Soon enough, all of our legs were aching. We’d been walking for at least a couple hours, and our pains was evident on our faces. Only Levi had started to complain, but Logan quickly punched him in the arm, and he took the hint. There hadn’t been much conversation since the outburst by Jake and I earlier. Something had come over everyone, including myself. I could tell this place – wherever it was – was messing with our minds, and we needed to get out as soon as possible. The only problem was that I still hadn’t seen any other path than the one we were following Blaine down. Trying to not worry, I pushed myself and caught up to my new friend once again.
“Hey, um, Blaine?”
“Yeah?”
“How long, uh, do you think we’ll be walking? You know, give or take?”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Could be days. Or a few minutes.”
“What?!” I exclaimed, louder than I meant to. Even without turning around, I knew everyone behind us was now listening intently to this conversation. “What I mean is, how can you not know? Days isn’t exactly close to a few minutes!”
“No one knows how long it takes to get to the Shandery.”
“Yeah, that didn’t really answer my question.”
“You know what I think?” Suddenly Jake was pushing his way between Blaine and I, his stare firmly fixed on the other boy. “I think you let your little childhood fairy tale go to your head. I think you’re over-dramatizing this whole thing. I think you like that suddenly you’re our only hope. The hero. Ha! You’re just another kid who thinks he knows what he’s talking about, but really he’s got nothing to show for it.”
“Jake!” I pulled on his arm. “What is wrong with you?”
“No, Kris, what’s wrong with you? Can’t you feel it too? Something about this place isn’t right. We need to leave. Now! This guy isn’t getting us anywhere. He just said he doesn’t even know how long until we get to this Shandery place. I think the sooner we stop following him, the better off we’ll be.”
I just stood there, shocked that he was acting like this. Everything he said was true of course, except maybe the part about not following Blaine. It just wasn’t like him to go off like this, especially to someone he didn’t even know.
The others caught up to us. Niki grasped her brother’s hand and pulled him away, whispering to him as she attempted to smile sympathetically at me. Levi gave Blaine a look, and the other boy continued walking away without a second glance back. Before I could go after him, Zach grabbed my shoulder tightly.
“Jake’s right. We can’t follow him anymore. We were willing to try it for awhile, but we’re not getting anywhere. You know it’s true.”
I reluctantly nodded, trying to hold back tears. This was just too much. My best friend was still missing, and we had no idea how to find her. Now what I believed was our only hope was rounding a corner and about to walk out of sight. I wasn’t the kind of person who could function without some kind of plan, and that was exactly what we were stuck with right now. No plan. No hope. No nothing.
“Hey!” The shout echoed through the alley. Niki and Jake looked up from their conversation a few feet away, and my little group turned to face the corner Blaine had just walked around. There was no mistaking his voice, and it sounded… excited? At least, that’s what I hoped.
In Zach’s moment of surprise, his grip loosened, and I slipped away, running down the path toward Blaine. As I rounded the corner, my feet lost their grip on the dirt, and I fell, landing almost on my face right in front of Blaine. He laughed and held his hand out, obviously pleased about something. Embarrassed and confused, I took it and he helped me up, then turned me so I saw what he was smiling about. There was a gate less than ten feet away. It was pure white and barely open, but I could tell by the look on Blaine’s face that this was the end. We were about to go into the Shandery.
My jaw dropped for a moment and I just stood there for a moment before I regained my composure. By then, Blaine was already shouting to the rest of my group some more.
“Come on! We’re here! You don’t have to find your own way!” Moments later Jake came running around the corner, followed closely by Niki and the rest of the boys. They pulled up to a stop next to us, with the same gaping expression I had just wiped from my face. I laughed at them then, realizing how funny it was that we had even been worrying. We should’ve known that we’d get here eventually, and everything would all be okay.
“What’s so funny?” Jake demanded, trying not to smile himself. Niki didn’t even bother… she started giggling like crazy, and the others were soon doing the same. After a while of laughing at our situation, we sobered up and decided we should probably finish this. Blaine led once again, walking cautiously through the gate. I followed, with Jake and Niki right behind. My brother came through last, following the other two boys.
Facing the other side of the gate, we couldn’t believe our eyes. The Shandery was nothing like we’d imagined from Blaine’s stories. Four beautiful white buildings stood evenly spaced along a grey cobblestone path. A well was in the center of a small plaza right in the middle of these large homes. Each house was like something I’d seen in the richer neighborhoods of California. I could just imagine my mom standing there telling us how much she would love to own one of these. Thinking about my mom just reminded me how serious our predicament was. Even though we were now in the Shandery, it didn’t seem to have helped us any in finding Liz or a way back home. Despite my eternal optimism, I was starting to really worry.
I backed up, stepping into Jake. He was still smiling, and happily started talking to me.
“I guess you were right, Kris! This place doesn’t even look so bad. Maybe I should’ve given Blaine a chance. Sorry for being so short with you earlier… I was just worried, you know? But I don’t have to be now.” He put his hand on my should and smiled. I thought he was crazy.
“But Jake! We should still be worried! We need to find Liz!” My friend shook his head, and the smile slightly faded.
“Yeah… What was I thinking? Alright, Blaine, we need to find our friend. Can you help us?”
Blaine stared at Jake like he’d grown a third head. “No way! I mean, I’m sure your friend’s really important, but I need to find someone here, to check in or something. This is my life now. I can’t put it off any more, even to help you guys. Sorry, but you’re on your own.”
Now it was our turn to stare.
“Well if that’s how you feel about it…” If looks could kill Jake would’ve been a murderer right then. One thing you need to know about Jake: if you mess with his friends, he’ll never forgive you. He’s wildly protective of our entire group, and Blaine’s statement just now was definitely going to set him off if we didn’t do anything.
I linked my arm in his and pulled him back, putting myself between the two boys. Giving Jake a warning look, I turned back to Blaine.
“Ok. If you don’t want to help, you can go do your own thing. But we’re done following you. Thanks for helping us this far, but this is it.”
Behind us, Niki shrugged and gave Blaine a somewhat sympathetic look, then walked past him without looking back. Everyone else slowly followed, leaving me alone with Blaine. I didn’t have anything else to say though, so I sighed and pushed my way past as well.
We strode along the path, even beyond the well and the farthest houses. For some reason I was suddenly really tired and near tears once again. Trying to muster what strength I had left, I slipped my arm away from Jake and walked up to the wall of the last house on our left, leaning against it.
Jake stopped and watched me, obviously concerned.
“I’m fine. Just tired. You know, we’ve been walking most of today. Can’t we spend the night here?”
He smiled and nodded. “Great idea. Hey, Nik! Hold up! We’re gonna rest up here. Guys, lets take that house over there, girls you can sleep here.”
He grabbed my hand and faked throwing me over his shoulder.
“Oh, no way pal! I can walk on my own, thank you very much.” I stuck my tongue out as I took a few steps toward the door. Before I could even put my hand on the handle, though, my legs gave out and I crumbled to the ground. Now nearly delirious, I began laughing and laid down completely, just giving up. My friends couldn’t help but laugh too; I must have looked incredibly pathetic. Jake shook his head at me as Zach walked over and lifted me up on the right while Jake took the left.
“How humiliating,” I mumbled as I buried my face in Zach’s shoulder.
“Yeah, well thank goodness for your super-strong cousin, right?”
“And what am I over here? Chopped liver? I could just let go, and see how well you do yourself.” Jake retorted jokingly. I tried to shake my head.
“Whoa, boys. This is me you’re arguing over.”
“And you may want to be very careful with her sweet little head,” an unfamiliar voice said from behind us.
Then I blacked out.
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