My Friends Are Dead People (16 page)

The crowd clamored. Jacoby turned back to
Murlie and asked, “Can Soundrec stay with you for the night? It
would help us immensely.”

Murlie grumbled, but nodded in
agreement.

“
Alright, get moving,”
Jacoby said to the samhains. “We’ll know more tomorrow. Four hours
is not a long wait.”

The crowd knew it was over and slowly began
to disperse.

“
We all know it was Jack,”
said Murlie. “We just wanted to hear it from you and
Dorian–”

“
We don’t know for sure
that it was him.”

“
Who else? No halloween
can cast a Bellnicsi, other than Jack and–”

“
How do you know it was
the Bellnicsi?” said Dorian, coming up to Jacoby’s side.

Murlie must have known he wouldn’t bring up
his head because she was looking straight at him.

“
The seismic waves were
18.2. There is no other spell that can create such a force. You
heard it–”

“
Murlie,” Jacoby
interrupted, “would you be kind enough to also shelter Kala? He’ll
need to be healed, too.”

“
Fine,” she replied
grumpily.

Jacoby and Dorian walked away. Before Katie
could move, Murlie snatched her arm and studied it with her good
eye.

“
You are no witch,” she
growled. “You have no Hallow’s soul.”

“
Jesse, Katie,” called
Jacoby.

Murlie released Katie’s wrist, and Katie and
I ran back to Jacoby, Dorian and Lin, who were heading up a steep
narrow street that was unaffected by the Bellnicsi.

“
Where we going?” asked
Katie.

“
Ray’s,” said
Jacoby.

“
Why does Kala need
healing? You said he’s fine.”

“
He’s going to be. Murlie
can heal him within a few hours.”

“
I don’t like Murlie,” I
said. “We should find someone else for Kala.”

“
She’s okay, Jesse. She’s
not always a bad welchick. She knows when to put aside her
witchery. Be thankful there are no witches from the Veil around.
Supposedly, wikitch welks ate ten children a day.”

I believed Jacoby, but he didn’t have to
tell me about witches who ate kids. I was just glad Kala was going
to be okay. I couldn’t imagine what he had gone through during the
match and what he was going through at the moment.

“
It was the tortics,” said
Dorian, walking up ahead with Jacoby.

“
But we’re not sure.
Soundrec’s injury–”

“
Is their Jical’s
magic.”

“
I know. But they didn’t
summon it. There are two other possibilities. I know you felt the
second presence. . . .”

I wondered if I felt it, too. I did get
goose bumps and cold sweat during the disaster.

“
Then explain why the
tortics were here,” pressed Dorian. “They were not here for the
games.”

“
I agree,” said Jacoby,
getting agitated.

They picked up their pace as they continued
their conversation. On occasion it seemed to heat up, but they
never shouted. Katie, Lin, and I always stayed close. Sometimes we
had to jog to keep up.

“
. . . They’ve figured it
out and we can’t trust them,” said Dorian, looking Jacoby straight
in the eyes.

We all dropped our heads.

“
Why do you think they
tried searching for the woman from Brazil? They’re going after all
the most powerful halloweens and trying to kill them off. They want
to take over Samhain.”

“
Dili wasn’t a threat.
You’re the only menala who would be.”

Dorian didn’t have a response. Their tortic
debate looked like it was finally over.

“
What is a Bellnicsi?” I
asked. “Is it bad?”

“
Yes,” answered
Katie.

“
How do you
know?”

“
Mí papá told
me.”

“
What did he
say?”

Jacoby was staring at us.

“
Jacoby, is the Bellnicsi
dangerous?” I asked.

“
A Bellnicsi is Jical’s
magic that disrupts the ears. And to answer your question, it
depends.”

“
What could they possibly
use it for?”

“
To cause all halloweens
to go deaf.”

“
But everyone knew it was
coming,” said Katie, confused.

“
That’s because Soundrec
stopped it for a short time, which produced the warning tremble.
However, it was never completely summoned.”

