Curse of the Granville Fortune Read online

  “Jack Beaumonte!” It was never good when Mom used my full name. “You’re supposed to look out for your sister, not get her hurt.”

  “Sorry.” I lowered my head, pretending to be ashamed. “Let me make up for it. I’ll stay home with Holly while you go shopping. I’ll get her whatever she needs.”

  “The grocery shopping. I completely forgot. I don’t want to leave Holly in this condition. The shopping will have to wait.” She patted Holly’s hand.

  “No!” I said, a little too enthusiastically. “I mean, it can’t wait. Holly and I finished all the food in the fridge last night.” We never had much food in the fridge to begin with, so it wasn’t hard to do. “Besides, it’s not like you can wait for Dad to get home. We’d all starve to death by then.” No arguing with that.

  “You’re right. We don’t even have anything for dinner.” Mom wrinkled her forehead.

  “Mom,” Holly said in a weak voice. “I’m probably going to sleep all afternoon, but if I need anything, J.B. will get it for me.”

  “Right,” I agreed, hoping I didn’t sound too eager to get rid of her.

  “Well, if you think you’ll be all right, I’ll run into town and grab the necessities as quickly as I can. I’ll leave my cell on. If you need me, call and I’ll come right home. Can I get you anything before I leave?”

  Holly shook her head.

  Mom kissed her cheek. “What is it, dear?” she asked.

  I stared at Holly, afraid she’d somehow ruined the plan. The worried look on her face didn’t make me relax any.

  “Just my stomach,” Holly said. “I’m sure I’ll feel better after a nap.”

  “I’ll be home as soon as I can,” Mom said. Then she whispered to me, “Take good care of her, and call me if she gets any worse.”

  As soon as I saw Mom’s face, I knew why Holly had looked so worried. Mom had kissed Holly’s baby-powdered cheek, covering her lips in white powder. “Sure,” I managed to say.

  We stayed in Holly’s room, listening for Mom’s car pulling out of the driveway. My heart raced. Mom usually checked her makeup in the rearview mirror before she went anywhere. I crept to the window and peeked around the curtains. The blue sedan was backing out. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Did you see her lips?” Holly said.

  “Come on. We don’t have much time.” I stashed Dad’s journal under my bed and ran down to the kitchen. As I stuffed granola bars in my pockets, I spotted a rope hanging from a hook on the garage door. I wasn’t sure what it was doing there, but I figured we shouldn’t go into the forest empty-handed, so I took the rope and wound it up.

  “What’s that for?” Holly asked.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe we can use it to climb trees if we see any wolves or bears.”

  “Bears?” Holly’s voice quivered. “Do you really think we should go into the forest? I mean, I’m pretty sure bears can climb trees. How would we get away from them?”

  “Don’t you want to break this curse? Or do you like getting hurt all the time and never having any money?” I wanted to make her angry. If Holly were angry, she’d forget about being scared.

  “Let’s go,” Holly said, tearing the leaves from her hair.

  I finished winding the rope into a big loop and draped it across my neck and shoulder like a sash. As I turned toward the door, the painting above the fireplace caught my eye. I’d never paid attention to it before. A bunch of trees with two paths leading into them—big deal. But after reading Dad’s journal and seeing the crazy guy wandering out of the forest, I wanted to look at the painting. I walked over and took it off the wall.

  “What are you doing? We have to hurry,” Holly said, tapping her watch.

  “I think this is—” I turned the painting over. There was writing on the back in faded, curvy script. “Braeden Forest.”

  “So?”

  I couldn’t believe she didn’t see why this was important. “First, some crazy guy comes out of the forest. Then, we find out our family is cursed. And the painting that’s been in our house forever is of the forest where the stolen Granville fortune is buried! It’s all connected.”

  “You think the crazy guy has something to do with the curse?” Holly asked.

  “It seems like it.” I had a crazy idea that maybe the painting was more than art. I took it into Dad’s office and grabbed the scissors off the desk.

