Monsters and Mischief (5 page)

6
A VISIT TO PURGATORY

 

The next day, Viola, Rosie, Sylvester, and Woodrow went on a field trip up into the Moon Hollow Hills, to a glacial rock formation known as Purgatory Chasm. Eons ago, ancient ice had moved across the land, leaving behind a deep gouge in the thick rocks. Now the park’s tall, sheer cliffs and mazelike caverns were a geology teacher’s dream … or nightmare. Everyone knew how dangerous the place could be, hence its ominous name. One wrong step … and splat.

While riding the bus, the Question Marks’ classmates were unusually well-behaved, if only because they were under threat of returning to school if anyone acted up — and no one wanted to miss the creepiest field trip of the year.

Rosie and Viola sat in front of Sylvester and Woodrow. Clea Keene happened to share the seat directly across the aisle with her friend, a boy named Paul Gomez, who was also in the play. As the bus rolled out of town and into the forested hills, Rosie had an idea. She hadn’t yet gotten a chance to tell the boys about the Lady in Green mystery, and she also hadn’t revealed
her discoveries to Clea. She thought it was the perfect time to share how she and Viola had spent the previous evening after rehearsal.

The boys were able to figure out Rosie’s evidence in the same way that she and Viola had done, clue by clue. But instead of thanking Rosie for dispelling the ghostly rumors, Clea turned bright red.

“I know what I saw and heard,” said Clea. “I’m not a liar. Just because you guys don’t believe me doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Rosie was surprised. “I didn’t think you were lying,” she said. “I thought you’d feel better knowing that the theater isn’t haunted. Mysteries are everywhere if you pay attention. My friends and I look for clues and solve them together.” She gestured to her three friends, who were watching the exchange with pained curiosity. “It’s fun, especially when we discover the truth.”

“I know all about your mystery club,” said Clea, looking right at Woodrow. “I also heard about what you did: getting some poor boy in trouble by writing his name in silver ink all over the school. What kind of fun is that? It doesn’t sound like something a real detective would ever attempt.”

Now it was Woodrow’s turn to blush. “I’ve apologized to Mickey. We’re friends now … sort of.”

“Rosie and I were just trying to help you,” said Viola, bringing the subject away from Woodrow’s scandal. “We thought you’d be pleased that there’s no ghost.”

Something in Clea seemed to click. She cocked her head to the side and plastered a smile onto her face. But those icy blue eyes revealed a not-so-hidden anger. “Thanks for trying,” she said, turning her back on the Question Marks. “Maybe rehearsals won’t be so
scary
anymore.” Paul smirked, glancing at Rosie from over Clea’s shoulder.

Rosie flopped back down into her seat, unable to hide her own anger for the rest of the ride into the hills, except by rotating her head to watch the world pass by outside the bus’s dirt-spattered windows.

Once they had arrived at the park, the class was greeted by a ranger who led them on a tour of the chasm. The group climbed down over large boulders, following one another into the cold shadows of the forest. Dark crevasses opened in the cliffs on either side. Rosie wondered what kinds of animals might be living inside. People said coyotes and even bears lived up in these hills. Was it dangerous to be here? The school wouldn’t have allowed the students to come if there was any true threat. Or maybe that was the point of the permission slips — parents had to
sign them, just in case anyone was eaten. Rosie told herself not to be silly, then slid down another rock, smudging her bottom with dust.

At the foot of the gorge, the ranger explained more about how the spectacular scene had been formed; then the class made their way up a path that wound back up the steep hillside toward their bus. By the time they made it to the chasm’s entrance, nearly everyone was out of breath. The ranger thanked them for coming and asked if anyone had any last questions. Someone in the crowd raised her hand. Rosie had to keep herself from rolling her eyes when she noticed who it belonged to. The ranger said, “Yes?”

Clea spoke up, her voice practically at a shout, so everyone could hear her. “Aren’t you going to talk at all about Tall Ted?” she asked.

The ranger’s face went slack and turned red. He glanced at the chaperones, who all shook their heads in unison. “We don’t have time for that right now,” said the ranger, gesturing to the parking lot, where the bus was waiting for them.

On the bus, everyone was curious to learn what Clea had been talking about. She looked as pleased as a peacock to have all eyes on her. “I can’t believe you guys haven’t heard the stories,” she said. “My older brother told me the legend.”

“What legend?” asked Sylvester from across the aisle.

“The legend of Tall Ted,” said Clea, smiling wide. “Tall Ted is a creature that supposedly lives in the caverns underneath Purgatory Chasm. He stands upright like a human, about six and a half feet tall, but he’s not human at all. His skin is pale from living underground. He has no hair. He walks with a limp, shuffling along, dragging one foot behind him. But people who believe they don’t have to run when they encounter Tall Ted end up sadly mistaken. Tall Ted has the ability to reach out with his long arms and snatch you up, even if you think you’re far enough away. His claws extend far, and they’re as sharp as razors.”

