The Color of Fear (10 page)

Caitlin opened the barn door.

Daylight!

But it was a hazy, gray daylight.

She checked her phone for the time: 1:37 p.m.

Wow, well past noon! Definitely not my time zone.

Before leaving the barn, Caitlin snuck a quick look at the four corners of the ceiling.

One, two, three, four.

Then Caitlin stooped and maneuvered through the pint-size doorway. She stepped outside—into extreme heat, and into what appeared to be a miniature, abandoned village. Most of the buildings were shorter than she was. A row of cozy, thatched-roofed cottages circled a child-size, covered well. Caitlin could tell there had once been bright colors here. But now the colors were muted.

The windows on all the houses were broken. The walls seemed to sag against each other. Brown, patchy grass covered cracked, dry dirt, and the only green things she saw were weeds. Despite the intense heat, a murky sheet of fog hung between the sun and the clouds.

Caitlin took a few tentative steps. Tall weeds tickled her knees. She glanced back a few times at the barn door. A tiny grasshopper hopped across her path. She let out a shriek.

“What took you so long?” came a familiar voice.

Caitlin glanced up fast.

Her fists opened.

Her jaw unclenched.

For the first time in a long while, she was overjoyed to see her sister. The little twerp looked just fine. She was perched on top of a miniature brick schoolhouse, her camera swaying around her neck.

“I say we slide down that hole again!”

Caitlin shook her head. “Get down from there right now.”

Natalie out stretched her arms, reaching for a flagpole on the front of the building and she slid to the ground. A frog abruptly hopped right over Natalie’s feet while letting out a large
croak!
Then, with a few bounding leaps, the frog vanished into a mass of tall weeds.

“Cute!” Natalie exclaimed.

Caitlin checked her phone again. No bars, no signal, no way to reach Jack or emergency rescue.

Suddenly, a loud clunk. The barn shook. A moment later, long-haired dead girl emerged through the barn’s crumbling double doors, her silky locks trailing behind.

Now, in daylight, Caitlin was able to get a good look at her. Though her attire was tattered and decayed, you could tell it had once been a stunning, purple-blue royal gown, embellished with a gleaming, gold V-shape belt. Her complexion was white as chalk, and the rims of her eyes dark as ink.

That hair!

It still had a fabulous glistening sheen. As if it contained magic.

“You still trying to call Jack?” the zombie asked.

How does she know about Jack?

“Actually, yes. But I lost my signal,” Caitlin said.

“I’m not surprised.”

Caitlin checked her voice mail.

Yes!
A message from Jack.

“Caitlin, where are you? There’s something I gotta tell you. Please listen. My ph—”

The message died. Her phone must’ve cut out as she’d slid down that grave hole.

“You’ll get no signal in this place,” the blonde ghoul said.

No signal? No phone? No texting? No communication with the outside world?

A frantic Caitlin suddenly felt like a castaway.

Abandoned. Stranded. Shipwrecked on some god-forsaken island far out in the ocean, cut off from
…
well, everything!

Her panicked eyes welled up with tears. She turned to the long-haired one. “Please. We have to go back up there. Now.”

“But we need your help, Caitlin.”

Caitlin shook her head. She wanted to get out of there—fast. The strange world felt like it was closing in on her. But she knew she shouldn’t show that she was panicky.

“My dad will have the whole city searching for me if we’re not home by ten. He’s probably already got Scotland Yard out looking for Natalie.”

Natalie elbowed Caitlin. “Technically speaking, Dad doesn’t even know I’m gone.”

Good one, Natalie.

Caitlin’s breathing grew erratic. She started seeing spots. She crouched on the ground and put her head between her knees. The feeling eating her up inside was profoundly awful.

“Ugh. I’m trapped in the middle of nowhere. And I’m the worst sister on earth. I need to get out of here!”

Natalie crouched beside her. “Relax, Caity-pie. I’m guessing this is some kind of alternate reality or parallel universe that’s congruent with the known laws of physics. However … ”

“Will you shut up!” Caitlin yelled as she tried to stay focused on her own misery.

Natalie shrugged. She rose up and marched over to the zombie. “I’m thirsty. And zonked. It’s way past my bedtime.”

The zombie girl unhooked a leather bota bag that hung from her belt and handed it to Natalie.

“Thanks,” said Natalie. “What is it?”

“Drinking pouch. With water. Until we find something more substantial.”

Natalie tipped the spout of the kidney-shape pouch into her mouth and chugged.

“Drink up, little one,” the zombie said. “Then we’d better get a move on. I’ll explain everything when we find the others.”

