by Tobias Wade
Jamie shook her head. “I think we often need something until we get it,” Jamie said, “but some things are better not to have.”
Teresa’s top lip pulled tight into the beginning of her customary sneer, but her face relaxed quickly. She nodded and, taking a final deep breath, plunged her face into the swelling green mist. “Now what do I—” she began, the words strangled in her throat as the mist began to flow around her and obscure her face.
Teresa’s face was invisible for several minutes before she jolted out of the circle and gasped for air. Her hair was damp from the mist and her eyes glistened with tears.
“I hate it!” she screamed, the sound painfully sharp and piercing in the silence. “It’s a lie, and I hate it!”
“Your own fault I bet,” Walter said. “Did you think people would miss someone who treated them so nastily?”
“Deal is off,” Teresa said, wiping her face with the back of her sleeve. “I don’t want your stupid key anymore.”
“You can’t do that!” Noah protested. “I did my part, now let’s see the skull.”
“Not happening,” she spat, shoving past Noah to make her way toward the door.
Walter leapt in front of her to block the way. “I knew you were going to try and cheat,” he said. “You’re not leaving with the skull.”
“Brandon!” Teresa screamed in her piercing voice. “They’re attacking me, Brandon! Help your mother!”
“I didn’t touch you, you horrible hag,” Walter shouted back. “Now give us the skull or—” he snatched at the lavender bundle in her arms, but whisking away the cover revealed only her stuffed Whale underneath.
Something slammed violently against the outside of the door, powerful enough to shake it in its frame. It sounded like claws were dragging along the wood, then another shuddering boom as the force drove in again. A shower of dust and splinters rained upon them, but the door remained standing.
“There’s no way Brandon is doing that,” Jamie said.
“His zombie wouldn’t have claws either,” Walter said. “Maybe a demon?”
“Get out of my way,” Teresa screamed, diving for the door.
Walter tried to snatch away her stuffed Whale, but at the same instant the door behind him was assaulted again. The jolt knocked Walter off balance, giving Teresa the chance to evade his sweeping arms. She pushed the door from the inside and the lock clicked open. By then Walter had regained his balance and grabbed Teresa by the shoulders.
Noah meanwhile tried to scramble past both of them to close the door again. He drove his weight against it to slam it shut, but it didn’t close all the way. A long bony foot was wedged into the crack, each nail a deadly curved point like the talons on a bird of prey.
As they stared, more curved claws slipped through the crack and folded around the door. Walter shoved Teresa out of the way so he could join Noah in trying to press the door shut again. An irresistible pressure swelled from the other side however—it felt like bracing against a car to prevent it from starting. There was nothing they could do but leap out of the way as the door swung outward.
“He’s got a ghoul!” Jamie shouted, identifying the lithe corpse which loomed in the doorway. Its tongue lolled all the way past its chin, and a sloppy grin bristled with teeth which overlapped and forced each other to jut out at odd angles.
Jamie snatched up Mrs. Robinson who was cowering against the dais, and all three friends retreated onto the raised ground. The ghoul fell onto all fours and sauntered into the room, its movements so fluid that it almost seemed to be dancing, completely unlike the rigid zombies they’d grown accustomed to.
“Do you like it?” Brandon asked, now entering the room. Both of his hands were clutched around an elongated but almost-human looking skull whose eyes glowed with soft yellow light. “I picked it up loping around the graveyard last night. Puts those zombies to shame, doesn’t it?”
“I told you not to wait so far back,” Teresa scolded her son. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Already?” Brandon said, his grin vanishing. “We haven’t even had any fun yet.” The ghoul matched its master’s agitation and began shuffling back and forth along the floor, its gruesome face locked on Noah and the others.
“Ghouls are corporal, right?” Walter whispered hurriedly. “It can’t really attack us, can it?”
“It absolutely can,” Jamie said, “don’t you ever pay attention?”
“We can try to control it then,” Walter said nervously. “There’s three of us and only two of them.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have a mermaid skull,” Noah countered. “And I’m no good at undead anyway, so they’d win for sure.”
“That’s enough,” Teresa said. “The deal is off, so we’re leaving. As much as they deserve to be punished for trying to cheat me, it’s not worth getting kicked out of school.”
“Just the cat then?” Brandon asked. The ghoul turned its head toward Mrs. Robinson so sharply that it looked like something snapped inside its neck. Mrs. Robinson spat and hissed, all hair raised. “Cats disappear all the time, and no-one could prove anything.”
Teresa sighed, giving into her petulant child. “Very well, just the cat. But leave the rest alone.”
“Thank you, mother,” Brandon said in a breathy gush.
“I won’t let you have her!” Jamie shouted. She grabbed Mrs. Robinson just as the ghoul lunged up the dais toward them. Long claws shredded the air where the cat had been an instant before. Mrs. Robinson made a long, low growl of warning, now from within the circle etched into the stone. Fresh mist was bleeding from the circle—blue again this time. It quickly reduced the ghoul to a silhouette, which only made it even more frightening as it was difficult to tell when it was preparing to lunge.
“Mrs. Robinson?” a faint voice called, as light as wind with the cool of mist. “Is that you?”