“
But it wasn’t the
tortics?”

“
No.”

I had hundreds of questions. Why would the
tortics want to kill Kala if he wasn’t a threat? Who summoned the
Bellnicsi? Why did the tortics disappear? Did Jack come? Why did
the tortics need to be powerful when they only lived one day a
year? What was the average life expectancy of a samhain?

“
The tortics hate Jack,
too, then?” I said. “Because he’s stronger than them?”

“
Yes,” said Jacoby.
“They’ve been trying to find him ever since he was linked to the
human deaths. But we’re still not sure if he’s responsible for
them.”

Before I could ask another question, Katie
spoke. “But he’s the only one who lived during all the killings,
no?”

“
That’s how it seems. But
we don’t know that for sure.”

“
So,” I ventured, “how can
the tortics search for someone who they have never seen before? And
if Jack didn’t murder the humans, that means he might not exist,
right? That’s the only real evidence of his existence.”

Jacoby stopped at the top of the street.
“The existence of evidence doesn’t constitute the evidence of
existence, and vice versa,” explained Jacoby. “There is no true
evidence of his existence, no. However, he could be here. . . .
There are a few ways of detecting powerful magic, or any magic. We
don’t need to know what he looks like to sense him. Plenty of
halloweens, and even humans, claim they’ve seen him. The story of
Jack roaming the Irish countryside is essential folklore to humans
and halloweens alike, the kind of folklore that I believe to be
rooted in a historical fact. Children of the late Celtic era
catching glimpses of an undying man with a glowing turnip roaming
the countryside is a very powerful image to us.”

I thought Jacoby was going to say more, but
he didn’t.

“
Who can conjure the
Bellnicsi?” I said.

“
Not many.”

“
So it was Jack or . .
.”

“–
the tortics, the demons.
They’re all possibilities. Dorian is a possibility, too. However,
the Bellnicsi is summoned through the power of hatred and desire,
you really must want to hurt the halloween. If you don’t, then it’s
nearly impossible to summon the magic. Even for Jack. You truly
have to hate a halloween. It won’t be enough to merely be
power-hungry, which eliminates the tortics. Alright–”

“
Let’s get moving,”
ordered Katie with authority, anticipating Jacoby’s next
words.

“
Come on, you two,” I
finished. “The night’s short.”

Katie and I giggled. Jacoby started walking
without saying a word, probably annoyed with us.

“
Are we going home?” said
Katie, chasing after him.

“
Not now.”

“
Why?” I asked.

“
Would you like the real
reason? It’s not good news.”

“
Hmm . . .
yes.”

“
Katie? . . . You two were
both charged with violating the rules by helping Kala. Not your
mistake, I understand. But Irish Scavengers were ordered to find
you and take you to the Haunt House, where they will identify you
as humans and kill you.”

“
What?” I couldn’t believe
my ears.

“
Jesse, I warned you. But
they won’t come near you with Dorian around.”

“
Why are we going to
Ray’s?” asked Katie, definitely not as scared as I was.

“
Because Ray might know
what’s going on. He has a second home in Ireland, the most
populated halloween country. And he knows the tortics.”

“
But what if the
Scavengers are not as afraid of Dorian as you think?” I said. “I
don’t want to be killed.”

“
Jesse, you’re beginning
to sound like Kala. If you want to go home, you can.”

“
Stop being scared,
Jesse,” said Katie. “I’m not going home.”

“
How are we going to get
to Ray’s?” I asked.

“
Lin,” said
Jacoby.

“
Lin?”

“
He’s great at psyclining.
Could–”

“
Could get you anywhere
you want,” finished Lin, jumping in front of the group. “Why didn’t
you tell me this earlier? I had just walked a billion
blocks!”

“
We’ll do it there.”
Jacoby pointed to a deserted park with a playground and grass
field. “It’s secluded enough.”

