Author: R. L. Stine
Date: 2001-01-01 08:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Horror; Fantasy; Childrens; Young Adult; Paranormal
Description: Twelve ultra-smart, ultra-competitive kids have been selected to take part in a survival competition called Life Games. Not only will they have to overcome the dangers of life on a tropical island, they'll also have to face the evil presence that lives there...waiting for its next victim. No Survivors April must return to the island where the games began. But now the evil is ready to play the final round. And this time, there is just one rule-win, or die!Don't tell anyone the surprise ending to The Nightmare Room Thrillogy!
Publisher: HarperCollins
Rights: Copyright © 2001 by Parachute Publishing, L.L.C

The Nightmare Room Thrillogy 3

No Survivors

R.L. Stine

Contents

Prologue

Shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, Donald…

Part One

This Summer

1

The flames of the campfire danced high in a warm…

2

Some kids laughed. Others muttered to each other.

3

Silence now. Except for the whisper of the wind and…

4

The morning sun was still a low red ball over…

5

April grabbed Kristen’s arm. “She’s in the tree! She’s watching…

6

April examined the robot bird in her hands. “That snake…

7

“Tonight we light the first torch for one of our…

Part Two

The Year 1680 The Port of Plymouth, England

8

Deborah Andersen wrapped her mother’s black cloak around her. The…

9

“AAAAIIIIIIII!”

10

Deborah let out a cry when she saw her cottage.

11

As Deborah screamed, the calf raised its eyes to her—all…

12

Tears streamed down the faces of the silent boys.

13

The town constable’s office was in a small stone building…

Part Three

This Summer The Island

14

“I’m choking…choking!”

15

The morning sun poured down its warm light on the…

16

“Go! Go! Go!”

17

“No sssssurvivors!”

18

At lunch, Donald Marks announced a free afternoon for everyone.

19

Both girls spun around.

20

April felt her jaw drop in disbelief. Pam just called…

21

“Whoa!”

22

“Someone is in this cave,” April said. She suddenly felt…

23

“Marlin! It’s you l” April cried.

24

April fought back tears. Pam was right. She had led…

25

“Are you totally crazy?” Kristen shrieked.

26

Kristen knelt beside Pam. “Stay calm,” she said. “We’ll get…

27

The rocks rumbled and cracked beneath them.

28

April let out a gasp. Why is she staring at…

29

The woman in the blue cloak took a step toward…

30

“I’m your daughter!” Kristen insisted.

31

“AAAAAAAGGGGGH!”

About the Author

Other Books by R.L. Stine

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

Welcome…

Hello, I’m R.L. Stine. Welcome to part three of a very special Nightmare Room story.

It’s about a girl named April Powers who joins eleven other kids on a tropical island. The kids are there to play survival games—for a prize of $100,000. But they soon discover that someone else is on the island, someone who doesn’t want them to survive!

When I started to write this story, I realized that it was too big and too frightening to tell in one book. April’s story had to be told in three books instead of one.

And so the THRILLOGY was born.

Welcome to my special nightmare…

PROLOGUE

Shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, Donald Marks stood near the top of the hill of blue rocks. He gazed up at the woman standing by the cave opening.

“I have kept my promise,” he said. He pointed to the sparkling ocean below. Moving steadily over the waves, a white boat approached the island’s dock. “I have brought your daughter back to the island.”

Katherine stood with her arms crossed tightly in front of her. Despite the tropical afternoon heat, she wore a heavy blue cloak.

Her face is so pale, Marks thought. It nearly disappears in the sunlight. Her long blond-brown hair fluttered behind the cape in the light breeze off the ocean.

She frowned at him. “We shall see,” she said in a dry voice that sounded more like a cough.

Marks mopped his bald head with the back of his hand. “It’s going to be a cheerful family reunion, huh?”

The woman let out a cold laugh. “Three hundred years ago my daughter vowed revenge. Now she’s coming here to kill me.”

“That can’t be right.” Marks tried to sound confident. “I know these kids. None of them are killers.”

“You know nothing about it,” Katherine told him.

“My daughter used magic to take on a new body. She thinks I won’t recognize her. But I will. I’ll find a way to force her to reveal herself.” Her features hardened. “I shall be ready for her.”

“And you will keep your promise to me?” Marks asked. “You will allow all the others to leave?” Katherine didn’t reply.

“Answer me,” he insisted. “You can deal with your daughter any way you please. But I want all the others to leave the island alive. Do you promise?”

She took a long time. But finally, she said, “I promise.”

He left quickly. She watched him make his way down the hill of blue stones. A heavyset man trembling with fear. Then she turned her eyes to the white boat. She knew it was bringing the Academy kids back to the island.

And she knew it was bringing her daughter.

Katherine kept her eyes on the boat until it pulled up to the dock. Then she picked up a sharp stone from the ground.

“I promise,” she muttered softly to herself.

“I promise…I promise…I promise.”

A thin, bitter smile crossed her face. “What good are promises?”

She carried the stone to the side of the cave where she lived. And using the stone as chalk, she scratched two words into the rock wall of the cave:

NO SURVIVORS

Part One

This Summer

1

The flames of the campfire danced high in a warm breeze. In the inky night sky, a million stars flickered.

April Powers glanced around the circle of kids. Their faces glowed orange in the firelight.

April counted ten kids in all. Nine who had been on the island for the first Life Games competitions last spring. And Pam Largent, who had tagged along with April.

Pam and April weren’t exactly friends. But their parents were. For as long as she could remember, April kept getting stuck with Pam.

Back home, Pam had been so jealous that April had been invited by The Academy to compete in their Life Games—especially when April’s team won. Pam admitted she would do anything to be a part of the games. Then, when April was invited back for this reunion, Pam made sure she got asked along.

So now, here she was. Chatting nonstop with everyone. Working hard to impress the other kids. Eager to be the most popular and the most successful.

April watched Pam across the campfire. Pam was flirting with Anthony Thomas. April could hear her teasing Anthony about his red hair.

April sighed. She hadn’t wanted to come to the reunion. The island frightened her. The last time she was here, her team barely made it off alive.

And she left with a souvenir. April’s hand touched the spot on her temple where there was now a blue crescent moon.

April counted the kids again. Nine. Only nine out of twelve had returned. Where were the other three?

Where was Marlin Davis, a member of April’s team? April’s friend. Marlin had vanished. He had promised to write to April, but he never did.

Marlin’s mother said he was still on the island. But how could that be? April and the others had returned home nearly two months ago.

April turned to Kristen Wood. Kristen sat crosslegged beside her. She stared thoughtfully into the fire.

Kristen, Marlin, and Anthony had all been on April’s team.

After they left the island, strange things had happened to both April and Kristen. April had terrifying dreams. She found herself wandering in the middle of the night—with no memory of leaving her house. She heard sounds and smelled things from the island.

She saw the woman in the blue cloak.

Are Kristen and I the only ones here who realize that something is very wrong? April wondered.

As if something had followed them home from the island.

As if something had pulled them back here.

Staring at the darting yellow flames, April remembered the terrifying woman in the blue cloak. She lived in the caves high on a rocky hill overlooking the shore.

She had captured April. April didn’t remember how.

She remembered waking up with the woman hovering over her, sucking away her breath. Sucking away her strength…

The woman had touched her temple. The woman’s touch burned. Later April saw the blue crescent moon where the woman touched her.

Despite the waves of heat from the fire, April shivered.

Back home, her memory had been fogged. Erased. It took weeks and weeks until it all suddenly came back to her.

Did that frightening woman have Marlin up at her cave? Did she have Dolores and Jared, the other two missing kids?

April swore she would never return to this place. But she had to learn the truth. She had to find out what happened to her friend Marlin.

Until she solved the mystery, she knew the island would haunt her. It would never let her live in peace.

The fire popped noisily. A few kids laughed.

Pam had moved close to a young man holding a video camera. There were camera guys everywhere. This whole island reunion was being taped for TV.

Pam chattered away, smiling into the camera.

She really wants to be a star, April thought bitterly. I wish my mom hadn’t forced me to bring Pam along.

Clark Jones and Kendra Willis started tossing a tennis ball back and forth across the fire. Anthony made a grab for it, and the ball bounced into the fire. Everyone laughed.

Another TV guy, a tall, lanky young man with a long blond ponytail, captured it all on video.

April leaned close to Kristen. “Are we the only ones who aren’t here to have a good time?” she whispered.

Kristen nodded. “None of the others realizes the danger…”

April turned as everyone started to cheer. Donald Marks came lumbering across the sand, followed by Mira and Blake, two new assistants.

All three of them wore khaki shorts and white T-shirts with ACADEMY STAFF printed on the front in bold black letters.

Marks was the director of The Academy. He was a huge man with a round, bald head and bushy black eyebrows over round, dark eyes.

He had a bulging stomach that bounced as he strode over the sand to the campfire. And a booming voice with a hearty laugh that came from deep in his belly.

He stepped into the circle of kids, wiping sweat off his broad forehead with a handkerchief. “Hot night,” he said. “It’s great to see you all. Great to be back on the island.”

The cameraman with the blond ponytail moved in close to Marks. Marks waved him back. “No closeups—please!” he said, laughing.

He turned back to the circle of kids. “I hope you will all just act natural. Ignore the cameras, okay? It won’t be easy. They are everywhere. But just pretend these guys don’t exist.”

That will be hard for Pam, April thought. She’s been following the video guys around since the moment we arrived.

“You’re all going to be TV stars,” Marks said, grinning at them. “We are going to hold our Life Games competitions again for the cameras. And once again, there is a big cash prize to the winner.”

Everyone except April and Kristen cheered at that announcement. I don’t care about winning more money, April thought. I just want to learn what is really going on here.

“Some kids are missing,” Clark said, shouting over the crackling campfire. “Are you going to make new teams?”

Marks mopped his forehead again. “We have some changes in the rules to make it more exciting this time,” he announced. “No teams. Everyone is on his own.”

That brought another big cheer.

A grin spread over Marks’s round face. “Watch out,” he said. “Because of the TV cameras, we’ve made it more exciting—and more dangerous.”

“How is it more dangerous?” Kendra asked.

Marks stepped closer to the fire. The darting flames cast an orange glow over his face. His tiny round eyes reflected the light.

He lowered his voice as if sharing a secret. “We have someone new on the island,” he said. “We are not alone here anymore.”

He grinned into the video camera. “We have a witch living on the island,” Marks said. “You will recognize her by her blue cloak.”

April felt a chill freeze her back.

Marks’s grin grew wider. “If you see her—run!” he declared. “She isn’t friendly. In fact, she is your enemy.”

It grew very silent. Even the fire seemed to hush.

“Every day,” Marks continued, speaking softly, “the witch is going to eliminate one kid. Until there is only one of you left. By the time these Life Games end, only one of you will survive!”

2

Some kids laughed. Others muttered to each other.

“Oooh, a real witch. I’m scared! I’m scared!” Anthony cried. He shook all over, pretending to be frightened.

“Maybe she’ll turn you into a frog!” Kendra joked.

“She already did!” a boy named Phil shouted. That made everyone laugh.

Anthony jumped up angrily. He grabbed the front of Phil’s T-shirt. The two boys started wrestling on the sand.

“Easy, guys,” Marks said. “Take it easy now.” Mira and Blake, the two new assistants, pulled the boys apart. Two camera guys got it all on tape.

Kids cheered and laughed.

April stared at the fire, thinking hard. Despite the heat from the flames, she felt chilled all over.

She turned to Kristen. “I don’t believe it. Marks is making a joke of it,” she whispered.

Kristen nodded. “He wants everyone to think the witch is part of the TV show. But we know she’s real. And dangerous.”

“We have to warn the others,” April whispered. “We have to let them know the danger is real.”

Across the fire, Pam jumped to her feet. “Do I just have to watch?” she asked Marks. “I know I wasn’t here the first time. But can I play in the games too?”

“Yes, you can,” Marks replied. “Since some of the kids didn’t make it—”

“Where are they?” April broke in. The words burst out more shrill than she had intended. “Where are Marlin, Dolores, and Jared? Do you know why they didn’t come to the reunion?”

Marks’s grin faded as he turned to April. “I invited them,” he replied. “But I didn’t hear back. I really don’t know why they didn’t want to come, April. I just don’t know.”

He’s lying, April thought. He doesn’t want me to ask about those kids.

Later, April and Kristen waited until all the lights were out in Marks’s cabin. Then they ran quickly to the other cabins, waking kids up, dragging them outside.

“What’s up?”

“Did the games start?”

“Midnight swim?”

“Fire drill?”

April struggled to keep them quiet. “Kristen and I want to hold a meeting,” she whispered. “A private meeting.”

She led them all down to the beach. Past the purple embers of the dying campfire. Around a bend, out of sight of the Academy Village.

Moonlight poured down on the frothy waves as they splashed over the shore. A warm, salty breeze fluttered April’s hair.

“April? What’s the big idea?” Anthony asked. “I was already asleep.”

“Is this being taped?” Phil asked, looking around. “Kristen and I want to talk to you,” April began.

“We think Marks is lying. About the missing kids.”

“Oh, wow. Here we go again,” Anthony groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Let her talk,” Clark said.

“But she’s crazy!” Anthony insisted.

“We’re not crazy,” Kristen broke in. “Something very strange has been happening to us.”

“Back home,” April said. “Things from the island followed us home. I heard a woman singing. The same woman my team heard when we were abandoned here.”

A few kids laughed. Anthony rolled his eyes again.

“And the horrible stench from the rock caves,” April continued. “It followed me home. I smelled it in my bedroom.”

“Take a bath. It’ll go away,” Anthony joked.

The others didn’t laugh. They had all grown silent, staring at April.

“I had nightmares about the island every night,” April told them. “And they were so real. And I saw the woman in the blue cloak. She isn’t pretend.”

“After I returned home, all kinds of disturbing things happened to me too,” Kristen said. “How about the rest of you?”

No one answered.

“You have to believe us,” April said. “There’s something evil on this island. The witch that Marks is talking about is real. She’s got Marlin. And she may have taken Jared and Dolores too.”

The other kids just looked at her.

“It’s the truth!” April insisted.

“I know.” Clark sounded scared. “I believe you.”

“We believe you,” Kendra added solemnly.

3

Silence now. Except for the whisper of the wind and the steady rush of waves against the rocky shore. The kids in the circle were still.

“Yeah.” Anthony stared into April’s eyes. “We believe you. We believe you’re nuts.”

All the kids burst out laughing.

It took April a few seconds to realize they had all been joking.

“April, don’t you ever give up?” Anthony demanded. “Do you really believe in evil witches?” Kendra asked. “Like in fairy tales?”

April grabbed Anthony’s arm. “You heard the woman singing. We all heard her. Don’t you remember?”

“Of course I remember,” Anthony said, tugging free of her grasp. “It was part of the bravery test, remember? None of it was real, April. It was all a game.”

“It wasn’t a game!” April insisted.

Clark groaned. “Did you really wake us up and drag us down here for this?”

April balled her hands into tight fists. “Don’t any of you realize that three kids are missing?” she cried. “We spoke to Marlin’s mom. She said he never came home!”

“That’s crazy,” Ronni muttered.

Pam stepped up to April, her long blond hair fluttering in the wind. “I know what you are doing,” she said. “You’re trying to make yourself the center of attention.”

“Huh?” April gasped. “Me? Why? Why would I do that?”

