“Please come home,” the man said again.
“Not yet,” Tom said.
The hand withdrew, and the man left the room with hanging shoulders, followed by Sally's ghost. When she heard Tom sniff, she sped back into the room as fast as she could. Tom's eyes swam in tears.
“I'm only a kid, Sally. How can I do what Mr. Jake expects me to do?”
“You can do anything.” Sally put her arms around him. “I don't remember Mr. Jake, but I remember you. And I trust you. You will do whatever needs to be done.”
Tom probably didn't believe her, but he calmed enough so he could write some more, and that was all she wanted him to do. Writing seemed to make him happy. She settled on the table on the other side of his paper and read upside down.
Tom: Diary
Mr. Jake took me upstairs to his studio (as he called it), so Sally and I could talk without being disturbed.
“Meanwhile, I'll talk to your parents to get us some elbow room,” he said.
“Will you use magic on them like you did that first night?” I asked.
“You caught me red-handed, but I only use magic if necessary and never to hurt someone.”
I knew that, so I let him go and looked around the room. It was small and cozy in red and yellow with a big table, a chair, a cushioned sofa, and a few lights. Through the window, I saw our house and part of our street. Mr. Jake just rang at our door. As always, people had had their Halloween decorations up for weeks already. Now there was only one more to go till then.
With the locket open on my palm, I sat cross-legged on the sofa and told Sally to come out of her hair. It unnerved me a little to see her spill out, stretched like a twisted version of herself.
“You need to tell me your memories,” I said.
She put her hands on her hip and cocked her head. “Why should I? They're none of your business.”
If the table hadn't been visible through her body, everything would have looked normal. I swallowed. So far, I had never managed to convince Sally to do something she didn't want to. But this was important. I couldn't give up. “Please, Sally. You need to tell me something. It might be the only way to stop you from vanishing for good.”
Sally laughed. “I won't vanish. Not now, when the s-bis finally started noticing me. Also, Mamá and Dad would get the hysterics if I did.”
S-bis had been Sally's idea. It meant sexiest boy in school. I perked up my ears. “So, Brad finally asked you out?” Sally had been mooning over Brad for weeks.
“And wouldn't you like to know.” Giggling, she danced around the sofa.
Well, if she didn't want to tell me her memories voluntarily, I had to trick her. “No way. Smooching and kissing is nothing I'm interested in.”
She stopped and stared at me. “That's not true. When we visited Granny last month, you nagged and nagged just because I didn't want to tell you about my first kiss.”
“I know what it's like. I got my first kiss on that holiday at the sea two years ago.”
Sally frowned as if she couldn't remember our five-year-old cousin Liza who had been in love with me that summer, no matter how much I hated being kissed. “Holiday at the sea?”
My heart plunged when I noticed I could see the furniture through her much better than before. She was fading away. I needed something she did remember.
“What about Christmas three years ago?” I asked with a wobbly voice. “Liza and her parents visited us.”
“Oh yeah, Liza got a huge teddy bear and Dad accidentally set fire to it.” Sally giggled again and became more solid. For a little moment, I closed my eyes and sighed with relief. Then I scribbled down her memories and resumed my questioning while Sally zipped through the room, answering some questions and ignoring a lot more.
For the next half hour, I teased memory after memory from her. Whenever she couldn't remember, she became more transparent. Each time, my tongue dried out until I found another memory that made her more solid again. Once, I wanted to know more and Sally became so unreal, I feared I'd lost her. I needed far too long to help her find another memory. After that, I decided not to ask follow-up questions any more.
She recalled a walk with Nana through a thunderstorm when she was five, and a knitting lesson from Mamá at eleven. She remembered selecting her dress for Liza's baptism, and a nightmare from the night before last. I had thought the Beast sucked up memories in chronological order, but that didn't seem to be the case. Somehow, it made my skin crawl even more. Maybe she'd forgotten about Mr. Jake too.
“Do you remember the thunderstorm last night? And the…” I paused. “…rat?” My heart thumped in my chest. Would she remember?
By the way she faded, I knew she didn't. “What about Mr. Jake?” I asked.
She paled even more. “Who is Mr. Jake?”
I changed the subject. “What was the last book you read?”
“Pride and Prejudice.” She became slightly more solid and floated toward the window. With her arms folded in front of her chest, she watched the street and answered my questions for a while. Suddenly she turned and glared at me. “Why are you asking so many questions, Tom?”
“It's for a school project,” I said. The correct answer would have been, “I'm scared of losing you.”
“I've had enough.” Sally stomped her foot, but she didn't make a sound. “You can ask me one more question. Then I'll phone Marisa.”
So she obviously remembered her best friend. I took another note.
Sally snorted. “What's your last question going to be? What I had for breakfast this morning? Or do you want to know about the day Marisa and I climbed a tree in kindergarten?”
“You did what?” I had never heard this story.
Sally laughed. “You're too young to remember. There was a cherry tree in the back yard of our kindergarten, and it was full of fruit. One day, Marisa and I climbed it and stuffed ourselves with cherries.” She stared at the door, but I suspected that she didn't see it. Her face seemed less transparent the longer she stared. “That day, we decided to be best friends forever. On the way down, I slipped and broke my arm.”
