The Wicked Cat Page 5

  Jessie went straight to the bottom of the pool.

  Paddling on the surface, Adam began to wonder what would happen to Sally if Jessie died. Big air bubbles were rising out of Jessie’s mouth, and she could have only so much air in her lungs. Adam could see her frantically moving her arms and legs, and not going anywhere. He decided that enough was enough.

  Adam took a deep breath and dove down.

  He was not exaggerating when he had told Jessie what an excellent swimmer he was. In Kansas City, where he had grown up, he swam all the time in a lake near his home. In fact, there was a tall tree that hung out over the lake, which he jumped off. So he was used to diving deep.

  But the moment he reached Jessie he knew he was in trouble.

  She grabbed him. But not with a normal grip.

  Jessie was strong, far stronger than he was. She was like one huge cat and her hands were like massive paws. She grabbed him so tight he couldn’t move his arms, which wasn’t good since he was trying to rescue her. Try as he might, he couldn’t break free. Inches in front of him he could see that her face was turning blue from lack of oxygen. He understood that her strength was increased by her panic. He remembered a Red Cross instructor in Kansas City saying the first thing you had to learn when rescuing drowning people was not to give them a chance to drown you.

  They were bobbing around near the bottom, but the moment Adam felt his feet really hit the floor of the pool, he pushed off with all his might. They rocketed toward the surface, and even broke free of it. But the ordeal was not over because he was still not free of her.

  Because she was a girl—and he thought of himself as a protector of young women everywhere—he hated to hurt her, but he had to ram his knee up and into her gut. She loosened her grip on him and he was able to break loose. Quickly turning her over onto her back, he slipped his right arm around her neck and paddled them toward the side of the pool. Once there he forced her to put her hands on the ledge so he didn’t have to hold her up. She was coughing and gagging and wasn’t able to talk for a few minutes.

  When she finally could speak, all she said was “Get me out of here.”

  Adam helped her out of the pool and pointed her in the direction of the girls’ showers. He showered and dressed but he waited a long time before she reappeared. He expected her to come out all upset, either crying or mad at him. But when she emerged from the locker room, she was smiling as she had that morning. She walked over to him.

  “That was fun,” she said.

  “Almost drowning was fun?”

  She punched him. “Yeah. That was the worst thing that could happen to me. Now I’ve gotten over my fear. I think I am going to enjoy PE.”

  Adam nodded. “OK.” He had hoped the fright would be enough to end the day for her, at least as a human. He had nothing else planned. “What would you like to do now?”

  She smiled. “I want to show you a cave.”

  “What cave?”

  “It’s not far from here. Just in the hills behind the cemetery.” She paused. “Where you ran into Sally’s cat yesterday.”

  Adam was cautious. “How do you know we ran into the cat there?”

  “Sally told me.”

  “Sally told you a lot.”

  “Yeah. She told me all about you guys. I know you real well.” She grabbed his arm. “Come on, you’ve been deciding what we’re going to do all day. Now it’s my turn.”

  Adam had no choice but to follow her. He still had to figure out a way to make her want to give up her human body. But he was beginning to wonder if his approach was all wrong. It had been Watch’s plan, after all, and Watch hadn’t even hung around to try to make it work. Briefly, he wondered how Watch and Cindy were getting along with Sally. He hoped Cindy had not taken Sally to the vet for shots.

  Jessie had a thing about holding his hand that made Adam uncomfortable. Besides being shy about being seen in public so close to a girl, he was amazed by how tight Jessie could grip. He was reminded of when they had been on the bottom of the pool and she had almost drowned him. Yet she hadn’t said anything to him about his kneeing her in the stomach, although he supposed he should apologize to her and explain why he did it. He didn’t want her mad at him unless it was necessary.

  They followed the path behind the cemetery that led into the hills. Adam tried making conversation, but Jessie seemed intent on getting to the cave. He tried to ask a couple of times what was there but she just smiled and said that he would see. Adam began to feel nervous. He’d had a bad experience the last time he had gone into a cave in Spooksville. It had taken him almost twenty-four hours to find his way back out.

