My Friends Are Dead People

by Tony Ortiz

  And then one after another ten giant goblins clambered out of the hole. Glowing orbs fired out of their long claws, riddling Franky with blazing explosions. The goblins then surrounded him and launched heavy boulders at him. Franky put up a decent fight, but eventually he collapsed to the floor, zapped with a searing flash to his eyes. Katie was next: a green goblin raised its claw and pierced her side. She went into an instant frenzy, thrashing herself against the wall and hyperventilating. She couldn’t stop.

  “Katie?” I cried softly. “You’re hurting yourself.”

  The goblin studied her like he had seen torture all his life. I had no idea how I could help so I slipped off my shoe by using my other foot and flung my shoe at the creature, missing it by several feet.

  “Leave her alone, you stupid . . .”

  The goblin was suddenly smashed into the wall. And then, so were the rest of them, all in a rapid succession. A ghostly gargoyle-entity was roaring and flying up and down the line of goblins, forcing them to remain where they were. Two glowing figures bravely stepped up to the goblins. I immediately knew it was Jacoby and Dorian.

  “Jacoby!” I cried out.

  The entities looked up at me as the real Jacoby and Dorian came out of the hole in the wall, magically gliding down to the floor, and absorbed their glowing projections. The first glowing clone belonged to Hess. He flew into the room and landed with a heavy thump. At the sight of my friends, the goblins pressed themselves against the wall.

  Hess used instant magic to Franky’s blackened eyes. Jacoby magically snapped Katie’s shackles off and lowered her to the wood.

  “M-my stomach h-u-r-t-s,” Katie muttered in Jacoby’s arms.

  “Henry, can you treat Katie?” said Jacoby.

  Franky stomped over and lightly, like using CPR on a baby, pushed his fist into her stomach. Seconds later, she was back to normal.

  “So she’s okay?” I asked.

  “I believe so, yes,” said Franky, helping Jacoby set her down.

  “What did it do to her?”

  “The murf goblin gave her one-percent of an old minical curse.”

  “Katie, you alright?” said Jacoby. She nodded. “Lin?”

  “No!” said Lin bitterly, wiping his face. “Why didn’t you come sooner?”

  “Lin, you’re okay.” Jacoby looked me over for just a second, then turned away. “We must get out of here.”

  We all agreed and followed Jacoby into the hole. We found ourselves in a narrow tunnel and walked up a steep incline for what seemed like a mile.

  Katie looked exhausted. She walked on shakily, wiping sweat off her face. She moved closer to me and patted me on the shoulder.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “Thanks?” I said, confused.

  “Just thanks. For other times I forgot to say it.”

  “What other times?”

  She didn’t answer, stepping down into the red cavern with the elevator platform.

  “Halloweens are going to be pleased to see you,” I heard Jacoby say up ahead on the platform.

  “It’s been a long time,” said Franky. “I need a Mint Mellonbar.”

  “What happened to Lorseria and the rest of the tortics?” I asked as Katie and I stepped on the elevator.

  “They left,” said Jacoby.

  “But how did you escape?”

  Jacoby grinned. “I psyclined out.”

  “He said you couldn’t psyclin in here,” said Katie.

  “Somehow I got through. When–”

  “But–” I got cut off.

  “When we returned, they were gone.”

  “All ten?” I asked.

  “Yes. They knew I’d return with German Night Watchers.”

  “Are they here?”

  “No. I sent them off when I knew the tortics weren’t here.”

  All of us stepped out of the lair into the forest, still darkly overcast and quiet. I realized Dorian was walking alone and ran over to him. I lowered my head before I spoke.

  “Hey, Dorian.”

  “I think halloweens will fear you now,” he said. “It takes a lot to survive a tortic’s lair.”

  Acting on a sudden impulse, I hugged Dorian, who must have never been hugged before because he couldn’t stop fidgeting and moving his feet. I released him and then hugged Jacoby.

  “Jesse, there’s no need for this whatsoever . . .” half-protested Jacoby.

  “Yes,” fidgeted Dorian, now being smothered by Katie. “Okay, that’s good. Thank you.”

