“OhmygoshIcan’tbelieveit,” Katie said, for the thousandth time.
I liked Katie, but her nervous tendency for rapid speech was making me twitchy. I jumped as an older man turned the page of his newspaper.
“Believe it,” I said.
Great, that sounded bitchy. I pinched the bridge of my nose, wincing at a growing headache and took a deep breath. I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on Katie. Her babbling was annoying, but it wasn’t really her fault. We were all worried. Katie just showed her emotions more than the rest of us.
And if Yuki had worn her feelings on her sleeve like Katie, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
“Look, Yuki’s gone AWOL and the Grabber’s probably in town, but that doesn’t mean she’s in trouble,” I said. I ignored my racing pulse and forced a smile. “She’s probably hanging out in one of the study cubicles with her iPod and a stack of books.”
“You really think so?” Katie asked.
“I know so,” I said, sounding more confident than I felt. “We’re just dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s. It’s good to know where your friends are, especially when there’s trouble in town.”
Gordy nodded in agreement, or approval. He had been trying to comfort Katie by remaining calm, but I saw his mask slip when a petite girl dressed all in black rounded the corner.
Gordy started forward, raising his hand to get her attention, but when she lowered her stack of books onto a low rolling cart, the almond-shaped eyes and small mouth weren’t Yuki’s and her petite feet were strapped into shiny red sandals, not boots. Gordy’s face fell and the color drained from his lips.
He reached up to smooth his asymmetrical bangs, covering his disappointment, but I’d seen the frightened face behind his calm exterior. Gordy was trying to hold it together, for Katie’s sake, but underneath that cool façade was a guy in turmoil. Gordy had come to the same conclusion that I had—Yuki had a knack for trouble, and her disappearance had tragic outcome written all over it.
“That’s Rin from my history class,” I said. “I’ll go ask if she’s seen Yuki.”
“Okay,” Gordy said around a mouthful of hair.
He was chewing his bangs again.
“OhmygoshIcan’tbelieveshe’sreallymissing,” Katie said.
Katie reached for Gordy with a shaking hand and he put his arm around her, pulling her close. I felt a pang of jealousy. I wished that Simon could be here right now, but we needed his tracking skills to find Yuki. I hoped that he was having more luck in his search than the three of us.
I was beginning to suspect that Yuki wasn’t here in the safety of the library. But if she wasn’t here, then where could she be?
I didn’t like the answers my brain conjured in reply.
Chapter 24
Calvin
The west side of town turned up nothing. I wasn’t as skilled at tracking as Simon, but I could often feel Yuki through our bond. So far I sensed nothing.
I tried to take that as a good sign.
If Yuki was in trouble, I’d know it, right? I sure hoped that was true. Yuki had mentioned feeling a strange tingling beneath the skin, where her spirit tattoo twines around her ankle, when we needed each other in the past. I rubbed my arm, but my tattoo felt normal.
I also tried reaching out to Yuki with my wolf spirit, but the search was fruitless. No matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn’t sense Yuki’s presence. Was she too far away, or had our bond grown weak?
Simon’s words returned to me, as they had numerous times since our argument. Was I really bad for Yuki?
I drove slowly past the flea market on Elm Street, but couldn’t feel Yuki’s presence. Last autumn, I found the perfect gift for Yuki in one of these market stalls. Amidst disembodied doll heads, Beatles memorabilia, and old issues of TV Guide, an antique compass had lain buried.
I had been shopping with Yuki. She’d dragged me to the flea market after sitting through a chakra clearing workshop I’d wanted to attend. She said that shopping was my penance for making her tap her face for hours—which was, of course, an exaggeration. But I tagged along anyway.
I didn’t share Yuki’s love of retro lunch boxes and vintage clothing, but I dug through the detritus of people’s lives alongside her. I was looking for a small trinket to appease her, but found something more romantic instead.
