“Sam!” I yell with more enthusiasm than I intended. He stumbles over. “You coming on the ride with us?”
He shrugs. “Do you mind?”
“Come on,” Sarah says, and motions him in. He stands next to Emily, who smiles at him. He immediately starts blushing and I’m ecstatic he’s along for the ride. Suddenly a kid holding a walkie-talkie comes over. I recognize him from the football team.
“Hi, Tommy,” Sarah says to him.
“Hey,” he says. “There are four spots left on this wagon. You guys want them?”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
We skip the line and jump up onto the trailer, where the four of us sit on a bale of hay together. I find it odd that Tommy doesn’t ask us for tickets. I’m curious as to why he let us skip the line altogether. Some of the people waiting look at us with disgust. I can’t say that I blame them.
“Enjoy the ride,” Tommy says with a grin, the kind I’ve seen people wear when told something bad has happened to someone they despise.
“That was weird,” I say.
Sarah shrugs. “He probably has a crush on Emily.”
“Oh God, I hope not,” Emily says, and then fake-gags.
I watch Tommy from the bale of hay. The trailer is only half full, which is another thing that strikes me as strange since there are so many people waiting.
The tractor pulls away, bumps along the pathway, and drives through the entrance of the forest, where ghastly sounds come through hidden speakers. The forest is thick and no light penetrates other than what shines from the front of the tractor. Once that is off, I think, there will be nothing but darkness. Sarah takes hold of my hand again. She’s cold to the touch, but a sense of warmth floods through me. She leans over to me and whispers, “I’m a little scared.”
Figures of ghosts hang just over us from the low branches, and off the drive grimacing zombies lean against various trees. The tractor stops and kills its headlight. Then come intermittent strobes that flash for ten seconds. There is nothing scary about them and only when they stop do I understand their effect: our eyes take a few seconds to adjust and we can’t see a thing. Then a scream shoots through the night and Sarah tenses against me as figures sweep around us. I squint to focus and I see that Emily has moved next to Sam, and that he is smiling widely. I’m actually a little scared myself. I put my arm carefully around Sarah. A hand grazes our backs and Sarah grips tightly to my leg. Some of the others scream. With a jolt the tractor turns back on and continues forward, nothing but the outlines of the trees in its light.
We drive for another three or four minutes. The anticipation builds, the foreboding fear of having to walk the distance we just drove. Then the tractor pulls into a circular clearing and stops.
“Everybody off,” the driver yells.
When the last person is off, the tractor pulls away. Its light recedes in the distance, then disappears, leaving nothing but the night and not a single sound other than what we make.
“Shit,” somebody says, and all of us laugh.
In total there are eleven of us. A path of lights turns on, showing us the way, then turns off. I close my eyes to focus on the feel of Sarah’s fingers interlocked with mine.
“I have no idea why I do this every year,” Emily says nervously, her arms wrapped around herself.
The other people have started down the trail and we follow. The pathway of lights occasionally flickers on to keep us on our way. The others are far enough ahead that we can’t see them. I can barely see the ground at my feet. Three or four screams suddenly ring out in front of us.
“Oh no,” Sarah says, and squeezes my hand. “Sounds like trouble ahead.”
Just then something heavy falls on us. Both girls scream and so does Sam. I trip and hit the ground, scraping my knee, tangled in whatever the hell the thing is. Then I realize it’s a net!
“What the hell?” Sam asks.
I tear straight through the twisted rope but the second I’m free I get shoved hard from behind. Someone grabs me and drags me away from the girls and Sam. I break free and stand, but am immediately hit from behind again. This isn’t part of the ride.
“Let go of me!” one of the girls yells. A guy laughs in response. I can’t see a thing. The girls’ voices are moving away from me.
“John?” Sarah calls.
“Where are you, John?” shouts Sam.
I stand to go after them but am hit again. No, that’s not right. I am tackled. The wind is knocked out of me when I’m plowed to the ground. I rush up and try to catch my breath, my hand against a tree for support. I pick dirt and leaves from my mouth.
I stand there a few seconds and don’t hear a single sound other than my own labored breathing. Just when I think I’ve been left alone, somebody shoulders into me and sends me flying into a nearby tree. My head slams against the trunk and I briefly see stars. I’m surprised by the person’s strength. I reach up and touch my forehead and feel blood on my fingertips. I look around again but can’t see anything other than the silhouetted trees.
I hear a scream from one of the girls, followed by the sounds of struggle. I grit my teeth. I am shaking. Are there people mixed in with the wall of trees around me? I can’t tell. But I feel a set of eyes on me, somewhere.
“Get off of me!” Sarah yells. She is being pulled away, I can tell that much.
“Okay,” I say to the darkness, to the trees. Anger surges through me. “You want to play games?” I say, loudly this time. Somebody laughs nearby.
