May Bird and the Ever After (8 page)

For five nights in a row May stayed up each night, most of the night, with her eyes on her bedroom door for ghostly intruders. And every morning just before dawn, she watched through her bedroom window as the ghosts trickled down the front walkway and into the woods in what seemed to be the direction of the lake. It was only when the last ghost disappeared into the trees that she ever fell asleep.

Dark circles formed under May's and her mother's eyes. Though May tried her best to hide the situation, it would have been hard for anyone not to notice her spitting and throwing salt wherever she went. She'd started wearing every piece of silver she could find. She'd tied a four-piece set of silverware around
her waist like a skirt, and pinned the onyx brooch from her shelf onto her shirt.

She collected all the food she could fit in her arms, filled her favorite canteen with water, and built a tepee in the most protected corner of her room. It was filled with her small collection of silver dollars and dried periwinkle from one of her mother's wreaths. She posted a
NO TRESPASSING
sign on the entrance. It became her nightly hiding place, where she curled against the back wall and watched for ghosts.

But life at the manor had changed in another way, too. A host of papers, catalogs, and brochures had begun pouring in from Saint Agatha's, landing on the kitchen table in a heap as they tumbled out of Mrs. Bird's arms. While May stayed as far away from them as possible, Mrs. Bird pored over them in earnest, clutching her tea mug in one hand and turning the pages with the other.

“May, they even have seminars on making good first impressions. Isn't that great? Wouldn't you like to make good first impressions?”

May had become afraid of going outside. So at times like these, May avoided her mom by drifting from room to room of the manor—the two parlors, the library, the five unused bedrooms, and the attic, which had the highest window in the house.

She didn't know what she was looking for. But it seemed that if she looked hard enough, she'd find a way to save herself from Saint Agatha's. She pressed her forehead to the windowpane, staring toward the woods, Somber Kitty tripping along at her heels until he'd get bored and zip away.

She wondered about the Lady of North Farm. The way her mom looked at her, like she'd grown a second head, made it seem
very important that somewhere, somebody said they needed her. Even if that seemed impossible. It was enticing to think that someone thought she was good enough to be needed.

It made her long to see the lake again, a feeling so strange, it made May feel like she had grown
three
heads.

About half an hour after midnight, May was huddled in her tepee, reading the
Encyclopedia of the Supernatural
while cuddling Somber Kitty under one arm. She was just turning the page, when she heard her door creak open. She froze, not even daring to turn her head.

A shadow approached the tepee, looming large against the walls, and May felt her body going cold. A shadow hand reached out and closed around the blanket.

May couldn't hold back. She screamed and rolled sideways, knocking the tepee over. It fell around her as she howled, getting more and more tangled in the blankets. A moment later, hands yanked the blanket off. There was her mother, her brown eyes wide. There was no sign of a ghost anywhere.

“We're packing your things first thing in the morning,” Mrs. Bird said stiffly. “We'll stay at a hotel and make plans for New York.” She paused, shook her head, and rubbed at her eyelids. “I can't do this anymore, May.”

May sank onto her back, tears crawling out of the sides of her eyes and winding down her cheeks. Her mom merely tightened her lips and left the room.

It was a half hour or more before May wiped her eyes, stood up, and tiptoed into the hallway. Her mother's door at the other end of the hall was closed, and the light was out. Letting out a
ragged sigh, May crept up the stairs to the attic, keeping an eye out for ghosts.

May looked out the east window, pressing her face against it and getting new tears on the glass. The woods stared back at her like an old friend. New York City seemed like a million miles away. It seemed like the moon.

“Mew?” Even Somber Kitty seemed to know he should whisper. May picked him up and held him tight. They both peered into the night.

“What do we do?” she murmured, touching cheek to whiskers. Just faintly she could see a blue glow beyond the trees, flickering.

“Meow,” Somber Kitty replied, which meant “I don't know.”

“I'm not feeling very brave,” May sighed quietly.

Then she put her cat on the floor and tiptoed down to her room to sleep.

At the foot of May's bed Somber Kitty slept soundly, curled in a Cheez Doodle shape, dreaming of a field full of moths to catch. His paws twitched contentedly, swiping at this and that fluttering insect, putting them in his mouth to chew on. May, on the other hand, lay in her favorite black silky pajama top with her eyes wide open, staring at the dragonfly wind chimes above her bed. She flopped back and forth on the bed, her legs splaying one way and her arms another, the sweat gathering at the backs of her knees and the crease above her lips. In her hand she clutched her letter.

Quietly, so she wouldn't wake the cat, May rose. She went to her drawer and pulled out her black sparkly bathing suit. If she was going to face what was in the lake, she was going like a warrior.

Once she was dressed, May reached up to her shelf and plucked a quartz rock from the group, slipping it into her pocket for luck. She grabbed a flashlight from its hook beside her binoculars. She grabbed all of her ghost supplies: her silver and onyx and salt. Finally, she tucked her mysterious letter into her pocket.