Rosie shivered. She didn’t believe the story. This was purely a legend, and she was a science girl after all. However, the tale got under her skin. Maybe Clea was indeed a great actress.

“Where did he come from?” Sylvester asked.

“Supposedly, Tall Ted was born up here in these hills to a human mother who was so frightened by his appearance, she abandoned him in the chasm. He learned to fend for himself and eventually grew to love the shadows and the rocks there. He’s so protective of his home that they say if you take a stone from Purgatory Chasm, Tall Ted will follow you home and take something of yours back with him … sometimes, they say, he takes the thief back instead.”

Rosie listened as almost everyone on the bus moaned. She then watched most of her friends pull small stones from their pockets. “Why didn’t you mention this before we all got on the bus?” asked Woodrow.

Clea laughed heartily. “You guys are so gullible!” she said.

“So then you just made all that up?” Viola asked.

“I didn’t make up anything,” said Clea, wiping at her nose. “My brother told me that story. But that doesn’t mean it’s true.”

7
WOODROW’S BIRTHDAY TRIP

 

That Saturday, the Question Marks all took the train from Moon Hollow to New York City. Woodrow had invited Viola, Sylvester, and Rosie to spend his birthday at his dad’s apartment. Once on the train, Woodrow could barely contain his excitement.

The four sat facing one another, gabbing about the rest of their week. Rosie and Viola were getting more involved in their play rehearsal, struggling to memorize their lines while trying to ignore the obnoxiousness that was Clea Keene. Sylvester had been teaching himself some new card tricks, which he shared with his friends. Woodrow had finally finished his detention. Thankfully, whenever he saw Mickey Molynew in the halls at school, the former bully ignored Woodrow, as if nothing had happened between them.

The group had also managed to dig up some more mysteries to share with one another. Now was the perfect time to tell them — cooped up on a train heading south, with at least another hour’s travel ahead of them.

8
THE PET CEMETERY MYSTERY
(A ??? MYSTERY)

 

“This one comes from one of my mom’s reporters,” said Viola. “Earlier this week, in a town close to Moon Hollow called Jessup’s Creek, there was a robbery. A man wearing a black ski mask held up the jewelry store and made off with several diamond rings, emerald earrings, and a couple gold necklaces.”

“Whoa,” said Woodrow. “That kind of thing doesn’t happen too often up here.”

“It happens more than we’d think,” said Viola.

“Yeah,” Sylvester agreed. “Weird people are always passing through these towns. We see plenty of them at the diner.”

“The little old lady who runs the jewelry store called the police as soon at the thief left,” Viola continued. “The cops showed up fairly quickly. She gave them the thief’s description. He was about five foot, five inches tall and wore a green hooded sweatshirt and pale jeans. She told them what direction he’d taken off in, and they hopped back in their cars to chase him.

“Jessup’s Creek is a small town. Much smaller than Moon Hollow. There’s only one main street, and the direction the old woman pointed the cops in ended at a small overgrown plot of land within a rickety old fence: Jessup’s Creek Pet Cemetery. It dates back nearly a hundred years.”

“Oh, that sounds so sad,” said Rosie.

“And creeptastic,” said Sylvester.

Viola went on. “People still use it as a place to bury their beloved and departed animals. In fact, my mom says that on any given day, you might see a freshly dug grave and a new makeshift marker placed on the property.

“The police were pretty sure that the thief had entered the cemetery. So they stealthily made their way through the gate. The place was nearly empty, except for a figure hunched over a grave in the distance. He seemed to be mourning. The officers crept up to him. When he wiped tears from his eyes, he managed to smear dirt onto his wet cheeks, so he looked like a total mess.

“Ordinarily, when encountering someone in such a sad state, I think the cops might have given him the benefit of the doubt. But in this case, they thought they might have found their suspect.
Why
?”

“That’s obvious,” said Sylvester. “The guy must have matched the old woman’s description. He was probably wearing that green sweatshirt and light jeans. I doubt he still had his black ski mask, but that was probably easy enough to toss away.”

“Right,” said Viola. “And he was the correct height too. So the police had a suspect in view. But they weren’t
positive
the mourner and the thief were one and the same. He didn’t have the bag of jewels on him. And he insisted he was there to mourn his dog, Lark.

“Sure enough, he was standing in front of the tombstone of a dog named Lark. But there was one major clue that made his story sound impossible.
Can you guess what it was
?”

“I’m guessing there was something about the gravestone in front of him that gave him away,” said Rosie.

