first of all’ and explained about the time, but what’s second of all?”

“I don’t want to scare you, but do you remember when I left you in the cave and scouted out the path?”

She shivered. “Don’t remind me!”

“Well, I found something.”

“The Grimault thieves?”

“No. Vultures. They’ve been circling overhead.”

“I thought vultures only ate dead animals.”

The vultures spiraled through the air. One flew low enough that I could see its sharp talons. “I don’t think we’re in any danger.” I hoped I was right.

I was exhausted, and my stomach growled so loudly that I looked around expecting to see a growling bear—real or the leafy variety.

“Why can’t we come across a fruit tree?” Holly asked, rubbing her stomach. “Any chance that thinking aloud works for good things, too?”

I considered it for a second, but no magical fruit trees appeared. I assumed the forest only tuned into fears. “I’m hungry too, but I’m more worried about finding water. I thought we’d find another stream somewhere, or if that stream we crossed earlier today was big enough, maybe we’d come across it again.”

“But we haven’t changed directions, and I think we’re walking away from the stream.” Holly’s eyes watered. She was giving up hope of finding water and, more importantly, of ever getting home.

“I’m sure we’ll find water soon,” I said, but I wasn’t convinced. I was trying to be brave for Holly, but I’d never been so scared in my life. We’d never be able to retrace our steps and go home. Even if we were lucky enough to get past the wolves a second time, Holly wouldn’t be able to cross that stream with her sore ankle. Especially without the rope.

“How long have the vultures been circling above us?” Holly asked.

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Do you think we could follow them to find water? If they live in this forest, they must know where to find water.”

“That’s true. But, if we follow the vultures, we’ll have to stop taking the paths on the left. How will we get home if we can’t find another way out of here? We won’t be able to retrace our steps.”

“I don’t think we have a choice. If we don’t find water, we won’t need to worry about how to get home. We won’t be
alive
to worry about how to get home.”

“Then we need to take this path on the right because the vultures just changed directions,” I said.

The vultures started turning in all directions like they were playing a game. We couldn’t stay on the paths anymore, and I had to let Holly lean on me again as we pushed through the bushes and climbed over boulders.

I was about to give up on the plan when I heard the sound of crashing waves. The sun was getting lower in the sky, but I could see a beach beyond the trees up ahead.

“We’re out!” I yelled, running for the sand. The forest went all the way to the shore. I threw my body down on the cool, soft sand and let out a cheer. “We can walk to town from here and call Mom.”

Holly walked over to me, but she wasn’t nearly as relieved as I was to be out of the woods. “J.B., look!” She pointed a shaky finger down the beach.

To our left, a string of caves lined the coast. I knew she was thinking about the wolves. I was about to tell her we were perfectly safe when I heard something moving in the cave closest to us. I jumped up.

“Wolf!” Holly screamed, and she darted back into the woods.

“Wait!” I yelled, but I didn’t even look in her direction. My eyes were glued to the cave, or, more specifically, the girl coming out of the cave. She was about my age. Her hair was dark brown, and the ends had the slightest little curl. She was easily the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, but it was her eyes I couldn’t look away from. They were the deepest shade of blue-green. I was so shocked by their color I stumbled backward.

She jumped when she saw me. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Blood rushed to my cheeks, and I couldn’t form words. She repeated her question, staring at me like I was a complete mental case. I shook my head, forcing myself to snap out of the weird trance I was in. “I’m fine.”

“Is your friend okay?” the girl said, looking toward the woods. I spotted Holly peering out from behind a large pine tree at the edge of the forest.

“Oh, yeah. She’s my younger sister. We were born exactly a year apart.” Why was I babbling?

“You have the same birthday? What are the odds of that?” she said, brushing back a strand of hair that had fallen across her face. “I think I’d like sharing my birthday with someone. I kind of always wished I had a twin.”

“Yeah, I bet it’s fun to be a twin. You should try it. I mean—” What was
wrong
with me?

I turned away, wanting to shrink from embarrassment, and I felt Holly’s hand on my shoulder. “You should try it?” she whispered with a laugh. Of course she’d heard that!

Holly sized up the girl and winked at me. She knew I had a crush. I glared at her, silently begging her to shut up. Although, I didn’t think she could do anything to make me feel more embarrassed.

“I should go,” the girl said, fidgeting uncomfortably.

“Wait,” Holly said. “I’m Holly. You’ve met my brother, J.B.”

“Sort of.” She glanced at me, taking another step back. “I have to go.” She motioned to the cave behind her and ducked inside.

Holly shrugged. “Was it something I said?”

“More likely something
I
said. I was a babbling idiot! Nothing I said made sense.” I kicked a clump of wet sand.

“You’re right. It didn’t.” Holly laughed.

I was about to retaliate when the girl came walking out of the cave again. Holly stopped laughing and grabbed my arm. “She’s got a knife! She must be one of the Grimault thieves! Run!”

I didn’t have time to react. Holly took off again, but this time she didn’t duck behind a tree. She kept going.

“I didn’t mean to scare her.” The girl held a broken seashell in her hand, not a knife. “I’m Noelle.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Noelle just stared at me.

“Look, I’m sorry about before. My sister and I ran into some scary animals in the forest, and I guess I’m still a little shaky.”

Noelle’s face lit up. “Did you see anyone else in the woods? A man?”

“No. Why?”

“I’m looking for my dad. He’s missing. I saw him in the forest, and well—he was in trouble.” She looked away.

“You saw him in there?”

