Second Star to the Fright

by Vera Strange

  Feeling defeated, Barrie followed Rita out the door, grabbing his backpack with the gash in the side. It was time for school. They climbed into the car and he slumped in the back seat. He was dreading telling Michael and John the news that he couldn’t go. They did everything together.

  “Enjoy the kiddie museum, Goober,” Rita smirked as if reading his mind. “Meanwhile, I’ll be rocking out with my friends.”

  She made the rock out symbol with her hands and fired up “Never Land.” The song blared from the speakers, making Barrie feel even worse—which he hadn’t thought possible.

  “You don’t gotta rub it in,” Barrie mumbled, feeling like a dagger had been plunged into his heart.

  Rita glanced in the rearview mirror. He could tell she wanted to do just that, but then she spotted the desolate expression on his face and softened.

  “Hey, cheer up,” she said. “I’ll send you vids from the show.”

  But he didn’t want videos—he wanted to be there with his friends and the cool kids. He couldn’t believe that Michael and John were going to see the Lost Boys without him.

  His mother’s words ran through his head again: You’re too young for concerts.

  It just wasn’t fair.

  He reached into his backpack through the gash in the side, feeling the outline of the hook. He was sure that the wish had caused this to happen. That was the only possible explanation for why his parents would suddenly decide that he was too young for a concert. For the first time, as he slumped in the back seat listening to his favorite song, he started to wonder if not growing up was such a good idea after all.

  * * *

  The children’s museum was even worse than he expected.

  All the exhibits were overrun with snotty little kids wired on sugar or adrenaline—or maybe both. They careened around the museum like drunken sailors, bumping into each other, squealing in shrill voices, and smearing their sticky hands everywhere.

  Barrie was definitely the oldest kid there. When he was younger, he’d loved this museum, especially the ocean exhibit, where they let the kids pick up starfish. But now, as he surveyed the colorful, geometric designs and oversized signs, he felt like he didn’t belong. I should be at the concert with my friends, he thought glumly, not stuck here with these little brats.

  “Go have fun with the other kids,” Mom said, oblivious to his sour mood. Her eyes had that glazed-over look. “I’ll be over here if you need anything.”

  She joined a gaggle of parents clustered by the hard plastic chairs. They all seemed absorbed in their phones, as if they’d rather be anywhere else. Barrie could relate—he felt the exact same way.

  He meandered through the museum, looking for a group of kids that he could join, but none of them looked fun. He was a few years older than everyone there.

  Buzz. Buzz.

  His phone vibrated in his pocket and he fished it out, opening to his messages. He hit play on a video Michael had sent him. The screen flooded with an image of John up close, with the brightly lit stage in the background.

  “Wish you were here!” John yelled before tilting the lens toward the stage, right as the band launched into “Second Star.” Colorful lights swirled around while backup dancers rocked out. Star-shaped spotlights roved over the packed crowd, who were bouncing around and looked like they were having the time of their lives. “You’re the second star I see every night, but of all the stars, the brightest light,” the trio sang in perfect harmony while playing their instruments. “Never stop flying, never grow up, dreams are forever, and childhood doesn’t stop.”

  Barrie felt his mouth go dry. Envy rose up in him like a poisonous tide. Rita sent him a video, too, as promised. She was there with Brooke and Todd. It seemed like her painstaking plans to get Todd’s attention had worked. Todd had his arms wrapped around Rita.

  Yuck, Barrie thought, imagining them making out during the show.

  Barrie played and then replayed the videos over and over, feeling worse every time he watched them. Suddenly, staying a kid didn’t seem so fun after all. He missed his friends. He had missed the concert.

  Did I make a huge mistake?

  He wandered over to the ocean exhibit—his former favorite—passing through a shadowy corridor painted blue and designed to emulate the sensation of being underwater. Facts about undersea life were painted across the walls in colorful script, along with fanciful sea images.

