The Super 4 : Dark Death (13 page)

“
Jake,” I asked, as least
suspiciously as possible. “What time did you go to bed last
night?”

“
Oh man!” He informed me. “I was
so tired last night! I went to bed at like...eight
o’clock!”

Carly would’ve been on Mt. Baker at midnight,
so there was no way Jake could’ve rescued her.

“
Oh...Okay,” I told
him.

“
Why’d you ask?” He asked
me.

“
No reason.” I replied.

I left his house ten minutes later, still no
closer to figuring out this mystery.

Carly obviously hadn’t saved herself, nor had
Jake or I.

The last person would be Darryl, but somehow I
didn’t imagine him getting up at midnight to swing to the top of a
mountain.

So the mystery continued.

I went over and over my theories in my head
until I got to my room.

I sat down on my bed.

My phone rang and I picked it up.

“
Hello?” I asked.

“
Hey Harrison! It’s Carly!” She
sounded nervous, as if someone was watching her. “I remembered
something else from last night.”
“What was it?” I asked, wondering where the conversation was
going.

“
Just before I lost consciousness,
I felt a presence. Something that seemed to suck the light and
warmth out of everything.”

“
WHAT!” I said loudly, shocked to
my core.

“
It couldn’t be you,” She informed
me. “You radiate light and heat. But this person was devoid of
it.”

I couldn’t respond. My dry throat made it hard
to talk.

I had an idea who this mysterious person might
be.

“
Do you have any clue as to who
this person might be?” Carly asked.

“
Nope! Not a clue!”

“
Alright I’ll keep
looking!”

“
Oh and it wasn’t Jake either!” I
remembered. “He went to bed at the same time as me.”

“
That’s weird.” Carly
said.

“
Um. If you say so!” I told
her.

“
Bye.” She cut the
call.

“
Bye.” I spoke into the echoes of
our conversation.

Talk about weird!

There was only one person in the town who was
so completely devoid of light and warmth.

But what would he gain by saving
Carly?

Perhaps he likes her?

What was his ulterior move in rescuing
Carly?

I wish I knew what he wanted.

Why the Shadow wanted to save Carly’s
life.

Jake

XVIII

Why would Harrison want to know about my
sleeping habits?

I wonder if he had considered the uselessness
and weirdness of his questions.

I could expect that from Darryl, because
Darryl tells me multiple times that the amount of sleep you get is
crucial to how awake and focused your brain is and all that useless
information.

But useless information from Harrison? What
happened to all the basketball scores and fights over whether
Michael Jordan was better than LeBron James?

What happened to that?

I walked upstairs to Jane’s room.

But just as I was placing my hand on the
doorknob, I heard some giggling coming from inside.

“I’m so happy I made it to the swimming
finals!” It wasn’t the voice of Rachel. It wasn’t squeaky enough.
So who was it?

“I know right!” Came Jane’s voice, “It’s going
to be so awesome Miranda!”

I bit back a gasp of shock.

Miranda Boxer was a snobby fourteen-year-old,
who had repeated. I hated her so much because of what she did to
Jane and me.

Before she repeated she had bullied me
consistently.

After she repeated she took to 22ing Jane,
claiming that this was her revenge at me for making her
repeat.

She had serious anger issues.

But, all of a sudden, she was currently
sitting on my sister’s bed talking about swimming
finals.

Not even a mention at her boxing trophies or
recent matches! No talk of fighting at all.

I was amazed!

“Hold on Miranda!” I heard Jane say. “Let me
get us some drinks!”

I processed her words a few seconds too late.
She opened the door as soon as I turned around.

“What are you doing Jake?”

“Um…” I said, my mind blank. “I was coming up
to check if you were in here.”

“Well,” She said. “I’m here. You can run along
now. Shoo!”

“Wait.” I said as she closed the door. “Who’s
in there with you?”

“Miranda Boxer.” She admitted, sighing.
“Why?”

“No reason.” I said. “Oh and Jane.” I added.
“Don’t forget to get your guest a drink. You don’t want to be
rude!”

“Urgh!” She growled, her face bunched up into
a fierce scowl.

I giggled, unable to contain my laughter, her
face was hilarious! And because I caused her face to be so bunched
up, it was even better!

“I’ll kill you!” She said loudly, forgetting
all about Boxer girl.

“Jane?” Boxer girl’s voice came from inside
the room. “What’s happening?”

Before Jane could reply, Miranda came marching
out the room.

“Oh.” She said, shocked. “Hi Jake! How’s it
going?”

“Boxer girl.” I nodded at her, hoping to
retain my cool, unbothered look.

“Hahaha!” She
fake laughed. “Ha! You are
so
funny Jake!” She said smiling at me, and flipping
her auburn hair at me. “‘Boxer girl’! I would’ve never thought of
anything as hilarious as that!”

“Yeah…” I spoke
with a great deal of uncertainty in my voice. A nice Miranda seemed
impossible. “I’m
hilarious
!”

“Oh yes you are, Patterson!” She spoke with a
lack of sarcasm.

I was now amazed more than ever!

“Well…” I said, once again shocked speechless.
“I’ll be in my room.”

“Whatever.” Muttered my sister.

“See you later, cutie!” Miranda said, spooking
me out.

