Free Cat-astrophic Spells by Harper Lin

Park. I left Aunt Astrid’s house feeling as though I were about to solve the mystery in a matter of hours. I’d have proof, a motive, and be able to tip off Jake and Blake in an anonymous phone call, giving them credit for arresting the woman who killed Marvin… his own daughter. The thought of it made me sad.
    I’d give anything to see my parents again, and Marvin’s daughter was so selfish that she thought her father’s life was something to be thrown away like a toy she no longer had use for. On top of everything else, she may have kidnapped Treacle, thinking a black cat would improve her half-baked attempts at witchcraft. Nothing was going to stop me from finding her trailer even if I had to knock on every door.

Finding Treacle
    T he sign for the Wishing Well Trailer Park was an old, faded piece of plywood cut into the shape of a wishing well. The peeling red letters appeared to have been partially scratched off so if you looked at the sign a certain way, the only defined letters were the “h,” “ell,” and Trailer Park.
    I ignored the chill running up my spine as I drove past the entrance to the Wishing Well in search of someplace to park where no one would notice us. I saw a used car lot about a quarter of a mile down the road and an office building that looked like it had once been a Pizza Hut. I decided to park in the used car lot. Thankfully, the cars in the lot looked a lot like mine. They were old, a little rusty, and not very glamorous. The only difference was that my car didn’t have the $2500 OBO or 87,000 miles written in soap on the windows. But I didn’t plan on staying around long enough for anyone to notice my car.
    “You doing okay?” I asked Marshmallow. She didn’t purr as I lifted her from her box. I felt her nails instinctively come out when I held her to my chest.
    “I’m okay,” she said quietly in her head.
    “Do you want to walk, or should I carry you?”
    “I’ll walk. It’s all right.”
    Gently, I set her down. For a moment, she stood perfectly still. Her body was low to the ground as she looked around, and for a moment, I thought she was going to bolt. “There is something here, but it isn’t what you think it is. I can feel it.” She stared into the dark woods separating the trailer park from the used car lot.
    “What do you see?” I asked, looking into the darkness.
    “I see fear.”
    As if shaking like a leaf and second-guessing my idea to visit the trailer park weren’t bad enough, my companion then said all she could see was fear. I didn’t even want to know what that looked like.
    Marshmallow walked ahead of me. I knew if she heard anything, she’d stop, yet I held my breath and listened for any unusual sounds—footsteps, groaning, weird whispers, and anything else I’d seen in a horror movie. I desperately hoped I didn’t hear the rev of a chainsaw.
    Okay, I was being silly. Thankfully, the ground was even. It wasn’t full of dips and mounds, and there weren’t tons of fallen trees and sticker bushes. Most of the trees were thin and relatively young by tree standards. I grabbed onto them as I walked. The darkness was thick, and I used the trees to maintain my balance. Touching nature always grounded me. Trees were real. I didn’t feel magic or spells yet.
    After a few more paces, Marshmallow and I saw a faint, green-tinted fluorescent light in the distance. Squinting, I could see a few trailers in its weakly illuminated circle.
    “We’re almost there,” I said. Marshmallow gave me a quiet meow as a response.
    I looked behind us and could no longer see the lights of the used car dealership. It was as if the whole world had dropped into some black place. If a tree fell in the woods, and no one was around, did it make noise? If you couldn’t see the lights, was the dealership still there? If Marshmallow and I had to run back, would we eventually see the lights, or would we keep running and running in darkness?
    I shook my head and focused on the