  Holly ran after me. “Stop! Mom’s going to kill you!” she said, as I stabbed the corner of the painting.

  I ignored her and cut the canvas along the frame.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “This has to be a clue.” I rolled up the painting. “Come on. We’ll bike back to the park.” I pushed her out the door before she could yell at me anymore.

  The gated entrance to the park was locked with yellow police tape draped across it, so we stashed our bikes in the bushes and climbed over the gate. As soon as we were in the park, we headed straight past the swings to the forest.

  I checked the painting. “That’s weird. There are two paths entering the forest in the painting, but there’s only one path in front of us.” I closed my eyes and pictured the crazy guy coming out of the woods. He came out of the trees, not the path. “There has to be another path behind these bushes.” I put the painting on the merry-go-round and started shoving branches out of the way. Sure enough, there was another path. “There’s a trail! Let’s go!”

  “What about the painting? Are you going to leave it on the merry-go-round?”

  “It only shows the entrance. Why would we need to bring it?”

  Holly shrugged and followed me down the overgrown path.

  At first, Braeden Forest looked like any other forest. But after walking for about ten minutes, it got dark and following the path got a lot more difficult.

  “The sunlight can’t get through all these trees. It looks like nighttime in here,” I said.

  “Yeah, and the trees are spooky. Their branches look like bony, wrinkled arms.”

  I followed Holly’s stare to a large oak tree. The bark was cracked and peeling. Some of the branches spidered out at the ends, making them look like wrinkly hands and fingers.

  “The trees over there look like they have faces.” I pointed up ahead. The bark was peeling off in weird patterns that looked like ghoulish faces. One reminded me of my great uncle Lester, and that didn’t make me feel better because he gave me the creeps.

  A branch brushed against my shoulder. I jumped. There wasn’t any wind to make the branches sway. Holly raised a shaky hand and pointed behind me. I turned to see the tree reaching out to grab me as if it were a person. “The trees are alive!”

  Chapter Three

  Bark splintered as the branches bent like fingers and swatted at us. The faces in the trees snarled at me, making me stumble backwards.

  “Run!” I pushed Holly down the path. The bony wooden fingers of an oak tree grazed my arm.

  “The path splits up ahead!” Holly yelled. “Which way should we go?”

  “We can’t get lost, or we’ll never make it back home before Mom.”

  “Give me the granola bars you brought.”

  How could she think about food at a time like this? We were being attacked by a bunch of hundred-year-old trees! “We can’t stop to eat!”

  “We can break the granola bars into little pieces and drop them on the ground to mark the paths we take.”

  “Good thinking!” I took the granola bars from my pocket and tossed them to Holly. “You mark the trail. I’ll lead the way.” I glanced over my shoulder. No trees were chasing us. They were still firmly rooted in the ground, and we were out of reach of their limbs. “We can slow down now.”

  Holly stopped and bent at the waist while she caught her breath. “What was that back there?”

  I shivered, remembering the feel of the tree’s bony fingers sliding across my back. “The journal said the forest makes your worst nightmares become a real
ity. We were talking about the scary faces in the bark and how the branches looked like arms. Our fears came to life.” I was beginning to understand how that guy had gone crazy in here.

  “Do you really think everything Mom wrote in the journal is true? The curse? The buried fortune?” Holly asked, grabbing my arm.

  I knew it was. “Just keep your scary thoughts to yourself, and we’ll be fine,” I said.

  We pushed through leaves and fallen branches. I was about to step over another fallen tree when I heard twigs breaking. I stopped and stuck my arm out in front of Holly. The noise had come from somewhere to our left, but a bush blocked my view.

  “Stay still. There’s something up ahead. It’s probably a squirrel, but keep quiet until we know for sure.” I tried to sound calm so Holly wouldn’t panic, but a loud cracking sound made my efforts useless.

  “What was that?” Holly stepped behind me and buried her head between my shoulder blades.

