Button Hill (6 page)

“Is your mom in Nightside too?” asked Dekker.

She nodded. “In Understory, a city in one of the realms below. Don't worry—it was safe! For me. When I was little…” Harper's voice faltered as Dekker's eyes widened.

“Maybe we can use the clock to get back—you know, if it controls all the travel,” Dekker said.

But Harper shook her head. “Part of the story is that Nightclocks are old beyond reckoning, and the knowledge of how to control them has been lost.” She bit her lip in frustration. “We're in the borderland between Dayside and Nightside. If I had my music box, you could maybe use it to open one of the cracks this close to the surface. We'll have to find the train station and see if we can get passage on a train bound for Dayside.” The pit in Dekker's stomach grew as he imagined what living here would be like and what kind of creatures would live even farther down. A question started to form in his mind about where exactly Harper was from, but as they circled the frozen pond, he noticed a pink, frost-covered lump nestled in a small bush. He pulled it out; it was a small backpack. “Oh, no.”

“What is it?”

Dekker's voice cracked. “It's Riley's backpack. She had it with her before she disappeared.” He started rooting through it. “Her stuffed cat, some comics, candies and the other handset to my walkie-talkie. It's her boredom-attack pack. She'd never leave it behind on purpose.” He took the other handset out of his back pocket and placed it in with Riley's things, then slung the bag over his shoulder. He motioned toward the path. “Let's get out of here.” They started to move toward the gap in the wall of vines, but a troop of sharpened soldiers marched through the opening, blocking their way.

A moment later, Cobb appeared behind the line of soldiers. The blond boy surveyed the scene and chuckled. “It seems our game is going to end more quickly than I imagined. Unless, of course, you managed to find your sister?” Cobb clapped his hands, and his teeth glittered.

Dekker raised his voice. “You said I had until midnight. That's not fair.”

“You do have until the Witching Hour. But I never agreed not to try and stop you.”

“You haven't caught us yet,” said Dekker. He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled.

Cobb looked behind him, but nothing was there. He sneered. “Oooh, you whistled. You almost hurt my ears. You weren't trying to call that pathetic dog, were you? Yeah, I don't think he can hear you anymore.”

Dekker's stomach clenched.
First Riley, now Captain Tom. What else can go wrong?

Harper glanced at Dekker. “Any other ideas?” she said.

“Run!” He grabbed her hand, and they took off toward the frozen pool.

“After them!” Cobb pointed, and his army of sharpened soldiers fanned out to either side. As they ran, they grew until they were the size of toddlers, and they wrenched their boots off their green plastic bases. They bared sharp green teeth and snarled as they charged around the pond. Dekker searched the ground for anything he could use to protect himself, but all he saw was a fallen branch. As he picked it up, an electric spark jumped into the wood from the mark on his palm, and the stick crackled with energy. The first soldier lunged at Dekker with its arm like a bayonet, and Dekker slapped the soldier on the helmet with the stick in an effort to push it back. As the stick made contact with the helmet, the soldier's green plastic flesh began to melt. The smoking soldier stumbled back, arms up in front of its face. In moments it had disintegrated into green ooze. The other soldiers moved back, snarling but less certain.

A flash of inspiration hit Dekker, and he turned to Harper. “The mark on my hand powered up that stick somehow. Quick—the backpack!”

Confused, she reached into the backpack and pulled out Cuddles, Riley's well-loved plush leopard. “This stuff is useless.”

“No, it's Cuddles, Riley's favorite stuffie,” he said. He grabbed the toy and squeezed it around the middle. He felt a little spark of energy jump out of the dark mark on his palm. “Grow, Cuddles, grow!” shouted Dekker. Sparks ran up and down the leopard's paws, and it let out a low growl as it began to swell. Dekker dropped the stuffed animal, and in an instant a lean jungle cat with huge paws and razor-sharp claws stood beside him. It hissed at the sharpened soldiers, who started to back away. Harper gasped.

Dekker pointed. “Cuddles, attack! Defend us from those soldiers.”

