Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

P aige's legs wobbled as she tried to backpedal away from the massive creature. The raw, bleeding wound on her hand stung so intensely that it caused the edges of her vision to darken.

"Oh, this is not good," she murmured as she twisted and ran headlong into the endless hall.

The cat chased after her, skidding around the corner behind them before it barreled down the hall.

"Paige," Dewey shouted as he dug his claws into her head and shoulder, "this isn't going to work. We're going to die."

"I know," she answered. "Wait, wait. You fly back to the other hall. Maybe you can draw the cat off me, and then I can escape."

She rounded the corner and ran down the hall again. The werepanther's well-muscled body galloped behind her, closing the distance between them. She'd never outrun it.

"No way. It might get me."

"It's definitely going to get me!" she cried, followed by another whimper. "Oh, my hand hurts so much. "

"I'll bet. Their claws have venom in them. You're poisoned."

"What?" she shouted. "Like fatally?"

"Pretty much. You'll die if we don't get you help in the next…mmm, twenty-four to forty-eight hours."

"What? I have two days to live?" Her words came out in a panicked puff as she breathed hard from her efforts to run away from the panther.

"Well, technically one. If you last longer than that, you're just lucky. But really, I'd err on the side of caution with twenty-four hours."

"OMG," Paige said, already feeling her legs tiring. Why was she worrying about the poison? The cat would catch her soon and tear her to shreds.

"Wait, wait," Dewey said as they tore around the corner again. "I've got it. Your bracelet."

"What about it?" she asked, her lips tugged back into a wince as she continued running.

"Use it, dummy. You have the power of beast control."

"Oh, yeah," Paige said. "I forgot. I'm not used to using magic. Wait, what are the words."

"Uh…something like 'Stop, you foul best.'"

Paige's feet pounded against the stones as she continued to run. "Something like or exactly that? I don't want to mess this up and die."

"Uhh, pretty certain it's that. Just…say a bunch of words that tell it to stop."

"Right, yeah, I'll just babble and hope it helps."

She sucked in a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare for the challenge.

"May want to hurry up, this thing's going to catch us soon."

Paige squeezed her eyes closed as she whipped around to face the cat, raising her wrist in the air. Her bracelet's charms dangled in the air as she shouted, "Stop, you foul beast."

The cat skidded to a halt, sliding closer to them as it sat at attention, awaiting Paige's direction.

"OMG, it worked," she said, breathlessly with wide eyes.

"Yeah. You did it. Paige, you did it."

"Yeah," she answered with a grin. "I did…uh, now what do I do?"

"Oh, uh, good question. Maybe…tell it to go away or…stay or something."

"Right. Good kitty…stay."

Dewey shook his head. "No, no, no. You have to put it in its place. Stay, you foul beast."

"Oh, right. Stay, you foul beast."

Paige held her breath as she skirted around the massive cat who sat motionless, still obeying the command she'd given it.

"Almost there. Keep going," Dewey whispered.

Paige bobbed her head as she completed her arc around the creature and began to back toward the hallway. "Now, maybe we can try this on the werewolf and get somewhere."

"Yeah, if we can remember how many rights and lefts we took," Dewey answered.

"Right. Well, I guess we'll just keep going until we find it or I die twenty-four hours from now."

"Sounds like a plan. Now…I think we need to hang a left up here."

"Really? I thought right."

"I don't know. Just…go in a direction and hope we find the stupid werewolf."

Paige nodded as she wandered through the halls. It took them another forty-five minutes to retrace their steps through the winding passages back to the werewolf who still stood guarding the next corridor .

"Remember, be insulting," Dewey said with a claw raised in the air.

"Yes, right," Paige said as she raised her bracelet in the air. "Stop, you foul beast."

The creature didn't react.

"Uhh, maybe try…leave or something like that."

Paige sucked in a deep breath as she nodded. "Okay, yeah. Leave, you foul beast."

The werewolf grumbled before it twisted on a furry foot and raced down one of the corridors.

"Hey!" Dewey said with a clap of his paws. "You did it. You're getting pretty good at this."

Paige grinned. "Yeah. Now, all I have to do is get out of here within twenty-four hours without dying, and I'll be a legend."

"Correction. We'll be legends, partner."

Paige bobbed her head at him as they tried for a high-five and missed.

"Dang it," she said with a shake of her head.

"Doesn't matter. Shake it off," Dewey answered. "Let's just keep going and see what, if anything, is in this temple."

"Gosh, I hope it's my mom and not another dead-end." Paige froze as tears welled in her eyes. "I'm starting to think this is all just a wild goose chase, you know? They're keeping me busy so I don't catch onto whatever my mom was looking into before she disappeared."

Dewey patted her head, offering her a consoling glance. "I hope we find her, too, Paige. This has to be hard. The constant wondering if she's alive or not. Conflicting evidence."

"It is. Just when I start to hope, it's squashed. And then I resign myself only to get a glimmer of hope again. I'm really starting to wonder if I'm being toyed with."

"By who?" Dewey asked as he rubbed his chin .

"A lot of people. I mean, I think Ronnie and Rochelle are okay. But…maybe some of the higher-ups? My mom must have stumbled onto something big."

"I'm glad you said that about Ronnie. I don't see her being involved in this."

"If she is…" Paige's features crinkled. "So are Drucinda and Devon. Which means we have no friends."

"I didn't have any friends before, so no loss there," Dewey answered. "Although I may be sort of upset if you weren't my friend."

"Sort of?" Paige asked as she blinked her tears away.

Dewey shrugged with a nonchalant expression on his teal face. "Yeah, I mean…no big loss. You're okay."

"Okay, huh? Yeah, well, you're no walk in the park, either, buddy," Paige said as she pushed her feet to move her forward again.