  He reached the end of the corridor. Strangely, the exhibit was dark, except for the open tank of water in the middle. Eerie blue light filtered through the salt water, casting strange, rippling shadows across the walls and ceiling. It really did feel like being underwater.

  It was also deserted. This was strange. In the past, there had always been dozens of little kids running around the exhibit, splashing in the water and harassing the starfish. For half a second, Barrie felt relieved to have the room to himself, but then he heard it behind him—

  Thump. Thump.

  Barrie tensed. He whipped around, but he was completely, utterly alone.

  He strained his ears.

  The room was eerily silent, aside from the burbling of the tank. He felt cold suddenly and shivered in his light T-shirt. But museums were usually kept on the colder side, weren’t they?

  Barrie approached the tank. Wrapping his arms around his chest, he peered down into the water, but only harmless starfish lay on the sand, clustered around the coral reef. He reached his fingers in and stroked one of them, feeling the bumpy surface. This exhibit had always soothed him, ever since he was a little kid. While he was scared of the ocean, this felt contained and safe. He could see the bottom. The water was clear. It contained only harmless creatures.

  Then, suddenly, an eerie voice reverberated out of the water.

  “Scurvy brat!” the voice gurgled, sounding deeply furious. “You’re not the first little boy to take something from me that doesn’t belong to you—but you will be the last!”

  Barrie bolted down the corridor. His heart felt like it might jump out of this chest.

  He could still hear the threatening voice booming out of the water at him. Scurvy brat! For the first time, he knew what he’d heard. He was wide awake this time. It wasn’t just a dream. And it wasn’t his overactive imagination, either. There was no mistaking that voice.

  It’s Captain Hook. He’s after me, Barrie thought wildly.

  But there was no way that the pirate was still alive. His pirate ship was in a museum. Which could mean only one thing: Captain Hook’s ghost must be haunting him, and had been ever since he stole the hook from his ship. That would explain all the weird things that had been happening to him since that day.

  He knew, on the one hand, that ghosts didn’t exist. But on the other hand, he knew that the hook had magical powers. It had granted his wish to never grow up, hadn’t it? So wasn’t it possible that Captain Hook’s ghost was real, too?

  It sure felt real. And it was clearly furious at Barrie for stealing his hook. You’re not the first little boy to take something from me that doesn’t belong to you—but you will the last!

  The words echoed through his head again, making Barrie’s heart almost explode with fear. He cut through the museum, running as fast as he could to get away from the ocean exhibit, down the dark and shadowy hall. He kept expecting Captain Hook to leap out of the darkness and attack him. Every shadow looked like a threat.

  Finally, he burst back into the main exhibition hall. Here, it was brightly lit and there were kids everywhere. He found his mother glued to her phone, along with the other parents. They all looked tired and vaguely annoyed by their offspring running all around the museum.

  “Mom…he’s here!” Barrie panted in a panicked voice. Now that he knew Hook’s ghost was really haunting him, he had to get help. “We’re in real danger! We have to go!”

  “Who’s here, sweetie?” Mom said, looking up from her screen. She had a glazed-over look in her eyes. “What’re you talking about? Slow down and speak clear
ly.”

  “Captain Hook…his ghost…he’s after me…” Barrie started, but the words dried up in his throat the second he said them.

  He realized how crazy he sounded.

  A second ago, he didn’t believe in ghosts, either. But he knew what he’d heard back there. And he knew that Captain Hook’s ghost was really after him.

  “Oh, that’s just your overactive imagination,” Mom said with a weary sigh. She bent down and patted his head to calm him down. “You know how you get those bad dreams.”

  The other parents looked over and chuckled knowingly.

  “My little Bobby still can’t sleep without a night-light,” one father said with a smile. “He thinks monsters live under his bed.”

  The parents all laughed in commiseration. Barrie’s cheeks burned.

  “But I swear…he’s real!” he protested. “It wasn’t a dream—I was wide awake. He’s been haunting me ever since we went to the maritime museum—”

  “Sweetie, pirates aren’t real,” Mom said slowly, like she was talking to a little kid. “You know that. At least, not anymore.”

