Mystics 3-Book Collection (84 page)

When Zoey had first discovered that Mrs.
Dupont had sold her mother to these experimental doctors, she did
her best
not
to imagine the worse, but she couldn’t help it.
It was impossible
not
to visualize the atrocities in her
mind, and now she could finally put a face to this evil.

As the Anerak spoke to the Chacras, its thin
lips spread into an evil smile. Zoey wondered if the creature had
smiled like that right before it had poked and prodded her mother.
She glared at the creature in the white coat.

“What do you think they’re talking about?”
asked Zoey.

One of the Anerak’s bulbous eyes watched
her, while the other focused on the Chacras it spoke to.

Tristan leaned forward, frowning. “Probably
making a trade.”

“You mean
us
.” Although Zoey wasn’t
thrilled at the idea, she still really wanted to know why the
lab-coated creature looked so familiar.

And then it hit her.

The Anerak was the creature from her
nightmares—the ones torturing her, performing experiments on her
while she was chained to a bed. It was all coming back to her. The
doctors in her nightmares weren’t
human
doctors. They never
were. They were Aneraks. Zoey had the horrible feeling that the
girl in her dreams wasn’t her at all—it was her
mother
. As
the realization hit her, she knew it was the truth. Somehow, she
had seen her own mother being tortured. Her stomach was in knots.
She had to be alive . . . .

After a brief conversation, the Anerak
dismissed the Chacras with a wave of its skeletal hand, and the
Chacras waddled back towards the wagon.

“Out!” it barked and shoved Zoey. Its eyes
widened at the sight of Simon sitting up, but it didn’t say
anything. It looked pleased.

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Zoey jumped down
from the wagon. She felt slightly revived after the short trip and
helped Simon down.

The Chacras shoved Zoey, Simon, and Tristan
up the steps. When they stood at the top of the stone steps and
faced the Anerak, the creature drummed its gangly fingers together
in excitement. Up close it was taller than Tristan and much, much
uglier. Its pale greenish skin was covered in pimples, scabs, and
oozing blisters.

“Humans!” said the Anerak in a voice that
sounded like it had swallowed an accordion. “Good, good, yes,
yes.”

It paused for a moment, measuring Zoey. A
small, triumphant smile twitched on its lips, and she had the eerie
feeling it had seen her before. It was almost too pleased to see
her. While one of its pink swollen eyes still focused on Zoey, the
other rolled over Tristan like he was the next best thing to candy.
But when it examined Simon, both of its eyes focused on him. Its
thin mouth was slightly open in astonishment.

“You are
old
,” it said in more of a
question than a statement. It poked him repeatedly with its
pencil-thin finger.

“Hey, stop that!” growled Simon and he took
a step back. “I’m not a wax figure. I’m real you know. I’m
alive
.”

The Anerak leaned over him, its long nose
inches from his face, and sniffed. “You smell young, but you look
old? Why is that?”

“It’s called
aging
,” grumbled Simon,
as he tried to wiggle away from the creature.

“Very curious.” The Anerak stood back. “Old
. . . and very ugly.”

“Look who’s talking, stick-man,” muttered
Simon. He leaned away from the Anerak’s curious eyes, like he was
afraid they were going to jump out at him.

“No matter. We can still perform the Dream
Purge.”

Simon paled. “What’s the Dream Purge?”

The creature ignored him, and its eerie
smile widened. “I am Doctor One. You may address me as
Doctor
One
.”

“Is this freak for real?” chortled Simon. “I
feel like I’m stuck in a really bad rerun of the Outer Limits—” He
was struck in the back of the head with a spear, and he fell to his
knees.

Tristan moved to defend Simon, but a gun and
two spears were aimed at his head. He froze. The muscles in his
face twitched, and Zoey could see his skin tingle with a little
blue hue. She met his eyes and pleaded with him. She didn’t want
him to get hurt, and somehow she knew she needed to get inside that
building, even though every inch of her was screaming
not
to.

