Black Creek Crossing

Chapter 26

HE TERROR ANGEL HAD FELT AS SHE WALKED HOME from the library the night before gave way to anger in the morning sunlight, with the shadows of the forest washed away and Houdini frolicking around her feet, dashing away every now and then to chase a squirrel or a rabbit, but always coming back before more than a minute or two had passed.

How could she have been so stupid last night?

How could she not have figured out that the sounds she’d heard weren’t made by some kind of dangerous animal stalking her? In the full light of day, even the memory of the strange hooting she’d heard didn’t sound like an owl, or any other kind of animal. Rather, it sounded like someone trying to sound like an owl, and not even doing a good imitation of one.

Stupid! She’d been stupid, and Zack and his friends would tell everyone else about it all day. She could already picture everyone looking at her in the cafeteria at lunchtime, and hear them giggling and laughing just loud enough to make sure she heard them.

She considered skipping school that day. But ten minutes later, standing across the street from the school and seeing Zack, Chad, and Jared hanging around on the front steps just like they always did, she changed her mind.

Better to just ignore them.

She bent down to say good-bye to Houdini. Instead of nuzzling her hand the way he usually did, he was gazing across the street, his eyes fixed on the three boys on the front steps, his tail twitching.

He knows! Angel thought. He knows what they did!

“It’s okay, Houdini,” she said softly, stroking the cat’s fur. “They’re just stupid boys!” Giving him one last pat, she straightened up, hitched her backpack higher on her shoulders, and started across the street.

Houdini darted in front of her, hissed in the direction of her cousin and his friends, and pressed against her legs as if to keep her from going any farther.

Angel looked at the cat quizzically. “Houdini, I have to go to school! Just go on back to wherever you go every day, and I’ll see you after school!” Stepping around the cat, she continued across the street.

Houdini darted in front of her again. This time, though, he didn’t try to stop her; instead he stalked ahead of her, his head low, his teeth bared.

As she came to the bottom of the steps, he moved halfway up the flight and crouched down. Now the fur on his neck was standing up and his tail was twitching dangerously.

His hiss turned into a low growl.

Angel watched in surprise as Zack and his two friends seemed to shrink away from the cat.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Zack Fletcher demanded of her. “You can’t bring your stupid cat to school.” But there was a tremor in his voice that belied the truculence of his words, and both Chad Jackson and Jared Woods appeared just as nervous as Zack sounded.

“He’s not my cat, and I didn’t bring him to school. He just came.”

“Well, make him go away,” Chad Jackson said.

As if understanding Chad’s words perfectly, Houdini took a step toward him, bared his teeth, and hissed angrily.

Chad shrank back against the wall.

“It’s okay,” Angel said, stooping down to soothe the cat. “They’re just not as brave as they were last night.” She looked up at Jared, who hadn’t said a word so far. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

Jared’s face flushed, but his eyes never left Houdini, and now he was edging toward the front door of the school. “I–I gotta go find someone,” he mumbled, then slipped through the door before either of his friends could try to stop him.

Zack Fletcher licked his lips nervously and tried once more to sound braver than he was feeling. “You better get him away from here, or I’m gonna tell Mr. Lambert.”

Coincidentally, even as he spoke, the door opened and the principal stepped out. “Tell me what, Zack?” Phil Lambert asked. Seeing Houdini, he smiled and crouched down, extending his hand. “Well, who are you?” he asked. “Aren’t you a pretty kitty?”

Houdini, relaxing, moved toward the principal, sniffed at his extended hand, then slid under it to get a scratch on the back of his neck.

“You better watch out,” Chad Jackson blurted. “He bites.”

Phil Lambert took both of Houdini’s cheeks in his hands and gently shook his head. “Ooh, is the mean kitty going to bite me?” he asked. When he released him, Houdini rolled over onto his back and batted playfully at the principal’s hands, his claws sheathed. After playing with the cat another moment, Phil Lambert straightened up and gave Chad an amused look. “I certainly see what you mean. Never saw a cat as vicious as this one.”

Chad’s face turned scarlet, and Angel saw his eyes darting around to see how many people were witnessing the principal making fun of him. Then, like Jared before him, he disappeared into the school. Zack followed before the door had even swung closed again.

When they were gone, Mr. Lambert turned back to Angel. “Were they giving you a problem?” he asked.

Angel shook her head.

Phil Lambert tilted his head, as if he knew there was something Angel wasn’t telling him. “If they were, you can tell me, you know. It won’t go any further, but if anyone’s harassing you, I need to know about it.”

“I’m okay,” Angel said, but couldn’t quite bring herself to look the principal in the eye as she uttered the not-quite-truth that wasn’t quite a lie.

