The Color of Fear (29 page)

“What was that?”

“Ooh! Fish,” gurgled Natalie. “Hungry for fish taco!”

That was the first full sentence Natalie had spoken since the bite.

“I beg to differ; that is no ordinary fish,” Amethyst said. “It should be our friend, who has come to assist.”

A purple tail shimmered in the moonlight. Then a mermaid popped up out of the water and waved.

Caitlin’s face lit up.

It was really
her
.

The Little Mermaid.

She dove back into the sea and resurfaced a few moments later, closer to shore. She had huge, deep-set eyes and a lovely, warm smile. Her bikini top was made of two ribbed scallop shells that were coral pink, and they matched a pink starfish comb in her hair. Her flowing strawberry-blonde locks cascaded down her back, twinkling the same way the moon glowed on the waves.

And she too was partially zombified.

“Come down to the shoreline,” the Little Mermaid called to them. “I’ll return shortly with help. You should be safe here until I return. However, under no circumstances are you to leave the shoreline. It can get rather dangerous and spooky around these parts at night.”

And with that, the Little Mermaid dove under the sea. Her purple tail flapped in the air before disappearing beneath the surface.

Caitlin turned to Jack. “How did you find us?”

“A good friend led me to the caterpillar.”

“How’s your leg?”

“Hurts like hell.”

Caitlin felt like crying.

Except for that distant thunder of stomping feet, everything was calm and quiet.
Maybe a bit too quiet.

Caitlin glanced over at her friends, Snow and Beauty. Neither had spoken Cindy’s name since she turned. But she could see the pain etched on their faces. Rapunzel remained resolute. She was being strong for the group.

Caitlin suddenly heard the churning of waves. A clang of metal and the creaking of wood followed.

She cast her eyes just off the shoreline.

The pirate ship was suddenly turning in the sea, its bow spreading the black moonlit waters.

The vessel angled directly toward them.

“We’ve got trouble,” Rapunzel said as she paced the shore- line. She stopped and turned to Caitlin. “Hide that blasted scepter! It’s glowing like a lighthouse. And be gentle with it!”

Caitlin carefully flipped it upside down and buried the dome under the sand. Blue glimmers leaked up through the grains.

“No one’s on board that boat!” Jack said, staring intently at the ship. “How could that be?”

Snow White licked a finger and raised it in the air.

“Not a puff of wind for the sails to catch either.”

“Then who’s sailing the ship?” Beauty asked. “And
how
is it sailing?”

This was beyond creepy. It
was
a ghost ship, carried by a ghost wind, with no living or even living-dead crew aboard. The ship was steering itself, and somehow sailing on a windless sea.

“I say we leave before our ship comes in,” Jack said.

Lord Amethyst abruptly flitted back into the skies.

“He’s bailing!” Caitlin cried.

“Maybe we should too,” said Beauty.

Caitlin seriously considered it. The dead were already hunting her down; now a ghost ship was coming for her.

“We stay put,” Rapunzel said. “Direct orders from the Little Mermaid. We don’t know what’s out there in the dark.”

“We don’t know what deviant force is sailing that boat either,” Beauty said. “At least with the undead, you see their dead, red eyes coming for you.”

Amethyst swooped down to the shoreline, a hopeful smile on his face. “She’s almost here,” he said.

In unison, the group replied, “Who?”

A head splashed out of the dark waters. “Me!”

The Little Mermaid waved. “Almost there,” she said, breathing heavily.

She dove back under the sea and flapped her fin above the surface. A thick, yellow braided rope was tied around it in a bowline knot.

“She’s towing the pirate ship to shore,” Jack said.

By herself?

Somehow, the Little Mermaid tugged the boat to the beach and docked it at the shoreline. She came ashore as her fins … transformed into actual feet!

She carried two wooden branches. She approached Jack. “I need to set that bone.”