“To get the most camera time,” Pam said. “You went on all those TV shows back home because you won the Life Games. And you really got to like being a big star—didn’t you?”

“Whoa. Wait a minute—” April started to say. “So now you want to be the star of this show too,” Pam accused April.

“I—I don’t believe you!” April gasped.

“Lighten up—everyone,” Clark said. “We’re here to have fun—right? We’re here to party!”

“Come on, April, this is going to be fun,” Phil said.

“No, it’s not,” April argued. “It’s going to be dangerous and—”

“Let’s have a beach party!” Pam broke in. “Definitely, a beach party!” Kendra agreed.

Phil and Clark lifted a girl named Courtney off the sand. They swung her between them, threatening to toss her in the water.

Kristen pulled April aside. “Forget it,” she whispered. “Give up. They’re not going to believe us. They think it’s all fun and games.”

“But—what are we going to do?” April replied.

“Let’s drop it for now,” Kristen said. “No matter what we say, they’ll just make jokes.”

April stayed behind on the beach when the others finally returned to their cabins. The wind off the ocean carried a late-night chill. And the moon blinked in and out behind thin wisps of cloud.

Hugging herself to stay warm, April turned and gazed at the rock hills down the beach. The rocks glowed blue against the darkness.

So strange, April thought, hugging herself tighter. Even at night the rocks glow.

She remembered how cold they were to the touch. Even with the tropical sun pounding down on them, the rocks were always icy cold.

And somewhere at the top of those rocks…

Somewhere in a cave cut into the wall of a rock hill…

…lived a woman in a blue cloak. A terrifying woman who sucked the breath out of kids.

A woman whose evil magic had followed April home.

April gazed at the rock hill until her eyes watered over, and the rocks became a blue blur against the night sky.

“I know you’re there,” she whispered. “The others may laugh. But I know the truth.”

“Do you, daughter?” The words seemed to float on the wind.

April spun around. Her heart pounded. That time the woman in the blue cloak caught her, she had called her daughter.

“Where are you?” April demanded.

But the beach was empty. There was no one there. She started to jog back to her cabin.

She turned from the beach, running through the grass that led to the rows of cabins. She stopped when she saw the long object in the grass.

Was it moving?

Breathing hard, she bent to see it better.

At first she thought it was a stick or a rolled-up palm-tree leaf.

“Oh!” April cried out when she saw that it was a long, pale snake.

Before she could step back, the snake raised its head from the grass.

April saw its eyes dart back and forth. She saw its tongue flicker.

And then it opened its jaw and hissed at her. “No sssssurvivors.”

4

The morning sun was still a low red ball over the water. The ground shimmered wetly from the early morning dew.

April took a deep breath and stepped into the mess hall.

She felt as though she had barely slept. She tugged the long red plastic earring she always wore on her right ear. She always tugged at it when she was nervous.

Would anyone believe her about the snake? Should she even bother to tell anyone about it?

Most of the other kids had already started their breakfast. April spotted Kristen at a back table with Anthony and Courtney. Anthony was trying to make his cereal spoon stick to his nose.

At the next table, Pam was talking to Clark. She kept grabbing his arm and touching his chest as she talked. She whipped her long mane of blond hair back and forth.

April didn’t feel much like eating. She scooped some scrambled eggs onto her plate. Then she took a blueberry muffin and a cup of orange juice.

She carried her tray to Kristen’s table and sat down next to Anthony. “What’s up?” she asked.

Anthony turned. He had the spoon stuck to his nose. “The witch did this to me, April!” he joked.

April grabbed the spoon. “Not funny,” she muttered.

Anthony rolled his eyes. “Some people have no sense of humor,” he said. “But they do have muffins.” He grabbed the blueberry muffin from April’s plate and shoved it into his mouth.

“Forget him,” Kristen said to April. “He’s hopeless.” She looked at April more carefully. “You don’t look so good.”

April shrugged. “Last night something happened on my way back to the cabin. I—I couldn’t fall asleep afterward.”

“What happened?” Kristen asked.

“Not now,” April whispered. “Anthony will just laugh at me.”

Mira stepped to the front of the room, clapping her hands for quiet. “Listen up, people,” she shouted.

Mira had a slender face topped with curly brown hair. She was short but athletic-looking. She wore crisp white tennis shorts and a blue midriff top that revealed a dark tan.

“I hope you didn’t pig out on breakfast,” she called out. “Because we have our first competition this morning.”

“Oink! Oink!” Phil and a boy named Raymond made pig snorts from the corner table.

Mira made a face at them. “The cameras are rolling!” she reminded them. “If you want to be a pig on national TV…”

Everyone laughed.

Mira raised a clipboard. “We thought we’d start with a simple contest,” she announced. “A foot race. To the other side of the island.”

“But that’s miles!” Raymond protested. “Wimp!” Anthony said.

“Which way do we go?” Kendra asked.

“Any way you want,” Mira replied. “You can try to go along the beach. But the rocks make it pretty rough. Or you can cut through the forest.”

“Can we take a boat?” Phil asked.

Everyone laughed. Clark threw an empty milk carton at him.

“First one to reach the dock on the other side of the island wins ten points,” Mira announced. “Go ahead. Start anytime.”

Chairs scraped against the floor as everyone jumped up. Some kids grabbed muffins, sweet rolls, and bottles of water as they hurried out of the mess hall.

Outside, April watched Pam start to jog alongside Clark. April saw Pam’s eyes narrow and her features tighten as she picked up speed.

As always, she really wants to win, April thought. I’ve never seen anyone who wants to win as much as Pam does.

She may run with Clark for a while. But when they get close to the finish, she’ll leave him behind in the dust.

Kristen came up behind April. “Let’s go!” she cried. “What are you waiting for?”

April held back. “Which way? Beach or woods?”

“Woods definitely,” Kristen said. “It’s going to be a scorcher. At least in the woods we’ll have some shade.”

They took off, jogging at an even pace. Kristen is right about the heat, April thought.

The morning sun hung just above the trees. But the air was already steamy, damp. The trees stood still, not a leaf rustling. No breeze at all.

April could see Courtney and Kendra up ahead. They were moving quickly, pushing through a clump of tall reeds.

April started to call to them. But they disappeared around a tangled cluster of pine trees.

Insects buzzed. The back of April’s neck began to tingle. She slapped a fat mosquito off the back of her hand.

After a while, they slowed to a walk. Shafts of warm sunlight poured down between the tree leaves overhead.

April stopped and took a drink from a water bottle. She handed it to Kristen. “How long have we been going?”

Kristen sighed. “Not very.”

They could hear voices up ahead. Pam and Clark. Talking as they ran.

“Something really scary happened last night,” April said as they started to walk again. She told Kristen about hearing the woman’s voice on the wind. Then seeing the snake that rose in front of her. And how it hissed the words No survivors.

“That’s really creepy,” Kristen said. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. It was totally real,” April said. “But I know what you mean. Normal snakes don’t talk. So how come this one did?”

Kristen shook her head angrily. “It must have been the woman in the blue cloak. The witch. I bet the snake was controlled by her magic.”

April stopped. She pulled a prickly burr off the shoulder of her T-shirt. “How can we go on playing games when we know there is real danger on this island?”

Kristen didn’t answer for a long while. Finally, she said, “What else we can do, April? I mean, how do we fight a witch?”

“I don’t know,” April admitted. “But we can’t just wait. Marlin is somewhere on this island. I know he is. When we were back home, I heard his voice. He was calling to me. It was so strange. He’s here, and he needs our help.”

“I wonder if Jared and Dolores are with him.”

“We should be searching for them,” April said. “We should be exploring the rock caves. Trying to find them.”

“Ow!” April’s hand flew to her temple. The blue crescent was burning. It felt as if someone had touched it with red-hot metal.

“What’s wrong?” Kristen asked.

April squeezed her eyes shut against the pain. Stop it, she thought. Please make the pain stop.

A second later the pain was gone. April glanced around, surprised. She felt her pulse throb at her temples.

“April, are you okay?” Kristen sounded scared.

April nodded. It was almost as if someone else caused the pain—and then stopped it.

“Weird. I…have the feeling we’re being watched,” she told Kristen.

“Watched?”

“Someone’s been listening to us. And I think she just let me know that she doesn’t like our plans.”

April raised her eyes to the fat branches of an old tree. She gasped when she saw a flash of blue on a limb halfway up.

It was the same blue as the blue cloak.

“She’s there!” April cried. “Kristen—she’s up there!”

5

April grabbed Kristen’s arm. “She’s in the tree! She’s watching us!”

They heard a cough.

The tree branch creaked, and the leaves parted.

April stared up at a middle-aged man in blue shorts and a blue T-shirt. He held a video camera in one hand.

“Sorry if I scared you,” he called down. “We’re supposed to stay out of sight.”

April’s mouth hung open. She took a deep breath, trying to force her heart to stop racing.

“I—I thought you were someone else,” she stammered.

She realized she was still squeezing Kristen’s arm. She let go and took a few steps back.

The video guy laughed. “You were expecting someone else to be up a tree?”

“You surprised us. That’s all,” Kristen said.

“Just pretend I’m not here,” the man said. “Go ahead and finish your race.”

The two girls took off, following a narrow path through the trees. April’s legs felt shaky as she jogged.

“Marks wants everyone to think this is all a TV show,” she said.

Kristen sighed. “And they all believe him. No one else thinks they’re in danger.”

“But we are,” April said. “We’ve got to find Marlin. And then we’ve got to find a way to get off this island. Before anyone else disappears.”

As they moved through the island forest, the air became hotter, steamier. Insects chirped. Birds called to one another from the swaying treetops.

April stopped to mop her forehead. She could feel the back of her T-shirt clinging to her sweaty skin.

She took a sip of water, then tilted the bottle over her dark hair and let the water run down her face.

Kristen leaned over and pressed her hands against her knees. “It’s too hot for a race,” she said. “We should be swimming.”

April sighed. “How much do you want to bet that Pam is already at the finish line?”

“Your friend really likes to win, huh?”

“She’s not my friend,” April said. “I’m just stuck with her. Pam is really—”

A flash of red in a tree made April stop. Squinting into sunlight, she saw a large bright-red bird.

“Is that a parrot or a macaw?” she asked Kristen.

The bird uttered a squawk, as if answering April’s question.

Then another shrill squawk.

Then it clearly spoke. “No survivors!”

April gasped.

Kristen let out a startled laugh. She stepped closer to the tree and peered at the bird.

“Awwwwk. No survivors,” the bird said again.

Kristen turned back to April. “This can’t be happening.”

April raised her eyes to the tree limb. She cried out as the large bird suddenly swayed—and toppled from the tree.

It landed headfirst with a hard thud in a pile of dead leaves.

April and Kristen both froze.

April waited for the bird to move, to stand up.

But it lay on its side. Its round black eye stared blankly at April.

Kristen dropped beside it in the pile of brown leaves. She reached out to touch it—but pulled her hand back. “It—it’s dead,” she whispered.

Then her expression changed. Her eyes narrowed. She reached out with both hands and lifted the bird from the ground.

“I…don’t believe this!” Kristen cried. “What is it?” April demanded.

Kristen didn’t reply. Instead, she tossed the bird to April.

The macaw bounced off April’s chest into her hands. She uttered a cry of surprise. “It’s a fake!”

Kristen nodded. “Some kind of robot puppet.”

April turned the bird upside down. It had a tiny speaker under its tail feathers. “Marks again,” she said angrily. “The whole island is booby-trapped with his tricks!”

6

April examined the robot bird in her hands. “That snake last night—do you think it was a fake too? Just one of Marks’s special effects?”

Kristen nodded. “Probably.”

“But how did Marks know anyone would come past this tree?” April asked.

“Anyone who comes through the forest has to use this path,” Kristen replied.

“But other kids came this way before us,” April said. “Why didn’t the bird talk to them? How come it fell on us?”

Kristen shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess. Or maybe Marks thinks we’re easy to scare.”

April tossed the macaw to the ground. She bit her bottom lip. “Don’t you see what Marks is doing, Kristen?” she asked. “With all of these fake scares for the TV cameras? He’s rigged it so there’s no way to tell what is real and what isn’t.”

“Maybe,” Kristen said. “But that means he knows the truth about the witch. Whatever that is.”

April thought it through. “Well, Marks lied about Marlin. He said Marlin never answered the invite to the reunion. He made a joke when I told him what Marlin’s mother said. I think he’s definitely covering up something.”

“But what is the truth?” Kristen asked.

“Good question,” April said. “I wish I had the answer.”

They heard shouts up ahead.

“We must be near the dock on the other side of the island,” Kristen said.

April wiped sweat from her forehead. “We forgot all about the race. We’d better catch up to the others.”

They turned and started jogging once again along the twisting dirt path. “We’re going to finish last,” Kristen said. She turned to April. “Do you care?”

“I just want to finish alive!” April replied.

The trees ended at a sandy clearing. As she jogged, April saw a fat brown lizard watching them from a flat rock. A cloud of tiny white insects floated low over a clump of bright yellow wildflowers.

The square wooden dock stood at the other end of the clearing. A bunch of kids clustered on the shore beside it.

Kendra and two other girls were bent over, collecting shells. Anthony and Phil were tossing stones into the sparkling blue water.

April waved when she saw Pam on the dock. But Pam didn’t see her. She was standing with a guy from the camera crew, tugging back her long blond hair, chattering away into the camera.

Mira came jogging over to greet April and Kristen. “We wondered where you were!” she called.

“We got a little hung up,” Kristen replied.

“Pam won the race by three minutes,” Mira said, holding up a stopwatch.

“Big surprise,” April said, rolling her eyes.

They followed Mira to the dock. She handed them both cold bottles of water.

“I guess we’re all here,” Blake, the other assistant, said to Mira. Blake was tall with wavy black hair and green eyes under heavy black eyebrows, and a warm smile.

He turned to April and Kristen. “We were going to send out a search party for you.”

Pam came running over. “Where were you guys?”

“It was too hot to run,” April said. Then she added, “Way to go, Pam. You won the race.”

Pam smiled. “It’s only the first event.”

“Let’s head back,” Blake shouted.

Pam spun around. “Hey—where’s Clark?” she asked. “Has anyone seen Clark?”

“I thought he was with you,” April said.

“He was,” Pam replied.

“Clark? Hey—Clark?” Blake shouted into the trees. “Clark!”

Mira frowned at Pam. “Which way did you and Clark come? Through the forest?”

Pam shook her head. “No. We climbed over those strange blue rocks. We thought it might be a shortcut.”

Pam’s next words sent a jolt of fear through April.

“We were at the top, near these deep, dark caves,” Pam said. “I thought Clark was close behind me. But I turned around, and…and he was gone.”

7

“Tonight we light the first torch for one of our missing,” Marks said somberly.

He raised a burning stick to the torch. April heard a loud pop as the flame flared. Then it fluttered up against the black night sky.

“One will be called away from us every day,” Marks continued in his booming, deep voice. “Clark is the first to leave.”

He turned to the line of kids standing just out of the torchlight. “Who will be next?” he asked dramatically.

“He is really hamming it up for the cameras,” Kristen whispered to April.

But is it all just for TV? April wondered. Where is Clark? Is he safe somewhere? Or is he in real danger?

“Every night a new torch will be lighted,” Marks went on as the cameras moved in on him. “Every night we will remember one of our own. The last of us remaining will be our winner.”

