Her ears burned. Then her mouth. Then her eyes. She felt them invading her body through every opening. They were smaller than grains of sand. She probably wouldn’t have noticed them if they didn’t stab her with blistering pain on every surface they touched. It felt as if she had a blowtorch blazing down her throat. The fluid encasing her skull boiled. She realized that the invaders had caught a ride on her arteries as she felt flashes of stinging lightening shoot through her heart, and down into her arms and legs. The lower half of her body numbed as its suffering dulled in comparison to the brutal shredding of muscle and tendons around her neck and collarbone.
Somehow in her frantic struggle, Mrs. Mint popped her head above water. She opened her mouth to draw a breath. The air didn’t seep through her lips. She felt her saliva drip down her throat and out her open windpipe. As her severed head bobbed in the water, her darkening vision caught a glimpse of purple eyes hovering over her like a vulture awaiting the demise of its prey.
It didn’t have to be this way, if only I would have looked out for the child, Mrs. Mint thought. I deserve this.
No. That’s not a child. No human child could do this. She must be-
The teacher’s thoughts faded away, but her brain would prove useful.
Chapter 35
The shadows in the Enchanted Forest loomed long and large as the sun descended toward its date with nightfall. When the darkness smothers the trees, Moni knew that would signal her chances of finding Mariella in the dense wilderness as worse than remote.
Even with Aaron at her side hacking away at the bushes and providing her words of overly optimistic encouragement, Moni prepared herself for the worst with every step. Having Mariella in her life, for even this brief time, had been a gift from God. Like everything else she had cherished-her mother, what had once been a loving relationship with Darren-this too would crumble to dust in her fingers. The only thing that would remain was the voice of her father repeating the word “failure” inside her skull.
Thankfully, Aaron’s naive enthusiasm kept her from admitting defeat after five hours of searching.
“She must be somewhere around here,” Aaron said as he scanned the forest. The visibility measured less than 20 feet in most places because of all the foliage. “The rangers said her tracks and the teacher’s tracks led up to the canal and then went cold. She probably chased her in the canal for a while, caught the kid and then turned around. I bet the teacher knew enough to go south, but she could still get lost on her way to the trail.”
“And why didn’t she just use her cell phone?” Moni asked.
“She could have lost it, or the battery died, or the water shorted it. There are plenty of ways to waste one. I’ve trashed like five phones on research missions. Believe me, my dad lets me hear it every time.”
Moni squeezed his hand and nodded. The possibility existed, however slim, that Mariella and her teacher were out there. Judging from her experience in the mangroves the morning after the girl’s parents were murdered, Mariella could hide for hours on end. She wouldn’t let anyone find her until she felt like it.
“Please Mariella, come back!” Moni shouted into the woods. “If you hate school that much, I promise you’ll never have to go again.”
Aaron sent her a glance of admiration for that ploy. He probably wished that his parents had made him the same offer, Moni thought. She clasped her hand around his bicep as they strolled through the increasingly shadowy forest.
The harmony between them got interrupted by a rustling of leaves in a patch of slash pines ahead of them. Even knowing that bobcats, wild boars and snakes populated these woods, Moni disregarded her fears, and charged towards it shouting for Mariella. Aaron’s hesitation lasted only a split second before he followed her.
The sharp palm fronds swiftly parted. When Mariella poked her head out, Moni nearly spilled over onto her face. A grin spread across the girl’s lips that made her brown eyes light up. She sprang from the palms and hugged Moni around the waist with her head buried into her stomach. As Moni patted her on the back, and wiped away her tears, she found it remarkable that Mariella’s excitement at seeing her didn’t seem any more or less intense than it did when she had picked her up after a typical day at school. This kid had toughened up.
“You had me so worried, baby. Please don’t run off again.” As soon as the words left Moni’s mouth, she wondered what had happened to the carefully rehearsed chewing out she had reserved for the girl after she had once again put lives in danger by running away. Her relief at seeing Mariella alive put any such condemnation on the back burner. “Praise the Lord that you didn’t get hurt out here. You must have an angel looking out for you.”
Shrugging her shoulders, the girl offered a smirk. Moni scooped Mariella up in her arms, consulted the GPS map on her phone and headed back towards the trail.
“Wait a minute before you go hurrying off,” Aaron said as he jogged behind them.
Moni didn’t realize how fast she skipped through the forest until she saw that the young man who carried nothing but a small backpack trailed her even as she had the girl weighing her down. It reminded Moni of how robbers could carry huge televisions all by themselves when the alarms sounded.
“Come on, boy. Hustle it up,” Moni said with a playful grin. A few minutes ago, she thought she’d never smile again.
“Why are we running off? Mrs. Mint is still out here. If Mariella was hiding here, her teacher can’t be far away.”
Moni shifted the girl on her hip so she faced her. “Baby, have you seen Mrs. Mint?”
Biting her lips, Mariella shook her head. Her dour eyes met the darkening forest floor.
“Maybe her teacher couldn’t find her, or she could be hurt,” Aaron said. “We can’t leave her out here all night.”
Moni agreed with him, but only for a few seconds. Then she stared into Mariella’s pleading eyes, and felt the girl’s trembling fingers clutching at her jacket. She couldn’t spend another minute in these woods.
“You do whatever you want, but I’m taking her home now,” Moni said.
Aaron groaned and snapped off a branch in frustration. He followed her anyway.
Sneed bumped his way through the medics to become the first greeter for Moni and Mariella when they emerged back onto the trail. His nostrils flared with anger. To Moni, he seemed more like an actor who took great pleasure in playing the part of an obnoxious jerk.
“Here’s our hero, and she’s rescued the girl and not the teacher. I’m deeply shocked,” Sneed said as he scampered at Moni’s heel like a yapping dog. “Once again, everybody dies except the little girl, and the detective-and I use that title very loosely.”
Moni ignored him, along with the medics, and ramped up her pace towards the parking lot.
“The girl is totally freaking out. We’ve gotta get her out of here,” said Aaron, who apparently didn’t mind masking his true feelings when it meant backing Moni up in front of Sneed. “I’m sure the teacher is still out there. If you want, I’ll go back and help look for her.”
“That won’t be necessary, kid.” Sneed jutted his finger into Aaron’s chest. “You and that professor of yours have a date with the Lagoon Watcher in the county jail tonight.” He paused for a moment and watched Aaron squirm. “I can’t understand what the hell that old coot is jabbering about. I need some scientific mumbo-jumbo translators, and you and your buddy fit the bill.”
“I guess that’s better than the other thing that could happen to us in jail,” Aaron said. “I’ll see you ladies later. Call me.” He waved at Moni as he halted on Sneed’s leash.
Meanwhile, the lead detective reigned in Moni’s rope. “Hold up!” Sneed snorted. “Aren’t you going to hand her off to the medics? They need to check her out. Who knows what kinda crap she picked up in these woods.”