“Sort of. He was in the caves first.” Noelle’s hands shook, and she dropped the seashell in the sand. I picked it up and handed it to her. Our fingers touched, and a surge of electricity shot up my arm. We both jumped backward.

“Sorry, static electricity, I guess.”

Noelle squinted at me. “Can you keep a secret?”

“Absolutely.”

“I had this dream about my dad. He was wandering around in these woods, and he was mumbling. When I woke up this morning, my whole body was shaking and he was gone.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t want to make her worry even more, but I couldn’t keep the truth about this forest a secret. Not if she was planning to go looking for her dad. “Listen, Noelle, these woods aren’t like anything you’ve ever seen. Any and every scary thing you can imagine—it all comes to life in there.”

I expected her to laugh or yell at me for trying to scare her, but Noelle didn’t look surprised.

“I know. I saw it in my dream. I can’t tell you how, but I knew the dream was real. I knew it was really happening.” She looked down the shoreline, avoiding my eyes. “You probably think I’m crazy.”

“No, not at all. After what I’ve seen in the forest, I think
I
might be the crazy one.”

Noelle turned back to me and smiled. “Will you help me look for my father?”

I nodded. “But first, we have to find my sister. Before something else does.”

The forest was the last place I wanted to be, especially after finding a way out of it. But, I couldn’t say no to Noelle, and I couldn’t leave Holly alone to voice her scary thoughts either.

“Holly? Where are you?” I hoped she wasn’t lying in a ditch somewhere. “Holl—”

“Ca-caw!” Only Holly would think to make fake birdcalls.

Noelle and I stopped. We looked all around, but Holly was nowhere to be seen. I was getting impatient. This wasn’t the place to be fooling around. “Where are you? I know that’s you.”

She answered with another birdcall.

“Are you sure that’s your sister?” Noelle asked. “It sounds like a vulture.”

I wanted to kick myself for forgetting to tell Noelle how the forest worked. Now she’d suggested a creature for us to deal with. I immediately whipped my head toward the trees. The branch directly above us started transforming into a giant vulture. As if the real ones weren’t scary enough.

“Quick, get in that bush!” I yelled.

“What? I’m not getting in a sticker bush.” The oversized bird swooped down at Noelle, and she dove for the bush.

I reached out and grabbed the tail of the bird as it pecked at Noelle. I started ripping the leaves out like feathers and the bird turned on me. Noelle leaped out of the bush and grabbed hold of the bird’s wing. I got a hand on the other wing, and we pulled in opposite directions. The tree branch broke apart, and the leaves fell to the ground.

“Take that, forest!” I said, breathing heavily. I was really tired of this place.

“What
was
that?” Noelle’s face was ghostly white.

“I forgot to tell you that the forest can hear you. If you imagine something scary and say it out loud, the forest makes it real. It only hears the nightmarish stuff, too. So, wishing for things like food or water doesn’t get you anything.” I kicked the pile of leaves, making sure the bird wasn’t about to come back to life.

“I made the forest create that thing?”

“Don’t sweat it. Holly and I created lots of scary creatures.” I didn’t go into details about the bears, wolves, and tree people. I didn’t want to test the boundaries between remembering scary things and creating new ones.

Noelle looked like she was about to pass out when Holly stepped out from behind a bush. She had branches and leaves tucked into her clothing. I couldn’t help laughing. “Nice job at the camouflage, but bushes don’t wear sneakers.”

“You couldn’t find me, so obviously I did a pretty good job,” Holly sneered. She squinted at Noelle. “Way to create an attack bird.”

“Whoa!” I said, feeling strangely protective of Noelle. “Do you really want to compare who’s made what come to life in this forest? Because I think your handiwork back at the cave would win.”

Holly glared at me. “Whatever. Let’s just get back to shore and away from this forest.”

I grabbed her arm. “We can’t leave yet. I promised Noelle we’d help her look for her dad. He’s lost in here.” I leaned closer and whispered, “Besides, I’m not ready to give up on breaking the curse.” I hoped Noelle hadn’t heard that part. I hadn’t made the best first impression and didn’t want her to know I was a cursed freak.

“Are you crazy?” Holly swung her arm out from my grip. “If you want to stay in this horrible place, be my guest. I’m going home.” She turned, and her tree branch camouflage caught on a sticker bush. She started ripping the leaves from her clothing. “A little help, please!”

“And you want to go back to the shore on your own? You couldn’t even make it two steps without needing my help.”

Noelle bent down and picked something up off the ground. It was so dirty I couldn’t tell what it was. “No, no, no!” She shook her head.

“What is it?” I asked.

“My dad’s watch—or what’s left of it.” I took the watch from her, and we shocked each other again as our fingers touched.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, but Noelle was too upset to care about a little static electricity. The watchband was chewed up, and the face was cracked. It looked like an animal had been using it as a chew toy. “It probably fell off and some squirrels thought it was food.”

Noelle’s lower lip quivered. “Probably. But this means my dream definitely was real. He was here and something bad happened to him.”

Holly sighed and said, “If we’re really going back through this forest, let’s get it over with.”

“Thanks,” Noelle said in a soft voice.

“But this time, I get to lead.” Before I could protest, Holly hopped onto a trail and took off like she knew where she was going. She even started skipping and humming “Lions and Tigers and Bears” as if she were Dorothy in
The Wizard of Oz
. But soon she got carried away and started singing her own version out loud, “Wolves and vultures and bears, oh my!”

I quickly covered her mouth. We all froze, waiting to see Holly’s latest forest creations. The bush next to us started to move and wood splintered somewhere above us. “Run!” I yelled. We sprinted to the next fork in the trail.