The cool night wind fluttered the torch flame. “Let us have a moment of silence now for Clark,” Marks said, bowing his head.

One crew member swept his camcorder over the faces of the kids. April listened to the rush of waves splashing onto the shore. Somewhere beyond the village, an animal howled, a shrill, sad cry.

When the meeting broke up, April pulled Kristen down to the beach. From the darkness of the shore, they gazed up at the flickering orange light from the torch.

“I want to check out the cave—right now,” April said. “It’s driving me crazy not knowing what is going on. What is real and what is fake.”

Kristen bent to pick up a big horseshoe crab shell. “Are you crazy? We can’t go now, April. It’s pitch black out tonight. No moon or anything. We won’t be able to see a thing.”

April tugged off her sneakers. Carrying them in one hand, she began walking barefoot down the beach.

“Where are you going? Listen to me,” Kristen pleaded.

“I never wanted to come back to this horrible island,” April said. “But we returned for a reason. We need to find out the truth.”

“But we’ve been here only two days,” Kristen argued. She ran after April and grabbed her shoulder from behind. “Let’s explore tomorrow—in the daylight.”

“I want to walk closer to the rocks,” April said. “I want to see if there is any sign…”

She turned and started walking again, taking long strides. Her bare feet sank into the cold, wet sand. The waves rushed into shore, and suddenly April was knee-deep in the water.

Kristen hurried to catch up. “Why are you being so stubborn?” she demanded. “I want to find Marlin as much as you do. I want to—”

Kristen let out a gasp.

“Hey!” April shouted as something cold and wet wrapped itself around her leg.

She bent down to pull it off. “It’s seaweed or something,” she said.

Both girls had stepped into a deep pile of tendrils and dark leaves.

“It’s kelp, I think,” Kristen said.

April tugged at the wet vine. “It’s stuck to my leg,” she muttered.

She cried out again as she felt the sticky tendrils wrap around her other leg. “Whoa!”

April grabbed a long, leafy tendril and pulled with both hands. “It’s so sticky. Oh, no! It’s…it’s climbing!”

She turned and saw Kristen also struggling to free herself. The wet sea kelp had wrapped itself around Kristen’s waist.

The tendrils made sick, wet slurping sounds as they slapped themselves around the girls. Higher, higher. The tendrils appeared to reach up as they climbed.

“It’s tightening around me!” April cried. The cold, sticky kelp was reaching around her waist. Sliming its way up and across her chest.

April tried to pull it off. Tried to pull herself free. But the kelp had fastened itself around her ankles and legs. She couldn’t move.

“Get it off me!” Kristen cried, panicked.

“I—I can’t get it off me,” April answered.

The kelp was wrapped around her body like bandages on a mummy. It was circling her throat—and tightening.

“It’s trying to choke me!” April struggled to pull it off.

But the slimy wet tendrils clung to her.

“I—I can’t breathe,” Kristen gasped. “It’s strangling me!”

The tendrils curled around April’s neck and drew tighter. She was choking. Her chest ached. She couldn’t get any air into her lungs. With her last breath she called out, “Help us! Somebody! Help us, please!”

Part Two

The Year 1680

The Port of Plymouth, England

8

Deborah Andersen wrapped her mother’s black cloak around her. The hood fluttered in the wind off the ocean. She pulled it tight to hide her face.

Her heart was pounding so loudly, she was sure someone would hear it. Deborah hid in the shadows of the deck and watched the men unloading the big sailing ship. Huge wooden crates were being rolled down the gangplank onto the dock.

Holding her breath, Deborah waited for the right moment. Then she darted off the boat. She carried a cloth bag that held her only possession—the book she took from her mother.

She crouched beside one of the crates on the dock and waited. She listened for the sailors’ footsteps. Heard the first mate and a deckhand arguing about how to unload the cargo.

Deborah waited until the men returned to the ship to unload the next group of crates. Then, still keeping low, she scurried away from the docks and onto the road that led into town.

The last time she’d been here, she’d ridden to the docks in a prison cart, chains around her ankles, her hands bound behind her. The memory still gave her nightmares.

She heard a noise behind her and whirled. Had anyone seen her? No, the road behind her was empty.

She walked quickly through the winding streets of the port town. She drew the black cloak more tightly around her. Perhaps she should find a place to hide till nightfall. Then she would begin the journey back to her village of Ravenswoode.

She knew that even in her mother’s cloak and hood, she might be recognized.

Someone might see her and realize that the wrong person returned home from the island.

The island. That had been Deborah’s punishment. The village had condemned her as a witch. They spared her life. But ordered her taken to an uninhabited island, where her evil magic could hurt no one.

Deborah knew she was innocent. As the men came to take her to the ship, she had learned the truth. Her mother had been the one casting evil spells on the village.

Katherine allowed the villagers to accuse Deborah—so that no one would suspect her. She willingly sacrificed her own daughter to save herself.

Passing the last of the village shops, Deborah couldn’t keep a smile from crossing her face. For she had triumphed over her mother.

On the boat Deborah found her mother’s spell book. The book she now carried. The book that taught her how to fight her mother.

When they reached the tropical island, Deborah had cast a spell on the sailors. She switched cloaks with her mother. Katherine wore the blue cloak. Katherine the witch, the true evil one, had been tossed into the waters.

Katherine had been abandoned on the island.

The ship had returned to England with Deborah on board.

No one knew. No one.

And no one from Ravenswoode will ever know I’m back, Deborah thought. I shall sneak home by night. Then I will gather as many belongings as I can.

And carry them to another village. I will find a new home where no one knows who I am. And I will start a new life.

Good-bye, Mother. Your evil can harm no one now.

I am in England, and you are alone on a distant island forever. Forever.

I will not even think of you.

Deborah walked for two days. When a wagon came bouncing by or a farmer on his cart, she hid behind bushes or trees.

She reached her village in late afternoon. I’m too weary to go another step, she thought. My legs ache and my stomach growls with hunger.

The cottage she’d shared with her mother was on the other side of the village. Under the sinking sun, men were still working the fields. Deborah recognized two women in white bonnets, carrying baskets of food home from the green market.

I cannot let them see me, Deborah thought. I’ll have to hide until after dark.

She turned and realized she was standing in the shadow of Lemuel Hanford’s grain barn. Making sure no one was around, Deborah slipped along the barn wall to the door.

She crept inside and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. The sharp aroma of barley seed and rye greeted her.

A creature scampered over her feet as Deborah made her way to the back of the barn. A barn rat?

Deborah was too weary to care.

She settled on a low mound of grain. Loosened the cloak for the first time since leaving the ship. And bunched it behind her head as a pillow.

A few seconds later, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

“Oh!” Deborah was awakened by a cry.

She opened her eyes to see a bearded man in dark work clothes. Lemuel Hanford!

“The witch!” he screamed, eyes bulging in horror. “The witch has returned!”

Before Deborah could move, Lemuel raised a three-pronged pitchfork high in the air, aimed it at her chest—and plunged it straight down.

9

“AAAAIIIIIIII!”

A shrill, terrified wail burst from Deborah’s lips.

She shut her eyes—and cast a spell.

In the second before the pitchfork touched her, its three pointed prongs became wriggling snakes. They slid harmlessly off Deborah’s chest and vanished into the grain pile.

Lemuel Hanford staggered back, his entire body trembling. “Don’t—” he said.

It was his last word before Deborah froze him in place.

She pulled herself to her feet, grabbed the bag with her mother’s spell book, and stepped past Lemuel. His eyes were frozen wide open, as was his mouth. His body was tensed, as if ready to attack.

But he couldn’t move.

The spell won’t last long, Deborah thought. I must hurry to my house, gather my belongings—and be gone.

She poked her head out of the barn door.

The night air felt cool and fresh on her face. A crescent moon floated above the trees, on its side like a winking eye.

It reminded Deborah of the blue crescent moon on her temple. The birthmark that had convinced the superstitious villagers that she was a witch.

I was innocent then, she thought. But not any longer.

No one in sight. She saw lamp lights flickering in the windows of houses.

Her eyes alert for any sign of danger, Deborah crept away from the barn. As she ran across Lemuel’s field, the crescent moon in the sky appeared to move with her.

The cloak and hood wrapped her in darkness, blacker than the night. She ran silently past houses and farms.

Loud voices made her stop.

Have I been seen?

No. The voices came from Arnold Wester’s house. The Wester boys were arguing again. Deborah could hear their father ordering them to be silent at the dinner table.

A cat cried somewhere up ahead. Moments later Deborah saw a black cat dart from behind a tree. On the prowl, probably for a field mouse.

I’m not afraid of you bringing me bad luck now, cat, Deborah thought bitterly.

I’ve had all the bad luck a person can have.

But, of course, she was wrong.

Her bad luck had just begun—and she had so few days left to live.

10

Deborah let out a cry when she saw her cottage. Or what was left of it. She went running across the flat, grassy field. The hood flew back on her shoulders, the cloak floating like wings at her sides.

The cottage was gone. One blackened stone wall remained upright on a charred floor. The rest was ruins. Burnt beams. A few melted metal lumps that might have been pots. Bits of charred fabric. Everything covered in a fine layer of ash.

“How did this happen?” she murmured. Had someone deliberately set the fire?

She dropped to her knees in front of the black chunks of wood and shingle. “My home. Burned to the ground.”

She pressed her hands over her eyes, as if trying to force away the ugly sight. A single tear rolled down each cheek.

She forced herself not to cry.

She felt dizzy—and sick.

She got to her feet and stepped onto the area where the front room had been.

The stone hearth was all that was left. Smoke had blackened the stone.

“I can’t stay here,” Deborah murmured. She turned away from the house and then turned back again. She remembered her mother hiding something beneath the floorboards of the front room. Deborah never knew what it was. But she’d seen Katherine stuffing something beneath a loose board.

Now she dropped to the floor and began to pull up the charred floorboards. They came up easily, cracking, splitting apart.

Hidden beneath the floor were two books. Two more of her mother’s spell books.

Deborah gathered them up quickly and stuffed them into the cloth bag.

She heard the cat cry somewhere nearby. The wind suddenly picked up, howling through the trees. The pale crescent moon vanished behind a cloud.

Throwing the bag over her shoulder, Deborah took off. Walking quickly, eyes alert, she made her way to the road that led out of the village.

She didn’t turn around. She never looked back.

Deborah walked for three days. She passed through two villages and each time was tempted to stay.

But she knew they were too close to Ravenswoode. People in those towns might have heard of her. The witch who was banished to an island.

So she continued her journey to a new life.

On the third evening, she came to a farm owned by a man named Robert Hoskins. He was a big, broad man, nearly bursting out of his clothing.

“Is there a place where I could spend the night?” Deborah asked. “I’m traveling and don’t have money for an inn.”

“If you would like to stay and help my wife with the milking, I can let you stay in the barn,” Mr. Hoskins offered.

“Thank you kindly, sir,” Deborah replied. “I would be most grateful.”

He led Deborah to his barn. She could hear cows mooing softly and a horse whinnying.

“I’ll bring you some blankets,” Hoskins said.

He pointed to a stall against the barn wall. “You might not get much sleep. That one is due to drop a calf tonight.”

“I am grateful for any shelter,” Deborah replied.

She had dinner with Robert and his wife, Mary. They were friendly, warm people who liked to laugh.

I might grow to like it here, Deborah thought. They could be the family I never had.

Later, she settled on a pile of hay in the barn. By the light of a lantern, she examined the two spell books she’d found beneath the floorboards. Deborah’s eyes widened in surprise. The spells in these books were more powerful than those she’d already learned.

The books made her wonder about her mother. Just how much power did Katherine have? Could she change a person’s dreams? Could she put a curse on someone miles away?

Deborah memorized the chants for several new spells. Then she fell asleep easily under the warm blankets.

The next morning, she was awakened by Hoskins’s furious screams.

Still half asleep, Deborah stood unsteadily. She blinked in the bright sunlight pouring through the open barn door. “What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.

“See for yourself,” Hoskins bellowed, red in the face. “What have I done to deserve such bad luck?”

“I—I do not understand,” Deborah stammered.

He dragged her to the birthing pen across the barn. “Look!” he shouted angrily. “Look at the calf just born!”

He jerked open the pen door.

Deborah gazed inside at the newborn calf—and let out a cry of horror.

11

As Deborah screamed, the calf raised its eyes to her—all four eyes.

“Two heads!” Hoskins screams. “My cow has birthed a two-headed calf!”

Deborah turned away, unable to look at the poor, cursed creature.

A two-headed calf. A sign of true evil.

A familiar fear began to sweep through her. It’s happening again, she thought.

“And this is not the worst of it!” Hoskins went on. “I have worked my whole life for this farm. And now it is all ruined!”

She looked up at him, startled. “Because of one calf?”

“It is not only one calf!” he told her. He led her outside the barn.

As her eyes adjusted to the bright morning sunlight, Deborah uttered another horrified cry.

“All dead!” Hoskins tore at his woolly black hair with both hands. “All of them!”

Everywhere she looked, Deborah saw dead cows. They lay on their backs, legs stiff, straight up in the air. As if someone had killed them and then turned them over.

A wave of horror washed over Deborah. Her body shuddered again and again. She couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering.

Did I do this?

No. She couldn’t have. But it was exactly the sort of thing that had happened in Ravenswoode. The sort of thing that had gotten her tried and convicted of witchcraft. That had all been Katherine’s dark magic.

Fat black flies swarmed over the dead cows. A black cloud of flies, buzzing loudly. Darkening the ground beneath them.

I know I didn’t bring this evil to Hoskins’s farm, Deborah thought. But how long will it be before he blames me? Or before someone tells him of the witch of Ravenswoode? I have to leave here now.

As Hoskins stood raging over his dead cows, Deborah slipped away. But the images of the dead cattle and the two-headed calf stayed with her. It was too much like Katherine’s work. Her mother was thousands of miles away on a deserted island. And yet Deborah was sure that Katherine’s evil was following her every step.

Several towns down the road, Deborah was taken in by a young widow named Alma Parkins. Mrs. Parkins had four children. Four handsome blond boys who never stopped shouting, arguing, tumbling, and wrestling.

The house was small and cramped. Mrs. Parkins spent all of her time cooking meals for them when she wasn’t shouting for the boys to be still.

“Can you sew?” she asked Deborah. “They are constantly outgrowing their clothes. And the clothes that still fit, they tear in their fights and rough games.”

“I can sew and mend,” Deborah replied. “And I know many games to keep young boys quiet.”

“Then you will be a blessing in this house,” Mrs. Parkins said.

Deborah tried to make friends with the four boys. But they kept to themselves and refused to join in her games.

They looked like blond angels with their fair white skin and round blue eyes. They acted like little imps. They would fight and throw themselves around the small house. Biting, pulling hair, punching, and poking, they would scream at the top of their lungs.

“Let us read a book together,” Deborah often suggested.

But they never stayed quiet long enough to hear more than a page that Deborah read.

Late at night, Deborah sat at the sewing table, mending their knee britches and shirts. Sewing up the holes and tears they had made during the day.

This is not the easiest job, Deborah told herself. But Mrs. Parkins is a kind woman. And I’m sure the boys will grow to like me.

On the fifth day of her stay in the Parkins house, Deborah awoke to. shrill screams.

Mrs. Parkins!

Deborah pulled on her dress and ran to the boys’ room. The four boys had their backs to her. But Deborah could see Mrs. Parkins clearly.

