The Masked Family (19 page)

Cary was standing near the top of the stairs, watching the flames and smoke roiling in the living room below, when something slammed into him from behind. He barely had time to register the impact before he hit the floor.

Jarred but unhurt, he quickly rolled over on his side and saw what had struck him...
who
had struck him. As soon as Cary saw who it was, he burst into flames inside with an angry heat that exceeded the heat downstairs.

Grogan Salt lay on his back just inches away, shaking his head hard as if to clear the fog from it.

Instantly, a single thought flared in Cary's mind:

He did this. He did all of this.

Everything bad that had happened in that house had been Grogan's fault. Now, the night before Grogan was supposed to leave for good, the house was on fire...and there he was, sneaking around while everyone else was in bed.

He did this...and he's not going to get away with it.

Burning with rage, Cary scrambled to his hands and knees. Grogan caught sight of him just as he lunged.

With a furious cry, Cary threw himself on top of Grogan and pelted him with a flurry of blows. At first, Grogan barely defended himself, and Cary landed some solid shots...but then Grogan grabbed one of Cary's arms and held it. Cary managed to pump one more punch into Grogan's face before Grogan grabbed his other arm, too.

Without a word, Grogan heaved Cary off him. As Cary tumbled to the floor on his butt, Grogan fumbled to his feet.

Then, he headed for the stairs.

Coughing and waving away smoke, Grogan made his way down the hall. He didn't get far.

Cary scrambled after him on all fours, grabbed his ankle, and hoisted it back. Flailing, Grogan went over forward.

As soon as Grogan hit the floor, Cary leaped on top of him and started beating him again. He clasped his hands together into one big fist and pummeled Grogan's back and neck and shoulders. The whole time, smoke curled around him and the flames danced higher downstairs.

The flames that were Grogan's fault.

"I hate you!" screamed Cary as he pounded on Grogan again and again. "
I hate you
!"

Then, with a single, sudden movement, Grogan bucked him off. Cary fell to one side and bumped his head against the wall just hard enough to hurt.

Before Cary could get up again, Grogan ran down the stairs. He paused at the bottom, looked right, then cut left and disappeared.

Cary heard the front door slam shut behind him.

Cary screamed one more time, though he knew Grogan couldn't hear him anymore. "
I hate you!
"

Then, without wasting another second, he got up and ran for the bedroom where his brother and sisters were sleeping.

 

*****

"Forget the greenhouse," Max shouted over the noise from the firehose. "Try to save the shop and apartment."

Immediately, E.Q. quit spraying the greenhouse, which was completely engulfed in flame, and swung the hose around to the ground floor rear window, which was coughing out smoke.

He was getting good at putting out fires at that place. It was the third time the Magic Castle had caught fire in three weeks...the second time that he and Max had fought the fire on their own.

As E.Q. continued to spray the rear window, he felt someone shake his shoulder, and he turned to see Max standing behind him. That would've been fine, except Max had been out in front of him the last time he'd looked.

"I
said
, will you be okay out here while I go in?" said Max.

"Yeah." E.Q. guessed he must've dozed off on his feet for a second. No surprise, given it was four in the morning and he'd barely stayed awake for more than a few seconds at a time on the ride over.

Max trotted around the far corner of the back of the building, but he wasn't gone for long. He came back a moment later and shouted at E.Q.

"I found the dogs," he said, pointing toward the side of the building. Then, he jabbed an index finger at his temple, as if his hand were a gun, and popped it away as if the gun had just fired.

So that was what had happened to Mary Anne's new guard dogs. That was why they hadn't driven off whoever set the fire.

Because they'd been shot dead.

Max waved and disappeared around the corner again.

E.Q. sprayed the flames for another minute or two before someone else tapped him on the shoulder. Surprised but too tired to jump, he slowly turned to see who was back there.

"Are you all right, E.Q.?" It was Olenka, his mother. She stood there in a floral print housecoat with a white sweater over it and her hair wrapped in a babushka scarf. She looked as fully alert as if it were the middle of the afternoon instead of four in the morning.

E.Q. nodded. "What are you doing here?" Not only did Olenka never show up at the scene of a fire, but she hardly ever drove a car anywhere.

"Why do you think?" said Olenka. "Because I'm worried about you two."

"But we're fine," said E.Q.

"The two of you shouldn't be doing this alone." Olenka turned her big, dark eyes to the burning building. "I have a bad feeling about this place."

E.Q. walked the hose a few yards to one side for a better angle on the ground floor window. "Well, don't," he said. "We've got it under control."

"Hey!" Max had just walked around the corner of the building and spotted Olenka with E.Q. "You're just in time, Olenka! We could
use
another pair of hands!"

