“Okay,” Eric said, unconvinced. “But she hasn’t shown any signs of snapping out of it yet.”
“Just try,” Mr. Trouble said. “As soon as I get Uncle Carl going, we’ll be on our way. Can you handle it on your own for now?”
“Uh…um…sure. I guess. Just hurry, okay?”
“Keep this phone on you. If I don’t hear from you guys first, I’ll call as soon as I get there.”
After he hung up, Eric started to stuff the phone into his pants pocket but realized he was still in the pajamas his father had brought over. He tried tucking the cell in his waistband but that didn’t work either. He’d have to carry it.
He crawled back over to Fiona. He’d already tried talking to her and shaking her so this time he slapped her on the cheek, not hard, just enough that she should have felt it. Should have, but didn’t.
He pulled her eyelids back, thinking that might do something. No luck.
What then?
Water? He’d seen people use it in movies to wake someone up. It was worth a try.
Jumping up to get some from the kitchen, he took a quick step toward the door and tripped over Keira’s foot.
“Whoa!” he yelled, reaching out to grab the bed to keep from falling to the floor.
As he did, the cell phone slipped from his hand and thudded onto the carpet. When it hit, its display screen flashed on, lighting the foot he’d just stumbled over.
He reached down and picked up the phone, hoping he hadn’t damaged it. It still seemed to be operating okay so he started for the door again. But then he paused. He hit a button on the phone, bringing the screen back to life. Maybe he didn’t need water at all.
He knelt next to Fiona and pulled her eyelid back once more. This time, he shined the light from the phone directly into her eye.
For the first three seconds there was no reaction. Then she blinked, or tried to, since he was holding her eyelid open. She attempted to do it again, the muscles around her eye fighting with Eric’s finger.
Another few seconds and she started to twist her head from side to side, weakly at first, then stronger with each swing. Her closed eyelid started to flutter, and she let out a low, irritated groan.
“Wha…what…”
She continued to try to close her eye, but Eric wasn’t letting go. He knew if he did, Fiona would slip back into her deep sleep the moment that eye shut.
“What…what’s that…light?”
“Fiona, wake up,” he said.
“Turnoutthelight. Letmesleep.”
“You need to wake up,” Eric said. “You can’t sleep now. Come on, Fiona. Please!”
Her fluttering eye opened for a second, closed, then opened again.
“Eric?”
“Yes!” he shouted, smiling. “Good. You are awake, right?”
“Yeah,” she said with some effort. “What’s going on? What are you doing in here?”
He let go of her eyelid and moved the phone away. “I’m waking you up.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ve got problems.”
That got her attention. She put her hand out to push herself up, but slipped and banged her elbow against the floor.
“Ow!” she yelled.
“You need to call your brother.”
She looked at him, still wincing in pain. “My brother? Why?”
“Peter Garr’s outside with another surrogate. I think they’ve done something that makes it hard for anyone to wake up. It took me forever to get you to open your eyes.”
Fiona blinked, then looked at the other two girls, their sleep suspiciously undisturbed by the conversation she and Eric were having.
“Here,” he said, holding the phone out to her. “I called him when none of you would wake up. He’s on his way, but said if I was able to get you awake, he wanted you to call.”
She punched a code into the phone, then frowned, and punched it in again. When it didn’t work a second time, she flipped it over. “This isn’t mine.”
“Oh, yours is over here.” Eric crawled over to where he’d left her cell then tossed it to her.
A few seconds later, she was holding it to her ear. “Ronan?…Yeah…what?…Are you sure?” She listened for a while, a couple of times shooting a look at Eric. “Okay, we’ll be ready.”
After she hung up, she slapped her cheeks and opened her mouth wide, stretching her face. Finally, she let out a big exhale and pushed herself to her feet.
“Okay,” she said. “Show me where they are.”
20
When Eric and Fiona peeked around the shade covering the bedroom window, they saw nothing but an empty front yard.
“Maybe they left,” Eric said.
Fiona was silent for a moment. “Show me where you first saw them.”
Eric led her through the dark, silent house to the kitchen window. He pulled the curtain back an inch so they could both look out.
He’d been hoping the backyard would be as empty as the front, but it wasn’t even close.
Not only were Peter Garr and the gardener there, but so were Tommy Bird and Kyle Sanders. And Sam Lincoln, the kid who had picked on Eric the first day things had started turning bizarre. And Ronnie Welles, and Andy Venton, and Rick Marks and a couple of adults Eric didn’t recognize. They were all standing in Maggie’s backyard, staring at the house.
“How many do you count?” Fiona whispered.
“Ten,” Eric said.
“That’s not possible,” she muttered to herself.
Peter Garr’s head tilted back, ready to sniff the air again.
“Shut it,” Fiona ordered.
Eric let the curtain drop then followed Fiona into the hallway outside Mr. Ortega’s den. It was one of the few places in the house with no windows.
“You’re sure? Ten?” she asked.
“Yeah. Why? How many did you count?”
She hesitated, then said, “Ten.”
“Why are there so many?” he asked.
“Not why. How?” She pulled out her cell. “They’re in the backyard,” she said into it a moment later. “Ronan, there are ten of them…Yes, ten…I don’t know…” Her face suddenly looked shocked. “What?…But that makes at least sixteen…How could they possibly…Okay, we’ll be ready. Just hurry.”
As she hung up, she said, “Get dressed, then meet me back in the bedroom and help me wake up the girls.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Get out of here while we still can.”
Eric dressed in the living room and gathered his things, including the pamphlet and the Thomas Leatherwood letter, putting them all in his backpack. As soon as his bag was slung over his shoulders, he headed back to Maggie’s room. When he reached the door, he knocked in case Fiona was still changing.
“Hurry. Come in,” she called out.
She was dressed and kneeling next to Keira, trying to shine the light from her phone into her sister’s eyes.
“It’s not working,” she said, frustrated. “Did you do anything special?
He shook his head. “Your brother said since you and I came into contact with the talisman, we might be less…open, I guess, to whatever it is that’s happening to them.”
“Less vulnerable,” she said.
“Yeah.”
Fiona held the light in front of her sister’s eye for a moment longer and then gave up. “We’re going to have to carry them.”
“Carry them? But…but…”
How were they going to carry two girls? Maggie, maybe. She was as small as Fiona and they could probably move her. But Keira was taller than any of them, including her older sister.
Fiona must have figured out what he was thinking. “We’ll take them one at a time.”