Free Secrets in the Dark by KD Blakely

that’s what happened. Do you?”
    “ Better hope not,” Olivia
told her, grinning. “I wish for stuff all the time. And when I get
mad, they’re not very nice wishes. I don’t even mean them. Most of
the time.”
    “ I wish I had a million
dollars,” Doug said, and laughed. He waited a moment then said,
“So, wishing for money doesn’t work.”
    “ I wish I had an X-Box,”
Olivia said. None of us were surprised when that didn’t come true.
    Note to self — You can’t
get something electronic in a place where cell phones won’t
work.
    “ Okay, so not all wishes work,” Doug
said. “I guess if they are here for us, they’ll go where we
go.”
    “ They’ll come,” Faith said
confidently. “Race you,” she yelled and took off. Olivia and I
scrambled to catch her, the small owl fluttering off Olivia’s
shoulder with an indignant squeak. After a minute we stopped,
laughing, and waited for Doug to catch up. We perched on the stone
wall, watching him trudge up the road. When he reached us, he was
rolling his eyes and muttering something about ‘girls’ under his
breath.
    Whatever he’d said could
not have been nice. I was about to ask him to repeat it when I felt
something rub against my legs. I looked down and smiled with
pleasure at the cat.
    I glanced over and saw
Olivia looking at the little pygmy owl, who was back on her
shoulder. To the right I could see the fox slinking through the
grass, and the little dog had practically glued itself to Doug’s
side. As I watched, its tongue lolled out and it looked like it was
grinning. It suddenly jumped up, dancing in place and gave an
excited bark.
    Doug held out his hand,
and received a quick lick on his fingers. Then the small dog gave a
tremendous leap that reminded me of Rusty. Doug instinctively
reached out and caught it, and got his face licked as well. Doug laughed and hugged the dog, asking,
“What‘s your name, boy, huh? You’re not wearing a collar
either.”
    Olivia said, “What do you
think we ought to do now? There still aren’t any signs of people in
here.”
    I said slowly, “We should
probably ask Ronny. We could ask her about these animals,
too.”
    Faith asked, “How long have
we been in here?”
    I shrugged and guessed,
“Maybe…an hour. Maybe less.”
    “ What time is that in
Santa Ramona?” Doug asked.
    “ I don’t know, but it gets
dark early, and I have to be home before dark,” Olivia
said.
    Faith stood up. “You
realize I won’t be able to do this on Sunday’s. My coach isn’t
going to buy going to a magic place through a tree as an excuse to
miss practice.”
    “ The rest of us could come
tomorrow,” Doug said.
    Olivia and I glared at
him. “We’re not coming without Faith,” I told him. I heard Faith give a quiet
sigh. Actually, she might prefer to miss the next trip through the
tree.
    “ If we come back, we can
check the calendar for the next full moon.” Olivia stood up and
began brushing off her pants. I was glad Doug didn’t argue, though
it surprised me — he’d given in way too easy.
    He gave the dog a last
pat. “I hope I see you again, boy. We’re going now, but I’ll come back. I
promise.”
    The terrier barked and
licked Doug’s face, then jumped out of his arms. It ran back the
way we’d come.
    “ It’s like he understands
me,” Doug said, surprised.
    I shrugged and grinned.
“This is a magic place.” I joked, “Maybe he does.”

Chapter 13
    We’ll Be
Careful
    Going back through the
tree, though it was just as disgusting as before, didn’t seem to
take as long. Less creepification was a good thing!
    We stumbled out of the tree
into the cemetery. It wasn’t dark yet, but twilight wasn’t far
off.
    “ I’ll check on the next
full moon,” Doug said, sounding way more enthusiastic than the
statement called for. “So we’ll all know when we can go
back.”
    That wasn’t like him. He
was definitely up to something.
    “ Before we go home we have
to talk to Ronny.” The others