Night Runner (21 page)

Something wasn't right here. I held my breath to listen, but heard nothing. The bats were all gone. The insects had stopped their chattering. The fog moved closer, swirling more violently now as it met
the same breeze that stirred the pages of the journal and blew my hair down over my eyes.

The fog was moving against the wind.

I took a step backwards, and another. Then I heard it. The flap-ping of leathery wings.

I turned and ran. Trees and rocks passed me in a blur. So did the cottage. I followed the path straight for the shed, bounding with long, powerful strides. As I drew closer, I felt an icy cold against my skin, as if tendrils of fog were reaching out to snare me. I was panting loudly. The shed was close now. Just a few more steps. When I reached the door, I nearly tore it off the hinges. It snapped closed behind me and I fumbled with the latch. Then I held my breath and backed away. Although the window in the door was covered, in my mind's eye I could see the eerie luminescence drifting past outside, rolling, searching.

My lungs were burning so I sucked a quiet breath in through my teeth. I kept backing away until my foot hit the edge of my sleeping bag. Then I buried myself underneath and waited.

S
ometime during the early-morning hours I fell asleep. My dreams were frantic and confused. I couldn't find anyone. Everywhere there was shadow and fog and the sound of bat wings. I could feel an evil presence hunting me, but the more I ran, the closer it seemed to come.

It ended when Charlie ripped open the door of the shed the next day. I could hear his heart. It was doing a drum solo. He was so agitated, he actually pulled the latch right out of the door frame.

“We've got a problem,” he said.

The sun was still up, and light was bouncing all over the place, so we had at least two problems. I buried myself under my sleeping bag and waited until he closed the door.

“Suki just called,” he said. He made it sound like a bad thing. “The cops were there. They're on their way over right now. We've got to get you out of here. They could arrive any second.”

I stood up and grabbed my shirt. Then I started looking for my father's journal. As soon as I'd found it, I lifted a corner of the garbage bag that Charlie had stapled over the window frame. My fingers started to burn right away, so I let it go.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“I don't know. It's evening, just after eight, maybe.”

That meant the sun would be up for another half hour or so.

“What do I do?” I asked.

Charlie shrugged. “Can you wrap yourself up in that?” He flicked a finger towards my sleeping bag.

“Where am I going?”

“That's another problem.”

“Can I talk to Luna?”

“And that's another problem.”

“How did this happen?”

Charlie took a deep breath, then leaned back against the workbench under the window. “Their father read that article about you in the
Examiner
the other day. The one that said you're an escaped mental patient with psychotic tendencies. Who knew? Well, apparently he overheard the girls talking about you. Once he put two and two together, he detonated and called the cops. So we gotta get going. If the police catch you here, they're going to lock you away for about eight million years.”

That didn't sound too appealing. But that wasn't what really bothered me.

“So Luna knows?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Charlie nodded. “Sounds like she was pretty upset.”

“I've got to explain.”

Charlie shook his head. “No way. The girls, Suki . . . You've got to stay away.”

I let out a deep breath. I felt as if my whole body was going to collapse. I looked at Charlie, and then at the floor, and then at the
shelves. I don't know what I was expecting to see, like the key to my future was going to be written on a half-used can of spray paint. I was lost. The police were coming. The sun was still shining. I'd run out of hiding places. Funny thing was, I didn't care about that. I just wanted to talk to Luna. I couldn't have her believe all those things about me were true.

“Does your brother know I'm here?” I asked.

“No.”

“Isn't there another place I can hide? Maybe at the other end of the island? I could sneak away as soon as the police are gone.”

Charlie shook his head. “What are you going to do, make yourself invisible? Suki said they've got dogs with them. This isn't
The Hobbit
, Zack. This is for real.”

“So what do we do?”

“We get in the boat and take our chances.”

Charlie picked up the sleeping bag and handed it to me. I passed him my father's journal, unzipped one side of the bag and put it over my head like a giant cape. As soon as I was outside, it would be the only thing between me and the sun.

“Is that going to work?” he asked. “You aren't going to go up like a torch, are you?”

“We'll see,” I said. I sounded braver than I felt.

I waited in the shed for Charlie to go down to the dock and get the boat ready. Then he whistled. That was the signal. I was supposed to take off.

I couldn't.

The light outside was just too bright. Why couldn't it have been cloudy?

Charlie whistled again.

I took a deep breath. Then another. I had to go, but my feet wouldn't move. The sun was out there. The sun was death. Painful death.

Charlie whistled a third time. I imagined him waiting in the boat. Then I imagined Luna at her cottage. If I stayed here, if I chickened out and hid in the shed, the police would find me and I'd never get the chance to set things straight.

Charlie whistled a fourth time. I pulled the sleeping bag tight around my shoulders, took a deep breath, then kicked the door open and ran outside.

I
'd never been out in the full sun before. Even with the sleeping bag over my body and clothes protecting my arms and legs, I still felt like I'd just jumped into an oven. My eyes burned. My skin tingled. Everything was hot. Then I felt jabs, like pinpricks, spreading over my hands and neck. All the while, I ran as fast as I could. I kept my eyes on the ground, but even that was blinding. And so I didn't see the little boy until he was right in front of me.