"Three fires in three weeks," said Olenka. "Somebody's pretty persistent."

"Well, I'm a hundred times as persistent putting 'em out," said Max. "A
million
times."

"No one inside?" said E.Q.

Max shook his head. "Mary Anne's car's gone, so I figured she was out."

"I have a bad feeling, Max," said Olenka. "Maybe you should stay away from this place."

Max narrowed his eyes at her. "Has someone been talking to you?" he said.

"Just the usual," said Olenka. "Everyone wants Mary Anne out of town. They think if you'd just let the place burn down, she'd leave."

"And that's why you want me to stay away?" said Max.

Olenka sneered. "Of course not. That makes me want you to stay
here.
" Her sneer melted into a troubled frown. "But like I said, I've got a feeling."

Max lifted off his fire helmet and wiped his grimy forehead with his sleeve. "Well, you know I trust your feelings, Olenka..."

"As well you should," she said.

"...but I'm going to be living here for a while."

It was Olenka's turn to narrow her eyes. "What do you mean by 'living here'?"

"I'll stay here day and night," said Max. "The next time they try to burn the place down, I'll stop them. I'll catch them, and that'll be the end of it."

Olenka sighed. "You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"Sure I did." Max grinned and put his helmet back on. "Maybe your bad
feeling
applies to the bad
guys
because I'm going to
get
them."

Olenka shook her head and stared at him. The two of them locked eyes for a long moment, while E.Q. watched them both.

Finally, Olenka broke away. "All right, fine," she said, and then she turned and headed back to the car. "Just let me pack a few things."

"Thanks, sweetheart," said Max. "I appreciate your saving me a trip to get my stuff."

"Who said anything about
your
things?" said Olenka. "I'm packing
my
things."

"What?" said Max. "Why?"

"I won't leave you out here alone," said Olenka.

"I won't be," said Max. "E.Q. will stay here with me."

"And so will I," said Olenka. "End of discussion."

E.Q.'s jaw dropped open. In less than five minutes, his father and mother had announced that they were coming to live at the Magic Castle...and so was he.

As if he wasn't already the biggest laughingstock in town next to his father and Mary Anne.

"This will be nice," Olenka shouted back over her shoulder as she kept walking away. "A family outing. Like a camping trip."

A passing pickup truck blared its horn, and someone screamed out the window: "
Burn the freak!
"

E.Q. just kept spraying water on the fire. "Some family outing," he said.

 

*****

"I loved him," said Paisley. "I loved Grogan Salt."

Celeste stared at her without saying a word. So did everyone else in the living room. Even Pretzel was quiet.

Paisley sighed. "There. I said it. The secret's out. I loved him."

"Wow." Baron shook his head. "What were you
thinking
?"

"It was
love
, Baron." Paisley spread her arms wide. "I wasn't thinking
anything
."

"After all he
did
to us," said Baron.

"I've got a thing for bad boys." Paisley shrugged. "And I never thought he'd really hurt any of you. The things he did...he made them seem like practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?" said Celeste. "He almost
killed
Cary, Paisley."

Paisley shook her head. "He wasn't going to kill him. He told me that."

"So, what?" Baron walked toward her, swerving around E.Q., who had stopped trying to push him out the front door. "You helped him with his dirty work? You told him our secrets?"

Paisley grimaced and touched her belly as if the baby had given her a sudden pain. She lowered herself onto the arm of the sofa. "Yes, I did."

Celeste stared down at her with arms folded over her chest. The knot in her own stomach was growing tighter with each passing moment.

None of what her sister was saying seemed possible. So much of her life had been a mystery to Celeste--the pregnancy, the imprisonment, the panic attacks--but she never would have dreamed that Paisley had been in love with Grogan and betrayed the Nuclear Family to him.

She didn't want to hear about it. She wanted to turn back the clock and stop Paisley from talking about it before she started.

This was something Celeste wanted to forget.

"I knew it." Baron smacked a fist into his palm. "Grogan almost always knew what we were going to do before we did it. I
knew
someone was ratting us out...but I didn't want to believe it. I kept thinking,
why
would one of us do that to the others?"

"I swear...I didn't think anyone...would get hurt," said Paisley. "At least at first." She grimaced and gripped her belly again, hissing in breath between clenched teeth.

E.Q. went to her and touched her shoulder. "Are you all right? Can I get you anything?"

Paisley shook her head. "I'm having another...attack." She sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a series of quick puffs.

Baron didn't seem to notice or care that she was having a problem. "So when did you finally figure out that someone might get hurt? Was it before or after you helped Grogan set the house on fire?"

"We didn't...set the house on fire," said Paisley. Just as she started to say something else, the latest wave of panic crested over her, transforming her words into a cry of pain.

