Chapter 12

            I slept soundly, the first time really since coming to that wretched school.  The next month or so flew by as if in a dream and I watched the late summer trees turn red, brown, and gold.  I felt the warm humid air chill and the days became shorter.  There were more days spent moping inside, hiding from rain and cold, than outside, playing in the sunshine.  It was mid-October, the time of bewitching drawing nearer All Hallo's Eve.

            Math, Science, Gym, and Choir continued without incident or regard to the date.  Spanish class made masks of skeletons and talked about "El Dia de los Muertos", the day of the dead.  World History, with Ms. Evy, talked about what other cultures did on Halloween or around the same time.  English class read spooky poems like Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee".  Arts and Crafts made shadow boxes of Halloween scenes, along with other such things.  October twenty-ninth passed, drawing the thirtieth and thirty-first ever nearer.

            It was Thursday, the thirtieth, and, as we normally did those dreary days, we were sitting inside.  With our backs against our doors, and butts on the thick carpeting, we talked and invented ways to pass the time.  One of our favorite time-killers was to go around, admitting something we would never do, then, if one of us had actually done it, we had to toss a piece of clothing to the floor.  We unconsciously dragged in out so no one would lose something important if Elsa happened to pass.  But the game grew dull quickly, and we started wandering off on our own, reappearing in time for dinner.

            I worked adamantly with Ms. Evy after school to learn to control whatever it was that I had.  Ms. Evy said it was telepathy, I thought it was her reading my mind, not me sending something to her.  I learned how to turn the mind reading off and on, so I could hear myself think again.  Because of a lack of outside activity, I didn't have anymore run –ins with Rebecca Morgan.  The girls continued mapping the tunnels, revealing six fresh ones, all leading deep into the building, heading down into the ground, but there was no sign of a black statue.  I had broken down and told Cara of the dream, and she continued searching the library for a passage long after I'd given up hope.

            Bore as I was that day, I walked with Cara to her room, and lingered just inside the door.  "Cara," I began, "how did you burn down your old school?"

            "Whoa, where'd that come from?" Cara laughed.

            "Well, you just never talk about it, that's all." I shrugged.

            "Promise you won't tell the other girls?  I sort of made something up to sound cool to them." She replied.

            "I promise." I agreed.

            "Well, some of the girls said I was geeky, I didn't belong there, because I was new.  So, to prove them wrong, I took the offered cigarette, took a big drag, and blew it back at them." Care said, smoking an invisible smoke.

            "What'd they do?" I asked, chuckling at the idea of showing someone up.

            "They walked off!  As soon as they were gone, I coughed and gagged, and threw the cigarette in the trash.  The trash caught fire, then the whole bathroom, then the storage room next door.  I had no idea what was going on when they evacuated the building and fire trucks rolled in.  The fire department put it out, but not before a large piece went up in smoke, and they concluded the fire originated in the ladies' room trashcan.  Those girls who first gave me the smoke, ratted me out in a heartbeat when offered the chance to retake the midterms they flunked, and the next thing I know, I'm here." She explained.  A variety of emotions played across her face, the most obvious being grief.

            "Wow, tough break Cara." I sighed.  "Hey, I know what'll cheer you up.  How 'bout some music?  I'll sing, not well, but nobody's perfect, and you can join in when you want."

            Cara looked around, as if someone might be watching us, and then she whispered, "Can I show you somethin'?"

            "Yeah, sure, what is it?" I asked.  She got up, tiptoed to the closet, and slid first one door, then the other, back.  She pushed aside what little clothes she had, mostly ballet costumes she wouldn't part with, and there, tucked behind her things, sat an acoustic guitar, leaning against the wall.  I hopped up and crossed the room to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and then I said, "Cara, it's beautiful!  Where'd you get it?"

            "My dad gave it to me when I was nine.  I was never very good, but he said I had potential.  He said it would make me famous someday, as soon as I learned." Cara answered, stroking its wooden side.  She picked it up and carried it gently back to the bed.

            "That's so nice, Cara.  Play something for me!" I replied.

            "I'm not very good, I haven't practiced in months." She sighed.

            "Why not?" I asked.

            "I've been afraid of getting caught."

            "There's no one around, just us.  The other girls probably wandered off long ago and Elsa's downstairs setting tables." I whispered.