My heart pounded because the wall behind her was no longer visible through her. Maybe she was healing.
She drew her arm to her belly and whimpered. “I want my Mamá.”
I stared at her in disbelief. All of a sudden she was much smaller than me—hardly bigger than a toddler. Tears ran down her cheeks. She wailed and cradled her arm that hung down with an awkward angle. “My arm hurts. Mamá, I want my Mamá!”
I jumped off the sofa, but before I reached her she shot out of the room and down the stairs. As fast as I could, I followed. Shit, Mr. Jake had left the front door open. Sally ran through it. I had never thought a small kid could be this fast. I nearly caught her when she opened the gate.
“Mamá!” She slipped through my fingers and sped toward our home. I raced after her. A black cloud descended on her, and I screamed. I pushed my hands into my pockets to take out the protective stone. It wasn't there. I had forgotten to take it back after Mr. Jake's magic. I heard the Beast slurp and saw it grow. The only thing visible from Sally was an arm. Maybe the protection around Mr. Jake's garden would stop the Beast. I jumped forward and grabbed her elbow. My hand went right through it. I screamed with frustration, and then a high-pitched bark sped past me.
Snoop attacked the Beast and it withdrew a step. Snoop bit Sally's shirt and pulled. Thankful for the help, I grabbed his back and helped him drag Sally toward Mr. Jake's garden. The Beast didn't let go, but at least the slurping sound had stopped and it didn't get any bigger. Pulling Sally and the Beast was hard work. Sweat trickled down my spine.
Snoop snapped and bit, and slowly more of Sally emerged from the black cloud. Then we reached the gate. I pulled Sally as close as possible, and blue flames engulfed the Beast. It screamed a scream I wouldn't forget in all my life; a scream that pierced my ears and left them ringing.
Sally and I stumbled backwards into the garden, and the
Beast fled. Snoop came to me and licked my face. He couldn't lick Sally because she was hardly visible anymore. Her elbow felt like dry fog in my hand. I wanted to ask her how she felt but my throat constricted.
She stood up as if nothing had happened. “What's that?” She pointed to a piece of yellowed paper on the ground beside me. To please her, I picked it up and stuffed it into my trouser pocket, but I didn't look at it.
“How is your arm?” I asked with a sore throat.
“Why are you asking?” She waved her arm around, and it looked okay, even if very transparent.
Snoop nudged me, and I got up. Without a word, we went inside.
Chapter Nine
Sally: Here and Now
Sally somersaulted through the room. Again and again, she flew through the lamp, enjoying the tingly sensation in her belly when she connected.
Tom's stomach growled like a hungry wolf. He put down his pen. “I need something to eat and drink.”
She nodded and kept on spinning through the air. When Tom left the room, she followed. How dare he go without her?
Three voiced talking leaked from the living room, but Sally couldn't make out the words. “Burglars?”
Tom put a finger to his lips and tiptoed into the kitchen. “Mamá and Dad. Mr. Jake put a spell on them.”
Unsure what to do, Sally watched her brother. He grabbed a glass of apple juice and a sandwich that were waiting for him. She left him to eat and floated into the living room. She'd better check out these people. It just didn't do to take risks.
A man with a dog sat on an easy chair opposite the sofa with a couple.
“He's been up there ever since Sally died.” The voice of the woman sounded agitated. Wringing her hands, she sat with her husband's arm around her shoulders.
“He doesn't even acknowledge her death. It isn't normal.” The husband sat upright with a stony expression. Sally remembered seeing his face a short while back. If this was Dad, the woman had to be Mamá.
“I know you're the best psychiatrist around,” he said, “and we appreciate that you took him in for special treatment, but don't you think he should snap out of it now? How long has it been? A year?” He wiped his eyes with his free hand. “Oh God, I can't even remember the day she died.”
“Tom is making great progress. He will soon be the cheerful boy he used to be.” The thin stranger with the dog on his lap sounded far more normal. Was he the one who made Tom write so much? “Every child copes differently with a situation like this.”
“I want my son back.” Tears ran over the woman's cheeks.
“He misses so much in school.” Dad tightened his embrace around Mamá. “Isn't it enough that Sally hasn't got a future? Does he have to destroy his, too?”
Tom peeked through a hole in one of the pass-through doors. Sally saw him, but the others didn't.
The dog owner put a reassuring hand on Mamá's arm. “He's a bright kid. He might have to work hard but he'll catch up.”
“One thing is for sure,” Dad said. “We'll need to do something soon.”
“Like what?” The dog owner raised an eyebrow.
“We thought about sending him to my mother,” the woman said. “A change of scenery.”
Dad frowned. “He's all we've got left, and we can't let him waste his life. If necessary, we'll send him to a locked ward until he gets better.”
The phrase locked ward made Sally shiver although she didn't know what it meant. But she was certain that it wasn't anywhere she wanted her brother to be.
The dog owner shook his head. “That is too extreme. He's trying hard to find a way to mend his life. It takes time.”
