May Bird Among the Stars

  Someone had forgotten to stop the music. The speakers started blaring out the next tune.

  Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk

  I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk. ..

  And then, finally, one creature moved.

  As May and the others looked on, Somber Kitty stood on his hind legs and began to dance.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  The Guest of Honor

  Utt are you ooing?” Pumpkin whispered, trying not to move his lips as he smiled broadly into the balconies, making like he was enjoying the disco.

  Somber Kitty ignored him, executed a twirl, a swivel hip, and his favorite, a fouettÉ, keeping perfect time with the rhythm of the music.

  Ah, ha, ha, Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive

  May and the others watched with wide eyes, and then May looked up at the faces of the Dark Spirits. They were nudging one another curiously and pointing to the graceful creature on the floor, who was not only a cat, but a dancing cat.

  “He’s trying to confuse them,” she whispered. And it looked to be working. At least for the moment.

  The Dark Spirits started cheering. May and the others fake smiled at one another. They all began to move awkwardly. Fabbio thrust one finger into the air and rocked his hips stiffly. Beatrice swayed elegantly. Pumpkin executed “the worm,” a break-dance move he’d seen on TV while haunting White Moss Manor. Together, they all danced backward toward the double doors.

  Ding, ding, ding, ding!

  As the great clock struck midnight, lightning bolts snaked their way across the dark ceiling of the room, smoke billowing out above them. The music stopped. All eyes turned to the uppermost balcony, where a dark silhouette had emerged. The figure wore a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes and an old, worn jacket.

  The hall shook, as if with an earthquake, sending spirits toppling all over the place and the small knot of dancers on the floor sprawling.

  Pumpkin scrambled behind May. Fabbio reached for Beatrice. Somber Kitty leaped in front of them all and growled.

  “Hello.” The dark figure’s voice echoed against the walls and reverberated loudly around the hall. Though he was far, far above, May could feel his eyes resting on her. “May Bird, is it?” Bo Cleevil shook his head carelessly. “You look very familiar, little speck.”

  With a wave of his hand, a great wind gusted through the hall, blowing May’s death shroud back so that it clung to her neck by its strap just barely. She clasped the neck strap with both hands and held on tight.

  “Let’s see … Here’s a fact I heard recently … ‘Known far and wide as the girl who destroyed evil Bo Cleevil’s reign of terror. Resides in Briery Swamp, West Virginia,’” Bo Cleevil quoted from The Book of the Dead.

  The Bogey let out a raspy whimper, and the Dark Spirits shifted and murmured.

  “I was told you’d been made into nothing.” Bo Cleevil tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Let me think. Who told me that? Ah, yes.”

  He thrust out a finger and pointed at the Bogey. “Bogey, you’ve been bad.”

  Before the Bogey could so much as tremble, a shaft of light shot from Bo Cleevil’s finger.

  The smoke cleared a moment later—and all that was left of the Bogey was a top hat and a pile of ash.

  You could have heard a pin drop in the great hall.

  Bo Cleevil went on, sounding perfectly relaxed. “I’m glad you could make it to our party, May. You see, this is where the Ever After as we all know it ends.”

  He swept the crowd with his eyes. “As you know, I have an announcement. After tonight there will be no more South Place.”

  The Dark Spirits whispered and jabbered.

  “No more realm under the sea for you. It’s dark. It’s messy. Forget it. Tonight we’re leaving it behind. We’re moving upstairs. Permanently.”

  The spirits in the balconies let out dreadful cheers as Bo Cleevil turned his attention back to May and, with a gesture, indicated they should quiet down.

  “I’m curious to hear how you’ve found your way this far, little speck. But more lazy, really, than curious.”

  He thrust out a finger again, and the air beneath May’s feet began to vibrate and change. Suddenly, May was being lifted into the air.

  She soared up, up, up, until she was a hundred feet or more above the dance floor, looking down on her friends and level with Bo Cleevil.

  Desperately, she fumbled behind her back and pulled out her bow, slipping an arrow into the notch. She took aim.

