Ghost Vibrations
October 20
Di’s lunch tray landed on the table with a startling bang. She winced and offered her friends an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
“Well, I was going to congratulate you on the Homecoming queen thing,” Trixie said as she slid over on the bench to make room. “But maybe another time? Rough morning?”
“Funny you should mention that. That’s actually the problem.”
“What do you mean?” Honey asked, brow furrowed in concern.
Di huffed out a breath and took her seat. “Oh, it’s Lindsay Douglas. She’s mad that she didn’t win and she’s a senior. She’s making a big deal out of it, going on about how the rules should change.”
“But it’s always been open to juniors and seniors,” Honey pointed out. “All the way back to when this was still Sleepyside Junior-Senior High and there wasn’t a separate middle school, and that was… what? Forty years ago or something?”
“It goes at least back to the late 80’s,” Di agreed, “because that’s when my mom was homecoming queen and she was a junior, too. She won in her junior and senior years, as a matter of fact. Lindsay’s arguing that the school and class sizes have grown enough to change the rule. That it only exists because once upon a time we had graduating classes with less than fifty students.”
“She’s just a sore loser,” Trixie said dismissively. “Even if she got her way now? It’s not like it would be retroactive. They aren’t gonna take the crown from you and give it to her.”
“Oh, I know. And I know I shouldn’t let her get to me, but she made some snide comments about me and cheerleaders in general… and this? Is me officially letting it go and changing the subject. How are you, Trix? I’m assuming you missed the game Saturday because of dead people issues?”
“Yeah. Dead people with issues. I know I keep saying this, but it wouldn’t bother me half as much, I think, if so many of them weren’t so hung up on the dumbest things.” Trixie shook her head and chuckled ruefully. “This morning? There was some guy in the faculty parking lot upset because someone had taken ‘his’ spot. Really? This is keeping you from going on? Sometimes, I suspect it has less to do with the problem, and more to do with a subconscious fear of finding out what comes next.”
“Well, I don’t mean to pile more on you, but the Halloween bash is less than two weeks away. Parties, unfortunately, do not plan themselves… oh! Unless they could? Could you do your awesome new witch thing and cast a spell?”
“Sure. I’ll just wiggle my nose and voila! Instant party.”
“Rea – oh. Yeah. Sorry. That was a stupid question, huh?”
“No. Okay, maybe a little bit. But, anyway, I think it’s me who owes you an apology, because I honestly don’t know how much time I can commit to helping you. Same for Dan and Mart.”
“Don’t worry, Di,” Honey cut in smoothly. “I’ll speak with Miss Trask. I can tell her Trixie and the boys are really swamped with school right now and ask her if she can help us. You know she’ll say ‘yes,’ and you know how scary good she is at this sorta thing. She puts together Mother’s parties all the time without any help at all. And I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always considered her an honorary Bob-White anyway.”
“Hang on,” Trixie murmured, her attention on the far corner of the cafeteria. She pushed away from the table and crossed the crowded room, stopping in front of a girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. “Hi. I’m Trixie.”
The girl turned wide eyes on her. “You… you can see me? I was beginning to think I was invisible.”
“Technically? You are to pretty much everybody in the school, except me, my brother and my… friend.” Trixie blinked, suddenly aware she was no longer quite sure how to classify Dan. Friend or boyfriend? Did one failed date and one further invitation confer boyfriend status? She wondered what he thought about it, and how she could ask him.
“Oh,” the girl said quietly. “That really would explain a lot. No one has paid any attention to me, even when I’ve asked for help.”
Trixie’s attention snapped back to her. “Uh, yeah. And any second now someone is going to notice that I’m talking to the wall. Do you mind coming back to my table with me? We can talk there, okay?”
Di and Honey silently watched as Trixie rejoined them. She held up a hand before either girl could speak. “We’re aren’t alone right now,” she told them. “I’ve brought someone with me.”
“Oh! Um… hello?” Honey said tentatively.
Trixie turned to the girl. “What’s your name?” she asked, not unkindly.
“Katy.”
“Nice to meet you, Katy. Do you have any idea why you’re, uh, hanging around the Sleepyside High School cafeteria? I’m guessing by your outfit that you went to St. Mary’s… a couple of decades ago, at least.”
“There was a choir competition. I was supposed to sing. A solo.”
“And something happened and you didn’t get that chance?”
Katy nodded, but offered no further explanation.
“Would you like to sing now?” Trixie asked slowly. “I’m the only one around who can hear you, but I’m willing to be your audience.”
