Choke: 2 (Pillage Trilogy (Pillogy)) (22 page)

“It was a dragon,” he whispered fiercely. “A dragon burnt down that church, Beck.”

“Aren’t you a little old to believe in dragons?” I asked, while still keeping my eyes open for any sign of Kate.

“I have friends on the police force,” he informed me in a low voice. I think he was trying to sound threatening. “I know things. You need to talk to me, Beck.”

“Listen, Van,” I said as nicely as I could. “I know you think I’m hiding some great secret from you, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Van grabbed the front of my shirt and almost instantly realized this was not the right spot to do something like that. He let go and tried to smile as students continued to stream past us. I had been bothered by Van, but up until that moment when I witnessed the rage in his eyes, I had never been scared of him.

I stepped back. “You should go.”

“Beck, I want to help,” he huffed. “This could change everything for both me and you. Is it money you want?”

I laughed at him.

“I can help you, Beck,” he hissed.

“I don’t want your help,” I said loudly. My raised voice caused a number of students to look over at us. “Leave me and my family alone.”

“Keep your voice down,” he demanded in a whisper. “You’re making a huge mistake—one that might hurt you in the end.”

I didn’t know what to do. My sick stomach was not absorbing the threat very well. I wished so badly that I could throw up on him, but I just didn’t have it in me.

“You need my help,” he insisted.

“Go to . . .” The bus horn beeped right on time.

I turned around and stormed off, trying to look cool. I was mad, and I knew that everyone was staring at me. I got onto the bus, walked down the aisle, and sat in one of the back seats. I felt angry, cool, and confused. I also felt stupid because the second the vehicle started moving, I realized that I had accidentally gotten on the wrong bus. I rode it to the first stop and then got off and called Thomas.

I had to beg Thomas for a full five minutes before he agreed to come into town and pick me up. I then just stood in front of the pay phone, looking like a traveler who had no money and nowhere to go.

My heart hurt.

I guess the one good thing about my mistake was that because of the waiting I now had time to mentally list and think about all the things that were going wrong. Of course it was the kind of good thing that only a grown-up would appreciate.

Illustration from page 60 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 23

By the time I finally got home it was dinnertime. I ate a bunch of delicious food and then excused myself to go and do all of my makeup homework. Which, loosely translated, meant I was going to see Lizzy.

I took the secret passage from behind the mirror and exited the manor from the hidden door near the courtyard. I ran through the dusk and into the forest. By the time I got to the Lizzie-size hole in the moss wall it was almost completely dark outside.

I turned the lights on and practically skipped to the large steel door. I’d apologize for the skipping, but it had been a full day since I had seen Lizzy and I was going through withdrawals.

I undid the heavy metal latch and rolled the steel door open just enough for me to slip through. I didn’t want there to be any chance of Lizzy getting out. I slipped in and rolled the door shut. When I turned around I couldn’t see any sign of her. The organ pipes she had stolen were stacked almost neatly in a pile near the cocoon.

“Lizzy!”

Once again the dirt in the center of the cavern began to rise. Unlike before, however, something was different. I could see Lizzy’s white scales, but now patches of her were gray and black. She rose out of the dirt screeching wildly. Soil tumbled off of her like dirty lava as she spread her wings and flapped them. Dirt flew everywhere—a small fist of soil smacked me in the left ear. Despite the hit, I kept my eyes trained on her. She looked my direction and screeched, fire spreading out in front of her mouth like a giant flaming flower. She snapped her jaws shut and stood there staring at me as smoke drifted up from her nostrils.

“Wow,” I whispered.

I walked up to her with my right hand out in front of me and gently took hold of the rope around her neck.

“Come on,” I said attempting to pull her in the direction of the water. She pulled back, jerking the rope. “Seriously, Lizzy, come on.”

She let me walk her to the water but she had an attitude about it. She took a few drinks and then looked at me like she was angry.

“What?” I argued. “I’m trying to help. It just seems that if I was a dragon and I had just spit up fire that my throat would be a little parched.”

She turned around and snorted. Then with an air of great purpose, she began stepping across the cavern and toward the steel door. I held onto the rope as I walked alongside her.

“Listen,” I reasoned. “Just so we’re clear, we can’t go flying out there anymore. But there’s plenty of space in here for you to mess around.”

She just kept on walking.

“You got me busted,” I told her. “There were cops at my house.”

Lizzy growled.

“What?” I said defensively. “I didn’t give you up. It was that old lady with the gray hair.”

We reached the door, and Lizzy stopped. She lowered her head and gazed at the large metal latch.

“Stare all you want,” I told her. “I’m not opening it. You can’t . . .”

There was a knock on the door. Lizzy looked as surprised as me. We both stepped back. The knock was soft.

“Should I open it?” I asked.

Dragons are so useless when it comes to conversation.

“Who is it?” I yelled.

There was some muffled yelling but I couldn’t tell who it was or what they were saying. I slid the bolt back and then lifted it up. The door began to roll open.

“Kate?”

She slipped in, and I quickly closed the door again. Lizzy wasn’t happy about me shutting the door. She started stomping her feet and thrashing her tail about.

“What’s up with her?” Kate asked.

“She wants to get out,” I explained. “But who cares about that. You came.”

