Behind the Bookcase Read online

  When she opened her eyes, she saw that Jeb was crying. His face was whole now, and he rubbed it with both hands, feeling both cheeks, both eyes, both ears. “I don’t know how I can ever thank you,” he said.

  “You don’t need to thank me,” Sarah said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “Can I be next, please?” B.B. said.

  Sarah faced him and nodded. “Of course, B.B.,” she said, and closed her eyes. She held B.B. in her mind and then spoke the words again:

  “What has been done

  I now undo

  By counting two one

  And then one two.”

  When she opened her eyes, B.B. wasn’t a giant bat anymore; he was a little boy in a bat costume. He looked down at himself and said, “My name is Joshua Turner.” He looked at Sarah. “My name is Joshua Turner,” he said again as if it was the best news he had ever heard in his life. “I remember now. It was Halloween. I was at my grandma’s house. We had read a story in school about a house with secret passages and doors in it and I was just playing around and I pulled the bookcase out and I thought it was a real secret passage and I went through it and I came here and I found Balthazat, who said he was the King of the Cats, but he tricked me and tried to make me take him back, but I couldn’t find my way, so he punished me by taking away my memory and turning me into a bat.”

  “It’s okay, B.B.” Sarah said, and laughed. “Joshua, I mean. It’s almost all over now. You’ll be home soon and everything will be back the way it was.”

  Joshua nodded. Sarah turned around and faced Leedo.

  “All right,” she said. “Now you.”

  Leedo bowed his head and held up his stumps. Sarah closed her eyes and pictured him whole. Again she said the words, and again she felt the Undoer glow warmly in her hand.

  When she opened her eyes, Leedo had his hands and mouth back. He touched his lips with his fingers and then opened his eyes and looked at Sarah. He stared at the Undoer in her hand. But there wasn’t any joy in his eyes, only a kind of terrible rage. “Give it to me,” he shrieked in a voice that sounded like tearing metal. As he lunged at her, Sarah tried to dive out of the way. But she was too late. He crashed into her and they both fell to the floor. Jeb and Joshua grabbed Leedo from behind and tried to pull him off Sarah, but they couldn’t. He was much bigger than they were. Edgar came forward to help, but there was no room for him.

  “Billy!” Sarah yelled. He looked at her, his eyes going wide. She threw the Undoer to him and he caught it. “Quickly,” she said. “Undo him!”

  When Leedo saw what Sarah had done, he started to get up. Instead of pulling on him, Jeb and Joshua now sat on him with their full weight, trying to keep him pinned to the ground while Billy closed his eyes and said:

  “What once was done

  I now undo

  By counting down two one

  And then one two.”

  Nothing happened.

  “That’s not it,” Sarah yelled.

  Billy opened his eyes, frantic. “I can’t remember,” he said.

  “We can’t hold him any longer!” Jeb shouted.

  Leedo pushed up as hard as he could and Jeb and Joshua both fell backward, crashing into Edgar and the guard, and knocking them over, too. Sarah, now free, pulled herself up and dove for Billy. She grabbed his hands with both of hers so that each of them was touching the Undoer.

  “You think it,” she said. “I’ll say it.”

  “Will that work?” he asked.

  “We have to try.”

  Billy closed his eyes and Sarah said:

  “What has been done

  I now undo

  By counting two one

  And then one two.”

  There was a sudden flash of light brighter than anything she had ever seen. For a moment, Sarah thought a bolt of lightning had shot through the ceiling. She and Billy both fell over and went into a spin. She tried to hold on to him, but something started to pull them apart. Then she saw the others spinning around them at the same time, as if they were all caught in a whirlpool of light.

  Then everything came apart. Leedo whooshed away first, shooting through the brightness until he vanished from sight and all that was left of him was his voice, screaming “Nooo!” Anonimo followed right behind him, and just as fast, he, too, was gone. Then Edgar whirled past Sarah. When their eyes met, he said, “Oh, dear,” and zipped away as if he had been launched from a slingshot. Joshua flew by next, flapping the wings of his Halloween costume as hard as he could, but it was no use. Like the others, he shot off into the light and was gone. Finally Jeb launched off, his eyes wide, his mouth open. But his face was still all there.

