The Color of Fear (21 page)

Her head still as a statue, Caitlin shifted her eyes to her left. Rapunzel was quietly reeling in her long, golden rope of hair. Caitlin thought it looked like she was preparing to twist it into a lasso.

No, that’ll never hold him!

A sharp sniff issued from the snout of the creature as it sized up Sleeping Beauty.

She is asleep?!

Caitlin stiffened as a medley of howls rang out from afar.

Others were coming!

Horror rose like bile in Caitlin’s throat as the wolf reared, preparing to lunge at Beauty. The carnivore reared up impossibly high, then did something utterly chilling … the creature stood upright!

On its hind legs!

Like a man-turned-werewolf … like the hideous Big Bad Wolf that they had freed from the trap!

Her eyes went all flashbulb.

She called to Snow, “It’s him!”

Beauty suddenly opened her eyes in silent terror.

Snow White leaped to her feet before the wolf could leap on Sleeping Beauty.

“Wait! Stop!” she cried as she waved her hands.

The wolf whipped its head around to face her. Its soulless eyes were like stone-cold rubies.

“We helped you! Don’t you remember us?”

The wolf tilted its head to one side.

“Snow! Are you crazy?” Rapunzel screamed. “You can’t reason with it! It’s an eating machine!”

“She’s right!” Cindy added. “Stay back!”

Snow continued, undeterred. “Those vultures would have eaten you alive if it weren’t for us,” she said to Mr. Big Bad.

It glared at her, sniffing, snarling, saliva dripping from its jaw. A low, vicious growl rumbled through its fangs. It seemed to know the scent of royal blood.

The wolf arched its back. Its leg muscles contracted like a spring. It was preparing to pounce.

Snow White’s brow furrowed. “And you never even said thank you!” Her words were laced with a tough-love tone. “You think you’re so big and bad? Well, it’s easy being a big, bad,
ungrateful
wolf. It’s much tougher to be an appreciative one—especially when it’s your life that was saved!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Caitlin saw Rapunzel preparing to toss the lasso. She gave Rapunzel a swift shake of her head, worrying that being snared might make the wolf really lose it.

Rapunzel lowered her arm.

Thank goodness!

The yelping of the coming wolf pack grew louder.

It was almost here.

The Big Bad Wolf howled in response. He turned his crimson eyes on Natalie. He glared at her. Inhaled her smell. She stood helpless in her little red chili pepper outfit.

Little? Red?
Uh-oh!

Cinderella jumped in front of Natalie, arms spread wide in a protective stance, her eyes lit with anger. She grabbed the candelabrum and wielded it menacingly. “Back up, werewolf,” Cindy warned, “or you’ll be wearing this around your neck!”

The wolf snarled like a demon. The fur on its back spiked upward.

“Don’t antagonize him,” Snow said. She then smiled gently at the creature. “Try and remember how we saved you,” she urged the wolf.

Its eyes now fell on Caitlin. It sniffed. Glowered. Tilted its head. It pivoted back, leering again at Snow.

She waved her finger in a scolding gesture, as if to say: Don’t you even think about it!

The zombie wolf gave a distinctly dismissive wave of its head that seemed to say: Disappear. Before the other wolves from hell arrive.

Everyone bolted up in unison and tiptoed toward the tunnel exit.

Amethyst unclamped the quartz prism from the candelabrum in Cindy’s hand and slipped it into his vest pocket.

On the way out, Natalie scurried past the big bad zombie wolf.

Its nostrils flared as she passed. A growl grew at the rear of its throat. It curled its lips and clenched its jaw, as if trying consciously to hold its instinct to eat her at bay.

Natalie passed him so closely, she caught a hefty whiff of hot, rancid wolf breath.

Caitlin heard the yowls of the approaching wolf pack.

“Natalie, we gotta go!”

Caitlin was too afraid to look the wolf in the eye. But she forced a weak smile as she passed him, nodding just a tad, as if to bid the wolf farewell.

