Chapter Five
Marked
Lost in the woods.
Kenny frowned, probably wondering how he would get home in time for the football game. Charlotte appeared confused. She was a daddy’s girl and probably couldn’t believe her favorite parent had messed up. Nancy scowled in almost the exact same way that Mom would with Dad.
Kogane turned sharply and looked behind them, as if alerted by something behind them that Evan couldn’t see.
Dad plastered a fake smile on his face and held his arms out in his favorite grand gesture. “Isn’t this exciting. We’re lost in the woods! Now, what’s the first thing you should do when you’re lost?”
“Look for moss on trees,” was Kenny’s contribution.
“Check if you have cell reception.” Always a practical response from Nancy.
“Stay where you are.” Evan was certain he heard that advice somewhere.
“Don’t talk to strangers.” Charlotte obviously answered the wrong questions.
“Check for stalkers.” In response to the looks everyone gave him, Kogane added, “In case you’ve been marked.”
“Great responses,” Dad said cheerfully. “If we had a map, we would have marked our location and plotted a course away from any stalkers. But now that we’re stuck here lost, we should check for moss on trees. So–”
“No,” Kogane interrupted. “We’ve actually been marked, by–”
“Excuse me,” Dad interrupted the interrupter. “In our dimension we consider it impolite to interrupt, especially your elders. As I was saying . . .”
Evan glanced at Kogane, who gestured with his head in the direction behind them.
Dad was replying to something Kenny had said. “. . . had told you in advance, you would have. But this is real life. Right here, lost . . .”
Evan turned and glanced at the trees behind them. He couldn’t see anything beyond them other than more trees.
“But school doesn’t teach wilderness survival,” Nancy objected.
“No, but the Boy Scouts do. So starting Monday I’m enrolling Kogane in school and then all of you in Boy Scouts.”
Nancy’s eyes went wide and she quickly raised her hand.
Dad held out a hand. “I’m not taking any objections. You’re all Boy Scouts starting Monday.”
Evan raised his hand. It was the only way to get anyone to listen.
“Excellent use of manners, Evan,” Dad beamed. “State your question.”
He didn’t have a question, exactly, but now that everyone was listening . . . “I think something’s following us.”
Dad raised his eyebrows, as if Kogane hadn’t just issued a warning earlier. “Really? What makes you think so?”
“Kogane, with his other dimension senses and all . . .” He wasn’t sure how to finish that and looked at his friend for help.
“A predator has marked us as its prey and it’s stalking us, waiting for the right moment to pounce. If we don’t get out of here now, we might end up as its dinner.”
Dad’s eyebrows shot up even further. “I’m all for eating dinner.” He glanced nervously at Charlotte. “But I wouldn’t want to alarm any of the younger members of our party, so let’s just find our way back to our car.”
Kogane frowned. “It would be easy enough to retrace our steps to your vehicle, but the creature has been following us. We might walk straight into its vicious claws, if it has such appendages.”
“So what do we do?” Nancy asked.
Kogane glanced at Charlotte, who clutched to Dad’s leg for protection. “Where I come from, we like to play a game called Find the Brogle.”
‘What’s a brogle?” Evan’s littlest sister asked.
Kogane started walking and motioned for them to follow. “I’ll explain as we start searching.” He gave a furtive glance at the trees behind them. “Brogles are little creatures that look a lot like broccoli.” He winked at Evan. “They live in haunted forests like this one, desperate to find their way out before the demogorgon devours them, because they taste like broccoli as well as look like it, and demogorgons love broccoli.”
“So what do we do when we find the brogle?” Charlotte asked. She followed behind Kogane hand in hand with her father.
“We have to hurry, so we can find the little brogle before the demogorgon, then we take it safely home with us and let it live in the vegetable garden, where it can pretend to be a regular broccoli if a demogorgon happens by.”
Dad gave Kogane a grateful smile.
Kenny rolled his eyes, prompting Nancy to slug him in the shoulder.
Kogane picked up a club-sized stick on the way. Evan looked for one, but all he could see were scrawny ones.
A branch snapped loudly behind them.
Evan looked. Kenny had found a sizeable branch and had also turned to face the sound, but Nancy grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. “Keep up,” Nancy said in a falsely light tone. “We need to find that brogle as quickly as possible.”
Evan saw something large and white move between the trees. He faced forward and quickened his step, his heart thundered in his chest. What could be chasing them? A bear? Maybe a panther? But what he had seen something white. They were too far from the Arctic for polar bears.
They hurried through the trees ahead of them, moving uphill and further from where their car likely was. Dad picked up Charlotte in his arms and carried her, but that allowed her to look behind them and her eyes went wide with fear.
“Oh, look!” Nancy cried, pointing at the ground. “Brogle tracks.”
“Where?” Charlotte looked in the direction Nancy’s finger pointed.
“Really?” Kogane stopped and turned.
“Not really,” Evan mouthed at him, then pointed at his little sister.
“Ah.” Kogane nodded and continued leading them forward.
Nancy slipped in front of Dad, pulling on his arm as she went. “Charlotte, you’re the tallest of the group, now that Dad’s holding you. Help me look for brogle tracks, in front of us.”
The ruse worked and Charlotte started pointing out dozens of possible brogle tracks. Nancy pretended to see them and all went well. Until the brogle turned right when Kogane turned left.
“It went that way!” Charlotte insisted, her finger pointing in a direction too far to the side. The predator chasing them might catch up if they didn’t keep going forward.
Kogane glanced back at her with a smile. “Exactly. What we’ll do is circle around to make sure no demogorgons are lurking nearby.”
A hideous screech sounded behind them. It sounded too far close.
A white shape stood in the open a good ways behind them. It made no effort to hide itself. Its hunched back was the highest point of its body, with the head drooping down. Its mouth hung open, showing off two rows of long sharp teeth. Sharp claws grasped at the air, as if it could clutch at them even from this distance. White fur covered its body.
Charlotte screamed.
It stood on two legs. Definitely not a polar bear.
“A Twilight Stalker,” Kogane said quietly. “Quick! Everyone stand close. It will try to separate us.”
They rushed together. Dad swept Nancy and Kenny against him with his free arm. Kogane pulled in Evan then crushed him into the group. A thunderclap shook the ground at the same time as a blinding flash of light.
A freezing wind whipped at Evan’s back. Snow came up to his knees. He nearly toppled over before he regained his balance.
They stood on a sloped hill, a line of pine trees a long run away. Powdery snow covered everything. As Evan shifted his feet, he sunk a couple inches into the deep drift. The sun hadn’t set just a moment ago, but now it was missing entirely and no moon had taken its place. The only light was starlight reflecting off the wide field of white.
“Is this your dimension?” Evan asked.
Kogane turned to him with a serious expression. “No. This is much more dangerous. We’re in the Hunting Grounds.”
Next: 6 – The Hunting Grounds