Cheerleaders: The New Evil Read online

  Leaning forward, she skated slowly away from the others. Her legs felt heavy, as if her dread were weighing her down.

  The time is getting close, Corky realized. The time to draw out Ivy and all her evil.

  The ice stretched ahead of her. A sharp gust of wind pushed at her.

  The music faded. Turning back toward shore, Corky saw that she had skated far out. Maybe I’ll keep skating and never turn back, she thought.

  Just skate away, skate forever.

  She suddenly felt dizzy. The ice tilted up in front of her.

  “Ohh.” She shut her eyes and slowed to a stop.

  It’s Ivy, she told herself. Thinking about the evil inside Ivy is making me dizzy.

  She leaned down, lowered her hands to her knees, waited for the dizziness to pass.

  And as she waited, she heard the soft, steady sound of skates cutting into the ice.

  Turning toward the sound, Corky saw the dark figure sliding rapidly toward her. She straightened up. Blinked.

  Am I seeing things?

  No. She was staring at a Santa Claus.

  The wind ruffled his bushy white beard. His long red cap waved behind him. His eyes—his eyes glowered menacingly at Corky.

  “Hey, Santa!” she cried out as she saw him raise his hand high over his head. And then she saw the shiny dagger clasped in his hand.

  No, not a dagger. A long, pointed icicle. Sharp as a dagger.

  No time to move. No time to skate away.

  Only time to scream as the Santa uttered a fierce grunt and started to lower the icicle to her throat.

  Chapter 14

  PARTY TIME

  Corky stumbled, raised her hands as she staggered back.

  The icicle fell from the Santa’s hand and shattered against the ice. The Santa grabbed Corky to stop her fall.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Are you okay?”

  “Alex?”

  “Corky, I’m really sorry. Didn’t you know it was me? I was sure you recognized me!” He pulled off the white beard. She could see his face clearly now, his features expressing his concern.

  “You—you really scared me!” she stammered, her chest heaving. She sucked in a deep lungful of air to steady herself.

  Alex held on to her with both hands. “I didn’t mean to. Really. I was just goofing. I thought you recognized me. I was so stupid, Corky. I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you wearing this tacky costume?” Corky demanded, starting to feel a little more normal. “Where did you get it?”

  “My dad had it up in the attic,” Alex told her. “That’s why I’m late. He helped me put it on, but it took forever. I thought it would be funny.”

  “Huh?” She gaped at him.

  “You’ve been so down lately,” Alex continued. “So many weird things have happened. You said it was a Christmas party. I wanted to give you a laugh.”

  A smile spread across Corky’s face. That was so sweet of Alex, she thought.

  Impulsively, she grabbed his head, pulled it toward hers, and kissed him. His lips felt warm against hers. She held him for a long time, kissing him, unwilling to move, unwilling to let go, wishing she could stay out on the ice with him forever.

  Over his shoulder she could see Kimmy and Debra on the shore. They were both waving to her, calling to her.

  Time to begin.

  Corky’s entire body shook with a sudden tremor of fear.

  “Are you cold?” Alex asked, still holding on to her. His red Santa hat slid off his head. He turned to catch it.

  “I—I want to go back,” she told him. “I have to help Debra and Kimmy.”

  “Help them?”

  “With the party,” she replied, starting to skate back toward the others. “We’re the hosts, remember?”

  “Catch you in a few minutes,” he called, strapping the white beard back over his face. “Santa is going to pay a visit on Jay.”

  “Ho-ho-ho!” Corky called back. She wasn’t sure Alex heard her.

  She stared straight ahead as she skated toward Kimmy and Debra. They were still waving and motioning for her to hurry back.

  Time to begin, she thought, feeling the heaviness return to her legs, feeling the dull dread weigh on her stomach, feeling the fear tighten her throat.

  Time for the moment I’ve been dreading.

  It’s party time, Corky thought bitterly.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Debra carried the candlesticks in a shoebox. Kimmy held the old book under one arm. The three girls made their way across the ice, moving away from the others.

  The heavy clouds hung even lower over them. From far in the distance they heard the dull honking of geese.

