Page 32

Twenty-Four

Benny

Present Day

Benny finished reading Evelyn’s pages and stood in stunned silence. She stared at the last lines of Evelyn’s final journal, the flashlights casting an eerie glow over the pages in the darkness. Benny’s hands were shaking. “Aggy knew my name,” she realized.

“That’s why Evelyn picked you,” Zara said, sounding equally amazed. “Because Aggy’s premonition showed you being the one who could rescue them from the island. You’re the curse breaker.”

Benny felt woozy. “They needed someone who would be alive for the next Blood Orange Moon,” she reasoned. “But there are other people in our family line who are still alive. My mom even. Peter said she was disqualified because of her name change, but Aggy couldn’t have known about that . Could she have? I still feel like there’s something we’re missing.”

“We could be,” Zara agreed. “We don’t know why the journal entries are misnumbered. We don’t know where Kimble is now. Or where that treasure even came from.”

“There’s so much I still don’t understand,” Benny said, frustrated. “I don’t get how Aggy knew my name. Or why I’m the one.”

“Maybe you’ll never know,” Zara said gently. “But it is you, and now you have to finish this. For Evelyn, but for the others too.” Zara shone her flashlight into the darkness. “If the island is out there and one of my ancestors is on that island and alive. And my age? And she predicted your birth? She’s badass.”

“Badass and smart, because really she was saving Evelyn, wasn’t she?” Benny decided. “Evelyn got to live a whole lifetime, and create an inn and an estate that is huge today because she got to grow up. And Aggy…if she’s out there…on this island…is frozen in time with the others. And maybe Kimble. Stuck in a time she won’t recognize if…we find her.” They had to find her in time. Benny’s heart twisted and turned like cotton candy being spun at a state fair. “We need to get to the island.”

“I’m coming with you,” Zara said decisively. “Aggy is my family. I can’t leave her to—AAAH!”

She started screaming and banged into Benny, who did all she could to keep from dropping the journal or her much-needed flashlight in the water.

“Rat! Big rat!” Zara was shouting. “There is something down here!”

Benny felt something run across her feet and screamed now too. She used her flashlight to scan the ground, looking for something small and slimy to freak out over even more, but instead, she found herself staring at two yellow eyes in the darkness. They were too large to be that of a rat or a spider. “Hang on. Shine your light by mine.”

Their beams crossed again. There, sitting in the middle of the floor, was the cat that had been outside Hooked.

“It’s a cat!” Zara sounded relieved. “Wait. How did it get down here?”

Benny’s fingers tingled. “It looks just like Ansel’s cat, who—and don’t freak out—I think is named Winks.”

“Winks as in the same Winks that is Aggy’s cat? The one she told Evelyn to look after?” Zara asked, staring at the cat. “You don’t think? It can’t be. Can it?”

Benny stared, and the cat seemed to stare back, its tail flicking in the darkness. “Winks?” The cat’s eye seemed to widen with recognition. Then it sauntered over and sat on Benny’s sneakers again. She felt a chill go down her spine as the cat lifted a paw and licked it as it stared up at her. It let out a small meow.

“This is mad,” Zara said, freaking out. “This can’t be the same cat! Winks? Is that you? Are you a good immortal kitty?” The cat meowed again.

Benny’s hair was standing up on end. “If this is Winks, then she’s getting on and off the island through the cave, which means the cave has to be down here in this room.”

“But why can Winks come and go and no one else can?” Zara wondered.

“I don’t know,” Benny said. Suddenly she had more questions than answers. She looked at the cat. “Winks, do you know where the entrance to the cave is?”

There was a loud bang from above and the cat took off, her orange and white tail moving fast past them, then disappearing into the darkness. Benny and Zara followed the cat, walking for a few minutes till they found a wall.

“Where did she go?” Benny asked, pressing on the wall to see if it was a door.

Her hand shot right through it.

Zara tried to do the same thing. Her whole arm went through the wall. “What is happening? I see a wall, but we can put our hand through it? How?”

Both girls looked at one another, then took a step closer at the same time. This is it. I can feel it , Benny told herself. Her hand was shaking as she stuck her hand out again and that’s when the wall started to waffle, like a sheet blowing in the wind, and then a loud hiss filled the air. The wall disappeared, a gust of wind rushing through the opening and threatening to knock them both over, it was so strong. Benny and Zara blocked their faces as debris kicked up and pelted them, then abruptly stopped.

Everly. Everly Benedict, welcome!

Benny froze. “I just heard someone calling my name.”

“Me too,” Zara said, sounding alarmed. “It said, ‘Zara Dabney, welcome.’”

Benny had the chills. “It’s the island. It’s calling us,” she whispered and shined her flashlight at the opening. She found herself staring at what looked like a long tunnel. No, not a tunnel. A cave.

“This has to be the way to the island!” Zara exclaimed.

The compass in Benny’s pocket was vibrating again. When she took it out, it was spinning madly. Zara shined a light on it, and the arrow stopped spinning and pointed north—toward the tunnel.

“I can’t believe it! We found it,” Benny said excitedly, noticing how the air felt warmer in the tunnel than it did in the room they were in. “This is how we get to the island!”

“What are we waiting for?” Zara asked. “Let’s go!”

“What about Ryan?” Benny asked, suddenly remembering he wasn’t there. “Shouldn’t we wait for him?”

“Don’t bother. I’m here,” Ryan said, stepping out of the darkness behind them.

“Finally! Where have you been?” Zara yelled at him.

There was something strange about Ryan’s voice. He sounded tense. Benny looked at him. “Are you alright?”

Ryan didn’t answer her. Before Benny knew what was happening, Ryan ripped their flashlights out of their hands. “I’m better than fine. I’m going to the island. Without you.”