Natalie stopped drinking. “Others?”

Caitlin and Natalie followed
the zombie girl to the outskirts of the village. They stepped over the crumbled remains of a thick stone perimeter wall and other ruins that still surrounded the town. Outside the village, drooping plants leaned into each other for support. An orange, parasitic-looking fungus covered crooked trees, climbing up their trunks and smothering their already-petrified leaves. Giant flowers that had clearly been enchantingly colorful and beautiful once had lost their luster and bloom. Jumbo dried mushrooms of faded purple, lime, and blue littered the landscape. Thick rotting tree stumps sat, lonesome, on abandoned grasslands.

As they crept onward, Caitlin glanced up at the sky and … and … and … she freaked!

“What is
that
?”

“The sun. Why?”

Caitlin couldn’t believe it. It shone like the sun back home. Even had the same color. What it didn’t seem to have was the same shape.

Caitlin squinted through the veil of fog at the bright, odd thingamabob-shape solar orb in the sky. Though it was oddly shaped, it still somehow seemed familiar to her.

A walnut?
No.
A closed fist
? Not really.

Then it hit her.

That had to be it!

The sun’s glimmering form sort of resembled a translucent brain!

Is my mind playing tricks? Is it a mirage? An optical illusion?

Caitlin was reminded of an amusing game she’d played as a child. She’d stare at puffy clouds in the sky. Soon familiar shapes would appear in them, as if by magic.

Likewise, this sun seemed to project a shimmer in the shape of a brain.

How imaginatively weird!

Suddenly, two dainty, cold, dead hands latched onto her shoulders.

Caitlin was yanked backward.

She felt a frosty nose sniffing the back of her neck.

“Don’t you dare, Cindy!” the long-haired girl called out.

“One taste?” came the voice attached to those dainty hands.

“One taste is never enough,” the long-haired said. “It only makes us want a bigger second bite. I mean it, Cinderella! Let her go!”

Wha—?

Cinderella?

The dainty, dead hands spun Caitlin around. She was now staring directly into the face of the real, live … Cinderella? Only Cinderella wasn’t really
alive
. She had the silvery-white complexion of death and the slightly sunken cheeks and dark-rimmed eyes of a ghoul risen from the grave. And yet she was elusively beautiful. And even though she was decomposing, her blonde hair and polished nails seemed well-groomed. Caitlin had always adored the tale of Cinderella. She gazed at her with awe.

Natalie’s eyebrows practically popped off her forehead.

“This gets more surreal by the moment,” Girl Wonder said.

Cinderella released Caitlin with a huff. Caitlin stood there, mouth agape, certain now that she was in the middle of some epic lucid dream. Perhaps, when she had fallen asleep in her room after school, she had gotten a high fever that was fueling these curiously symbolic imaginary events.

Long-haired dead girl flashed an apologetic smile.

“Please, forgive me. Where are my manners? I never did introduce myself. My name’s Rapunzel.”

The little girl in Caitlin was now doubly star struck—and surprised.

How could I not have recognized Rapunzel after seeing those exquisite, long, golden locks?

“Where am I?” Caitlin asked.

Rapunzel smiled. “A universe of extraordinary kingdoms and spellbinding worlds … at least they were before this degenerative affliction broke out.”

Natalie elbowed Caitlin. “Aka zombification.”

Cinderella sauntered over to chili-pepper Natalie. She circled her as if perusing a buffet. Then she turned to Rapunzel. “Perhaps a nibble on the hot and spicy one?”

Natalie swung her arms in the air. “Stay back, royal zombie chowhound!”

Rapunzel shot a disapproving look at Cinderella. Just then, another zombie appeared as if out of nowhere. This one was gracefully slender, with midnight-black hair, cherry lips, and a pale, metallic-white complexion.

Like … like … snow? It couldn’t be! Could it?

“I’m Snow White,” she said as she curtsied. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Caitlin blinked.

Natalie just sighed. “The hypnagogic hallucinations keep on coming.”

Caitlin’s vacant stare faded as the corners of her mouth curled into a wide smile. She forgot about being frightened or angry as a warm and pleasant feeling arose inside of her.

“I feel like I’ve known you all my life.”

Rapunzel smiled broadly. “You must meet our other friend; look behind you.” Caitlin whirled around. A captivating, ash-blonde zombie stood a few feet away.

Caitlin’s eyes sparked with wonder. “Sleeping Beauty?”

Beauty held out her pale hand. “An honor to meet you, Caitlin.”

Something must’ve clicked for Natalie, because her eyes grew big as billiard balls. “Are you guys, like, authentic flesh-eating zombies?”