Tears streamed down the woman’s frantic face. She opened her mouth wide in wailing sobs of grief.

“What is happening?” Deborah cried. “What is it?”

And then the boys all turned at once. And Deborah saw the reason for the mother’s horror.

She saw the black thread…the knotted black thread…the tight, tight stitches…

All four boys—their lips…their lips had been sewn shut.

12

Tears streamed down the faces of the silent boys.

“Who could do such a thing to my boys?” Mrs. Parkins wailed.

Deborah could think of only one person—and she was thousands of miles away. “I—I don’t know,” she answered. “But we must undo it quickly.”

She and Mrs. Parkins went to work removing the stitching from the boy’s mouths.

“Who did this to you?” Mrs. Parkins asked her children when the last stitch was out.

The oldest boy rubbed blood from lips and answered, “It wasn’t a person. It just happened.”

“It just happened?” Mrs. Parkins echoed.

Her son nodded.

Mrs. Parkins’s face went pale. “Witchcraft,” she whispered. “My sons have been the victims of a witch.”

Deborah felt an icy dread settle in her stomach. Still, she told herself, she had nothing to do with it. There was no reason for Mrs. Parkins to suspect her.

That afternoon Deborah heard a loud pounding on the front door.

Mrs. Parkins ran to the door. She pulled it open to two dark-suited men.

“There she is!” Mrs. Parkins screamed. “There is the evil one. Take her! Please—do not let her escape!”

Her heart pounding, Deborah spun around and ran to the back of the house. She didn’t stop to pick up her belongings. She dove through a back window and kept running.

She kept picturing the four sad-eyed boys staring at her so helplessly. She couldn’t shake the picture of the tight black stitches in their lips.

Deborah hid behind a barn. She pressed herself against the wooden slats and waited for the two dark-suited men to run past.

She saw them on the dirt road that ran to the village. They were shouting as they ran, calling for help.

When they were out of sight, Deborah turned and ran the other way.

The poor boys, she thought. The poor boys. They looked so confused.

But I am not confused, Deborah thought. I know who has caused these things to happen. I know who has ruined my life. Forcing me to run from village to village.

It is my mother.

Deborah could see the small town up ahead. It was market day, and farmers were selling their fruit and vegetables at stands in the town square.

Deborah ran for safety behind the shops and low buildings that faced the square. She ducked into a doorway as two women in long gray skirts passed. Then she continued running, keeping in the shadows of the back walls.

Over the thud of her footsteps, Deborah could hear the voices in the market.

My mother is having her revenge on me for tricking her, for forcing her to take my place.

She cursed me, Deborah realized. And now her evil will follow me wherever I go. I’ll never escape her.

Deborah didn’t stop running until she was well out of town. The dirt road ran straight now, through hills of green pasture.

She slowed to a walk and struggled to catch her breath. Two men leading a cow to market appeared on the rise of a hill. Deborah ducked behind an oak tree and waited for them to pass.

I have nothing now. Only the dress I am wearing.

I will never have a normal life. Never be able to settle anywhere.

She thought about the spell books she’d found under the floorboards. She’d read about curses. She understood that the curse would last until she found away to defeat her mother.

I must return to that distant island.

Somehow, I must go back there—and defeat my mother. It is the only way I can break the curse. It is the only way I can keep these horrible things from happening.

Deborah thought about this as she made her way over the grassy, green hills. She spent the night in a leaf pile under a stand of sycamore trees.

She awoke the next morning as the sun peeked over the hills, and began walking again.

Her long gray dress was dirt-stained. She had bits of dead leaves in her hair.

Her sleep hadn’t refreshed her. She felt weary to the bone, hungry, and frightened.

Only her anger kept her going.

The sun was high in the sky. Deborah saw a dirt road that sloped down to a large village of red-roofed buildings.

But I know I will not be able to stay.

I know that I bring tragedy wherever I go.

But maybe I can at least have shelter for a night or two and a meal to settle my empty stomach.

To Deborah’s surprise, four men came running to greet her. They wore black suits with high starched white collars. As they ran, they held their tall black hats on their heads to keep them from flying off.

Deborah turned to run. But she stood in an empty field. No place to hide.

The men swept around her. Their faces were red and solemn.

“Deborah Andersen,” the tallest of them said. “Your reputation has traveled with you.”

Two of the others grabbed her arms. They held her tightly in place.

“Please—” Deborah whispered. “Let me go. I—I—”

“You will not be allowed to cast your evil in this town,” the man continued, his gray eyes burning into hers. “Deborah Andersen, at sundown you will be hanged as a witch!”

13

The town constable’s office was in a small stone building at the edge of the town. Deborah found herself locked in a bare room the size of a horse stall.

She sat on the floor, her back against the wall. Outside, she could hear the whack of the carpenters’ hammers as they built the gallows.

To hang me…hang me…

Deborah thought of the spells she had learned. She could cast one that would let her escape. But what good would that do? As long as her mother’s curse lasted, evil would follow her. She would again be accused of witchcraft and hunted down.

I can’t keep running, Deborah thought.

With a sob, Deborah pushed her hair off her forehead. She climbed unsteadily to her feet.

“Can you hear me, Mother?”

She shouted over the pounding of the hammers.

“Can you hear me all the way from your lonely island? If you can, I want you to know that I will have my revenge.”

She pounded her fists against the hard stone wall.

If only the noise would stop. If only they would stop their hammering.

Does my last day on earth have to be such a torture?

“I will die tonight, Mother,” Deborah shouted. “Because of you, I shall die tonight. But I shall come back.”

Another sob escaped her throat. She wiped away the tears that ran down her feverish cheeks.

“If it takes a hundred years—or five hundred, I will come back from the dead. I will find a new body. And I will return to the island to destroy you, Mother!”

A hard knock on the door. The door swung open.

Four grim-faced men dragged Deborah out into a gray, damp evening.

A crowd had gathered around the wooden gallows, high on a tall platform. They grew silent at the sight of her, the sight of the witch.

Deborah could feel the crescent moon on her forehead throb with heat as she climbed the stairs of the platform. She raised her eyes to the sky, and saw no moon or stars. A solid blanket of gray.

Her legs were trembling so hard, she could barely stand. Silently, she began to chant the words of a spell.

The men held her arms tightly and forced her forward.

She shut her eyes when she saw the thick loop of rope. The noose.

She felt it slide down over her head. It came to a rest around her neck.

She forced herself to concentrate on the spell. To call the magic to her.

The crowd was silent now. As if she were already dead.

One of the men brought his face close to hers. “Witch—do you have any last words?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Deborah replied. And then she shouted, “I SHALL RETURN!”

Part Three

This Summer

The Island

14

“I’m choking…choking!”

April struggled to pull away the heavy wet sea kelp that covered her.

“Can’t breathe…” she moaned.

Beside her, she could hear Kristen struggling too. The disgusting wet tendrils of kelp crept over them like a blanket. Tightening as it wrapped around them…tightening.

Twisting and kicking, April tried frantically to free herself from the slimy plant. The cold waves swayed around her waist. The water wasn’t deep here, but she knew that if she let the kelp pull her beneath, she would drown.

If she didn’t choke to death first.

The kelp tightened around April’s legs. Around her waist. Around her throat.

She stumbled, fell to her knees. Felt the kelp closing around her entire body. Only her head was above the water now.

It’s like…I’m being swallowed, she thought. Can’t breathe…can’t breathe…

She felt herself start to give way to the darkness.

The wet kelp pulsed around her. Pulsed like a heartbeat.

Like my heartbeat, April thought.

Beat…beat…beat…

And then, far in the distance, she heard a voice. “Kristen? April?”

A voice, so faint and far away.

“April? Is that you?”

April made a strangled sound.

“What are you two doing in the water like that?”

It was Pam! Why couldn’t Pam see that she and Kristen needed help?

Kristen cried out as a wave knocked her down. The kelp was pulling her under!

April fought to yank the kelp away from her throat. She had to break its hold. She had to keep breathing. She had to help Kristen.

April felt the cold water around her waist rush away, back into the ocean. She and Kristen were on wet sand, covered in kelp.

And Pam was staring at them, saying, “Okay, already. You two can come out of the water now.”

At Pam’s words, the tendrils of kelp began to loosen.

April sucked in a deep breath.

She could taste the sour, salty kelp on her tongue.

It loosened even more. And then fell away.

April saw Kristen on her knees, gasping for air. The thick, sticky kelp looked like a big mud puddle on the sand around her.

The water rushed back in. But it was shallower now. Only up to their ankles. April stared at it in amazement. Just minutes ago she thought they were both going to drown.

“What’s up with you two?” Pam demanded.

She stood over them. Her blond hair fluttered in the wind off the ocean. She wore tan shorts and a white midriff top.

Pam stared down at them, hands on her waist, her face puzzled. “What are you two doing out here?”

April struggled to her feet. Her bare feet slid on the wet blanket of kelp.

“Pam—you saved us!” Kristen exclaimed.

Did she? April wondered.

Kristen grabbed Pam’s arm and pulled herself up.

Pam jumped back, making a face. “Oooh, that stuff is totally gross! What were you doing with it?”

“It—it—” Kristen struggled to speak.

“It climbed over us,” April exclaimed, pulling a sticky tendril from her bangs. “It tried to strangle us. Then pull us under.”

“How did you make it let us go?” Kristen asked Pam.

Pam’s face twisted in confusion. “Do what? I didn’t do anything.”

“Yes, you did,” Kristen insisted. “You said we could come out, and the kelp released us. You saved our lives.”

Pam laughed. “That’s crazy. I didn’t do anything. Really.”

April didn’t say anything. Could Pam’s words have made the kelp release them? But what else could it have been?

Pam pulled a clump of wet leaves off Kristen’s shoulder. “I saw that you two were missing. So I came looking for you. Come on. Let’s go. It’s really late.”

The Academy Village was dark. The torch for Clark had burned out.

April took a shower and changed into a clean nightshirt. Then she sat on the edge of her cot and stared across the room at Pam.

When anything frightening happened to me back home, Pam was always there, April remembered.

She was always nearby when the strange things happened.

And now, here she was again. On the beach. Just in time to save us from the creepy sea plant.

Was it just a coincidence?

A soft knock on the cabin door broke April from her thoughts. She jumped to her feet as Donald Marks poked his bald head in the door.

“April? Kristen? Are you okay?” he whispered. April nodded. “Yes. We’re fine.”

“You shouldn’t wander on your own at night,” Marks scolded.

“H-how did you know?” April asked, startled. Had he seen them? Or had Pam ratted them out?

A strange, cold smile crossed his face. Then he whispered, “You can’t keep any secrets here, April. Not an island with a witch.”

“What do you mean?” April demanded.

He smiled again. “Let’s just say, she’s watching you.”

15

The morning sun poured down its warm light on the sloping rock hill. The woman in the blue cloak stepped out of the cave and raised her face to the sky. A smile crossed her pale face as she felt the sun on her skin.

Her blond-brown hair, streaked with gray, fell in loose tangles behind her bone-thin shoulders.

She had green cat eyes beneath white-blond eyebrows. Her lips were as white as her skin. When she smiled, her skin crinkled into a thousand tiny wrinkles.

The chill of the cave lingered in her bones. The sun could never completely take away the chill. She had lived on this tropical island for more than three hundred years—and had not been warm for a single minute.

She wore the heavy blue cloak all the time. It was her daughter’s cloak, and it never fully warmed her. Still smiling up at the sunlight, she cupped her long, bony hands and held them in front of her. “Here, little bird. Come here, little bird,” she called softly.

High overhead, a white seagull stopped its flight.

“Here, little bird,” Katherine called softly, sweetly. She held her cupped hands still.

The bird, a white speck against the blue sky, floated lower.

“Come to me. Come to me,” Katherine chanted.

The bird swooped gently into her cupped hands. It warbled and fluttered its wings, settling in.

“Good morning, little bird,” Katherine whispered, raising the seagull in front of her. Her green eyes flashed. “Did you know there is another little bird on this island?”

The gull warbled again, as if answering her.

“My own little bird is here,” Katherine said softly. She petted the gull’s wing feathers with one long, bent finger.

“My daughter has come to pay me a visit,” she continued. “She hopes to surprise me. But I am ready for her.”

Katherine petted the bird gently, making it coo.

“Yes, my daughter has come to surprise me. I am not sure which of the visiting girls she is. But I have a pretty good idea.”

The bird cooed again as the woman petted it. It tilted its head and gazed up at her with one tiny black bead of an eye.

“I will continue to test them,” Katherine told the bird in a whisper. “Soon…soon Deborah will reveal herself. Yes, I will find out which one she is. And then, guess what, little bird? Then…I will surprise her!”

Still smiling, Katherine wrapped her fingers around the gull’s throat—and tore off its head.

16

“Go! Go! Go!”

The two Academy assistants, Mira and Blake, cheered from their canoe as the kids raced over the water.

April had the lead for a short while. I’m a good swimmer, she thought. I could win this race. It would feel good to win something.

But Pam soon passed her by with her steady, smooth strokes.

Pam’s blue eyes flashed gleefully as she swam ahead of April. Kicking her long legs, she put on a burst of speed—and April felt as if she were standing still.

Pam once wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, April remembered.

She always wanted to be an Olympic everything!

Kendra passed April too. And then Phil splashed up beside her. Phil was very pale, with short white-blond hair. He was chubby, kind of round. Bouncing in the waves, he reminded April of a baby polar bear.

He was breathing hard, groaning with each stroke, spitting water into the air as he thrashed, slapping the surface with his chubby hands.

April laughed. “Where did you learn to swim?”

“In the bathtub,” he joked.

Kristen passed them both. April turned to see Anthony coming on fast.

The swim race was from the boat dock to the blue rocks, then back to the dock. The bright sunlight made the ocean gleam like a mirror. Seagulls squawked noisily overhead. Mira and Blake’s canoe rocked on the gentle waves.

Squinting into the sun’s glare, April saw Pam and Kendra reach the rocks and make the turn. Both girls were churning hard now, moving at full speed.

April kicked harder, trying to pick up her pace. She hadn’t slept well the night before, thinking about the smothering sea kelp and her eerie close call on the beach.

Now the cold water felt refreshing. It felt good to be getting some exercise.

She reached the rocks a few strokes behind Phil and Kristen. As she made the turn, Anthony came up beside her. He stroked steadily, his bony arms moving in and out rapidly, his red hair matted to his forehead, falling over his eyes.

Struggling to keep up with him, April glimpsed Pam far up ahead.

Is she going to win this race too? April wondered.

No one is going to be happy if Pam wins every race. Especially since she doesn’t even belong here!

A high wave rolled over April, pushing her back.

She saw Anthony dive under it. He came out on the other side, ahead of her.

April lowered her head.

Kicked harder.

I don’t want to finish last.

But another wave sent her sailing backward.

Then another.

She felt a powerful current pulling her…pulling her back, back toward the rocks.

“No!” A cry escaped her throat.

She saw the other kids swimming easily. Pam and Kendra were approaching the finish line at the dock.

April kicked with all her strength. She tried to power herself forward. But the current pushed her back.

Her body hit the rocks hard.

She gasped in pain. Then she forced herself forward, diving beneath the rush of the waves.

She swam underwater for as long as she could hold her breath. When she surfaced, April could see the dock. Her throat burned. Her chest ached. But she was almost halfway there.

