There's Something Out There (10 page)

Maggie, stop talking. Maggie, stop talking
, Jenna tried to psychically tell her friend. How could Maggie
not
know that she was giving Jason ammunition for his teasing?

“So
that's
it!” Jason exclaimed. “Baby Jenna's gotten all spooked about the Marked Monster since she started doing her research! Don't be scared, Jenna! I'm sure your little
friends
will protect you from the Big Bad Monster!”

“Shut up, Jason! You're such a jerk!” Jenna yelled at last—just as her dad came up from the basement, lugging the tent, tarp, and other camping supplies.

“Hey, watch it,” he said with a frown. “You keep talking to your brother like that and you won't be having any sleepovers this weekend.”

An awkward silence fell over the room. Maggie
stared down at her poster like she wished she could be invisible. Jenna could feel Jason smirking at her, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of looking his way.

“I'm going to start dinner,” Mr. Walker continued.

Jenna stayed silent as she rotated the map and re-glued it to her poster.

“That's looking really good,” Maggie said encouragingly. “You're definitely going to get a good grade on this!”

“Hope so,” Jenna said quietly.

“Can you even
believe
that the Sacred Square is right behind your house?” Maggie asked. “Can I use your computer real quick? I want to e-mail Brit and Laurel to tell them! They are going to
freak out
. It's so creepy!”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

As Maggie typed away, Jenna racked her brain, trying to think of a way—any way—to move the sleepover indoors. But how? Everybody loved campouts in the woods behind Jenna's house. The other girls were already psyched for the first campout of summer. And even if Jenna somehow did convince her friends to have a sleepover instead of a campout, Jason was just
waiting
for more reasons to make fun of her. He knew her better than she wanted to admit—and he was absolutely right
about her fear. She could already tell that he'd tease her relentlessly about it. He'd never shut up about it.

Lost in thought, Jenna traced her finger around the area marked on the old map: the Sacred Square. Then she glanced out the window at the woods.

If Maggie and the others knew what had happened there—

That Manfred Lewis and Chief Onongahkan had attacked the Keuhkkituh and turned it into the Marked Monster—

That the monster's black blood had spilled there and that nothing,
nothing
, had grown from the polluted ground since—

That Imogen Lewis had probably bled to death on that very spot, a victim of the Marked Monster—

That almost two weeks ago, Jenna had found a claw in the tree—a sign from the Marked Monster announcing its return—

Jenna was certain they, too, would dread the thought of venturing into the Sacred Square, let alone spending an entire night there.

But how could she possibly tell them? It was all too crazy. They'd never believe it.

Jenna had a burst of hope when she woke up on Friday morning, the day of the campout. She jumped out of bed and ran over to the window. But the minute she looked outside, her hopes were dashed. The sun was shining brightly in a beautiful blue sky. It was a gorgeous, late-spring day, practically perfect camping weather.

One rainstorm?
she thought.
We couldn't have one big, soaking rainstorm to turn the Sacred Square into a mud pit?

Now, Jenna knew, she was out of options. The campout was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not.

That was probably why her head was hurting so badly. Jenna rubbed at her temples and glanced longingly at her bed. All she wanted to do in that moment was crawl back into it, pull the blankets over her head,
and sleep all day. Actually, now that she thought about it, it wasn't just her head that was hurting. Her whole body had started to ache—especially her left arm.

Jenna rolled up her sleeve and stared at the cut. It was looking more disgusting than ever, with red streaks radiating outward from the wound.
I'm going to have to wear long sleeves today
, she realized.
This cut is so gross
.

But
, she tried to reassure herself,
at least it's not oozing anymore
. The thick, crusty scab had to be a sign that it was healing.

At least, that was what Jenna hoped.

After she got dressed, she went to the kitchen.

“Morning, sweet pea!” Dr. Walker said cheerfully. “Listen, Dad's got a meeting and won't be home until seven, and I'm going to be working tonight, so we won't be able to grill up hot dogs for the campout. I'm sorry. Do you want to order pizza instead?”

“Sure,” Jenna said flatly. She grabbed a carton of blueberry yogurt out of the fridge and started to eat it at the counter. “Pizza's good. Whatever.”

“Are you okay?” Dr. Walker asked, looking closely at Jenna's face.

“I have a headache,” Jenna said, shrugging, still not
wanting to worry her mother about her arm.

“This warm weather,” her mother said, shaking her head. “Allergy season is definitely here. Or do you think you're getting sick?”

“Sick? More like scared,” Jason muttered under his breath.

Jenna rolled her eyes at him. “It's just allergies,” she said.

“Honey, I'm putting some money on top of the fridge in case you want to order the pizza before Dad gets home from work,” Dr. Walker said. “Have fun tonight! I'll see you in the morning!”

“Thanks, Mom,” Jenna said, forcing a smile.

As the school day dragged on, Jenna felt worse and worse—not just from her pounding headache and achy muscles, but from the weight of dread that seemed to grow heavier with every passing hour. More than once, she wondered if she should just go to the nurse and try to get sent home from school. If she was sick she could skip the campout. But then a terrible thought struck her:
What if the rest of my friends go ahead with the campout?