Katy considered this for a long moment before responding. “Okay,” she said finally. “It’s not the same, but… yes. I’ll sing now.”
Trixie did not recognize the song, though the words seemed distantly familiar to her. Katy’s voice was perhaps not terribly strong, but she hit each note and there was a melancholy sort of sweetness to her tone. Trixie’s applause at the end was genuine and she softly smiled as the young girl faded away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Professor Lee is meeting us at Lisgard House at five o’clock,” Mart said with a glance at his watch. “That gives us time to stop in at The Crescent Moon. We can swing by Mr. Carey’s room and get Dan’s keys and make a quick run over there in the van, and still get back here in time to pick Dan up and drive out to the estate.”
“Do you think Philip Macy will really want to talk to us?” Trixie asked doubtfully. “I mean, aren’t we basically about to accuse him of being a phony?”
Mart shook his head. “No, Sis. We aren’t going to out-and-out accuse him of anything. What we’re going to do is ask him some questions about how people may sometimes see the dead. We assumed the man was a phony because he couldn’t see the ghosts right in front of him at that stage show he put on a couple of weeks ago in the town square. But thanks to what happened with the professor and Sarah yesterday, now we know it’s possible for some ghosts to appear to people who can’t normally see them.”
“And so we want to find out how that happens? How ghosts appear to anybody?”
“Yeah.”
“But he still may not know. He may still be a phony.”
“I know. But it doesn’t hurt to ask, and we have some time to waste while we wait for Dan to finish his science project.”
The halls were nearly deserted by the time they made it to the math and science wing of the building. Most of the students and faculty were gone for the day, and the few who remained paid them no attention.
They found Dan in his chemistry classroom, sitting at a long black lab table with two other students. Mr. Carey stood before them, arms folded across his chest as he supervised their experiment. He frowned as Trixie and Mart entered the room. “Mart? Is there something you need?” he asked brusquely.
“Uh, sorry for the interruption, sir. We’re here to borrow Dan’s van.”
Dan reached into his pocket for his keys and lightly tossed them in Mart’s direction. He shot Trixie a warm smile before returning his attention to his work.
Mart turned for the door and stopped. After a small hesitation, he looked back at his friend. “We’ll be back by 4:30. Will that give you enough time?”
“If he applies himself,” Mr. Carey said sharply. “Of course, if he hadn’t skipped class this morning, he wouldn’t need to stay after school now to make up the work.”
For a moment, Trixie found herself fighting the urge to say something in Dan’s defense. After all, he’d only missed class because of the wailing ghost in the media center and their worry that things could possibly escalate to books flying from the shelves, but common sense kicked in before she could say anything that would only likely cause him more trouble. There wasn’t a single explanation she could offer that Mr. Carey would believe or accept, and, as it seemed the teacher was at least willing to allow Dan to make up the assignment he missed, she recognized it would be better if she kept her mouth firmly shut and left the room.
“Have they reopened the gym yet?” she asked her brother a few minutes later as they cut across the courtyard toward the student parking lot.
“No. They canceled volleyball practice and held PE out on the soccer fields. I think Stratton’s a lot less sure about this whole ‘freak windstorm’ than he lets on.”
“Eh?”
“This morning? When he came out to survey the mess we made of the flower beds on Saturday? He started muttering under his breath about ‘more vandalism and stupid pranks.’”
Trixie chewed on her lip as she considered her brother’s words. “And you think he was referring to the dance?” she asked him.
“Yeah. I mean, I guess there could’ve been some other trouble somewhere else, but I haven’t heard about anything. No one was talking about anything but the dance and the game when I was in the journalism lab today.”
They rounded the corner of the main school building and started along the covered passageway that ran between it and the left side of the school gymnasium. Without warning, both gym doors slammed open in front of them with a loud bang.
“Well, crap,” Trixie muttered after a long pause. “I guess we’d better check this out, huh?”
The gym was dark and empty. It was evident that the school janitors had already been through, as there were no signs of the mess from the previous Friday night. Trixie and Mart stood beneath one of the basketball goals, surveying the court and listening for any sounds.
The clanging of metal on metal got their attention. “Boys’ locker room?” Trixie guessed.
“Sounds like it. C’mon.”
Trixie slowed as they approached the double doors that led to the boys’ side of the gym. “Maybe you’d better go first,” she suggested. “Because if it turns out to be some guys just using the showers after soccer practice or something? I really don’t wanna see that.”