Then the current grabbed her again. It pulled her down to the sandy ocean floor. April swallowed a mouthful of briny water. She fought her way back to the surface.

Wave after wave battered her. She couldn’t keep her head above the water. She couldn’t get enough air.

She was being swept back toward the rocks.

Turning, she saw a flash of blue at the top of the rocks. Was someone up there? Was it the woman in the blue cloak?

Was she watching April?

A powerful, roaring wave lifted April into the air. Out of the water.

Then the wave slammed her hard, back under the water.

April knew she couldn’t fight much longer. But she pushed her way to the surface once more. With the last of her breath, she called out. “Help—somebody! Help!”

But the others were far away now too far to hear her frantic cries.

Too far to see her tossed again and again by the pounding waves.

17

“No sssssurvivors!”

The whispered words seemed to be carried on the tossing waves.

A tall wave crashed over April—and she heard the words again. “No sssssurvivors.”

Were the whispers in the wind? Or did April hear them in her mind?

She didn’t have time to think about it.

Her muscles locked.

Terror froze her body.

I’m going to drown.

Another wave battered her. It felt like a brick wall as it smacked her hard.

Stunned, April fell against the rocks.

This time, though, she wasn’t pulled back into the water. She felt a hard, solid surface beneath her.

The waves have pushed me onto shore, she realized.

Gasping, choking, she turned. She was on the blue rocks. She could feel the cold shimmering off them.

“No sssssurvivors!” Another whisper, so close to her ear.

And then April heard shouts.

And saw Kristen running across the beach to her. Pam was behind her.

Was the race over already? Had Pam won it?

“April—are you okay?” Kristen called.

April tried to answer but choked up water. She sputtered and coughed. She felt as if she’d never get all the water out of her lungs.

Then Kristen was kneeling on the rocks, helping her up and off the rocks. April’s legs felt shaky as she stepped onto the soft sand.

“April, what happened?” Kristen asked. “Everyone else finished the race.”

“Yeah, where were you?” Pam demanded.

“I—I don’t know.” April dropped to her knees, shivering, dazed. “I guess I got caught in some kind of weird current. I—I couldn’t swim out of it.”

She raised her eyes to Pam.

Here she is again. Whenever something strange happens, she’s always right there.

She turned and saw other kids running toward them along the shore. “April—are you okay?” Ronni called.

“Yes, I’m fine—now!” April shouted back.

“Kendra and I tied,” Pam said, frowning.

April stared at her. “You didn’t win?”

Pam shook her head unhappily. “You know how much I hate ties,” she muttered. She glared at Kendra, who was running across the rocks to them.

April felt a chill.

Pam was staring at Kendra as if seeing her worst enemy. But all Kendra did was keep Pam from winning the swim race.

I know Pam likes to compete, April thought. But she is taking it a little too far.

Kids gathered around April. Mira and Blake came running over. “What happened? We saw you struggling.”

“Some kind of weird current,” April muttered. “I’m fine now. Really.”

No, that is a lie. I’m not fine, she thought.

April still felt dizzy. She could feel the powerful waves battering her, pushing her one way, then the other.

They all began to walk back to the Academy Village.

Those waves weren’t natural. They attacked only me, April thought. For everyone else, the water was as gentle as a bathtub.

She stepped up to Kristen and whispered in her ear. “No more excuses. You and me—we’re going exploring. At the rock caves. After lunch. Okay?”

Kristen’s face tightened with fear. Then she nodded. “Okay,” she whispered back. She swallowed hard. “I hope they don’t light two torches for us tonight.”

18

At lunch, Donald Marks announced a free afternoon for everyone. “The camera crew is waiting for a piece of equipment to arrive,” he told them. “Until it does, you can all relax and enjoy the island.”

April and Kristen exchanged glances. “Perfect,” April said.

The sun was high overhead as they set out for the rock hills. The air felt heavy and wet. Waves of heat rose up from the sandy ground.

Kristen pulled a red and white baseball cap over her head. She sighed. “Wow, it’s blistering hot today. Everyone else will probably stay in the water.”

She wore yellow short shorts and a sleeveless white T-shirt. Her shoulders were pink, sunburned from the morning swim race.

Their sandals crunched over the yellow sand. April stepped over a large crab shell. A strong, fishy aroma swept over her from the ocean.

She gazed out at the water. The waves were low and gentle again, splashing softly against the shore.

The sand ended where the rocks began. April felt the cool air floating up from the rocks.

She gazed to the top of the hill—but had to shield her eyes from the glare of sunlight.

What is waiting for us up there? she wondered.

Kristen mopped her forehead with the back of her arm. “We forgot to bring water,” she said. “I’m boiling hot.”

“It will be cooler in the caves,” April replied.

Kristen grabbed her arm. “We’re going into the caves? Are you sure we should? Maybe we should just explore outside the caves.”

“Don’t chicken out on me now,” April pleaded. “We have to find Marlin. That’s the whole reason we came back to this awful island, remember?”

Kristen squeezed her sunburned shoulder. “I came for a tan,” she joked.

April gave her a half smile. She knew Kristen believed her. But even Kristen didn’t seem to take the witch completely seriously. Even Kristen didn’t seem to realize how much danger they were in.

Leaning forward, they began to climb. Despite the hot sunshine beating down on them, the blue rocks were slippery and wet and icy cold.

“These sandals keep sliding,” April complained. “I should have worn my sneakers.”

Somewhere above them, a seagull uttered a loud squawk.

April raised her eyes and saw the bird flapping close over their heads. It opened its beak in another hoarse squawk.

“It’s trying to tell us something,” Kristen moaned. “That’s bird talk for stay away.”

The climb became steeper. Sweat rolled down April’s forehead. She brushed back her bangs and mopped her forehead. The rocks scared her. There was something evil in them, she could feel it.

“Almost there,” she muttered. She could see the black opening of a cave at the top where the rocks leveled off.

They were nearly to the top when April heard the scuff of footsteps on the rocks.

Startled, she let out a gasp.

And a voice behind them shouted, “Ah-ha! There you are!”

19

Both girls spun around.

And stared openmouthed at Pam, trotting up the steep rock hill.

She was wearing khaki shorts and a bright blue midriff top. She had a matching blue bandanna tied over her hair. “There you are!” she called again.

April realized her heart was racing. “Pam, you—you scared us!” she called breathlessly.

Pam stepped up beside them. She loosened the bandanna and let her blond hair fall free behind her shoulders.

“Where are you going?” she demanded. “What is it with you two? You have some kind of exclusive club? How come you never invite me to come along?”

April narrowed her eyes at Pam. Why did she follow us? she wondered.

Is she jealous of my friendship with Kristen? Is that her problem? Or is it something else—something connected to all the creepy things that are happening?

“April and I are going exploring,” Kristen answered finally. She pointed to the cave opening cut into the rocks. “In there.”

Pam turned to the cave. “You’re joking. You’re going in that cave?”

“We’re really interested in caves,” April said. She tried to keep her voice casual. “Since we have the afternoon free, we thought we’d take a look.”

Pam tilted her head, frowning at April. She pressed her hands against her waist. “Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes. “How come you never told me you were interested in caves before?”

April let out a long sigh. Maybe it would be easier if she were honest with Pam.

“Listen, Pam,” she said. “It’s too hard to explain, okay? The first time Kristen and I were here, some strange things happened. We thought we saw someone up here. And so we came up here to find out if we—”

“Oooh—gross!” Pam interrupted.

She leaned over and pointed down at the rock surface. “That is totally sick.”

April saw the seagull’s body first. It lay on its side, legs straight out, feathers stiff.

She gasped when she saw the bird’s head. It was a few feet from the body.

The eyes were open. Purple veins trailed out from the torn, blood-soaked neck.

She turned away. “Yuck.”

“What kind of a creature could tear a bird’s head off like that?” Kristen muttered.

April felt a chill at the back of her neck. “Maybe a creature that lives in that cave.”

Pam took a step back. “You sure you still want to go exploring in there today? It’s so hot. How about we head to the beach?”

“You don’t understand—” April started to say. And then her voice caught in her throat as she saw a flash of blue.

She recognized the blue cloak, flying behind the woman as she ran.

The woman darted out from the cave and headed to the other side of the hill.

“It—it’s her!” Kristen gasped.

To April’s shock, Pam took off. Her shoes pounded the rocks as she ran full-speed after the woman.

“Pam?” April called.

Her arms flying at her sides, Pam chased after the woman.

She grabbed the blue cloak from behind.

The woman let out a hoarse cry as Pam tackled her around the waist.

Dropped her to the ground.

Pam landed hard on the woman’s back.

“At last!” Pam screamed. “At last! I’ve caught you, Mother!”

20

April felt her jaw drop in disbelief. Pam just called the woman in the blue cloak Mother!

April remembered the first time she was on the island. The woman in the blue cloak, leaning over her, sucking her breath. The woman had asked, “What scares you the most, daughter?”

April knew she wasn’t the witch’s daughter. Was it possible that Pam was?

The woman wrestled free of Pam’s grip and struggled to her feet.

April and Kristen stood frozen in place. Despite the burning sun, April suddenly felt cold all over.

Breathing hard, Pam raised herself to her knees.

Wiping dust off her cloak, the woman turned slowly.

April let out another cry when she saw her face.

The woman had scraggly gray hair, parted in the middle and falling to her shoulders. She had small, dark eyes under a broad forehead.

She reached a hand to her long, craggy nose—and pulled it off.

A fake.

Even from a distance, April could see that her pointed chin was a fake too.

“You captured the old witch—did ye, dearies?” she shouted in a phony, shrill voice. Then she opened her mouth in a long cornball cackle.

“She—she’s an actress!” April said to Kristen.

Kristen nodded. “A fake.”

The woman laughed. “A fake? No way!” she replied in her real voice. “I’m the Wicked Witch of the West. Don’t you recognize me, girls?”

April turned to Pam. “Why did you say that to her?” she demanded. “Why did you call her Mother?”

Pam stood up and fixed the bandanna in her hair. “Donald Marks told me to,” she replied.

April stared at her. “Excuse me?”

“He told me to follow you,” Pam explained. “He said when the witch came running out of the cave, I should tackle her and shout, ‘At last I’ve caught you, Mother.” ’

“But, I—I don’t understand,” April said. “Why?”

“For the cameras,” Pam replied. She was gazing over April’s shoulder.

April turned and saw a camera operator hunched in the cave opening. He had a camcorder pointed at them. He was motioning with his free hand for them to keep talking.

“Keep going. This is great!” he called.

Kristen frowned at Pam. “Marks said the cameras weren’t shooting today. He said it was a free day for all of us.”

Pam shrugged. “I guess he lied.”

“For a change,” April muttered.

They walked back to the cabins. Pam walked ahead, chatting with the cameraman.

Kristen turned to April. “Even the witch is a fake,” she whispered. “Nothing is real. It’s all for TV.”

“That’s what Marks wants us to think,” April whispered back. “Remember, according to Marks, Marlin is fine.”

Kristen shrugged. “How are we ever going to find out what the truth really is? I mean, I don’t understand. Why would Marks want to us think there’s a fake witch?”

“Because there’s a real witch on island with us, and Marks is helping her. The kids who are disappearing aren’t going home. I’m sure of it,” April said. “Marks is trying to throw us off. He’s part of the evil.”

Pam spun around to face them. “What are you two whispering about?” she demanded. “Are you talking about me?”

“No. Really,” April replied. “Just talking.”

As they came near the Academy Village, Anthony came running across the sand to greet them. “Have you seen Kendra?” he asked breathlessly.

April shook her head. “No. She wasn’t with us.”

“She’s missing,” Anthony said. “No one can find her anywhere.”

“Tonight we light a second torch,” Marks announced in his booming, deep voice. “Beside the torch for Clark, we light a new torch for Kendra.”

Mira and Blake raised burning sticks to the torches, and they both burst into flame.

“Now we are eight,” Marks said solemnly. His eyes moved around the circle of kids. “May their lights—side by side—remind us of the dangers of this island. And the dangers we will all face tomorrow.”

April watched the camera crew capturing Marks’s words on tape. Marks is enjoying this so much, she thought. He really loves being a TV star.

She shuddered as she stared at the torch flames dancing against the night sky.

What is really happening to those kids? she wondered. And where are the three missing kids from our first trip here?

The next day, she found out the answers.

21

“Whoa!”

April let out a groan as she leaped onto the next rock. Arms outstretched as if reaching for something, she stretched her legs and struggled to climb faster.

Anthony and Phil were climbing quickly, so close together, they kept bumping. Glancing back, April saw Pam on a flat rock below her, moving lightly and fast.

Two camera crewmen stood near the top of the rock hill, capturing the race on tape.

The bright afternoon sunlight made the rocks glow like blue glass. In the sky above the ocean, gulls glided low, as if watching the race.

I’ve climbed these blue rocks so many times, I should know the way by heart, April thought. I should win this race easily.

She darted between Anthony and Phil. They both called out to her. April didn’t turn around. The top of the steeply sloping rock hill came into view.

“Hey!” April heard Phil let out a cry. Then she heard a hard thud.

She glanced back to see that Phil had stumbled. He lay facedown on a flat rock. After a second or two, he scrambled to his feet.

Both of his knees were cut. Blood trickled down his bare legs.

Anthony stopped to help him. Pam swept past both of them. She didn’t even glance at Phil. Her eyes were locked on April.

No way you are catching me. I’m going to win this race, April thought.

You’re not going to win every contest, Pam.

Leaning forward, April grabbed the side of the flat boulder above her and hoisted herself up. She was panting hard now. She could feel the heat of the sun on the back of her neck.

Almost there. Almost to the top.

She turned—and saw Pam at her side.

Pam’s arms swung back and forth as she ran. Her teeth were clamped tight. Her eyes straight ahead, intent on the finish line.

No way, April told herself. No way. No way.

I’m not giving up the lead.

They had one more rock to climb. They climbed it side by side.

Then, side by side, they were running across the sloping flat rocks to the top.

Side by side.

No way. No way. No way.

The chant repeated in April’s mind. She forced her aching legs to move faster. Faster.

And then Pam let out a shout. “April—look out!”

Pam pointed frantically to the ground at April’s feet.

April turned to where Pam pointed.

And Pam rocketed past her—to the finish line.

“Pam wins!” Blake shouted.

April raced across the finish line and flung herself against the cave wall. Gasping for breath, she spun around angrily to face Pam.

Pam was bent over, hands on her knees, struggling to catch her breath. Her face was bright red. Drenched with sweat, her hair fell wild around her face.

“Not fair,” April choked out. She staggered beside Pam. “Hey—what you did just now—that was so not fair.”

Pam raised herself up. She pushed her hair back with both hands, and a grin spread over her face. “What did I do?”

“Shouting like that,” April replied angrily.

Pam’s grin grew wider. “That wasn’t illegal, was it?”

April balled her hands into fists. “It was supposed to be a fair race, Pam.”

“It was a fair race,” Pam insisted. “You just have to learn how to compete, April.”

“Swim time, everyone!” Blake shouted. “I think we all need a swim now, right?”

Kids started back down the hill toward the beach.

Kristen stepped up beside April. “Ready?”

April turned to the cave opening. Empty. No camera guy in there today. “Ready,” she said.

Mopping his face with the front of his Academy T-shirt, Blake walked over to them. “Here are the flashlights you asked for,” he said, handing them to April and Kristen. “You sure you want to explore that cave today?”