  Sarah didn’t understand what was happening. She looked down and saw that she and Billy were still holding on to each other, the Undoer between them. She didn’t know for how much longer, though. Even now, their grip was slipping. Then Sarah felt a hand grab her arm and she saw Balthazat behind her. Only, he hadn’t bothered with the cat disguise. His hair was smoke and his eyes were fire and his mouth glowed like Fourth of July fireworks.

  “What have you done?” he roared.

  “Not what we’ve done!” Sarah shouted. “What we’ve undone.”

  She felt Billy’s hand slip from her fingers and both of them whooshed away. Suddenly, darkness surrounded her as completely as the light had only a moment before.

  She kicked her feet and flailed her arms and all at once her covers flew off and she was in her bedroom, back in her bed.

  She froze, catching her breath. For a long time, she remained perfectly still, staring at the moonlit ceiling. Then she heard footsteps in the hall, outside her room. The door opened and Billy came in, rubbing his eyes.

  Sarah sat up and looked at him. “Billy,” she said, “are you all right?”

  He nodded. “Did everything that I think just happened really happen?”

  Now it was Sarah’s turn to nod. “What were you thinking when we used the Undoer?”

  “Just that I wanted everyone to go back where they belonged.”

  Sarah smiled. “That must be what happened,” she said. “Everyone went home.” Sarah looked at the clock now and saw that it was almost 3:00 a.m.

  Billy took another step into her room. “What about Balthazat?”

  Sarah shrugged. “I guess he must be back in his cabin.”

  “What about the Undoer?”

  “I thought you had it,” Sarah said.

  Billy shook his head. “I thought you had it.”

  “I wish,” Sarah said. “There are some things around here that I’d like to undo.”

  “Like me, I suppose?” Billy asked.

  Sarah laughed. “Nope. Believe it or not, I think you did okay. All things considered.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Go back to sleep,” Sarah said. “I’m exhausted.”

  “But if Balthazat is back in his cabin, that means he’ll still be trying to find a way through. We have to go back and stop him.”

  Sarah twisted her hair. “I don’t know. If we go behind the bookcase again, something worse might happen this time.”

  “Can’t be any worse than what Balthazat is trying to do,” Billy said.

  Sarah nodded. “You’re right about that.”

  Just then, they heard a loud banging downstairs. Sarah and Billy looked at each other. Then Sarah looked at the clock. It was exactly three o’clock. “Oh, no,” she said. “The sleepers.” Quickly, she jumped out of bed and dropped to her knees. “I hope you didn’t undo this,” she said, shoving her hands under the mattress and pulling out the journal and the key. “Phew,” she said as she got to her feet and started for the door.

  “Wait,” Billy said. “Where are you going?”

  “Downstairs to let the dead in.”

  “But what about Mom and Dad?”

  “I guess they’re in for a big surprise.”

  Billy smiled
. “Wait for me,” he said. “This I gotta see.”

  Together, the two of them ran downstairs.

  Thanks to Betty Habel and Cynthia Metcalf, my fourth-grade teachers, for starting all this publishing stuff. Thanks to Rick Hautala, the rainmaker; Christopher Golden, the connection; Stephanie Elliott, the chance-taker; Jenny Bent, the negotiator; Kelly Murphy, the vision-painter; Krista Vitola, the wise reader; and Françoise Bui, my guiding hand. Thanks to my children for being kids, even when I wish they’d grow up. And thanks especially to my wife, Kristie, for sticking with me in spite of all those rejection letters.

  Mark Steensland was born and raised in California. He self-published his first book when he was in fourth grade and has been telling stories ever since—some of them true. He became a professional journalist at the age of eighteen, writing about movies for such magazines as Prevue and American Cinematographer. He has also written, directed, and produced numerous award-winning films that have played in festivals around the world. He lives in Erie, Pennsylvania, with his wife, their three children, a dog, and a cat he is fairly certain is not Balthazat. Behind the Bookcase is his first novel. Find out more at whatisbehindthebookcase.com.