  I was afraid to think of what it might be. I didn’t know if the forest only made the things said out loud come to life or if it could read thoughts, too. I moved the branches of the bush to get a better look. A deer ran through some fallen trees. I let go of the breath I’d been holding.

  “Is it bears?” Holly asked.

  My whole body tensed. Holly had volunteered another scary suggestion to the forest. I looked around, but I couldn’t see a bear anywhere. Leaves rustled and another cracking sound came from high in a tree. Three large branches fell to the ground in front of us. Only these weren’t normal tree limbs. They were shaped like bears. Big green, leafy bears! Once again, our imaginations had turned the forest into living creatures ready to devour us.

  I kept an eye on the bears to make sure they didn’t move. The one closest to me was the largest. The leaves making up the bear’s mouth were spaced out, exposing its big green teeth. I wasn’t willing to bet those teeth would crumble apart like regular leaves. I was way past thinking anything in this forest was ordinary.

  Holly squeezed my arm tighter. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t think they see us. Let’s back up and go down another path. Move as quietly as you can.”

  “Okay.” Holly’s voice shook. She took a step away from me and stopped. She could see the bears now, and she shivered with fear.

  I nudged her with my elbow. She backed up slowly, her eyes never leaving the bears. I saw the fallen tree branch on the ground just as Holly stepped on it. I reached out to her, but I was too slow. Holly’s feet came out from under her, and she fell backward into a pile of leaves.

  “Ow!” she yelled.

  The bears let out deep rumbling growls. I yanked Holly to her feet. “Run!”

  The bears charged after us. I pushed Holly to run faster, but I knew we couldn’t outrun bears. I followed the trail of granola and got an idea.

  “Throw the granola bars on the ground,” I yelled. “Maybe the bears will stop to eat them.” If tree-bears actually ate. They sure seemed to want to eat Holly and me.

  Holly turned and threw the granola bars at the bears, hitting one of them on the nose. A few leaves fell to the ground. The bears were stunned at first, but then their noses twitched in the air. All three rushed to the spot where the bars landed.

  “It worked!” Holly said.

  “Keep running!” We had to get off this path, or the bears would follow our granola trail right to us.

  We reached the fork and ran a little way down the other path before stopping to catch our breath. I threw my head back and rested my hands on my hips. Holly leaned against a tree.

  She looked at her feet, avoiding my eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault those trees turned into—” She paused, and I was grateful that she’d caught herself before she created more bears for us to deal with. “I couldn’t keep my fears to myself. Me and my big mouth.”

  I wasn’t sure how much was Holly’s fault and how much could be blamed on our family’s curse. “We know how the forest works now. We won’t say anything that could be the least bit scary. That won’t be hard.” I wasn’t sure that was true, but I needed to convince Holly it was. “Let’s keep going.”

  “But we don’t have any way to mark a trail anymore. How will we find our way back home?” Holly asked.

  “We’ll take the paths on the left. Then when we turn around, all the paths we took will be on the right since we’ll be facing the opposite direction. That should be easy enough to remember.”

  Holly nodded.

  We walked for a few minutes until we came to a stream. It seemed strange that a stream running through a forest would be so wide. What surprised me even more was that the stream had a strong current that crashed against the big, jagged rocks sticking out of it.

  “We can’t swim across it with a current that strong,” Holly said.

  Going in the stream was out of the question. I scanned the surrounding trees overhanging the water.

  “How do you feel about swinging across the stream on this rope?” I asked, removing the rope from across my chest. I threw one end up into an oak tree along the stream. I looped the rope around a branch and held both ends in my hands.

  “Like a rope swing?”

  “Exactly. I’ll swing over, and then you’ll grab onto the rope as it swings back.”

  “Sounds dangerous,” Holly said. “If we miss, the current will pull us to who knows where.”

  I wasn’t giving up. “We have to keep going,” I said. “We have to end the curse.”

  Holly took a deep breath and exhaled louder than necessary. She shook her head, almost like she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Okay, let’s do this—before I change my mind.”

