Cadaver Island (22 page)

Xavier cackled wildly while
Polinus swooped over the top of the fence and landed next to the
pedestal. The ogres tossed bones and raw meat into the pit and rose
to their feet. The Cyclops’ eye opened and focused on Xavier. The
giant yawned, stretched his arms and legs, and rose to his feet.
Xavier unsheathed his sword. Polinus hissed when the Cyclops
lumbered toward them.

Dr. Stine whispered in
Persephone’s ear, “Hold my hand and follow me. I know how to get
out of here.” He guided her toward the steps. They climbed off of
the pedestal.

“
You come to my home,
mortal? You invade my fortress? Now you’ll die!” the Cyclops
roared. He plucked a huge, wooden club from the ground and swung it
at Xavier’s head. Xavier swung his sword through the air and sliced
the club in half.

“
You’re the one who’s going
to die!” Xavier yelled. He aimed the tip of his sword at the
Cyclops’ abdomen and flung it through the air. The sword wobbled
from side to side after it dived into the flesh of the Cyclops’
belly. The giant roared and fell to the ground.

Dr. Stine guided Persephone
toward the gate. He helped her squeeze through the gap between the
doors. They glanced over their shoulders and watched a horde of
ogres attack Xavier and Polinus. Then they stepped through the gap
and hugged each other.

Persephone watched the
invisible man put his robe on. After a few minutes, the potion wore
off and she could see Dr. Stine. She walked toward him and
whispered: “You’re a very brave man, Dr. Stine. I admire your
willingness to save me, even though I’m a total
stranger.”

Dr. Stine guided her to the
hovercraft. After he turned on the vehicle’s engines, he boarded
the vehicle and Persephone joined him. While they soared through
the air, Persephone kissed him on the left side of his neck. The
hovercraft coasted to a gentle stop on her balcony and she hopped
off. Dr. Stine powered down the hovercraft’s engines and
disembarked. He hugged Persephone and kissed her on her lips. Her
arms flexed and she pulled him against her. Their embrace ended
when they heard the flapping of wings and the thud of greaves on
the cobblestone floor.

“
Get away from my fiancée!
Stop kissing her right
now
or I’ll kill you where you
stand!” Xavier said. Behind him, Polinus’ red eyes flashed. When
the beast hissed, his pink tongue dangled from between his long,
white incisors.

“
You’ll do no such thing!”
Persephone tugged the diamond ring from her finger and stepped away
from Dr. Stine. She offered the engagement ring to
Xavier.

“
What’re you doing? We’re
going to be married! You can’t do this to me!” he said.

“
It’s over, Xavier. I don’t
love you anymore,” Persephone said. She dropped the ring into the
outstretched palm of his trembling, left hand.

“
You’ll pay for this, Dr.
Stine! I won’t rest until you’re dead!” Xavier said.

“
Go away, Xavier. If you
don’t leave, I’ll summon the palace’s guards and they’ll throw you
in the dungeon. You wouldn’t want that, would you?” Persephone
said.

Xavier’s shoulders slumped
and he stared at the ground. He muttered something under his
breath, turned on his feet, and strolled toward Polinus. After he
climbed on his mount’s back, he pointed at Dr. Stine and promised
to get revenge. Polinus flapped his wings and lifted Xavier into
the air. Dr. Stine and Persephone held hands while they watched
them soar above the forest’s treetops and out of view…

***

“
Well, now I understand why
Xavier hates you so much, Dr. Stine. You tormented him when you
were children
and
you caused him to lose his fiancée,”
Angelique said.

“
Xavier is evil, Angelique.
He practices black magic and enjoys watching people suffer. None of
this is Dr. Stine’s fault,” Persephone said.

“
Yeah, but Dr. Stine isn’t
completely innocent. He contributed to the problem. I’m not trying
to start a fight, but you could’ve handled things differently,”
Alexander said.

“
Well, it’s over and done
with now. I can’t change the past. I regret that things turned out
the way they did,” Dr. Stine said. He walked toward Angelique and
placed his left hand on her forehead. When he realized she didn’t
have a fever, he smiled.

“
Are you feeling better?
Are you strong enough to walk?” he said.

“
Yes, I think I’m okay now.
I got plenty of rest. I’m ready to start hiking,” she
said.

