The Witch Hunter's Gauntlet (22 page)

Suddenly the lights dimmed and a new slow song started.

Dave and Tasha set their cups down on the nearby table.

“We’re going to go dance
now.” Tasha took Dave by the hand and led him out onto the dance floor.

“Yeah, us to
o,” Zoey said. The little hologram-projecting robot had wheels so they headed off to the dance floor leaving Sam and Natch behind.

Sam’s breath caught as Natch took her cup out of her hands and s
et it on the table next to his.

He extended his hand to her. “Would you care to dance?”

She couldn’t help but giggle a little. His eyes narrowed at this, so she did her best to fight it.

“Yes
, I would.” She took his hand.

Natch
led her out to the dance floor, somewhere near the middle. She had never been to the middle of a dance floor before. She was more of an edge-of-the-dance-floor kind of girl.

That’s when she spotted Doc Frost and Mr. Norton, the chemistry teacher, chaperoning from the sidelines dressed as the Blues Brothers in matching black suits and sunglasses. Doc Frost tipped his hat to her. She waved back.

Natch placed his hands on her waist. She was so stunned by this that she forgot for a moment what she was supposed to do with her hands. He raised his eyebrows in puzzlement. She could feel him letting go when she remembered to put her hands on his shoulders; his hands settled back on her waist.

She didn’t have much in the way of comparison, but
Natch was a really good dancer. He seemed to know how to swing with the beat, so she just let him lead her.

Over
Natch’s shoulder she saw Celestial in some sparkly tutu outfit dancing with a mummy. Celestial gave Natch a once-over while mouthing the word “wow” and gave Sam an approving smile.

Sam blushed but managed to smile back.

“What was that?” Natch looked over his shoulder nervously.

Fortunately
, Celestial was cool about it and spun away with her mummy at the last second.

“Nothing.
Thought I saw someone dressed as Principal Shepherd.” It seemed like a good story to Sam. But she decided to change the subject anyway. “So how did you become such a good dancer?”

“
I took lessons,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Oh wow, just for little old me.” She gave him what she hoped he would understand was a playful smile.

He just shrugged. She switched to a different topic.

“So why James Bond?”

“Irony mostly. I figure one day when I’m about to rule the world and make everything better, some drunk who can’t hold a relationship for more than a week will try to stop me.”

“Yeah, I heard you plan to take over the world.”

“Of course,” he said with complete seriousness.

“Why?”

“No one has ever done it before.” He spun them around on the dance floor. They wound up dancing next to a couple dressed as Steven Colbert and Wonder Woman. “Look, we only get one chance at life. I figure you should use it to the fullest extent possible. Taking over the world is the greatest challenge I can think of, and it would be a waste of time to do anything less.”

“Okay,” Sam said politely. She could think of
some other, less violent, goals. Like being the first person on Mars, or curing cancer, or stopping global warming.

“I mean, someone has to do it eventually, right?”

Sam hadn’t really thought about it before. She figured it might happen some day,
hundreds of years from now.

“Do you have any idea what the odds are against you?”

“Sure. Over six billion to one. But I would rather fail at being great than succeed at being mediocre,” Natch said happily. “How about you? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I have no idea.”

“None at all?” he asked with a skeptical look on his face.

“Nope.”

He thought that over for a bit.

“That must be nice.”

What?

“How is that nice?” she asked slightly more angrily than she intended. “I don’t know what I am doing with the rest of my life. How is that a good thing?”

“It means you still have options.”

“I guess.” She wasn’t very reassured. Having a world of options didn’t mean a whole lot when you didn’t have a direction.

“Okay, look at it this way,” he said as he spun them around again. “You are only fourteen. Would you want a fourteen-year-old making important life decisions for you? Do you think anyone out there would trust you to pick a career path for them? No. So don’t worry about it. You have plenty of time to pick something.”

That actually made sense, even though it was terribly insulting.

“What about you? You’re fourteen and you have chosen a career path.”

“True. But I am special,” he said.
“And a little crazy.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Sam said.

The song ended and he let go of her waist.

“You know Lucas-“

He was cut off by a smack to the back of his head from a plastic sword.

“
En guard,” Zack said, removing the hat of his Zorro costume and taking a bow.

“You want me to
feed you that sword?”

H
e tried to grab it, but Zack constantly kept swinging it out of reach.

“You are too slow
, Mr. Bond,” Zack said, wiggling his fake mustache.

“Are you here all alone
, Zack? That’s so sad,” Sam said with a pouty lip.

“Not at all.
I came with Dorothy over there.” He pointed to a tall girl in a dead-on perfect replica of Dorothy’s outfit from the original
The Wizard of Oz,
down to the stuffed Toto in her basket. She was making awkward conversation with some of Zack’s friends whose names Sam had never bothered to learn. They were dressed up as the Three Musketeers.

Sam suddenly recognized the girl. It was Class President Sherry Hoyle.

“Not bad,” Natch said.

Sam elbowed him in the side.

Zack snickered at Natch. “So where’s Lucas? Crying in his room?”

“No, he’s out. Trick-or-
treating,” Natch said.

“I’m sure he is.”

“What are you talking about? Lucas is coming with Tiffany.” Sam didn’t like the way the words felt in her mouth, but they were true.

Zack laughed. “Yeah right, l
ike she was going to waste her Halloween at a school dance. She’s in Paris right now.”

“Really?”
Why hadn’t anyone told her this before? Poor Lucas.