Kate smiled at me with both her eyes and her lips. “Your note was nice. I didn’t want it to, but it made me laugh.”

“That was a serious note,” I complained.

“I know.”

Lizzy screeched and dug at the dirt with her horns.

“I really am sorry,” I said. “You more than anyone should know how much I want to be a better person.”

“I know, and I’m still mad at you,” Kate explained. “But, to be honest, I’ve been dying to see Lizzy.”

Lizzy began to butt up against the steel door with her horns. The solid structure didn’t even shake under the pressure of her weight. She started slamming up against it harder. Both Kate and I stepped back.

“Is she okay?” Kate asked.

Lizzy screamed and began clawing at the bolt with her talons. At first it was kind of interesting, but after a couple of seconds it grew frightening. She looked over at me and screeched.

Kate and I plugged our ears and cowered in perfect synchronicity. Lizzy blew flames at the door, but all her efforts weren’t making a bit of difference.

Lizzy turned her head and looked directly at me.

“She really wants you to open the door,” Kate said.

“She’ll fly out and destroy something,” I told her. “She burnt down a church yesterday.”

Lizzy began butting at the door again.

“Maybe
we
should go out then,” Kate suggested. “She seems a little mental.”

I was going to point out to Kate that her idea, while valid, was easier said than done. Lizzy was currently blocking our only exit.

“We could go through the back tunnel,” Kate suggested.

“What about the moths?” I questioned in worry. “Listen, Lizzy will be okay. We just need to distract her from the door.”

Lizzy was looking at me again. I took the opportunity to try and talk kindly to her. “All right, Lizzy. Let’s just move you back to your nest.”

I slowly stepped up toward her and reached out to grab the rope. She snapped her huge jaw at me and I jumped back quickly.

“What the . . .”

Lizzy opened her mouth and screamed.

“Come on, Beck,” Kate said urgently, tugging on the back of my shirt.

Lizzy stood up on her hind feet and threw the front of her body down, causing the ground to shake. Kate was no longer tugging. She was running. I decided to follow her example and set off across the cavern in a different direction. Lizzy screamed even louder, and I could hear the flap of her massive wings behind me.

“Beck!” Kate screamed.

I dived behind a row of crates and crawled frantically across the dirt. Lizzy slammed into the crates, sending them flying
everywhere. One flew over my head and smashed into the stone wall next to me. Lizzy screamed and stood on her hind legs again. I could see that Kate had made it to the metal door. She was behind Lizzy and sliding the bolt open. She looked in my direction and waved me over. I tried to nod in such a way that she would know to just get out and I’d come later.

I guess she understood me because she started to roll the door open. As she did so, the latch swung down making a clanking noise. Lizzy spun around and saw Kate. She screamed so loud, bits of rock began to fall from the ceiling. Kate slipped out and heaved the door shut just as Lizzy slammed into it. She clawed and scratched angrier than she had ever been.

I used the distraction to get up and scramble for my life. I knew I only had a couple of seconds so I jumped into one of the empty dragon cereal barrels and slid the top over me. There was a small open knothole on the side, and I was able to wedge my head down just enough to see out of it. I didn’t have a clear view of the whole cavern, but I could see Lizzy and some of the other barrels lined up near me.

Lizzy turned and snorted in my direction. Her head swung side to side as she gazed around the cavern. She looked like a dragon pendulum. I tried to slow my breathing. Inside the barrel my breaths echoed louder and louder. I knew if she found me that it would be bad, and I was hoping that the strong smell of dragon cereal everywhere would hide my scent.

Lizzy stormed over, tearing at the crates in her way. She stopped in front of the row of barrels and leaned her head down to sniff one that was three barrels away from me. I held my breath, willing her to go away. She nudged the top of the barrel and then stopped. I was thinking my plan just might work when suddenly she turned and slammed her tail down against the barrel. The wooden vessel shattered into a million pieces sending dragon cereal and wood slivers flying everywhere. If my bladder were any weaker, I would have been sitting in a wet drum.

Lizzy moved to the next barrel. She sniffed at it and then pulled back her head and screamed. I held my breath as Lizzy let loose with a tremendous plume of fire. The vat was instantly consumed in flame.

I was going to die.

Lizzy stepped up to the barrel right next to me and sniffed. I held perfectly still, feeling like that one lady in the movie where they were hiding from Nazis and there was a lot of singing.

Lizzy sniffed the vat again and then rose up on her back feet. She picked up the barrel, and threw it against the stone wall. I couldn’t see where it hit, but I could hear the explosion of wood and see the shrapnel raining down.

Lizzy lowered her body and sidestepped in front of my vat. It took everything I had to keep my body from shaking. I kept wishing Kate would do something to distract her. Or maybe Kate could open up the huge metal door, and Lizzy could fly out and ruin the entire town of Kingsplot instead of me.

Lizzy sniffed at the top of my barrel. I could see her scaly underside through the hole I was looking out of. I couldn’t control my shaking and my teeth began to chatter.

She sniffed once more, and I stopped breathing altogether.

Illustration from page 63 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 24

I had one of three ways to die. One: be obliterated by Lizzy’s tail. Two: be burned. Three: be thrown against the wall and busted up. Anyway I looked at it, I was in trouble. My heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to jump out of my chest and start bouncing around the inside of the barrel.