            "Alright, but if it's bad, don't say I didn't warn you." Cara agreed.  She cradled the guitar against her, resting the bottom on her Indian-style legs, wrapping her left hand around the neck.  She looked like a natural.  Her eyes darted back and forth between her left and right hands as she hooked her thumbnail under a string and fidgeted her fingers against the same one on the fret board.  She strummed a sour note, winced, adjusted one of the keys on the head, and then strummed again.  Cara played "Ode to Joy", "Kumbiya", and "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore".

            "Can you play anything else?" I asked, a little disappointed.

            "Well, I've been writing one in my head for a while, but I've never put it to anything more than a hum." Cara replied.

            "Play it." I insisted.  She looked nervously about, as if seeking an exit, then nodded.  She played a simple country two-step for a minute, and then she started singing in a small bell-like voice.  The guitar part wasn't that impressive, but her lyrics were beautiful.  Her range was incredible too; she sang more notes than I could read!

            "Wow!" I breathed when she'd finished.  "That was incredible!  I had no idea you could sing, when didn't you tell me?"  Cara just shrugged and laid the guitar down on the bed.

            "Nobody knows, Liz.  I didn't thing anybody would care.  It doesn't' matter, it's just my hobby." She sighed.  "Everybody sings."

            "Your good, Cara, you should do solos in choir.  I mean, I know you're in there, I've seen you, but I can never hear you sing." I replied.  "You could knock 'em dead with that voice!"

            "It's nothing, Liz.  Leave it be."

            "But –" I started.

            "Leave it be." Cara interrupted.  I nodded, sighed, mumbled something about homework, and shuffled through the bathroom to my room.  I flopped down on my bed with a notebook and pencil.  Recently, I'd been working on channeling, and I was going to try again today.

            Channeling is the proper word for zoning out and scribbling in my notes in unknown languages.  What I'd actually done was allowing someone else, a spirit; use me to write a message.  At least, that's what Cara said.  I put the pencil to the paper gently, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and cleared my mind.  I sat like that for quite some time, then snapped out of it and set the paper aside for analysis by Cara.  The pile of papers grew a little taller each day.

            Half an hour later, after dinner, Dane was waiting in my room for me.  We'd been doing a lot less together outside the building since I started working with Cara and Ms. Evy, but he still came by everyday.  We usually snuck off to some distant part of the building to be alone.  For some strange reason, people came by just to "hang out", more and more often when Dane visits.  "Hey Dane, how was your day?" I asked sweetly.

            Dane gave me a peck on the cheek and said, "Hi honey, my day was hell; they keep giving me overtime."  'Overtime' was his word for Detention.  "I guess they just don't like me much."

            "Well, that could be, " I agreed, posing in a thinking position, "or it could be you keep getting in fights."  I knocked gently on his head, driving the info in.  "Or, it could be that you can't seem to get to class on time, ever."

            "It's not my fault Brock fights me; he keeps seeking me out.  And you know me, I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached, how my supposed to keep up with the time?" He joked.

            "Oh well, it doesn't matter, where are we going today?" I asked, heading for the closet exit.

            "It's a surprise." Dane laughed.  "I found it today when I was supposed to be at lunch."

            "A surprise, what is it?" I gushed.

            "Well now, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, now would it?" He scolded.  He had crossed the room to meet me at the closet and now held the shoot door up.  "Come on, get going, it's quite a ways off and I want to get there before dark."  I shrugged and let myself drop down the shoot.  I landed, as always, with a soft plop in a basket of sheets and waited for Dane to follow.  He landed beside me a minute later and we proceeded on our usual route down the passage to the grounds outside.

            The grass was wet with today's fresh rain and our shoes squeaked as we slopped through it.  We headed straight back, Dane leading me to the lawn's edge.  He hopped the discreet wire fence and helped me awkwardly over.  I did a quick look around once on the other side to check for spies and snoops, saw no one, and let him lead me deep into the woods.  We weaved and pushed and shoved our way through vines and bushes and thorns for twenty minutes at a near run pace.

            We stopped in a small clearing, a safe spot from the onslaught of vegetation, and Dane turned and said, "Wait right here a sec, okay?"  I nodded, grateful for a chance to rest and watched him fight his way through the briars.      

            Several minutes passed without a trace of him, so I called into the forest, "Dane, where are you?"  The bushes to my north rustled a bit and I called even louder, "Dane, this isn't funny.  Get your butt back here now!"  The woods to my right creaked and groaned and something snapped a twig.  In a panic, I yelled, "I'm going to count to ten, and if you're not back here, I'm going home, and never talking to you again, so help me God!  Dane, where are you?"

