There's Something Out There (11 page)

When the girls got back to the house, there was no sign that Maggie had been there. Brittany called Maggie's
house and let the phone ring for a long time … but no one answered.

Then, to Jenna's outrage, she found Jason sitting in front of the TV, chowing down on his fourth piece of pizza from the large box in front of him.

“Jason! Did you get that with the money Mom left me?” Jenna demanded as Brittany dialed Maggie's phone number again.

“Yeah. You're welcome,” Jason said with that maddening smile. “I thought you'd appreciate it that dinner was waiting for you when you finished setting up the tent.”

“That money was for
our
dinner,” Jenna retorted. “Now you've eaten, like,
half
of it!”

“Oh yeah, you're right,” Jason replied, trying to act surprised—and failing miserably. “My bad.”

Jenna just shook her head and walked away. There would be plenty of time to make sure Jason got busted. For now, she had bigger things to worry about—like the disappearance of her best friend.

“I'm really worried,” Jenna said anxiously. “Maggie is
never
late like this. She always calls. She's, like, superresponsible.”

Brittany and Laurel didn't argue. “Jenna?” Brittany
asked. “When you were outside—and you talked about the Marked Monster—you seemed genuinely freaked out. Is—is that what's bothering you?”

“Ha! I knew it!” Jason crowed. “I knew you were scared!”

“Would you
shut up
already!” Jenna yelled. Then, to everyone's relief, the doorbell rang.

“Maggie!” Jenna cried out, forgetting to act cool. She raced to the door with Laurel and Brittany following right behind her. When she saw her best friend standing on the doorstep, she practically tackled her with a big hug.

“Whoa!” Maggie laughed. “What's up, Jenna? Sorry I'm late, everybody. My mom was driving me here from getting my braces tightened, but her car died and it took my dad
forever
to pick us up, and she didn't want me to walk the rest of the way because it was starting to get dark. You know how it is.” As Maggie rolled her eyes, everyone laughed.

“I'm just glad you're okay,” Jenna said quietly.

“Yeah, Jenna was really freaking out! She thought the Marked Monster was going to get you!” cracked Laurel.

“Oh, no doubt,” Maggie said, nodding. “She's the expert on the Marked Monster, after all. Did she tell you guys about—”

“Wait, wait—tell us when we get back to the tent,”
Brittany interrupted her. “It'll be scarier that way.”

“Is anybody else hungry?” Laurel asked.

“Doesn't matter if you're hungry or not,” Jenna spoke up, trying to sound normal. “If you don't grab a slice, like,
now
, Jason will eat the whole pizza.”

“We can't let that happen!” Brittany cried as she led the girls back to the living room. Amazingly, Jason had disappeared, leaving four slices in the box.

“I'm sorry, guys,” Jenna said, shaking her head. “He's the worst.”

“It's not a problem,” Brittany replied. “I brought a ton of food. Don't worry about it.”

Even though hours had passed since Jenna had eaten lunch, she found that she wasn't hungry at all. She picked at her slice of pizza, nibbling the crust so her friends wouldn't notice that she wasn't really eating. While they ate, the sun dipped below the trees, and darkness fell over the Sacred Square.

“All right,” Maggie finally said as she wiped her greasy hands on a napkin, “let's get out there and look for the Marked Monster!”

“Okay,” Jenna said, nodding as she tried to psych herself up. “Let's do this.”

On the way back out to the clearing, she paused to get some food for the stray cat. She poured a large pile of it at the tree stump near the back of her yard.

“Kitty treats?” asked Laurel with a laugh. “Don't you think the Marked Monster will want, like, fresh meat instead?”

Jenna tried to join in her friends' laughter too. “This is for the stray cat,” she explained. “Even though I haven't seen it all week. Besides, the Marked Monster doesn't exist, right?”

If I say it enough, maybe I will make it true
, Jenna thought.

At this point, it was so dark that the girls could hardly see. “Did we leave our lanterns back at the tent?” Laurel asked. “That was really genius, wasn't it?”

“Come on,” Maggie said, glancing at the sky, where the moon shone through a thin veil of clouds. “We can find our way. Just stick together.” The girls grabbed hands and crashed through the underbrush on their way to the clearing, laughing and shrieking.

“Shh, shh, shh!” Jenna hissed. “Do you guys have to make so much noise? Seriously.
Shhhhh!
”

An awkward silence fell over the girls as they reached the tent. One by one, they climbed inside, and Brittany switched on her lantern. Then she turned to Jenna.

“What is your problem?” Brittany asked. Her scowling face was ghostly in the long shadows from the lantern. “You are no fun tonight.”

“Whatever.”

“No, I mean it,” Brittany said. “Do you want us to go or something?”

“No,” Jenna replied. “I just don't know why you have to make so much noise.”

“Actually, Jenna, is everything okay?” Maggie asked gently. “You seem, like, really stressed.”

“
Really
stressed,” Laurel added.

“I'm fine,” Jenna said firmly. “It's just—if you guys keep making so much noise, you might scare it away. And then we won't get any proof.” She hoped that her small lie would keep them from figuring out why she really wanted them to be quiet—so that they wouldn't actually draw the monster to them.

“Right.” Brittany laughed. “I'm so sure the Marked Monster would be afraid of
us
. Now look,” she continued as she dug through her backpack. “My cell phone has a video camera, and I snuck this out of my dad's stuff.”

Jenna watched as Brittany revealed a heavy, expensive-looking camera with a special flash on top of it.

