Behind the Bookcase Read online

  Sarah now realized that she had been staring at her mom for a long time without saying anything, so she finally decided to stick with the simplest explanation, even though it was a lie. “I thought I heard you call me,” she said.

  Mom lifted her eyebrows. “You did, did you?”

  Sarah nodded.

  “Well, I didn’t,” Mom said. “But since you’ve stayed in your room this long without complaining and without asking for a break, your punishment can be over.”

  Sarah was surprised and relieved. “Thanks, Mom,” she said, then added as quickly as she could: “Have you seen Balthazat?”

  “I think he was outside with Billy.”

  Sarah felt her stomach drop. “When was that?” she said.

  “After lunch, maybe?”

  Sarah started toward the back door. “Is Billy still out there?”

  “I don’t know,” Mom said. “He’s been coming and going all afternoon. Taking stuff from the room upstairs down to the basement.”

  Sarah nodded, then stepped onto the back porch and looked around for any sign of Billy or Balthazat. She knew that she had to be careful. As far as Balthazat knew, Sarah still thought he was just the King of the Cats, and she had no intention of letting him find out otherwise. She was fairly certain that if he knew that she knew the truth, he would hurt her somehow, the way he had taken off half of Jeb’s face. He might even do something to her whole family.

  “Balthazat,” she called. “Here, kitty, kitty.” She kissed the air as loudly as she could, but heard no reply—not even a meow. She descended the steps to the yard and headed for the bushes along the fence, calling his name and kissing the air. But still she got no reply.

  Maybe he was in the basement. After all, Mom had said that Billy had been taking stuff down there. Sarah returned to the house. She went through the back door and down the steps into the basement.

  It was dark and silent. “Balthazat?” she called. Still no answer. A new fear took hold of her now. Had Balthazat already accomplished his plan? Had he gotten the door to Penumbra open, stolen the sleeping souls, and taken them back to Scotopia? She didn’t see how that was possible, but she couldn’t figure out how else to explain Balthazat’s absence.

  When she turned around, Billy was standing at the top of the stairs, a box in his hands. “Punishment’s all over, huh?” he asked.

  Sarah nodded. “Have you seen Balthazat?”

  “Yeah,” Billy said, coming down the stairs. He set his box down on a stack of other boxes. “He scratched me and then ran into the bushes by the fence. I don’t know where he went after that and I don’t care.” Billy went back up the steps and Sarah followed him quickly.

  “Can you show me exactly where that happened?”

  “No,” Billy said. “I hope you never find that cat again. I don’t want him to ever come back here.”

  “Billy!” Mom said from the kitchen. “Don’t talk like that.”

  Billy hung his head. “All right,” he said. “Come on.” Billy took Sarah outside and around the side of the house, near the basement window. He pointed at the thick bushes along the low fence. “He ran right through there.”

  “Why did he scratch you?”

  “I don’t know. We were playing with the piece of string Mom tied to my key.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  “The key or the string?”

  “The key.”

  Billy nodded again and pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to her. Sarah started to reach for it, but Billy closed his hand fast. “It’s mine. Mom gave it to me. Do you want to get in trouble again?”

  Sarah pulled her hand away. Billy started toward the back door but Sarah said, “Wait. I want to ask you something else.”

  “What?”

  “Did Balthazat talk to you?”

  Billy stared at Sarah for a long moment. “What do you mean?”

  Sarah shook her head. “Never mind,” she said, and forced herself to laugh. “I was just kidding.”

  “You’re weird,” Billy said, and went into the house.

  Sarah looked into the bushes and whispered Balthazat’s name, but the only reply was the crunching of the branches as she pushed them aside with her hands. A moment later, she spotted what must have been the string from Billy’s key on the ground and she picked it up. So Balthazat had tried to get the key. When he couldn’t, he’d gotten mad, scratched Billy, and taken off. But where was he now? Why wouldn’t he come when he heard Sarah calling?