He must have been one of Dan's kids. He just popped out of nowhere as I rounded the cottage on my way to the dock. I didn't hit him, or he would have landed somewhere in Saskatchewan, but I tripped and fell getting out of his way. The ground came at me quickly, so without thinking, I stuck out a hand to break my fall. The effect was dramatic. In less than two seconds, the skin turned red, blistered, then charred to black and cracked open.

I screamed.

Behind me, up in the cottage, someone started shouting. I pulled my hand back under the sleeping bag, but the damage had been done. My hand was a mess, and I'd been spotted.

A second later, Charlie was beside me. I could only see his feet. He was trying to help me up by the arm, but it was the bad one, so I just shouted, “Don't!” and ran down to the boat. I ate up the last fifty feet in about two strides. A moment later I felt the boat lurch as Charlie jumped in after me.

“What happened?”

All I could say was, “My hand.” I leaned out of the boat so that the shadow of the sleeping bag was over the water. When I stuck my arm in, it made a hissing noise. It wasn't like swimming. It didn't feel like a massage. It was more like acupuncture. I got dizzy and fell back against the side of the boat.

By this time, Dan was calling for Charlie. I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was coming towards us.

Charlie didn't answer. He just gunned the motor, and we took off. I had no idea where we were going. I turned the sleeping bag into a cocoon and waited for the sun to set. I didn't say anything, I just gritted my teeth and rocked back and forth, doing my best to keep my hand from touching anything that would make the pain come back.

 

 

As soon as Charlie told me that the sun had gone down, I poked my head up from under the sleeping bag and looked around. My head was still buzzing. Or maybe it was the flies. We were in a swamp, with reeds and drowned trees in the water all around us. It was like something out of a Tarzan movie. Charlie had pulled the motor up so that the prop was sticking out behind the boat. He was using a paddle to push off the spongy bottom. The smell of rot coming up from the water was enough to singe your nose hairs.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“It's a bird sanctuary,” said Charlie. “My dad calls it the Lost Channel, I guess because no one uses it any more.”

“Where are the cottages?”

“You can't build in here. And you can't come in with motorboats, so we should be safe.”

“Isn't this a motorboat?”

“If we get caught by the cops, that will be the least of our worries.”

That made sense.

“So now what?” I asked. I had to speak through clenched teeth because my hand was still on flame-broil. “Can we go back to your place?”

Charlie shook his head. “No. The cops might still be there. We're going to feel awfully stupid if we go back and they nab us.”

I was already feeling stupid, but I didn't say anything.

Charlie smiled. “I have a plan. I used to play hide-and-seek with my brothers all the time. You know the best place to hide?”

I blew on my hand. “In a cave?” I said.

“Look around, chowderhead. Do you see a cave anywhere? I mean in general.”

I had no idea. Hide-and-seek wasn't too popular at the ward. Most patients couldn't remember what they were doing for more than ten seconds. And they got spooked super easy. Hide-and-seek would have looked more like hide-and-freak.

“The best place to hide from someone,” Charlie explained, “is in a place they've already searched.”

He paddled us out of the bird sanctuary and dropped the motor.

“So where are we going?” I asked.

“To see Suki and Luna. Where else?”

That definitely sounded better than a cave. And since the police had already searched there, it was probably safer than anywhere else. If he was concerned that the girls didn't want me around, he sure didn't
show it. I was definitely more worried than he was. Of course, he wasn't an escaped mental patient with a warrant out for his arrest. But his confidence helped convince me things might turn out all right.

We drove with the lights off. It felt good to be moving, even if it brought us closer to trouble. It was a distraction from the pain in my hand.

We were lucky. The police were gone from Luna's part of the lake. We didn't see any of their boats. It was still early when we arrived at her cottage. Ten o'clock, maybe. All of the lights in the cottage were still on, so Charlie cut the engine and we drifted in to the dock.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I whispered.

“What have you got to lose? They already want to kill you.”

Charlie stepped out of the boat and grabbed the rope to tie it up.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I'm going to knock at the door,” he said.

I hadn't really considered what we'd do once we arrived, but I didn't think the front door was the best option.

Charlie motioned for me to get under the sleeping bag. “I'll see if Luna can come out. Just be ready. Their old man's pretty good with a shotgun. We might need to make a quick exit.” I couldn't tell if he was joking.

He slipped up onto the front porch and knocked at the door. Suki answered. She took one look at him and folded her hands across her chest. I crouched under the sleeping bag in the front of the boat and watched.

“Well?” she said.

“Hey, it's me. It's Charlie. You don't have to look at me like that.”

“Like what? Like you set my sister up with a crackpot?”

“He's not a crackpot. He's my best friend. And you were all wild about him until a few hours ago. You really think he's crazy? Come on!”

“He lied to us. You both did.”

“That's a bunch of—”

“You
did
!”

“Zachary's got a lot of problems right now, but he's never been a liar. Never.”

“Yeah, he said he lived in a mental ward. He never said he escaped! You let on like he was fine. It was in the newspaper. He attacked four police officers. Explain that one, Einstein.”

I listened, but Charlie didn't say anything for a few seconds. I could hear the porch creaking under his feet as he shifted around.

“I can't explain it. But Zachary can. I know we can clear all of this up. Is Luna here?”

There was another long pause.

“Where is he?” Suki asked. “Is he here? Did you bring him here?” Her voice sounded like she was trying to yell and whisper at the same time.

“He's in the boat. He wants to talk to Luna.”