The Reality Bug (20 page)

“You're walking home?” he asked, confused.

“I'm really hurting, Mark,” she said. “Can we talk about it some other time?”

“Yeah, sure.” They walked in silence. Mark was dying to tell Courtney what had happened at the Sherwood house, but wasn't sure if she was in the mood to talk about anything. Still, she had to know.

“Can we talk about something else?” he asked tentatively.

“Whatever.”

“Something happened today,” Mark said. “I … I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the acolyte thing.”

Courtney stopped short. A second before, she looked like the walking dead. Now a spark had returned to her eyes. Mark thought that whatever had happened at soccer, it had beaten her up pretty badly. But the fire still burned inside her. He knew Courtney too well to think otherwise.

“Another journal?” she asked.

“No,” Mark answered. “Let's go for a ride.”

Mark tried to ride Courtney on the handlebars of his bike. It didn't work. Courtney was too tall and Mark was too … Mark. So they switched places and Courtney gave Mark the ride. Along the way Mark told her everything that happened at the Sherwood house. Courtney didn't ask any questions. She just listened. By the time Mark had finished the story, they found themselves parked right back where the mystery began. They were in front of the locked iron gates of the spooky old house.

Mark held up his ring. The symbol was glowing again.

“What do you think?” Mark asked.

“I think we've got to find out what's inside that house,” Courtney answered.

“Easier said than done,” Mark replied. “You didn't see those dogs.”

Courtney looked up at the sky and said, “It's gonna be dark soon. I say we come back tomorrow, with some help.”

Courtney's idea of help was an obvious one. They waited until the next morning, then Mark came over to Courtney's house and they put a call into their friend on the Stony Brook police force, Captain Hirsch.

They had met Captain Hirsch when Bobby and his family first disappeared. Since then Hirsch had been working on the missing persons case. Of course, Mark and Courtney knew the truth about what had happened to Bobby, but decided not to tell, for fear of interfering with Bobby's mission as a Traveler. Still, they kept in touch with Hirsch. He was a good guy. Now, they hoped, he was going to help them get one step closer to unraveling the mystery of the acolytes.

Mark told Captain Hirsch about there being strange dogs running around the Sherwood property. He really built it up, saying how the dogs were vicious and wild. There was no way these dogs were somebody's pets. Of course, Mark left out the part about having been trespassing on the property. He also didn't mention that the dogs might be evil quig beasts who were guarding a secret inside the house. That wouldn't have been cool.

A half hour later Mark and Courtney met two uniformed police officers outside the front gate to the Sherwood house.

“Hi, guys,” one of them said. “Remember me? Officer Wilson?”

“Sure we do!” Courtney said.

Officer Wilson had once given the two kids a ride to the police station. He was a good guy, too.

“This is Officer Matt.” Everybody shook hands. “Tell us what you saw.”

Mark again explained how there were three dogs inside. Big, vicious, slobbering dogs with sharp fangs. Mark wasn't exaggerating. He wanted to make sure the cops knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.

Officer Wilson had a key to the lock on the front gate. They explained to Mark and Courtney that the Sherwood family had given it to the police in case of an emergency. This definitely qualified. While Wilson unlocked the gate, Officer Matt opened the trunk of their squad car and pulled out two pieces of equipment. One was a long metal rod with a loop of cable on the end. It was a snare that animal control officers use to capture dogs. The other thing Officer Matt pulled out was a tranquilizer rifle. Mark knew that if one of these dogs got the chance, it would tear a person apart. He wasn't so sure that a tranquilizer dart would do anything to stop it either. Still, it was better than nothing.

“Don't bother with the snare,” Mark advised. “You aren't going to want to catch one of these monsters.”

Officer Matt chuckled, but kept the snare.

“We'd like to come with you,” Courtney said.

The two cops shared looks. They didn't like the idea of putting the kids in danger.

