have spirit sight and can't see what we see.”
“What would be so different if we didn't have spirit sight right now?” Nora asked.
“Well, we wouldn't have auras. But I guess not too much would be different, but we're the type of people to actually see what we're looking at instead of making up something,” Isabella said. “Poor kid is lost and scared and doesn't understand what he's seeing or why he can't seem to find the fairgrounds.”
“I guess I understand that,” Leah replied. “It's really quiet here. I thought it'd be more populated, or something.”
“I think a lot of spirits who might be here are visiting our world right now,” Nora said. “I counted at least a dozen skeleton people before we left.”
“Maryann, I think you'd better start calling to him,” Isabella said. “We're getting in farther than I would really like to. I don't want to get out of sight of the door or we may not make it back at all.”
“Jake!” she bellowed.
The others were startled at how loud she was.
“Jake! Over here! The show's going to start!”
“Maryann?” came the thin, hollow response. “Where are you?”
“What am I going to do? I can't see him,” she said.
“Tell him to stay put,” Isabella said.
“Jake! Stay there! I'll get you!” Maryann shouted. “Ok, now what?”
“I don't know,” she answered.
“I know,” Leah said. “We'll go as far out as we can and still see the door. I'll hold the flashlight and Nora will go out as far as she can and still see me.” She dug around in her purse. “Nora will hold my penlight and Isabella will go out as far as she can. And does anyone else have a light?”
“I always keep a lighter in my purse,” Isabella said.
“I usually just keep matches,” Maryann said.
“You guys smoke?” Nora asked.
“No,” Maryann said. “It's just that fire is very important for spell work. So Isabella holds up her lighter and I go out as far as I can and hopefully find Jake.”
“Exactly!” Leah said.
“Where did you get this idea?” Nora asked.
“Um, I saw it on a TV show once.”
“Great.”
“It's better than nothing,” Isabella said. “Let's try it and hope for the best.”
“And I should get a bigger flashlight. Hell, if this keeps happening, I should just put together some kind of supernatural emergency kit,” Leah said.
The band did exactly what Leah suggested, using the real lights as a guide in the spirit world. Finally Maryann got the point she was afraid of losing sight of Isabella's lighter. “Jake! Over here!” she called, and lit a match.
“Where?” His voice sounded much less thin and hollow.
“Here! I've got a light!” Afraid Jake wouldn't see it, Maryann muttered a prayer. “Lady of the Temple, please help me return the lost boy to the land of the living. He has not gone through the rites; he does not belong here yet.” Maryann's ankh glowed slightly under her shirt and the feeble light of the match turned bright white and took a shape resembling a bird. After a just a minute, a young man of about sixteen walked came into view.
“There you are! What the hell is going on here?” he asked, walking up to her.
The match flared out.
“Ouch!” Maryann cried, sucking on her fingers. “Come on, you'll miss the show,” she said, and started to walk back to flickering light Isabella was holding. “Thank you, Nephthys,” she thought. The ankh felt warm for a moment.
“Man, I don't know what the hell is going on,” Jake said. “I mean, the fair isn't this big. I just needed to clear my head before the show and I run right smack into this dog! I don't know who let their dog loose, or if it was just some stray, but it was mean.”
Now they caught up to Isabella. “You found him; let's get out of here.”
“So this dog chases me and I ran away from it and I guess I got all turned around because I thought I was running toward the haunted house and I ended up way out here. Weird,” he said. “Nice of you guys to come get me. But don't think I'm going to throw the contest or anything.”
“Of course not,” Nora said as they caught up to her.
“Because, we're like totally awesome. You don't even know. So the costumes are kind of lame, but when we get big, we'll get better costumes,” he continued.
Soon they caught up to Leah.
“Um, how are we going to explain the door?” she asked Isabella in a low voice.
“He won't even notice. You watch,” she answered.
“How can he not notice the glowing doorway with the paper floating in the middle of it?”
“I don't know, but if he hasn't noticed anything up until now, he won't notice that either.”
