No Survivors (5 page)

The town constable's office was in a small stone building at the edge of the town. Deborah found herself locked in a bare room the size of a horse stall.

She sat on the floor, her back against the wall. Outside, she could hear the
whack
of the carpenters' hammers as they built the gallows.

To hang me…hang me…

Deborah thought of the spells she had learned. She could cast one that would let her escape. But what good would that do? As long as her mother's curse lasted, evil would follow her. She would again be accused of witchcraft and hunted down.

I can't keep running, Deborah thought.

With a sob, Deborah pushed her hair off her forehead. She climbed unsteadily to her feet.

“Can you hear me, Mother?”

She shouted over the pounding of the hammers.

“Can you hear me all the way from your lonely island? If you can, I want you to know that I will
have my revenge.”

She pounded her fists against the hard stone wall.

If only the noise would stop. If only they would stop their hammering.

Does my last day on earth have to be such a torture?

“I will die tonight, Mother,” Deborah shouted. “Because of you, I shall die tonight. But I shall come back.”

Another sob escaped her throat. She wiped away the tears that ran down her feverish cheeks.

“If it takes a hundred years—or five hundred, I will come back from the dead. I will find a new body. And I will return to the island to destroy you, Mother!”

A hard knock on the door. The door swung open.

Four grim-faced men dragged Deborah out into a gray, damp evening.

A crowd had gathered around the wooden gallows, high on a tall platform. They grew silent at the sight of her, the sight of the witch.

Deborah could feel the crescent moon on her forehead throb with heat as she climbed the stairs of the platform. She raised her eyes to the sky, and saw no moon or stars. A solid blanket of gray.

Her legs were trembling so hard, she could barely stand. Silently, she began to chant the words of a spell.

The men held her arms tightly and forced her forward.

She shut her eyes when she saw the thick loop of rope. The noose.

She felt it slide down over her head. It came to a rest around her neck.

She forced herself to concentrate on the spell. To call the magic to her.

The crowd was silent now. As if she were already dead.

One of the men brought his face close to hers. “Witch—do you have any last words?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Deborah replied. And then she shouted, “I SHALL RETURN!”

“I'm choking…
choking!
”

April struggled to pull away the heavy wet sea kelp that covered her.

“Can't breathe…” she moaned.

Beside her, she could hear Kristen struggling too. The disgusting wet tendrils of kelp crept over them like a blanket. Tightening as it wrapped around them…tightening.

Twisting and kicking, April tried frantically to free herself from the slimy plant. The cold waves swayed around her waist. The water wasn't deep here, but she knew that if she let the kelp pull her beneath, she would drown.

If she didn't choke to death first.

The kelp tightened around April's legs. Around her waist. Around her throat.

She stumbled, fell to her knees. Felt the kelp closing around her entire body. Only her head was above the water now.

It's like…I'm being swallowed, she thought. Can't breathe…can't breathe…

She felt herself start to give way to the darkness.

The wet kelp pulsed around her. Pulsed like a heartbeat.

Like my heartbeat, April thought.

Beat…beat…beat…

And then, far in the distance, she heard a voice. “Kristen? April?”

A voice, so faint and far away.

“April? Is that you?”

April made a strangled sound.

“What are you two doing in the water like that?”

It was Pam! Why couldn't Pam see that she and Kristen needed help?

Kristen cried out as a wave knocked her down. The kelp was pulling her under!

April fought to yank the kelp away from her throat. She had to break its hold. She had to keep breathing. She had to help Kristen.

April felt the cold water around her waist rush away, back into the ocean. She and Kristen were on wet sand, covered in kelp.

And Pam was staring at them, saying, “Okay, already. You two can come out of the water now.”

At Pam's words, the tendrils of kelp began to loosen.

April sucked in a deep breath.

She could
taste
the sour, salty kelp on her tongue.

It loosened even more. And then fell away.

April saw Kristen on her knees, gasping for air. The thick, sticky kelp looked like a big mud puddle on the sand around her.

