The Accidental Siren

8.7 The Zombie-Ferrets Strike Back

TINK.

I awoke to sunlight and Mara asleep in my bed. She was on her side, facing me, and breathing through her nose.

I kissed her temple. I couldn't help it.

TINK.

Crap! I thought. What time is it? Do my parents know Mara's in my bed? "Mara!" I whispered. "Hey, Mara!"

Her eyes fluttered like a startled moth. Her arms stretched toward the headboard, revealing a porcelain armpit and the side of her chest through the open nightshirt sleeve. "Mornin' sunshine."

TINK.

She froze. "What was that?"

TINK.

"The window," I said. We stood on my bed and bounced to the sill.

A.J. was fifteen feet below, waving his hands, beckoning us to the woods.

"He looks excited," Mara said.

"Doesn't this kid have parents?" I asked.

A.J. flailed his arms, gestured to the trees, then dashed into the brush.

I hopped off the bed, snatched a pair of shorts from the floor, and wiggled them under my nightshirt.

"James!" she said.

"Stay here." I opened the door, scanned the parlor to assure my family wasn't privy to the stowaway in my bed, then bolted through the room, down the stairs, out the door, and around the back of the castle.

Mara was behind me, still in her nightshirt, crunching leaves in my mother's sandals. "I'm coming with!" she said and deftly hurdled a log.

I knew it was dangerous. I knew it was stupid to let her follow. But I was happy to have her at my side.

We arrived at the clearing below our windows. No sign of A.J.

"Age!" I shouted.

"A.J.!" she yelled.

I cupped my hands around my mouth. "A--!"

"Wait!" Mara cut me short. "Look at this!"

I spun around. Floating six inches from her face was a white slipper. "What the heck?" I shuffled through a patch of ferns and stopped at her side.

"It's from my old pajamas..." she said.

The bootie was laced through a branch with fishing wire. I tore it down, branch included.

"There's more," she said, pointing deeper into the woods. It was an arm, part of the same outfit, dangling in the open air.

I grit my teeth, jumped for the fabric, and yanked it from the tree.

"Don't go, James," she said.

"I'm gonna kill that asshole." I noticed another fabric arm at the top of The Great Divide and made my way up the mound.

Mara scrambled to keep up. I tossed back the first arm, then stared down the gulch. "A.J.!" I yelled. "I'm gonna tear your face off your skull!"

I took Mara's hand. Together, we found solid footing and dodged thorny weeds and prickers. Two dangling legs led us halfway down the incline, and a frayed zipper signaled us to stop on a narrow path on the side of the bluff. The fishing wire was caked with dried worm guts; this was the first piece that A.J. hung.

CLINK.

"Now what?" Mara asked.

I glanced up the hill to see how far we came. Too far to turn back, I thought.