“Who said that? Who is here?” Brandon snarled, drawing back upon the skull and causing the ghoul to stumble. The ghoul jerked unevenly backward as though a rope around its waist had snapped taunt. It turned without apparent instruction to glare at Brandon, annoyed at being deprived of its prey.
Inspired by Brandon’s hesitation, Noah grabbed Walter and Jamie by the arms and dragged them to cluster inside the circle as well.
The blue light was becoming more intense around the lines, even more than when Noah had entered the first time with Professor Salice. The stone carving was beginning to move, the lines snaking and twisting and scribbling themselves into new patterns. The mist was flooding more powerfully than ever, growing deeper and darker until it was almost purple. The whole room swam with ghastly shadows as the lines altered and the new light shined upon the ghoul.
“Mrs. Robinson?” the voice said again, louder this time and almost as clear as if it were spoken from within the room.
“That’s Claire’s voice,” Noah said. “It was her cat, and she must have been thinking of her, but I don’t know why we can hear too.”
“What’s the light? What’s going on?” Brandon demanded.
Noah shrugged helplessly, but Jamie was quick to interject. “He’s casting a spell, that’s what. He’s going to melt your faces off if you don’t get out of here.”
“Yeah?” Brandon asked, stepping back uneasily. “How’s he going to do that?”
“She’s lying!” Teresa said, trepidatious. “Where would he learn to do something like that?”
“He’s a Chainer, stupid,” Jamie replied. “He learned it in another life—I’ve seen him do it. Just you watch.”
The mist was so thick that they could barely see the silhouettes anymore, but they could tell from their shadows that they were hesitating.
“There’s something else out here,” Walter said. “Something in the mist that wasn’t there a second ago.”
“He’s still got the key!” Teresa insisted. “Take it from him!” Her voice was fainter now, little more than a shouted whisper.
“I’ll leave the window open, okay?
” Claire’s voice came again, so close and real it made them all jump. “Just in case.”
The purple light at their feet vanished, as did the circle. They were left blind in the mist which had begun to whip around them as if they stood in the eye of a hurricane. It was dissipating though, blowing off in every direction as it went.
“…and don’t worry, because I won’t be mad that you’ve been gone all this time,” Claire said. “I won’t even ask where you’ve been. I’ll just be happy to see you again, okay? So please, if you can hear me… Please, come home.”
Noah, Walter, Jamie, and Mrs. Robinson were now standing in a tight huddle in the center of a bedroom. The last of the mist vanished to reveal yellow sheets, curtains, and a bright blue carpet. Claire, dressed in a white night gown was staring out the open window, apparently oblivious to the whole scene which was unfolding right behind her.
“Claire?” Noah asked in disbelief.
She turned from the window and seemed to look straight at him for a moment. The instant was insubstantial though, and a moment later she’d climbed back into her bed. She didn’t see them after-all. Neither did she notice Mrs. Robinson who had leapt onto her bed and curled on the pillow beside her. The cat’s fur had settled along its back, and a contented purr was rising from deep within it.
“Where are we?” Walter asked, stepping away from the others to explore the surroundings.
“A long way from The Mortuary,” Noah said. “The Daymare departed not far from here.”
“That was over a seven hour drive!” Jamie protested. “Or walk, or scuttle, or whatever the Daymare did. But that’s a long way!”
“How do we get back?” Walter asked, sounding so disheartened that it was hard to believe he’d just escaped a ravenous ghoul.
“Look, the circle is still there!” Jamie said, pointing at the faint outline indented within the carpet. “You never told us the Whispering Room could send us to where people were thinking about us too.”
“I had no idea,” Noah said. “Professor Salice! What if he cursed the room to transport me so he can find my family?” Noah spun in rapid circles, checking for imps in all the dark corners of the room. “The blue mist was something he did before—I’m sure of it. What if he’s here too?”
“Calm down, Noah” Jamie said. “Professor Salice didn’t even know we were in the room.”
“Unless Brandon told him,” Walter said, inspecting the board games stacked on a chair beside Claire’s bed.
“It’s not going to work,” Noah said, pacing in agitation. “I’m not going to visit them. I’m not even going to look at them. He’s never going to know which ones are Chainers.”
Noah stopped suddenly mid-stride, then turned to walk straight through the bedroom door.
“Where are you going?” Walter called. “We need to figure out how to use this circle to get back.”
Even as he spoke though, the circle had continued to fade. The subtle imprint was almost completely gone.
“I know someone who we can talk to, and she might be able to help,” Noah said. “Her name is Samantha. She’s not a Chainer, but she got attacked by a gargoyle and now she can see spirits.”
“What about Mrs. Robinson?” Jamie asked in dismay. The cat was nestled against Claire and showed no inclination to follow.
“What about Claire?” Mrs. Robinson asked. “She’s been looking for me this whole time. I’m not going to leave her again.”
“You have too,” Jamie said. “You need to go to school.”
“I don’t have to do anything. It never felt right, being in school. Everything I want is already here.”
“But she can’t see you! Please come with us,” Jamie insisted, distraught. “She won’t even know you’re there.”
“I’ll know,” Mrs. Robinson said matter-of-factly.
