Pan's Realm by Christopher Pike

1
    T he gang had never gone on a real picnic before. Not in a meadow with a proper basket of food and a blanket to lie on in the sun. It was Cindy Makey who suggested it would be fun to do it at least once before school started. And since no one else could think of anything better to do that day, a picnic it was.
    Their town, Spooksville, was surrounded by mountains and hills on three sides and the ocean on the fourth. It was in these wooded hills that they decided to have their picnic. There were many beautiful ­meadows in these woods. Meadows isolated enough that a person could pretend he or she was in the middleof nowhere. Places where evil could happen, and no one would be the wiser.
    Until it was too late.
    â€œI hope you didn’t put mayonnaise on my sandwich,” Watch said as Cindy began to empty the picnic basket on the yellow blanket they had brought. The meadow was filled with bright yellow daisies with black centers. Nearby a stream gurgled and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The surrounding trees were tall, heavy branched. Although they now sat in the sun, they had found the hike from the road through the woods rather chilly. The shadows were deep in these woods, and old.
    â€œSince when did you care what’s between two slices of bread?” Sally Wilcox asked Watch. “You used to be the most unpicky eater I know. Hey, Cindy, Adam—I remember the time Watch ate half a dozen uncooked eggs.”
    Cindy made a face and hooked her long blond hair behind her ears. “Is that true?” she asked Watch.
    â€œIt was at Easter, an egg-eating contest,” Watch explained. “The eggs were painted different colors.”
    Sally smiled and pushed back her brown bangs. “So were the egg yolks. Only one had a normal yellow center. In fact, if I remember correctly, the one egg you didn’t eat eventually hatched and out popped a smallreptilian creature that burrowed in the ground and eventually ate most of the local gophers.” Sally added, “I think the witch had something to do with those eggs.”
    â€œAt least I won first prize in the contest,” Watch said, fiddling with his pocket calculator. He was working out calculations for a new telescope he was building. Watch, in addition to wearing four watches, usually carried a calculator, just as Sally usually carried a Bic lighter.
    â€œWhat was the prize?” Adam Freeman, who was the new kid in town, asked.
    â€œA twenty-dollar gift certificate to the drugstore,” Sally said. “For the next year Watch got to buy all the antacids he needed.”
    â€œThe eggs did kind of make me sick,” Watch agreed. He checked out the turkey sandwich Cindy had handed him through his thick glasses. “After that I kind of lost my taste for chicken as well as for eggs.”
    â€œIs the sandwich OK?” Cindy asked Watch, concerned.
    Watch chewed noisily. “Yeah. I’m not as picky as Sally says. As long as nothing in it bites back, I don’t really care what I eat.”
    Adam gestured to the picnic basket. “What kind of sandwich did you make me?”
    Cindy beamed. “It’s a surprise. You’ll love it.”
    Sally was amused. “You’ll both be surprised.”
    Cindy was annoyed. “You didn’t change our sandwiches, did you?”
    â€œAre you asking me or telling me?” Sally, who already had her plain cheese sandwich in hand, wanted to know.
    â€œI don’t believe this,” Cindy said as she checked the remaining two sandwiches.
    â€œWhat is it?” Adam asked, already losing his appetite.
    â€œWe both have Spam sandwiches,” Cindy said, laying open the slices of bread for dark-haired Adam to see. “Spam and sprouts.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with that?” Watch asked. “I like Spam.”
    â€œI like sprouts,” Sally said, laughing.
    â€œYeah,” Cindy said sarcastically. “They really go perfectly