“Okay,” Mr. Lambert sighed. “But if you want to talk to me, you know where my office is, don’t you?” As Angel nodded, the principal’s gaze shifted to Houdini. “He’s yours?”

Angel shook her head, again deciding to tell not quite all of the truth. “I guess he’s a stray. I think he lives out by our house somewhere, and he just sort of started following me around.”

“Does he have a collar?”

Again Angel shook her head.

Lambert frowned. “Maybe we should call the pound—”

But Angel didn’t let him finish. “Don’t do that,” she cried. “He didn’t do anything — he’s a really nice cat!”

“Chad and his friends don’t seem to think so,” the principal observed. “Why would they be afraid of him?”

Because he knows what they did, Angel thought. But she said nothing aloud and only shrugged in response to the principal’s question.

“All right,” Mr. Lambert sighed. “Tell you what — I’ll pretend I never saw the cat today. But Chad’s right about one thing — you can’t bring it to school, and if it keeps following you here, I’ll have to call the pound. Okay?”

Angel nodded, and when the principal had gone back into the building, she crouched down to stroke Houdini’s fur. “You have to go somewhere else,” she said softly. “If you stay here—”

But Houdini, again responding as if he understood what she was saying, took off before she’d finished, bounding down the steps and dashing out into the street. Only when he was on the other side did he stop, turn around, sit down under the huge oak tree that stood opposite the school, and wrap his tail around his feet.

Angel looked at him for a few seconds, waved once, then turned away to begin the day at school.

“I hate that cat,” Chad Jackson said as he stood with his back to his locker, talking to Zack and Jared while he waited for Seth Baker to show up. “Did you see? It was all set to come at me! Jeez! It coulda killed me!”

“It did try to kill me,” Zack Fletcher said. “It must have followed me back from the Crossing last night.”

Chad’s pulse quickened and he forgot all about Seth Baker. “What do you mean, it tried to kill you?”

“I mean, it jumped me. I was almost home, and suddenly it just came at me!”

“Where?” Chad asked.

Zack’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, where?”

“Like, where’d it go at you?”

“My face,” Zack blurted out, remembering only after he’d spoken the words that there wasn’t a mark on him anywhere. “I just barely fought him off before he got me.” He looked quizzically at Chad, who had a strange look in his eyes, as if he was frightened. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It — It came after me too,” Chad stammered. “At least, I think it did.” His eyes flicked from Zack to Jared, both of whom were now staring at him. “I mean — well, I think it came after me.”

Zack’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, you think it came after you? Did it or didn’t it?”

“I–I think it did,” Chad stammered. “It felt like it slashed at my face. I mean, I thought it was gonna rip my eyes out. But when I looked in the mirror…” His voice trailed off.

“There wasn’t anything, right?” Zack said, his voice hollow.

Chad shook his head. “It was like it hadn’t happened at all. Except I know it did.”

“That’s what happened to me too,” Jared Woods said, his voice trembling. Both Chad and Zack turned to look at him. “I thought it was a dream.” Slowly, still uncertain whether it had happened, he told his friends what he thought the cat had done to him last night. “But it couldn’t have been in my room,” he finished. “I mean, it was all locked up, and when my dad came in to see what was wrong—” He cut himself short an instant too late.

“Your dad?” Zack echoed. “You screamed so loud your dad came in?”

“I was asleep!” Jared said. “I mean—”

“So what’s the big deal?” Chad asked, glaring at Zack. “So what if he screamed? The only reason my folks didn’t hear me was the freakin’ cat had me by the throat.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Zack said. “I mean, could the cat have gotten out of your room when your dad came in?”

Jared shook his head. “The lights were on, and I was right by the door, and so was my dad. It was like it was there one second, and then it was just gone.”

The three boys looked at each other for a long moment.

“What are we gonna do?” Jared asked.

“It’s simple,” Zack said. “She says it’s not her cat, so she won’t care if something happens to it, right? So let’s find out if it’s her cat or not.”

“You got it?” Zack asked as Jared began working the combination to his locker, which was just two down from Zack’s own. When Jared nodded, Zack signaled to Chad Jackson, who slammed the door of his own locker and sauntered over to lounge against the wall across from Zack and Jared. The lunch bell had rung five minutes ago, and on any other day the three of them would have already been inside the cafeteria, first in line. But today they’d taken their time, hanging around in front of their lockers, waiting for the corridor to empty.

“This is gonna be fun,” Chad said, his lips twisting into a malicious grin.

“If it works.” The uncertainty in Jared Woods’s voice only made Chad’s grin turn even uglier.

“Why shouldn’t it work?”

“How do you even know we can find the stupid cat?” Jared countered.