  “But he is real!” Barrie said in an urgent voice. “It’s gotta be his ghost. That’s the only explanation—”

  “Listen, I told your father it was a bad idea to take you to that pirate ship,” Mom said with a weary sigh. “But we thought you were old enough to handle it.”

  “Mom, I swear…Captain Hook’s ghost is haunting me,” Barrie pleaded. “You have to believe me. And he’s mad at me….He wants to hurt me.”

  But she just shook her head and grabbed his hand. “Come on, sweetie, let’s get you home for bed. Wow, I’m sure glad we didn’t let you go to that concert! Clearly, you’re not old enough for that if you can’t even handle a trip to the children’s museum.”

  Barrie wanted to protest further. He wanted to argue that he wasn’t seeing things. That Captain Hook’s ghost was really haunting him. Maybe he could show her the hook and the note that he stole from the ship? But then he caught himself. He couldn’t show those things to his mom—then she’d know he was a thief on top of everything else.

  As they drove toward home, taking the familiar route by the sea, Barrie started to feel even worse. His phone kept vibrating with new texts from his friends, but he switched it off. He knew they were having the best time of their lives—and he was missing it. FOMO had never felt so strong. It stung at him like needles poking at his brain.

  He stared out at the black waves, replaying everything from the last few days in his head. At first, not growing up had seemed so great, but it was quickly turning into a nightmare. Not getting to go to the concert was bad enough, but now Hook’s ghost was after him, too.

  How could he make it stop?

  They pulled up to the house, got out of the car, and were heading for the front door when Barrie skidded to a halt in his tracks.

  “Oh no!” he gasped, flinching back from the door. “Watch out!”

  The front door had been slashed. Deep gouges scoured the wood. Paint flecks and splinters littered the doorstep. Two words had been hacked into the wood in jagged letters, but they were unmistakable.

  His mother eyed him, confused. “What’s wrong?”

  “Uh, can’t you see it?” he said, aiming one shaky finger at the message. “It’s like right there.”

  Mom squinted at the door.

  “Oh, this?” She bent down to scoop up a pamphlet that had been shoved into the doorframe. It was an ad for a local tree-trimming service. “Just those solicitors who keep pestering us. Nothing to worry about.”

  She crumpled up the pamphlet, slid her key into the lock, and unbolted it. Then, she thrust the front door wide open and swept inside as if nothing were amiss.

  Why couldn’t his mother see it?

  Barrie just stared at the door in shock. The message—SCURVY BRAT—stared back at him. It was clearly there, plain as day. Another terrible thought occurred to him.

  Was his family in danger, too? What was he going to do?

  * * *

  “Jeez, you’re awful jumpy today,” Michael said as they walked into school on Friday morning. He shot Barrie a concerned look. “What’s gotten into you? I mean, you’re usually a total weirdo, but this is worse than normal.”

  Barrie had dark circles under his eyes and could barely keep them open. He had tried to stay up all night for the last two days. Every time he fell asleep, terrible nightmares haunted him—nightmares that might have been real. Swords slashed out of the darkness at him. He’d wake up with his heart pounding, often to new gashes on the ceiling or in the headboard of his bed. Every shadow made him jump. He was growing increasingly jittery with every day that passed.

  Hook’s ghost wasn’t letting up.

  Barrie was sure it was the captain’s ghost now, even if that sounded crazy. The encounter at the children’s museum had confirmed it. If he didn’t find a way to make it stop, he was going to lose his mind.

  “Yeah, has Rita been even more freaky than normal?” John asked with a snort.

  “Uh, yeah,” Barrie said, distracted. Part of him wanted to tell Michael and John what was going on, but a bigger part of him feared that his friends wouldn’t believe him. “My sister’s a total freak and a half.”

  He scanned the shadows in the corners of the hallway, half expecting a sword to lash out at him, or that voice to boom out. He couldn’t get it out of his head.

