Nicholas Nettle's Curious Trip to Nowhere - An Original Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure - Chapter Four

Read previous chapters here:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three


Chapter Four


“Wake up kiddo. Everyone’s suppose to be here in about an hour.”

A small part of Nicholas’s brain heard his dad’s voice, but a majority of it was occupied with a dream involving an alien invasion, a cast of superheroes, and a talking slug named Mortimer. He pulled the covers over his head and rolled over, deciding that the dream was much too fun to leave at the moment.

“It’s almost eleven,” his dad said as he switched on the bedroom light. “You can’t sleep all day. Get up.”

Nicholas groaned as the dream slipped away and reality quickly took its place. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes as they slowly adjusted to the light. He glanced briefly at the watch which was still ticking away quietly on the nightstand.

After throwing on his favorite t-shirt and a pair of jeans, he picked up the watch and looked it over once more. Again, the hands spun around wildly and stopped on a random number. There has to be a reason it keeps doing that, he thought. He fastened the end of the silver chain to his belt loop, stuck the watch in his pocket, and headed downstairs.


“Well, look who finally decided to get out of bed.”

“Morning mom,” Nicholas said as his arms stretched out, reaching for whatever it is people’s arms are reaching for when they first wake up.

“Here. Take these outside and put ‘em on the table for me,” she said as she handed him a stack of paper plates and a bag full of plastic cups.

“K”

He made his way out the back door with disposable dinnerware in hand. It was an unusually warm autumn day and the sun’s rays were already beaming down brightly through the cloudless sky. The light instantly closed his eyes as he walked to the table that Mr. Nettle had set up while Nicholas was still saving the planet with Mortimer. As he placed the cups down on the table, everything went dark.

“Guess who?” said a voice from behind.

“You are aware that I know your voice, right?” Nicholas replied.

Emma slid her hands from over his eyes, down to his shoulders and shook him playfully. “You’re no fun sometimes, you know that?”

“I just woke up. I have an excuse.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, let’s go see if there’s any frogs in the creek.”

“What’s the point?” he replied. “You never let me dissect any of them.”

“That’s so mean!” Emma said as she slapped him on the arm. “Why would you wanna cut up a poor little frog? They’re so stinkin’ cute.”

“For science!” Nicholas said as he raised an arm pointed toward the sky.

“You are so weird.”

“You know, some people eat them,” Nicholas said.

Ew… that’s gross. Why would anyone eat a frog?”

“I dunno, maybe they’re good.”

Emma’s nose scrunched up in disgust. “I’ll take a cheeseburger over a frog any day.”

“A frog burger might be even better,” Nicholas replied.

Emma burst into laughter. “That is so gross, Nicholas!” she said as she tried to stop laughing. “Well, I’m glad your sense of humor finally woke up at least. Grumpy Nicholas is annoying.” She stuck out her tongue and made a funny face. “Okay, seriously though, let’s go look for some froggies.”

“Okay, okay. Let me go tell dad first.”

The two of them walked over to Mr. Nettle, who was busy getting ready to fire up the grill.

“Dad, is it okay if me and Emma go hang out by the creek?”

“Sure, just don’t be gone too long. Food will be ready in about half an hour… and be careful.”

“Okay. We will be.”

Emma grabbed Nicholas by the arm. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”


As they walked toward the creek, the birds were providing pleasant background music from all around and seemed to be in perfect harmony with the autumn leaves crunching beneath their feet. Nicholas suddenly noticed that the ticking of the watch in his pocket had become considerably louder. He reached in and pulled the watch out, holding it in his hand as they continued to walk.

“Is it just me, or is the watch ticking a lot louder all of a sudden?” he asked Emma, who was walking a few feet ahead of him.

They both stopped for a moment and Nicholas held the watch up for her to have a listen.

“Yeah, it is louder,” she said. “Seems a little faster too.”

Emma continued walking, seemingly not as interested in this as Nicholas was. “Did you ever figure out how to set the time or anything?” she asked.

“Nope. I was looking at it all night and couldn’t figure it out.”

“That’s weird. You’re usually good at that kinda stuff.”

Nicholas was looking down at the watch, which was now opened and lying in his palm, as he continued to follow Emma toward the creek. The three hands were all pointing directly at the number eleven. With his other hand, he slowly rotated the watch a quarter turn clockwise. The hands spun around rapidly and stopped on the number eight. His brain was beginning to see a pattern, but it wasn’t quite registering yet. He rotated the watch back in the direction it was before and the hands spun around, stopping again at the number eleven. He stopped, not realizing that he and Emma were now only a few feet from the creek.

“Hey Emma. Come here.”

“Hold on. I wanna find a frog.”

“But—”

“Just relax, Nicholas. I’ll be there in a minute,” she snapped as she walked away from Nicholas and made her way further downstream.

“Okay, okay.”

Nicholas slowly walked across an old tree which had fallen over and formed a perfect bridge to to the other side of the creek. The water wasn’t even ankle deep in most places, so it wasn’t a daunting task to make it across. He sat down on a large rock and continued to examine the watch as Emma continued her search for an amphibious little friend. The ticking of the watch had become even louder since he had reached the other side.