“Uhh..Bye?” I said, confused and
conflicted.

All of a sudden Miranda was looking a lot
prettier than back in her bullying days.

She was simply dressed in a white blouse with
blue jeans and sandals. Her hair was let loose and hung limply
around her shoulders it was slightly curled at the bottom, light
brown and golden highlights streaked her hair. Her hazel eyes shone
with bright intelligence. She was almost as pretty as
Carly.

Almost.

I felt her eyes burning into my back. A rise
of heat rushed to my face. I shook my head, feeling
strange.

The kind of strange I felt whenever Carly was
near.

I shuddered. Imagine having feelings for a
bully!

Now I realized why Darryl had shuddered on the
day of the science fair.

It was weird that both our enemies suddenly
became appealing to us.

Really weird.

I shook my head on my way down from Jane’s
room. I stopped by the kitchen for a snack.

I opened the fridge to look for a chocolate
bar, but there was only some stale cookies. I took it
anyway.

I was starving, despite having eaten a huge
breakfast only an hour ago.

Along with the cookie I also took a glass of
milk.

I settled down into a comfortable position on
my sofa, and opened my language arts textbook.

Idioms are a group of words
established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those
of the individual words.

In a few short minutes I knew
everything there was to know about idioms. I knew what they were
used for, I knew how they were used and I had a list of idioms as
examples. I was well prepared for the quiz on Monday.

After I had Language Arts in the bag, I
quickly moved onto Science.

Two hours later I had studied LA, Science and
Math.

I took a break and went upstairs to the living
room.

Jane and Miranda were sitting on a sofa still
talking about swimming.

Then all of a sudden, Miranda’s eyes glazed
over and the smile faded from her face. It was replaced by a
scowl.

“What am I doing here with you losers?” She
asked rudely, her faced fixed with a sneer of disgust.

“
Uh…” Was all Jane could
say.

“
I’m out of here!” Miranda said,
and waltzed out of the room.

Jane and I basked in the silence of her sudden
leave.

“Well that was weird.” I said.

“Ya think?” She responded, still looking a
little startled by Miranda’s sudden leave.

“I wonder what happened.”

“I don’t know!” She exclaimed. “One moment we
were talking about swimming, and then some kinda, I dunno,
something came over her and she was back to bullying.” Jane chewed
on her lip, as she does when confused.

“Well,” I told her. “You should probably keep
your distance for a while, but keep on the lookout for any sudden
changes in her personality.”

Jane nodded.

I turned around and was walking away when Jane
called my name.

“Hey Jake!”

“Yeah?”

“Umm…” She said
twisting her body in embarrassment. “You don’t think this had
anything to do with,” She looked around and whispered.
“
powers
?”

“I don’t have a clue!” I announced. “But
maybe.”

Carly

XIX

Complete and utter darkness. No light. No
hope. No life.

Nothing.

Nothing but the empty desolate place, that the
Dark One called home.

I shuddered. I didn’t even know who he was yet
he still sent shivers of fear up my spine.

I had never met someone so devoid of light and
warmth. He was the complete opposite of Harrison. He was colder
than ice and darker than a shadow.

Obviously I didn’t see him. But I felt him. I
felt his evil. I felt his soul.

So the reasons he would have to save me, well,
I had no clue. I was waiting for Harrison’s call. Maybe he had
discovered something. I hope so.

I hated doing this kind of work on my own. So
I was kinda relying on Harrison’s detective skills. So not that
much. But in fifth grade he found out who stole my
lunch.

Though I don’t give him a whole load of credit
for that, as he just went to the grade bully and saw her eating my
cookie.

So it wasn’t exactly a Sherlock Holmes kind of
mission.

But other than Darryl, he was the best I got.
I didn’t want Darryl or Jake to be involved, because that would
lead to more mess.

And with the final report card coming up Jake
has enough work to catch up on. And the whole thing with Darryl and
his mum, well that can’t be easy.

I felt another unexpected pang of sadness for
Darryl. And with my sadness also came my hunger.

I went downstairs to look for a
snack.

Hilde was sitting in the living room watching
another modeling show.

But what interested me the most was her bowl
of marshmallows and broken pieces of chocolate. A weird, yet
delicious meal. And more importantly, just what I was looking
for.

“Hey Hilde!” I said, while eyeing the bowl of
chocolate and marshmallows. “What do you have there?”

“No, Anne!” She said, without looking up.
“This is mine! Go get your own!”

“Urgh!” I groaned. I leaped on the sofa and
snatched the bowl away from her. “Haha!”

Hilde snatched the other side of the bowl and
tugged at it. Hard.

Soon the bowl was snatched away from me. I sat
on the floor, in extreme sadness.

“Now go get your own snack!”

“Fine!” I said, realizing my defeat. It was
such a shame, as it looked so good.

Sighing, I made my way into the kitchen. On
the table lay an empty bag of marshmallows. Next to it laid seven
empty chocolate wrappers. And next to that lay a note.

It read:

Next time go get your own snack!
And you should be thanking me! I made you healthy! Go eat a banana
or something! Hahahahaha!

-Lots of love,

Hilde

Urgh!!! “HILDE!!!!” I screamed. Sometimes I
wanted to choke that girl!