The Witch is Back

Chapter Thirty-Three




My head was telling me to hurry up, but my whole body was screaming to give it a break. Slow down. Take a breather. My legs were on fire, I was struggling to catch my breath, and my mouth felt like I’d swallowed cotton balls. In other words, I was in sad shape.

“Do we get water breaks out here?” I asked the deserted forest, knowing full well no one was going to answer me.

Desperately thirsty, I forced myself to keep going, now at a pace much slower than before. A cross between a shuffle and a ramble, I propelled my feet forward despite my exhaustion.

What felt like an hour later, but might have only been five or ten minutes, I came upon something that made me stop and collapse to the ground with happiness. Like a mirage in the desert, it was exactly what I’d hoped for.

Leaning on the smooth surface of a tree stump, I grabbed the two notecards that had been propped up against a bottle of water. Sweat dripped down my brow, and I wiped it away with my sleeve. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d been so thirsty, but I took a second to look at what the card said before knocking back the bottle.


Drink me.

Well, okie-dokie then. Why I’d needed instructions to do this, I wasn’t sure. The direction and setup were very Alice in Wonderland, and I knew what happened after she drank the Kool-Aid. Still, the Brighton world was far less sinister than the one Lewis Carroll created, so I figured that here, water was probably just water.

At least I hoped, because I frantically twisted off the cap and drank over half of the contents in one long, continuous gulp. The feeling was glorious as the icy-cool liquid made its way down my throat and quenched the dried-out hollow in my chest and stomach. My need was so intense that I’d forgotten to breathe as I sucked down the water and had to fight to get air into my lungs when I pulled the bottle back from my mouth.

Deep breaths, I reminded myself as my gasps turned to pants and then eventually back to normal. Once I’d calmed, I flipped over the next card and continued to sip my supply.

Take your break, you’ve earned your stop,

You’re on your way right to the top.

But you’re not done, there’s more in store,

A slither, some creeping, a moan, a roar.

Face your fears and let them pass,

Leave no reflection in the glass.

Don’t try to fight, just let it go,

Better stay hidden than meet your foe.

I turned the card over, hoping there was an answer key somewhere that would let me know what the heck this riddle meant. As it was, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. “Take a break”—I could do that. In fact, I was rocking that part of the obstacle right now.

But the rest? The rest sounded . . . ominous. Creepy, slithering? That can never be good.

My eyes darted around for something that might jump out at me, but everything was still. There wasn’t even a breeze in the air—something I would’ve welcomed at the moment. The water hadn’t done much to cool me down internally, and I felt like I was practically boiling in the sun.

Standing up again, I wandered over to the shade of a nearby tree. It couldn’t have been more than ten degrees cooler over there, but it was enough to give me at least a modicum of relief. I read through the riddle a few more times, still unsure what it was telling me to do, and then leaned back against the trunk of the tree, taking a few seconds to close my eyes and just relax.

The truth was, I heard it before I saw it.

There was a rustling of leaves, the sound of footfall on the ground, twigs breaking softly. My eyes shot open and I searched the area. Someone or something was there—it just hadn’t shown itself yet. This meant it was possible it didn’t know that I was there, either.

Frozen in place, I waited for the thing to show itself. I was pretty sure that I was entering into the third Brighton obstacle.

And after some water and a brief rest, I was ready for it.

Or at least, that’s what I thought, until the thing stepped out from behind the bushes not twenty feet away from me and I nearly fainted.

Seriously? A panther?! There wasn’t a lion available? I wanted to yell it out for all the counselors to hear, but thought better of it, considering what was stalking my way.

Instead, my mind began to race as I took in the sight of the sleek creature in front of me. This was no overgrown housecat. The black beauty slinking into the clearing was a powerful predator. Muscles bulged underneath smooth dark fur, and I followed the length of its legs down to its enormous paws. I almost gasped when I saw its razor-sharp claws; they were several inches in length and I knew from the Discovery Channel what they were used for.

Ripping girls like me into shreds.

Maybe that wasn’t totally true, but at the moment it was the only thing I could picture.

Turning my thoughts back to the fact that this was most likely part of the challenge, I went back over what the card had said.

Take a break.

Did that.

Something scary will show up.

The panther definitely qualified.