  Don’t geese go south in the winter? Corky wondered.

  No time to think about geese, she scolded herself. Kimmy and Debra moved steadily over the ice, their faces set, their eyes narrow with determination.

  Hurrying to keep up with them, Corky glanced back to the shore. Where was Ivy? Corky saw several couples skating arm in arm. She saw Jay doing his crazy dance—arms thrashing and flying above his head—in front of a group of kids.

  And there stood Ivy at the edge of the group. Her bright red ski suit glowed like fire in the midst of all the duller colors.

  When Corky turned back, Debra was already bending down to spread the candlesticks on the ice. “It’s a little protected here,” she announced. “Not quite as windy as over there. But you two will still have to help block the wind so I can get the candles lit.”

  Corky squatted down and helped Debra place the candles in a perfect ring. She kept glancing across the ice at Ivy.

  Does Ivy have any idea what we’re about to do? Corky wondered. Does she have any idea that we’re about to chant words to call spirits forth?

  The plan was so simple. Simple and terrifying at the same time.

  Light the ring of candles. Chant the words. If the evil is inside Ivy, she will be drawn forward, pulled across the ice to them.

  If Ivy is pulled by the chant, Corky and her two friends will know for sure, know that she is the one possessed by the evil.

  “We’ll hold Ivy down, sit on her if we have to,” Kimmy had said when they made their plan in Debra’s room. “We’ll knock her out. Do anything we have to. Then we’ll break through the ice and drown the evil again. Drown poor Ivy.”

  Ivy had to drown for the evil to leave her body, Corky knew. Corky knew it too well. She had drowned for the same reason, had drowned and been revived once the evil was in the water.

  “We’ll drown Ivy, then revive her once she’s free of the evil, once she’s Ivy again.”

  It had seemed a terrifying plan when they made it. Now, as Debra struggled to light the candles, it seemed even more terrifying to Corky. She felt a wave of panic wash over her, paralyze her, tighten every muscle so that she had to struggle to breathe.

  Do we have a choice?

  No. Corky answered her own question.

  Ivy will kill us all—if we don’t drown the evil now.

  Corky glanced back across the ice. She saw that Ivy had stepped away from the crowd. She was turned toward Corky and her friends.

  Did she suspect? Did she have a feeling they were about to trap her? Was she moving toward them—to stop them?

  “Hurry,” Corky whispered.

  Blown by the wind, a candle flickered out. Debra relit it, the lighter trembling in her hand.

  And now the candles were all lit again, their flames leaning first in one direction, then the other. Kimmy handed Debra the old book. Debra turned the pages quickly, held the book open between them, and pointed to the passage.

  The three of them were on their knees on the ice, Debra between Corky and Kimmy. She held the book by the spine in one hand, resting it against her legs. Holding a long red candle in her other hand, she lowered it over the candles, slowly circling the ring of fire with it.

  “Come forward, spirit!” Debra cried, her eyes on Ivy.

  “Come forward, spirit!”

 
; Corky squinted through the deepening gray. Ivy stood by herself, hands at her sides.

  Was she watching?

  Debra started and the others joined in, chanting in low voices, muffled by the steady brush of the wind. Chanting as Debra slowly, rhythmically, moved the candle over the ring of flames.

  Chanting.

  Calling the evil spirit forward. Calling it to them.

  Their voices grew louder, rising over the wind as they continued to chant. And as they repeated the words, Corky’s eyes were locked on Ivy.

  Were the words drawing her to them? Was she coming across the ice?

  Yes.

  Here she comes, Corky saw.

  Chapter 15

  THE EVIL COMES FORWARD

  “Keep chanting,” Debra whispered. “Don’t stop. It’s working.”

  Corky and her two friends lowered their faces to the book and continued the chant. Their voices were a low murmur against the rush of wind over the ice.

  A soft rumbling made Corky glance up.

  What was that sound? she wondered.

  Thunder?

  A candlestick toppled over as the ice began to shake.

  Deep cracks spider-webbed over the surface.

  “Hey—the ice!” Corky shouted.

  The rumbling grew to a roar. The ice trembled, tilted, shook.