And Isabella was right. They walked right up to the door and he followed Maryann through it without reacting in any way. Isabella pulled her charm off the door and walked through last. The paper turned to ash in her hand. The portal abruptly faded from sight. While Jake didn't admit to being scared, he was walking very fast toward the clear lights of the main attractions.
Then they heard a low growl.
“Oh, not that dog again!” he said.
“Just keep moving quickly and calmly,” Isabella said.
When the red eyes came into view, Leah pulled another hot dog out of the greasy sack and flung it away from them. The dog ran after it.
“Now we run,” Isabella said.
They dashed into the ring of lights where Jake promptly left them and headed straight for the stage. There was some commotion as the band gathered that Bad Apple had been pushed down in the order while they waited for their drummer and that Jake had returned only just in time. The band took the stage and started to play.
“So, the hot dogs were a good idea, right?” Leah said, looking at Nora.
“I'm surprised a ghost dog would be hungry,” she replied.
“Hey, I figured if the skeleton people ate the sugar skulls, maybe the dog would be hungry too. All the dogs I've ever met are.”
“You know, I don't think the myths about the black dogs really go into what they eat,” Maryann said thoughtfully. “I guess I never really thought about them eating. Attacking people, sure, that's in the stories.”
“Still, I don't want to bet my life on a hot dog,” Isabella said. “I don't know how to get rid of the black dog, though. I hope it just goes away on its own.”
“Maybe now that it's full of hot dog, it will,” Leah said. “I sprang for the good ones too.”
They joined the crowd at the main stage to listen to Bad Apple play and wait the results of the judging.
“Jake's a nice kid, but I think his band needs more practice,” Nora said after they finished.
“Well, I don't think they got to play the songs they wanted,” Maryann replied.
“We rehearsed all thirty songs,” she returned.
The band cleared the stage and a middle-aged woman dressed in a sexy witch costume that didn't really suit her took the microphone. “Okay, everyone, we'll announce the results after the 'Thriller' dance! Everyone line up!”
“Oooo, I love this,” Maryann said.
“She is not serious. You weren't serious,” Nora said.
But the announcer and Maryann were quite serious. They piped the music through the sound system and everyone in the area who couldn't escape was forced into a line. For the band, who still had spirit sight, everyone pretending they were zombies in a '80s music video was made all the more surreal by the presence of actual dead people, who were gamely following along.
“This may be the weirdest thing I've ever seen,” Nora said to Leah.
“It's the weirdest tonight at the very least, and we've been in the land of the dead.”
The dance concluded and the witch got back on stage to announce the three finalists. The last band she named was Nevermore and the Ravens. But the
order was random, so they played in the middle.
“Oh, I was hoping to go first and get it over with,” Maryann said.
“I wanted to go last so the audience would be thinking of us,” Nora said.
The first band played their original two songs, then Nevermore and the Ravens, and then the last band.
“Ok, everyone back up here for the final judging!” the witch called.
All three bands stood on the stage, and all were clearly nervous.
“Ok, show how much you like them by applause,” the witch said, and pointed at the first band. The audience returned a thunderous round of applause.
“We'll still win; we'll still win,” Maryann said.
The witch pointed at the second band, and the applause seemed just as loud.
“Maybe there will be a tie,” Leah said nervously.
Finally the witch pointed at Nevermore and the Ravens. Applause filled the livestock building and bounced off the metal walls so loudly it was nearly deafening.
“So that's what turning it up to eleven means!” Maryann screamed at Leah.
“Yes!” she shouted back, barely able to hear her band mate.
After a few minutes, the witch managed to make herself heard. “Well, I think it's pretty clear our winner is Nevermore and the Ravens! Ladies, it's time for your encore!”
While the encore was only scheduled to be two songs, the band ended up playing a double encore of another two songs before they finally said good-night. Once they were off the stage, they were congratulated by a bevy of people and only escaped because the witch announced it was time for the costume contest.
“Wow, we really won! We won!” Maryann squealed. “I've never heard anything like that applause.”
“Did it sound, um, bony to anyone else?” Isabella