The Secret Path by Christopher Pike Read Free Book Online Page A

someday?”
    She looked down at him. Smiled down at him.
    Her lips the color of fire. Her eyes glowing like a cat’s.
    â€œOh no,” Adam whispered to himself.
    Sally nudged him in the side.
    â€œAdam?” she said, sounding worried.
    â€œYes,” he mumbled, feeling hypnotized.
    Sally shook him. “Adam!”
    He looked over at her. “What’s the matter?” he said.
    â€œWhat’s the matter with you?” Sally looked up at the castle tower. “She’s trying to put a spell on you.”
    Adam shook himself. The red light was gone, as was the image of the beautiful woman. The structure could have been deserted for two hundred years. “No. I’m fine, really.” He did feel kind of cold, though. “But I think we should get out of here.” He glanced around. “Where’s Watch?”
    Sally frowned. “I don’t know.” She jumped to her feet. “Watch! Watch! Adam, I don’t see him! Watch!”
    They called for ten minutes straight.
    But their friend was gone.

10
    T hey found Watch’s glasses in the dirt in front of the tombstone. Adam half expected to discover a bloodstain on them when he picked them up. But they were only dirty.
    â€œWatch can’t walk ten feet without his glasses,” Sally whispered.
    â€œBut he must have walked out of here,” Adam said.
    â€œNo,” Sally replied gloomily.
    â€œWhat are you saying? He’s gone.”
    â€œBut he didn’t walk out of here. He vanished.”
    â€œI didn’t see him vanish,” Adam said.
    â€œWhat did you see?”
    Adam was confused. “I don’t know. I was staring up at that tower.” He pointed through the skeleton trees toward Ann Templeton’s home. “There was a red glow coming from the highest window.” He shook his head and peered up at the sky. “It seems later than it should be. Did we fall asleep?”
    Sally, also, appeared puzzled. “I didn’t think so. I know I just lay down for a minute. But then—I think I dreamed.”
    â€œWhat did you dream?” Adam asked.
    Fear entered Sally’s eyes. “About the day they buried the witch. I saw them carry her body in here. They were all scared. They thought it might come back to life and eat them.” She shook her head. “But it was just a dream.”
    Adam gestured with Watch’s glasses in his hand. “We have to find Watch.” He turned toward the back of the cemetery, where they’d entered. Sally stopped him.
    â€œWatch didn’t leave the cemetery,” she said firmly.
    â€œThen where is he?” Adam asked.
    â€œDon’t you see? He found the end of the Secret Path.” She pointed at the witch’s tombstone. “He went through there.”
    Adam shook his head. “That’s impossible. Why would he be the only one to vanish? Why not us?”
    â€œHe did something—special. You’re sure you didn’t see him?”
    â€œI told you, I didn’t.”
    Sally walked around the tombstone, talking all the time. “He was trying to figure out what the end of Bum’s riddle meant. He must have hit upon the solution, maybe even by accident.” She paused to consider, reciting the lines once more. “ ‘Follow her all the way to her death, and remember, when they brought her to her grave, they carried her upside-down.’ ” Sally shook her head. “Watch couldn’t have walked up to the tombstone upside-down. There was no one to carry him.”
    Adam had an idea. “Maybe we’re looking at the riddle too literally. It is a riddle, after all. ‘Upside-down’ is—in- a way—another way of saying ‘backward.’ ”
    Sally came closer. “I don’t understand.”
    Adam pointed toward the cemetery entrance. “Bum might have been telling us she was brought in here backward. Maybe all we have to