The Wicked Cat (8 page)

“Jack,” Adam said patiently. “My reaction to you has nothing to do with whether I like you or not. I'm just stunned that you can talk at all.”

“Well, get over it then and we can talk about something. I haven't had anyone to talk to in a long time.”

“How about Jessie?”

“What about her?”

“Hasn't she been coming to talk to you over the years?”

“No. She was a cat. Cats can't talk. You should know that.”

“I suppose I should,” Adam said dryly.

Jack continued. “Besides, she only knocked down the wall this morning. That was the first time I saw her as a human in I don't know how long. I did hear her purring outside the wall, if she happened by at night, which didn't happen too often. Usually she would come in the day when I couldn't move or talk.”

“Why do you sleep during the day?”

“I don't know. I just got on a late schedule and found it hard to break.”

“So what you're saying is that Jessie doesn't even know you're alive?”

“That's right. As a cat she couldn't break in here. I'm looking forward to talking to her.” He paused. “I hope she doesn't mind that I'm not as handsome as I used to be. Do you think I'll have a problem there?”

Adam nodded reluctantly. “I'm afraid so, Jack. The girls I know are not really into dead people.”

“But I'm not dead,” Jack said briskly. “I thought I made that clear. I'm just malnourished. No offense, but you won't look much better if you hang around here long enough.”

Adam sighed. “I guess. But I would like to get out of here. When Jessie returns can you talk her into letting me go?”

“I hope so. She used to be my friend. But I don't know how she's changed over the last two hundred years.”

“I hate to say this, Jack, but she's not the nicest girl in the world. She stole my friend's body and turned her into a cat. She was the one who chained me here.”

“Oh my,” Jack said, shocked. “That doesn't sound like the Jessie I knew. I wonder why she changed so much?”

“Maybe it was being a cat so long.”

“That's no excuse,” Jack said. “I've been stuck in here all this time and I haven't lost my manners.”

Adam frowned. “How did you pass the time?”

“I whistle to myself mainly. Would you like to hear me whistle? The more flesh you lose the better you can whistle. The air seems to blow through my whole body these days.”

Adam heard a sound at the mouth of the cave.

“You can whistle for me later,” Adam said. “I think someone's coming.”

J
essie appeared a moment later, pushing Cindy in front of her and holding a flashlight. Cindy had her arms full. In one hand she carried the cat—Sally—and in the other she had a bag of cement. The cement looked heavy and Cindy appeared weary. But when Cindy saw Adam chained to the wall, she dropped both the cat and the cement and ran to his side.

“What has she done to you?” Cindy cried.

“Hung me up for decoration, I think,” Adam said.

Cindy turned on Jessie. “You are a horrible creature! You let him go this instant!”

Jessie laughed loudly. “You fool! No one is leaving this cave except me. Even Sally, this old cat, is staying. I'm going to wall you all in here and let you die in darkness.”

Cindy stepped forward and tried to push her out of the way. But Jessie still had a cat's reflexes and struck Cindy across the face. The blow was strong, and Cindy landed in a heap at Adam's feet.

“Hey!” Adam shouted. “You don't have to get rough. We can talk about the situation.”

Jessie sneered. “Talk about what? How I suffered the last two hundred years? How you tried to drown me the day after I finally freed myself? I trusted you, Adam, and you tried to trick me.”

“I tried to trick you because you tricked Sally. You stole her body.”

The cat growled angrily.

“I deserve a human body!” Jessie snapped. “I earned it!”

“Right,” Adam said sarcastically. “You earned the right to torture and kill people. What if Jack was here today? What would he say about his sweet Jessie?”

Jessie strode right up to Adam and drew her
hand back to slap him. She almost stepped on Cindy, who was slowly regaining her wits and sitting up.

“Don't talk about Jack!” Jessie cried. “Jack belonged to me! If he was here now he'd understand what I've gone through! He wouldn't blame me!”

There was a long pause.

Adam hoped Jack would say something soon.

He had set the situation up for Jack to speak.

“I don't understand why you are hurting these people,” Jack said softly.

Jessie leapt back as if she had been shot. Her head twisted left and right. Her breath came in a sharp pant. In the light of her flashlight, her skin was the color of snow.

“Who's there?” she demanded.

The skeleton moved slightly. “It's me. It's Jack.”

Jessie put a hand to her horrified face and backed into the wall of the cave. “No!” she cried. “It can't be! You died two hundred years ago!”

Jack lifted a bony arm and his skull rocked to the side. He seemed to be looking down at his own hand. Adam understood he hadn't had any light to see himself in all this time.

“I admit I don't look too good,” Jack said quietly. “But as I was telling Adam here, I'm not dead. You just don't get much to eat walled up in a Mack cave. But I'm not the main issue here. I'm concerned about you, Jessie. You seem to have gotten as bad tempered as Madeline.”

Jessie stared at him as if in disbelief. But she recovered remarkably fast and it must have been her training as a familiar. “Madeline was the one who locked you in here. How can you call her something as simple as bad tempered?”

“Because I've forgiven her,” Jack said simply. “I've had a lot of time to think and forgive. I suggest you do the same, especially now that you have your body back. Really, Jessie, you don't have much to complain about. You've still got your figure while mine has gone to pieces.”

“Literally,” Adam muttered.

Jessie shook her head. “No. I can't let it go. I suffered so long.”

“I suffered, too,” Jack said. “At least as much as you. But it won't ease either of our suffering to hurt other people. Now let Adam go and help this nice girl up and give that cat back her human body. Then maybe we can talk about old times.”

