My Friends Are Dead People (21 page)

Franky headed back to his cell.

“
You want to come with
us?” said Katie.

Franky turned back as Lin
approached him. “Is your real name
Henry
Frankenstein
?” asked Lin.

“
Yes,” he answered with an
odd smile. “I have forgotten what it’s like to be called
that.”

“
I’m Lin. A
melflin.”

Lin put out his hand, and Franky’s hand
swallowed Lin’s like a glove folding over a baseball.

“
Nice to meet you, Lin. I
am a hewkel. So are we going?”

“
The door’s locked,” I
said.

“
Oh. Here, let me . . .”
Henry easily pushed the door off its iron hinges. “There we
go.”

We followed him out of the room into a
circular chamber, with echoey wooden floors and stone walls. The
wood was stained with dried blood and slashed with claw marks. A
few samhain skeletons were hanging from the top corners in
two-inch-thick shackles.

“
I don’t like this,” I
said.

Katie tapped a chain, and it instantly
cuffed her leg. Three more chains hooked to the rest of her limbs
and yanked her up along the wall. Within seconds, we were all
chained and pulled up halfway up the wall.

A sharp screech caused everyone to look down
to the center of the room. A circular platform had risen three feet
off the floor. In the middle of it sat a red box, just like the one
that had my name on it.

“
How are we going to get
that?” cried Lin. “We can’t even get to it! The chains are cursed!
Franky, what are we–”

Franky’s chains lowered him back to the
floor and unsnapped.

“
Open the box!” I said
quickly, feeling as if my arms were going to pop out of their
sockets.

Franky ambled over to the platform.

“
Does it say any of our
names?” I said.

“
Franky,” he nodded. He
opened the box and pulled out a thin plank of oak wood.

“
Henry, I am surprised
they picked you. No more cooked rats. I will be the first to give
you a Hurt Chocolate if you survive all ten
rounds.
” Franky flipped the plank over.
“
You are in the actual chamber that was
created thousands of years ago by the very first samhain. It is a
magic practice ground, which we have decided to keep. Jack has been
here, in case you haven’t noticed the holes signifying a Dark
Death.
”

I hadn’t noticed until then that the
corpses’ femurs and skulls had one or two clean-cut holes punched
straight through them. Franky read on.

“
You will be playing in
the Jack O’Games, just like the ones played at the festivals, but
this time there will be no rules. Cheers.
”

A hole took form in the wall, and another
one took form in the floorboards. We all stared fearfully at the
one in the wall as there were scuttling sounds coming from it.

“
What is that?” I
said.

Franky trudged quickly toward the hole. He
knew something we didn’t.

“
A recktail,” said Franky,
who didn’t look nervous at all.

“
What’s that?” asked
Katie.

“
A large invisible
rat.”

“
Can
you
see it?”

“
No. I’m just going to
have to . . .”

We all looked around frantically, hoping to
locate the rat.

“
I felt something!” I
signaled, having felt something hairy brush against my
legs.

“
We should be able to hear
it–” Franky started as something bumped into him full-speed.
“Jesse, don’t move! He’s coming your way.”

“
No,
no!
” I cried nervously.
“
Get it, get it!
”

Franky hit the wall, and something thumped
heavily across the floor. Teeth marks appeared on his arms, and he
swung his large fist into the wall. And that was it. Panicked
scampering faded down the wooden hole. We all turned back to
Franky. Everything was quiet again. But it wasn’t over. The
recktail was squealing for its life somewhere at the bottom of the
hole. Something was killing it. Franky backed away from the
hole.

The plank of wood rattled inside the box. He
took it out and read it out loud.

“
Game
over
.
Lorseria
.”

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.

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.