He grinned at her before disappearing into the locker room, letting the door swing shut behind him. He returned only a few seconds later, sticking his head out only long enough to say “ghost” before turning back.
Trixie followed her brother past the rows of lockers to the long open shower stalls. Water was shooting out in practically every direction from broken and bent pipes. Even as they watched, a hot water handle twisted and rocketed away from the wall, striking and cracking a tile on the opposite side of the stall.
“Geeze!” Trixie exclaimed. “What do we do?”
Mart looked around quickly. “I don’t see him or her anywhere! Do you?”
“No! Maybe he’s hiding by- “ She cut herself off with a startled shriek as a nearby pipe burst, showering her with a cold blast.
“Trixie!”
“I’m okay!” she cried, wiping at her eyes. “But this is nuts! Can we find the main valve? Shut it all off?”
“It’s outside on the back of the building!” a new voice called, shouting to be heard over the roar of gushing water. “Locked in a cage! We can’t get to it!”
Trixie and Mart both turned to find Lester Mundy standing behind them. “Where is it? Where’s the ghost?” he demanded.
Another nearby pipe exploded, drenching them in almost an instant. Shaking his head hard, Mart made a split decision. There didn't seem to be any point in pretending not to know what Lester was talking about. “We don’t know! We haven’t found him! Or her.”
Trixie spun around and sprinted to the enclosed toilets on the right side of the room. She pushed open the first two doors to find empty stalls and was about to move on to the next when Lester stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Hang on,” he said shortly.
“What?”
He dug quickly in his backpack and pulled out a well-worn leather pouch. “Here.”
“What is this?”
“Extra protection. Just in case.”
Trixie eyed the proffered bag skeptically, but took it from him before using her foot to kick open the third door.
A little boy sat crouched beside the toilet. Trixie tensed, bracing herself to be hit with the same blinding rage she’d felt during her encounter with the poltergeist at the dance, but then he lifted his gaze and she was struck by a shattering sense of terror.
It was a fear like none she had ever known, so oppressive and all-consuming, darkness swam before her vision. She fell to her knees, only recognizing it once she realized how near she suddenly was to the floor. Mart was kneeling next to her, shouting her name and after a moment, she realized Lester was as well.
“A-a-fraid…” she managed to stammer. “He’s… so… a-fraid.” She blinked up at her brother. “Can’t you feel it?”
Mart looked quickly back and forth between the boy and his sister. “I – no. I don’t think so in the way you mean.”
“Don’t let him get me! Please, don’t let Paddy get me!”
Trixie shut her eyes, trying to concentrate, but her mind seemed close to a full-blown panic, as if she were being sucked under by a vast whirlpool and drowning. She grabbed Mart’s hand for support and could sense him, like a steady rock anchoring her in a storm, but she knew almost immediately that it wasn’t enough. She felt as Lester took her other hand, gripping it strongly, and there was a small surge between them, but it only served to make Trixie more aware of what she was missing. Dan.
“Don’t let him find me! He’ll hurt me!”
The boy’s cries ripped through her. Dan! she thought desperately. I need you!
Mart let go of her hand and she cried out, but almost immediately, she felt something cold and hard. He closed her fist around the set of keys and wrapped his fingers around hers. “Concentrate, Sis,” he said, his voice calm and confident. “You can do it.”
“He’s going to hurt me!”
Trixie felt the boy’s fear leave her, rolling back like a tide returning to the sea. She gasped and opened her eyes, turning toward him. “No. He won’t. He can’t hurt you any more.”
“He’ll find me!”
Trixie pulled her hand from Lester’s and held it out. “Come here.”
Sobbing uncontrollably, the boy inched toward her.
“That’s it,” she said encouragingly. “Come on out of there.”
“H-he’s g-g-g-one?”
“He’s far, far away. And you know what? You’re free of him. Forever. It’s all right. You’re all right now.”
He reached one shaky arm out and just as their fingers met, he vanished in a small shower of tiny, sparkling lights.
Trixie collapsed back against Mart, aware for the first time that she was crying. She dug her fingers into the sleeve of his wet jacket, struggling to regain her composure.
“Is it… gone?” Lester asked uncertainly.
“Yeah,” Mart said weakly, swallowing hard before he could speak. “You – you can’t tell? You can’t see them?”
Lester sat back on his heels, expelling a quick breath. “No. I can’t see them. Sometimes? I know they’re near. I can sorta feel this… energy moving in the air around me, but that’s as close as I get.”
Mart stared at the other boy stonily.
“Yeah,” Lester said, knowing exactly what he was thinking. “We need to talk.”
