My Friends Are Dead People (28 page)

Lorseria gave one disgruntled grunt, and
Meesi followed.

“
I checked,” Jacoby
carried on. His shackles unlocked from the ground. “We can’t escape
the walls of the mountain. He’s not letting–”

“
You forgot,” Lorseria
interrupted, “we have more magic than you. You don’t exceed us,
Jacoby.”

“
But Jack
does.”

Lorseria thought hard about that, jerking
Meesi towards him. “That’s why we’ll come again.”

“
Let Meesi go,” I said.
“You can’t take her.”

“
Dorian?
” muttered Meesi to herself.
“
I’m here in–
”

Lorseria kicked Meesi, and she yelped.

“
We could all help each
other to survive,” continued Jacoby.

“
Help each other?” sneered
Lorseria. “Really? Is that true, Jacoby? Dorian and your tiny
friends want us banished.”

“
Dorian doesn’t
want–”

“
Dorian thinks,” he
exploded, spinning around viciously, “we are responsible for Kala
and Dili!”

“
You are!” Katie
snapped.

“
I will see your corpses
tomorrow.” Lorseria stomped away, yanking and dragging Meesi along
as she kicked and squirmed in his grip.

“
He’s taking me
away
–” began Meesi, trying communicate
with Dorian.

“
Stop!” snapped Lorseria
in a dark tone.

Meesi stood still, staring listlessly up at
Lorseria.

“
You utter another word
and–”

“
DORIAN!
” she screamed at the top of
her lungs, so loud her call carried down the tunnels and passages,
reaching the most remote chambers.

Lorseria spat out something in German to his
fellow tortics then turned to Meesi. “You idiot menala. Jack will
be here–”

All the tortics sniffed the air as the walls
shook and falling debris were sucked out of the tunnels. The bats
tore off the ceiling and flapped their wings chaotically with
panicked squeaks; many of them sucked out with the debris.

“
He’s coming,” said the
tallest tortic. “He killed all the yslas.”

“
If he wants us killed,
he’ll do it,” prompted Jacoby. “He’s playing with us. Why must you
refuse to see this? Lorseria, please, listen. Do what you want
after, but not now.”

Lorseria bent down and coughed sourly.

“
Lorseria, you’re ill. How
are you going to fight? We won’t see you again. He’s
going
to kill
us.”

Meesi wriggled out of the tortic’s grip and
rushed over to Jacoby. Lorseria hurried over to Jacoby. I saw his
claws lengthening, just as they had when he killed Cosqué.

“
Don’t!” I
bellowed.

Katie chucked a large rock at Lorseria, but
it had no effect. She charged him, and was flung into the wall. But
it was fear, not triumph, that washed over Lorseria’s face. His
large ears rotated towards the exit.

“
Don’t hurt Jacoby–”Meesi
stopped short, life coming back to her drooping shape. She had made
contact. “
Where?
”
she panted in her lap. “
I’m at
. . .
in
the
–”

Lorseria whirled around and magically slid
Meesi across the floor and into his claws. “Where is he?” he
grumbled, lifting her by the throat. “Where’s Dorian?”

Meesi shook her head. A drastic temperature
drop got everyone’s attention. A shadowy figure had psyclined into
the corner of the room. It was Dorian. I was the first one to spot
him.

“
DORI–” A tortic’s bony
knuckle propelled me into the wall before I could finish. I doubled
over and threw up as my crushed collarbone knocked all the air out
of me.

Dorian turned his head around just as the
tortics realized he was there. It was too late for Lorseria, who
had already met his cursed gaze. A dim flash of light went off
between them, and Lorseria’s black eyes lightened until they were a
translucent white. The other four tortics disappeared.

Dorian caught me as I fell and carefully set
me down. He passed his hand over me, instantly healing my shoulder,
so I could breathe again as if nothing had ever happened. I rotated
it and felt it in wonder: it was as good as new. Dorian freed
Jacoby while Lorseria was levitated over to him and dropped on the
floor.

