No Way Out by Dan Poblocki

Author:Dan Poblocki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

POPPY AND AZUMI edged around to the front of the car, where Dash had managed to stand up, Matilda and Dylan on their heels.

The air crackled with static. Dash felt the hairs on his arms rise, and it wasn’t from goose bumps this time. “Get down!” he whispered, pushing the girls to the ground as a pinkish-white light filled the shed.

The explosion was so deafening, it erased their screams.

It rang in Dash’s eardrums as he looked up to see a new hole in the ceiling. Bits of wood rained down from the spot where lightning had struck. A small chunk smacked him in the forehead, but he barely noticed. Blue light was flickering nearby, and a crackling hum filled the space.

Poppy gasped as she pushed herself up, and Azumi pointed past Dash’s shoulder. He turned and saw a group of children surrounding Matilda and Dylan, holding hands, enclosing the two in what looked like a game of ring-around-the-rosy. But these weren’t ordinary children. They appeared to be made of electricity, their bodies pulsing with light, strings of sparks snapping between each of them like a Tesla coil.

Azumi stammered, “Who— Who are they?”

In the center of the circle, Matilda and Dylan broke apart and ran at the spectral children, trying to smash through the barricade, but when they approached the edge, the static snapped at them, flinging them backward. The children stepped forward, shrinking the circle.

“Whoever they are,” said Dash, “they’re helping us.”

Azumi stood frozen. She knew it was Dylan who’d just flown backward, but all she could see was Marcus arcing through the air, over and over and over. She’d trusted the thing that looked like Moriko. Her fault!

“It’s them,” said Poppy, breathless. “Look!”

Then Dash could see their details. Of the ten, half wore blindfolds and the old-fashioned clothes he’d seen during the vision of the Larkspur séance. He recognized the others as the kids from the Polaroid in the loft. They were helping.

Matilda and Dylan yowled like trapped animals.

Suddenly, all the electric children turned to look at Dash, Azumi, and Poppy. They appeared terrified but hopeful—and then their bodies began to dim. Who knew how much longer they could keep it up?

Dash realized what they wanted. “They’re giving us a chance,” he said. “Run!”

Grabbing the lantern, he chased Azumi and Poppy toward the open door. He expected it to slam closed, but then the three were outside, the rain drenching them again, and Dash paused and looked back. The circle of blue light had shrunk further. Strings of electricity licked at the two at the center, and Matilda and Dylan shrieked in anger and pain. Dash could almost feel the buzzing in his own skin, burning hot. Like the lamp that had electrocuted Dylan back in the dressing room.

Your fault!

He shook his head, trying to contain a flood of tears.

His brother called out to him from within the spectral prison, his voice pleading, desperate. “Don’t leave me here!”

Promise, Dash …

PROMISE!

“That’s not your brother talking,” said Poppy, slipping her hand into his own.

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