Of Breakable Things (36 page)

“Okay,” Alex said. “It’s off this path somewhere.”

Skye had one hand closed around the nearest branch, and she used her free hand to hold Alex in place. “Do you hear that?”

“What?”

“It sounds like … ” Skye tilted her head towards the darkness. “It sounds like bells.”

Fear still had the ability to make Alex’s throat tighten.

A child’s voice twisted through the air around them like an exhale of cigarette smoke. “Does she remember me? No screams this time?”

Alex spun around, but it was impossible to tell where the voice was coming from.

“Who is that?” Skye asked.

The bells jingled again. “Answer my question and I’ll show you who I am. He who makes it sells it. He who buys it doesn’t use it. He who uses it doesn’t know it. What is the object?”

Skye shrugged. She didn’t seem fazed by their present company at all. “It’s a coffin,” she replied easily.

“Smart girl,” the voice noted. “You look like a Gossamer.”

A figure appeared between two distant trees, and he was far less intimidating than Alex expected. He was stick-figure thin with white hair and young laugh lines. Alex had assumed the squeak in his voice was due to insanity, not adolescence. He didn’t wear the jester’s hat, but it hung from his waistband. His defiant eyes curled up at the edges like he’d been caught doing something wrong. He reminded Alex of Huckleberry Finn.

“You’re the Jester?” Alex asked.

“I knew
you’d
be back here.”

“What do you mean?”

The boy shrugged, shooing the air with his hand. “Once you’ve been a spirit as long as I have, you get a
sense
for the soon-to-be deceased.” He grinned widely at Alex. “You stank of death.”

“Thanks for the flattery.”

“You’re quite far from the others.” The Jester tut-tutted. “Lost, are you?”

“No, the old Eskers building isn’t far, right?” Alex asked. “The west end?”

“Oh.” The boy pursed his lips. “Yes.” He glanced in the opposite direction, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

“Have you seen two boys?”

“Only two? Yes,” he replied in a sing-song voice. “They look the same, similarities misleading, one is so honest and the other deceiving.”

This kid has lost his mind
, Alex thought.

“Can you show us where they are?” Skye asked.

“I wouldn’t go near that building if I were you. Insanity isn’t something to meddle with.”

“They’re our friends. We’re going to find them.”

For the first time, the Jester’s smile faded. “Okay, fine, have it your way. I was hoping you’d stay and play awhile.”

“Wait,” Alex said, remembering the rumors. “Are there other spirits living there in that building? Will they hurt us?”

“They’re hiding right now,” he replied, “for obvious reasons.” He pointed to the left. “Follow the sounds of screaming.”

Alex watched him float away to the ringing of bells. “What a whack-job.”

“I thought he was interesting,” Skye said.

They turned in the direction to which he’d pointed. Within minutes, they came to a large, rusty steel gate labeled
The Eskers
.

“It looks like a concentration camp,” Skye commented, wrinkling her nose.

No birds chirped, and the light even kept its distance, tucked safely behind the darkening clouds. Alex’s residence had been the newer version of the facility, which was built on the opposite end of the woods. This side of the Eskers had an entirely different vibe. Half the building remained intact. The leftovers, however, comprised a mountain of singed bricks and blackened debris. Alex could smell the burning of the rotten embers like charcoal sitting for hours after the grill had died.

“Charming place,” Skye noted, slipping through a hole in the gate.

“I don’t hear any electricity, do you?”

Skye shook her head. “But that’s only when spirits move at an exhaustingly fast pace. Banshees aren’t reasonable enough to know better, so it wears them out, but you might not know it’s there until it's hovering behind you.”

Alex shuddered and glanced over her shoulder, half expecting to see a set of soulless black eyes piercing through her. “So we shouldn’t just start shouting out Chase’s name, huh?”

“Probably not the best idea. I don’t feel good about this place.”

Neither did Alex. Who would? But they needed to hurry before they lost the dim light from the cloudy sky. Skye followed Alex through overgrown weeds, jagged stumps, and random furniture scattered throughout the yard, a chair here, a blackened file there. The building was like a stroke victim—from one angle the structure seemed perfectly healthy, unscathed, and from the other side it slumped lifelessly.