  Corky heard a crack. Like a board breaking.

  The candles fell onto their sides. A hard tremor shook the book from Debra’s hand. Corky saw the fear on her friends’ faces as the ice at their feet split open.

  Is it an earthquake?

  That was Corky’s last thought as the roar grew louder, louder—until it drowned out all thinking.

  A searing pain shot through her head as the deafening roar rattled her eardrums. She pressed her hands to her ears. And shut her eyes—as the explosion tossed her back.

  Blown off her knees, she shot backward. She opened her eyes in time to watch Kimmy and Debra tossed back beside her, tossed by the force of the invisible blast.

  Her arms shot up helplessly. She landed hard on her back. Felt the power of the explosion roar over her.

  Struggling to breathe, Corky stared as the ice split open farther, rumbling, roaring. A swirling mass of thick black smoke funneled up from beneath the surface.

  The smoke rose up, spinning, spinning like a cyclone, and a sour stench filled the air. Corky gasped as the sickening odor swept over her.

  She grabbed on to Kimmy and watched in horror as the black smoke whirled up, up from the depths of the river, and swept over the shore.

  A malodorous blanket of black fog, it blew over the shocked skaters, over Ivy, standing alone, over Jay and his friends, huddled on the ice, over Heather and Lauren at the cider table.

  The sour smoke darkened the ice, blackened the sky. Corky heard the frightened cries of birds as they fluttered off their tree perches, the shrill shriek of the ducks and geese around the river’s curve.

  The ice blistered and burned. The smoke spewed up thicker, faster, swirling up over the shivering trees, up to the clouds.

  “What have we done?” Corky cried, still sprawled on the ice clinging to Kimmy.

  “The evil—it wasn’t in Ivy!” Kimmy wailed.

  “We were wrong! We were wrong!” Debra shouted over the roaring smoke. “It wasn’t in Ivy!”

  “Our chant called it up!” Corky realized. “We brought the evil to life! We’ve unleashed it!”

  PART TWO

  GAME TIME

  Chapter 16

  THE GAMES BEGIN

  “This drawer is stuck,” Kimmy groaned, shaking the whole dresser in her attempt to get the drawer open.

  “You can use the bottom one,” Ivy told her. “It’s empty.”

  “How did you unpack so fast?” Kimmy asked Ivy, bending to pull open the drawer.

  “I left a lot of stuff in my bag,” Ivy replied, fiddling with her hair in front of the mirror. “You know. Stuff that won’t wrinkle.” She shook her head. “My hair is totally frizzy. This room is so damp!”

  Corky stood at the window, peering out at the pink and blue neon sign over the parking lot. CLIFFSIDE INN.No acancy.

  “The V burned out,” she reported.

  Kimmy glanced up from down on the floor. “What are you talking about, Corky?”

  “The sign,” Corky replied absently.

  “Can you see a cliff out there?” Ivy demanded, struggling to wrap a rubber band around her bushy hair. “Isn’t there supposed to be a cliff?”

  “All I can see is the parking lot,” Corky reported. “And the highway.”

  “There is supposed to be a cliff. And a really pretty lake,” Kimmy told them. “My parents have been to New Foster.”

  “I think Debra, Heather, and Lauren’s room is on the other side of the motel,” Corky said, watching two large yellow Ryder trucks roar by on the highway. “We’ll have to check it out. Maybe they have scenery from their window.”

  “Does the TV work?” Kimmy asked. She shoved the bottom drawer shut and climbed to her feet. “There. All unpacked.”

  “Who has time for TV?” Ivy replied, still struggling with her long hair. “The bus will be here to take us to the arena in a few minutes.”

  “I can’t believe the team isn’t staying here!” Corky moaned.

  Kimmy snickered. “I guess you and Alex had big plans, huh? If Ms. Closter catches you . . .”

  Corky felt her face growing hot. “Shut up, Kimmy!” she replied, laughing. She picked up a hairbrush from the bed and heaved it at Kimmy.

  Kimmy ducked and the hairbrush smashed against the dresser.

  “Oh. Can I use that? I forgot mine,” Ivy said.