Jack nodded and laid himself on the sandy beach. The Little Mermaid kneeled down beside him. With hands that moved as skillfully as any orthopedic doctor’s, she unwrapped the makeshift bandage on Jack’s leg. Then she snapped the bone back into place. Jack recoiled in pain and sweat beaded on his brow. She sprinkled some kind of medicinal aquatic plant juice over the wound and slid an exotic-looking herb into his mouth.

“Pain killer and antiseptic,” she said. “Chew.”

The Little Mermaid made two splints out of the branches as Jack consumed the medicine. She pulled out some strips of seaweed that were tucked into her waist. She placed the splints on either side of Jack’s leg, then wound the seaweed around the splint, creating a new makeshift bandage-cast.

“What kind of medicine is this?” Jack asked with a grin.

She helped Jack stand up. Then she gestured toward the pirate ship and said to the group, “We have a long way to go. We need to leave now.”

“But how can you possibly tow such a large ship by yourself?” Caitlin asked. “Especially when we’re all on board?”

Little Mermaid gave a wry smile and pointed out to sea.

Dozens of mermaid tails suddenly splashed through the surface of the ocean.

Caitlin shook her head. “There must be a hundred mermaids out there.”

“Actually, there’s one hundred and thirty-seven,” Little Mermaid replied. “Now please hurry.”

Caitlin couldn’t believe it. She was now aboard a genuine pirate ship, sailing upon a moonlit sea, and Jack was kindly keeping her warm with his arm around her. She was over the moon—and under it!

She was glad Jack was feeling better. The salty night air stroked her face as she looked around the boat. Everyone had found a corner to snuggle up in and steal a nap.

Even Natalie. Amethyst perched at the end of the bow, napping under the starlight. Only the Little Mermaid remained awake. She swam beneath the water, tugging the vessel to its final destination.

The skull-and-crossbones flag flapped and flashed in the night’s wind, reflecting slivers of autumn moonlight.

“Who would’ve believed this whole scene?” Jack said softly. “It feels like months ago that we were chatting at our lockers in school. But it was only yesterday. Or was it this morning?”

Caitlin chuckled. “I’ve lost track of time.” She nuzzled her head against Jack’s shoulder as she gazed out at the starlit sea. “Thank you, Jack.”

“For what?”

“For being a good friend. For never judging me.” She chuckled. “Especially now—with my pale face, cracking skin, and oh-so-not-flattering hairdo.”

He winked at her.

“I hope you know I didn’t send that text. Telling you to meet me at Mount Cemetery instead of the dance.”

“What do you mean?”

“Piper sent it. She had my phone. I would never let you go to that place alone.”

Caitlin smiled. “I’ve always admired how you stand up for kids at school. You’re a special person, Jack. I mean that. And you came all this way to help me. You risked your life for some ordinary new kid at school.”

Jack held her closer. “You’re far from ordinary, Caitlin.” Caitlin glanced up and met his gaze. There was moonlight in his eyes.

“I can tell you quite honestly that you’re positively one of prettiest girls I’ve ever known. And quirky as hell.”

Caitlin smiled wider and brighter than the moon. Except for those small pecks she offered during a game of spin the bottle, Caitlin had never really kissed a boy before. But tonight it seemed she would. Jack leaned in. Their lips tenderly touched in a lingering embrace.

“I hope that was okay,” Jack said softly. “I should have asked permission.”

“Permission granted,” Caitlin said, smiling. “What I mean is, it was okay.” She blinked. “Wait, I didn’t mean that the kiss was
just
okay, as in it was nothing special; the kiss, was, um, well … it was great! I meant that it was okay for you to kiss me.”

He smiled. Caitlin let out a leisurely breath. She was feeling good for the first time in a long time. She couldn’t believe she’d had the guts to duke it out with the queen. Or to do all the other crazy things she had done.

Especially dance.

Especially open up to Jack right now and share her feelings.

“You know why I want to get home before sunrise?” Caitlin asked Jack.

“Tell me.”

“Because if I become a mindless ghoul, I’ll forget who you are. Belle forgot Sleeping Beauty, her best friend. I don’t want that to happen to me. I don’t want to forget this moment.”