The cat looked at Dekker—its eyes were still the button eyes of a toy—then bounded into the middle of the soldiers. It was a biting, scratching, twisting, lashing death machine. Green arms and legs flew everywhere. The soldiers were suffering heavy casualties, but they continued to advance slowly. One swerved past the cat and lunged at Dekker. Dekker ducked to the side, and the soldier landed in the thorny hedge. The hedge shuddered, and the thorns hooked into the soldier, drawing it into the bush. Its green plastic boots vanished completely beneath the rustling leaves.

Dekker pulled the comics from the backpack and pressed his hand against each one. “Comics, aerial attack. The leopard's on our side.” The comics glowed briefly with his touch, and he flung them into the air. They spun out of control for a moment, then swooped forward awkwardly, pages unfurling like pterodactyl wings. The comics were erratic and began to burn as they landed on top of the advancing army.

“How are you doing that?” Harper cried.

“I don't know, but it's working! What else is in that backpack?” said Dekker.

Harper rummaged frantically in the bottom. “Only these Pop Rocks.”

“Gimme. I'll unwrap, and you throw.” Dekker ripped open the candy packet with his teeth and squeezed the bag until the candy inside was crackling with energy. Harper grabbed the bag and launched a spray of the candy in a wide arc. There were loud bangs as the Pop Rocks hit the ground, and a plume of foam bubbled up wherever a candy landed. The surrounding soldiers were quickly swallowed up by the electric bubbles, with a sizzling, snapping sound like frying bacon.

Cobb leaped onto the leopard's back and plunged his knife deep into its shoulder. The cat screeched in pain and leaped high into the air, twisting madly. Cobb fell off, landing on the ice. Cuddles hissed and ran toward the gap in the hedge. Dekker scanned the garden frantically for a weapon. A long icicle hung from the head of a tall sunflower beside him. He broke it off and pressed the dark mark against it. The icicle crackled as it grew into a long, deadly spear. Bolts of blue energy jumped across its surface. Dekker charged past Harper onto the ice. Cobb flashed his knife, an arrogant smile on his face. But as Dekker gained speed, Cobb's smile faltered. Dekker vaulted over the mess of fallen soldiers and thrust the spear into Cobb's belly. The point snapped off and froze to Cobb's skin where it had hit him. Tendrils of ice began to creep across his body. He dropped his blade and put both hands on the icicle, murmuring words under his breath that Dekker couldn't understand. The icicle began to melt. A moment later, only wisps of steam rose from the place where the spear had stabbed him.

The remaining sharpened soldiers had taken up positions behind Cobb, green slime dripping from their wounds. Cobb snarled, “Game's over—you lose. Time to keep your end of the deal.”

“No way. We still have time,” Dekker shouted back. “And what about Harper? Our deal never included her.”

“I don't think she's in any position to bargain. Are you, Harper?”

Harper moved to Dekker's side.

“If you won't come nicely, I promise it will be painful.” Cobb motioned to his remaining soldiers. “Troops, prepare for assault and capture.”

There was a loud bark, and Dekker saw a familiar shape appear in the hedge gap. “Captain Tom!”

The dog growled as he approached. “Back off, Cobb. You're in no position to give orders.”

Cobb cackled. “You doubt me? You're more foolish than I thought.”

“No, I mean your
position
is terrible. You should move while you still can.” The dog looked at them and cocked his head. Understanding came to Harper and Dekker at the same time.

“One,” said Cobb.

“Two! Three!” shouted Harper. She flung the last of the fizzing candies down at Cobb's feet. A noise like a gunshot filled the air as the ice beneath Cobb split open. Dekker leaped back as gray water rushed out of the pool, and Cobb and the rest of the soldiers disappeared under the wave. Harper grabbed Dekker by the hand.

Cobb surfaced, screaming and clutching at his face. “My eyes!” Where his black eyes had been, only empty sockets remained. He thrashed about blindly in the water.

“Now's our chance,” said Dekker.

Captain Tom barked and started ahead of them at a trot. “There's no time to lose. We must flee before Cobb recovers.”

At the border of the towering hedge, Dekker hesitated and looked back.

Cobb was kneeling in the mud, his arms out in front of him. He clutched a dark marble in each of his hands. He swept them in a wide circle until they settled on Dekker and Harper. “Go ahead, run,” he rasped. “Once the Nightclock reaches the Witching Hour, you belong to me.”