That was when E.Q. dropped the bomb.

"That's right," he said, stroking Paisley's wild black hair as she rocked on the arm of the sofa. "They didn't do it. They didn't start the fire.

"But I know who did."

 

*****

Just as Cary reached for the knob on the kids' bedroom door, the door flew inward...and he jumped backward in surprise.

Paisley stood there, in the doorway, her wide eyes blinking back at him.

"What's going on?" She craned her neck to look down the hall at the smoke and flames.

Cary grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway. "Run!" he said. "Go out the front door!"

Paisley looked worried. "But that's on fire down there."

"Go left as soon as you get to the bottom of the stairs," said Cary. "That's what Grogan did, and he made it out."

Suddenly, Paisley's expression shifted. In a heartbeat, she went from looking worried to looking confused and upset. "What?" She looked at the open door of Grogan's bedroom. "You mean he's gone?"

In that instant, Cary caught a whiff of the truth. He wouldn't figure it all out until later, when he had time and wasn't worried about saving his family's lives...but he got a whiff of it then and there.

Paisley didn't hate Grogan like the rest of them did.

"Yeah." Cary pointed toward the stairs. "He ran out the door."

Paisley looked at the stairs, then looked at Grogan's room. "He ran?"

"We don't have time for this!" Cary grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her toward the stairs. "Get out of here
now
!"

Paisley hesitated, then started down the hallway.

Cary didn't wait for her to make it downstairs and out the door before he turned and plunged into the bedroom he shared with the other kids.

As Cary shot through the doorway, Baron was in the middle of a coughing fit. The door had only been open a few minutes, and already the room was clouded with smoke.

As Cary ran to him, Baron rolled over on his side and slid a leg over the edge of the cot. Reaching out with both hands, Cary took hold of Baron's arm and helped him swing himself up to a seated position.

The coughing died down just long enough for Baron to force out a few raspy words. "What's going on?" Then, he burst into another fit.

"Fire!" Cary walked backward, pulling Baron by the arm. "Run!"

Baron got to his feet and stumbled toward the door...then stopped. "Celeste," he said, taking a step toward her bed.

Then, he doubled over with a coughing jag that made the first few seem like mild throat-clearings.

When the worst of the coughing had subsided, Cary pulled him out of the room. "Just go! I'll wake her up!"

Once he set foot in the hall, Baron was transfixed by the sight of the fire roaring away downstairs. "Oh my God!" he said between coughs.

"Go out the front door!" said Cary. "Grogan and Paisley went that way. Stay close to the wall."

Coughing like he was about to choke up an ankle, Baron nodded. Cary didn't hang around to make sure he did as he was told.

Zipping back into the bedroom, he went straight for Celeste. "Wake up!" He shook her by the shoulder, then shook her again. "Celeste, you have to wake up!"

Celeste didn't move.

Cary shook her again and hollered in her ear, but she stayed still and silent. She wouldn't wake up.

Putting his face by her open mouth, he felt her breath on his cheek. She was still alive, at least...but she wouldn't be for long if he didn't get her out of there.

Cary ran to the door, looking for Baron, but he was already gone. The front door downstairs slammed shut, meaning Baron had just made it outside.

That also meant it was up to Cary alone to save Celeste.

Only The Hurry can come to the rescue this time! Don't miss this pulse-pounding solo adventure of the Nuclear Family's own human sonic boom!

Cary sprinted back into the bedroom and flung the blankets and sheet off Celeste. He slid one arm under her back and one arm under her bottom, then braced himself.

And lifted.

She was bigger than he was, and her body was heavy. He dropped her on the bed.

Taking a deep breath, he shifted his grip and tried again.

The Hurry moves fast enough that he can literally be in dozens of places at the same time! When his multiple selves work together, he becomes, in effect, the strongest man alive!

This time, Cary lifted her from the bed.

Her long, blonde hair flowed over his left arm, and her bare legs hung over his right. He took a moment to adjust to the new weight in his arms, then slowly turned and headed for the door.

As he trudged down the hallway, his arms buckled under the burden of his sister's body. The smoke thickened around him, making him want to cough, and it hurt when he held it back.

He stopped at the top of the stairs, gazing down into the flames that raged below. It looked like Hell, or a hellish planet, or an erupting volcano, or some other fiery setting into which The Hurry might dash on any given super-heroic day.

Now, if only the Starbeam Ring would give him The Hurry's super-speed powers in time to get through it.

Though Grogan, Paisley, and Baron had all followed a clear path to the front door, Cary wondered if the path still existed. He thought the flames looked closer to the bottom of the stairs than they ever had before.

Clenching his teeth, he lowered his bare foot to the first stair.

 

*****