We had been dating for nearly a month and I had been searching for a special gift to mark our one month anniversary. The compass was perfect. It had brass knobs and screws. I thought Yuki would like the steampunk look of it and the fact that it was a compass gave me an idea. I waited until the following day and gave it to her with a note that read, “so that you may always find your way back to me.” I had wondered if my note was too sappy, but Yuki has kept the compass with her ever since.
Gazing out the truck window as the flea market passed by, I had to wonder if Yuki would ever find her way back to me…or if it was already too late.
Chapter 25
Yuki
I sat upright, giving myself a dizzying head rush, as something brushed against my face. I spied a tall cluster of switchgrass waving in the air beside me and let out the breath I was holding. In my dream, the spindly grass that touched my face had been replaced by skeletal fingers. I was relieved to be rid of nightmare monsters, but where had the tall grass come from?
And when had I fallen asleep?
I looked around and frowned. I sat in a patch of dry grass that whispered as it swung to and fro in the warm breeze. The light wind made my hair dance around my head, tickling the back of my neck. Unable to see over the giant vegetation, I dusted off my skirt and rose to my feet.
“Oh,” I said, my words lost on a gust of wind.
I was standing in the dream world that exists between the human realm and the ever-after, where spirits of the dead reside. Well, most spirits reside there. Some souls become trapped on earth if they are the unfortunate victim of tragic death or have unfinished business. That’s where I come in. With my ability to smell the dead, I help to locate and communicate with those spirits trapped on my plane of existence and lead them to the light.
Of course, it’s never that easy. That part about unfinished business? Yeah, most ghosts are pretty insistent about wrapping up those loose ends before departing my world.
Like the ghost who smelled like roses, lanolin, and dark room chemicals.
In fact, if I am here in the dream realm, then that means my body is asleep back in the real world. The thought of my body slumped over my painting stool, helpless, on that remote stretch of park trail, gave me the creeps. It would be getting dark soon, if night hadn’t fallen already, and my body was alone in the woods with only a strange ghost for company.
I needed to find out why I’d been brought here, so I could get back to my body.
Usually when I appear in this place, my dung beetle spirit guide is nearby. I spun in a slow circle, searching for my guide.
“Where are you?” I muttered.
“I am here, child,” a rasping voice echoed in my head.
I felt something move behind my back and turned to see my spirit guide looming over me. I have no idea where a seven foot tall dung beetle could have been hiding. I probably didn’t want to know.
“Um, hi,” I said lamely. “Is everything okay?” I hadn’t tried to summon my spirit guide, and had, in fact, been working with a ghost before I appeared in this place. What other reason could explain this meeting? Had something terrible happened? “Wait. Is Cal hurt?”
I struggled to remain calm, but Cal had nearly died from a head injury a few months ago and his spirit had ended up here. Was that why I was summoned? Had Cal been in an accident?
I felt like a frightened bird was caged in my chest.
I had been in such a hurry to begin work on my painting today after school that I’d jumped out of Cal’s truck without even asking where he was going. There were plenty of dangerous roads around Wakefield.
“Hush, child,
your wolf is safe and sound in the human realm,” she said.
“Oh, okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Then why am I here?”
“I have a message for you,” she said. “As you know child, scarabs bury their eggs in the ground, but some humans dig into the soil of Mother Earth for other purposes. An evil man has hidden his secrets in the ground.”
“So, I, like, need to dig a hole or something?” I asked. I bit my lip, feeling totally confused. Why did my spirit guide always have to speak in riddles?
“The answers you seek are beneath the earth,” she said.
My spirit guide lifted her arms above her head in a series of bizarre motions, as if she were directing a plane to land. The wind picked up and lifted dry sand and red dust into mini-tornados all around me. I closed my eyes and slapped a hand over my face to cover my nose and mouth.
“Don’t forget child,” she said. “The answers are there for you to discover, if you take the time to look.”