  “Sarah,” Mom shouted from inside the house. “Come inside now and get back to packing.”

  “Be right there,” Sarah answered. She climbed the steps and opened the door. Before she went inside, she took one last look at the yard, but it was still empty.

  Sarah hardly said a word for the rest of the day, including dinner. Instead, she concentrated on trying to figure out where Balthazat could have gone or what he was up to. One possibility was that he had run too far away and someone else had picked him up, thinking he was just a stray cat. If that was the case, hopefully they would do what she and her father had done. When they came to her door with the cat in a box, she could say he was hers and then take him back to Scotopia and figure out how to close off the secret passage forever. It also occurred to her that maybe he had just given up on Billy and had instead gone in search of someone else who could help him. Someone he could convince to break into their house while they were all asleep and steal the key from Billy. This made her so afraid that she started shaking. She shook so hard, a bite of food fell off her fork.

  “Are you okay?” Mom asked.

  “I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I’m just worried about Balthazat.”

  Dad shook his head. “Maybe it’s best if he doesn’t come back, honey.”

  Sarah nodded. Her dad was right, in a way. She wished Balthazat would get run over by a car or something. That would solve all her problems, wouldn’t it? She lifted another bite to her mouth, but then decided she wasn’t hungry anymore. “Can I be done?” she said.

  “You didn’t eat very much,” Mom said.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Mom looked at Dad. Dad shrugged. “Fine with me,” he said, and Sarah took her plate to the kitchen sink. Then she went outside and sat on the back porch, staring at the yard, kissing the air and calling to Balthazat every few minutes. She simply didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t go back to Scotopia now because she still had to take a shower and get ready for bed. She would have to wait until her parents had kissed her good night before she could go behind the bookcase again.

  When it got dark, Mom called her inside.

  After her shower, she put her pajamas on and climbed into bed with a book. Then Mom and Dad came in. After kisses, they went out of her room and closed the door all the way. She listened to them tuck Billy in and then go downstairs. A few minutes later, as soon as she heard the TV go on, she threw the covers back and got dressed.

  She had just started to pull the bookcase out of the wall when she heard a click in the hallway. She froze. Then she shoved the bookcase back into the wall, dove into bed, and pulled the covers up as fast as she could. She was sure Mom or Dad had come back upstairs to check on her for some reason. She held her breath as she waited for her door to open. When she heard a second click, she realized that it wasn’t her door, it was Billy’s.

  She threw the covers back again and crept across the room as quickly and carefully as she could. She knelt in front of her door, peering through the keyhole. The hallway was dark except for the glow of the night-light from the bathroom. Still, that was enough light to see that Billy’s bedroom door was opening very slowly. And now Billy was peering out. He opened the door wider. He, too, had gotten dressed. He had the key in one hand and the big red book in the other. All at once Sarah knew that her brother had lied to her. Not only did Balthazat know about the journal, but he had talked to Billy, too. Now her brother was sneaking down to meet the cat in the basement and open the door to Pe
numbra for him. That was why Balthazat hadn’t answered. He didn’t need her anymore. He was probably hiding down there—and had been all afternoon—waiting for this moment.

  Sarah was very tempted to throw the door open and yell for Mom and Dad. She and Billy would both get in big trouble for being dressed and out of bed, but at least she would stop Balthazat from going through with his plan. She was just about to open her mouth when she realized that she could only catch Balthazat if she let Billy meet him. So she held her breath and watched Billy sneak to the corner of the hallway and disappear from view.

  She waited a long moment, then opened her door wide and poked her head out. She could just see his shadow descending the stairs. She couldn’t believe he was risking this. Mom and Dad were almost sure to catch him. She waited until she couldn’t see his shadow on the wall anymore, then crept out of her room and closed the door.

  She tiptoed up the hallway and looked over the railing. She saw Billy at the bottom of the stairs, peeking around the corner, into the living room, no doubt making sure Mom and Dad couldn’t see him. After a moment, he darted into the kitchen, out of Sarah’s sight.

