The Witch Is Back (34 page)

Getting my feet back on the ground was actually much easier than climbing up had been. I channeled my inner Jungle Jane and swung down using the vine. And just like that, I was moving again.

As I jogged toward the next challenge, I wondered how quickly the others had managed to get over the wall. I may not have been as fast as I would've liked, but I also hadn't exactly been slow in figuring it out, either. I was confident that I was still in the lead or at least up there and that was good enough for now. I could always make up the time as the day went on.

The important thing right now was to keep moving.

So I did. I fell into a rhythm as I ran, synching the sounds of my feet with the inhalations and exhalations of my breath until they created a nice little beat. In my head, I began to compose a song that would fit in with the background noise, all about how I was going to win the Brighton Challenge and prove, once and for all, that I was better than Brooklyn and her cronies. That I was the head witch.

Just as I was perfecting the chorus, a sudden resistance came over my body and it became hard to move forward, until finally, I couldn't at all.

I'd found my next obstacle.

“What do you have for me now?” I asked out loud, pushing my hand forward and feeling it bounce back to me softly. I walked to the right and then over to the left and found that I couldn't move around it, either. Doubling back the way I came, I was perplexed to find that at some point the invisible force field had closed up behind me too, leaving me in a sort of locked box with nowhere to go. I'd never had problems with claustrophobia before, but knowing that I was stuck there, even momentarily, left me feeling nervous.

Nobody liked being caged, least of all, me.

Looking around, I searched for some kind of clue as to what the counselors wanted me to do here. I doubted I was supposed to go up and over the invisible wall. It was too much like the last challenge. And besides, what was I supposed to do? Fly? Standing a foot away from the back barrier, I studied everything around me.

Was I supposed to go
through
it?

Shrugging and feeling like I didn't have any other options, I lifted my arm and took aim at the path in front of me.

“Exbiliby totalitum!” I yelled, feeling the power surge through my body, down my arm and out through the tips of my fingers.

The air crackled in front of me as the explosion hit what looked like nothing. Electric currents shot out to the sides like they were following an unseen maze. And then they evaporated.

Did it work?

I said a silent prayer and then sprinted full speed into the direction of where I'd just sent the spell. For a second, I thought it had worked. I was just about to pump my fists in the air, when without warning I was thrown backward like a snapped rubber band. Only, there was nothing to cushion my fall, and I landed on my butt several feet away.

“Well,
that
was an epic failure,” I muttered, frustration coursing through me. I got to my feet huffily.

With a determined look, I went back to the same spot I'd stood in before. I scuffed my feet in the dirt a few times and then concentrated before trying the spell again.

“Exbiliby totalitum!”

The same thing happened, and I watched the power of the spell spread across the air. I didn't have to humiliate myself to know it hadn't worked. Again.

But before I could try another tactic, I felt something hit my back. It wasn't hard. More like a pressure building up behind me. Confused, I turned around and brought my arm out, only to find it bounce back toward my body.

That can't be right.

I knew for a fact that a few minutes before, this wall had been several feet away from where I was standing now. Yet, here it was, at my back. I looked down at the dirt to make sure I hadn't gone back further than I'd thought. But the markings were there, same as before.

What the spell . . .

A lightbulb went off in my head and my heart began to race. I hadn't moved; it was the invisible wall that was pushing itself forward. Closing me in.

I took a step forward to test my theory and counted the seconds as they went by. Birds chirped nearby and the sun shone through the trees, warming my arms through the sleeves of my shirt. I was getting hot and uncomfortable and my head was screaming to move. But I stayed put and counted.

Twenty seconds passed by before I felt the wall at my back again.

Panic began to build inside me. The invisible box that I'd found myself in was getting smaller and smaller, and if I didn't find a way out of here fast, I was going to be stuck in here with nowhere to go.

And then I'd lose.

Fighting off the fear, I forced myself to focus on the matter at hand. I had to get out. And there
was
a way—that much I knew—I just had to solve the puzzle first. Looking ahead, I took in everything around me. Where was my clue? What could be used to get out of this? Where was the key to unlocking this challenge?

Searching the area as if it were one of those pictures where something just doesn't belong, I began to consider every object in front of me until I found the answer.

I almost didn't even notice it. In fact, my eyes had swept over the spot nearly a dozen times since I'd been standing there, and I'd never picked up on it. But now, while I was looking for things that didn't fit in with the surroundings, it made total sense.

I'd found my target.

It wasn't red and white like the targets we'd had during our practice sessions. The circular-shaped board actually blended in with the tree it was hanging from, but clearly showed a circle within a circle within a circle, just like a bull's-eye. And I was positive that I'd have to hit it in order to move on.

I felt a pressure at my back again and took another step forward.

I needed to work fast.

Lining up my hand with the target that hung in a tree about twenty feet away, I said the exploding spell again, this time as loudly and potently as I could. My aim was perfect, and with a deafening boom, the object blew to pieces. This time the air in front of me glowed purple before fading back to the clear path beyond. Hurrying to the spot where I knew the invisible force-field had just been, I paused before cautiously taking a step forward. Scrunching up my face, I waited for my body to hit resistance.

But there was nothing.

I took another step forward.

Nothing.

And another.

Still nothing.

Then, I started to run.

About thirty feet ahead, I began to feel the pressure grow in front of me again. So, I slowed down and tried to find the target. This time there were two. One hidden in the bushes of a nearby shrub and another just behind a tree branch. I'd have to destroy a limb before I could hit the target, but it wouldn't be too difficult.