Jessie was stunned. “You won't talk to me unless I do these things?”

The skeleton shook his bony head. “No. You are wrong here and you know it. So Madeline harmed us? We don't have to follow her example.”

Jessie was not convinced. Apparently her bitterness went deep.

“But I want my life back!” she complained. “It was stolen from me and I deserve it back!”

“You can have a life,” a voice said from the direction of the entrance. “But not the one you have stolen.”

Adam stared in amazement as Ann Templeton and Watch stepped into the cave. The witch wore a long black coat and carried in her right hand a green jewel that lit the way better than any flashlight. Watch hung close to her as if they were old friends. Ann Templeton surveyed the scene and then offered Cindy a hand and helped her to her feet. Cindy brushed off her pants and retreated to the wall closest to Adam, who was still stuck to the wall.

“Thank you,” Cindy muttered to Ann Templeton, although she continued to watch the witch and Jessie with fear.

Ann Templeton nodded and turned to Jessie.

“I am sorry for what Madeline did to you,” the witch said. “I have just come from my castle. I have been reading her diary. I know that Madeline had a temper and that she acted rashly in regard to you and Jack. On her behalf, I ask for your forgiveness.”

Jessie stared at her. “You look like her.”

Ann Templeton nodded. “Except I have dark hair and she had red hair. Do you accept my apology?”

“I do,” Jack said brightly.

But Jessie slowly shook her head.

“I will accept it when you give Jack back his body,” she said. “Not until then.”

“Now that sounds like a good idea,” Jack said.

But Ann Templeton shook her head. “Madeline cast this spell. I cannot fully reverse it. If I am to restore Sally to her normal body, I cannot create two new human bodies. That would be beyond my powers. But I can create an extra cat body if you wish, for Jack.”

“I have always liked Siamese cats,” Jack remarked.

Jessie was confused. “What are you saying?”

“Isn't it clear?” Ann Templeton said. “You are free to leave here with Jack. But as cats, not people. You have to give Sally back the body you stole from her.”

“Madeline stole my body!” Jessie said bitterly.

“Yes, she did,” Ann Templeton said patiently. “But that was long ago. This is now. You have these choices, none other.”

Jessie considered. “If I want, I can leave here? In this body?”

“I won't stop you,” Ann Templeton said. “And I don't think anybody else here would be capable of stopping you.”

“But I might try,” Watch muttered.

Jessie played with her hair, her thoughts far away. “I could stay human.”

“But then you would begin to age,” Ann Templeton warned. “But as a cat, both of you can be made immortal. If that's what you want.”

“I like all the things cats do,” Jack mused. “Chicken, all kinds of fish. I . . .”

“Quiet, Jack,” Jessie said. “I'm thinking.”

“You might want to think about Jack while you're deciding,” Adam suggested.

Jessie jerked her head up and stored at the skeleton. “Has it been hard for you, too?” she asked in a gentle voice.”

Jack sighed. “You know I don't like to complain, but, yeah, it's, been lonely hanging all by myself in this cave for two hundred years. I'd like to get outside and stretch, even if it's in a cat's body. At least everybody wouldn't be looking at my bones like right now.” He paused. “We can have fun together, Jessie. It might even be like old times.”

Jessie smiled faintly. “Do you remember the old times, Jack?”

“Sure I do,” he said. “I remember that you were always the one to think of other people first.”

Jessie shook her head. “No. That was you.”

Jack nodded his head. “Both of us were good people. And these seem like good people, too. Don't hurt them, Jessie, not when you don't have to.”

Jessie finally broke into a real smile. “All right, Jack, for you I will give up being a girl. Just don't ask me to chase after birds with you. I got tired of that a century ago.”

“We'll just chase squirrels,” Jack promised.

Jessie turned to Adam. “Is algebra really that bad?”

“It can be pretty bad,” Adam said. “Unless you're as smart as Watch.”

“Or you have last year's test papers,” Watch said, kidding.

Jessie laughed and turned back to Ann Templeton.

“I accept your apology,” she said. “But make me a white cat this time. Please?”

“And me a Siamese,” Jack added.

Ann Templeton raised her magical green stone.

“Everybody close your eyes,” she said. “This is a magical moment.”

They did as she asked.

And a great power filled the cave.

Then they heard a voice in the midst of the magic.

A complaining voice.

“Cindy,” Sally said. “I wanted the rest of that chicken. And I think you knew that.”

Little is known about Christopher Pike, although he is supposed to be a strange man. It is rumored that he was born in New York but grew up in Los Angeles. He has been seen in Santa Barbara lately, so he probably lives there now. But no one really knows what he looks like, or how old he is. It is possible that he is not a real person, but an eccentric creature visiting from another world. When he is not writing, he sits and stares at the walls of his huge haunted house. A short, ugly troll wanders around him in the dark and whispers scary stories in his ear.

Christopher Pike is one of this planet's bestselling authors of young adult fiction.

Books by Christopher Pike

Spooksville #1: The Secret Path

Spooksville #2: The Howling Ghost

Spooksville #3: The Haunted Cave

Spooksville #4: Aliens in the Sky

Spooksville #5: The Cold People

Spooksville #6: The Witch's Revenge

Spooksville #7: The Dark Corner

Spooksville #8: The Little People

Spooksville #9: The Wishing Stone

Spooksville #10: The Wicked Cat

Available from MINSTREL Books

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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