Alex didn’t want to tell Skye how scared she was. Rumor had it that during renovations, the builders became frightened after a series of accidents. They abandoned the project, labeled the building “damned,” and left it alone to rot. No one cleared the dirty surgical rooms for lobotomies or the beds with shackles for electroshock therapy treatment. Or so she had heard.

“Is there a door?” Skye asked. “I don’t want to go through the wall. I don’t want to touch anything.”

“I’ve never gone through a wall,” Alex admitted. “And I’m not sure I could think my way through it right now anyway.”

They found a side entrance where a door dangled askew, hanging by a hinge. One at a time, they ducked into the unknown.

Skye stumbled over the threshold and caught herself by grabbing the doorframe. She shivered violently and ripped her hand away. “Oh God,” she choked. “What’s wrong with this place?”

“Ironically,” Alex said, “people say it’s haunted.”

They weaved through the rickety end tables and metal hospital beds of an old infirmary, complete with bloodstains in the outlines of human forms, and Alex couldn’t help but wonder if the hospital was flooded with lunatics and banshees lurking around every corner.

Alex tried to make her voice sound determined, but it shook uncontrollably. “Let’s just find the boys and get out of here.”

A greenish glow tinted the hallway. The overhead lights flickered like dull strobe lights and buzzed at them in warning: Someone had been here. It stunk like a science lab, acidic and pungently chemical.

Alex trembled, and her pride blamed it on the chill, not her fear. They floated down a hollow hallway, passing dozens of identical black doors with tiny rectangular windows. Solitary confinement.

“Look,” Skye whispered, pointing to the ground. The dust they were sifting through had already been disturbed. Unfortunately, there were not footprints lining the dirt, but two solid lines. Alex pictured the way banshees traveled, dragging the tips of their toes, and the hairs stood up on her arms.

The hall seemed to stretch behind them for a mile. Each time the lights sputtered out, they were momentarily engulfed in darkness, and each time the hazy glow flooded them again, Alex was terrified there would be a monster standing before her. The horrible stench of burnt embers became stronger the more they walked, and Alex concentrated so hard on ignoring it that she almost didn’t notice Skye stop.

“Do you hear that?”

It sounded like flapping bed sheets, but it was impossible to tell from which direction it came. Suddenly, the lights zapped, and they were swallowed by blackness.

“
Alex
,” Skye whimpered, clutching her.

“Shhh.”

The lights pulsed on, slowly reappearing and going out again. In and out, in and out, like a morbid game of peek-a-boo.

Lights on. Alex saw Skye, her chin quivering.

Lights out.

Lights on. Skye’s eyes were darting every which direction.

Lights out. Flapping …

Lights on. An open door down the hallway.

Lights out.

Lights on. Shadows dancing. Alex’s breath escaping in short gasps.

Lights out. The sound of something dragging softly across the floor.

Lights on.

Alex slapped her hand over Skye’s mouth before the bloodcurdling scream could erupt from her throat. A dead-still form of a banshee slumped like a cat held by the skin of its neck. Strings of hair covered most of its sallow face while it cocked its gruesome head in question, no doubt wondering what they were doing, though it never completely lifted its black eyes.

Lights out. The bone chilling sound of its toes dragging across the dust covered floor.

Lights on. It was several feet closer. Its pallid hair fell back, and it slowly lifted its head. It was a little girl. Alex could see the purple circles under her macabre eyes, which rose and seemed to stare directly through Alex’s pupils and into her terrified soul. The corner of the banshee’s mouth sagged in a way that made Alex picture her pleading for mercy during her last few moments of sanity. Alex kept her hand over Skye’s mouth and began to back up slowly.

Lights out. Alex could feel the girl’s presence, her charge. It was moving with them, creeping closer.

Lights on. She was inches from their faces. Alex could hear the dulled hum of energy. The girl’s eyes rolled back in her head as her mouth opened in a wide
O
. Alex could practically see down her throat into the depths of hell. And then her head snapped up straight, narrowing those devil-black eyes. She lifted one hand, and Alex braced herself.