  The cave was behind a tree not far from the path where they had found the cat. But if Jessie had not led him straight to it he doubted if he would ever have seen it. From the outside, it appeared unremarkable. The opening was about as tall as a grown man, but the sides were narrow. He had to squeeze through to follow Jessie, and once he was inside he didn’t want to go any farther.

  “We don’t have a flashlight,” he said. “We can’t walk too far from the entrance or we won’t be able to see.”

  She offered her hand. “What I have to show you is only a little way inside.”

  He took her hand, reluctantly. “What is it?”

  She smiled. “A body.”

  He let go of her hand in a hurry.

  “What do you mean?” he gasped.

  “There’s a body chained in this cave. Don’t worry, it’s been dead a long time.”

  “Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

  She continued to laugh. “It’s not an old smelly body. It’s a skeleton of a kid about our age.” She stuck out her hand again. “Don’t be such a coward.”

  If there was one thing Adam didn’t like being called it was a coward. He took her hand, even though he didn’t want to. He figured he would see the skeleton, maybe touch it once, and then get out of the cave as fast as possible. The place made him feel creepy like the cat had yesterday. Like Jessie did today.

  They came to the skeleton a moment later.

  She was right, the guy had been dead a long time.

  His bones were as dry as kindling wood and were covered with a fine brown dust. His skull was completely hollow and his eye sockets were open holes, yet there was something about his face—something in his exposed jaw perhaps—that suggested life.

  He was not lying in the cave but standing, chained to the wall by his wrists. Adam figured he had been alive when he had been locked in here. Jessie answered his unspoken question.

  “He was chained in here by Madeline Templeton when he was only twelve and a half,” she said. “That was two hundred years ago and she left him here to die of starvation. No one ever found out where Jack was.”

  “How do you know his name was Jack?” Adam asked, although he could make an educated guess, given that he knew Jessie was probably at least as old as the skeleton.

  Jessie looked at him. In the dark her green eyes seemed much brighter. They peered at him like twin emeralds, dipped in radioactive liquid. All of a sudden Adam wished he were anywhere but in this dark cave standing next to this strange girl. It was almost as if she were trying to hypnotize him. He wondered if that was how Sally had been trapped by Jessie’s evil spell.

  “I just know,” she said in a peculiar voice. There was almost a note of sorrow in her tone. Adam took a step back.

  “I feel sorry for him,” he said. “It must have been a horrible way to die.”

  Jessie nodded slowly. “Lots of people went searching for him. The whole town did. They even looked here, in this area, but they couldn’t hear him screaming because Madeline had closed up the cave with bricks.” Jessie pointed to the floor. “You see the bricks are still here. The wall just collapsed the other day. But a little cement could fix it again.”

  Adam backed up another step. “Sounds like an interesting story. Why don’t you tell me the rest of it while we walk back to town?”

  Jessie
suddenly stepped around him so that she was standing between him and the way out. She was fast, the move caught Adam by surprise.

  “I would rather tell you the story in here,” she said.

  Adam swallowed. “I hope it’s not a long story.”

  Jessie smiled sadly and her gaze was far away.

  “There was a girl named Jessica,” she said. “She liked this boy Jack, the same Jack you see hanging here. But they were just children, and it wasn’t as if they were romantically involved or anything. Even though in those days people did get involved much younger. Anyway, Jessica had a friend named Madeline—she was a witch. Even when Madeline was young, she was so powerful that most people in town feared her. But Jessica didn’t because she had grown up with Madeline. Jessica trusted her friend, especially when her friend promised to give her some of her power. In exchange Madeline said she only wanted a small favor. But what she didn’t tell Jessica was that she liked Jack as well and didn’t want to share him with anyone.” Jessie paused and then suddenly rushed the ending as if it were too painful to spend time on. “So Madeline changed Jessica into a cat, and led Jack here by telling him Jessica was hurt. And then she chained him to the wall and left him to die.” She stopped and Adam thought he saw a tear on her face. “It’s a sad story, isn’t it?”