She had to find Zoey and Tasha right away. She needed advice. Maybe there was still time to find Lucas and get him to come to the dance.

“Before you go,” Zack said, sensing her intentions. He beckoned Sherry over. “I want to show you the best part of Sherry’s costume.”

Sam couldn’t have cared less about Sherry’s costume, except she could tell by the pure joy in Zack’s eyes that he was up to something.
Something that was not intended to make Sam happy.

Sherry skipped over to them, her basket swinging in her hand. The Three Musketeers pushed their way through the crowd behind her.

“As soon as the dance is over, we’re going to have a special bonfire. You know, roast some marshmallows, make some s’mores, and burn a few effigies.” He took the stuffed Toto out of the basket and handed it to Sherry. “Like lions” – he pulled a stuffed lion out of the basket and threw it to Musketeer # 1 who ripped the poor furry toy’s head off – “tigers” – he tossed a stuffed tiger to Musketeer # 2 who impaled it on his sword – “and bears.”

H
e pulled Mr. Hopscotch out of the basket.

“Oh my.”

Sam lost all connection to the world at that moment. Time stopped. She lost all sense of where she was. Her only thought was to protect Mr. Hopscotch, her oldest and dearest friend, and her last real tangible connection to her parents.

And then one
shining lightning bolt of recognition pierced the storm clouds of her mind.

Her oldest friend.

Strength she had never felt before flowed into her arms and puddled in her fingers.

“Give Mr. Hopscotch back,” she said slowly and forcefully.

Zack laughed. “Mr. Hopscotch? What a stupid name.”

“Give him back.” She reached for the teddy bear but Zack held it above his head.

“Why would I do that?” Zack asked with devilish glee. “When I can roast him and post the video on my webpage instead?”

From the look in his eye
, Sam was absolutely convinced that Zack would really do it.

She couldn’t lose Mr. Hopscotch. She had already lost too much. She fought back her sudden urge to cry. It would only fuel Zack’s cruelty.

Natch’s hand reached out at lightning speed, pulled the sword from Sam’s belt, and held it inches from Zack’s face.

“Give her the bear.”

Zack’s look of surprise was priceless. But he recovered quickly, and with a flick of his wrist he tossed the teddy bear to Musketeer # 3.

Musketeer # 3 immediately gripped Mr. Hopscotch around the neck as if he was about to rip his head off.

“No!” Sam squeaked uncontrollably.

“Stop th
is now,” Sherry said, forcefully. No one paid any attention to her. Sam barely noticed when she huffed and marched away.

Natch
waved the pirate sword in Zack’s face.

“An
ything that happens to the bear will happen to you. Understand?”

Zack tilted his head
, looking amused.

Before Sam could say anything Musketeer # 1 and Musketeer #2 had drawn their swords and slashed Natch simultaneously across th
e back and legs, leaving tears in his tuxedo. Zack slashed Natch’s hand, making him drop his sword.

“Idiot,” Zack jeered
.

Sam reached out to console Natch, but the way he squinted at her told her that was the last thing he wanted.

She rounded on Zack and his friends instead.

“You pathetic little boy,” she said. “Give me back my teddy bear.”

Zack took Mr. Hopscotch back from his grinning Musketeer friend. He poked the bear’s stomach with his sword.

“Say goodbye, Sammy.”

“What’s going on over here?” Coach Powers’ bellowing voice carried over the crowd.

Everyone in the area stopped dancing immediately as Coach Powers made his way through the crowd with Sherry Hoyle bustling along behind hi
m. Coach Powers wore a tattered red leather flight jacket, the kind with the big flap in the front held shut with large gold buttons. A ‘50s-style ray gun hung from the thick white belt around his waist. Sam had no idea what old science fiction character he was supposed to be, but from the wear and tear and the way it didn’t quite fit around his belly she guessed that he had held onto this costume for many years.

“Later,” Zach said with a bow.

Zorro and the Three Musketeers took off running through the crowd, laughing and waving their swords.

Sam chased after them
, but a pack of students dressed up as life-sized chess pieces blocked her view. She angrily ran around the group looking for any sign of Zack and his friends, but the dancing crowd had come back together erasing their escape path.

There was no chance of her catching them now. Maybe if she got Tasha and Zoey to help they could find Zack and his goons before they burned Mr. Hopscotch.

“The east doors. No, the red ones,” Natch said behind her. “Round ‘em up.”

He was smiling as he hung up his phone.

“What was-“

“Watch this,” he said
, pointing to the east doors.

Zack and his buddies were still hooting and hollering and waving their swords as they reached the doors and ran outside. A second later they
came running back inside, followed by an army of ten Jedi with their lightsabers held high and glowing and ten Klingons waving their weird curved swords.

The swarm of costumed warriors spread out to encirc
le Zack and his friends. A sword fight broke out, but it turned out that the plastic of the Jedi and Klingon weapons was vastly superior and snapped Zorro and the Musketeers’ costume fencing swords off at the hilt.

“Shall we?
” Natch said, offering Sam his hand.

“Let
’s,” she said, taking it.

The Klingons and Jedi formed a tight circle. Zack and
his friends were standing back-to-back in the middle with their fists up, ready to fight. But Sam noticed that many of these Jedi were quite large. In fact, Mace Windu was Malcolm Harris, the running back who had scored four touchdowns in the latest football game, and the tallest of the three Obi Wan Kenobis was one of Derek’s basketball player friends.