April nodded. “We’ve been dying to. We think it will be very cool.”

Blake frowned. “Well, just don’t go too far in, promise? And don’t tell Marks I said you could do it.”

“Promise,” April and Kristen said.

“Good luck!” Blake called, and he turned and hurried after the other kids.

“I guess this is the big moment,” April sighed, gazing at the cave opening.

“At least, I don’t see any fake witches around today,” Kristen said. She tested the flashlight, clicking it on and off.

April heard footsteps. Both girls turned to see that Anthony and Pam had stayed behind.

“What are you doing? You’re going into that cave?” Anthony asked.

April nodded. “We think Marlin may be in there. And the other kids. We don’t think the witch is a fake, Anthony. We think there is real danger on this island.”

Anthony laughed. Pam rolled her eyes.

“Give it up,” Anthony said. “There aren’t any cameras rolling up here. They all went back to the Academy Village.”

“We don’t care about cameras,” April told him. “We really think everyone is in danger,” Kristen added.

Anthony shook his head. “I don’t believe you two! You’re both totally nuts! Grow up. It’s all a TV show. That’s all.”

He turned and started to jog down the hill.

“Aren’t you going with him?” April asked Pam.

Pam shook her head. “No. I’m going with you.”

“Why?” Kristen demanded. “You don’t believe our story.”

“You don’t know what went on here the first time,” April said. “And you don’t really know the frightening things that happened to Kristen and me back home. So why do you want to come?”

Pam didn’t answer. Instead, she started walking to the cave entrance, taking long strides. “It’s a free country, isn’t it?” she said finally.

“She just doesn’t want to be left out of anything,” Kristen whispered to April.

April shrugged. “I guess there’s no way to get rid of her.”

The darkness swallowed them as soon as they entered the cave.

I feel as if I’ve stepped into a whale’s mouth, April thought, remembering an old cartoon. And now it’s closed around me, and I’ll never get out.

The two flashlights sent circles of light over the cave floor. April raised her light to the ceiling and let it trail along the cracks and dark crevices.

“It’s like a giant cavern,” April said. Her voice echoed off the stone walls. “It’s so much bigger and deeper than I thought.”

“Should we go back out?” Pam asked. “You promised Blake you wouldn’t go too far, right?”

“You can go back if you want,” April replied sharply.

“Whoa. Check this out,” Kristen called from deeper in the cave. She held her light steady on the cave floor and was bending into the light.

April and Pam hurried over to her. April gazed into the circle of light. “Footprints,” she murmured.

“A lot of them,” Kristen said. “Someone has definitely been in here.”

“Well, duh. Of course someone has been in here,” Pam said. “The camera guy was here yesterday, remember? And the woman in the witch costume came running out of this cave.”

“Why would they walk back this far?” Kristen asked. “Look how many different prints there are. And they lead deeper into the cave.”

“But these prints could be a hundred years old,” Pam argued. “They could be five hundred years old. You can’t tell how fresh they are.”

“They look very fresh,” Kristen muttered. “Besides, this is supposed to be an uninhabited island, right? No one ever lived here before.”

She shone the light deeper into the cave. The three of them followed the light, eyes on the floor.

At the near wall, the light swept over a narrow opening. The opening led into a short, low-ceilinged tunnel.

“Let’s go,” April whispered.

Pam held back. “What if we get lost?”

“We can’t get lost,” April replied. “We’re just taking this one short tunnel. We’re not going very far at all.”

They had taken only a few careful steps into the low, narrow tunnel when April heard a sound. A light, breathing sound.

She grabbed Kristen’s arm. “Listen. What is that?”

“I—I don’t know.”

All three girls froze.

April raised her light along the tunnel wall. The circle of light revealed dozens of small black creatures clinging to the wall.

“Bats!” Kristen whispered.

“Oh, gross,” Pam muttered.

April lowered the light to the floor. “They’re asleep. Don’t wake them up.”

Hanging upside down, the bats stirred quietly in their sleep. Wings fluttered gently. Round bellies moved in and out.

April tiptoed past them, aiming the light at her feet.

She gasped as she felt something warm brush her ankle. A fat gray creature darted into the light, then vanished down the tunnel.

A rat!

“Did you see that?” she whispered to Kristen. “I’m pretending I didn’t,” Kristen replied.

April’s ankle still tingled. She could still feel the rat’s bristly fur rubbing her skin.

Huddled close together, keeping the light close in front of them, the three girls made their way into the next chamber.

“Footprints here too,” Kristen whispered.

“And look—” April cried. She bent and picked up something from the dirt floor. “A sneaker.”

She held it up so they could examine it.

“A girl’s sneaker,” Pam said, her eyes wide. “Nike.”

“So it’s not five hundred years old,” Kristen whispered.

April swept her light along the floor to the back of this chamber. A line of footsteps ran along the floor to another opening at the back wall.

“I—I don’t think we should go any farther,” Pam said. “We really will get lost.”

“We’re not leaving till we find some kind of proof that the missing kids are in here,” April insisted. “Here. Here’s your proof,” Pam said. She handed April the sneaker.

“Not enough,” April replied. “No one will believe our story just because we found a—”

She stopped when she heard a voice.

No. Not just one voice. Several voices. Echoing from deep inside the cave.

“Do you…hear that?” Pam asked.

April and Kristen nodded.

No one spoke.

The voices called again. Muffled voices. So far away.

Are they kids’ voices? April wondered. She held her breath. And listened.

Silence now.

She could hear a high-pitched sound in the tunnel behind them—maybe one of the bats. And the scuttle of another creature along the floor near the wall.

And then she heard a faint, echoing cry.

Trembling, April cupped her hands around her mouth. “Who’s there?” she shouted. “Can you hear me? Who’s there?”

22

“Someone is in this cave,” April said. She suddenly felt cold all over. Her words came out in a breathless whisper. “We have to go find them.”

“It might be some kind of a trap,” Kristen said.

Pam squinted at her. “Trap? What are you talking about?” Then her expression changed. “Maybe this is part of Marks’s games. Maybe we get extra credit or something if we find those kids.”

“I—I don’t think it’s a game,” April replied. She hugged herself to stop the trembling. She turned to Kristen. “Did it suddenly get colder in here?”

Kristen nodded. “A lot colder.” She aimed her flashlight at the opening on the stone wall. “Come on. Maybe if we keep moving, we won’t freeze!”

Keeping close together, they made their way through another tunnel. Both beams of light appeared to dim, as if the darkness around them had grown even heavier.

April cried out as she felt another furry creature brush against her ankle. The scrape of little feet echoed down the tunnel. Lowering her light, she saw dozens of scrawny gray rats.

The rats’ black eyes sparkled in the beams of light. Their long pink tails scraped the cave floor behind them.

“I—I don’t like this,” Pam muttered. “Why are they so close to us?”

“Ignore them,” April said, though the rats made her shudder. Just find Marlin and the other missing kids, she told herself.

The tunnel led them to another chamber. April and Kristen swept their lights over the floor.

The rats were moving with them, April noticed. They were milling around the girls’ ankles, making little chittering sounds.

Half the rats split off from the others to form a line in front of the girls. April’s eyes widened as the line of rodents stood stiffly on their hind legs, scraping claws in the air.

“What are they doing?” Pam asked. For once she sounded nervous.

“Dancing?” April couldn’t help teasing Pam. “Not funny,” Pam said.

Kristen stared at the rodents. “This sounds crazy,” she said, “but I think they’re trying to stop us from going farther. They don’t want us to go into the next chamber. Like, they’re guarding it or something.”

“You’re right, that sounds crazy,” April said. In the next instant she regretted her words. As if on a signal, all of the rats suddenly reared up on their hind legs. And as April stepped deeper into the cave, the rats attacked.

April screeched as she felt furry little bodies trying to climb up her legs.

“Get them off me!” Pam shrieked.

The rats were digging their claws into April’s legs. She could feel their hairless tails wrapping around her calves. She reached down and peeled the rodents off her.

The rats were gross, but April was determined not to be stopped. “Just push them off and follow me,” she told Kristen and Pam.

Stepping over more rats, she edged into the next chamber.

A blast of cold air from deep in the cave made April gasp. “That smell—” she whispered.

A sharp, sour smell floated over them. The odor of dead fish, rotting meat.

The same odor I smelled in my room back home, April realized.

The same disgusting smell.

We’re very close to discovering something, she thought.

The rats, the horrible odor—they are here to keep us away. But we are close now. Very close.

Once again she cupped her hands around her mouth and called out. “Can anyone hear me? Is anyone there?”

Something moved against the wall.

A figure staggered out from the tunnel opening in the back.

It staggered into the light—and all three girls screamed.

23

“Marlin! It’s you l” April cried.

The rats scattered as Marlin made his way across the cave floor to them.

He looks so thin, April thought. And lifeless.

“Marlin, what are you doing here? How long have you been here? What is going on? Are you okay?” The stream of questions burst from April.

Before Marlin could answer, two more kids appeared in the tunnel opening. Dolores and Jared.

They squinted in the dim light. They appeared very confused. They look dazed, as if they’d just woken up from a long sleep, April thought.

“Who…who are you?” Marlin asked, squinting at them.

“Marlin—you don’t remember Kristen and me?” April cried. “We were on your team.”

Two more kids appeared behind them. Clark and Kendra. They too, stared out of the darkness as if they didn’t remember April, Kristen, or Pam.

“Are you here to help the witch?” Kendra asked. “Are you here to give her the breath of life?”

“What are you talking about?” Pam asked.

“We live here,” Marlin said. “We help her stay alive. She has to stay alive till her daughter returns.”

“Is one of you her daughter?” Jared asked.

“She’s searching for her daughter,” Kendra added.

April winced as the memory flashed back into her mind. That first visit to the island. Being captured by the woman in the blue cloak. Waking up to find the woman sucking her breath, sucking her strength away.

And she called me daughter, April remembered.

She called me daughter.

April never understood that. She still didn’t.

“Maybe she misses her daughter,” Pam suggested. She sounded as if she felt sorry for the witch.

“Look at what she’s done to Marlin!” April said to Pam. “The witch is evil. If she’s searching for her daughter, it’s because she wants to hurt her.”

A chill raced down April’s spine as she heard an eerie singing behind them. It was the same song she’d heard before on the island. The song that had followed her home. It was the witch’s song.

“What’s that?” Pam asked.

“It’s the witch.” April grabbed Marlin’s hand and started to pull him. “Come on—let’s go. She must be close!”

“No, wait—” Marlin held back.

“Hurry!” Kristen cried. “If she comes back, we’ll all be trapped.”

“No—” Dolores protested.

“What’s wrong with you?” April cried.

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

She and Kristen and Pam took off, running toward the tunnel.

Marlin, Jared, and the other captives didn’t move.

April let out a gasp as something heavy landed on top of her.

Sticky and white. A net?

No. She saw the insects crawling over it. A cobweb. An enormous cobweb.

April heard Kristen and Pam shout in alarm. She turned and saw that the enormous web had fallen over them too. Only the witch’s captives were free. They stood quietly, watching the three girls struggle beneath the heavy net.

“Help us!” Pam called to them.

“We need something to cut through this,” April said. “A pocket knife, a sharp rock, anything!”

“Or help us lift it off!” Kristen pleaded.

The three girls struggled beneath the sticky web.

But Marlin and the others stood perfectly still.

“You shouldn’t have tried to escape,” Dolores said.

“We tried to tell you,” Jared added. “It’s useless. She’ll never let you go.”

Pam turned toward April. “Some friends!” she said. “They won’t help us.”

April tried not panic. “Okay, then we’ll find a way out on our own.” She grabbed two thick, sticky strands and tried to rip them apart.

They didn’t even begin to tear.

She tried two more strands—pushing down with her feet and pulling up with her arms. Nothing.

“I can’t break out of it!” Kristen cried. “This net feels likes it’s woven from steel bands.”

“It’s not,” April said, mostly to convince herself. “There’s got to be a way out.”

She searched for a weaker spot in the net—then howled in pain as something stung her arm.

The disgusting web was thick with living insects. Giant red ants, flies, beetles, and wasps crawled over April’s face, down her bare arms.

“Ohh.” She let out a groan as a fat beetle crawled up her nose.

She pulled it out, then slapped at her hair. She scraped bugs off the back of her neck, tugged out something buzzing in her ear.

The web tightened over her. It pressed into her face and arms and legs.

“Eeew! I can’t stand bugs!” Pam was punching at the net, but it didn’t help.

Kristen was down on the cave floor, trying to roll free.

“They’re biting me! Ow! They’re biting me!”. Pam wailed.

Buzzing wasps climbed over April’s face. She swatted them hard. But the web was closing in, tightening over her.

I’m trapped, she realized.

We’re all trapped here.

“Oh!” She felt a sharp sting on the back of her neck. She dropped to her knees under the weight of the web as the pain shot through her body.

“April, you led us in here,” Pam said. Her voice was angry and accusing. “And now we’re never going to get out!”

24

April fought back tears. Pam was right. She had led them into the cave. It was because of her that they were trapped under the net—dinner for all these insects.

“I’ll find a way out of here,” she told Pam and Kristen. “I won’t give up. I’ll get us out.”

Something else stung her elbow. A line of red-hot fire ran through April’s arm. Her eyes shut against the pain of the insect sting, April rolled over. She heard a ping and felt the thick web stretch—then give way.

She opened her eyes—and saw that she had rolled through a tear in the web.

“Hey—I’m out!” April cried.

She hurried to pull the heavy cobweb off the others.

Pam and Kristen stumbled out, rubbing at stings and bites.

“How did you do that?” Pam narrowed her eyes at April.

April shrugged. “I—I don’t know. I guess I just rolled through a weak spot.”

“Who cares? Let’s just go!” Kristen cried.

They started running toward the tunnel.

April couldn’t help turning back—and she saw that Marlin and the others weren’t following. “Come on! Hurry!” she called.

Marlin didn’t respond. Maybe he’s too weak, April thought. Maybe he’s afraid he won’t make it. She grabbed his arm and pulled hard. “You’re coming with us. I can’t leave you here!”

“Let go of me!” Marlin insisted, but April ignored him. She stared toward the tunnel on the right.

“That’s the wrong way,” Clark said. “It’s that tunnel.” He pointed in the other direction. “No. That way,” Jared argued.

Pam slowed down and pointed to a third tunnel. “I think we came that way.”

“We couldn’t have,” Kristen said. “We—” She broke off, looking confused. “I’m not sure where we came in.”

April suddenly felt dizzy. I’m all turned around, she realized.

I don’t remember which way we came. I can’t tell one direction from another.

They stood in the center of the chamber, arguing over which tunnel led out of the cave. Kristen kept sweeping her light from one opening to the other.

April’s head was spinning. She let go of Marlin’s arm and dropped to the floor again. “So dizzy…” she murmured.

“Me too,” Kristen said. Her eyes were rolling in her head. She dropped beside April on the dirt floor.

A scorpion from the cobweb crawled toward them. Its pincers opened and closed. April tried to look away from the scorpion, but she couldn’t raise her head.

Too dizzy. Too dizzy.

“The woman in the blue cloak,” April muttered. “She has us trapped here. She isn’t going to let us go.”

“But that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Marlin said, standing over her, hands on his waist. “We don’t want to go. We want to stay here.”

25

“Are you totally crazy?” Kristen shrieked.