“Ever since my dad got into photography, he's been buying all kinds of fancy camera gear,” Brittany said importantly. “So I, you know, borrowed some of his stuff, like this low-light lens and special flash system that take pictures in the dark.”

“Wouldn't you get busted if your dad knew you took that?” Laurel asked, her eyes wide.

“Well, who's going to tell him?” Brittany asked. “As long as it doesn't get broken or anything, we should—”

“Shhhh!”

All eyes turned to Jenna, who was holding up one hand. Her head was tilted to the side as if she was straining to hear something.

Brittany sighed loudly. “
Again
with the shushing? I swear to God, you're worse than—”

“
For one minute would you shut up?
” Jenna said in a voice so cold that even Brittany stopped talking.

The girls sat in silence for a moment.

Then everyone else heard it too:

Drip
.

Another silence.

Drip
.

Even in the low beam of the flashlight, it was
impossible to miss the tension etched on Jenna's face.

“It, you know, it was getting cloudy,” Laurel whispered. “Maybe that's just a, you know, raindrop or something.”

Drip
.

“The tent's waterproof,” Maggie offered, also in a whisper.

But nothing could change the look on Jenna's face. Slowly she reached across the tent for Brittany's flashlight, without saying a word.

Drip
.

The girls watched as Jenna pointed the flashlight up to the top of the tent.

Drip
.

Even through the nylon of the tent, everyone could see the viscous liquid falling in single drops and oozing down the side of the tent in a single gory stream.

Drip
.

Too thick to be water.

Drip
.

Too dark to be rain.

Drip
.

“What is—is that—what is that, blood?” Laurel asked haltingly. “What
is
that?”

Drip
.

Jenna immediately turned off the lantern.

“Turn it on!” Brittany said. “Turn it on!”

“No,” Jenna whispered. “Whatever is out there—we don't want it to see the light. We don't want it to see
us
.”

Drip
.

“Jenna,
why
is there blood falling on your tent?” Maggie asked. Her voice was high and tight, straining against hysteria. “We should—I want—we should—”

“Go inside,” Jenna finished for her. “We have to get into the house. But we have to be smart about this. We have to be—careful. Just—for a minute—
listen
.”

Drip
.

Drip
.

Drip
.

With every drop that fell on the tent, Jenna's stomach lurched; if she'd eaten more pizza she would've thrown up for sure. But, as sickening as the drops were, they were all she could hear: no rustling in the bushes, no crackling of twigs. And, perhaps most hopeful of all—no scratching.

Drip
.

“Okay,” Jenna finally whispered. “When I count to three, we'll all—
slowly
—get out of the tent and—
slowly
—walk back to the house. As quietly as”—
Drip
—“we can. Understand?”

“Yes,” chorused the other girls in a whisper.

Drip
.

“One. Two. Three.”

Slowly, and as silently as possible, Jenna unzipped the mesh door of the tent. One by one, her friends slipped out into the darkness, until Jenna was the only one left.

Drip
.

But when it came time for Jenna to venture into the night, she lost the will to leave.

Go
, she told herself.
Go. It's not safe here. This tent can't protect you. So go. Go
.

Somehow she found the courage to step out of the tent. And then, suddenly, she had the urge to turn on the lantern. To take a closer look at the blood.

She didn't fight it.

The beam of the light cut through the darkness. Jenna stepped toward the side of the tent, where the blood was now flowing in several streams.

“Jenna!” one of her friends called from the woods. “What are you doing?”

She didn't answer. She squinted her eyes as she peered at the tent and gave thanks that it was too dark for her friends to see her reach out and touch the blood. It glistened red and sticky on her finger.

She would never quite understand what compelled her to do what she did next.

Jenna raised her finger to her nose and smelled it.

For the briefest instant, she frowned in confusion. The liquid on her finger didn't smell metallic like blood. It smelled … sweet. Suddenly she started to laugh. “This isn't blood,” she called to her friends. “It's syrup. With, like, food coloring in it.
Jason!
Where are you, you
loser? I know what you did, Jason! I know what you did!”

Jenna swung the lantern around wildly, trying to spot her brother hiding in the bushes or behind a tree. There was no way Jason would miss this moment, she knew. No way.

It didn't take her long to find him, crouched on a tree branch right above the tent, holding a sports bottle filled with the gory liquid. He was red-faced and shaking with silent laughter. As he jumped down from the tree, Jenna was so angry she was about to scream, but Jason started talking first.

“My sister, brave enough to touch blood!” he yelled, holding up his hand for a high five. “Jenna, that was hard-core. I didn't know you had it in you! I have to say I'm impressed.”

As he doubled over with laughter, the other girls came back to the tent, wearing goofy grins of relief.

“What is your
problem
, Jason?” Jenna exploded. “What's the matter, you don't have any friends of your own? This is your idea of a fun Friday night, trying to scare me and
my
friends?”

“Oh, there was no
trying
about it,” Jason said, still laughing. “I wish I had a video camera so you could see
how terrified you guys were, crawling out of the tent like the Marked Monster was about to swoop down and
eat
you or something!”

One by one, the other girls started to laugh—except for Jenna.

“Come on, Jenna, you have to admit that was an awesome prank,” Brittany said. “Right?”

“Thank you,” Jason said, holding up his hand to high-five Brittany—and accidentally brushing against Jenna's left arm. She gasped in pain and reflexively turned away, trying to hold her injured arm close.

“Give it a rest, Jenna,” Jason said in annoyance. “I barely touched you! And Mom isn't here, so your overreacting isn't going to get me in trouble this time.”