Witch and Wizard - James Patterson [31]
I had a really bad thought: “What if the Matron and the horror-show guards throw themselves through the portal too?”
“They won’t,” said Celia. “Unless they’re secretly Curves. If they’re Straight and Narrows, they’ll just hit the wall. It could be kind of funny, actually.”
Oh good. So we had that to look forward to. I added “Straight and Narrows” to the growing list of terms I had to ask Celia about.
I wiped my damp palms on my jumpsuit. We were going to, like, “cross over” to the other side now, right? Wasn’t that sort of like dying?
Chapter 52
Whit
“QUICK! RAP THREE TIMES on your door. Hard!” Celia urged. “Now! I really can’t be here much longer, Whit. My spirit could die.”
“What does that mean?” I said.
“Just hit that door, Whit—three times!”
I pounded as if my life depended on it—which it did. The next second, we heard the lock go click.
I turned to Celia. “What just happened?”
“Whit, go!” she said. “The door’s unlocked.”
Celia grabbed for the knob… and kind of went through the door completely.
“I always forget,” she muttered. “I can’t grab things anymore.”
I yanked it open for Celia, took Wisty’s hand, and poked my head out into the hallway.
The Matron was away from her desk, talking with some guards about thirty yards down the hall to the right. So far, at least, they seemed unaware of us. I couldn’t see whoever—whatever— had unlocked our door. Was it my magic? Celia’s? Wisty’s?
“Go!” Celia said in my ear, so Wisty and I leaped out of our cell and raced toward the dreaded nurses’ station.
We skidded around the corner just as we heard the Matron screaming bloody murder from behind. “Stop them! They’re trying to escape! Sound the alarm! Shoot to kill! Take no prisoners!”
Another six or seven strides, and we were at Wolf Row. The floor was literally shaking with guards, and the Matron was thundering after us.
“Hurry, hurry,” I told Wisty. “Do your stuff. Make ’em into puppies. Stuffed dogs.”
Wisty stood just out of reach of the snarling, barking animals. She held up her drumstick like it was a conductor’s baton and the hounds were her orchestra. Nice image, but would it work?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guards and the Matron round the bend.
“Freeze!” commanded Wisty loudly, and waved her stick at the dogs.
For a split second, nothing happened, and I gripped her hand, ready to boogie down the hellway. Then the dogs’ yelps and barks strangled to sudden silence.
The animals actually froze in place.
Paws were raised, jaws gaped hungrily—several of the beasts were actually in midlunge at us, standing on their hind legs.
“Yes! I’m a witch!” Wisty yelled. “Let’s go!”
“Perfect! You’re amazing, Wisty!” said Celia, right by my side. “There’s the portal!” She pointed near the end of the hallway, at a blank wall that showed no obvious signs of opening up or turning into foam or anything like that. “Run as fast as you can! Now!”
I couldn’t get out of my mind those videos we’d watched in driver’s-ed class. Crash-test dummies going kablooey in slow mo as the cars smashed into walls.
No, I thought. Think “victory, victory, victory.”
The Matron and the guards were right behind us, halfway through the frozen dogs. So I rushed at the wall like I was a quarterback again—and I went right through the portal to the other side.
But I lost my grip on Wisty’s hand. She just slipped away, screaming my name.
I lost Wisty!
Chapter 53
Whit
MY FEET LANDED on something hard, maybe a stone floor, and I somersaulted to a stop.
I leaped up. “Wisty!” I yelled. “Sis?”
From the Shadowland side of things, I could see her still standing in the Hospital hallway. It was like I was looking through a pane of thick, wavy glass. Celia was trying to grab hold of Wisty, but she couldn’t, of course. It’s a ghost thing, I guess.
Then I saw Wisty raise her drumstick again and shout, “Release!”
Instantly the mad dogs roared back to life, surging around the guards and the Matron like a gigantic pileup in the middle of a ball field. Not only