  I didn’t care if Jacoby didn’t like hugs and squeezed him harder. I felt like I had to hug everyone. I went on to Franky, who also seemed a little nonplussed by it. Katie and I hugged everyone, making sure not to leave anyone out. Lin actually liked it and tried to turn it into a dance.

  “Jesse, Katie, if you’re done with the hugs,” Jacoby said, “I’d like to get going.”

  “Where’s Hess?” I said just as I heard the sound of flapping wings. Hess was gaping at us from high in the treetops, looking seriously worried.

  “We won’t hug you, Hess,” said Katie. “Promise.”

  Hess still wouldn’t fly down. Well, it didn’t matter: he would have to come down eventually. He couldn’t stay up in the sky forever.

  We psyclined back to the shore, where all the welgos were still gathered together, having not moved an inch since we left. Duma was the only one on her feet, waiting anxiously for us.

  “Hey, Duma,” I said, scratching behind her ears. “Is something wrong?”

  Duma leaned down, and I automatically climbed on.

  “Duma,” Jacoby stressed, “I want you to stay with us.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “Hess, can you take Henry? Is that alright?”

  Hess snorted impatiently, flapping his wings up in the air. Franky was two feet taller than him and twice his weight.

  “I can wait here,” suggested Franky. “You can psyclin back for me.”

  “You can’t psyclin?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Can’t someone just psyclin you right now?”

  “They could. But they just psyclined, and psyclining over and over without rest is strenuous and harmful to one’s body. I’ll be fine. I’ll wait.”

  “Jesse, Katie, I’m going to have to drop you off,” said Jacoby.

  “No!” we exclaimed together.

  “You two have been through enough and made plenty of friends for one night. I need to get you home.”

  I laid my head on Duma as her skin began to fold over it. “We just can’t go back yet,” I moaned, lifting my head out of her skin. “I’m not tired. What about the Scavengers? It’s still Halloween.”

  “I don’t go to sleep till twelve,” added Katie.

  “Yeah, me neither.”

  “Sometimes I walk around till two in the morning,” she went on. “I’m like a bat. I really don’t sleep at night–”

  “Jesse and Katie, I’m taking you home,” ended Jacoby as he mounted Slinky. Slinky wobbled his legs and dipped his neck. “Slinky, stop. This is not the festival.”

  Katie trudged over to Rose and climbed on. Lin slipped onto Slick, and Dorian hopped on Slimy, getting properly slimed. Hess disappeared into the puffy dark clouds, and we were all set to leave.

  “We’ll come back,” I told Franky, who stood all alone in the white sand. “I mean, I’ll see you when you arrive.”

  We all waved goodbye as the welgos walked away from the water.

  “Jacoby, what do the Scavengers look like?” I asked.

  “Why?”

  “So I can spot them when they come for me.”

  “They forgot about you two,” he said, not sounding so sure anymore.

  “They’re staying,” said Dorian.

  “They’re going home. They’ve had enough. However, Soundrec is recovering sooner than suspected, so if you two like, you can–”

  “Yes!” Katie and I blurted out.

  “How about Kala?” said Katie.r />
  Slinky veered onto a narrow road.

  “You’ll have to wait until next year,” said Jacoby.

  I tapped Duma’s head. “We have to stay with them this time–”

  She opened her mouth. There was a sense of anxiety in her eyes.

  “Duma, you ready?” said Jacoby.

  She opened her mouth wide. Jacoby gave Slinky the go-ahead, and the welgos shot off like a bullet. Before I realized it, my welgo was running smoothly across the black water. I had forgotten all about the great gleeful sensation from her speed piercing the cold air. Right as I laid my head on her neck, she came to a stop.

  “We can’t be back already,” I exclaimed.

  But we were back, dismounting our welgos in the same mosaic alley we had walked through to get to the halloween town. All the welgos backed into the wall immediately, spooked by something in the street, except for Duma, who was at Jacoby’s side, frozen in a combative stance.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  A DISTURBING SCENE

  Jacoby glanced up and down the street and then dispatched Slinky to Ray’s house. He came back with my welgo, while Dorian vanished, leaving behind a pulsing dot.