*****
I woke with a gasp, returning to my body where it sat sprawled over the small stool. I sat upright and stretched, feeling stiff and sore. I shook the pins and needles sensation out of my foot and looked myself over. The front of my clothes felt damp, but it hadn’t rained while my spirit was away. Son of dung beetle, rain would have ruined my painting.
I stood, checking for damage. My painting sat safely on its easel, but I couldn’t say the same for my clothes.
Paint covered my chest where I’d slouched over the palette, and more shone wetly across my lap. Great, that’s never coming out.
I grabbed a rag and wiped away some of the paint, but gave up. My clothes would just have to wait. It was getting dark, fast. I started packing up my things, careful to secure my new painting on the back of the bicycle where nothing would touch the drying paint. I’d have to be careful while riding home in the dim light. One spill on my bike would totally destroy the work I completed today.
The sun was already setting, reminding me of the need to leave and the fact that I had missed dinner. My stomach growled its displeasure.
I searched quickly through my backpack and retrieved a bag of trail mix, skittles, and bottled water. I gulped water and ate a few mouthfuls of trail mix. The ghost continued to hover beside the rose bush, making me suddenly feel guilty about not sharing my food. But ghosts can’t eat, right?
Still it seemed rude not to share.
I approached the ghost with a handful of trail mix, trying to figure out where to leave the offering. A sun bleached rock peeked out of the ground beneath the rose bush, presenting an unlikely place to dine, but it was better than placing the food in a patch of grass.
I knelt, not caring about my already ruined skirt, and brushed off the rock with my hand. Rain and wind had uncovered some of the stone, but as I touched the dirt, clumps of soil and moss fell away in clumps.
My spirit guide was right—there really was something buried beneath the ground.
And, unless it was just my imagination, this wasn’t a rock. I’d found a dead body. I dropped the food to the ground, suddenly not feeling so hungry.
Oh em gees, I just touched a dead person. I wiped my hand down my skirt and tried to stifle a scream that rose up from my toes to my mouth. I swallowed the scream, but my stomach churned loudly. I was seriously regretting eating that trail mix.
I squinted in the growing dark. I’ve watched a lot of horror movies and knew in my gut what I was looking at. Oh yeah, that’s a human skull alright.
The twilit skull seemed to draw the final glow of light from the fading day, casting the accusing eye sockets into shadow. Even the overhanging rose bush, which had looked so beautiful a few moments ago, now seemed to reach its thorns ominously above my head.
I crawled backward, distancing myself from the ghoulish find. Strands of hair had fallen loose and now hit my shoulders as I shook my head in denial.
“No, no, no,” I whispered. “I didn’t just spend the day with a dead body.”
Ghosts are spooky enough, but some poor person’s skull?—that was just plain freaky. I need to get out of here, now.
I looked around making sure everything I had brought with me was strapped securely to my bike. I was painfully aware of how alone I was here, just me and the ghost of the person buried beneath my feet.
I dug my cell phone out of my backpack and speed-dialed Cal. My call went straight to voicemail. It seemed like an eternity before the phone beeped, allowing me to leave a message.
“Cal, please call me back” I said, voice going shrill. “I’m near the park, on some freaky old trail and…I, I found a ghost and its b-b-body.”
I hung up feeling lightheaded. Talking about the skeleton only made my fear worse. I needed to hear a person’s voice—someone alive—and I wanted someone to know where I was.
I hit the second speed-dial on my phone.
Chapter 26
Emma
I was exiting the library with Gordy and Katie, when my phone started to vibrate. I’d turned the ringer off while inside, but left it on vibrate so I wouldn’t miss a call or text from Cal and Simon. Maybe they’d found Yuki.
But the picture on the phone wasn’t Cal’s smiling face or Simon’s smoldering eyes. A ridiculous picture of Yuki, eating a waffle the size of her head, flashed on the screen. I hit accept and whipped the phone to my ear so fast, I nearly punch myself in the face.
“Yuki?” I asked.