Outside, the stars were shining in full force. May stopped on the lawn and looked at her house. In the light of the moon, it seemed to glow. Its crooked lines and sinking roof and the additions tacked on at every angle showed up extra bright. She had the sick, belly-aching feeling she'd never see it again.

“Don't be silly,” she said under her breath.

She turned and continued across the grass.

The trees were black slashes standing up from the ground until May was standing close to them, at the edge of the woods. Peering in, she could see the occasional lightning bug, up past bedtime, looking for a mate.

Before she stepped into the line of the trees, she took one last look toward home and sucked in a breath.

T
he lake was a glossy black hole, completely still. May stood just at the edge of the clearing, shining her flash-light on its surface, then on the surrounding area, looking for signs of movement. Navigating the briers had been easier tonight, knowing what was at the end of them, but her legs still itched from where she'd pricked herself. She bent down and rubbed at her calves gently.

Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes behind her, and she swiveled around, pointing her light at a group of shrubs that shook back and forth.

A small figure emerged from behind them.

“Kitty!”

Somber Kitty waddled up to her and rubbed against her shins. May lifted him up, walked him to the bushes, and dropped him in. She pointed over his head, and he followed the line of her finger with his eyes. “Go home. Home.”

“Meow.”

“Don't play dumb with me.” She stomped her foot. “You're gonna get hurt. Home.”

But Somber Kitty wouldn't budge. “Fine,” she said. “But you stay there.”

May turned and started toward the lake.

“Ouch!” She leaped into the air, grabbing onto her foot with one hand and jumping up and down. Her flashlight went tumbling. “Kitty!”

She sank onto the ground and stared at her foot, disbelieving. Two twin lines of blood dripped down the back of her heel.

“What'd you do that for?!”

Somber Kitty sat down beside her and meowed pitifully. But he also tilted his chin up in the air defiantly. “Meow. Meay.”

“Go home!” May yelled. She leaped to her feet and took a few running steps at the cat, sending him scuttling backward. But he turned around at the bushes and started to creep back toward her. “Meow?”

“Leave me alone, Somber Kitty! Go home!” She waved both arms at him as if she meant to hit him. Finally he went zipping back into the briers, disappearing down the path.

May crossed her arms and waited for him to come back, her foot aching.

Nothing.

“Go home!” she hollered again, but it didn't seem to be any use. Somber Kitty had gone.

“Kitty?”

May chewed on her thumbnail. She hoped he would find his way home okay. She picked up her flashlight from where it had landed, to look for her ghost items, which she'd dropped in the fray. But just when she did, the light died.

May shook it furiously a few times. “No,” she moaned, her
heart drumming. How would she ever find her way back home?

She turned and looked back toward the lake. Now in the dark, and with Somber Kitty gone, she felt very alone. She ought to try to catch up with him. But now when she turned to face home, she could see a very dim glow coming toward her through the woods.

She backed toward the lake, panting, until she was just on the edge of the water. Her heels touched the liquid coolness.
Click.

May turned. With a sound like a giant light switch being turned on, the lake had come completely aglow.

Mesmerized, May took a few steps sideways, then stood at the edge of the water, looking down. She forgot about what might be behind her. Looking down was like watching a giant television. Way down in the water, someone—or something—was swimming. The figure got larger and larger, as if it was coming from somewhere very deep, toward the surface.

Something in May told her she should get away, but her feet stayed rooted to the spot. The figure looked to be a woman, now that she was closer. A beautiful woman with hair down to her toes that swirled in all directions as she stroked upward. She flipped and twisted as gracefully as a water dancer.

When she was only a few feet away, her eyes met May's, and she smiled. The woman came right up to the surface of the water, resting just below it. She beamed at May for a moment more, the most gorgeous vision May had ever seen. May herself had never felt so beautiful, or so lit up, or so happy. The woman's smile seemed to say, I
see you. I understand you. I know.

And then her body began to widen and grow. As May watched, dazzled, it stretched into eight glowing points. Her eyes still locked on May's, the woman's smile widened, revealing not teeth,
but fangs. A hot arrow of fear shot down May's back. She started to pull away. But not before one arm shot out of the water, grabbed her by the leg, and yanked her in.

As she was dragged farther and farther downward, May's lungs felt like they were going to burst. She could still feel the woman's hands around her legs, but she couldn't see her shape anymore. She was just a glow as bright as the sun, pulling her down, down, down, down, down. Down farther than May thought any lake could go. It felt like she was being pulled to the center of the Earth.

Then her vision started to go black, and her lungs relaxed, and May let go of the hope of reaching the world above. She stopped struggling. Her arms floated up in surrender. The light started to fade away.

And then she saw it—another tiny glow, way above her. As it got closer, she could see it was coming from the horrible ghost with the lopsided head. He was plunging toward her, his long bony hands reaching out to grab her.

Just as he reached her, May's vision went black.