“C'mon!” Courtney cajoled. “We'll stay behind you. And you've got guns and snares and stuff, right?”

Wilson shrugged. “Okay. Just stay close.”

They followed the two cops onto the property. Wilson held the snare, Matt kept the tranquilizer gun pointed at the ground, but ready.

Mark made sure to close the iron gates behind them. He also took off his ring and put it in his pocket. He didn't want the cops to ask him why he had a ring that was shooting off light.

Officer Wilson whistled. “Here, boy! C'mon!” He whistled again.

Nothing happened.

The four walked up to the porch. Mark kept glancing behind them, making sure that one of the black dogs wasn't sneaking up quietly.

“Uh-oh, what's this?” Officer Matt said. He reached down and picked up the shredded remains of Mark's backpack. Oops. Mark had totally forgotten.

“That's mine,” he said. “I dropped it outside. They must have dragged it in here.” It was a small lie, but Mark didn't want to admit he had been trespassing. “Look,” he added to change the subject. “That's where they broke through the window.”

Wilson pointed out the shards of glass on the porch. “It was broken from inside,” he deduced. “They must have cut themselves up pretty good.”

“How did you know they broke through the window?” Officer Matt asked Mark. “You can't see it from the gate.”

Oops. Mark had to think fast. “I heard the glass break and then saw them running around.”

Were the police going to buy this story? Of course they were. Mark wasn't the type to trespass on private property … or so they thought. Mark held up the remains of his backpack. The quigs had really chewed it up. He lost two textbooks, a library book, a chocolate bar, and all his carrots. Mark knew that chocolate wasn't good for dogs and hoped they choked on it.

“Let's check inside,” Officer Wilson suggested.

Wilson had a key for the front door as well. When they all stepped inside, both Mark and Courtney had the same thought:
haunted house
. The place was huge, with high ceilings and a curved staircase that led to the second floor.

“Here, boy!” Wilson called out again, and whistled.

Again, no response. Mark looked to Courtney and shrugged. He really wanted to look at his ring, but didn't risk taking it out of his pocket. The policemen then led the kids on a tour of the house, checking each and every room. They first checked the ground floor, walking through the grand entryway, through the living room, the huge dining room and into the big kitchen. Besides the broken window, there was no sign of any dog.

They went down to the basement. It was a vast space with a cement floor. There were a few wooden doors that were closed. The officers opened them all. One room had nothing but empty, wooden racks. The wine cellar. Another room had a long wooden table that was scarred and stained. The workshop. Another room was nothing more than a large, cool space with wispy remnants that looked like dead weeds hanging from the ceiling. Mark had heard of places like this. Root cellar is what his grandmother used to call it. It was a cool, dry place for storing onions and potatoes and the like. It looked to be dug out of the earth, with one wall being nothing more than a vast chunk of the rock that the house had been built on top of.

It was all very interesting, but there were no dogs.

The caravan then went up to the second floor. There was one long corridor with empty bedrooms off either side. Each of the rooms was connected by an inner door, so that you could choose to travel from one end of the house to the other through the corridor, or by going from room to room. Again, no dogs.

The next stop was the third floor. This was a smaller floor than the others. There were two bedrooms on one side, and a large attic on the other with a high, pointed ceiling where you could see the rafters of the house. It was empty. No dogs and no sign that dogs had ever been there. Once they stepped into the attic, the last room of the house, the police officers relaxed.

“Whatever you saw, Mark,” Wilson said, “they're gone now.”

“Are you sure? I mean, maybe we should check the yard.”

Wilson shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

They all went downstairs and out onto the porch. The four of them moved cautiously around the whole property. Mark had no idea it was so big. They saw some old wooden buildings that probably had something to do with the chicken farm. There were a lot of trees and an empty swimming pool and even a small golf green. At one time this was a busy place. Now it was forgotten and sad. The policemen even inspected every inch of the wall along the ground to see if an animal might have tunneled its way in or out. But there was no sign of anything like that.