            Just then, the briars surrounding me made an awful noise, from all sides, and a bird flew at me from the bushes, followed by Dane, stepping out of them as if he'd never been gone.  "What's wrong, Liz?"

            "Where the hell did you go?  You left me here all alone with God-knows-what or God-knows-who to get scared to death!  If we're not within spitting-distance of wherever it is you're taking me, I'm going home right now!" I fumed, punching him in the chest as hard as I could with both hands.

            "Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, Liz.  It's just through these weeds here, I promise." Dane replied, catching my wrists with one hand before I landed another one of my willy-nilly punches.  "What happened, are you alright?"  He asked softly, releasing my hands to tip my chin up so I had to look at him.  "Did you see something?"

            "No," I retorted.  "I just had this feeling that someone else is in these woods with us."  I sighed, feeling very childish for letting my imagination run away with me.  "So where is this place?" I asked, pressing one sweaty palm to my forehead, trying to slow the flash of 'what-ifs' racing through my brain.

            "It's just through here, but we can come see it some other time if you're not feeling well." Dane replied.

            "No, no, we're already this far, we might as well go on.  Besides, I'm feeling fine, and I really do want to see it." I answered decidedly.  He shrugged, took my hand, and led me halfway through the thick undergrowth.  "Why did you stop?" I asked, indignant.

            "Close your eyes." Dane replied.

            "What?"

            "Come on, it's just for fun, so close your eyes.  Please?" He laughed.  I sighed and obeyed.  "And no peeking."  I laughed and dumbly let Dane lead me by both hands through the woods.  I felt the underbrush thin, and finally disappear altogether and Dane left me a moment, then returned saying, "Alright, open your eyes."  I obeyed again and gasped in surprise.

            Before me sat the prettiest little scene imaginable.  A waterfall, strong and loud, how I had ignored the noise, I don't know, sat about ten feet back in front of me.  It was about twenty feet high, five feet wide, and absolutely perfect.  The pool at the bottom was about the size of a small swimming pool and was surrounded by a smooth grassy clearing.  Alongside the height of the waterfall were huge stones forming a crude staircase up the side of the cliff.  The stones were probably perfect to jump off of and into the pool below during the warm summer months.

            "There's more." Dane chuckled, apparently reading my expression.      

            "More?  Where?" I exclaimed.

            "Behind the waterfall.  It's a cave!" He blurted out.

            "Really?  Show me." I gushed.  Dane laughed, grabbed my hand, and led me around the pool to where the grass and rock disappeared behind the waterfall.

            "Hold on, we're probably going to get a little wet." He said.  "You ready?"  I nodded and we half-jumped, half-swam under the waterfall. 

            "A little wet!" I growled, shivering.  I was drenched from head to toe.  I swung my hair over my shoulder and started ringing it out.

            "You'll dry." He laughed, running a hand through his own short brown hair.  I shook my head hard at him, like a dog, and he put his hands in front of him to attempt to guard from the sudden shower.  "Come on, this is only the mouth." He sighed.  I followed him witlessly through the dark for a few minutes, making polite conversation to keep track of where he was by the sound of his voice.  Finally, he stopped answering my inane questions and the silence was unbearable, until he said, "Wait here, I'll be right back."

            "Oh no, not that again.  Wherever you go, I go.  It is too damn dark in here for you to wander off without me." I insisted.

            "Well, if you wait right here, and don't move a muscle, I'll be right back with something to fix this damn dark, alright?" Dane assured me, gently squeezing my shoulders.

            "Wait," I called when his hand left mine, "how will you find me again?"  Obviously, I thought, if he's going to get something to make the dark go away, he will be able to see me with it.

            "Well, if my plan fails, and I can't find the flashlight I left in here, I'll listen for you, okay?  So, sing something, and sing it loud." He suggested, walking away.

            "What should I sing?" I called, but there was no answer.  I cleared my throat and shakily said, "At first I was afraid, I was petrified."  I hushed myself a moment, listening for echoes that would confuse Dane, and for sounds of him coming back.  When I was satisfied with the echoes, I continued with the song, a little stronger this time.  "Thought that I could never live without you by my side."  I got so into it, that when Dane gently touched my shoulder at the end of it, I nearly jumped out of my skin!

            "That sounded nice." He said, sounding genuine.

            "Where's the light?" I snapped.

            "Right here," He chuckled, clicking on the flashlight.  "What's the matter, afraid of the dark?"  Jeez, she sure is jumpy today.

            "No, and I'm not jumpy!  Why didn't you turn the light on before so I could see you coming?" I asked, still peeved.