The water rushed back in. But it was shallower now. Only up to their ankles. April stared at it in amazement. Just minutes ago she thought they were both going to drown.

“What's up with you two?” Pam demanded.

She stood over them. Her blond hair fluttered in the wind off the ocean. She wore tan shorts and a white midriff top.

Pam stared down at them, hands on her waist, her face puzzled. “What are you two doing out here?”

April struggled to her feet. Her bare feet slid on the wet blanket of kelp.

“Pam—you saved us!” Kristen exclaimed.

Did she? April wondered.

Kristen grabbed Pam's arm and pulled herself up.

Pam jumped back, making a face. “Oooh, that stuff is totally gross! What were you doing with it?”

“It—it—” Kristen struggled to speak.

“It climbed over us,” April exclaimed, pulling a sticky tendril from her bangs. “It tried to strangle us. Then pull us under.”

“How did you make it let us go?” Kristen asked Pam.

Pam's face twisted in confusion. “Do what? I didn't do anything.”

“Yes, you did,” Kristen insisted. “You said we could come out, and the kelp released us. You saved our lives.”

Pam laughed. “That's crazy. I didn't do anything. Really.”

April didn't say anything. Could Pam's words have made the kelp release them? But what else could it have been?

Pam pulled a clump of wet leaves off Kristen's shoulder. “I saw that you two were missing. So I came looking for you. Come on. Let's go. It's really late.”

The Academy Village was dark. The torch for Clark had burned out.

April took a shower and changed into a clean nightshirt. Then she sat on the edge of her cot and stared across the room at Pam.

When anything frightening happened to me back home, Pam was always there, April remembered.

She was always nearby when the strange things happened.

And now, here she was again. On the beach. Just in time to save us from the creepy sea plant.

Was it just a coincidence?

A soft knock on the cabin door broke April from her thoughts. She jumped to her feet as Donald Marks poked his bald head in the door.

“April? Kristen? Are you okay?” he whispered. April nodded. “Yes. We're fine.”

“You shouldn't wander on your own at night,” Marks scolded.

“H-how did you know?” April asked, startled. Had he seen them? Or had Pam ratted them out?

A strange, cold smile crossed his face. Then he whispered, “You can't keep any secrets here, April. Not an island with a witch.”

“What do you mean?” April demanded.

He smiled again. “Let's just say, she's watching you.”

The morning sun poured down its warm light on the sloping rock hill. The woman in the blue cloak stepped out of the cave and raised her face to the sky. A smile crossed her pale face as she felt the sun on her skin.

Her blond-brown hair, streaked with gray, fell in loose tangles behind her bone-thin shoulders.

She had green cat eyes beneath white-blond eyebrows. Her lips were as white as her skin. When she smiled, her skin crinkled into a thousand tiny wrinkles.

The chill of the cave lingered in her bones. The sun could never completely take away the chill. She had lived on this tropical island for more than three hundred years—and had not been warm for a single minute.

She wore the heavy blue cloak all the time. It was her daughter's cloak, and it never fully warmed her. Still smiling up at the sunlight, she cupped her
long, bony hands and held them in front of her. “Here, little bird. Come here, little bird,” she called softly.

High overhead, a white seagull stopped its flight.

“Here, little bird,” Katherine called softly, sweetly. She held her cupped hands still.

The bird, a white speck against the blue sky, floated lower.

“Come to me. Come to me,” Katherine chanted.

The bird swooped gently into her cupped hands. It warbled and fluttered its wings, settling in.

“Good morning, little bird,” Katherine whispered, raising the seagull in front of her. Her green eyes flashed. “Did you know there is another little bird on this island?”

The gull warbled again, as if answering her.

“My own little bird is here,” Katherine said softly. She petted the gull's wing feathers with one long, bent finger.

“My daughter has come to pay me a visit,” she continued. “She hopes to surprise me. But I am ready for her.”