Di’s lunch tray landed on the table with a startling bang. She winced and offered her friends an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
“Well, I was going to congratulate you on the Homecoming queen thing,” Trixie said as she slid over on the bench to make room. “But maybe another time? Rough morning?”
“Funny you should mention that. That’s actually the problem.”
“What do you mean?” Honey asked, brow furrowed in concern.
Di huffed out a breath and took her seat. “Oh, it’s Lindsay Douglas. She’s mad that she didn’t win and she’s a senior. She’s making a big deal out of it, going on about how the rules should change.”
“But it’s always been open to juniors and seniors,” Honey pointed out. “All the way back to when this was still Sleepyside Junior-Senior High and there wasn’t a separate middle school, and that was… what? Forty years ago or something?”
“It goes at least back to the late 80’s,” Di agreed, “because that’s when my mom was homecoming queen and she was a junior, too. She won in her junior and senior years, as a matter of fact. Lindsay’s arguing that the school and class sizes have grown enough to change the rule. That it only exists because once upon a time we had graduating classes with less than fifty students.”
“She’s just a sore loser,” Trixie said dismissively. “Even if she got her way now? It’s not like it would be retroactive. They aren’t gonna take the crown from you and give it to her.”
“Oh, I know. And I know I shouldn’t let her get to me, but she made some snide comments about me and cheerleaders in general… and this? Is me officially letting it go and changing the subject. How are you, Trix? I’m assuming you missed the game Saturday because of dead people issues?”
“Yeah. Dead people with issues. I know I keep saying this, but it wouldn’t bother me half as much, I think, if so many of them weren’t so hung up on the dumbest things.” Trixie shook her head and chuckled ruefully. “This morning? There was some guy in the faculty parking lot upset because someone had taken ‘his’ spot. Really? This is keeping you from going on? Sometimes, I suspect it has less to do with the problem, and more to do with a subconscious fear of finding out what comes next.”
“Well, I don’t mean to pile more on you, but the Halloween bash is less than two weeks away. Parties, unfortunately, do not plan themselves… oh! Unless they could? Could you do your awesome new witch thing and cast a spell?”
“Sure. I’ll just wiggle my nose and voila! Instant party.”
“Rea – oh. Yeah. Sorry. That was a stupid question, huh?”
“No. Okay, maybe a little bit. But, anyway, I think it’s me who owes you an apology, because I honestly don’t know how much time I can commit to helping you. Same for Dan and Mart.”
“Don’t worry, Di,” Honey cut in smoothly. “I’ll speak with Miss Trask. I can tell her Trixie and the boys are really swamped with school right now and ask her if she can help us. You know she’ll say ‘yes,’ and you know how scary good she is at this sorta thing. She puts together Mother’s parties all the time without any help at all. And I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always considered her an honorary Bob-White anyway.”
“Hang on,” Trixie murmured, her attention on the far corner of the cafeteria. She pushed away from the table and crossed the crowded room, stopping in front of a girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. “Hi. I’m Trixie.”
The girl turned wide eyes on her. “You… you can see me? I was beginning to think I was invisible.”
“Technically? You are to pretty much everybody in the school, except me, my brother and my… friend.” Trixie blinked, suddenly aware she was no longer quite sure how to classify Dan. Friend or boyfriend? Did one failed date and one further invitation confer boyfriend status? She wondered what he thought about it, and how she could ask him.
“Oh,” the girl said quietly. “That really would explain a lot. No one has paid any attention to me, even when I’ve asked for help.”
Trixie’s attention snapped back to her. “Uh, yeah. And any second now someone is going to notice that I’m talking to the wall. Do you mind coming back to my table with me? We can talk there, okay?”
Di and Honey silently watched as Trixie rejoined them. She held up a hand before either girl could speak. “We’re aren’t alone right now,” she told them. “I’ve brought someone with me.”
“Oh! Um… hello?” Honey said tentatively.
Trixie turned to the girl. “What’s your name?” she asked, not unkindly.
“Katy.”
“Nice to meet you, Katy. Do you have any idea why you’re, uh, hanging around the Sleepyside High School cafeteria? I’m guessing by your outfit that you went to St. Mary’s… a couple of decades ago, at least.”
“There was a choir competition. I was supposed to sing. A solo.”
“And something happened and you didn’t get that chance?”
Katy nodded, but offered no further explanation.
“Would you like to sing now?” Trixie asked slowly. “I’m the only one around who can hear you, but I’m willing to be your audience.”
