Dan Poblocki - The Stone Child

“Well…,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Okay. Just be careful. I need it.”

“We’ll be careful,” said Harris, following Eddie.

Upstairs, Eddie ushered his friends into his room, closed the door, and leaned against it.

“Can I see it?” said Harris, sitting at Eddie’s desk. Eddie handed the pendant to him. Maggie knelt next to Harris, reached out, and touched it too. “Do you think it’s real?” Harris added.

“If it is, then this all finally makes sense,” said Maggie.

Eddie leaned over Harris’s chair, opened his desk drawer, and pulled out a piece of paper. Harris handed the pendant back. Gripping it like a pen, Eddie pressed it to the paper. Miraculously, a black dot appeared there. Eddie dragged the tip across the paper, drawing a sharp black line from corner to corner. “It’s real, all right. Why didn’t I realize this before now?” said Eddie, his voice shaking.

“Realize what?” said Harris. “How your mom ended up with this thing?”

“Yes.” Eddie took a deep breath. “Remember the box that the search party found in the Nameless Lake? It was supposed to contain The Enigmatic Manuscript and the pendant that Nathaniel hid before disappearing?”

Harris nodded.

“The police lost its contents, and somehow the book and the pendant ended up at the Black Hood Antiques Fair.” Eddie put the pendant down. He didn’t like the way it felt. The cold seemed to be burning his skin. “My parents happened to buy both items. And just like the pendant led Nathaniel Olmstead to Gatesweed, it began to work its magic on my mother. That’s why we moved here. My mother said so herself. She came looking for inspiration and found it in Gatesweed.”

“So your mom’s been writing this book since you moved in?” said Harris.

“Yes,” said Eddie. “Somehow, the Woman in Black must have gotten her to write the story that Nathaniel Olmstead refused to finish. My mom didn’t realize what she was doing. She thought that she’d finally come up with a good idea.”

Maggie stood up, crossing her arms. “If your mother finishes writing the book, the gate will open. The Woman in Black will be able to come through.”

“We can’t let that happen,” said Harris.

“But how?” said Eddie.

“Tell your mother she has to destroy her manuscript,” said Maggie.

“It won’t matter if she destroys the manuscript,” said Harris. “First of all, according to Nathaniel Olmstead, it can’t be destroyed. Second, the Woman in Black has been waiting around since, like, the beginning of time for this to happen. She will just get someone else to write it someday.”

“You’re right. We can’t destroy the manuscript,” said Eddie. He stared at the black line he’d scratched across the paper. He thought about all of Nathaniel’s books hidden in his basement-a permanent record of the town’s awful legacy. There had to be something they could do to end it. “Do you think we can… destroy the gate?”

“The gate?” said Maggie.

“The stone child,” said Eddie. “In the woods. Maybe… if we destroy the statue, we destroy the gate? That way, the Woman in Black will never be able to come through!”

“That’s brilliant!” said Harris.

“But how do we destroy the statue?” said Maggie. “According to the legend, hasn’t it existed, like… forever?”

Eddie glanced into his open desk drawer. A shape at the back caught his eye. He reached inside and pulled it out. It was the hammer he’d brought with him when they’d snuck into Nathaniel Olmstead’s house. “Stone breaks if you hit it hard enough,” said Eddie. “Doesn’t it?”

“Let’s hope,” said Harris.

“When should we do it?” said Maggie.

“You heard my mother,” said Eddie. “She wants to finish her book tonight.” The light on the desk began to flicker. They all stared at it for several seconds. Then Eddie added, “So we need to go now.”

Since Maggie lived within walking distance of the Olmstead estate, Eddie asked his father if he would drive them all to her house so they could watch a movie. Eddie’s father looked like he didn’t believe them-especially since, a few minutes earlier, they’d been acting so weird about Mom’s “pen”-but he drove them anyway.

Eddie knew his mother planned on using the pendant to finish writing her book, and rather than explain everything and why that might be a bad idea, he’d simply taken it without her noticing. He hoped she wouldn’t be too upset with him when he came home again. If he came home again.

The journey through the hills was the same as always. The roads went up and down. They twisted and turned. With every dip in the road, with every sighing rise, Eddie’s anxiety grew. For some reason, he felt guilty-if he hadn’t been interested in Nathaniel Olmstead books, would his mother still have tried to write her own? Then he thought about the pendant she had found, and Eddie tried to convince himself that what had happened was no one’s fault. Whoever came into possession of the object would be drawn toward the gate-especially a writer looking for a story to tell, like Nathaniel Olmstead… or his mom.

The pendant was dangerous, and he understood now that it seemed to have a life of its own. He could feel the thing almost vibrating at the bottom of his backpack. There was something in its nature that instinctively needed to be near the gate. And it seemed to have a talent for making people do what it wanted.

Dad dropped them off at the end of Maggie’s driveway. They waved goodbye and watched until his red brake lights disappeared around the bend, then they walked up the driveway to Maggie’s house. Once inside, she led them to a table in the corner of the kitchen.

“What should we bring with us?” she asked.

“I’ve got the hammer and the pendant in my bag,” said Eddie. “We’ll definitely need some extra flashlights.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Maggie, getting up and opening the cabinet under the sink. “I think my dad keeps some in here.” She pulled out two small plastic flashlights and placed them on the table.

“Nice,” said Harris. “We’ll need those to keep away the Watchers. But what else can we use… you know… in case some of Nathaniel’s other monsters are waiting for us?”

“I guess it would be helpful to come up with a list of creatures from his books,” said Eddie. “Then we can match them up with whatever the characters used to defeat them. Hopefully, we can find whatever we’ll need here in Maggie’s house.”

“Hopefully,” said Maggie.

A few minutes later, they’d put together a list of things to take on their journey into the woods. Wind chimes for the Wendigo. Glass marbles for the weeping spirits. A stapler for the shadow-stalker. An egg timer for the sand-suckers. Chicken bones for the monster lake-dogs. Plus much more. “Who knows if most of these monsters are still hanging out in Gatesweed,” said Eddie, “but at least this list will get us started.”

“Scavenger hunt!” said Harris, standing up from the table.

“Shhh,” Maggie answered. “My parents are upstairs, probably watching television. We don’t want them asking any questions. If they see me leave the house again tonight, they’ll want to know where I’m going, and they’re not going to buy the ‘watching a movie at Harris’s house’ excuse. Just look around, see what you can find, then we’ll sneak out.”

They quietly went through the kitchen drawers, refrigerator, pantry, and china cabinet in the living room, taking what they thought would be useful. When they had finished, Eddie’s bag was heavy, but he hiked it up on his shoulder and took a deep breath.