“Any other ideas?” Officer Wilson asked. The cop respected Mark. If any other kid had given them this story, they probably wouldn't have believed a word.

“No,” Mark answered. “Sorry.”

Courtney glanced to Mark with a “You
sure
you saw dogs?” look. Mark could only shrug.

“Don't be sorry,” Wilson said. “You did the right thing. Whatever was in here got away somehow, that's all.”

They walked out through the front gate and Officer Matt locked it up. Officer Wilson returned the tranquilizer gun and the snare to the trunk of the police cruiser.

“If you see anything else, be sure to call, okay?” Wilson said.

“Okay,” Mark answered.

The two cops got back into their cruiser and sped off, leaving Mark and Courtney alone in front of the house.

“I'm not lying, Courtney,” Mark said.

“I didn't think you were.”

“So then what happened to the quigs?” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his ring. The strange symbol was glowing brightly.

“I don't know,” answered Courtney. “But we saw pretty much every inch of that place and there was nothing strange that would make that ring glow.”

“Then we missed it,” Mark announced.

The two looked at each other. Each knew what the other was thinking.

“We gotta go back in,” Mark said with finality.

“Yeah, I know. Where's the tree we gotta climb over?” Courtney asked.

Mark led Courtney around to the side
of the property and the tree that was their ladder. Courtney gave Mark a leg up, then Mark reached down and gave Courtney a helping hand. Seconds later the two of them jumped off the wall and landed back inside the property.

“Wait,” Mark said. He looked back at the wall, scanning both left and right.

“What are you looking for?” Courtney asked.

“There!” Mark pointed to an old, wooden tool shed. “If we gotta get back over fast, head for that shed. We can climb up the side.”

He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. This time he wanted to be ready. Courtney nodded and headed for the house. Neither was nervous, since they had just done a thorough inspection and knew the quigs were gone.

“I say we start inside the house,” Courtney said. “There are a lot of rooms we may have missed.”

They climbed up onto the porch and stopped at the broken window.

“That's our door,” Mark announced. He made a move to go in, but Courtney stopped him.

“Mark, I'm in,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I want to be an acolyte.”

Mark couldn't help but smile. “You sure?”

“Yeah, it just took some time to get my head around it,” Courtney said sincerely. “I think it's an important thing to do. And I don't want to let you down. Or Bobby.”

Mark smiled. “I never thought you would,” he said as he lifted one leg through the broken window.

Mark's confidence in her made Courtney feel better than she had in weeks. Maybe Mark was right. Maybe she had a more important role to play than sports superstar. She knew one thing for certain: She wanted the chance to find out. But there was no time to feel warm and fuzzy. They had work to do. So Courtney followed Mark inside.

The two of them stood in the grand entryway, once again taking it all in.

“Where to first?” Courtney asked.

Mark lifted his ring and saw that the symbol was still glowing brightly.

“Let's start in the attic and work our way—” Mark stopped talking. He had heard something. Courtney heard it too.

“What was that?” Courtney asked.

“Sounded like something scratching across wood.”

“There it is again!” Courtney exclaimed. “It's outside, on the porch.”

They both turned to the broken window they had just come through.

“It could be squirrels,” Mark said hopefully.

More scratching. Whatever it was, it was moving quickly back and forth on the porch.

“Or birds,” Courtney offered.

“Or … quigs.”

Courtney laughed nervously. “Don't even joke—”

Smash! Smash! Smash!

Three windows shattered as black quig dogs came crashing into the house.

“C'mon!” Courtney grabbed Mark's hand and they ran up the stairs. The quigs were slightly dazed by the hammering their heads just took, and it gave Mark and Courtney enough time to make it to the top. But a second later the quigs had their wits back, sniffed the air, and charged up the stairs after them.

Mark and Courtney sprinted along the hallway, not sure where to go.

“The window at the end!” Mark shouted.