  “Did you hear they’re going to release the concert from the other night on streaming?” Michael said, making Barrie jump. He broke into an air guitar solo, dropping to his knees. “Now you’ll get to see the whole thing.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Barrie said vacantly.

  “Yeah, it was so lame you couldn’t go,” John said. “But I saw your sister making out with that loser Todd.” He made a grossed-out face like he was sucking a lemon. “So at least you didn’t have to witness that crime against humanity.”

  Barrie started toward their classroom, but Michael shot him a weird look.

  “Hey, where’re you going?” he asked. “Did you forget about today?”

  “What do you mean?” Barrie said, skidding to a halt. He could feel the hook’s weight in his backpack. He scanned his memory, but his brain felt groggy and twitchy at the same time.

  “It’s our graduation today,” John added. “We’ve gotta head to the auditorium.”

  “Oh, right!” Barrie said, smacking his forehead. “How could I forget?”

  “Yeah, weirdo,” Michael said. “Sure you’re okay? You’ve been acting strange lately.”

  “Yeah, like…way spacier than normal,” John added. “And that’s saying a lot.”

  Barrie studied his friends’ faces. They looked genuinely concerned. He wanted to confide in them and confess everything. Tell them about taking the hook from the museum and making his wish to never grow up, and then how Captain Hook’s ghost kept haunting him.

  But then he remembered his mother.

  She didn’t believe him—why would they?

  But he was losing his mind. He needed help. He opened his mouth to tell them, but then Michael grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the auditorium.

  “Come on, we can’t be late for the biggest day of our lives,” Michael said.

  “Junior high, here we come!” John added with a hoot. “Lost Boys forever!”

  They broke out their secret handshake, and for a moment, Barrie forgot about the hook and the pirate’s ghost and felt better than he had in days. Maybe Hook’s ghost would forget about him and leave him alone. Maybe things would start to get better.

  Cheered by that thought, he followed his friends into the auditorium, which was overly chilled by air-conditioning and smelled like a new car. Parents were filing in through the doors, excited to capture their kids traipsing across the stage to receive their certificates.

  Barrie scanned the crowd but didn’t spot his parents. Michael and John waved to their parents, who had settled into the third row together. They wa
ved, then chatted away like friendly neighbors, mostly because that’s exactly what they were.

  Strange, Barrie thought. Where were his parents? Not to mention his annoying aunt and cousins. Though he wouldn’t mind so much if they missed the ceremony. His parents were probably rushing to get away from their work. They’d been so stressed and busy lately that they were always running late. They’d likely arrive any minute, breathless and scattered but excited to whip out their phones and snap goofy pictures of him parading onstage with his class.

  Before he could worry about it further, Mr. Bates rapped on his clipboard and ordered them to settle down. “Line up,” he called out. “Alphabetical order, please.”

  Barrie dutifully assembled with his class backstage, separating from Michael and John and slotting into the proper spot. The ceremony began with their names being called in alphabetical order, one after the next. Each kid walked across the stage to shake the principal’s hand, received their certificate, and posed for a picture, then exited the other way.

  When Barrie got to the front of the line, his heart hammered in anticipation. This was his first real graduation. In the fall, he would move up to junior high, and so much would change. He just hoped that he could stay best friends with Michael and John. Despite his fears about the new school, he knew that he could handle it as long as the Lost Boys stayed together.

  He tensed up backstage, waiting for the principal to call his name.

  “Wendy Derry,” the principal called out.

  Barrie’s mouth dropped open.

  The principal skipped right over his name to the girl standing behind him. Wendy shot him a strange look—like she didn’t even know him—then walked past him onto the stage.

  “Hey, Mr. Bates,” Barrie said, finding his teacher backstage. He had a gnawing feeling in his stomach. “The principal forgot to call my name. What should I do?”

  “What do you mean?” Mr. Bates said, looking concerned.

  “They skipped right to Wendy,” Barrie said, certain his teacher would fix it. “There must be some kind of mistake. The principal didn’t call my name to graduate.”