  “Can . . . you get Henry?” Jacoby asked Lin. There was a worried note in his voice. He almost stuttered, which wasn’t like him at all. Everyone knew something awful had happened.

  Lin slid off Slick, disappearing before he touched the ground, and re-appearing with Franky a few seconds later.

  “Henry, you still know where Murlie lives?” said Jacoby.

  Franky nodded.

  “I need you to go with Lin to Ray’s and ask him if he heard anything. Meet us back at Murlie’s. Lin, you got that?”

  And then something happened that scared us more than the mysterious orders and grim anticipation of bad news. A tear fell across Jacoby’s cheek, maybe the first one in his life. As the tear stuck to the end of his jaw and finally detached, a second one streaked down his other cheek, leaving behind a trail, like a clear scar.

  Lin took Franky’s hand and psyclined. Jacoby looked to the welgos and gave a short wave. They all seemed to understand what he meant and took off. However, Duma remained at Jacoby’s side.

  A loud racket was heard down the street over the buildings, followed by a faint scream. “Don’t hurt me!” a female voice pleaded. “I didn’t do it!”

  Katie and I hurried over to see what was happening–

  “No!” snapped Jacoby, blocking the end of the alley.

  “Why?” I said. “What happened?”

  Jacoby walked away from the street. I was tempted to look down the street, but Katie and I both held back and followed him to the next street over. His brisk pace was hard to keep up with. He stopped at the next alleyway and waited for us to catch up, then pushed us past it before we had time to look through it.

  “Don’t we turn here–” I said, choosing not to finish because we had to cross the street anyway to get to Murlie’s.

  We turned into a slummy alley a few blocks down and walked toward a black female gremlin standing nervously underneath a rickety roof. She wore bright-colored clothes and a crooked name tag:

  Welcome to Snick - Treat - Candy

  Cicil

  The nervous samhain heard our shoes splashing across the puddles and shuffled over skittishly, nearly tripping on her long pants.

  “You came out of your graveyard!” she murmured. “Is it because of what happened?”

  Seeing that Jacoby kept walking, about to barge right through her, she stepped aside.

  “Jacoby?” she continued. “What are we going to do?”

  “Cicil,” he said, stopping right in front of her, “can you go home?”

  Cicil took notice of his watery eyes. We all stood there staring. Why weren’t we crossing the street? Murlie’s shop was right there.

  “Are we going to cross?” I asked at last.

  The shoe shop’s door crept open, and Murlie peeked her head out, looking both ways before coming out. She locked the door behind her and then cast a spell on it with the flick of a finger. She glanced down the street once more before crossing it. She saw Jacoby’s tears right away. She waited a while then said, “Soundrec might not make it.”

  I didn’t get any of this! Jacoby had just told us Soundrec was going to be perfectly fine by the time we got back! Now, Murlie was saying he might not make it!

  “I tried everything I could,” she continued. “I don’t have enough bluian tissue and skool blood. He will die soon if he isn’t treated. We need to go to Germany.”

  I didn’t think Jacoby was listening to her, staring blankly out into the street, as if trapped in a dreary daydream.

  “Jacoby, we can’t stand here. I know you want to find a safe place.”

  “Henry is here,” he said. “He might be able to cure him.”

  “Henry? Henry Frankenstein?”

  “Yes.”

  There was a long silence as Murlie lowered her head. “What about the murder?” she finally asked.

  Jacoby turned to her and gaped wearily.

  “They will soon know what happened,” she stated indignantly.

  Katie strode by Jacoby and entered the street. I went after her.

  The street was bashed in and cracked down the middle by something that had left a single huge meteor-like impression. A huge gathering of witches and warlocks further down heard us coming and psyclin-scattered in panic, revealing a withered body being dragged away. A tall red skeletis was pulling it easily and with little care across the cracked asphalt. Trailing not far behind was a menala, soaked in someone else’s blood. It wasn’t until the menala stepped into the streetlight that I saw that it was Dorian.