The Blood-Eyed canine ghoul stared back, eyes stoic. As she turned to leave, Caitlin snuck a quick look at him. She was sure she saw that beast bow his head ever so slightly, as if in gratitude.

Goose bumps covered her entire body.

“Wow, even a Blood-Eyed zombie can have a drop of compassion,” Caitlin said as she kneeled at the entrance to the tunnel.

The caterpillar scuttled up alongside her and smiled. “Only because you and Snow put it there. You gave that undead creature compassion—he therefore received something that he could give back to you.”

The caterpillar quickly summoned everyone around the tunnel entrance.

“Where’s Cindy?” Rapunzel asked.

Caitlin glanced behind them. Cinderella had just finished stuffing her pockets with jalapeño peppers, garlic cloves, horseradish, and wasabi roots. She joined the group at the exit.

Amethyst seemed tense. “After that rather close brush with death, a sublime revelation has come to me,” he said. “You girls must work together to resolve this dire situation.”

They looked at him, obviously waiting for more details.

“That’s all I can tell you,” he said. “You better hurry on.”

Caitlin stared blankly at Amethyst.

That’s it?

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere important to be.” Lord Amethyst handed a startled Caitlin a folded sheet of paper. “You will find all the answers written here, my child.”

And with that Lord Amethyst Bartholomew, the royal-blue caterpillar, took a small sip of drink from a flask he pulled from another pocket and immediately shrunk back to his former three-inch length. He turned away from the tunnel entrance and scurried over to a mushroom. He sat under it, twirled his tail, and quickly spun the most enchanting cocoon Caitlin had ever seen. In a blink he was completely encased and hanging from the underside of the mushroom. A perfect disguise from the pack of wolves that were minutes away.

The Blood-Eyed Big Bad Wolf meanwhile let out a lengthy, low-pitched howl. His cry pierced the cave, traveled through the tunnel, and rang out across the land. And when that soaring howl finally died into silence, the six friends had disappeared from the home of the caterpillar, well on their way to safer ground.

The group traveled a
great distance over a sweeping, wooded terrain in Zeno’s Forest in the shortest time span imaginable. Caitlin and company had now reached the outer edge of the forest, back on the border of Wonderland, far from the wolves—for now.

Caitlin took out the paper that Amethyst had given her. She quickly unfolded it. A map.

She handed it to Rapunzel.

“According to this, the queen’s castle should be just east of here.” Rapunzel flipped the map over. On the back was a detailed blueprint of the castle and its surrounding area. “Now
this
could come in handy. Follow me.”

The air felt wet and heavy. Clouds hung low. Caitlin could practically taste their dull, gray fluff.

After a short while, they came to a fork in the road. A large marsh lay directly in front of them. To their right was a dirt road. On the left an overgrown, cobblestone path led to an abandoned-looking castle. Pointed spires with clover-shaped finials tilted over into crumbling stone walls. Stained-glass windows lay in shards on the ground. Dead weeds and mushrooms were the gate’s only apparent guards.

Cinderella lifted the corner of her skirt and twirled.

“I remember this place. It belonged to the good old Duke of Clubs. He used to throw the most outrageous parties.”

Cinderella danced and dipped from side to side. Then, suddenly, she stopped. Her shoulders slumped forward and she bowed her head. Snow White pulled out a handkerchief to dab her eyes.

“The poor duke. He fell to the Blood-Eyed courageously … alongside our husbands.”

Natalie whispered to Caitlin. “I feel kinda bad. Prince Charming and all the princes—they’re all Blood-Eyed ghouls now. These girls are hurting.”

Caitlin swallowed, sort of embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that herself.

Rapunzel studied the map and, without lifting her eyes from the page, said, “No time for tears.” She traced a line on the map with her finger. “This road on the right is the route to the Queen of Hearts’ castle.”

She stood up straight, hands on her hips, and stared at the castle on her left. Then she marched over to the dancing Cinderella and plucked a few strands of hair from her head.

“Ow! Bloody hell, pretty princess!”

One corner of Snow White’s mouth curled into a smile.

“Quite clever. Would you like some strands of mine as well?”