  I smiled. Holly was being really brave considering what we’d already faced inside the forest. I took a few steps backward, and with a running start, I swung over the stream. My eyes focused on the water, expecting to see a large octopus reaching up to grab me. Thankfully, the forest couldn’t read minds. I landed hard on the other side, but I made it. Now, it was Holly’s turn. She jumped up and grabbed the rope as it swung back to her. Following my example, Holly swung over the stream.

  It would’ve worked well if we were the same height, but Holly was shorter than me and couldn’t reach the other side. She started to swing back. Without thinking, I reached for her legs and pulled her to me. We landed on the ground in a heap. I broke Holly’s fall, but she cut her leg on a rock and had rope burns on her hands.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I’ve done worse,” Holly said. “Thanks for catching me.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. I couldn’t grab the rope, and now we have no way of getting back across the stream.”

  “How are we going to get home?” Her voice was full of panic.

  “I don’t know.” This was turning out to be some curse.

  Chapter Four

  I sat by the stream, trying to find the courage to keep going. I had to find out more about the curse. Then, there was the crazy guy at the park. As awful as those enchanted trees and bears were, I didn’t think they were what had caused that man to go insane. That worried me. Holly and I were lucky to be alive, and I wasn’t sure if I could handle what else might be lurking in the forest. Still, I knew I had to get up and figure out what to do next. Holly was counting on me.

  “Come on,” I said, getting to my feet. “There has to be another way out of the forest.”

  Holly’s eyes were glassy, and the corners of her mouth twitched like she was about to cry. But she got up and followed me down the path.

  “Mom should be getting home soon,” Holly said, glancing at her watch. “We’ll never make it back in ti—ahh!” Holly tripped over a large rock and stumbled to the ground.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I landed funny on my ankle.” She tried to flex her foot, but it barely moved before she stopped. “Ouch, it really hurts,” she said, rubbing her ankle.

  “Here, I’l
l help you up.” I pulled her to her feet, but she fell forward on me in pain.

  “I can’t stand on it.” Holly’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Put your arm over my shoulder and lean on me like a crutch. That way you don’t have to put any pressure on your ankle when you walk.”

  “I’m sorry,” Holly said, leaning on me. “Why is it always me getting hurt?”

  I laughed. “Look at the bright side. Thanks to the curse, the clumsiness isn’t entirely your fault.”

  “Thanks a lot, big brother,” Holly said with a sarcastic smirk. I smiled. I liked it when Holly called me big brother, even though I’m only a year older than she is. Exactly a year. She was born on my first birthday.

  After walking about ten feet, Holly cringed in pain. Tears streamed down her face. Her injury wasn’t that bad, and I figured her crying had more to do with being scared than with her ankle.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  “I need to rest for a minute.”

  “There’s a cave up there. Can you make it?”

  “I guess,” she whimpered.

  I helped Holly to the cave, and she sighed as she sat down on the dirt. “Much better,” she said. She folded her sock down and checked her ankle for bruises. There weren’t any.

  Her injury didn’t look bad at all, so I decided I should check out the trail while she rested. “I’m going to scout out the path ahead. Will you be all right on your own for a few minutes?”

  “Yeah. I just wish we still had our granola bars. I’m starving.”

  I was hungry, too, but I was trying not to think about it. “I’ll be right back.”

  The path looked clear, but a vulture circled above me. After a few turns, it stopped circling and flew off to join a group of its friends nearby. I turned around and ran back to the cave. I kept glancing at the sky to make sure the flock hadn’t followed me. After several feet, I saw no sign of the vultures. Instead, I heard a low, rumbling growl.

  I stopped dead in my tracks. A large gray wolf stood between me and the cave. I’d never seen a wolf up close, but I knew this one wasn’t like any other wolf on the planet. It looked like a giant boulder, which could only mean one thing—Holly had struck again! The hair on the wolf’s back stuck straight up as it slowly stalked its way toward Holly, who was backed up against the wall of the cave.