“
You . . . killed Dili and
Kala?” asked Dorian strenuously.

Lorseria was magically forced to his knees
and replied in a monotone voice. “No.”

“
You did kill them,”
retorted Dorian, rather hoarse, looking like he had been through
hell. His clothes were ripped and blotched with blood. Long cuts
stretched across his hands and hairy forearms.

“
You did!” he spat,
snatching Lorseria’s face. “Why are you here?”

“
To use Meesi to lure Jack
to Germany.”

Dorian released his hold. “Was Jack at the
festival?”

“
Yes.”

“
Did he kill
Kala?”

“
Yes.” Lorseria
coughed.

“
Did he kill
Dili?”

A black tear trickled down Dorian’s orange
face. Lorseria was involuntarily yanked to his feet. He blinked in
anguish, trying to cut Dorian’s curse, but, unable to fight it,
relapsed into his hypnotic state.

“
Yes,” replied
Lorseria.

“
Did Jack summon the
Bellnicsi?”

“
No.”

I sniffed the musty air; something had
caught my attention; a tiny hint of an unpleasant rotting smell had
crept into the chamber. Jacoby crinkled his nose, and with him
Katie and Meesi.

“
Dorian!” called
Jacoby.

Dorian seemed oblivious to the offensive
odor. “Who summoned it?” he went on.

“
We don’t know. We didn’t
cross paths with it.”

Lorseria turned his protracted claws toward
his own chest.

“
Who summoned the
Bellnicsi?
” Dorian repeated
angrily.

“
We don’t know. The
samhain fled before we arrived.”

Jacoby signaled for Katie, Meesi and me to
come over and consulted Katie’s watch. We all looked with him.

11:49 PM

“
Dorian, you can’t kill
him,” said Jacoby, grabbing Dorian. “He didn’t do
anything.”

Lorseria twitched as a coughing paroxysm
shook him head to toe. Blood seeped out of his eyes, and he flopped
onto his back. His face contorted and his nose crinkled terribly.
The distinctive rotten smell was becoming unbearable.

“
Why d-did you kill them?”
Dorian stammered.

“
Jack did,” rasped
Lorseria.

Jacoby stepped in front of
Dorian. “You’re killing him! Stop this!
Jack
is the one who killed
them.”

“
Why?
” said Dorian, sidestepping Jacoby, and tipped his body
horizontally into the air so he was hovering over
Lorseria.

“
He . . .” Lorseria
explained painfully, “found out that one of you can–”

The room shook with a sudden jerk, and large
pieces of rock tumbled from the ceiling. I latched onto a giant
boulder. A lone bat fell and splattered on a rock. The rest hung
tight, flapping their wings wildly.

Jacoby crouched and looked up at Dorian.
“It’s over!” he shouted over the rumbling and the deafening
screeching of the frenzied bats. “We have to leave, now!”

Dorian’s body tipped back down and he landed
on his feet. The stench became deadly. The vibration became so
powerful that the bats started dropping from the ceiling.

“
Get over
here!
” Jacoby commanded
urgently.

We hurried over at once and grabbed each
other’s hands. I was thrown by another strong jolt. Meesi closed
her eyes, scared for her life.

“
Dorian!” shouted
Jacoby.

All four walls began to bulge inward and as
soon as they reached their limits, they were ripped away.

“
Dorian!
” This time his shout was
different; there was frenzy in his voice. “
We have human kids here! They don’t need to
die!
”

The stench had completely saturated the air,
and all the bats had fallen to their death.

Dorian came out of his trance and took
Meesi’s hand. As far as we could see in relative darkness, all the
walls and tunnels had been removed. Not one wall remained. Jacoby
summoned a bit of light, and we huddled together within the dimly
glowing sphere, but beyond our circle everything was pitch
black.

Katie and I shut our eyes at the same time,
hating the sight of the ripped-open cave.

“
Get me out,” cried Meesi,
her hand trembling in mine. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to
die.”

Why weren’t we psyclining away? I continued
to wait, trying to control my fear, but we weren’t going
anywhere.