Rapunzel winked. “By the root, if you can.”

She turned to Beauty. “You too. A nice clump.”

Beauty scrunched her nose. “Seriously?”

Rapunzel didn’t answer. She simply yanked a couple of gold locks out herself.

Beauty winced. “You’re welcome. And that
hurt
!”

Rapunzel yanked a handful of strands from her own scalp.

She turned and approached Caitlin.

“Never!” Caitlin shouted, bug-eyed, as she tried to guard her head with both hands.

Rapunzel stared blankly at Caitlin. Then she picked a dried-up sugar maple leaf from a dead tree and brought it to Caitlin. She held it up to Caitlin’s mouth.

“Spit.”

Caitlin stared at her, open-mouthed. Rapunzel remained steadfast.

“Spit on the leaf, or I pluck a clump of hair.”

Caitlin snorted and amassed a swirl of saliva in her mouth. She chucked the huge wad of phlegm all over the leaf.

“Eloquent performance,” Natalie said.

Cindy ripped a few thin strips of fabric from Sleeping Beauty’s cape and descended on Caitlin, using the strips to wipe perspiration from her brow and to swab out her ears.

Rapunzel took the fabric strips and rubbed Caitlin’s earwax on a long branch. “Wait here,” she commanded.

“Hang on,” Cindy said to her.

She reached into her pocket. She pulled out four jalapeño peppers, three garlic cloves, and a wasabi root. Rapunzel grabbed the spices.

“Good thinking.”

She marched toward the old castle, dragging the stick across the ground. Along the way, she dropped the strands of hair and scraps of fabric. When she got to the castle entrance she opened the large, wooden doors and disappeared inside.

“What in the world is she up to?” Caitlin asked no one in particular.

“Sly as a fox,” Natalie muttered. “She’s buying us time.”

After a long few minutes, Rapunzel returned. A self-satisfied grin was planted on her face. “Time to get out of here!”

The girls turned to the right and started down the road in the direction of the queen’s castle.

Rapunzel stopped them. “Not that way.” She pointed to the marsh. “
This
way.”

“I don’t get it. Thought we needed to hurry?” Caitlin said.

Rapunzel waded knee-deep into the marsh. She turned and waved her arm, summoning the others. She made a wide right turn and walked about a hundred yards through the shallow water before wading back out of the marsh and onto the dirt road. The girls followed Rapunzel’s path.

After twenty minutes of trekking in the stifling heat, their clothes had dried out completely.

Natalie wiped beads of perspiration from her forehead. “Are we almost there?”

“Yes,” Rapunzel replied. “But keep your voice down, and be on the lookout. The queen has minions everywhere.”

As if on cue, menacing black crows appeared overhead, flying in a
V
formation. The leader made a sudden nosedive. It returned to the flock and led the birds in a new formation—a figure-eight pattern close to the ground and right above the girls’ heads.
There must be hundreds of
them. Not exactly the warmest of
welcomes.

The dirt road ended and a cobblestone lane took its place. It wound around a mess of tangled, brown branches. As they followed it, Caitlin noticed that the branches were evenly spaced, in clumps, and that most were encrusted in dead leaves. Even more curious was that they looked like sculptures in the forms of classic shapes. One tangled clump was shaped like a perfect diamond. Another was shaped like a heart. A third was shaped like Cupid pulling back on his bow, ready to shoot his arrow.

The cobblestone lane twisted around one more bramble, and then Caitlin saw a fortress-style castle surrounded by a massive rock wall. A crimson-colored flag flapped in the wind on the highest spire.

They had arrived at their destination: the Queen of Hearts’ castle.

Its gray stone towers pierced a heavy blanket of hot smog. Sunshine heated the thick soup of vapor.

“Pick up the pace,” Rapunzel said. “Those crows have already signaled the wolves.”

Rapunzel unfolded the map and scoped out their position.

“The front gate leads to the drawbridge,” she said. “So that entrance is not an option. The queen will spot us for sure, which leaves only one way to break into this royal fortress … ”