Witherwood Reform School (5 page)

The large wood door closed just a bit and then, with one creaking motion, it swung all the way open.

“Come in,” the man said smoothly. “I'd kick myself in the morning if I didn't lend a helping hand. And who wants to be kicked?”

“Not us,” Tobias and Charlotte answered in unison.

The little man smiled and waved them in.

This was the third time in the last few hours they had felt things were wrong but just kept on going. They stepped inside Witherwood, and the wood door shut behind them with a piercing snap.

 

CHAPTER 6

T
HERE
'
S
S
OMETHING
IN
THE
T
REES

Inside Witherwood, the darkness of the great outdoors was gone, thanks to long fluorescent lights overhead that flickered slightly. The funny little man limped over to a desk and motioned for them to sit down. Two empty chairs were positioned in the middle of the floor, looking almost as if they had been set up for the children's arrival.

“It's like you knew we were coming,” Tobias joked.

“We didn't,” the man replied quickly. “I am told a lot of things, but I didn't know about you two. Please sit down.”

Tobias and Charlotte sat. They were dripping wet and appeared smaller than normal. Charlotte glanced around, taking in her surroundings. The room was big and rectangular. The bottom half of the walls was painted blue, and the top was white. The ceiling was made of a brown glossy wood that matched the doors and the trim. There was a poster on one wall of a giraffe attempting to swallow a watermelon. The caption below it read,
Some things aren't worth trying
.

“That's weird,” Charlotte whispered.

Next to the giraffe poster was a map of Witherwood. Tobias stared at it. He had been interested in maps since he was a little kid. He loved the makeup of buildings and the mechanics of machines. The map of Witherwood showed that the school was rectangular, with a massive open space in the middle. The four sides of the school were labeled—East Hall, where they now were; Severe Hall, which was the south part of the school; Never Hall, the north; and Weary Hall, the back of the school. There were other buildings and structures drawn on the map, but they were blocked by a tall lamp and hard to see. Overall, the map wasn't as detailed as Tobias would have liked.

“Not a very good map,” Tobias whispered to his sister.

“I knew you'd say that,” she whispered back.

The room had a large glass trophy case that ran the length of the back wall. There were only five trophies in the case. The floor was white marble with gray specks and had a number of cracks in it. An empty fish tank was pushed up against one of the walls. It was sloppily filled with books and papers. Taped to the front of the fish tank was a single piece of white paper with STUDENT MORALE DAY IS COMING written on it. The room seemed more functional than interesting.

The little man sat down behind a large wood desk and opened the top drawer. While rummaging through it, he spoke. “My name is Orrin. You can call me Mr. Orrin if you need to, but most people think it's easier to just say Orrin. It's my last name. My first name, quite frankly, is none of your business—not to be rude, just honest.”

Tobias wanted to point out that they didn't need to know his name or anything about him, since they wouldn't be there very long.

“I'm one of the … teachers,” Orrin continued. “Curious story about that. I entered a contest in a magazine called
Hard to Explain
. The winner got to be a science teacher for a day here at Witherwood. I won, and well, after that day I just couldn't leave. I've been here for years. And it just so happens that it's my turn to watch the front tonight. We take turns around here. We're like a big family.”

Both kids nodded and noticed that Orrin's eyes didn't match. One was light blue, while the other looked almost black. He also had a red rash on his right forearm that he kept scratching.

Orrin found what he was looking for in his drawer. “Aha, just what I needed,” he said, pulling out a small white index card. He slipped a pen from his coat pocket and clicked the top of it. “Your names, please?”

“I'm Tobias, and my sister's name is Charlotte.”

Orrin wrote the names down and then looked up. “Your surname?”

Tobias was confused. “Um … I'm Sir Tobias?”

“No, no,” Orrin said, trying not to smile. “Your last name?”

“Oh, why do you need that? We won't be here for long. Our dad's probably coming through the gate right now.”

“The gate's locked,” Orrin said. “It's important to keep things where they belong.”

“But we left it open,” Tobias told him.

“Interesting. Well, if you don't want to give me your last name, so be it.” He put the small white card into a box on his desk that was filled with other small white cards organized alphabetically. “I'd let you use the phone, but this wet weather ruins our phone lines up here on the mesa. Can't make a single call.”

“Oh,” Tobias said, staring at the little box Orrin had put the card in.

“It wouldn't help anyhow. Our dad doesn't have a cell phone,” Charlotte said. “And we haven't got anyone else to—”

Tobias elbowed Charlotte, and she shut up.

“Interesting,” Orrin said again. “Well, then maybe you'd like to lie down? I'm sure we could find a spot for you to rest. I find rest to be most comforting.”

“That's okay,” Tobias said. “We'll just rest in these chairs.”

“Fine,” Orrin replied, leaning back in his own chair and closing his mismatched eyes.

“You don't have to stay with us,” Tobias said. “I promise we won't touch anything.”

Orrin opened his eyes and smiled—a small dimple appeared on his left cheek. “It's not the school I'm worried about.”

Tobias suddenly wished he were standing outside in the dark getting rained on instead of being inside with Orrin. “You know, maybe we should just go.”

“Yeah,” Charlotte agreed, her face pale.

“The gate's locked,” Orrin said, scratching at his arm.

“I'll go check,” Tobias told him. “I'm pretty sure we left it open.”

“It's locked now. Trust me,” Orrin insisted. “I think it'd be best if you just stayed right here until your father comes. Okay?”

Tobias and Charlotte looked at him and nodded.