As soon as Jacoby released me, I opened my
eyes. We were still in the open space enclosed in the lonely ball
of light. All of us stared at Jacoby, too scared to look around
into the darkness. I couldn’t stop imagining the halloween lurking
closer to us. This single notion would easily eclipse all other
scary moments in my life.

“
He’s not letting us
leave,” said Jacoby.

Meesi pointed a shaking finger at Lorseria,
who was lying on the ground, but nothing happened. She moaned
anxiously as she shakily clenched her fist.

“
We-we don’t have
ma-magic?” she said with enlarged eyes. “I can’t use my magic! It
took my . . . it took my . . .”

Dark silence fell upon us. Neither Katie,
nor I had taken our eyes off Jacoby, looking for some sign of hope.
But he was as scared and desperate as we were. Something was here
with us. I had never before experienced this eerie ominous feeling.
It felt like we were in the presence of the Devil.

The silence was torn apart by a piercing
cry, stunning even Jacoby and Dorian. Meesi fell to the floor,
battling at the empty air. Then, her arms were lifted
uncontrollably and, with a deadly jerk, she was yanked up in the
air. Something caught her by the stomach and carried her away.
After a couple of feet, she was sucked out of the room.

My heart struck wildly. The unsettling,
ghostly presence was creeping back toward us. I turned to Jacoby,
who looked lost as he stood there, waiting for his fate. But
Dorian’s turn came next. He gasped as his neck was cracked sideways
by an invisible hand, and he, too, vanished.

Then Katie gave a short mournful whimper and
disappeared. There was nothing anyone could do. We were all going
to be taken. Next, Jacoby was being pulled away from me. I held
onto his hand as long as I could, but soon he let go and was
gone.

“
You can’t take them
from–
” I was jerked and wrenched to a near
blackout. “Help,” was all that came out of my wide-open twisted
mouth, which came back to me as a ghostly echo moments later in the
cavern I had met Meesi in.

“
You can’t take my
friends
,” I managed in a growl. My cheeks
were flooded with tears.

I plucked up all of my remaining strength,
scrambled up, and started to run. I was never going to stop.

“
Katie?
” I yelled. My throat was hoarse and dry.
“
Jacoby? Dorian?
Meesi?
”

My words echoed down the abandoned
tunnels.

“
Jesse!
” returned a familiar voice, and I tumbled over a
rock.

Katie came stumbling toward me, looking a
mess. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was streaked with wet
dirt. She helped me up, and we continued on together, going down
one crumbled passage after another. Neither of us spoke or even
looked at each other. We just kept on moving our feet forward, no
matter how slow and painful our progress was. We knew we had to
keep going.

After a sharp turn up a dark tunnel, Katie
was picked up and shoved into a wall by a bleeding tortic. She
ducked under a striking claw and scuffled away.

I grabbed a jagged rock and thrust it into
the tortic. He moaned and grasped me by the jacket. Exhausted, he
threw me weakly, and I slipped right out of the jacket. He dropped
the jacket and hobbled back over to Katie.

“
Give me my jacket!” I
screamed furiously.

The tortic turned around, then picked up the
jacket and tore it almost completely in two.

“
No
,” I yelped. “
You big-eared
freak!
”

The tortic turned back to Katie.

“
This is my mother’s, you
dead halloween!”

I got up, snatched the biggest rock I could
find, and swung at the tortic. He anticipated it and kicked me.

“
Jesse,” gasped Katie’s
voice.

I drew my knees to my chest and wrapped my
arms around them. We had failed. We weren’t meant to survive. “I’m
sorry, Oz,” I muttered to myself. “I destroyed the only thing that
was important to you. I tried to bring it back to you. I tried. I’m
so sorry–”

“
Jesse, please help–”
Katie’s cry was suddenly choked to a gurgle. The monster was
jostling her by the throat against a rocky wall. “Die!” she
bellowed, spitting right in his face.

Aggravated, the tortic spat back at her. She
gasped and kicked chaotically, most just kicking the air.