When You Were Young

Molly skidded to a halt in front of the cave. She checked behind her for any sign of Veronica, but didn't hear or see anything. Beside her, Joseph fidgeted nervously. "Why are we here?" he asked. "This will be one of the first places she'll look for us."

"We have to destroy it," Molly said. "So no one can ever use it to hurt anyone again."

"We can't!" Joseph said. "Samantha is still in there. We have to find a way to get her out of there."

"They can't be alive in there. It's impossible."

"I saw them," he said. "I did."

"I know you love Samantha, but she couldn't have survived a fall into the fountain. At her age she couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds in there."

"She's not dead! She's in there." Joseph pushed Molly aside and then ran into the cave. He bent down at the edge of the fountain. As Veronica had said, the algae had grown thicker so that a solid coat covered the water. He couldn't see anything reflected on the fountain's surface. "No. She can't be gone. She can't be."

Molly put a hand on his shoulder. "We have to find a way to destroy this place before Veronica finds us," she said. She looked around for the defenses Wendell had installed years ago. She found one of the trip wires, holding up the severed pieces. "Oh no. They've disarmed everything."

"Isn't there some way to fix it?" Joseph asked.

"I wouldn't know how," she said. Joseph knelt down beside her to examine the broken trip wire. "Can you repair it?"

"I don't think so, but there has to be another way." He looked around the cave for anything that could be of use. He saw only the empty stone floor and walls. "What did these wires go to?" he asked Molly.

"They triggered some rocks over the fountain," she said.

"Then we have to find a way to get up there."

"How?"

"I don't know. Build a ladder somehow."

"We don't have any tools and we're too little to move any big rocks or logs around."

"You have ladders in town, right?"

"Yes, but if we try to go into town Veronica will find us."

"Not if we're careful." He grabbed Molly by the shoulders to calm her down. "It's our only hope now. We can split up and that way maybe she'll only catch one of us."

Molly thought of Annie's words again. She had to act like a grown-up in this situation. She was small and weak and not as smart as Joseph. Any hope to destroy the fountain lay with him. "You go into town and find the ladder. I'll find Veronica and draw her off," Molly said.