  Sarah went to the landing and was halfway downstairs when she heard Dad get up and tell Mom he would be right back. She backed up quickly, crouching in the shadows at the top of the stairs. She watched Dad walk into the kitchen. Every muscle tightened as she waited to hear Dad shout at Billy, but all she heard was the ice maker crunching ice into a glass and the pop of a soda can being opened. A moment later, Dad walked back into the living room.

  Sarah let out her breath and went down the stairs on her tiptoes. At the bottom, she peered into the living room and saw Mom and Dad facing the TV, watching an old black-and-white movie. She went into the kitchen carefully, half afraid that she would find Billy coming out from a hiding place somewhere. But the kitchen was empty. Assuming that he had already gone into the basement, Sarah went to the door and opened it carefully. She saw light—from a flashlight—sweep across the far wall. She stepped onto the landing and closed the door.

  Even more carefully than before, Sarah went down the stairs. She lowered her head, trying to see where Billy was. The light flashed again, this time sweeping across the stacks of furniture and crates near the boiler. She moved down the stairs more quickly.

  Once she reached the bottom, she crouched and crept forward to a row of boxes. Peeking over the top, she saw Billy, alone, standing at the door behind the boiler. One hand held the flashlight trained on the heavy padlock while the other hand lifted the key and put it in the lock. When she still saw no sign of Balthazat, she decided that Billy must have already let him into Penumbra but had been forced to close and lock the door when Mom had come downstairs or something.

  Sarah crept forward another inch as Billy turned the key in the lock and popped it open. He pulled the padlock off and set it on the ground along with the journal. Then he pulled the heavy door open to reveal an alcove filled with dim light. Another door stood on the opposite side, a good twenty feet away. This door looked older than the first, and it was not locked.

  Then Billy said, “Hello, Billy,” and Sarah nearly fell over. Her breath caught in her throat and she slowly lifted herself high enough to see the alcove floor. There, bound hand and foot with yellow nylon rope, was her little brother. He was staring at the other Billy with wide eyes. But the worst part of all was that the Billy who was tied up on the floor had no mouth.

  Sarah very nearly screamed then. To stop herself, she had to bite her tongue and squeeze her eyes shut. Now she knew the truth: the Billy who had met her on the stairs that afternoon had not been her brother at all. Balthazat had simply changed disguises. He had lured Billy into the basement and gotten the door open. Then he had changed into Billy, tied the real Billy up, and waited until he could come back to finish the job.

  Sarah was frantic. If Balthazat could change into Billy like that, who knew what else he could do? If she screamed for help, might he not simply turn into a giant dragon and destroy them all with a single breath of fire? One thing she knew for certain: she couldn’t leave Billy behind, no matter how annoying he was.

  She crept forward slowly, taking cover behind the boxes and furniture. She got as close to the first door as she dared, then waited as Balthazat went to the inner door and opened it. Beyond it was a giant space, as dimly illuminated by dark gray light as the alcove, filled with rows and rows of what looked like thousands of beds. People covered with white sheets lay on the beds, which seemed to stretch on as far as she could see, up a gentle slope of gray grass.

  Balthazat—still in his disguise as Billy—stood in the open doorway, his arms outstretched.

  “At last,” he said. “Penumbra!”

  Sarah took advantage of his distraction to dart forward and grab the real Billy. When he saw her, his eyes went wide. She tried to help him to his feet, but halfway up, he stumbled and fell, pushing them both back. Balthazat heard the noise and whirled around. His face was no longer Billy’s. Instead, his hair had turned to smoke and his eyes to fire. Sarah closed the door, snatched the lock from the ground, and put it through the latch. Balthazat pushed on the door from the inside, but Sarah snapped the lock shut. She held her breath, afraid Balthazat would start pounding on the door from the inside and bring Mom and Dad down, but instead he only whispered, “I’ll find another way out, little girl. Don’t you know that? My plan will succeed, and I have you to thank for it.” At the sound of his voice, goose bumps crowded the back of Sarah’s neck.