Gordy and Katie looked at me excitedly. If Yuki was calling, then maybe she was okay.
“Emma, I know w-w-we’re not really sp-p-peaking right now, but I am so creeped out,” Yuki said.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“S-s-some spooky old park trail,” she said.
“Wakefield Park?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said.
Yuki’s voice sounded small and shaky. Why was she so scared? Was she hurt? Had she experimented with some crazy street drug? Was the Graduation Grabber there now?
And what was she doing in Wakefield Park?
“Are you okay?” I asked. “We’ve been looking all over town for you.”
“I’m okay, but I found a ghost and…it led me to a skull out here in the woods,” she said.
“You’re out there now?” I asked. “With a dead body?”
“Um, yeah, a dead body and its ghost,” she said wryly.
I wondered if I should tell her about the Grabber. Yuki was already frightened and if I told her that a serial killer who targeted teen girls was in town, she’d totally freak. But if I didn’t tell her and some random guy showed up and offered his help, she might wander off with a murderer.
Someone would have to inform Yuki that the Graduation Grabber was back in town.
“Have you talked to Calvin?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “His phone went straight to voicemail.”
Great, I would have to be the one to tell her. If Calvin was tracking Yuki in his wolf form, he wouldn’t have his phone with him. Maybe I could rig up some kind of hands-free, paws-free, phone on a collar for times like this, but that would have to wait. There were more important things to worry about.
“Not to freak you out or anything, but there’s something I have to tell you,” I said. “The reason we’ve all been looking for you is because a girl from our school went missing. The authorities think the Graduation Grabber has returned.”
“Son of dung beetle,” she muttered.
“How did you get out there anyway?” I asked.
I knew that Yuki hadn’t received a ride from me, Simon, Calvin, Gordy, or Katie. But it was a long walk from Yuki’s house to the park. Had she taken a bus part of the way? Or hitched a ride?
Goosebumps sprouted across the back of my neck at the thought of Yuki getting into a car with a stranger, especially with the Grabber lurking around looking for his second victim.
“I rode my bike,” she said. I let out a relieved sigh. At least she hadn’t been hitchhiking. “And, um, Emma? It’s g
etting really dark out here. I think I need to start riding back toward town.”
“Okay, can you keep your phone on?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” she said. “The battery looks like it has a full charge.”
“Good, put your phone in your bag, or a pocket, and start riding toward the park entrance,” I said. “We’ll meet you there.”
“Thanks Emma,” she said.
“Any time,” I said.
And I meant it. Yuki was my best friend. Our recent fighting seemed foolish now that she was in danger. When we got through all of this, we were due for a long talk and lots of soy ice cream.
The phone grew muffled and quiet as Yuki tucked it away and started bicycling. I turned to Katie, who was waiting excitedly beside Gordy, and handed her the phone.
“Katie, keep that line open,” I said. “And please try to keep listening in case Yuki tries to tell us something. I need my hands free to drive.”
I grabbed my keys, but Gordy put his hand on my arm stopping me from rushing to my car.
“Wait, is Yuki in trouble?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope not. But she found a human skull out in a remote section of Wakefield Park and she’s pretty freaked out.”
“Eep!” Katie squeaked.
“I promised Yuki that we’d drive out to the park entrance and meet her there,” I said.
Gordy stepped back and I raced down the stone library steps, with Gordy and Katie struggling to keep up. Katie put my phone to her ear as she ran and gave me a thumbs-up. Apparently the phone was working and there were no signs of trouble.
We all piled into my car and I took a deep breath. Yuki better be okay. Night was falling and there was no telling what creepy things were out in those woods.
I was struck with a terrible thought.
What if the body Yuki found belonged to one of the Grabber’s victims? The police never found Rose Peterson. Yuki may have unwittingly discovered the site of one of the Grabber’s body dumps. And if he’d used that location successfully before, what was to keep him from returning to the spot and using it again?