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“Ouch, watch out,” Jamal muttered as a branch smacked his cheek. It throbbed painfully.
“Griping again?” Riley said with a snort. “Toughen up, already.”
“Well, there are a few good things about being a shadow,” Malik observed, trailing Jamal. “No shoes. No splashing in puddles. And pretty sure poisonous snakes can’t bite me.”
“Uh, what kinds of snakes?” Jamal said, checking the marsh around his ankles.
“Cottonmouths. Copperheads. Rattlesnakes,” Riley said. “And don’t forget about the gators. Though usually they mind their own business…if you mind yours.”
“Just great,” Jamal groaned. “What other horrors are lurking back here?”
“Relax, I’ve come this way a thousand times.” She raised her arms over her head. “And look, I’ve still got all my limbs.”
“I feel so much better,” Jamal said, not comforted at all.
He marched forward anyway, following Riley. His brother, a dark smudge cast against the earth, trailed them. Malik vanished and reappeared with each patch of sunlight that filtered through the thick branches. Once the sun fell, it would be almost impossible to see him.
Every time his brother vanished, Jamal felt a thump of dread. He worried that this would be the time Malik vanished forever, and then he breathed a sigh of relief whenever Malik reappeared.
“Stay close,” Jamal whispered to his brother. “I can’t lose you…again.”
“Close as your own shadow,” Malik rasped back. “Don’t worry, Little J.”
Not only did his words reassure Jamal, but also his brother no longer seemed as angry with him. He was back to calling him Little J. Jamal felt a twinge of hope. Maybe if he did find a way to fix Malik, his brother would also find a way to forgive him.
He could hope, couldn’t he? What other choice did he have?
“Riley, please tell me you know where you’re going,” Jamal said, trying to discern their path through the bayou. As it grew darker, it got harder to see. “And that we’re not totally lost.”
“Of course I do,” Riley said with a derisive snort, not slowing her pace through the underbrush. “The bayou runs in my family’s blood. Some of us never left, like my grandmother. Her hut is just up this way…” she said, tramping ahead through the standing water.
Jamal followed her, less certainly. Water sloshed up to his knees.
“You trust her?” Malik asked, startling Jamal. He still wasn’t used to his brother being a shadow. He was nearly invisible in the darkness that was falling over the bayou.
“Uh, do we have a choice?” Jamal said, his gut churning with fear.
He was afraid, not just of the bayou and getting lost and whatever creepy, crawly, deadly creatures lurked underneath the brackish water, but also of what would happen if he didn’t find a way to help his brother and reverse the shadow curse.
Fear for his brother overwhelmed his fear of the bayou, so he kept plodding forward despite his discomfort. Right now, Riley and her grandmother were their best—their only—hope.
As they continued, the sun descended, casting longer and deeper shadows across the swamp. Jamal could barely see the path. He strained his eyes in the fading light.
Suddenly, something moved in the darkness.
Jamal startled and whipped around. Something small and fast was moving through the underbrush. Thwap. Thwap. Thwap. And then the skull necklace started to glow. That could mean only one thing: the shadow man had found them.
“Riley, look!” Jamal yelled, holding up the skull.
The reddish light illuminated the shadows, lighting up the bayou—and the button eyes staring back at them. Pair after pair of creepy eyes. There were too many of them to count.
“Oh, no, it’s them,” Riley yelped. She grabbed Jamal’s hand and yanked him back, away from the staring eyes. “Hurry, run!”
“But who are they?” Jamal asked, struggling to keep up and not trip.
“The dolls,” Riley repeated breathlessly, pulling him faster through the swamp. “They b
elong to the shadow man’s friends on the other side. He must have asked his friends for their help and they summoned the dolls to do their bidding.”
