CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE APPLE MEETS THE TREE

Emmerich wasn’t getting much sleep. The witches at Dead Man’s Creek stayed up all night like nocturnal animals. They cackled and brewed foul-smelling potions until the sun came up and then rested during the day. Their loud snoring, growling, and mumbling was impossible for Emmerich to sleep through. Like a neglected pet, he wasn’t being fed much, either. So he became weaker the longer he stayed there as the witches’ prisoner.

He thought his exhaustion was starting to play tricks on his mind, because one day at sunrise, after all the witches went to bed, he saw a strange man tiptoeing through the camp toward him. He had pale blue eyes and several scratches along the side of his face. He walked with a limp and his left arm was in a sling.

Emmerich had never seen the man before and had no idea what he was doing there. He circled the tree Emmerich was restrained to and quietly untied the chains.

“Who are you?” Emmerich asked.

The man motioned for him to be silent. “I’m here to rescue you,” the man whispered.

Once he unwrapped the chains around Emmerich’s body, the man offered his good hand and helped the boy to his feet. It was difficult for both of them since the man was injured and Emmerich hadn’t been on his feet for a long time.

The man gestured for Emmerich to follow him, and they snuck into the forest, far away from Dead Man’s Creek.

“Are you hurt?” the man asked, and inspected the boy front to back.

“No,” Emmerich said. “Tired, hungry, and scared—but they didn’t harm me.”

The man reached into his sling and handed Emmerich an apple. The boy was so hungry, he forgot all politeness and immediately started eating it.

“Make sure you chew your food,” the man said with a smile. “Remember what happened to Snow White?”

The Masked Man played the part of a Good Samaritan very well. With just a few kind gestures, he had the little boy convinced he was a hero.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” Emmerich said. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know who I am?” the man asked.

Emmerich shook his head. The two had never been face-to-face before, but the Masked Man needed to be certain his reputation hadn’t found his son first.

“I’m from the Otherworld,” the Masked Man lied. “I’ve come to rescue you and take you back home.”

The little boy was so happy about the prospect of going home, tears came to his eyes and he gave the Masked Man a giant hug. It hurt his broken rib, and the Masked Man pushed Emmerich away.

“I’m sorry,” Emmerich said. “I’ve been away from home for a very long time. My mother must be worried sick about me!”

“Right…” the Masked Man said. “Your mother.”

He paused for a moment to observe his son. The resemblance he shared with Bo Peep was even more striking up close.

“How did you find me?” Emmerich asked.

“Oh,” the Masked Man said, thinking on his feet. “Your friends in the Otherworld sent me.”

“You mean Conner and Alex?” the boy asked.

The Masked Man was shocked that Emmerich knew the names of his niece and nephew. If he didn’t know his own father, how could he possibly know about his cousins?

“Why… yes,” the Masked Man said.

“Are they here?” Emmerich asked.

The little boy looked around the forest excitedly, as if the twins were about to jump out from behind a tree.

“They’re in the Otherworld waiting for us,” the Masked Man said.

“How do you know the twins?” Emmerich asked.

The Masked Man needed to be careful with the information he shared—especially if Emmerich was friends with the twins. If his plan was going to work, he needed his son’s absolute trust.

“Have they ever mentioned their uncle Lloyd?” he asked.

“No,” Emmerich said. “I didn’t even know they had an uncle.”

“Good,” the Masked Man said. “I mean—good for me. Now I get to introduce myself to you. I’m Lloyd Bailey, Alex and Conner’s favorite uncle.”

Emmerich shook the Masked Man’s hand as enthusiastically as if he were meeting a member of his own family.

“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Emmerich said.

“And you as well,” the Masked Man said. “Now, we must hurry out of the woods before the witches realize you’re gone. I’ve just returned from following the witch Morina—she led me to a portal in the Eastern Kingdom that will take us to the Otherworld. We must move very quietly, though; it’s a dangerous time to be traveling through this world.”

The Masked Man led the way and Emmerich followed. Even with an injured leg, the Masked Man moved with so much determination that Emmerich had difficulty keeping up with him. Although his head was filled with a hundred more questions, Emmerich followed the man’s instructions to stay quiet.

They traveled through the forest for miles without making a sound. Suddenly, a loud crunch came from under the Masked Man’s foot. He looked down at the ground and saw he had stepped on a small statue of a bird made from a pale stone. It was an odd thing to find in the middle of the woods.

“Look, there are more!” Emmerich said.

The boy pointed to the treetops above them. The statue under the man’s foot was one of many. The branches were covered with hundreds of stone birds—enough to make an entire flock. Each bird looked terrified, as if it had been frozen while fleeing from a predator.

“What strange decorations,” Emmerich said.

“These aren’t decorations,” the Masked Man said. “They’ve been turned to stone by a terrible monster creeping through the forest. We need to get far away from here as quickly as possible before we’re next!”

Emmerich didn’t need any further explanation. He and the Masked Man hurried through the woods faster than before. But even with a monster loose in the woods, Emmerich was glad to be away from Dead Man’s Creek. Little did the boy know, he would have been better off with the witches than in the Masked Man’s care.