“Marlin—what’s wrong?” April asked. “Why are you saying that?”

“He’s right,” Jared said, stepping in front of Marlin. “We have to stay here. This is where we belong.”

April felt sick with fear as she heard the witch’s song again. She got out of the path of the scorpion, then pushed herself to her feet. The dizziness faded a little. Kristen was standing again too.

“Come on! Come on! Stop wasting time!” Pam cried.

Clark tightened his hands into fists. “We’re not going anywhere,” he said through gritted teeth. “We’re staying.”

“But—why?” Pam demanded.

“This is our home,” Marlin said. He too, seemed ready to fight. “She needs us. And no one’s going to change that.”

The captured kids formed an angry circle around Pam.

April pulled Kristen aside. “The witch has messed with their minds,” she said. “She brainwashed them or something.”

Kristen bit her bottom lip. “What can we do?”

“We have to force them to escape with us,” April replied.

“But—how?” Kristen demanded.

They turned back to the captured kids. Their circle tightened around Pam.

“Get away from me!” Pam screamed. “You’re all crazy! We have to get out of here—now!”

“Maybe you should stay here with us,” Marlin said to Pam.

Pam gave Marlin a hard shove.

Startled, Marlin stepped back.

With a cry, Pam stumbled—and fell hard onto a pile of sharp rocks.

April hurried over to Pam. “Are you okay?”

Pam gazed up at April, her face twisted in pain. She pressed her hands against the cave floor and tried to lift herself.

April leaned down to help her. “Pam—what’s wrong?”

“I—I can’t get up,” Pam said in a trembling voice. She grimaced in pain. “Ohh. My ankle. It’s broken. It’s definitely broken.”

26

Kristen knelt beside Pam. “Stay calm,” she said. “We’ll get you out of here. You’ll be okay.”

Pam’s face tensed in pain. “It hurts. It really hurts.”

The five captured kids stared down at Pam, their faces blank. Marlin nervously kept slapping his fist against the palm of his other hand.

What has that evil woman done to them? April wondered.

She dropped onto her knees beside Pam. Gently, she touched the injured ankle.

“Don’t!” Pam cried. “It’s totally broken. I—”

Pam stopped suddenly. Her eyes went wide as she stared up at April.

“Hey,” she murmured. Her expression softened. “Whoa.”

“What is it?” Kristen asked her.

“The pain,” Pam said, her face still twisted in shock. “It’s gone. My ankle doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Pam narrowed her eyes at April as she slowly, carefully climbed to her feet. Gently, she put her weight down on the hurt ankle.

“No pain,” Pam said. She shook her head. “It’s perfectly fine.”

April turned and realized that Kristen was staring at her, studying her. “April.” Her voice sounded shaky. “You touched Pam’s ankle, and the pain just disappeared.”

“Huh?” April didn’t understand what Kristen was saying.

Now everyone was staring at her.

“You cured my ankle!” Pam exclaimed. “I—I don’t understand it. But you cured It. The ankle was definitely broken. I heard it crack when I hit those rocks.”

Pam did a little dance, tapping her feet on the cave floor. “See? It’s cured!”

Kristen’s eyes locked on April. “And you broke through the web. You’re the one—aren’t you!”

April frowned at her. “I am the one? The one what?”

“You have powers, don’t you! You’re the witch’s daughter,” Kristen said. “You’re the one she’s waiting for.”

“No!” April cried. She backed away from Kristen. “That’s crazy! Totally crazy. I’m not her daughter!”

April realized her heart was racing in her chest. She could feel the blood pulsing at her temples.

She suddenly felt dizzy again. Her mind whirred.

I’m not the witch’s daughter, she told herself. No way. My parents are back in Ohio.

Okay, I touched Pam’s ankle, but I didn’t cure it. I don’t have any powers. I’m not a witch’s daughter.

Why are they all staring at me like that? Like I’m some kind of freak.

They all believe Kristen. But she’s wrong. She’s totally wrong.

April heard the flutter of bats’ wings from the front of the cave. Had someone awakened the bats? Was the woman in the blue cloak on her way?

“We can’t stand here, accusing one another,” she told Kristen. “We have to get out of this cave.”

She turned to Marlin. “Come with us—please! You don’t belong here. You belong with us.”

“Yes. We’ll prove it to you,” Kristen added. “Just let us get you out of this cave.”

“No way,” Marlin replied.

“No way,” Clark repeated, stepping up beside him.

“We have to stay,” Dolores said.

“Then we have no choice,” April told Kristen and Pam. “We have to leave without them. We’ll get help when we get back to the Academy Village. We can radio the main island.”

The three girls took off, running through the narrow tunnel to the next chamber. Rats scuttled at their feet.

They found the next tunnel and squeezed into it, running hard. Their rapid footsteps echoed through the cave. The only other sound was the soft rush of their shallow breaths.

The sleeping bats still clung to the cave walls like a dark curtain. The girls crept past them. Through another tunnel.

Yellow sunlight poured into the next chamber. Through the cave opening, April could see the blue afternoon sky.

“Yes!” she cried, pumping both fists above her head. “We made it!”

They raced out into the warm, fresh air. White seagulls circled, high over the green-blue ocean waves. Below the rock hill, the beach stretched like a smooth yellow ribbon.

“I’ve never been so happy to see the sun!” Pam exclaimed.

“We can’t stop to enjoy the scenery,” April scolded. “We’ve got to get back. We have to get help for the missing kids. We’ve got to rescue them from the cave as fast as we can.”

They started to lower themselves down the steeply sloping hill. The blue rocks glowed, slippery and cool despite the hot sunlight.

They had taken only a few steps, when April felt the rocks begin to shake.

“Whoa!” she cried out, and turned to the others. Their startled faces soon turned to fright.

“Is it…an earthquake?” Pam cried.

The rocks shook harder. A large, smooth rock broke free and tumbled down the hill. Another hard tremble made more rocks break loose.

“It…it’s an avalanche!” Kristen screamed.

The stone beneath April’s feet shook so hard, she toppled back. She landed hard on the trembling, quaking rocks.

Pock pock pock pock.

A dozen tiny rocks bounced down the hill. Rocks hitting rocks. The whole hill quaking harder…harder…

April opened her mouth in a scream as the rock beneath her shook loose.

And then, instead of falling, it floated into the air.

“Noooooo!” Pam shrieked as another long, smooth boulder rose off the hill into the air.

April’s teeth chattered with terror. “B-boulders don’t do that,” she said. “It’s the witch. She’s here. She’s the one doing this!”

The huge rocks tore loose from the hill with a roar like thunder. Tottering from side to side, they floated up. Above the girls’ heads.

So many of them, they darkened the sky.

April scrambled to her feet. But the hill trembled again—a hard shake—and she sailed onto her back.

Turning, she saw Kristen and Pam struggling to stay on their feet.

The rocks overhead covered them in shadow.

April stared up helplessly, unable to move.

The hill gave a hard shake. More rocks thundered down, cracking, rolling faster and faster as they neared the bottom.

Other rocks shot into the air.

April heard a hard thud.

She turned in time to see an enormous rock drop from the sky. It crashed a few yards behind them, then plunged down the hill.

Another rock fell—and shattered. Jagged pieces of the rock flew toward April. She ducked away, only to have a smaller rock hit her arm.

“Run!” Pam screamed.

“There’s no place to go!” Kristen screamed back as boulders crashed down on either side of her.

“We have to find shelter!” April shouted.

Boulders rained down all around them. It was only a matter of time before all of them would be hit. Hurt badly.

Pam crouched down on the ground. She covered her head with her hands.

April tackled her, shoving her out of the way seconds before a boulder landed on her.

Another blue rock fell. Kristen darted out of its way—and into the path of another boulder. She whirled around and fell to the ground next to April and Pam.

The ground bucked beneath them. The three girls huddled together.

“Make it stop!” Pam pleaded.

April opened her mouth in a terrified scream. “We’re going to be crushed!” she shrieked. “We’re all going to be crushed!”

27

The rocks rumbled and cracked beneath them.

April struggled to her feet, only to be thrown down onto her knees again.

A rock fell from the sky and crashed at her feet.

Another. Another, even closer.

Beside her, Kristen was on her back on the ground. She gaped in silent horror at the rocks above her.

Pam hunched on her knees, trying to hold on to the quaking rock hill. She opened her mouth in scream after scream.

A giant boulder crashed down inches from April.

“NO!” she screamed. Even though it didn’t make sense to talk to rocks, she did. “Please don’t hurt us!” Her entire body shuddering from fear, April held her hands up—as if trying to shield herself.

Pam suddenly stopped screaming. Her chest still heaved. Her breaths escaping in noisy gasps.

All three girls stared up at the rocks.

Waiting.

Waiting for the pain.

Waiting to be crushed.

But now the rocks didn’t move. They floated low above them, bobbing, bumping each other. But they no longer fell.

Slowly, the hill stopped quaking.

A few small rocks rolled to the bottom, clacking against the stones as they dropped.

April stared in amazement as the big blue stones slowly, gently floated down to the ground. They dropped all around them, almost without making a sound.

“You—you stopped them!” Pam cried in a high, tiny voice. “April—you did it again. I asked you to make it stop, and you did.”

“She’s right. You really have powers,” Kristen said, not taking her eyes off the rocks.

“No,” April replied weakly. “No. How could I?

” But now she wasn’t sure.

She’d broken through the web.

Pam’s ankle had healed with one touch.

And now she had asked the rocks to stop falling. And they had.

What did it mean?

I’m not the witch’s daughter, April told herself. I know who my parents are.

I am not a witch.

So why do I suddenly have these amazing powers?

I can’t be her daughter.

“I’ve waited a long time for this, Deborah.”

April jumped at the sound of a familiar, dry voice. She spun around—and saw her.

The woman in the blue cloak. She stood above them, her eyes moving from one girl to the other. Her brown-blond hair flying free. Her green eyes wild with excitement. Her red mouth twisted into a bitter smile.

April trembled, remembering…remembering her first visit on the island. This same woman bending over her, stealing her breath…stealing her life.

“I know you have come for me, daughter,” the witch said. And now her eyes were locked on April.

“I know you have come for revenge!” she cried. “Go ahead, Deborah. Do your worst!”

The witch’s voice was hoarse and dry. Her face tight with fury. “Only one of us will survive this day!” she vowed. Her eyes stared into April’s. “Only one.”

28

April let out a gasp. Why is she staring at me?

She felt a stab of pain on her forehead. She raised her hand to it, and realized the mark of the crescent moon was throbbing.

The witch’s dark eyes were locked on April. “Speak up, daughter,” the woman said, sneering. “You came all this way. Are you suddenly too frightened to face me?”

April’s breath caught in her throat. Does she expect me to say something? How did she get the idea that I’m her daughter?

Before April could reply, she heard a scraping on the rocks. The thud of heavy footsteps.

Everyone turned as Donald Marks appeared. He was breathing hard from the climb, his big belly heaving under his Academy Staff T-shirt. Beads of sweat covered his bald head.

He stormed toward the witch and faced her with an angry scowl.

“Don’t you keep your promises?” he bellowed.

The woman in the blue cloak stared back at him blankly, hands on her waist.

“You promised if I brought your daughter, you would let everyone else go home,” Marks shouted.

“I lied,” the woman replied, offering him a thin-lipped grin. “There will be no survivors.”

“But—but—” Marks spluttered. He balled his hands into fists but held them down at his sides.

He turned to the three girls. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “It wasn’t supposed to work out this way. I really—”

“I—I don’t understand,” April interrupted. “What is happening here?”

Marks shook his head sadly. “A few years ago, I was sailing with my family in these waters. My yacht ran aground on this island.”

He pointed with a trembling hand at the witch. “She captured my family. She planned to keep them here forever. She said she would let them go only if I brought more kids to the island. Kids she could take the breath of life from.”

The breath of life?

April pictured the witch bending over her, sucking away her breath. And she remembered her doing the same to Marlin.

The kids in the cave said they had to help her. They were all giving her the breath of life.

“I made up the whole Academy thing,” Marks confessed. “It was a trick to bring kids to the island—for her. But then she sensed that her daughter was one of you.”

He turned his gaze on April.

April shrank back, unable to hide her terror.

“We all—well, most of us—went home last spring,” Marks continued. “But she made me promise to return her daughter to the island. She promised me everyone else would be safe.”

The woman in the blue cloak let out a cold laugh. “You believe the promise of a witch?”

Marks’s face was red with fury. “You made me keep my promise to you. Marlin and Dolores and the others in your cave are dying for it. But your promises are worth nothing!” He rushed at her, one fist raised.

The witch sidestepped and dodged him easily.

Marks stumbled past her, then turned to face her again. He pointed at the three girls. “You don’t even know which one of them is your daughter, do you? And you don’t care who you destroy in order to find out!”

Katherine’s smile faded. Her eyes narrowed angrily. “You have outlived your usefulness,” she said softly.

The witch waved her hand in a circle. She muttered some words April couldn’t hear. Then she waved her hand again and pointed at Marks.

A weak cry escaped Marks’s throat.

His eyes bulged.

He shrank so quickly, April could barely see it.

In a second, he was on the ground. Ruffling his wing feathers. A fat, white seagull.

“Noooo!” April and the others screamed in horror.

The seagull tilted its head. It gazed up at them, as if confused.

The woman in the blue cloak waved her hand again. “Good-bye, Donald,” she said softly.

The seagull took a running start over the rocks—and sailed into the air.

April watched the bird fly away. When she turned back, the witch was staring once again at her. “Now, Deborah, I will deal with you!”

29

The woman in the blue cloak took a step toward April. “Daughter,” she said, her voice almost gentle.

April sucked in a deep breath. She tried to gather her courage.

“You’re crazy,” she told the witch. “I’m not your daughter!”

Kristen and Pam were staring hard at April now.

“But you do have powers!” Pam cried. “You really are a witch!”

“No—” April protested.

“That’s why all those strange things happened to you back home,” Pam said. She backed away from April, her eyes wide with fright. “It’s why you were able to heal my ankle—”

“No. That’s not true. Not true!” April insisted.

The witch stepped between the girls. She turned her green eyes to April.

Up close, April could see a million tiny lines on the woman’s pale face. The skin stretched so tight, her cheekbones appeared to poke out through it.

The eyes were cold. Ancient eyes. Evil eyes.

She placed a bony hand on April’s trembling shoulder. “Deborah, I know who you are,” she said.

Her hand squeezed harder. “And I know why you have come, daughter. Why do you deny it?”

Her hand tightened on April’s shoulder, sending a jolt of pain down her side.

“Please—” April begged. “You’re wrong. You’re—”

“Good-bye, Deborah,” the witch whispered. “You have returned to me only to vanish for good. Good-bye.”

She let go of April’s shoulder and stepped back. Then she waved her hand in a circle and began to mumble strange-sounding words.

April felt the crescent moon on her temple throbbing. Was it possible that the witch was right?

“No—wait!” Kristen cried. “You are mistaken, Mother. I can’t let you do this. April isn’t your daughter—I am!”

“No!” Pam said, stepping in front of Kristen. “Don’t listen to these lies, Mother. I’m your daughter!”

30

“I’m your daughter!” Kristen insisted.

“I am Deborah!” Pam cried.

The witch stopped her spell. A thin smile crossed her face.

“That is very kind of you girls to try to protect your friend. But I have been watching all of you from the moment you set foot on the island.” She pointed to April. “And I know that my daughter has returned inside her body.”