Something compelled Caitlin to sit up and look to the back of the boat just then. There was Natalie, still and silent, as if asleep. But her eyes were open, like she was in a trance. She was staring at the scepter next to Caitlin. She was clearly mesmerized by the whirlpool of light swirling in the glass dome.

Jack pulled Caitlin back around as he glanced out to sea. “Did you notice?”

“What?”

“Listen.”

The night had turned peaceful and quiet. The only sounds were waves breaking beneath the bow and stern.

“No thunder,” Jack said. “We must be getting farther away from those ungodly savages.”

It hurt Caitlin to think of Cindy as some kind of ungodly savage. And the thought of herself and Natalie falling into the same ghoulish state unnerved her to no end.

The good feelings were suddenly gone. “I don’t want to turn into one of
them
, Jack.”

He looked at his watch. He then cast his eyes toward the eastern horizon.

“I’m afraid that doesn’t give us much time. It’s almost sunrise.”

The Little Mermaid pulled
the pirate ship alongside a rock-strewn beach. She docked the boat to a large pier made of piled stone bound by wire mesh.

Caitlin grabbed the scepter. She and Jack disembarked from the vessel and helped the zombie girls—who were struggling to subdue pink-eyed Natalie—off the boat.

Her sister was still held spellbound by the scepter. Natalie’s gaze followed its iridescent, swirling blues and purples. She looked like a cat enthralled by floating lint.

They marched hurriedly up the pier, Caitlin limping and Jack hobbling, as quickly as their pain would allow.

“Have you figured out what to do with the scepter?” Amethyst abruptly asked Caitlin.

“No clue,” she said, “but at least it seems to be taming the beast in my kid sister.”

“You need to somehow deactivate it before sunrise. There’s no other who can liberate the kingdoms from this horrid affliction.”

Rapunzel, Snow, and Beauty were suddenly looking at her with desperately hopeful eyes. She bit the tip of her thumbnail. Caitlin knew what they were thinking.

Lord Amethyst added. “And we must also get you home before sunrise.”

“You’d better hurry it along,” the Little Mermaid said. “Dawn will soon be here.”

Rapunzel smiled gratefully at the Little Mermaid. “We owe you, my dear friend. Big time.”

“I’ll be watching over you from the sea,” she sang as the girls and Jack hobbled toward the village where Caitlin’s adventure had first begun. The Little Mermaid dunked under the waves and disappeared into the sea with a final farewell flap of her purple fin.

“Look,” Snow White said, pointing as they approached the outskirts of the village. A narrow beam of light shone down from the sky—right into the roofless barn.

“The wormhole!” Rapunzel said.

The girls raced up to the barn, skidded to a dusty stop in the dirt outside it, threw open the double doors … and the whole barn collapsed.

“Subtle,” Jack quipped as he hobbled up from behind.

“At least the portal is intact,” Snow said. “But why is it moving higher and higher into the sky?”

Rapunzel pointed upward as her mouth curved into a frown. “It’s not moving. It’s
closing
.”

The entrance looked like a floating sphere. It hovered a good fifty meters high in the night sky. Worse still, the black sky was already turning pink on the eastern horizon.

Caitlin cast a hard glance at the brightening sky. Then she looked back at the portal.

“How do we get up there?”

Beauty and Snow looked at one another and shrugged.

Caitlin turned to Rapunzel. “How did you first get up the wormhole?”

“By my hair. But even my long locks won’t reach that high. And Amethyst’s wing is fractured.”

“No problem,” Jack said with a rascally gleam in his eye. He reached into his rucksack and produced two beans—he had picked them off the stem of the bean plant back at Amethyst’s cavern.

“I knew these bad boys would come in handy.”

Jack inspected the beans carefully. Then his shoulders slumped.

“Oh no! They’re damaged. They’re useless.”

Caitlin reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the garbanzo beans she had found in her closet.

Except now they had turned into shiny, opalescent beans.

“Found them this morning. Or yesterday. Or whenever.”