            "I didn't want to interrupt your performance." He chuckled again.  "And I never said you were jumpy."

            "Well, you were thinking it!" I retorted honestly.

            "What makes you say that?" He asked slowly.  She is really getting paranoid!  I mean, I do think she's jumpy, but anyone else would say that if she's like this around them

            "I am not paranoid!  I can just feel it when something bad is about to happen, okay!  And when I can feel it, everyone else just ignores me, they don't say I'm jumpy!" I shouted defensively.

            "Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's just try to be rational about all this, huh?"  I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, there they are a standing in the road…

            "Dane, what is wrong with you?  Here we are, having a serious argument, and all you're thinking about is the coconut song!" I shouted again.

            "Liz, I didn't say you were jumpy or paranoid, nor did I say anything about coconuts." He began softly.

            "But you thought them." I insisted.

            "Exactly." He agreed.  I stopped a moment and thought about it.  I had slipped up and let Dane know I can read minds, something I wanted him of all people not to know.  Crap, that just makes everything harder, now doesn't it?  Good going, Liz, why don't you ever just keep your mouth shut?

            "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, huh?" Dane whispered.

            "What?" I breathed.  Did I send him that thought, or did he take it?

            "A little bit of both, actually." He chuckled.  I stared at him a long moment.  You were somewhat angry, therefore the emotions of the thought were right out in the open, and your mind was open for me to read.

            "You can read minds?" I gasped.  For how long, how much does he know?  Some of this stuff could seriously endanger him.

            So what? So can you.  If it makes you feel better, I can't really control mine.  And don't you worry about me; I can take care of myself.  I'm surprised you didn't think it to me a long time ago, I mean, that's some serious self-control to know what not to think!

            This is kind of weird, Dane.  I mean, no one else ever knows what I'm thinking unless I send it to them.

            Again, so what?  This just makes our conversations even harder to listen in to.  Dane laughed, grinning from ear to ear, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.  My cheeks started burning with the next thought that skipped through my mind, knowing he could hear it, and not being able to banish it.  Does it really bother you that much that I can read you?

             "No!  Well, yes." I stammered aloud.  Another crazy thought trotted through my head, ignoring my attempts to hold it down.  Dane looked down at me, his grin fading in the action to a look that made me shiver inside.  His eyes burned holes just before his mouth came crashing down on mine.  Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life as our kiss smothered me.  No more thoughts ran through my head for the next two minutes.

            "Better?" He chuckled.  Hold on, man.  Not yet, not yet, she's just not ready.  Breathe, breathe, you've just got to breathe and think about something else.  Oh no, think.  I'm thinking, and she's catching every bit of it!  "Oh no, um, Liz, it's like this, um, you see –" He stammered.

            "Shush, it's alright," I whispered, pressing a finger to his lips.  "I understand completely."  He sighed, caught my hand, kissed the top of it lightly, and we continued on our way.  "I want to see what's in here."  I made out the shadow of him shrugging, before I took the light from him and led the way through the cavern.  Dane followed along, humming my song softly.

            The flashlight penetrated the darkness, cutting it like a crude knife.  As I was swinging it back and forth, I caught something shiny in it off to my right up ahead.  "What was that?" He asked just as I was thinking the same thing.

            "I don't know, but I'm going to find out." I replied, marching towards the shiny object.  Before I reached it though, I banged my hip on something and whatever it was rocked unsteadily on the floor.  I swung the flashlight in the general direction and spotted my assailant.  "Check it out, Dane." I laughed.  "I found a stand."

            "What was on it?" He asked, reaching out and steadying the thing with one hand.  I looked on the floor around the stand, saw nothing, and took a few more steps before stubbing my toe.  I swung the light to my feet and stared dumbly at what lay there.  I stooped down, gently picked up the black statue, and cradled it a moment.  I set it on the pedestal and turned to Dane as he asked, "What is that thing?"  I ran my fingers down the statue and its name practically shouted itself in my head.

            "It's Sehhmet." I whispered, foreign emotions drawing tears to my eyes.  "It's an Egyptian goddess much like the biblical angel of death.  It's said that when the people of Egypt began doubting the gods' existence and power, they sent down Sehhmet and she, with the body of a woman and the head of a lion, walked the lands of Egypt, devouring all whom doubted.  But then she had had the taste of blood and, much like a vampire, craved it, and she couldn't be stopped.  The gods tied her up and left her in the cave of the underworld for all eternity." I explained.

            "Wow, you really know a lot about this." Dane laughed.  Kind of creepy, but still impressive.