He rotated the watch in his hand a few more times, carefully observing the movement of the hands on the bottom face. Finally, he saw a pattern.

“Emma! I think I figured it out!”

“Figured what out?”

“Something about the watch. Just come here. I’ll show you.”

“Fine, calm down.” She headed back upstream, still searching as she slowly came across the fallen log and joined Nicholas on the other side. “Okay. What is it?” 

“Just look,” he said. He then held out the watch in his hand and began to rotate it in various directions. Each time the hands would spin around and stop on a different number. “Do you see?” he asked.

“See what? It’s doing the same things it’s been doing.”

“No… see, when you turn it the hands always stop on a different number, but they always stop pointed in the same direction.”

“So, what’s that mean?” she asked.

“I don’t think it works like a watch at all. I think it’s a compass… and it’s pointing at… well… something.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “Whoa… you really think so?”

“Yeah, just look,” he said as he rotated the watch all around in various directions. Just as he said, the hands always stopped pointed in the same direction.

“Well let’s see what it’s pointing at!” Emma said.

“Wait… what?”

“You heard me. Let’s follow it and see if you’re right.”

A worried look came over Nicholas’s face. It was a look Emma was quite use to seeing on an almost daily basis. “I don’t know. What if it’s pointing to something dangerous?”

“Oh come on, Nicholas! Would you please stop worrying so much? There’s nothing dangerous around here. It might be pointing to a hidden treasure or something!”

“Well that’s highly unlikely.”

“Well it was highly unlikely you’d find some crazy old compass-watch thingy in your attic, but here we are,” she said. She sighed, put a hand on his shoulder, and began to speak in a calmer tone. “Nicholas, come on. Let’s just follow it for a little while and see if we find anything. It’ll be fun. I promise.”

Nicholas looked at Emma, then the watch, then back to Emma.  “Okay. But just for a little while.”

“That’s my boy! Let’s go.”


Nicholas and Emma headed deeper into the woods, well past Walker creek and approaching a point where neither one of them had ventured before. Emma was getting more and more excited with their little adventure, especially once the watch began ticking even more quickly and loudly as they followed its direction. Nicholas, on the other hand, was growing more and more apprehensive the further they explored. 

“We should really go back,” he said. “We’re gonna get lost.”

“We’re not gonna get lost,” Emma replied. “All we have to do is turn around and walk back in a straight line.”

“But we’ve never been this far into the woods before. We don’t know what’s out here.”

“That’s kinda the point, Nicholas.”

Nicholas took a deep breath and reluctantly continued. As they came over a small hill, they both spotted something across the way.

“Whoa… Is that cave?” Emma said. She pointed at it and looked down at the watch in Nicholas’s hand. “It’s pointing right at it!”

“Okay… we should really go back, Emma.”

“Are you crazy? We’re like thirty feet away from it and you wanna turn back? Let’s see what’s inside.”

“There could be a bear or something in there,” Nicholas said.

“Nicholas, there aren’t any bears in Thornberg and you know it. Stop being such a chicken. Come on, I’ll go first. Just stay right behind me.”

“I don’t know…”

Emma grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him toward the entrance. “Just come on.”

They slowly walked toward the mysterious opening in the side of the hill. The ticking of the watch had become so loud that Nicholas closed it and returned it to his front pocket. He certainly didn’t need to look at it any longer. It was becoming more and more obvious as they reached the cave entrance that this was exactly the spot it had been leading them to. He was now walking side by side and hand in hand with Emma, but make no mistake, she was still leading the way.

“Okay, we’ll just walk in a little ways,” Emma said. “If there’s nothing in there or we can’t see, we’ll leave, okay?”

Nicholas took a deep breath, looked at Emma, and hesitantly shook his head in agreement as he exhaled.

They slowly crept into the darkness and the light faded quickly. The watch was now ticking at an almost deafening level and as the last bit of light disappeared from around them, the ticking stopped. They both froze in place.

“Why did it stop?” Emma asked.

“I… I don’t know. Maybe it… wait… do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Emma replied. “I don’t hear anything. Maybe w—”

“Shh… listen,” said Nicholas. “It sounds like… water.”

They both stood perfectly still and listened. There was a slight sound of flowing water that quickly evolved into a overwhelming sound of a mighty rapids. It seemed to be coming from directly beneath them. It was getting louder, and louder, and louder. The entire ground began to shake.

Nicholas began to panic. “Emma, we need to get out o—”

Before he could finish his thought, the earth opened up beneath their feet and they were completely submerged in a raging torrent of water. Nicholas somehow still held Emma’s hand in his as they were violently pulled downward by an unseen force. Water was rushing by them as Nicholas looked over at Emma, who’s eyes were wide and panicked. He tightened his grip on her hand as they both continued to struggle pointlessly against the invisible force that was dragging them into the abyss. He looked down and saw nothing but darkness. He looked back up at Emma and caught one last glimpse of her terrified face before her hand was ripped from his. In an instant, she was gone. Nicholas, without thinking, screamed her name as he continued to be pulled deeper and deeper. His lungs began to fill with water. He thought about his parents. He thought about Emma. He thought about the future he would never see. Then… nothing.