CHAPTER#98

"But why?"

"The artifact is dangerous. It affects all beings on this side of Creation differently. I can only assume that Baba Yaga was affected."

"But I thought she sealed it away only a few decades ago?"

"It's an artifact from a place where time and space have no meaning." Ratu shook her head. "Poor Baba Yaga."

"That doesn't explain why we're here," Mike hissed. "Or why she wants to eat us!"

"My best guess is that her intent is to prevent someone from using it. She laid a trap for anyone who opened the box, and we were the lucky ones." She bit her lower lip, putting her head against Mike's shoulder. "We need to get out of this place and back to the real world."

"How fast can she run with that leg?"

"Not very. I'm guessing she didn't expect us to hide."

"The shadow children?"

"Meant to capture us."

"Lockers?"

"Alarms."

"Middle school?"

"To terrify you. It all makes sense now, the components of the spell. She eats children, so she needed to put you in the scariest place you had ever been."

"Then she should have put me somewhere with my mother. We wouldn't have stood a chance." Mike gave the can a push, moving it just far enough that they could stand. "I'm guessing once we start moving, the lockers will sound the alarm and she will come limping. If we can get to the front of the building, I think we should be able to get away."

"Let me stretch first." Ratu hopped up and down on her tiptoes. "I've never felt so many kinks in my body before. I don't like being stuck this way."

"For what it's worth, you were a cute kid." Mike patted her head. "I totally would have asked you to the sock hop."

"What the fuck is a sock hop?"

Mike didn't answer, peeking down the hallway. In the distance, he could hear Baba Yaga's metal leg clunking away. Shaking his hands, he pushed the can farther out, letting both of them free. "If we can avoid being spotted, the lockers shouldn't go off."

"How do you suggest we do that?"

Mike smiled. "You should know." He waved his hand back and forth, making a wave.

"Serpentine movement down the hall." Ratu grinned. Gazing down the hall, she nodded. "The doors are staggered. Due to the position of the lockers, they can't see each other, which means we can cross at the blind spots."

"And by moving against the wall, we will go under the windows, so they shouldn't see us." Up above, they heard the clattering of buckets followed by loud swearing. "We need to get going."

They took turns, one of them keeping watch while the other crawled up against the door. Mike discovered that he could just see the edge of the glass from a certain spot in the middle of the hall. When the shadows were watching, they blotted out the light, making it easy for them to be avoided. Keeping a close eye on the clock, he noticed that time wasn't consistent. The minute hand would often move three times as fast, then suddenly stop in place. Sliding beneath one of the last doors, Mike gritted his teeth, the clock at the end of the hall showing there was only a couple of minutes left.

Meeting Ratu at the end of the hall, they broke into a run once they entered the lobby, the double doors leading them outside in view. They hit the first set of doors hard, causing them to spring open. Mike was ahead of Ratu when he slammed into the second door. This door didn't budge at all, causing Mike to bounce off the door, landing on his butt.

"Fuck!" Mike rolled onto his side, holding his face. It had been the first thing to hit the glass. "See if you can open it!"

"It won't," she said, helping him up. "It doesn't go outside."

"What do you mean it doesn't..." Standing, Mike saw that the window of the door wasn't actually glass. The outside world was painted on a rocky surface, the door embedded in it.

"We need to find another way out," she said. "Are there any other doors that go outside?"

"A few," Mike said, but the ringing of the bell silenced him. He and Ratu crammed themselves into opposite corners of the entryway, a blind spot from the lobby caused by the large number of school posters that had been plastered to the glass. They put hands to their ears to shut out the orchestra of whispers that filled the air.

The flurry of activity outside the doors made his heart leap into his throat several times as the shadows bumped against the push bars, causing them to click. However, with the fact that the front door was actually fake, none of the shadows stepped into the miniature lobby. Several minutes passed, and the shadows vanished once more.

Ratu started to stand, but Mike felt like he was going to be sick. He motioned for her to stay, and the sound of metal clunking on the tile of the front lobby made her shrink down. Mike turned his head toward the glass, realizing there was a very small gap between a poster about recycling and a D.A.R.E poster with a cop car on it. Pressing his face against the glass, he could see Baba Yaga step into the lobby.

She was old and fat, wearing the kind of clothes old Russian women wore in movies. Her head was comically big, her face easily the size of a hubcap. Large, hairy moles had been planted across her face, and her squashed nose was made of dull, unpolished iron. She bared her frightful yellow teeth, swiveling her head from side to side. She was muttering to herself.

"Bad children should be punished, gonna make soup, gonna make bread." Her words became unintelligible as she slipped into another language, and then another after that. Mike was fairly certain she was mumbling in Spanish when she shoved her way through the doors opposite where she came in, wandering down toward the cafeteria.