  “Why did Madeline kill Jack if she liked him?” he asked, curious.

  Jessie sighed. “Because she realized too late that Jack would never like her the way he had liked Jessica. You see, Madeline was powerful but she was lonely as well. She was always using her power to win friends, but as a result none of her friends were real friends.” Jessie paused. “With Jessica and Jack gone, Madeline had no one to talk to.”

  Adam tried to step past her. “We should tell the police about this body.”

  Jessie put a hand on his chest and stopped him. “No one’s telling anyone about Jack.”

  Adam could feel how strong she was. “All right. We won’t talk about Jack again.”

  He started to pass by her again. Again she stopped him.

  “You know,” she said.

  “I know what?”

  “Who I am.”

  He shrugged. “Sure. You’re Jessie. Let’s get out of here.”

  But she tightened her hold on his shirt. “This afternoon, the whole time, you were trying to discourage me from being a human. You made me do algebra, you wouldn’t let me eat what I like, and then you tried to drown me.”

  “I saved you from drowning.” He added quietly, “Anyway, you are human.”

  She kept staring at him. “I am now. But as you know I wasn’t yesterday.”

  He forced a laugh. “What were you? A cat?”

  It wasn’t exactly the best example to use, he realized.

  Jessie nodded faintly. “I was the black cat you found. The evil house-burning cat you were all afraid of. But like I said, you already know that. When I was getting dressed at the swimming pool, after you tortured me in the water, I realized that.” She gripped his shirt tightly. “And I realized something else. You know what that was?”

  Adam tried to back up but found he couldn’t.

  “No,” he said.

  Her voice was cold. “I realized you were not my friend. You were just pretending to be because you wanted to get something from me. You are like Madeline. She should have paid for what she did to me and Jack but she was too powerful. Even when I served her as a familiar, I could never take revenge on her. But I can take revenge on you!”

  “Jessie—” Adam began.

  But he wasn’t given a chance to finish. Gripping his chest with ferocious strength—as if she were a lion—Jessie lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the wall beside Jack’s skeleton. There was another set of chains pinned into the stone, and these she fastened around his wrists. But the handcuffs were old and rusty—the locking mechanism was shot. It didn’t matter to Jessie. From the depths of her green eyes light blazed, like twin laser beams, and she fused the cuffs together. Adam was trapped. Jessie took a step back and grinned at him.

  “I’ll be back later with some cement,” she promised. “I’ll wall this place back up. Even if your friends come looking for you, even if you scream as loud as you can, no one will hear you.” She pinched his cheek. “Goodbye, Adam. I really did think you were cute. You reminded me of Jack. And now—just think—you’re going to look like him.”

  Jessie walked away.

  Adam hung in the dark beside the skeleton of Jack.

  He didn’t know how he was going to get out of this mess.

  10

  Meanwhile Cindy was feeding Sally a chicken dinner. Sally seemed to enjoy it, but Cindy had to hold the drumstick for her if Sally was to get any meat off it. Cindy laughed as Sally growled when the drumstick was done. Cindy scratched the cat on the back of the head, which made Sally growl more.

  “You can’t have any more,” Cindy said. “You don’t want to be a fat cat. There’s nothing more unattractive.”

  The cat tried to scratch Cindy’s hand but Cindy was too fast for her. Cindy waved the drumstick at her.

  “You don’t want to make me mad,” Cindy said. “Or you’ll have no breakfast tomorrow.”

  “Careful,” Watch advised. “Hopefully she won’t be a cat much longer,” he said, checking one of his watches, “if Adam is successful with Jessie. Hey, he’s been gone a long time.”

  They were sitting on what was left of Cindy’s front porch, and it was getting late. The sun would set in an hour. Cindy left Sally alone for a moment and went over to sit beside Watch. He looked worried and she patted him on the back.