As if in response, Claire cuddled closer to the cat, her arms passing straight through it without seeming to notice.
“I’ll make sure Samantha tells Claire that you’re back,” Noah said.
“We can’t just leave her though!” Jamie pouted. “I’ll miss her so much.”
Mrs. Robinson didn’t reply though. She was only purring.
“It’s where she belongs,” Noah said reassuringly. “I understand because part of me doesn’t want to go back either. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between what is familiar and where we belong though, and I don’t think the rest of us will find that until we’re alive again.”
Qari Olandesca Illustrations
The Netherworld
“I thought I might see you again,” Samantha said, “though I liked you better as an old man. You’re too skinny and weird looking now.”
Noah jumped. He thought he was going to be the one to surprise her, but he hadn’t seen her standing outside her house in the darkness. She was dressed in pajama bottoms and a purple sweatshirt which was drawn tight against the sharp night air.
“What are you doing out here? It must be past midnight!” Noah exclaimed.
“Does it matter? Were you worried about me?” she asked innocently.
“Why would I be worried about you?” he asked. “I’m the one who is dead. I just mean that most little girls wouldn’t be standing alone on the street after midnight.”
“Thank you,” she replied, even though Noah hadn’t intended it as a compliment. Her milky white eye almost glowed in the moonlight as though drawing focus to the fact that she was not a typical girl after-all. “You’re being rude though. I know you aren’t used to having any friends so you might not know how it goes. You’re supposed to introduce me.”
“Right, sorry,” Noah said. “This is Walter and Jamie, and we’ve all gotten sent back here by accident and —”
“Oh, I know,” Samantha interrupted. “That’s why I was waiting here for you.”
“Hello, Samantha,” Jamie waved.
“What happened to your eye?” Walter asked. Jamie elbowed him in the ribs and he muttered something indistinct under his breath.
“What happened to your body?” Samantha shot back without losing a beat. “Hello, Jamie. Hello, Walter. Let’s all go inside, or else someone will drive by and try to kidnap me.”
She turned smartly and opened her door, leading them in.
“But how did you know we would be here? We didn’t even know we’d be here,” Noah said, hurrying to keep up.
“Mr. Hampton told me,” Samantha said. “We’ve become good friends, although my parents don’t like it when I talk to the spirits. They think I’m going crazy. I tried to reassure them by telling them I was crazy long before the incident with my eye, but that only seemed to make matters worse.”
“Hello Noah! How has your death been treating you?” George Hampton was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of deliciously steaming cocoa in his hands, although closer inspection revealed that his fingers were overlapping with the corporal cup. He wore the same waistcoat and pinstriped hat as Noah had seen him last, although that was hardly a surprise as laundry was one of the burdens that spirits have left behind.
“Fine, thank you,” Noah said guardedly. “How did you know I was coming tonight?”
“A little bird told me,” George said, trying to lift his cocoa mug, then scowling as it remained on the table. “Well, not exactly a bird. Quite a lot uglier, in fact.”
Something bumped under the table. The scratching of little claws along the edge, followed by an imp’s leering face poking into view.
“He’s been keeping an eye on you for me,” George added.
“I told you not to let those in the house!” Samantha scolded. “The last one tore up my mother’s under clothes and she blamed me for it. If she catches that thing in here I’m going to—”
“You’ll what, exactly?” George asked mildly. “Make me wish I was deader?”
“I’ll catch a thousand spirit spiders and drop them down your back,” Samantha declared ferociously.
“Oh dear,” George sighed. “We do need
him though. He’ll be leading our friends back to school through the netherworld. Better be quick about it too.”
The imp disappeared beneath the table once more, and Walter squatted down to watch it chew on the base of the wooden table.
“Salice really did send us here then?” Walter asked. “And you knew?”
“Clever lad,” George said, a touch of pride in his voice. “The Whispering Room is a nexus where the three worlds meet. It’s typically restricted to verbal communication, but it would seem your Professor altered it to allow travel as well. Do you have any of his possessions with you?”
“I don’t think so…” Noah began.
“The key!” Jamie said. “You never gave it to Teresa, did you?”
“Quickly now, let me have it,” George said, extending his hand. Noah obliged. “Dissipati,” George declared, causing the key to glow red hot. The metal bubbled and ran into a silvery liquid which trickled through George’s fingers. Just before it vanished completely, a small puff of blue smoke separated itself to dissipate into the air.
“Hey! I might have wanted to use that,” Walter protested.
“As I thought, the blue you just witnessed was a tracking charm. Destroying it is necessary to prevent him from tracking you further, although we were too late to stop him from knowing where you are now. There won’t be any living people here thinking of Salice, so he won’t be able to establish a link through the Whispering Room either. That means he will be making his own journey through the netherworld to join you here. If he left shortly after you, then he should be here…” George casually checked his golden wristwatch, “in about ten minutes.”
“But but—” Noah spluttered, unable to decide which of his thousand questions to ask first. “How do you know that Salice is trying to find my family? How do you know any of this?”
“Ca’akan here,” George gestured to the imp. “Your professor isn’t the only one who can summon them. He’s been looking after you for a while.