“You've actually arrived at a great time. Student Morale Day is not that far away and—”

Orrin's words were cut off by a muffled scream that was coming from someplace in the school. Tobias and Charlotte jumped out of their chairs. Orrin barely flinched.

“What was that?” Tobias asked.

“Don't worry about that. This is such an old building. There are lots of odd noises. It's probably just someone flushing a toilet, or maybe it's the foundation settling.”

“Are you kidding? That wasn't settling,” Tobias said. “We need to go.”

“The gate's locked,” Orrin reminded them. “Please, stay seated.”

“No, really,” Tobias said, grabbing Charlotte's hand. “We've got to go.”

“I wouldn't if I were you,” Orrin warned. “I'm only trying to help. That's my job, helping students.”

The sound of someone singing down the hall drifted into the room; large goose bumps ran up the Eggers kids' backs. Both of them stood.

“Do your toilets sing too?” Tobias said worriedly.

“Please just sit, and I'll explain,” Orrin started.

Tobias bolted for the door, yanking Charlotte behind him. He pulled the door open and charged out. It was still raining, but the open door lit up the cobblestone drive.

“Come on!” Tobias yelled.

“I'm coming!” Charlotte yelled back. “It's not like I want to stop and look at things.”

Their feet slapped across the wet cobblestones as they ran past the weathered statue and back toward the gate. It was dark, yet the small glowing rocks showed them the outline of the road. There was no sound of Orrin giving chase.

“There's the gate light,” Charlotte said, pointing straight ahead. “Keep going!”

In the distance, the broken light flickered. They both sprinted. Charlotte was the first to reach the gate. She grabbed two of the large bars and pulled. Three seconds later, Tobias was right beside her, pulling on some bars of his own.

“Someone really did lock it,” Tobias complained, looking around frantically.

“What was that scream in there?” Charlotte asked. “That was no toilet.”

“I know,” Tobias answered. “And did you see where he filed our card?”

“No.”

“Under
E
,” Tobias answered. “We didn't tell him our last name. How would he know it starts with
E
?”

“Maybe Dad told him,” Charlotte said, confused. “Maybe he really did mean to leave us here. Maybe this is part of the lesson he's trying to teach us. Or maybe it's just a coincidence.”

“Whatever it is, I'm not staying.”

“Can you open the lock?” Charlotte asked.

“Not without some tools. Here, get on my shoulders.”

“What'll that do?”

“Maybe you'll be tall enough to hop over the gate.”

“Then what?”

“I don't know,” Tobias said loudly. “Climb down the other side, I guess. At least you'll be out. Then when Dad gets back, you can point at me trapped in here and make fun of me for being such an idiot.”

“As great as that sounds, even on your shoulders, I still wouldn't be tall enough to get over this gate. And knowing you, I'd probably get dropped.”

“Fine,” Tobias said, bothered. “What if we just did what we did when they buzzed us in?”

“We didn't do anything,” Charlotte reminded him.

“Maybe it was our talking.” Tobias stared at the bars and in his friendliest voice said, “We'd like to leave now.”

The gate remained locked, and Charlotte could hear a low growling filling the air behind them. She jumped on Tobias and tried to pull herself up on top of him.

“What are you doing?”

“I'm taking your suggestion.”

Tobias helped Charlotte onto his shoulders, and she stood up, holding the bars for balance. Even standing with her right arm outstretched, she was still a good three feet away from the top of the gate.

The growling behind them turned into a roar.

Tobias wobbled, and Charlotte came crashing down. Her right knee slammed into his face as she rolled off him and onto the cobblestones. There was no time to lick their wounds.

Tobias jumped up. “Get to the trees!”

The sound of large, heavy feet slapping down against the cobblestone road was growing louder and quicker.

“Hurry!” Tobias yelled.

“I'm more worried about you,” Charlotte hollered as she passed him.

Looking back, Tobias could see two huge eyes charging toward them. His heart raced faster than his legs as his eyes searched for help in the darkness.

“Over here!” Charlotte yelled. “There's a low branch!”

Another terrifying roar ripped through the air.

Tobias reached the low branch and jumped up onto it. Charlotte grabbed a limb above him. Tobias pushed her from below as she pulled herself higher.

“Climb as high as you can!” he hollered.

Tobias jumped from the branch he was on as a large paw swiped at him. The limb cracked and tore. He was now hanging from the higher branch with his legs kicking in the air, frantically pulling himself up as the animal beneath him roared. The creature swiped again. The tip of its claw caught the heel of Tobias's sneaker and tore off a chunk of rubber.

“Hurry!” Tobias yelled. “Climb!”

Charlotte was already two branches above him and moving even higher. Tobias jumped to the next limb, his hands and elbows scraping and tearing against the bark as he did his best imitation of a frantic monkey.

The animal clawed at the tree, but it was obvious that it was having a difficult time getting any higher. Charlotte reached the top branches and crawled in close to the trunk. She wrapped one arm around the tree and reached out for Tobias with the other. Tobias moved up and sat on a thick branch next to his sister. The two of them held on to each other and listened to the animal. Again and again, the beast could be heard trying to climb and then falling back down to the ground. After a few minutes, it sniffed loudly and stomped off. It was another five minutes before Tobias's and Charlotte's breathing had calmed enough for them to speak.

“What was that?” Charlotte finally asked.

“I don't know. I thought we were dead.”

“I thought we were food,” Charlotte said seriously. “What do we do now?”

Tobias looked down into the dark. He glanced around at the leaves they were hidden under. His hands hurt, and his legs were still burning from the climb.