15

Bailing Then Bolting

Nick's heart pounded. He clamped closed Lottica's pillowcase and furtively looked around at the other passengers. He whispered to Lottica, "Why'd you bring it?"

"Promise you won't get mad?" Her voice sounded far away and rather hollow inside her pumpkin mask.

"Sure, just tell me."

"I had some doubts about your plan, and I thought if Grandfather and Grandmother found out and stopped us, they might do our packing for us. I didn't want them to find the Kareima. If your plan works and we end up never going back to them, I didn't want to leave it. It's something that was important to Dad and I couldn't..."

“…let him down.” Lottica couldn’t say it, but Nick could. He understood. That was what Nick had felt many times around his father. That he couldn't let him down. His dad had been so carefree and confident. Always encouraging. Always upbeat. Nick wanted to be just like him. And he felt that very pointedly at the moment because this running away thing was his idea, his plan. He was responsible—especially for his sister. No matter what, he couldn’t let her down.

"Can I help you take off your mask?" Nick whispered.

"No. I look scarier underneath it."

Nick laughed and felt a little better that Lottica was still, well, Lottica. "Do you really want to go back? It's okay. I didn't count on this being dangerous."

Lottica lifted up her head so that Nick could see her eyes through the mask. They were a bit red but she was not showing her brother any tears. "Do you think Cape Man’s dangerous? I have this strange feeling about him. He's looking for the Kareima. I can't tell you exactly how I know. I just feel it."

"I believe you, Lottie. You're smarter and savvier than I am. And I don’t really know what we’d gain by missing our flight tomorrow. Grandfather and Grandmother have custody of us. Legally, we belong to them. Maybe we're just putting off the inevitable."

"But Cape Man warned us not to go to Lebreima," Lottica reminded Nick.

"Maybe he did that to try to make us run away. Maybe we're playing right into his hands." Nick looked from Lottica's eyes to the pillowcase. "Let's trust your feelings, Lottica. Let's go back," he hesitated almost swallowing the last word, "…home."

Masks in hand, they got off at the next bus stop as a light sprinkle began to fall. Nick had planned for them to switch buses at this point and head over to the Bordens. Instead, they crossed the street and Nick checked the time.

It was getting close to seven o'clock. He’d told Jake they'd be there by seven-thirty, and he told Grandmother they'd be back by nine. He'd have to call Jake when they got back to explain why they hadn’t shown up for trick-or-treating. He was also going to have to explain to Jake that he probably wouldn’t ever see him again. Too likely, he’d be on a plane to Lebreima, half a world away, tomorrow.

"Looks like it'll be about twenty minutes before the bus comes," he told Lottica. She didn't exactly look relieved. She kept scanning up and down the mostly empty sidewalk. A sidewalk that ended a few blocks from the front gates of Cemetery Hill.

"I don't think you have to worry, Lottica. Whoever Cape Man is, he's not going to follow us to Lebreima."

"What if he's from Lebreima? What if he came here to get the Kareima and take it back with him?"

"Look, I know it's Halloween, and we're both a bit edgy," Nick tried to reassure his sister, though she had a point. "Come on," he said. "Let's do a little trick or treating. That’s a good way to kill time. Besides," he held up his mask, "Dracula could use some sugar."

Nick put on his mask and started off towards a group of houses lit with a garish array of blinking ghost and jack-o'-lantern lights. He turned back a few strides later and saw that Lottica hadn't moved. Her gaze was fixed back towards the entrance to Cemetery Hill, barely visible in the buttery lights atop the gates.

"Wus da madda?" Nick hollered back through the mesh of rubber fangs.

He didn't have to wait for a reply. Lottica bolted to him, pointing frantically back towards the main gates of Cemetery Hill, where not one, but two men in long capes were emerging from a car. A red flame seemed to flash from the chest of the taller man.

Reason said they should run to the nearest house and ask to call their grandparents. Reason said they should flag down a car and say they were lost and needed help. Reason dictated many sensible courses of action, but Nick and Lottica, as much as they thought of themselves as reasonable individuals, simply panicked.

They bolted around the corner, past the inviting houses where normal kids in costumes roamed. Without thinking, without stopping, they ran through an empty intersection, under the grasping branches that lined the street, right up to the dark, forbidding iron bars that marked the boundary of Cemetery Hill.