  Katie and I hurried after them down a torn-up alley. The skeletis pulled the lifeless body out of the ruins and set it on a grassy hill. As soon as the skeletis left, I saw what had caused all the commotion.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  HAL’S T.C.L. CAN

  Half-hidden in the tall weeds was Kala’s crumpled-up corpse. For a good minute, I couldn’t think at all. It’s not true, was the only notion spinning frantically in my head. This couldn’t be. I just saw him hours ago. I tried moving closer, but couldn’t. I wanted to do a lot of impossible things at that moment. I wanted to talk to Kala and say how proud I was of him and tell him with a little more work he could beat the tortic. I wanted to tell him how brave he was. But what I wanted to tell him most of all was that he did well. But I couldn’t tell him that. He was dead. His body looked like he had been dead for more than a day. He was already beginning to show signs of decay. I could smell it on him. The long cuts on his arms had dried up and wrinkled, and the bruises on his face had sunken in, giving him a wretched, emaciated look. Strangely enough, he looked at peace, with his eyes closed and his head tucked between his curled up legs.

  “Jesse, Kala wouldn’t have wanted this,” said Jacoby as he passed by. “Get your crying out and be done with it.”

  And then something came over me. I felt an unbearable rage coming from the gut of my stomach. I wasn’t sad. I was infuriated.

  “This is your fault!” I yelled. “You said he would be okay! You are a liar! You lie about everything!”

  I continued to yell at him while he calmly combed the bottom of the hill, looking for a clear spot. He crouched and cupped a handful of dirt and probed it with his thumb.

  “What are you doing?” I snapped.

  Jacoby stood up and picked up a shovel.

  “No! You can’t!”

  “Just for now,” he explained.

  “No! He needs a proper burial. Psyclin him to the cemetery.”

  “We can’t psyclin a dead body and we don’t have the time. If we leave him here, unburied, he’ll be picked up by sarscas or hellgon werewolves.”

  “This is all your fault!” I screamed again.

  Jacoby sank the shovel into the mud and began digging. I hated how he could ignore me without batting an eyelash, completely focused on the task at han
d. It didn’t take him long to dig an ugly hole about five feet deep. The next time I glanced over, Jacoby was flattening the dirt over Kala. I had never seen someone get buried. It didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

  We all gathered around the mound of dirt and gave our last respects. The first to leave was Jacoby. Dorian was already waiting at the top of the hill. Katie and I were the last ones to part with Kala. When we got to the top, everyone was sitting in a circle: Jacoby, Dorian, Hess, Franky, Murlie, Lin, and a skinny old samhain with dark skin, wearing a candy-cane nightgown. They were all listening to Franky recount what he had learned from Ray. Katie and I sat down next to Lin. The grass was wet and pointy. I moved around a little bit before I gave my complete attention to Franky’s report.

  “The tortics showed up here right after you picked up Hess. They were seen by one halloween, a nomis, named Lizzy. She took cover in a bungalow behind her store before anything happened. She said all she could hear were battle sounds. She was killed by a tortic’s Jical sometime after she called Ray.”

  “Did Ray have any take on why the tortics were here?” said Jacoby.

  “No. He did, however, think they may know Jack’s path now. He also wanted me to mention to you that they have been making frequent trips to Kilkenny, Ireland. He had forgotten to tell you this before.”

  “I would like to add something,” said the old halloween, placing a mug of bubbly liquid into his lap. A white brand on his wrist said he was Forlin Crosby and a prospect 6 candidate. “With the samhain government being established in the next couple of days, it’s possible a tortic could be involved with one of the candidates running for the Black Office. That could explain their trips to Ireland. It has been a discussion in the Haunt House for days.”

  “Forlin,” Jacoby said bluntly, “the tortics have no desire to be part of the government. We have evidence of their psyclins inside the Veil of Time Museum, the Entering Zone, and near the shores of the Fellowship. They are gathering information on Jack. They’re planning to kill him. You understand?”

  “Yes.” He looked dubious.

  “Forlin, you’re going to have to fight for presidency. No one is going to want you to win. There’ll always be archaic candidates. Just keep working as you have been. Is there anything you know about the tortics’ recent undertakings outside of politics?”