Chapter Eighteen
A Dizzying Blur of Woozy
Tuesday, 11:30 a.m.
The way Chance saw it escape was futile.
“Look, we’re tied up.” He walked over to a window and glanced down. “And we’re on the third floor. Unless you’re suggesting we hurl ourselves through the glass and dive to our deaths. Besides, this place is infested with guards.”
I realized he was right. Men were prowling like packs of wild hyenas, lurking in the shadows, waiting to devour us whole.
“If we did manage to flee, which is impossible, they’d find us in no time and that would only delay the inevitable, not to mention make things worse,” Chance continued slowly as if he were explaining how to play a video game to his grandmother. “Let’s just give him the stupid Stone.”
“I can’t …show more content…
Wang-Woo laughed indifferently. “She wouldn’t do that it would be suicide. But if she does, dispose of the children as you wish . . .” His voice trailed off.
I shivered.
“Do you want me to untie them?” Bane asked.
“No. They’ll sleep until you reach the mine. Chance, look at me.” Reluctantly, he gazed into Mr. Wang-Woo’s eyes. “You’re sleepy—very sleepy. You yearn for rest. Slumber wraps you in its silky embrace and holds you there as you close your eyes.”
I watched Chance’s eyes flutter for a second, and then he opened them again.
“Your eyelids are heavy. You must sleep—you have no choice. Shut your eyes, Chance,” he repeated, softly, insistently. “You can’t resist me. My will is your will.”
His lids drooped. Then Chance closed his eyes.
Mr. Wang-Woo turned his attention toward the other boys and continued in his smooth, persistent tone.
“You’re weary. Forty winks are washing over you like waves of dizzying darkness. You’re tumbling deep into a profound, quiet slumber.” After a few moments, Seth, Twist, and Jacob’s eyelids drooped. “Sleep . . . Sleep . . . Sleep . . .”
He kept repeating the words until they toppled into the guard’s arms. The men tossed them over their shoulders like sacks of potatoes and carried them …show more content…
“The men in black forced us to hike. Bane tried to wake you and found he couldn’t so he carried you up the hill.”
A dry breeze blew in through the mine’s mouth and the guards stepped aside.
Seth’s eyes darted to something over my shoulder, and suddenly Bane was towering above me. His eyebrows drew together, forming a thick brown V as he untied my ropes and helped me to my feet.
“Let’s go. You try anything stupid, smart girl and your friends are toast,” he warned, his flashlight casting our long, spidery shadows upon the passageway’s walls. “Or better yet, I’ll drown all five of you in the watering hole at the end of Coyote Canyon.”
I wanted to sock him in the nose, but my friends needed me alive so I plodded slowly forward, my legs trembling as I listened to him gripe.
“Sure. Slip through the fault to the other side,” he grumbled. “That’s the oldest trick in the book. I recognized it as soon as I saw you little monsters heading the wrong way down the ravine.”
“We were trying to escape.”
“Really?” His mouth hung open in feigned shock. “And how did that work out for you?”
“Well, duh.”
“Are you sassing me, girl?” he snapped between gritted
A Dizzying Blur of Woozy
Tuesday, 11:30 a.m.
The way Chance saw it escape was futile.
“Look, we’re tied up.” He walked over to a window and glanced down. “And we’re on the third floor. Unless you’re suggesting we hurl ourselves through the glass and dive to our deaths. Besides, this place is infested with guards.”
I realized he was right. Men were prowling like packs of wild hyenas, lurking in the shadows, waiting to devour us whole.
“If we did manage to flee, which is impossible, they’d find us in no time and that would only delay the inevitable, not to mention make things worse,” Chance continued slowly as if he were explaining how to play a video game to his grandmother. “Let’s just give him the stupid Stone.”
“I can’t …show more content…
Wang-Woo laughed indifferently. “She wouldn’t do that it would be suicide. But if she does, dispose of the children as you wish . . .” His voice trailed off.
I shivered.
“Do you want me to untie them?” Bane asked.
“No. They’ll sleep until you reach the mine. Chance, look at me.” Reluctantly, he gazed into Mr. Wang-Woo’s eyes. “You’re sleepy—very sleepy. You yearn for rest. Slumber wraps you in its silky embrace and holds you there as you close your eyes.”
I watched Chance’s eyes flutter for a second, and then he opened them again.
“Your eyelids are heavy. You must sleep—you have no choice. Shut your eyes, Chance,” he repeated, softly, insistently. “You can’t resist me. My will is your will.”
His lids drooped. Then Chance closed his eyes.
Mr. Wang-Woo turned his attention toward the other boys and continued in his smooth, persistent tone.
“You’re weary. Forty winks are washing over you like waves of dizzying darkness. You’re tumbling deep into a profound, quiet slumber.” After a few moments, Seth, Twist, and Jacob’s eyelids drooped. “Sleep . . . Sleep . . . Sleep . . .”
He kept repeating the words until they toppled into the guard’s arms. The men tossed them over their shoulders like sacks of potatoes and carried them …show more content…
“The men in black forced us to hike. Bane tried to wake you and found he couldn’t so he carried you up the hill.”
A dry breeze blew in through the mine’s mouth and the guards stepped aside.
Seth’s eyes darted to something over my shoulder, and suddenly Bane was towering above me. His eyebrows drew together, forming a thick brown V as he untied my ropes and helped me to my feet.
“Let’s go. You try anything stupid, smart girl and your friends are toast,” he warned, his flashlight casting our long, spidery shadows upon the passageway’s walls. “Or better yet, I’ll drown all five of you in the watering hole at the end of Coyote Canyon.”
I wanted to sock him in the nose, but my friends needed me alive so I plodded slowly forward, my legs trembling as I listened to him gripe.
“Sure. Slip through the fault to the other side,” he grumbled. “That’s the oldest trick in the book. I recognized it as soon as I saw you little monsters heading the wrong way down the ravine.”
“We were trying to escape.”
“Really?” His mouth hung open in feigned shock. “And how did that work out for you?”
“Well, duh.”
“Are you sassing me, girl?” he snapped between gritted