D. MacHale - The Reality Bug

“But don’t you see? All they care about is shutting me down! It’s been that way since day one!”

“I’ll tell you what I see,” Horkey said. “I see a girl who is faced with a challenge for the first time in her life. A true challenge. And she is losing. Courtney, you are a talented athlete. But it takes more than skill to be a winner. You know how to handle success, but not failure. Until you can do that, you won’t help this team, or any other.”

Courtney didn’t say anything. As much as she hated to admit it, Horkey’s words rang true.

“I’m suspending you for two weeks,” Horkey added. “What!”

“Players on my team don’t fight. Especially with each other. Think about that and come back in two weeks.” Horkey jogged off the field.

Courtney was left stunned. Not only was she demoted from varsity to JV, now she was kicked off JV! She stood in the middle of the field, covered with dirt, unable to accept this impossible turn of events. How could this have happened? How could she have fallen so far? In her heart she still believed she was as much of a competitor as ever, but reality was telling her otherwise.

D. J. MacHale

The Reality Bug

Courtney walked off the field, but didn’t go into the locker room. She didn’t want to face the other girls. She knew the old Courtney would have walked right into that locker room and taken the heat. But then again, she’d never had to take any heat before. Not like this. Courtney began to wonder if there was ever such a thing as the old Courtney. Maybe this is who she always was… a gutless coward.

She walked past the locker room and made the commitment to walk all the way home. It was going to be a long walk. But she wasn’t about to take the late bus, either. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed. Since it was Friday, she wouldn’t have to worry about facing anybody for a couple of days.

“Courtney!” a familiar voice shouted.

Courtney had rounded the school and was headed for the sidewalk when Mark came riding up on his bike. He was out of breath and excited.

“You’re not going to believe it!” he exclaimed. “I was-” Mark focused on the fact that Courtney was still in her soccer uniform, totally dirty, still wearing her cleats, and walking away from school. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t ask” was all Courtney could get out. Mark got off his bike and walked alongside her.

“You’re walking home?” he asked, confused.

“I’m really hurting, Mark,” she said. “Can we talk about it some other time?”

“Yeah, sure.” They walked in silence. Mark was dying to tell Courtney what had happened at the Sherwood house, but wasn’t sure if she was in the mood to talk about anything. Still, she had to know.

“Can we talk about something else?” he asked tentatively. “Whatever.”

“Something happened today,” Mark said. “I… I’m not sure exactly what it means, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the acolyte thing.”

Courtney stopped short. A second before, she looked like the walking dead. Now a spark had returned to her eyes. Mark thought that whatever had happened at soccer, it had beaten her up pretty badly. But the fire still burned inside her. He knew Courtney too well to think otherwise.

“Another journal?” she asked.

“No,” Mark answered. “Let’s go for a ride.”

Mark tried to ride Courtney on the handlebars of his bike. It didn’t work. Courtney was too tall and Mark was too… Mark. So they switched places and Courtney gave Mark the ride. Along the way Mark told her everything that happened at the Sherwood house. Courtney didn’t ask any questions. She just listened. By the time Mark had finished the story, they found themselves parked right back where the mystery began. They were in front of the locked iron gates of the spooky old house.

Mark held up his ring. The symbol was glowing again.

“What do you think?” Mark asked.

“I think we’ve got to find out what’s inside that house,” Courtney answered.

“Easier said than done,” Mark replied. “You didn’t see those dogs.”

Courtney looked up at the sky and said, “It’s gonna be dark soon. I say we come back tomorrow, with some help.”

Courtney’s idea of help was an obvious one. They waited until the next morning, then Mark came over to Courtney’s house and they put a call into their friend on the Stony Brook police force, Captain Hirsch.

They had met Captain Hirsch when Bobby and his family first disappeared. Since then Hirsch had been working on the missing persons case. Of course, Mark and Courtney knew the truth about what had happened to Bobby, but decided not to tell, for fear of interfering with Bobby’s mission as a Traveler. Still, they kept in touch with Hirsch. He was a good guy. Now, they hoped, he was going to help them get one step closer to unraveling the mystery of the acolytes.

Mark told Captain Hirsch about there being strange dogs running around the Sherwood property. He really built it up, saying how the dogs were vicious and wild. There was no way these dogs were somebody’s pets. Of course, Mark left out the part about having been trespassing on the property. He also didn’t mention that the dogs might be evil quig beasts who were guarding a secret inside the house. That wouldn’t have been cool.

A half hour later Mark and Courtney met two uniformed police officers outside the front gate to the Sherwood house.

“Hi, guys,” one of them said. “Remember me? Officer Wilson?”

“Sure we do!” Courtney said.

Officer Wilson had once given the two kids a ride to the police station. He was a good guy, too.

“This is Officer Matt.” Everybody shook hands. “Tell us what you saw.”

Mark again explained how there were three dogs inside. Big, vicious, slobbering dogs with sharp fangs. Mark wasn’t exaggerating. He wanted to make sure the cops knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.

Officer Wilson had a key to the lock on the front gate. They explained to Mark and Courtney that the Sherwood family had given it to the police in case of an emergency. This definitely qualified. While Wilson unlocked the gate, Officer Matt opened the trunk of their squad car and pulled out two pieces of equipment. One was a long metal rod with a loop of cable on the end. It was a snare that animal control officers use to capture dogs. The other thing Officer Matt pulled out was a tranquilizer rifle. Mark knew that if one of these dogs got the chance, it would tear a person apart. He wasn’t so sure that a tranquilizer dart would do anything to stop it either. Still, it was better than nothing.

“Don’t bother with the snare,” Mark advised. “You aren’t going to want to catch one of these monsters.”

Officer Matt chuckled, but kept the snare.

“We’d like to come with you,” Courtney said.

The two cops shared looks. They didn’t like the idea of putting the kids in danger.

“C’mon!” Courtney cajoled. “We’ll stay behind you. And you’ve got guns and snares and stuff, right?”

Wilson shrugged. “Okay. Just stay close.”

They followed the two cops onto the property. Wilson held the snare, Matt kept the tranquilizer gun pointed at the ground, but ready.

Mark made sure to close the iron gates behind them. He also took off his ring and put it in his pocket. He didn’t want the cops to ask him why he had a ring that was shooting off light.

Officer Wilson whistled. “Here, boy! C’mon!” He whistled again.

Nothing happened.

The four walked up to the porch. Mark kept glancing behind them, making sure that one of the black dogs wasn’t sneaking up quietly.

“Uh-oh, what’s this?” Officer Matt said. He reached down and picked up the shredded remains of Mark’s backpack. Oops. Mark had totally forgotten.