Doctor One scratched a scab on his arm and
then flicked a flaky piece away.

“Humans are very hard to come by in these
parts. You are very
rare
commodities in our world and
very
expensive,” said the doctor happily. “But as you stand
here before me, I can see that you were all worth the trouble . . .
and more. My little friends have done very well today, very well
indeed.”

The doctor drew a small bag from the folds
of its coat and tossed it to the Chacras. Their kidnapper examined
the contents of the bag and seemed satisfied.

There was something odd about the way the
good doctor was eyeing them, more like a mortician than a
doctor.

Zoey shared a worried look with her friends.
If they were going to make a run for it, now was the time.

Just as she thought about running, something
cold and heavy was latched around her neck. She jumped back in
surprise, but the collar tightened around her neck like a metal
scarf.

“Hey! What’s going on?”

She tried to pull it off, but she couldn’t.
Before she could react further, the Anerak seized her arms and
chained her wrists together.

Zoey was stunned. What had just happened?
Tristan and Simon were shackled with large metal collars around
their necks just like hers, like they were dogs.

Tristan fought against his restraints. His
skin shone blue, and he tried to break free desperately.

“It’s pointless, Mysterian,” said the
doctor. “Even with your strength, you cannot break free. A word to
the wise: keep your energy for later. You will need it.”

The creature grinned, its pointy teeth
blackened and rotten.

Zoey glared at the doctor and raised her
wrists. “Why are you doing this? We haven’t done anything.”

Doctor One’s smile sent a chill through
Zoey.

“What did you expect? That we’d throw a
party in your honor? You can’t just waltz into our world without
suffering the consequences. You agents imprison our kind when we
venture into
your
world. It’s the same here. There are
rules. Trespassers are dealt with harshly. But it’s lucky my
friends found you first—”

“I don’t feel very lucky,” grumbled Simon.
“I guess it’s these chains. They’re weighing down my otherwise
high
spirits.”

One of the doctor’s pink eyes rolled in
Simon’s direction. He still seemed puzzled by Simon’s age.

He waved a thin, bony arm in the air. “Now,
you will follow me inside in
silence
. Your
kind
is
not permitted to speak. I’m anxious to begin.”

Zoey frowned. “Listen, you need to know
something. Both our worlds are in danger—”

The metal collar tightened around her neck
immediately. She was suffocating. Black spots danced before her
eyes as she tried desperately to remove the collar, but she could
hardly think. She staggered and then fell to the ground. She tried
to focus, but she went spinning into darkness.

W
hen Zoey regained
consciousness, she was lying on the floor. She blinked at a pair of
white boots with pointy toes. She looked up at Doctor One. He held
a remote control.

“No more talking from now on,” he said
darkly. “If you don’t want me to use the collar again, you will do
as I say. If you speak, I will use it again and again until you
start bleeding from the ears, and then I’ll fry your brain like
eggs in a pan. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to torture
agents
, but I would prefer to present you to my colleagues
unspoiled. Do you understand, agent?”

Zoey moved her lips but no words came out.
She wheezed as she tried to breathe normally again. Her throat
burned like she had swallowed a gallon of bleach. Her head still
throbbed and she felt a pressure in her ears like when she used to
dive at the local pool.

“Just a nod will suffice. You are not
permitted to speak.”

She glared at the doctor and nodded.

“Good,” said the doctor. “You show a degree
of compliance. You’ll do very well.”

Tristan helped Zoey to her feet. He looked
like a tiger ready to lunge for the kill. It felt amazing to be
held by Tristan. If he hadn’t been there with her, she didn’t think
she could go on. Her head felt like it had split in two.

Tristan smiled weakly and whispered. “I got
you—”

“No more talking,” hissed the doctor, his
scabby face twisted in fury. He pointed his contraption at Tristan
menacingly as though it were a gun. “I’m warning you. One more
word,
Mysterian,
and I will fry your brain like
fritters!”