"Never said I was," he answered. "In fact, I'm the opposite of a walk in the park."

Paige screwed up her face, rounding another corner in the maze of corridors. "What is the opposite of a walk in the park?"

"A jog in a concrete jungle?" Dewey suggested.

"Oh, yeah, that would be pretty awful. I don't jog, and the few times I've had to run on this job, it's been terrible."

"Imagine doing that for like an entire city block. And there's people and smog and other…terrible things."

"Hey, wait," Paige said, "we live in a city. There's no smog or terrible things."

"There's some smog. A little," Dewey shot back.

"Okay, so there is. But it's not that bad."

"Fine. Then go jogging when we get back and see how bad it is."

"Pass," Paige said as she continued through the corridors. " And if we ever get back. I feel like we've been walking forever. And we're getting nowhere."

"I wonder if we're in another endless hall."

"Scratch something into the wall," Paige directed.

Dewey fluttered off her shoulder and scraped a D into the stone next to the third torch. "There we go. Let's keep going and see if we come across that D again."

Paige continued down the hall, taking a right at the next hallway. She hurried to the third torch and searched the stone. "No D."

"Good. Then we're not in an endless hall."

"No, we're just in an endless maze. I feel like this thing has no end. We just keep walking and walking and walking."

"At least we haven't met any more creatures."

Paige dangled her bracelet in the air. "Even if we did, I've got us covered. Now that I'm magic."

"We really need to look into that when we get back. I bet you can do other cool things too, like float."

"Yeah, I want to learn how to float," Paige said with a nod, trying to ignore the fatigue building in her thighs. "That was pretty cool that Marion could float. I'd like to float right now. My legs are killing me."

"No wonder. When I was in your body, it was awful. I felt like I was walking on stilts."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty used to the feeling but we must have walked thirty miles already in this place."

"I think that's a pretty big exaggeration, Paige."

"Whatever," she grumbled. "Maybe it's the poison coursing through my system that's making me more fatigued."

"Oh, yeah, probably. Do you feel tired, achy, maybe a little cranky?"

"All of those, yes."

"That's the poison, all right. You're dying. "

"Great," Paige said with a shake of her head. "That figures. I'll die because we can't find our way out of here."

"Maybe we should turn back now."

"No!" Paige cried. "I have to at least find where this leads. I didn't marry Devon after nearly getting killed by Ivy multiple times to give up."

"Maybe it doesn't lead anywhere. Maybe it's just one big maze and it just keeps going and going and going. Like the Energizer Bunny."

"I hope not. And I always hated that commercial."

"Me too. EB is a total jerk, too. Fame went right to his head."

"He's just a prop, Dewey."

"No, he isn't," Dewey answered with a shake of his head. "He's real. But you won't want to meet him because he's a total jerk. Just because he's the spokesperson for a battery. Big deal, bud."

Paige wrinkled her nose as she pushed herself to keep walking. What was the next thing she'd learn? That the leprechaun from Lucky Charms was also real?

She squeezed her fingers into fists, digging her nails into her palm and wincing as the gashes on the back of her hand pulled. She used the pain to distract her from her increasingly fatigued body.

"Hey!" Dewey shouted. "There's something up ahead."

Paige's heart skipped a beat and the shot of adrenaline that went through her helped temper her fatigue for a second. "What is it?"

"Looks like an opening to another chamber or something."

"Oh, finally," Paige said with a sigh. "Please be something good."

"Yeah, like a buffet."

Paige shot him a frown. "A buffet? "

"I'm hungry."

"Maybe something better…like my mom is in there."

"Or that. That's good, too. Or…hear me out…your mom at a buffet." Dewey raised his eyebrows at her.

Paige couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes, that is perfect. We both get what we want. I get my mom, you get food."

"And not a moment too soon. I'm starving."

Paige approached the dark opening, her stomach twisting into a knot. "What if there's something bad in there? Like another…werecat or werewolf or were…something."

"You can use your bracelet. No biggie. Come on, Paige. We walked thirty miles for this. We have to find out what's inside."

"You're right." She paused at the opening, hovering there before she finally stepped inside.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, cast by only one flickering torch, she scanned the room.

Her heart skipped a beat, and tingles shot through her body making her hair stand on end as she spotted a stone slab in the middle.

On it, lay a redheaded figure.

Paige's breath caught as she raised a trembling hand to her lips. "Mom!"

She raced forward to the woman with Dewey clinging to her. "I think it is Reed! Too bad there's no buffet, though."

"Forget the stupid buffet," Paige said as she clasped the woman's cold hand. "Mom! Mom?"

She patted her cheeks but got no response.

Tears filled her eyes as she tried to revive her, still holding Reed's limp hand. "Mom?"

Dewey fluttered from her shoulder, landing on the edge of the slab and assessing Reed.

"No, Mom," Paige cried, her voice thick with sobs .

"She's breathing," Dewey noted. "And I've got a pulse. Weak and thready, but there."

He peeled back one of her eyelids. Paige gasped as she stared at the odd discoloration, turning her eyes pink.

"Ohhhh," Dewey answered.

"What does that mean? What's ‘ohhhh'?"

"She's in a Twilight Trance," Dewey reported. "She's not dead…but she's close. We need to get her out of here fast and research how to reverse this."

Paige's heart twisted as she stared down at her mother's pale form. She'd finally found her, but was she too late?

The question echoed in her brain as her vision began to cloud. She pinched her eyebrows together. Something wasn't right.

"Hey, Dewey…" Her voice was thick and slow.

"Yeah?" he asked, still studying Reed.

"I think I'm dying, too." After she uttered the words, her knees collapsed, and she felt herself fall as her world turned black.