As I started to take aim, I was pushed off balance. Only this time, the wall continued to move me forward. It was slow, but constant, with no counts between its movements. Which meant I didn't have time to waste. I had to find the targets and destroy them as quickly as I could.

I took aim and wasted the board in the bush and then switched over to the tree in front of the second target. Squaring up, I shattered the branch into a thousand little toothpicks and then did the same thing with the board that had been located directly behind it. The air glowed purple and I started to sprint again until I could tell I was supposed to stop.

This time I feverishly combed the woods, trying to find the next targets. Only, there weren't any that I could see. Yet. Alarms were going off in my head, telling me that I needed to keep moving otherwise I'd be trapped. The back wall was moving more quickly now, and it would catch up to me any second.

“Come on! Where are you?” I shouted to the empty forest.

Just as I said it, there was a flash of movement to my right. My head flew around and I saw it. The bull's-eye. It had popped up above a large rock. But as I watched, it dipped back down again and out of sight.

Curious.

Another flash had me turning in the opposite direction and I saw another board poke out from behind a small tree-trunk. This time, I was ready for it and sent the exploding spell its way before it could disappear like the other one had. The sound the wood made as it splintered was satisfying, but the air didn't glow purple like before, which meant the section hadn't been cleared yet.

Seconds later a third bull's-eye appeared more than thirty feet away and I had to squint just to get a good look at it. Taking aim, I said the spell, but missed. Blinking a few times to clear my sight, I set back up and this time hit the target.

Without seeing it, I could feel the force coming up behind me.

Gotta move!

But the air still hadn't turned purple yet, so I had no other choice but to wait impatiently for something to happen. Finally, the first target that I'd seen, popped back up from its place behind the rock and I sent a spell its way, hitting it dead-on.

“Boom!” I yelled as the invisible wall turned purple and allowed me to finally move forward.

After that, I alternated between running and shooting, running and shooting, all the while knowing that at any moment the wall behind me could box me in. I was playing magical Whac-A-Mole, only the prize was power and bragging rights.

I kept on, blowing up targets left and right and then sprinting to the next. Until I came to the thirteenth set. I knew this was the grand finale even before it started. There was something in the air as I waited for the targets to appear. And when they did, I barely had time to think before I was sending exploding spells into the forest.

The third target that popped up was a life-size cutout of Abby. I was so shocked to see her face appear in the woods, that I froze at first. Once I'd regained composure, I raised my hand to do the spell, but hesitated.

Would they really want me to blow up my roommate?

Seconds ticked by as I considered this, and just as I was going to force myself to do something, a bull's-eye materialized just over cutout Abby's right shoulder. With a smile, I adjusted my aim and obliterated the target, leaving my boyfriend's sister intact. After that, there were more targets and more red herrings—in the form of Colette, Jasmine, Jinx, and even Brooklyn and Eve. Part of me wanted so badly to blow up the last two, but I knew it would've disqualified me. And a better revenge would be when I won the whole thing and then revealed to everyone what Brooklyn had been up to.

The moving wall began to push me forward before I'd finished, and I dug my heels into the dirt to try to buy myself more time. I hit the targets as quickly and accurately as I could, but I was getting flustered. How was a girl supposed to concentrate under this kind of pressure?

Using both my hands, I pointed at two targets at once, watching as they blew up ahead of me. And then there was silence.

The wall disappeared from my back and the air in front of me glowed purple, followed by my bracelet, which lit up in the same shade. Directly after this, jewels began to light up red. One after another they glowed deeply, showing me how many people had just been sent back to camp.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

It continued on until nine gems were lit. Nine twitches hadn't survived this round. They'd admitted defeat, but I was still here. I'd passed challenge number two.

“And they all fall down,” I said, taking a deep breath before moving on.

My head was telling me to hurry up, but my whole body was screaming to give it a break. Slow down. Take a breather. My legs were on fire, I was struggling to catch my breath, and my mouth felt like I'd swallowed cotton balls. In other words, I was in sad shape.

“Do we get water breaks out here?” I asked the deserted forest, knowing full well no one was going to answer me.

Desperately thirsty, I forced myself to keep going, now at a pace much slower than before. A cross between a shuffle and a ramble, I propelled my feet forward despite my exhaustion.

What felt like an hour later, but might have only been five or ten minutes, I came upon something that made me stop and collapse to the ground with happiness. Like a mirage in the desert, it was exactly what I'd hoped for.

Leaning on the smooth surface of a tree stump, I grabbed the two notecards that had been propped up against a bottle of water. Sweat dripped down my brow, and I wiped it away with my sleeve. I couldn't remember a time when I'd been so thirsty, but I took a second to look at what the card said before knocking back the bottle.

Drink me.

Well, okie-dokie then. Why I'd needed instructions to do this, I wasn't sure. The direction and setup were very
Alice in Wonderland
, and I knew what happened after
she
drank the Kool-Aid. Still, the Brighton world was far less sinister than the one Lewis Carroll created, so I figured that here, water was probably just water.

At least I hoped, because I frantically twisted off the cap and drank over half of the contents in one long, continuous gulp. The feeling was glorious as the icy-cool liquid made its way down my throat and quenched the dried-out hollow in my chest and stomach. My need was so intense that I'd forgotten to breathe as I sucked down the water and had to fight to get air into my lungs when I pulled the bottle back from my mouth.

Deep breaths, I reminded myself as my gasps turned to pants and then eventually back to normal. Once I'd calmed, I flipped over the next card and continued to sip my supply.

Take your break, you've earned your stop,

You're on your way right to the top.

But you're not done, there's more in store,

A slither, some creeping, a moan, a roar.

Face your fears and let them pass,