            Not really.  I snorted, studying the statue.

            "What do you mean?" He asked.

            "I didn't know it, it just came to me, like something I've known all my life, but I'd forgotten it.  It felt as if something just came up and whispered it in my ear." I whispered, shivering involuntarily.  "Come on, I still want to see what was shiny."  I trudged on towards the shine, reached over, and picked it up.

            Dane took it from me, turned it over and over, and said, "I know what this is!"

            "What?" I asked.

            "It's used to put out candles without splashing wax everywhere, well, actually, it's only part of the tool.  The handle's missing." Dane explained.

            "So, where are the candles?" I laughed.

            "Right here." He replied.  I turned to see Dane puzzling over one single, stubby, nearly dead candle.

            "Great, are there any more?" I snickered.  Dane looked around the walls as if something was supposed to be there, then smiled really big.  "What?" I snorted.

            "I found the rest of the candles." He replied.  "Do you have a lighter, or better yet, some matches?"

            "Actually," I chuckled, patting my blazer pocket, "yeah, I do."  I pulled the book of matches out and set them in Dane's open palm.  "But I don't know how well they'll work since we got them wet."  He worked the matches a minute, desperately trying to get one to light, before the small red flare rewarded him.  He lit the small candle and threw the match down, shielding the fragile flame with his other hand.

            "Be prepared to be amazed." Dane said in a great magician's voice.  I sure hope this works.  He leaned against the wall, but not against it.  There was something running across the wall that he leaned on; it ran around the entire room!  He smiled at me devilishly, and carefully dropped the candle behind whatever he was leaning on.  In the blink of an eye, the room lit up, and he laughed, "Ta-da!"

            I could now see what he'd been leaning against; it was a chute of some kind running along the walls, now filled with fire.  "How'd you do that?" I asked, puzzled.

            "I smelled the gasoline, it's in the track here.  Apparently someone else had used this cave at some time." He explained.

            "Wow, look at this place!" I breathed, spinning around, looking at all the things that had been invisible only moments before.  There was a crude pentagram painted in red on the floor, which I now stood in the center of.  The walls were covered in drawings, and strange markings.  I walked over to the nearest panel and traced the carvings with my fingers, feeling serious déjà vu.  When I held the statue, I had felt this rush of information, and now I was feeling that same feeling. 

            "Whoa, hold on." I groaned.  "These markings, they're Incan, or Zapotec."  I ran my fingers across the wall and shivered with another blast of info.

            "Are you okay, Liz?  You're making no sense." Dane asked, grabbing my shoulders to steady me.

            I shrugged him off and continued walking slowly along the wall, brushing my hand against it.  "Now it's Egyptian, wait, it changed again.  Now it's Celtic.  Now Latin!" I rejoiced, racing along the wall.  "Pictographs from Mesopotamia, Babylonia, India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Native Americans too.  They're all here!"

            "Liz, Liz, you're ranting.  You're not making any sense, and the stuff you're sending me is so confused I can't think with it in here.  Who's all here, what's up?  Now calm down and tell me what this is and how you know it." Dane pleaded.  He sounded so far away, like he was calling to me from across the cavern.  A strange melody had snaked its way into my head and I began humming it thoughtlessly.  "Liz!" He commanded, suddenly right beside me again, ripping me away from wherever I'd gone.

            "Liz." He commanded again, gently this time, carefully wrapping his fingers around my wrist, pulling my hand from the wall.  "Talk to me, Liz." He begged, placing his palm against my cheek and tearing my gaze from the wall.  "How do you know all this?"

            "I don't know!" I half sobbed.  A lump had lodged itself in my throat, and I tried my best to swallow it.  "I really don't know; I feel as if it told me.  Something wants me here, doesn't want me to leave, ever.  What's happening to me, Dane, I used to be so normal?" I whined, burying my face in Dane's shirt.

            "Xabo ugw zoo, xabo ugw zoo, vro jagwomz ah aim jamsu." Something whispered in my mind, then it was gone, and the absence of knowledge buckled my knees.

            Dane caught me roughly around the waist and said, "I don't know what's going on, Liz, but we can sure as hell do our best to find out.  It's alright, whatever it is trying to hold you here; it's going to have to go through me first.  Okay?"  I sniffed my nose, nodded weakly, and followed him as he put out the track torch, grabbed the flashlight, and left the cave under the waterfall.  It was a twenty minute walk back to the dorms and I was so exhausted from an info overload, Dane had to carry me most of the way.