The smile lingered as she stepped closer to April. April could smell her breath. It was that awful rotting smell.

“Tell me, Deborah. Shall I turn you into a seagull so that you can find Donald Marks? Or would you prefer to be a land animal? A sweet little fruit bat, perhaps?”

Katherine waved her hand in a circle again.

But before she finished the circle, Kristen grabbed her arm. “You’re so powerful. You think you know everything. But you don’t even recognize this, do you, Mother?”

Kristen swept back her hair, and April gasped. Kristen had a crescent moon on her temple. And hers was glowing like a bright blue jewel!

Kristen shouted a string of strange words—and the arm she was holding began to change. It shrank quickly, tightening, growing slender and dark.

April stared in horror as the witch’s arm turned into a long black snake. Still stretching from Katherine’s shoulder—still attached—the snake snapped its jaws.

Katherine gave a cry of alarm, and Kristen jumped back, a grin on her face.

“Now do you believe me, Mother?”

“You!” The witch never finished her accusation. She was too busy trying to avoid the snake that grew from her body. The snake whose fangs snapped at her.

April turned to Kristen in shock. “You made me do all those things? It was you all the time?”

Kristen nodded. “Yes, I made everyone suspect you, April. Even her!”

“But—why?” April choked out.

“I had to. To throw her off the track,” Kristen answered. “My only chance to defeat my mother was to take her by surprise.”

Kristen stared at the witch with pure hatred. “I almost had her the first time we came here. But then we had to go home. I was desperate to get back. I’ve waited over three hundred years for this moment!”

“Three hundred years?” Pam echoed.

“You can’t do this to me!” Katherine screamed as the snake snapped at her throat.

Kristen gave her a grim smile. “Can’t I?” She turned back to Pam. “I studied her spell books. And I found a way to return from the dead.”

April stared at the glowing crescent. Her mind was reeling. She didn’t doubt that Kristen was telling the truth. Still, she had really believed Kristen was a kid her own age. Not a witch who was using her to get revenge.

“B-back home,” April stammered. “You made all those things happen to me. The things you did, they terrified me. And I never suspected anything. I trusted you. I thought you were my friend!”

“I needed you to come back with me,” Kristen said. “I needed you to fool her. I wanted to take her by surprise. But…but…I couldn’t let her harm you. I came to think of you as a friend too. I couldn’t let her…” Her voice trailed off.

“You always were a weak thing,” Katherine sneered at Kristen. Her snake arm lashed the air, hissing.

Kristen spun around to face her mother. “I won’t be weak now, Mother,” she said, her voice trembling with bitterness.

“In 1680 I was hanged—because of you. It took me so long to find a new body to come back in…so long. But my hatred brought me back. Back from the dead!”

Kristen shoved April out of the way. And with a cry of fury from deep inside her, she rushed at her mother.

31

“AAAAAAAGGGGGH!”

A scream burst from the witch’s open mouth. She fell back as Kristen tackled her to the rocky ground.

The snake arm wrapped itself around Kristen’s neck. “I should have killed you on the ship!” Katherine shrieked.

Kristen let out a grunt of pain as the snake began to tighten around her throat.

April watched in horror as Kristen’s face reddened. Her eyes bulged as she grabbed at the coiled serpent and tried to pull it off.

April started to step forward to help Kristen, but Pam pulled her back.

“No,” Pam said. “This is between them.”

Kristen gave a strangled cry, managing to choke out a few more of the strange words.

And the snake that was twining around her throat became a piece of frayed rope. It broke into pieces and fell harmlessly to the ground.

The witch now had only one arm. “I will destroy you!” she screamed in rage.

Kristen scrambled to her feet. “Such a loving mother,” she said. Then she uttered another spell.

The witch’s hand flew to her head with a cry of pain.

April watched in amazement. The witch’s eyes were growing closer together. Like tiny green beads. Her nose buckled. Her mouth became little and pinched. Her wrinkles grew deeper. Her whole head was shrinking!

Seconds later her head was gone. In its place another snake curled up from the shoulders of the blue cloak.

The snake opened its jaws in a long, loud hiss.

And then it was Kristen’s turn to cry out as her body began to change. Her arms and legs grew long and thin and hairy. Her torso became fat and stubby.

Kristen’s clothes fell away, revealing a fat black spider’s body. She stood on eight spidery legs now.

April gasped, staring at her friend. Kristen’s screaming head on a giant, hairy spider body.

With another cry, Katherine leaped onto the spider. The snake opened its jaws and sank its fangs into the spider.

Kristen spat a thick, black liquid onto Katherine.

Katherine screamed in pain. But she clung to the spider’s back.

The heavy blue cloak fell over them both.

Hands pressed to the sides of her face, April watched mother and daughter wrestle over the rocks.

She still couldn’t believe it had been Kristen all along. Kristen had fooled everyone. She betrayed April for her own revenge. And yet April didn’t want to see her lose this fight. Kristen was trying to stop someone who was truly evil.

And now the two of them began rolling, over and over. Screaming. Spitting. The snake darting and snapping. Katherine clinging to the fat spider body.

Howling, clawing at each other, they rolled down the steep slope of rocks.

Thunder rumbled and a bright streak of lightning cracked across the sky. A sudden wind rose, and the waves began to swell and toss.

Lightning turned everything stark white. The air suddenly went cold. April wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.

Still, mother and daughter fought. The cloak was tangled between them as they rolled down…down…

And splashed into the ocean below.

Thunder crashed, and the waves rose. Became even wilder. Became covered with white foam.

April and Pam hugged each other as they gazed down at the waters.

Who will win the battle? April wondered.

Who will come floating back up to the surface?

The waves slammed against the rocky shore.

A curtain of steam rose up from the blue-green waters. The steam hissed as it floated over the island, over April and Pam at the top of the hill.

And then the hissing faded to silence.

April didn’t move. She gazed down at the water. The waves were gentle now.

No Katherine. No Kristen.

They did not return.

“They’re both gone,” she murmured.

Happy cries behind them made both girls spin around.

Marlin and the other four kids came running out of the cave. They were laughing and shouting joyfully. And they looked healthy and alive again.

“Hey!” Marlin called. “Hey! What’s happening? Where have you been?” He gave Pam a puzzled look. “Who are you?” he asked.

“Who won the competition?” Dolores chimed in.

They don’t remember anything, April realized. They don’t remember that they’ve been the witch’s prisoners all this time.

And then April saw Donald Marks climbing the rocks. He was grinning, taking the rocks two at a time.

“The witch must be dead!” Marks shouted happily. “You kids are back, and I’m me again! Her spell is broken!”

He stepped up to April and the others. His smile suddenly faded. He frowned. Reached into his mouth. Pulled out a seagull feather.

Tossing it to the ground, he turned to them. “I am so sorry for all that has happened,” Marks said. “I hope you can forgive me for what I did.”

The kids stared back at him in silence.

No one knows what to say, April thought. We’re all too stunned.

“I apologize if you were frightened,” Marks continued. “But what a finish to our TV show! What an amazing finish!” He turned to the cave. “That’s a wrap, guys! We are outta here!”

April heard applause.

Startled, she turned and saw a camera crew stepping out of the cave.

“Good job, everyone,” Marks called. He ran over to slap the camera guys on the back. He shook hands with them. “I think we’ve got a winner!” he declared.

He hurried back to the kids. “The boats are waiting. Let’s get a move on.”

April followed as everyone started down the rock hill.

“People will be talking about this show,” Marks said, a beaming smile on his sweating face. “You kids were wonderful. I think you’re all going to be big celebs!”

April hurried to catch up to him. “Are you telling us this was all just a TV show?” she asked. “Everything that happened?”

Marks nodded, still beaming. “I had the best special-effects team money can buy. I hope you all weren’t too frightened. I had to let you be a little frightened—or else the show wouldn’t be real enough.”

That’s impossible! April thought. It couldn’t have all been faked for the cameras.

They reached the bottom of the hill. Now they were walking across the sand, making their way to the cabins.

The late afternoon sun had begun to lower itself into the water. The ocean sparkled like gold.

No way, April told herself. Marks is lying. Those weren’t special effects. Kristen and her mother—and their magic—were all real.

Marks was laughing about something with two guys from the camera crew. April broke between them to ask another question.

“If none of that was real, then where are Kristen and Katherine?” she asked Marks.

His tiny eyes caught the light of the sun. His smile grew wider. “You mean the actresses who played Kristen and Katherine?”

Actresses? April thought. Could that be possible?

“They were fighting,” she said to Marks. “We watched them fall into the water and not come out again. Where are they?”

Marks pulled a seagull feather from under the collar of his T-shirt. “A launch picked them up. We’ve arranged a private plane to take them home.”

The dock came into view. Two large white boats bobbed in the water, waiting to take them off the island.

Marks jogged away from April. “Pack up quickly, everyone,” he called. “We have to leave before sundown.”

“I still don’t believe him,” April muttered. “Everyone else might, but I never will.”

Pam stepped up beside April. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked. “That was so not fun facing that witch.”

“I guess I’m okay,” April replied. At least Pam had seen the same things she had. Pam knew it was all real. And there was something else that was real.

April suddenly felt a little shy. “It was so nice of you, Pam. What you did up there. Trying to protect me, I mean.”

Pam shrugged. “Just trying to help.”

And before April realized it, she was hugging Pam. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You’re a real friend.”

A few hours later, Pam and April stood on the deck of the boat as it carried them away. A golden ball of a sun was sinking into the water ahead of them. The ocean waves shimmered like gold.

April turned to take one last glance at the island.

“No!” She blinked several times.

Am I seeing things?

The dock. The sandy beach. The cabins. The tilting palm trees. They all gleamed bright blue.

It’s all turned to ice, April realized.

The whole island is covered in blue ice.

Deborah and Katherine—they are still alive. Still alive—and their cold evil lives with them.

Good-bye, Kristen, April thought. Good-bye to you both.

She took a final look at the frozen blue island. Then, with a shudder, April turned back to Pam.

“How will we ever explain back home what this week was like?” April asked.

Pam hadn’t seen the frightening change on the island. Her eyes were on the beautiful sunset up ahead.

“Well, they’ll see it on TV,” she replied. “After all, it was just a TV show—right?”

Take a look at what’s ahead in THE NIGHTMARE ROOM #10 Full Moon Halloween

“Some of you may wonder about my name,” Mr. Moon said. He carried a long pointer and paced back and forth in front of his desk.

Tristan sat next to Ray in the front row of the classroom. Sunlight washed over them from the window. Mr. Moon wore a loose, red sweater over baggy gray pants. When he stepped into the sunlight, his pink face appeared to glow.

“Some of you may already know that there will be a full moon this Halloween,” he said. He tapped the desktop with the end of the pointer.

Why is he staring at Ray and me? Tristan wondered.

He paces back and forth. But every time he turns our way, he keeps his eyes on the two of us.

What is his problem?

“Luna means moon,” the teacher continued. “Can you think of words that come from luna?”

“Looney Tunes?” Ray called out.

Kids laughed.

“It isn’t funny. Ray is right,” Mr. Moon said, nodding at Ray.

The laughter stopped instantly.

Ray flashed Tristan a thumbs-up. “Tell the truth. Am I a genius or what?”

“The words lunacy and lunatic come from luna,” the teacher continued, ignoring Ray.

“So that means we should call him Mr. Lunatic,” Ray whispered to Tristan.

Tristan struggled not to burst out laughing.

“Something funny?” Mr. Moon asked. He leaned over Tristan, the pointer raised.

“Not really,” Tristan replied. “Just Ray’s face.”

That got a big laugh from everyone but Ray.

“Let’s try to keep on the subject,” Mr. Moon said softly. He kept his gaze on Tristan. “We were talking about the word lunatic. People who howled at the moon were called lunatics. As the years went by, lots of other legends grew about the full moon.”

He turned to the rest of the class. “Do you know any legends about the full moon?”

A girl named Kim-Lee raised her hand.

“Don’t they say that more crimes happen on the nights of the full moon?” she asked. “You know. Robberies and murders and everything?”

Mr. Moon nodded. “Yes. Police report that their busiest nights are full moon nights. Many more crimes are committed. Any others?”

Silence. Then Kim-Lee raised her hand again. “And doesn’t the moon control the ocean waves?”

“Well, the pull of the moon is said to affect the ocean tides,” Mr. Moon replied.

Tristan raised his hand. “What about werewolves?” he asked. “People change into werewolves when the full moon is at its highest, right?”

“My hands!” Ray cried. “Wow. Check it out! My hands! They’re growing fur!” He opened his mouth in a long, loud wolf howl.

“OWOOOOOOOO!”

The class erupted in laughter. Everyone laughed.

Everyone but Mr. Moon.

He was staring at Tristan. Studying Tristan. Staring so hard, it made Tristan shiver.

“Let’s test the window bars one more time,” Mr. Moon said after dinner that night.

A fire crackled in the fireplace. The old windows rattled and shook in the gusting October winds outside.

Angela sighed. “We’ve already tested them a dozen times,” she said.

“Well, one more time won’t hurt—will it?” the teacher said eagerly.

She pushed the red button on the bookshelf. The steel bars slammed into place.

“Very good.” Mr. Moon gleefully clapped his hands. “No way those kids will escape.”

“The house looks perfect,” Angela said, gazing around. “Do you like the evil-looking jack-o-lanterns with the knives poking through them?”

“A nice touch,” Mr. Moon said. “And I like the eyeballs and the bleeding human fingers tossed here and there. Very real looking.”

“The old wolf skins are stacked in the front bedroom,” Angela said. She chuckled. “They don’t smell any better this year. I think there are some pretty disgusting things growing in those old skins.”

Mr. Moon chuckled too. He moved to the table where a bottle of dark liquid stood beside several silver goblets. “Let’s pour out the wolfbane,” he said. “Some of our guests may get a little thirsty.”

He raised the bottle, and the thick, dark liquid began to ooze into the silver cups.

A smile spread over his face. “Well, Angela,” he said softly, “I think we’re going to trap some werewolves this year.”

About the Author

R.L. STINE says he has a great job. “My job is to give kids the CREEPS!” With his scary books, R.L. has terrified kids all over the world. He has sold over 300 million books, making him the best-selling children’s author in history.

These days, R.L. is dishing out new frights in his series THE NIGHTMARE ROOM. When he isn’t working, he likes to read old mysteries, watch SpongeBob Squarepants on TV, and take his dog, Nadine, for long walks around New York City, where he lives with his wife, Jane, and son, Matthew.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Read all the books in the Nightmare Room
series by R.L Stine

#1 Don’t Forget Me!

#2 Locker 13

#3 My Name Is Evil

#4 Liar Liar

#5 Dear Diary, I’m Dead

#6 They Call Me Creature

#7 The Howler

#8 Shadow Girl

#9 Camp Nowhere

Thrillogy #1: Fear Games

Thrillogy #2: What Scares You the Most?

Credits

Cover illustration by Richard Newton

Copyright

THE NIGHTMARE ROOM THRILLOGY #3: NO SURVIVORS. Copyright © 2001 by Parachute Publishing, L.L.C. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition June 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-190489-9

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

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United Kingdom

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Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Contents
- Prologue

- Part One

- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7

- Part Two

- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13

- Part Three

- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31

- About the Author
- Other Books by R.L. Stine
- Credits
- Copyright
- About the Publisher