“We know where Angel is,” Zack told him. “So we know where the cat’s going to be, right? It’s been there all morning. I checked after every class.”

“But she says it’s not even her cat,” Jared reminded Chad and Zack.

Now both of his friends were eyeing him, and Jared knew what they were thinking. “I’m not chickening out,” he said. “But what if we get caught?”

Zack rolled his eyes. “If it looks like we’re going to get caught, we won’t do anything. What do you think I am, stupid?” He glanced up and down the hallway, which was now deserted. Dumping the contents of his backpack into his locker and shutting the door fast enough so nothing fell out, he flattened the backpack and stuck it inside his jacket, pulling the zipper halfway up so he didn’t have to hold the pack in place. “Come on.”

Leading his friends down the stairs and out the front door of the school, he threaded his way through the knot of nerds who habitually sat on the front steps playing chess while eating their lunches out of the kind of lunch boxes that Zack and his friends had quit carrying in fourth grade. Ignoring them, Zack headed across the lawn to the sidewalk, and then wondered if he might not be wrong.

The black cat was nowhere to be seen.

“I thought you said it was here all morning,” Jared Woods said, trying to keep the relief from his voice.

“It was,” Zack said, starting across the street toward the spot under the big oak tree on the corner where he’d always seen the cat sitting in the morning.

But now it was gone.

“I don’t get it,” he said, frowning as he scanned the area around the tree and looked up and down the street. “It’s been here the whole morning.” As he uttered the words, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and feeling a terrible presentiment of danger, he spun around.

Nothing.

He turned around again, and saw Jared and Chad gazing up into the tree.

Jared was slowly backing away, and though Chad wasn’t moving, his face had gone pale.

Zack peered up into the tree too, and found himself looking into the golden-yellow eyes of the coal-black cat, whose lips drew back, baring its teeth.

Zack’s heart pounded heavily as he remembered the cat hurtling out of the darkness last night and sinking its claws deep into the flesh of his face. Now, the cat emitted a low hiss, and again Zack felt the agonizing pain that had ripped through him a little more than twelve hours earlier. It was all he could do to keep from backing away the same as Jared had, but somehow he managed to hold his ground.

The cat’s tail twitched and it crouched lower, stretching toward him.

“Watch out,” Jared said, his voice barely above a whisper. “If he jumps at you—”

“He won’t jump at me,” Zack said. “He’s just as chicken as you are.” His eyes still locked on the cat, he pulled the backpack out of his jacket. “That’s right, isn’t it?” he asked, staring up at the cat. “You’re real brave in the dark, but when it’s light—”

Reacting to the words as if it understood them, the cat suddenly launched itself at Zack, springing from the branch with its forepaws outstretched, its claws bared, a furious yowl erupting from its throat.

Zack stepped aside at the last second and lashed at the cat with the backpack, catching it in the side and flipping it over.

The cat fell to the ground on its back but rolled over so fast Zack barely even saw it, and an instant later was on its feet again, crouched low, hissing and snarling as it faced him.

“What’s the matter, cat?” Zack taunted. “Don’t like it?”

He struck out at the cat with the backpack, and the animal lashed at the pack with its forefoot.

Zack jerked the backpack away a moment before the cat’s claws could sink into the nylon.

Now Chad joined in, peeling off the nylon jacket he was wearing over his flannel shirt and rolling it up the way he and his friends rolled towels in the locker room to flick at each other after they’d showered. As the cat kept its eyes fastened on Zack, Chad moved around and slashed at its flanks with one of the jacket’s sleeves.

Screeching, the cat leaped into the air, whirled around, and came down on all fours, hissing and spitting at Chad with even more fury than it had directed at Zack.

A second later one of the shoulder straps of Zack’s backpack came down on its back, and once more it whirled.

“Come on, Jared,” Zack said. “Take a lick or two.” Jared Woods had moved back another pace, and shook his head silently as his friends kept baiting the cat.

“What’s the matter, Woods?” Chad teased. “Afraid he might get into your room again tonight?” As Zack kept baiting the cat with his backpack, Chad snapped his rolled up jacket at Jared, who jerked back as the snap on the jacket’s sleeve stung his wrist. “You a pussy too?” Chad taunted.

With the challenge hanging over him, Jared unfastened his belt buckle and pulled it out of the loops in his pants.

As if sensing the new danger, the cat whirled to face Jared, every muscle in its body tensing as it prepared to strike. His nerve fading in the face of the animal’s fury, Jared took a step backward.

The cat moved closer to him, the tip of its tail twitching as dangerously as the rattle on the tail of a snake. Behind the cat, Jared could see Zack opening the backpack and edging closer.

Seeing what Zack was doing and understanding what he had in mind, Chad whispered to Jared, “Take another step back. Wave the belt at him.”