She shuddered to think of her friends, all alone in the Sacred Square, not knowing what she knew. They would be helpless against the Marked Monster if it showed up—and if anything happened to them, Jenna knew she could never forgive herself.

The house was empty when she got home from school; her friends wouldn't arrive for another two hours.
I'll just lie down for a minute and watch some TV
, Jenna decided as she stretched out on the overstuffed couch in the den. But before she could even turn on the TV, she fell asleep.

To feel so hot when everything is so cold; when the limbs of trees groan under the weight of ice and all the world glitters with snow. To face your doom with clear eyes. To walk, step by painful step, to your end. To know of the teeth and the talons. The breaking of bones. The tearing of flesh. And all your precious lifeblood will drain from your body. Your veins will empty and your skin will sink and your body will be nothing but a shell, and then your body will not
be,
and the earth will drink of your blood until all that's left of you is a dark stain in the dirt. You already know the last thing you will feel (pain); the last thing you will see (claws); and the last thing you will hear (a cry so sharp, so shrill)—

Jenna stirred just once before she sat bolt upright,
her heart pounding, her head throbbing, her ears splitting from the noise—

She stumbled off the couch and ran to the door before she realized that it was the phone and the doorbell, ringing simultaneously, that had jolted her from sleep. When she flung open the front door, she found Brittany and Laurel standing there.

“Finally!” Brittany said in a voice of supreme annoyance as she flipped her phone shut. Her auburn hair glinted in the late afternoon sun. “We've been ringing the doorbell for, like, ten minutes!”

“Sorry!” Jenna apologized as she held the door open for them. “I must've fallen asleep or something.”

“Ooh, well played!” Laurel laughed. “You're really going to stay up all night, huh?”

“Yeah, well, we'll see,” Jenna replied.

“Have you set up the tent?” asked Brittany.

“Not yet,” Jenna admitted.

“Well, let's get out back and get started,” Brittany declared. “Before the sun sets and it gets too dark to see anything out there.”

“Is Maggie here?” Laurel asked.

“Uh, no,” Jenna said. “She didn't come with you guys?”

Brittany and Laurel exchanged a look. “We, um, didn't call her, actually,” Laurel admitted. “I assumed she would already be here.”

“Oh. Well, I guess she'll be here soon,” Jenna replied. “And if Jason and my dad aren't home by the time she gets here, she'll know where to find us, right?”

The girls made two trips to the clearing to carry their sleeping bags, backpacks, tent, and the stuffed grocery bag of snacks that Brittany had brought. The clearing wasn't far from the edge of Jenna's backyard—only about ten feet—but the dense trees completely blocked the house, making it seem like the girls had wandered much farther into the woods. A few bright rays of sunshine filtered through the tall pines surrounding the clearing. Though the sun wouldn't set for a couple of hours, the trees cast such long shadows through the clearing that it seemed like night was coming on fast. The girls worked quickly to pitch the tent, assembling it at the edge of the clearing near the base of the biggest pine—the same tree where Jenna had found the claw a couple of weeks ago. She could see that an amber vein of sap had crusted over the slit where the talon had been embedded. Jenna tried her hardest not to flinch at every little snapping
twig or unusual sound she heard.
The woods are always full of weird noises
, she reminded herself.

Still, she wished that Brittany and Laurel would keep it down a little. They were making it so hard for her to really
listen
to the noises … just in case something was out there, lurking beyond the trees.

As the sun began to set, Jenna glanced around. “Where
is
Maggie?” she asked, glancing at her watch. “We said five o'clock, right? It's after six.”

“I'll call her,” Brittany offered, slipping her phone out of her pocket. Then she frowned. “I'm not getting any service, guys. Stupid trees.”

There was a long silence.

“You don't think—” Laurel began.

“The Marked Monster?” Jenna cut her off. “I don't know! Do you think it was, like, waiting? What if she was walking out here all by herself and it
attacked
her?”

Brittany and Laurel stared at Jenna as if she'd lost her mind. “Um, I was going to say, you don't think she's waiting on your doorstep, really annoyed with us for not being at the house to let her in?” Laurel said slowly.

“Why would she sit on the doorstep for an hour?” Jenna asked crossly. “She knows we'd be in the clearing.
She'd at least come out here to check, right? I mean, she's not stupid!”

“Jenna, what's up with you?” Brittany asked. “You don't
actually
think Maggie got attacked by the Marked Monster, do you?”

Jenna opened her mouth and then closed it again quickly. The tone of Brittany's voice told her everything she needed to know: To the other girls, the Marked Monster was just a joke, a spooky story they told themselves to feel all freaked out. Jenna could still remember how fun that used to be.

If you only knew
, she thought.
If you only knew what I know
.

But she didn't say anything like that. Instead she took a deep breath and said, “Let's go inside. We can see if Maggie's waiting out front. And we can call her.”

She didn't mention the other reason why she wanted to go back: Any time spent away from the clearing, even just a few minutes, was a chance for her to feel safe. To
know
that she—and her friends—were out of the Marked Monster's reach.