Then there was the part about facing your fears, a mirror, and hiding? All of which, by the way, seemed to contradict themselves. Why were riddles so . . . complicated?! People should just say exactly what they mean for once. At least that way they’d be guaranteed to get the desired result. All this “I’m saying this, when I really mean that,” beating-around-the-bush bull—

Wait.

My ranting had managed to give me an idea. One that could possibly help in this very situation.

Pushing my back even harder against the tree, I slowly took my hands from their spot on my thighs and placed them behind me. I could manage to flee to a tree and climb high into it, but then how long before it followed me? Freezing him was another option, but the riddle hadn’t said anything about running away. It had said to “stay hidden.”

Taking the time to bring my hands back to the trunk of the tree was an excruciatingly slow process, but as I moved, I knew it was what I was supposed to do. My heart gave a leap as I finally made contact and realized that I might not turn out to be kitty kibble after all. I concentrated on allowing the essence of the tree to take over my being. I thought about the roughness of its bark, the strength of its stature, the rings around its insides, and the deep green of its moss.

Then I whispered the words as quietly as the breeze. “Conselus disguisen camocon.” It might not have been loud, but the intent screamed volumes.

The tingling began in my fingers and then a warmth spread over my body. It was slow at first, but then picked up speed until, finally, I looked down and saw that I’d disappeared.

Not disappeared. Blended into my surroundings.

Just like a chameleon.

It was perfect timing, too, because a few seconds later, the panther began to saunter in my direction. Right toward me, in fact. They say that animals can smell fear and mine was coming off in waves. I hadn’t exactly been a cat person to begin with, so supersizing the animal and then adding a variety of instruments of torture had me sweating bullets. And I couldn’t help but feel that the panther knew it.

He was less than a foot away now, and his eyes were trained right on me. Fighting off my rising panic, I shut my eyes as tightly as I could and thought about the feel of the tree beneath me. Mrs. B had said that we needed to have a strong connection to the object in order to duplicate it. And right now I was holding on for dear life.

Ten seconds went by. Fifteen. After twenty seconds had passed and I still hadn’t felt the panther’s teeth cut into my gut, I dared to open one of my eyes just a sliver. But it wasn’t enough to see, so I opened it the rest of the way.

And came face-to-face with the panther, paws straddling both sides of me, its breath hot on my face. My worst nightmare came true as its mouth opened up, and it let out a deafening roar.

I was sure that I was dead. When the panther was done with me, there’d be nothing but shreds of flesh left. The cat would run away with my bones and lick them dry. The headline would read:

CAMP CRISIS

Girl has face eaten off by panther during camp obstacle course; it wasn’t pretty.

I used to think that the worst way to go would be via thousands of paper cuts, because it would be a slow and painful death. But at the moment, I wanted to amend my initial thoughts on dying. Being eaten alive by an oversize kitty would be worse. Much worse.

It took everything I had in me not to scream. In fact, the only thing keeping me from doing so was the thought that people would remember me for being a wimp. If I was going to be taken out, it wouldn’t be while screaming.

At least that much I could control.

So I stood there, as still as I could, despite the fact that I was trembling slightly, and closed my eyes. I didn’t need to see it coming. Deep down I knew that it was unlikely that the counselors would let us perish out here, but I also recognized that even the best-laid plans went horribly wrong sometimes.


Several seconds went by, the longest in my life. And still, no shredding. Minutes passed and I was still alive. Finally, I opened one eye and then the other, the suspense of it all nearly killing me.

The panther was gone. Not totally gone; I could see his butt wiggling as he walked away, passing through a set of bushes across from me before he disappeared completely.

I waited a few minutes after he’d left before I dared to move again. And even when I did, it was as quietly as I could. I pulled myself away from the tree, letting the spell fade as I moved. I stepped back into the sun even though I was sweating bullets, still stunned by what had just happened. As I turned in the direction that I thought was forward, my bracelet glowed purple before adding more red gems to the band. When the jewels stopped lighting up, I counted how many people had failed this round.

Seven other twitches hadn’t been able to fight their biggest nightmares by blending in with their surroundings and had been disqualified, bringing the total number of people out of the race to sixteen. More than half the girls at camp were eliminated and I’d survived.

Barely.

With a single backward glance, I gathered my wits and headed toward the next obstacle.