Dr. Stine and Alexander
extinguished the campfire. Stanley hooted, swooped away from his
perch, and landed on Dr. Stine’s left shoulder. Razor barked while
he watched Angelique and Persephone gather their belongings and
emerge on the other side of the alcove. Moments later, Dr. Stine
and Alexander joined them. Snowflakes danced in the air while gray
clouds swirled in the sky. Angelique plucked the bottle of oil
supplement tablets from her pocket. After she swallowed one of the
pills, she offered another to Razor. His pink tongue lapped it off
of her skin and he swallowed it. Dr. Stine smiled and guided the
group toward an S-shaped path, which was bordered by the mountain’s
slope to their left and a valley of trees to their
right.

Persephone reached into her
satchel and removed a flask of bubbling, yellow liquid. She tapped
Alexander on his left shoulder. The boy whirled on his feet and his
face went pale. He took the flask from her reluctantly. After he
plucked the cork out of the flask’s opening, he gulped down the
antidote. The bitter taste of the medicine caused him to grimace.
Persephone worried that he might vomit, but she relaxed when he
kept it down.

“
I’m tired of drinking that
crap! It tastes horrible!” Alexander said.

“
There are only a couple of
more doses. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” she
said.

Alexander ignored her,
stuck out his bottom lip, and pouted. While the others hiked and
climbed a steep slope, he paused and opened his plastic container.
He removed his Bible, closed the container, and jogged to catch up
to the others. He carried the plastic case with his left hand. His
right hand pressed the Bible against his chest. Off to the right,
he watched Reverend Stark’s ghost ship, which could be seen on the
horizon, as it drifted toward Cadaver Island. Alexander trembled.
He felt safer with the Bible in his hand.

Moments later, the snowfall
intensified. Dr. Stine guided the group into a narrow gap between a
pair of rock formations. Eagles and hawks soared in the sky above
them. Stanley hooted and dug his talons into Dr. Stine’s shoulder
when he realized the birds were much larger than him. When
Persephone tugged on the left sleeve of his robe, Dr. Stine paused
and turned to face her. She pointed at piles of bones on rocky
shelves high above them. Vultures ripped flesh and skin off the
bones of dismembered goats.

“
We need to be careful.
There’s a predator nearby,” Persephone said.

“
Thanks for the warning,”
Dr. Stine said.

Dr. Stine guided them into
a wide, open area. The opening of a dark cave bordered the left
side of the clearing. Directly ahead, a snow-covered path curved to
the left and out of view. Off to the right, a steep cliff dropped
into a deep chasm of jagged stone and brittle, dead trees. Strange
noises echoed inside the cave. Dr. Stine motioned for the others to
stay put while he stepped toward the cave’s entrance. When he
stepped inside, a cold gust of air blasted him in the face and
caused him to blink his eyes. He focused his attention on a large
animal, which groveled next to a pile of rocks at the bottom of a
steep hill. The beast, whose gold-and-black hair draped across her
ape-like frame, groveled against a pile of stones at the bottom of
a steep incline. Dr. Stine smiled when he noticed four babies
sucking on the creature’s pink nipples. The mother noticed Dr.
Stine and bared her sharp teeth at him. Her yellow eyes glowed in
the cave’s gloom. She exhaled a high-pitched shriek that echoed in
Dr. Stine’s ears and ricocheted off of the cave’s walls. Her scream
caused icicles to drop from the ceiling and shatter on the
ground.

“
What is it, Dr. Stine?
What did you find?” Persephone said.

“
I can’t believe it! It’s a
female yeti and her babies!” Dr. Stine said.

The corpse of a mountain
goat plummeted from a high cliff and landed next to Dr. Stine’s
feet. He screamed when he noticed the goat’s broken neck, its
ruptured abdomen, and its dangling intestines. Angelique and
Persephone pointed at a narrow ledge above the cave. Dr. Stine
glanced up and watched a male yeti, who he estimated to be
nine-feet tall, pick up a huge boulder and hurl it through the air.
Dr. Stine strafed to the right and fell to the ground. Seconds
later, the boulder landed where he’d been standing.

“
Get out of the way, Dr.
Stine! Come over here!” Alexander said.