Katherine petted the bird gently, making it coo.

“Yes, my daughter has come to surprise me. I am not sure which of the visiting girls she is. But I have a pretty good idea.”

The bird cooed again as the woman petted it. It tilted its head and gazed up at her with one tiny black bead of an eye.

“I will continue to test them,” Katherine told the bird in a whisper. “Soon…soon Deborah will reveal herself. Yes, I will find out which one she is. And then, guess what, little bird? Then…I will surprise
her!
”

Still smiling, Katherine wrapped her fingers around the gull's throat—and tore off its head.

“Go! Go! Go!”

The two Academy assistants, Mira and Blake, cheered from their canoe as the kids raced over the water.

April had the lead for a short while. I'm a good swimmer, she thought. I could win this race. It would feel good to win something.

But Pam soon passed her by with her steady, smooth strokes.

Pam's blue eyes flashed gleefully as she swam ahead of April. Kicking her long legs, she put on a burst of speed—and April felt as if she were standing still.

Pam once wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, April remembered.

She always wanted to be an Olympic
everything!

Kendra passed April too. And then Phil splashed up beside her. Phil was very pale, with short white-blond hair. He was chubby, kind of round. Bouncing
in the waves, he reminded April of a baby polar bear.

He was breathing hard, groaning with each stroke, spitting water into the air as he thrashed, slapping the surface with his chubby hands.

April laughed. “Where did you learn to swim?”

“In the bathtub,” he joked.

Kristen passed them both. April turned to see Anthony coming on fast.

The swim race was from the boat dock to the blue rocks, then back to the dock. The bright sunlight made the ocean gleam like a mirror. Seagulls squawked noisily overhead. Mira and Blake's canoe rocked on the gentle waves.

Squinting into the sun's glare, April saw Pam and Kendra reach the rocks and make the turn. Both girls were churning hard now, moving at full speed.

April kicked harder, trying to pick up her pace. She hadn't slept well the night before, thinking about the smothering sea kelp and her eerie close call on the beach.

Now the cold water felt refreshing. It felt good to be getting some exercise.

She reached the rocks a few strokes behind Phil and Kristen. As she made the turn, Anthony came up beside her. He stroked steadily, his bony arms moving in and out rapidly, his red hair matted to his forehead, falling over his eyes.

Struggling to keep up with him, April glimpsed Pam far up ahead.

Is she going to win this race too? April wondered.

No one is going to be happy if Pam wins every race. Especially since she doesn't even belong here!

A high wave rolled over April, pushing her back.

She saw Anthony dive under it. He came out on the other side, ahead of her.

April lowered her head.

Kicked harder.

I don't want to finish last.

But another wave sent her sailing backward.

Then another.

She felt a powerful current pulling her…pulling her back, back toward the rocks.

“No!” A cry escaped her throat.

She saw the other kids swimming easily. Pam and Kendra were approaching the finish line at the dock.

April kicked with all her strength. She tried to power herself forward. But the current pushed her back.

Her body hit the rocks hard.

She gasped in pain. Then she forced herself forward, diving beneath the rush of the waves.

She swam underwater for as long as she could hold her breath. When she surfaced, April could see the dock. Her throat burned. Her chest ached. But she was almost halfway there.

Then the current grabbed her again. It pulled her down to the sandy ocean floor. April swallowed a mouthful of briny water. She fought her way back to the surface.

Wave after wave battered her. She couldn't keep her head above the water. She couldn't get enough air.

She was being swept back toward the rocks.

Turning, she saw a flash of blue at the top of the rocks. Was someone up there? Was it the woman in the blue cloak?

Was she watching April?

A powerful, roaring wave lifted April into the air. Out of the water.

Then the wave slammed her hard, back under the water.

April knew she couldn't fight much longer. But she pushed her way to the surface once more. With the last of her breath, she called out. “Help—somebody! Help!”

But the others were far away now too far to hear her frantic cries.

Too far to see her tossed again and again by the pounding waves.