Viola raised her eyebrows, egging her on for a better answer.

“Yeah,” said Woodrow. “The one thing that could give the thief away was the date on the grave. I bet he’d chosen a spot at random — and accidentally stood in front of one of the older graves.”

Viola laughed. “Exactly. It turned out poor old Lark had passed away in the nineteen-thirties, way before the man was even born. Lark couldn’t have been his dog, so the cops had caught him in a lie.”

“They must have been pretty sure they’d found the guy who’d robbed the store,” said Rosie. “But where were the jewels? If he didn’t have them, where did he put them?”

“That’s a good question,” said Viola. “The cops took the man into custody. They found his ski mask in a bush near the cemetery’s entrance. But they couldn’t find the bag of stolen goodies anywhere.

“I told my mom they weren’t looking in the right place. He didn’t just toss the bag away in order to protect himself. He must have hidden the jewels in a place no one would think to look. That way, when he was free, he could make his way back to the hiding place and collect them.”

“
But where was his hiding place?” asked Sylvester
.

“Since the man’s hands were dirty,” said Woodrow, “I’m gonna guess that he buried the bag somewhere.”

“Yeah!” said Rosie. “In one of the fresh graves. That way it wouldn’t look like he’d done the digging himself. No one would have thought to look in a spot where a pet was recently buried. It was a perfect plan.”

“Well,” said Viola, smiling, “I had the same thought. And that’s what I told my mom. She contacted the Jessup’s Creek Police Department and told them my theory. They found the bag of jewels almost immediately. In the grave of a rabbit named Fluffy. And now that thief is going to trial.”

Rosie began to chuckle. The others looked at her funny. “What’s the matter?” Woodrow asked.

“With all the talk of ghosts and monsters we’ve encountered lately, I was picturing a dead rabbit’s revenge,” Rosie said dreamily. “Wouldn’t it just be
horrible
if the bunny’s spirit decided to haunt that thief in his jail cell?”

“He’d deserve it,” said Viola. “I would never have thought to desecrate a grave like that.”

“Yeah,” said Sylvester. “But you’d never think to rob a jewelry store either!”

Rounding a sharp curve, the train rumbled on the tracks, emitting a deep sound as if it were chortling in agreement.

9
THE LEGEND OF PORTAL LAKE
(A ??? MYSTERY)

 

“I asked my mom if she’d heard anything about that Tall Ted creature up in the Moon Hollow Hills,” said Woodrow. “But she didn’t know anything about it. I was relieved, since I took a stone from Purgatory Chasm. If there’s one thing I don’t need in my life right now, it’s a monster following me home.”

“Does anyone really need that in their life?” Viola asked.

The other three laughed. “The tale of Tall Ted was the most ridiculous story I’ve heard in a long time,” said Rosie. “Clea sure has a wild imagination.”

“I’m pretty sure the legend is real though,” said Sylvester, growing serious. “I’ve heard people mention a Moon Hollow monster while at the diner. I suppose they could have been talking about Tall Ted.”

“But how many of these tales turn out to be true?” said Viola. “Not many. That’s why they’re called
legends
. People tell those kinds of stories to explain what isn’t easily explained. As members
of the Question Marks Mystery Club, we can’t jump to monstrous conclusions.”

“You’re right,” said Woodrow. “In fact, after I told my mom about Tall Ted, she mentioned another legend that her coworkers talk about up in the Moon Hollow Hills Park.” He smiled mischievously, making his friends wait for it. “How many of you have heard of Portal Lake?” When he got confused stares from Viola, Sylvester, and Rosie, he continued. “Mom told me that far off in the woods, deep in a valley away from any of the main roads, there is this body of water that the rangers have given the name Portal Lake. It’s so strange looking that a legend has sprung up about it: The lake is a portal to another dimension.”

“What?” said Rosie in disbelief. “That’s impossible.”

“What’s so strange about the lake’s appearance?” Viola asked.

“First off,” said Woodrow, “the water is a bright turquoise color. My mom says it has an almost alien appearance. Second, they’ve never spotted any fish living in the lake. Third, and strangest of all, there’s no shoreline.”

“What’s that mean?” asked Sylvester.

“It means that if you walk into the water, you have to watch your step, because the ground just drops off a few feet in. Straight down into a blue abyss.”

“How deep is the water?” asked Rosie.

“No one knows,” said Woodrow. “Some say it might be hundreds of feet. Legend says that it’s endless, and if you try to swim it, you’ll end up in an otherworldly ocean.”

“No way,” said Rosie. “There are perfectly reasonable explanations for every strange aspect of Portal Lake. The first one being that it probably wasn’t originally a lake.”

Sylvester flinched.
“If Portal Lake wasn’t a lake at first, then what was it?”