“
This is nuts! We can
psyclin anywhere. No one will see us. So, where are we
going?”

“
Ray’s!” Katie and I said
in unison.

Jacoby stopped near a
broken swing set, and we all held hands while Lin sang.
“
Ray’s house we go
.
Don’t forget your friend to
hold
.
Here we go,
so hold on so
– Ouch! Jacoby, that hurts!
Fine. One, two, three.”

The psyclin didn’t feel like moving or
traveling at all. It just felt cold, warm, and then cold again. But
I did smell something nasty.

“
Jesse!” said Katie’s
voice in the darkness. “Ew! Jesse, move! You’re standing in welgo’s
poop.”

I opened my eyes and looked down. “Ah man!”
I groaned.

We were back in Ray’s weedy back yard.

“
Friends!” shouted Ray
excitedly from the back porch. “You survived the Bellnicsi! The
second one in Halloween history! Who summoned it?”

“
We don’t know, Ray,” said
Jacoby. “That’s why we’re here. We thought you might have some
clues.”

“
I don’t know. Who do you
think it was?”

“
What do you think about
the tortics?”

“
Oh, I don’t know. They
don’t really hate anyone. Who was at the festival?”

“
One of the tortics almost
killed Kala,” said Katie.

Ray went over to my welgo and rubbed her
head. “All of the tortics were there?”

Jacoby nodded.

“
What happened to
Kala?”

“
Kala was badly injured in
the game.”

“
I don’t know why they
would be there. They don’t like the games or the festivals. Who
interrupted the summon?”

“
Soundrec is believed to
be the one. He was injured in the process. We’ll have to wait two
days for an answer.”

“
Oh, my, that’s a while. I
say, you’re just going to have to go talk to Lorseria. But he
doesn’t want to kill Kala. He is intrigued by the menalas. But we
did disagree on some matters at our last meeting. I say, if Silky
hadn’t been there to whisk me away, I’d be dead now.”

Ray rubbed her head. I couldn’t believe he
also called her Silky. What a weird coincidence.

“
They are unreliable,”
Dorian said, “and can’t be trusted. I doubt he completely confides
in you.”

Ray stopped rubbing Silky. “Well, sometimes
I do sense their hatred toward you. But not toward Kala or Meesi.
Or Dili.”

“
Do you think Dili was
murdered by a tortic?”

Ray didn’t have to think about it. “No.”

“
Thanks, Ray,” said
Jacoby.

“
Are you really going to
see Lorseria? He’s become quite dangerous lately.”

“
We must. I can’t afford
to wait for Soundrec to recover. You know a Bellnicsi at a festival
is an act of genocide.”

“
Okay, but it would be
extremely wise for Dorian to stay behind.”

“
No, we’re all
going.”

Why? If Dorian stayed at Ray’s house with
us, the scavengers wouldn’t touch us. We could even dig a hole
right here under Ray’s backyard and hide. I picked up a handful of
dirt and studied it carefully. I was sure it could be possible–

Katie hit me.

“
Oww!” I cried
out.

“
Ray’s talking to
you.”

“
I see you’ve taken
interest in my fertilizer,” said Ray.

“
Oh, uhmm . . . no, I just
. . .”

“
His mind wanders a lot,”
said Katie. “You don’t know if he’s listening or
daydreaming.”

“
Really? . . . Well, you
better get going. You don’t want to still be there during the Dark
Hours.”

“
Jacoby, are the welgos
taking us?” I asked, watching Silky yawn.

“
Yes.”

I walked over to Silky and started to pat
her. “Ready for another trip?”

She kept her head in the tall weeds, moving
only her eyebrows to look at me.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

The OCEAN
CROSSING

Silky wouldn’t budge. I remembered that
playing fetch with Duma helped to get him going, or at least perked
up his mood. I searched the grass and found a long stick. I waved
it in front of Silky’s face and then tossed it into the far corner
of the backyard. Silky didn’t even lift her head out of the
grass.