  Bo Cleevil laughed and waggled one finger, sending the arrow plummeting to the ground with a tidy plunk. May was pulled through the air toward him until she was hovering right above the rail of his tier, just inches from him, still clutching her bow.

  Bo Cleevil studied her. His eyes gleamed like coals from underneath the shadow of his hat, and in them May saw everything she feared: coldness, hatred. And something else: emptiness.

  Even more than being scared. May felt the loneliest she had ever felt. She tried to squirm, but she could not move her arms or legs an inch. She looked down at her friends. And then she thought of what the note under the Bogey’s bed had said: Home is behind you now. It was coming true.

  She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. And then …

  “Oh,” May groaned.

  In a flash she could see it: standing in the Bogey’s room, reading the note. She remembered just where she’d been standing when she’d read it.

  Home is behind you now.

  The Lady was tricky.

  The Bogey’s portal wasn’t under his bed.

  When she had read the Lady’s note, May had been standing with her back to the Bogey’s closet.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Dust in the Wind

  With a simple flick of his index finger, Bo Cleevil sent May whipping around in the air until she was upside down, just above his head.

  He laughed and flicked his finger again. May shook like a leaf. The rest of her arrows clattered to the ground, leaving only her bow, which she just managed to strap to her back. Other things fell out of her pockets: a Ghouly Gum wrapper Pumpkin had stuffed in there; a rubber band from the Colony of the Undead; a feather from the night they had dressed up at Risk Falls.

  Bo Cleevil shook her again, for good measure. As May tilted this way and that, the Sack-o’-Stardust in her pocket, which she hadn’t closed, shook out its contents.

  The last speck of dust fluttered out of the sack. It trickled through the air, crossing the distance between May’s pocket and Bo Cleevil’s face. It drifted, quietly and unseen, into his left eye.

  As May watched in confusion, Bo Cleevil winced, and his eye began to water. And then he wrinkled his nose and sneezed.

  May went plummeting downward.

  She was just a few feet above the ground when Cleevil recovered himself and thrust out his arm, drawing her back up. But May felt a sudden new weight on her feet.

  Fabbio was hanging on to her ankles for dear life.

  May slipped an inch downward. At the same time the pull from above got stronger, and she began to rise again, Fabbio still dangling beneath her.

  “No!”

  Below, Beatrice leaped at Fabbio’s feet, tripping over her dress but managing to grab on. Again, May sank … and rose. Beatrice’s feet left the ground.

  Lucius jumped next, tackling Bea around the knees. Down and then up they went. Down on the ground, Pumpkin looked back at Somber Kitty, bit his fingers, and lunged for Lucius. Somber Kitty came last of all. He hurled himself at Pumpkin’s toes and dug his front claws into the bottom of Pumpkin’s trousers. His back claws dug into the floor.

  It was as if Bo Cleevil and Somber Kitty were having a great tug-of-war. While Cleevil pulled with a force no one could see, Somber Kitty pulled with his toes, and all of May’s friends pulled with him.

  As if they were all in an immense vacuum, things started flying about all over the dance hall—tiaras, pitchforks, whips, chains, pocketbooks
. May’s shroud pulled upward on her neck, sucked by the wind Bo Cleevil had created. With one hand, she untied it, and it went flying into Bo Cleevil’s face.

  Amid the din, the Dark Spirits gabbled in awe. May was resplendent, wildly alive. The supernovas on her bathing suit continued to explode, and her dark hair flew behind her. Her eyes searched the room for a way to escape. And then she saw it, beneath her.

  “I need that arrow!” she hollered to Fabbio, pointing with her chin to the place on the floor where the first fallen one had landed, now near Kitty’s feet.

  “May needs a that arrow,” Fabbio called into the whirlwind, to Beatrice, who called to Lucius, who called to Pumpkin. Pumpkin, still desperately holding on to Lucius’s ankle with one hand, swooped the other long arm down around Kitty, who was still dug in on Pumpkin’s pants, and managed to grab the arrow and pass it upward.