I take a step towards the sound. I get shoved from behind but I catch my balance before I fall. I throw a blind punch and the back of my hand scrapes against the bark of a tree. There is nothing left to do. What point is there in having Legacies if they are never used when needed? Even if it means Henri and I load the truck tonight and drive off to yet another town, at least I will have done what I needed to do.
“You want to play games?” I yell again. “I can play games too!”
A trickle of blood runs down the side of my face. Okay, I think, let’s do this. They can do all they want to me, but they will not harm a single hair on Sarah’s head. Or Sam’s, or Emily’s.
I take a deep breath and adrenaline races through me. A malicious smile takes shape and my body feels as though it has grown bigger, stronger. My hands come on and glow brilliantly with bright light that sweeps through the night, the world suddenly ablaze.
I look up. I flash my hands across the trees and sprint off into the night.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
KEVIN STEPS FROM THE TREES, DRESSED AS A mummy. He’s the one who tackled me. The lights stun him and he seems dumbfounded, trying to figure out where they’re coming from. He’s wearing night-vision goggles. So that is how they are able to see us, I think. Where did they get them?
He charges me and at the last second I step out of the way and trip him.
“Let go of me!” I hear from down the trail. I look up and sweep my lights across the trees but nothing moves. I can’t tell if the voice is Emily’s or Sarah’s. A guy’s laughter follows.
Kevin tries to stand but I kick him in the side before he gets to his feet. He falls back to the ground with an “Ummpf!” I rip the goggles from his face and throw them as far as I can and know they will land at least a mile away, maybe two or three because I’m so angry that my strength is out of control. Then I race off through the woods before Kevin can even sit up.
The trail winds left, then right. My hands glow only when I need to see. I sense that I’m close. Then I see Sam up ahead, standing with a zombie’s arms around him. Three others are close by.
The zombie lets go of him. “Chill out, we’re just kidding around. If you don’t resist, you won’t get hurt,” he says to Sam. “Sit down or something.”
I snap my hands on and flash the lights in their eyes to blind them. The closest person steps towards me and I swing and hit him in the side of the face and he falls motionless to the ground. His goggles sail into the overgrown brambles and disappear. The second person tries to bear-hug me, but I break his grip and lift him off the ground.
“What the hell?” he says, confused.
I throw him and he hits the side of a tree twenty feet away. The third guy sees this and runs away. That just leaves the fourth, the one who was holding Sam. He lifts his hands in front of him as though I’m aiming a gun at his chest.
“It wasn’t my idea,” he says.
“What does he have planned?”
“Nothing, man. We just wanted to play a joke on you guys, scare you a little.”
“Where are they?”
“They let Emily go. Sarah is up ahead.”
“Give me your goggles,” I say.
“No way, man. We’re borrowing them from the police. I’ll get in trouble.”
I step towards him.
“Fine,” he says. He takes them off and hands them to me. I throw them even harder than I did the previous pair. I hope they land in the next town. Let them explain that one to the police.
I grab Sam’s shirt with my right hand. I can’t see a thing without turning on my light. Only then do I realize I should have kept the two pairs of goggles for us to wear. But I didn’t, so I take a deep breath and let my left hand glow and begin guiding us up the path. If Sam finds it suspicious, he doesn’t let on.
I stop to listen. Nothing. We continue on, weaving through the trees. I turn the light off.
“Sarah!” I yell.
I stop to listen and hear nothing but the wind blowing through the branches and Sam’s heavy breathing.
“How many people are with Mark?” I ask.
“Five or so.”
“Do you know which way they went?”
“I didn’t see.”
We push on and I have no idea in which direction we are headed. From far off I hear the groan of the tractor motor. The fourth ride is starting. I feel frantic inside and want to sprint, but I know that Sam can’t keep up. He’s breathing heavily already and even I’m sweating despite the temperature being only forty-five degrees. Or maybe I’m mistaking blood for sweat. I can’t tell.
As we pass a thick tree with a knotted trunk I get tackled from behind. Sam yells as a fist hits me in the back of the head and I’m momentarily stunned, but then I pivot and grab the guy by the throat and shine the light in his face. He tries to peel my fingers away but it’s useless.
“What is Mark planning?”
“Nothing,” he says.
“Wrong answer.”
I thrust him into the nearest tree five feet away, then I pick him up and lift him a foot off the ground with my hand again around his throat. His legs kick wildly, hitting me, but I tighten my muscles so that the kicks do no damage.
“What is he planning to do?”
I lower him until his feet touch solid ground, loosening my grip to allow him to speak. I sense Sam watching, drinking all of this in, but there is nothing I can do about it.
“We just wanted to scare you guys,” he gasps.
“I swear I will break you in half if you don’t tell me the truth.”