Lights out.
ZAAAAAP
! The electricity was so painful that Alex couldn’t hold on to Skye. A blue current erupted between them, and her ears were filled with Skye’s agonizing scream. The icy fingers of electricity grabbed Alex’s mind and twisted it, suffocating whatever life was left in her.

Somehow it hurt all over. She didn’t have a heart, but it constricted. She didn’t have a torso, but it burned. She didn’t have breath, but it stuffed her throat, asphyxiating her. And then blackness.

Lights on. The banshee’s bony hands were still lifted, ready to shock the girls again.

Lights out. Skye whimpered. Alex heard the stomping of feet against the unforgiving metal floor.

The girl electrocuted them again, and in the brilliant steak of the blue lightning, Alex could see shadows running towards them.

Lights on.
Whooooosh
!
Boom
! The banshee slammed into the wall and collapsed to her knees, lifting her head to snarl.

Chase jumped high into the air, his leg flying out directly in front of the banshee’s mouth. The force of it created a sickening
thwack
. Before the banshee could retaliate, Jonas swung his right arm down on her, immediately followed by his left fist. He ducked so Chase, behind him, could push the full force of his energy at the girl.

The banshee fell into the nearest room and bellowed in surprise while her body began to convulse in spasms of electricity. Chase slammed the door shut, containing her.

Jonas cursed loudly. “What are you
doing
here?”

Skye shook so violently it was like her body was seizing.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” Chase murmured, but he pulled Alex into his arms. His embrace was like a drug, injecting courage into Alex’s soul.

“We need to get you two outside,” Jonas replied, looking around frantically, maybe waiting for another monster to appear. “Now.”

“What about you guys?” Alex asked.

Boom
!

Alex jumped away from the door.

Boom
!
Boom
! The banshee hurled herself into the metal door. The hinges creaked and popped. They heard a
screeeeech
of electricity from inside the room.

“Why doesn’t she just go through the wall?”

“She isn’t that smart,” Jonas murmured.

“Is she smart enough to use the knob?”

Silence.

And then they heard a tiny
click
.

“Run!” Chase commanded, already in motion, yanking Alex behind him. The others were close at her heels.

She heard a squealing roar of rage. Alex didn’t know exactly where she was going, but the hallway twisted and sloped upward and sooner or later there wouldn’t be anywhere to go. The stench from the charred debris ahead burned her senses. When would the damaged structure give way?

At the peak of the rising ramp several yards ahead, finally, Alex could see the murky, gray sky above, but a mountain of rubble guarded the gateway to freedom. Crooked metal wheelchairs meshed together into a grisly jungle gym. They rusted against jagged piles of floorboards and fragmented doors speckled with chips of paint, slashes of wallpaper, and shards of broken glass. It stretched beyond what would have been the ceiling if the building still existed.

“Up!” Chase yelled when they reached it.

Alex’s fear hindered her concentration. She tried to climb the remains but couldn’t focus away her weight. The objects teetered under her. Her hands grasped pieces that crumbled or clattered, and her feet slipped against the glaze of ashes.

Jonas projected himself to the top of the mound, and he circled his hands, urging them to hurry.

Alex couldn’t stop gravity from pulling her down. She turned to see the banshee climbing the ramp of the hallway on her hands and knees, thrashing her body around in rage so violent her features blurred. The whips of hair lashed about in nightmarish snaps. She opened her mouth, preparing to shriek.

Chase reached for Alex.
What do we do?
They might be able to save each other again, but what about Skye and Jonas? How could they possibly survive this?

A flash of red whipped past them. Skype slid down the mountain of junk. She held out a handful of smooth, gray rock. She curled it into her fist and winked at them somberly.

“What is she doing?” Alex tried to grab her, but it was too late. Skye launched herself back down the ramp, skidding toward the banshee.

“Skye, no! Don’t touch it!”

Alex lifted her arms, but she couldn’t shove the space between them to separate them, as she had with Jonas in the clearing. The hallway was too narrow. Skye connected with the banshee, and the impact cracked like thunder before they flew apart. The banshee crumbled at the foot of the ramp and lay on her belly, blubbering in aftershocks of voltage. She began to drag herself away and disappeared into the abyss of darkness.