  But she had no time to be scared.

  She turned to Billy and quickly untied the ropes. She did her best to explain to him that she knew what had happened and that she would tell him more soon. “But for now,” she whispered, “we have to get back upstairs without Mom and Dad knowing. Can you do that?”

  He nodded.

  “Good,” she said. Then she took the key from the lock, picked up the journal, and grabbed Billy by the hand. “Come on.”

  Sarah stopped short when she saw someone coming down the stairs. She couldn’t tell whether it was Mom or Dad. Not that it mattered. Either one spelled bad news, although Mom would probably not be as likely to yell. They must have heard her and Billy down here. Now everything would come out. What would they say when they saw Billy’s face?

  Sarah sighed. Maybe this was for the best. She was tired of trying to make everything right all on her own. Briefly, she considered hiding, then decided that would only make things worse.

  Standing up as straight as she could, she stepped out and came face to face not with her mom or dad, but with Grandma Winnie.

  Sarah screamed.

  “Oh, no, child,” Grandma said to her. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

  Sarah’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. She looked at Billy. But Billy just stared at her as if he couldn’t figure out what was happening.

  Sarah heard voices overhead, followed by footsteps pounding from the living room to the kitchen. Mom and Dad were coming for sure.

  “Quick,” Grandma Winnie said, “you and your brother stand behind me and get under my shawl.”

  Sarah grabbed Billy and pulled him close. Then Grandma turned around. She whipped her shawl off her shoulders and draped it over them like a magician. All at once, Sarah realized she could see through Grandma Winnie and she wanted to scream again, but then the light went on and Mom and Dad came down the stairs.

  “I swear I heard someone scream,” Mom said.

  “Me too,” Dad said. “It sounded like Sarah.”

  Her parents were staring straight at her and Billy and Grandma Winnie, but it was obvious they couldn’t see them. Then, as they stepped to the floor, Grandma Winnie moved forward, floating, carrying Sarah and Billy with her. They glided right past Mom and Dad, and as they went upstairs, Sarah heard Dad say, “Maybe we should check on the children.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Mom said.

  Sarah looked over her shoulder and saw them headed back to the
stairs, but then Grandma floated around the corner and up to their rooms.

  “Quickly now,” Grandma said. “Both of you get in your beds and pretend you’re asleep.”

  Sarah and Billy did as she told them. And not a moment too soon, for Sarah had barely pulled the covers to her chin when her door opened and Mom and Dad leaned through.

  “She in there?” Dad asked.

  “Sound asleep,” Mom said, and closed the door.

  Sarah jumped out of bed and peered through the keyhole, watching her parents repeat the routine at Billy’s door. A few moments later, they headed downstairs.

  Sarah leaned back and caught her breath, her mind racing with what had just happened. When her door opened and Billy came in, she was actually glad to see him, and evidently he felt the same way. They hugged each other tightly.

  “Is Grandma Winnie with you?” Sarah asked.

  Billy looked at her and shook his head.

  “Did you see Grandma Winnie?”

  Again, Billy shook his head.

  “Oh,” Sarah said, confused. Then it dawned on her: she had been holding the journal and the key. Jeb had told her that they only worked together, and only when they were together could the record keeper show the sleeping dead the way to Penumbra.

  Sarah jumped to her feet and ran to her bed. She threw the covers back and grabbed the journal and the key. When she turned around, she saw Grandma Winnie standing in the corner. Sarah heaved a sigh of relief. “There you are,” she whispered.

  “You had me worried,” Grandma said. “I thought I was going to have to start throwing letters around and banging books on the floor again.”

  “That was you?” Sarah asked.

  Grandma nodded. “I was trying to get your attention. I started as soon as you got here.”