Tristan glared at the doctor like a chained
animal. If the chains were off, Zoey knew he’d tear the good doctor
apart like a piñata.

Doctor One waved his contraption. “Now, I
can either make this very painful for you or pain free. It’s up to
you. If you speak, I will use the collar on you. If you try to run,
I will use the collar on you. Try anything at all—”

I will use the collar on you
, mouthed
Simon so only Zoey and Tristan could see.

“I will use the collar on you,” finished the
doctor. “Now, if you’ll follow me.” Doctor One walked up the steps
and through the front door.

Zoey wiped her dripping nose, and when she
looked at her hand, her fingers were stained with blood.

Reluctantly, Zoey, Tristan, and Simon
followed Doctor One.

If the bones on the exterior were gloomy and
foreboding, the interior of the building was much, much worse. Her
instincts warned her not to enter.

They stepped into a vast chamber with dirt
floors and bone walls. The bone cathedral building was just
that—made of bones.

Centipede-like creatures as big as puppies
scuttled across the ground and large cockroaches the size of rats
scurried at their feet. An enormous
chandelier
 made
from bones and tiny skulls hung from the center
of the chamber and
cast shadows of screaming faces.
Garlands of
 
skulls and
bones
 
draped
the vaulted
ceiling like Halloween decorations in a haunted
house. Whoever had built this place had to have been mad. It was as
though they had dug up an entire cemetery and had used the bones as
decoration.

Zoey could see that her
friends felt the exact same way—completely flabbergasted and just a
little grossed out.

“Keep up, or I’ll press
the button!” warned Doctor One. He led them through the main area
and then into one of the many corridors.

Zoey ground her teeth but
said nothing. She didn’t want to feel that pain ever
again.

They passed a display case
of skulls and bones that looked as though someone had taken an axe
or a sledgehammer to them. Doctor One mumbled to himself as they
walked. Where was he leading them? She had no idea how much time
had gone by but she knew time was running out. Somehow, they needed
to get rid of the collars and chains. They needed a plan, and they
needed it fast.

The corridor opened to
another chamber with a spiral bone staircase that moved like an
escalator. The doctor moved towards a door behind the
staircase.
Zoey was sickened to see that the door was made
of flesh. It was quilted together with thick black leather thread
and looked like it was made of
human
skin. To add to the
horror, the handle was a human skull painted black.

“Well that’s reassuring,” grumbled
Simon.

The doctor grabbed the skull and pushed.

Zoey knew she needed to get their collars
off before they could do anything. And she knew the only way to get
them off was with that remote control. She didn’t want to let it
out of her sight. They followed the doctor.

The room had the same dirt floor and bone
walls. It was about the size of a small shop with a staircase
leading up to a second level. There were no windows, and a series
of single light bulbs poked out from the jaws of skulls hanging
from the ceiling. Shelves stocked with dusty books and jars lined
the far wall. Bottles whose contents looked disturbingly like
organs in green churning liquid covered the jumble of tables in the
room. If it weren’t for the strong sulfur smell and the dissected
bodies on the tables, it could have passed for a normal laboratory.
A device like a vintage gramophone played dark music in the
background.

Zoey passed a table where a human had been
cut up and sewn back together badly. She looked away.

They made their way deeper into the room
where two creatures in blood-stained lab coats stepped away from
one of the tables.

Doctor One greeted them and said, “My
colleagues, Doctor Two and Doctor Three.”

They were both Aneraks like Doctor One.
Doctor Two looked like he had never eaten. He had crazy spiked hair
and looked like a tree in a lab coat, with branches for arms and
legs. He had a mouth the size of a button and no visible nose. He
regarded Zoey suspiciously with tiny pink eyes.

Doctor Three was short and had no eyes, just
two small holes for a nose, and a mouth that stretched all the way
back to his ears. And when he smiled, his teeth were tiny little
skulls. Zoey suspected they were
not
his regular teeth.

“I have found us more humans!” Doctor One
clapped his hands excitedly like he had just won the lottery.