The male yeti leaped off of
the ledge. He shook snow off of his gold-and-black fur. After he
licked blood and gore off of his long, yellow claws, he lumbered
toward Dr. Stine and exhaled a deep, bellowing roar. Dr. Stine got
to his feet, stumbled backward, and succumbed to anxiety. The yeti
swung his left claw through the air and pummeled Dr. Stine in the
middle of his chest. Hot pain radiated beneath Dr. Stine’s sternum
and into his ribcage while he flew through the air and landed next
to the edge of the cliff.

“
Get away from the cliff!
He’s trying to throw you over the edge!” Angelique said.

Dr. Stine stepped backward.
His feet didn’t land on solid ground. His stomach lunged in his
abdomen and digestive acid surged up his esophagus. He plummeted
over the side of the cliff while his hands frantically searched for
something to grab hold of. Then his fingers gripped the side of the
cliff while his feet dangled high above The Valley of
Fire.

***

Alexander pushed Angelique
and Persephone out of his way and held his Bible much like a knight
would wield a shield. He watched the yeti wobble toward the cliff,
where Dr. Stine tried to pull himself back to safety. When the
yeti’s feet stamped on Dr. Stine’s fingers, Alexander picked up a
rock with his free hand and threw it at the yeti’s head. The rock
bounced off the left side of the beast’s skull and landed in a
fresh pile of snow. The yeti turned around slowly and focused his
attention on Alexander. The beast’s fists pounded his chest while
he roared. A burst of wind caused snow to whirl around
him.

The yeti sprinted across
the path and slapped Alexander’s feet out from under him. The boy
tumbled to the ground and watched his Bible slide across a thick
patch of ice. He scurried across the ground on his hands and knees.
The yeti’s left claw grabbed Alexander’s shirt and threw the boy
toward the mouth of the cave. Alexander glanced over his shoulder
and gasped. Five male yetis, who’d come to help the female yeti and
her babies, focused their attention on Alexander. Their feet slid
out from under them while they tried to run up the ice-covered
slope inside the cave.

“
Angelique! Persephone!
More yetis are coming!” he said.

Alexander watched
Persephone scamper toward his Bible. She picked it up and threw it
toward Alexander. The Bible landed on a snow-covered ledge next to
a mountain goat’s skull. Alexander got to his feet and ran toward
the ledge. His fingers touched the front cover of the Bible. But
before he could grab it with his outstretched hand, the yeti’s
claws dug into the flesh of his legs and yanked him
away.

“
Leave him alone! You’re
hurting him!” Angelique yelled. She jumped into the air and kicked
the yeti’s leg. He exhaled a wail of agony and whirled on his feet
to face her.

Two yetis emerged from the
mouth of the cave and loped across the ice-covered ground. White
foam dripped from their jaws. Teeth gnashed and claws twitched.
Alexander felt their hot breath on the back of his neck. He reached
for the Bible and snared it from the ledge. He held the Bible
against his chest while one of the yetis slammed him to the ground.
Alexander gasped when the other yetis formed a circle around him.
He flipped through the frail pages of the Bible and scanned the
verses. He trembled and his voice cracked when he started to read.
Yellow eyes glowed as the horde of yetis fell upon him.

***

Dr. Stine clung to the side
of the cliff and prayed that someone would help him. The cold ice
and snow caused his fingers to grow numb. He lost his grip and felt
his fingers slide across a sheet of ice. His shoes pushed against
the exposed roots of a tree and he propelled himself up the side of
the cliff. Jagged chunks of stone ripped his robe and sliced his
skin. Snowflakes whirled in front of his eyes and blinded him. When
he felt the spare battery packs sliding out of his pocket, he
panicked. He wanted to free one of his hands and shove the battery
packs deeper into his pocket, but he worried that his other hand
would lose its grip and he’d tumble into The Valley of Fire. He
smiled when he glanced up and saw Persephone. She extended her left
hand and begged him to grab it.

Dr. Stine glanced down and
watched the spare battery packs slide out of his pocket. He cringed
when they dived through the air and penetrated the cold mist that
surrounded the mountain. When Persephone’s hands wrapped around his
left wrist, he glanced up and watched her pull on his arm. He
pressed his feet against the side of the cliff and hoisted his body
up. After Persephone tugged and Dr. Stine pushed for several
minutes, he climbed over the edge of the cliff and got to his feet.
He shook his head solemnly.