  “Sure. Go ahead,” Corky told her.

  Ever since the skating party at the river a few days before, Corky and Kimmy had been extra nice to Ivy. All because of guilt, Corky realized. How could we have misjudged Ivy like that? she asked herself. How could we have accused Ivy of those terrible accidents?

  Ivy had been innocent, the three girls now knew. Ivy had not been possessed by the evil.

  Corky and her friends hadn’t mentioned the evil at all. None of them wanted to talk about it. Or think about what they had done. It was all too scary. Instead, they had spent the time concentrating on their routines, preparing for the Holiday Tournament at New Foster.

  A busy but peaceful time, Corky thought gratefully.

  No sign of the evil. No accidents. No frightening surprises.

  Maybe the evil blew away, Corky thought hopefully, gazing out the window. Maybe it swept right past everyone at the party and kept on going.

  “The team is staying right down the road,” Ivy reported. “The New Foster Motor Lodge. We passed it on our way here. The arena is right behind it, remember?”

  “It looked even tackier than this place!” Kimmy commented, pulling on the top of her uniform and tugging down the sleeves.

  “Stop complaining, Kimmy!” Corky scolded. “We’re away from home, right? We’re going to do our routines in front of hundreds of people. And we’re going to win the basketball tournament!”

  “Go Tigers!” All three girls shouted enthusiastically.

  Laughing, they burst into the Hoop cheer.

  Later they hurried out front to get on the bus, laughing and singing. Corky relaxed and gave in to the excitement of being away at a tournament. She had a feeling that everything was going to be okay.

  Everything is okay,

  Shadyside has come to play!

  Everything is okay,

  Shadyside is on its way!

  Everything is okay,

  Shadyside is going to WIN!

  Corky and the five other cheerleaders finished the cheer in a wavelike ripple, dropping down into splits one after the other. They jumped to their feet and trotted to the sidelines waving red and white pompoms above their heads as the Tigers band broke into a march.

  Corky glanced down the line of happy, excited girls. Even Debra, normally so cool and aloof, w
as flushed, her blue eyes wide with excitement.

  “You kept hitting me with your pom-pom!” Corky told Heather, shouting over the crowd. “You’re dangerous!”

  Heather laughed. “Sorry! I was staring up at the crowd. I didn’t realize!”

  The New Foster Arena was much bigger than Corky had imagined. The lights made the polished hardwood floor glow like glass. The red plastic seats appeared to rise straight up to the ceiling. And tonight, most of the seats were filled even though it was only the first game of the first round of the tournament.

  The Billingham Lions cheerleaders—all ten of them!—were on the floor now, performing a rap routine. The crowd really got into it, Corky saw, watching from beside the Tigers’ bench. Billingham was just a few miles from New Foster. A lot of Lions fans had shown up.

  Tigers versus the Lions, Corky thought. It’s perfect.

  One cheerleader on the Lions’ squad really stood out. She was tall and well built and very athletic, with long black hair that fell to her waist and a pale, pretty face with big green eyes. Dramatic eyes.

  “That’s Lena,” Debra said, leaning close to Corky to be heard. “That girl you’re staring at. Her name is Lena something-or-other. She’s good, isn’t she? I remember her from cheerleader camp last year.”

  Corky didn’t have time to reply. It was almost time for the teams to be introduced. Time for one last pregame cheer.

  Tigers, let’s score!

  Two points, then more!

  [stomp stomp]

  Tigers, let’s score!

  Two points, then more!

  [stomp stomp]

  “Louder! I can’t hear you!” Kimmy shouted.

  Tigers, let’s score!

  Two points, then more!

  [stomp stomp]

  “Louder! I still can’t hear you!”

  The crowd roared and stomped as the girls repeated the chant louder and louder. They ended with tuck jumps and trotted off the floor.

  “That was great!” Corky cried breathlessly.

  “Down! Everybody down!” Kimmy instructed.

  They knelt on one knee as the teams came running onto the floor to be introduced. Alex flashed Corky a thumbs-up as he jogged past. Jay, following right behind Alex, had a wide, goofy grin on his face.