Katy considered this for a long moment before responding. “Okay,” she said finally. “It’s not the same, but… yes. I’ll sing now.”
Trixie did not recognize the song, though the words seemed distantly familiar to her. Katy’s voice was perhaps not terribly strong, but she hit each note and there was a melancholy sort of sweetness to her tone. Trixie’s applause at the end was genuine and she softly smiled as the young girl faded away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Professor Lee is meeting us at Lisgard House at five o’clock,” Mart said with a glance at his watch. “That gives us time to stop in at The Crescent Moon. We can swing by Mr. Carey’s room and get Dan’s keys and make a quick run over there in the van, and still get back here in time to pick Dan up and drive out to the estate.”
“Do you think Philip Macy will really want to talk to us?” Trixie asked doubtfully. “I mean, aren’t we basically about to accuse him of being a phony?”
Mart shook his head. “No, Sis. We aren’t going to out-and-out accuse him of anything. What we’re going to do is ask him some questions about how people may sometimes see the dead. We assumed the man was a phony because he couldn’t see the ghosts right in front of him at that stage show he put on a couple of weeks ago in the town square. But thanks to what happened with the professor and Sarah yesterday, now we know it’s possible for some ghosts to appear to people who can’t normally see them.”
“And so we want to find out how that happens? How ghosts appear to anybody?”
“Yeah.”
“But he still may not know. He may still be a phony.”
“I know. But it doesn’t hurt to ask, and we have some time to waste while we wait for Dan to finish his science project.”
The halls were nearly deserted by the time they made it to the math and science wing of the building. Most of the students and faculty were gone for the day, and the few who remained paid them no attention.
They found Dan in his chemistry classroom, sitting at a long black lab table with two other students. Mr. Carey stood before them, arms folded across his chest as he supervised their experiment. He frowned as Trixie and Mart entered the room. “Mart? Is there something you need?” he asked brusquely.
“Uh, sorry for the interruption, sir. We’re here to borrow Dan’s van.”
Dan reached into his pocket for his keys and lightly tossed them in Mart’s direction. He shot Trixie a warm smile before returning his attention to his work.
Mart turned for the door and stopped. After a small hesitation, he looked back at his friend. “We’ll be back by 4:30. Will that give you enough time?”
“If he applies himself,” Mr. Carey said sharply. “Of course, if he hadn’t skipped class this morning, he wouldn’t need to stay after school now to make up the work.”
For a moment, Trixie found herself fighting the urge to say something in Dan’s defense. After all, he’d only missed class because of the wailing ghost in the media center and their worry that things could possibly escalate to books flying from the shelves, but common sense kicked in before she could say anything that would only likely cause him more trouble. There wasn’t a single explanation she could offer that Mr. Carey would believe or accept, and, as it seemed the teacher was at least willing to allow Dan to make up the assignment he missed, she recognized it would be better if she kept her mouth firmly shut and left the room.
“Have they reopened the gym yet?” she asked her brother a few minutes later as they cut across the courtyard toward the student parking lot.
“No. They canceled volleyball practice and held PE out on the soccer fields. I think Stratton’s a lot less sure about this whole ‘freak windstorm’ than he lets on.”
“Eh?”
“This morning? When he came out to survey the mess we made of the flower beds on Saturday? He started muttering under his breath about ‘more vandalism and stupid pranks.’”
Trixie chewed on her lip as she considered her brother’s words. “And you think he was referring to the dance?” she asked him.
“Yeah. I mean, I guess there could’ve been some other trouble somewhere else, but I haven’t heard about anything. No one was talking about anything but the dance and the game when I was in the journalism lab today.”
They rounded the corner of the main school building and started along the covered passageway that ran between it and the left side of the school gymnasium. Without warning, both gym doors slammed open in front of them with a loud bang.
“Well, crap,” Trixie muttered after a long pause. “I guess we’d better check this out, huh?”
The gym was dark and empty. It was evident that the school janitors had already been through, as there were no signs of the mess from the previous Friday night. Trixie and Mart stood beneath one of the basketball goals, surveying the court and listening for any sounds.
The clanging of metal on metal got their attention. “Boys’ locker room?” Trixie guessed.
“Sounds like it. C’mon.”
Trixie slowed as they approached the double doors that led to the boys’ side of the gym. “Maybe you’d better go first,” she suggested. “Because if it turns out to be some guys just using the showers after soccer practice or something? I really don’t wanna see that.”
He grinned at her before disappearing into the locker room, letting the door swing shut behind him. He returned only a few seconds later, sticking his head out only long enough to say “ghost” before turning back.