  A moment later May had it in her hands.

  May pulled her bow from her back and took aim. She took a deep breath, focused her eye on the spot she intended to hit, and let the arrow fly.

  The shot went straight into the palm of Bo Cleevil’s hand. The hand trembled for an instant, then went silver. A shriek shook the walls of the hall as he stumbled backward.

  May and the others fell again, this time all the way to the floor below, landing in a smushy heap.

  As they yanked one another upright, Lucius gushed, “Not bad!” His blue eyes were wide and admiring. All around them, the Dark Spirits stared, flabbergasted.

  May retrieved her death shroud from where it had fluttered to the floor and retied it around her neck.

  Then, right as she looked up, the Dark Spirits let out howls of rage and started clambering down from the balconies.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  The Bogey’s Closet

  The entire hall shook as Bo Cleevil continued to howl. A balcony above buckled. A gaggle of snarling goblins blocked the doors.

  “This way!” Beatrice said, leading the group in the other direction. Suddenly, a troop of zombies leaped from the first tier and landed in front of them.

  May and the others stood poised in the middle. The two groups of Dark Spirits closed in toward each other. May and her friends gathered into a tight knot, backing up.

  The goblins directed at the zombies a collective “Grrrrr” which was goblin for “Have you ever seen anything more tacky?”

  The zombies directed at the goblins a collective “Eeeuuughhhh” which of course meant only “Eeeuuughhhh.”

  And then, all the years of animosity between the two groups finally exploding, the zombies and the goblins hurled themselves at each other, ignoring the fugitives completely.

  May looked at Beatrice, and Beatrice gave her the same bewildered look back. Then they all zipped toward the doors, and this time passed safely through them. Bo Cleevil let out another, hall-shaking howl of rage, and behind them the frame of the door came tumbling down.

  As they sprinted into the corridor, the walls around them shook, as if South Place was undergoing an earthquake.

  “Ohhhhh,” Pumpkin moaned.

  As they turned the corner, a voice resounded through the hallway, and the force of it blew them like a wind. It was Bo Cleevil’s voice, and it seemed to come from each and every particle of air around them. “MAY BIRD!” it screamed.

  “Let’s go, let’s go!” Lucius ushered everyone forward. May brought up the rear, carrying Somber Kitty against her ribs. They zipped down the hall that led to the Bogey’s bedroom, scurrying in the direction of the entrance to the Lazy Way Ladder that Lucius had pointed out earlier. But at the top of the Bogey’s stairs, May paused.

  Pumpkin, zipping up ahead, turned back to look for her, then stopped short. The others did the same. Everybody was wondering the same thing: Why had May stopped?

  “The way out for me is down there,” she said, staring at them earnestly. “I think.” She glanced down a flight of stairs that would take her to the Bogey’s bedroom. She didn’t just think. “I know.”

  Behind them, something enormous slammed, and they heard the grunts of hundreds of Dark Spirits in pursuit. But none of the friends moved. Pumpkin looked stricken.

  “Well, what are you waiting for!” Beatrice cried.

  May shook her head unsurely. “I don’t know if I can leave you.”

  “This your wish,” Fabbio said. “This why you come so far, little May. You must go.”

  “Meow.” Somber Kitty twisted around and gave her a serious look. Their mother needed them too.

  Jabbers and growls and snarls were coming from all directions now as the Dark Spirits wound their way along various routes.

  May scanned her friends. “But how will you get out?”

  “It’s not a problem,” Lucius said. “Trust me.”

  Bea’s eyes filled with tears. “We’ll be fine.” She wrapped her arms around May’s neck and gave her a tight hug. “We won’t give you a choice. There’s no time for long good-byes. Go!”

  Fabbio hugged May next and then kissed Somber Kitty on the top of the head. Then Lucius gave May an awkward embrace and rubbed Kitty’s ears. When he pulled back, May stood hesitating on the brink of the stairs. Only Pumpkin was left. He was leaning against the opposite wall, pretending not to see her.

  “Pumpkin?”