  “Adam knows how to take care of himself,” she said. “Even if he can’t talk her back into being a cat, I don’t think she can harm him.”

  Watch shook his head. “You forget that she’s been a familiar for two centuries, and I doubt that she lost all her powers by becoming human. If she suspects Adam is trying to manipulate her, she could get really angry. Who knows what she might do to him?”

  “Should we go look for him?” she asked.

  Watch stood. “I think I’ll look myself. I don’t want to have to take the cat—I mean, Sally. She’d just slow me down. You stay here and watch her.”

  Cindy caught something odd in his tone. “You don’t want me to come for another reason?”

  Watch lowered his head. “I am thinking of going to the witch’s castle, and asking her for help.”

  Cindy was concerned. “You know it’s never a good idea to push her. She said she told you all she was going to tell you. I don’t want you going to that evil castle.”

  Watch looked up. “I got a lot of my eyesight back at that castle. I was going blind before I went there. I really don’t think Ann Templeton is evil.”

  Cindy stood and touched his arm. “She may not be evil but she doesn’t understand our idea of goodness. She’s totally unpredictable.”

  Watch nodded. “But I’m afraid something is wrong with Adam. He should have at least called by now.”

  “The witch won’t go out of her way to help Adam.”

  “She might. And I’m hoping Ann Templeton has some records about what happened back when Jessie was turned into a cat.”

  Cindy gave him a hug. “Go then. But what should I do if Jessie shows up here without Adam?”

  “Be careful what you say to her.”

  When Watch reached the castle, he was surprised to find the moat torches burning. Usually the castle was dark and forbidding at evening time. But maybe Ann Templeton knew he was coming. He expected a goblin or troll to answer the door, but it was the witch herself. She was dressed in a long dark green robe and smiled when she saw who it was.

  “Watch,” she said. “You’re just time. Come in.”

  He stepped into the dark interior of the castle, which he knew from experience could change shape at a moment’s notice. In the corner was a roaring fire, and not far from it was a long wooden table littered with old pieces of brown paper.

  “D
id you put the idea in my mind to come here?” he asked.

  “Exactly.” She led him toward the table and offered him a seat. “I am reviewing portions of Madeline Templeton’s diary. As you can see it is not in good shape. I had to look long and hard to find what I have.”

  Watch sat down at the table. “You’re going to all this trouble to help Sally?”

  Ann Templeton smiled as she made herself comfortable across from him.

  “Let’s just say I have a curiosity about what happened with Madeline and this Jessie. If the information I find helps Sally, I don’t mind. But I told you, I still think Sally will make a good cat. She should have been born with claws.”

  Watch nodded at the pieces of paper. “Does Madeline’s diary discuss their relationship?”

  “Yes. At first they were the best of friends. But then Madeline got jealous of Jessie’s friendship with a boy. I think Madeline liked him as Well.”

  “Is that when Madeline turned her into a cat?”

  “Yes.” Ann Templeton read one piece of old and cracked paper. “This entry was dated after Jessie was already a familiar. But even then Madeline seemed upset, but I think it had more to do with the boy.” Ann Templeton suddenly frowned. “Oh, that wasn’t very nice of her.”

  “What?” Watch asked.

  “Madeline killed Jack. That was the name of the boy.”

  Watch swallowed. “Just because she was jealous?”

  “Madeline had a terrible temper when she was young. She chained Jack in-a cave not far from here, up behind the cemetery. Then she walled the entrance up.” Ann Templeton set the page of the diary down. “He must still be there.”

  “But not in very good shape,” Watch added.

  Ann Templeton smiled faintly. “You know what I like about you, Watch?”

  “I can’t imagine.”

  “Even when things are at their darkest, you have a sense of humor. That’s a good trait to possess, especially in this town.”

  “Thank you. It’s a difficult town to grow up in, but an exciting one.” He paused. “Why does so much weird stuff happen here? I’ve always wondered.”