Trixie followed her brother past the rows of lockers to the long open shower stalls. Water was shooting out in practically every direction from broken and bent pipes. Even as they watched, a hot water handle twisted and rocketed away from the wall, striking and cracking a tile on the opposite side of the stall.
“Geeze!” Trixie exclaimed. “What do we do?”
Mart looked around quickly. “I don’t see him or her anywhere! Do you?”
“No! Maybe he’s hiding by- “ She cut herself off with a startled shriek as a nearby pipe burst, showering her with a cold blast.
“Trixie!”
“I’m okay!” she cried, wiping at her eyes. “But this is nuts! Can we find the main valve? Shut it all off?”
“It’s outside on the back of the building!” a new voice called, shouting to be heard over the roar of gushing water. “Locked in a cage! We can’t get to it!”
Trixie and Mart both turned to find Lester Mundy standing behind them. “Where is it? Where’s the ghost?” he demanded.
Another nearby pipe exploded, drenching them in almost an instant. Shaking his head hard, Mart made a split decision. There didn't seem to be any point in pretending not to know what Lester was talking about. “We don’t know! We haven’t found him! Or her.”
Trixie spun around and sprinted to the enclosed toilets on the right side of the room. She pushed open the first two doors to find empty stalls and was about to move on to the next when Lester stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Hang on,” he said shortly.
“What?”
He dug quickly in his backpack and pulled out a well-worn leather pouch. “Here.”
“What is this?”
“Extra protection. Just in case.”
Trixie eyed the proffered bag skeptically, but took it from him before using her foot to kick open the third door.
A little boy sat crouched beside the toilet. Trixie tensed, bracing herself to be hit with the same blinding rage she’d felt during her encounter with the poltergeist at the dance, but then he lifted his gaze and she was struck by a shattering sense of terror.
It was a fear like none she had ever known, so oppressive and all-consuming, darkness swam before her vision. She fell to her knees, only recognizing it once she realized how near she suddenly was to the floor. Mart was kneeling next to her, shouting her name and after a moment, she realized Lester was as well.
“A-a-fraid…” she managed to stammer. “He’s… so… a-fraid.” She blinked up at her brother. “Can’t you feel it?”
Mart looked quickly back and forth between the boy and his sister. “I – no. I don’t think so in the way you mean.”
“Don’t let him get me! Please, don’t let Paddy get me!”
Trixie shut her eyes, trying to concentrate, but her mind seemed close to a full-blown panic, as if she were being sucked under by a vast whirlpool and drowning. She grabbed Mart’s hand for support and could sense him, like a steady rock anchoring her in a storm, but she knew almost immediately that it wasn’t enough. She felt as Lester took her other hand, gripping it strongly, and there was a small surge between them, but it only served to make Trixie more aware of what she was missing. Dan.
“Don’t let him find me! He’ll hurt me!”
The boy’s cries ripped through her. Dan! she thought desperately. I need you!
Mart let go of her hand and she cried out, but almost immediately, she felt something cold and hard. He closed her fist around the set of keys and wrapped his fingers around hers. “Concentrate, Sis,” he said, his voice calm and confident. “You can do it.”
“He’s going to hurt me!”
Trixie felt the boy’s fear leave her, rolling back like a tide returning to the sea. She gasped and opened her eyes, turning toward him. “No. He won’t. He can’t hurt you any more.”
“He’ll find me!”
Trixie pulled her hand from Lester’s and held it out. “Come here.”
Sobbing uncontrollably, the boy inched toward her.
“That’s it,” she said encouragingly. “Come on out of there.”
“H-he’s g-g-g-one?”
“He’s far, far away. And you know what? You’re free of him. Forever. It’s all right. You’re all right now.”
He reached one shaky arm out and just as their fingers met, he vanished in a small shower of tiny, sparkling lights.
Trixie collapsed back against Mart, aware for the first time that she was crying. She dug her fingers into the sleeve of his wet jacket, struggling to regain her composure.
“Is it… gone?” Lester asked uncertainly.
“Yeah,” Mart said weakly, swallowing hard before he could speak. “You – you can’t tell? You can’t see them?”
Lester sat back on his heels, expelling a quick breath. “No. I can’t see them. Sometimes? I know they’re near. I can sorta feel this… energy moving in the air around me, but that’s as close as I get.”
Mart stared at the other boy stonily.
“Yeah,” Lester said, knowing exactly what he was thinking. “We need to talk.”