Harper took Dekker's hand and looked at the mark on his palm. What had once been a blotch had begun to transform into an eye socket and part of a skeletal grin. Dekker gulped. He was running out of time.

Seven

They hurried out of the garden after the dog. “Did you find Riley?” said Dekker.

“Not yet, lad.”

“I know someone who might be able to help,” said Harper. She moved them quickly through the grass, away from the yard.

Dekker noticed that Captain Tom was limping a bit. “Did those soldiers hurt you?”

The dog paused and looked back. “Nasty little fellows. Not to worry—I'll heal soon enough.”

Harper muttered under her breath, “That pirate-y accent sounds a bit fake to me.”

“Dogs have excellent hearing, you know,” said Captain Tom.

They soon came to railway tracks at the edge of a field. A small train station stood on the other side. It leaned crazily, as if it were about to tumble down the hill and into the valley. A light shone from the ticket window. Harper leaped onto the platform. She looked down at Dekker. “Hurry up, will you?”

Dekker realized Captain Tom had not followed them onto the tracks. “Are you coming, boy?”

The dog stood at the edge of the field, sniffing the air. “Lad, something about that girl smells off.”

Dekker glanced at the train station. Harper had moved down the platform toward the ticket window. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“I can't tell where she belongs. Is she alive or dead?”

Dekker pursed his lips. “She knows things about this place she shouldn't know. She knew this train station was here. She said her mom was from somewhere farther into Nightside.”

Captain Tom's ears lay back against his head. “The realms below, where all the dead must go. Be careful, lad. You don't know what she is.”

“I'll have to find out then, won't I? I need her help to find Riley.”

“Cobb will be on the move by now,” said Captain Tom. He started to back away into the field. “I'll keep an eye on him. See what you can find out, and whistle if you need me. And be careful!” The dog loped away down the tracks, still favoring one leg.

Dekker climbed up to the platform. It slanted steeply, and he had to lean to keep his balance. He approached Harper, who was standing at the ticket window. “Something's not right,” she said.

Dekker nodded. “No kidding. Everything's gone wrong that could go wrong.”

“No, I don't mean that. I mean the station. This train is how I left Nightside when my mom sent me to live with my dad. She said I should never come back here. This is where I met Cobb when he said he had a message from my mom.”

“Is that who you were chasing into the valley?”

Harper's eyes widened. “That
was
you who helped me. You were here too.”

“I thought I was just dreaming.”

Harper shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself. “You weren't—not really. Sometimes dreamers can enter the borderland, but usually their stay is brief. It's strange that you stayed.”

The question Dekker had been holding back finally burst out of him. “Harper, if you grew up in Nightside, then are you alive or dead?”

Harper looked down the tracks. “I don't know. I don't remember much about the realms below. Just little things: how my mom's skin smelled like paper, the skeleton who used to walk me to the park every day. My best friends were the ghosts who lived in the cemetery behind our house.”

Dekker shook his head. “No way. That's crazy.”

Harper shrugged. “Everyone has their own normal. For me, that was it. When I first came to live with my dad, I kept slipping into the borderland, where we are now. I thought everyone could cross over like I do. I just close my eyes and I can feel the border. I push against it and I can be in Nightside, like pushing through a waterfall. Dad showed me how to use the music box to control it. Without it, I keep coming back here when I close my eyes.”

“Maybe you belong here,” Dekker said.

“I don't know where I belong. Dekker, what if I'm trapped here, in between?”

“That won't happen if we stay together, right?” said Dekker. He looked at Harper hopefully, but she wouldn't meet his gaze. He looked farther down the track. “Do I want to know where that track goes?”

Harper shook her head. “You shouldn't go there if you can help it. Not yet anyway.”

They walked to where the light shone through a set of closed wooden shutters above a narrow stone countertop. Harper rapped on the shutters with her knuckles. Heavy footsteps approached the window, and the shutters drew back. A tall stooped figure with a gray, mournful face appeared. A long, heavy coat draped his frame, and a matching cobalt-blue cap crowned his skull. He leaned forward, and his coat swung open. He was a skeleton from the neck down. An oil-burning lantern was hooked inside his rib cage, and light shone out eerily between his bones.