Taking the backward step was easy — every instinct inside Jared was screaming at him to turn and run before the cat launched itself at him and once again sank its claws into his belly. The cat, sensing Jared’s fear, edged closer, its yellow eyes glinting, its tail twitching faster.

Jared froze, too terrified now even to move.

The cat crept closer, a venomous sound coming from its mouth that sounded to Jared even more dangerous than the hiss of a snake about to strike.

The belt fell from his hands.

The cat moved closer yet, its eyes fixed on Jared as if it could see the terror in his soul, and Jared felt a cold sweat break out on his skin. He tried to step back again, but his legs suddenly felt weak.

Then, just as the cat was about to strike, Jared saw a sudden movement behind it.

The cat, sensing the movement, leaped into the air to turn on the threat behind it.

Too late!

Zack dropped the open backpack over the cat while it was still in the air, and dove to the ground, his full weight falling on the backpack as he fumbled for the zippers that would close its flap.

Beneath him he could feel the cat squirming and thrashing, slashing at the heavy nylon with its claws.

He found the zipper and pulled it closed. With the cat still thrashing, and now yowling with rage, Zack scrambled to his feet, grabbed the backpack by the shoulder straps, and swung it hard against the trunk of the oak tree from which the cat had leaped only moments before.

The cat howled.

Zack smashed the backpack against the tree once more, and the cat fell silent. The boy glanced up and down the street. No one across the street, by the steps of the school, seemed to be paying attention, perhaps because the battle with the cat had been shielded from view by the large tree. And except for a woman who was just coming around the corner a block away, the street itself was deserted.

“Come on,” Zack said. “Follow me.”

With Chad and Jared behind him, he hurried across the street, but instead of heading for the front door of the school where the nerds had finally finished their chess games, he veered off to the side, headed down to the end of the building, and went around the corner. By the time Chad and Jared caught up, he was halfway up the steps that led to the door that opened into the staircase connecting the main floor not only to the second floor, but to the basement as well. Then all three of the boys were in the maze of pipes and ducts that filled the basement of the school, and Zack led the way to a dark corner near the furnace.

“What are we going to do?” Chad asked. “Burn it?”

Zack shook his head. “I’ve got a better idea. But first we’re going to make sure it’s dead.”

Gripping the shoulder straps of his backpack, he raised it, swung it high over his head, and smashed it down onto the basement’s concrete floor.

A grunting sound came from inside the bag, and there was a faint movement. Zack handed the pack to Chad Jackson. “Your turn.”

Chad hesitated only a second before hefting the bag as if to test its weight, tightening his grip on the shoulder straps, then swinging it high a couple of times before smashing it to the floor.

From inside the bag there were two more muffled grunts.

Chad tossed the bag to Jared Woods, who let it drop to the floor at his feet. “Now you.”

Jared gazed uncertainly down at the bag.

“We said we’d all do it,” Zack Fletcher said.

“Y-You didn’t say what—”

“Do it,” Zack cut in, his voice as hard as his balled right fist. “You want to keep on being our friend, you do it.”

Jared scanned the far reaches of the dimly lit basement, half hoping someone might come out and give him an excuse not to pick up the backpack, but he neither saw nor heard anyone.

They were alone.

With no one to save him, Jared bent down and picked up the backpack. He could feel some weak movement inside the bag, but nothing like the violent thrashing of a few moments ago.

He hefted it in unconscious imitation of Chad Jackson.

“Go on, pussy — do it,” Zack commanded.

Wincing at the nickname — and knowing Zack would hang it on him forever, just as he’d done to Seth Baker when he’d renamed him “Beth” when they were still just little kids — Jared steeled himself, tried to put down the nausea rising in his stomach, and swung the backpack against the wall.

He told himself he didn’t hear the yip of pain from inside the pack.

Told himself he hadn’t swung the pack hard enough to really hurt the cat. Not like Zack and Chad had anyway.

Told himself the cat was probably already dead.

Besides, the cat had attacked him last night, hadn’t it?

But even as he tried to convince himself, the nausea rose in his stomach again. He dropped the bag at Zack’s feet. “I did it, okay?”

His lips curling into a faint sneer, Zack picked up his backpack. “And now you’re gonna puke, aren’t you?”

Jared shook his head, though he wasn’t at all sure Zack was wrong.

“Okay, let’s go,” Zack said, slinging the pack onto his shoulders as if it still contained nothing more than his schoolbooks.

Staying half a step ahead of Chad and Jared, he led them back to the stairs, then up to the second floor corridor where their lockers were.

Theirs — and Angel Sullivan’s.

While Zack kept a careful eye on the empty corridor, Chad began working the combination to Angel’s locker.