  “You gotta go,” he said, looking down at his fingers. “I know. I always knew you would.”

  Finally, he looked at her, his big black eyes wide and sorrowful.

  “Oh, Pumpkin—”

  Just as May took a step toward him, there was a crash. A gang of ghouls filled the end of the hall behind them.

  May and her friends took one last look at each other as Fabbio grabbed Pumpkin’s shirt, and Lucius spirited the group forward in the direction of the ladder. One by one, they disappeared, Pumpkin last of all.

  The last sight May had of him was his sad face under his waving tuft of hair and then his long fingers, reaching out toward her for a hug that would never happen now, before they disappeared around the bend.

  May took in a shuddering breath. And then, with Kitty in her arms, she turned and zoomed down the stairs.

  Within minutes, May was standing in front of the Bogey’s closet. She sent up a silent wish to a million stars before grabbing the door handle and yanking it open. She and Kitty stood there, looking in, wide-eyed and stunned.

  Amid the boxes of shoes and row upon row of black suits was a puddle in the middle of the floor. But it wasn’t like any puddle May had ever seen. It made an enormous sucking sound and gaped at her. Small lights, like tiny stars, twinkled in its depths.

  Next to it a tiny wheel caught her eye. It had a small arrow mounted on a spinner in the middle, and the arrow could point to one of four different-colored sections of a map of Earth. Tiny stars marked the four portals in the four corners of the globe. May drew a finger to her lips and then very gently, very carefully, took the arrow and pointed it to the star that marked Briery Swamp.

  Now all that was left, she guessed, was to leap.

  May hesitated. She looked back at the door to the Bogey’s bedroom. Beyond it lay her worst fears: the goblins, ghouls, Bo Cleevil. But also beyond it were her friends—and a place in the universe that claimed to need her.

  Need her.

  May looked at the pool on the floor of the closet again. Underneath it was her mom and everything that was warm and as comfy as a fuzzy mitten. Underneath it was home.

  May peered into the watery blackness.

  “I can’t, Kitty. I can’t leave them.”

  Turning, she rushed back to the bedroom door and quickly turned the corner—into a hallway packed with ghouls coming toward her.

  Clutching Somber Kitty tightly, May backed into the bedroom again, looking around for a place to hide, a different way to escape.

  She looked to the closet again, knowing there was no other way.

  She crept to the edge of the puddle. She closed her eyes and counted to three. And then she turned to look over he
r shoulder. The first of the ghouls had gained on the doorway and were lunging toward her.

  May hoped for luck … and leaped.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Under the Night

  The sky was dark above but for the occasional flash of lightning flickering on raindrops as they plummeted toward the tiny lake far below.

  The moon, hidden by the storm clouds, had no view. And so she missed it when a little girl burst out from the surface of the lake and scrambled up on shore, pulling herself across the dirt and finally resting a few feet from the water’s edge, as soppy and bedraggled as a wet mouse.

  May pulled Kitty out of her shroud. She filled her lungs deeply with air and continued lying on her back, looking up in space.

  Had she made it? Had she really made it?

  May sat up, then stood on shaky legs and turned to take in the trees, the briars, the sky. There were no zipping stars in it, no gray dusk hanging.

  It was night.

  May took another deep breath. And then she laughed. She held out her arms and flung her head back and howled. She hopped from foot to foot, Somber Kitty watching from a safe distance, slightly embarrassed for her.

  Exhausted, her legs giving way beneath her, May sank back down to the ground, running her fingers happily into the soft mud, eyeing her bathing suit, which no longer glowed or sparkled. Her heart gave a hard ache, and she ran her hands over the fabric, then looked back up in the sky.

  She ran through the briars like the prickers didn’t matter. She needed to know that she was really here, and she wouldn’t believe it for real until she she saw it: White Moss Manor.

  Home.

  Bursting onto the front lawn, she took in the sight. Every light in the house was on, as they had been—though May didn’t know it—ever since she’d disappeared. She took a step toward the house, began to run, and then she stopped right there in the middle of the grass and looked into the sky one more time.