“He's locked himself in your room for ages, and he hardly comes down when we're here. He's had plenty of time.”
Sally realized that Dad was getting angry. She had to get Tom out of his way. As fast as she could, she zapped through the closed doors of the pass-through into the kitchen. Tom stared at a kitchen calendar.
“Dad remembers it all wrong. The first attack on you has only been two weeks ago.” He pointed to the last day of the month. It was circled in red. “The deadline is so close. Just one more week.” He wiped his face. “I need to write faster.”
“You need to go upstairs before they come and get you.” Sally made shooing motions with her hands. Tom took his bread and juice and ran upstairs.
Tom: Diary
Inside, Mr. Jake nearly ran us over. He was bare-legged and in socks. “What happened?”
Snoop barked, and I left it to him to explain. After all, Mr. Jake seemed to understand him. I walked into the kitchen and picked up my protective stone. If only I had taken it. I was sure the Beast wouldn't have dared to attack us then. Snoop's barking came to an end.
Mr. Jake turned and looked at me. I was glad he didn't say anything. I'd learned my lesson, and it hurt. I sat on the kitchen chair and watched him.
“I think we'll need something to calm down.” He walked into the kitchen to prepare a cup of cocoa for me and a strong coffee for himself, while Sally floated to the ceiling and inspected some spiderwebs.
“It's my fault,” I said. “I shouldn't have let her run out of the house. I should have taken the stone. I should—”
“Stop it.” Mr. Jake's hand landed on my shoulder, and I looked up with surprise. He stood by my side and shook his head. “I'm to blame too. I haven't been there for you when you needed me.”
My eyes widened. “You've been half-naked.”
“Who cares about decency if a life is at stake? I should have hurried more.”
“Everything was over so fast. Without Snoop…” I didn't dare to finish the sentence.
Mr. Jake squeezed my shoulder. “Lingering on our mistakes doesn't help. We need to make a plan for how to get Sally back.”
He fetched the steaming mugs and placed them on the table. “I hypnotized your parents. You can stay with me for a while. I'm sure we'll find a way together.”
I thought of the Beast and cleared my throat. “Mr. Jake,” I said. “I'm scared. What is the Beast?”
“It's hard to explain. The Beast you can see is something like a hollow puppet. The true Beast hides in a place between life and death, but so far Snoop hasn't managed to get it out of hiding.”
“Is that the place where Sally now is?”
Snoop barked a couple of times. Mr. Jake nodded.
“Snoop says they are all there: my daughter, Sally and all the others.”
“What if we don't get them back? I need Sally.”
“You don't need to get me back. I'm already here,” Sally said.
Mr. Jake's lips tightened. He breathed in deeply before he answered. “The Beast isn't almighty. There must be a way to defeat it; we only have to find it.” He pointed to his living room where five boxes were piled into a pyramid. “We'll go through all my books and manuscripts again. Maybe you will notice something I haven't seen.”
“Mr. Jake?” I looked into his face. “Have you ever been able to get back one of the kids the Beast took?”
He shook his head. “I managed to save many from the Beast's attack, and I solidified a few ghosts.”
“Hey, Tom, who's that guy?” Sally hovered beside my chair and stared at Mr. Jake. “Don't trust him. He could be a psychopath.”
“Oh, shut up and hide in your hair.” For the first time ever, I wanted Sally to leave me alone. To my surprise, her legs elongated and she vanished with a snap into the pocket where I kept the locket.
I looked at Mr. Jake with wide open eyes. “Will she always do that?”
“Only if you tell her to hide in her hair.” Mr. Jake took a sip of his coffee.
At the same time, Snoop tried to wriggle his nose into the trouser pocket Sally had vanished in.
“Leave her alone.” I tried to push him aside, but Mr. Jake stalled my hand.
“Empty your pockets, Tom. Snoop never makes a fuss over anything unimportant.”
Obediently, I pulled out everything I got in my pockets a
nd put it on the table. There was the locket, a marble, a piece of chewing gum in a rather grimy-looking wrapper, a piece of string, a crumpled piece of paper, and a packet of paper tissues. I blushed.
“Mamà insists I have them,” I said.
“This looks old.” Mr. Jake took the crumpled paper and smoothed it out. Spindly letters covered the page in neat lines.
I stared at the letters but they didn't look like any writing I had seen before.
“What language is it?” I asked.
“Could be Greek or Hebrew. I'll need a magnifying glass to find out.” Mr. Jake stood up and went upstairs. While I sipped my cocoa, I listened to the floorboards creaking under his footsteps. I didn't like being alone.
“Sally? Can you come out again?”
Instantly Sally hovered beside me. I felt better with her at my side, even if she looked more transparent than ever before. I wondered which memories the Beast had taken this time. I had to find out. To gather my courage, I swallowed another sip of hot cocoa and cleared my throat.
“Sally, what is the earliest thing you remember? Please do think about it. It's really important.”
She frowned and stayed quiet. Worried, I noticed that she became less solid with every minute she kept pondering my question. Mr. Jake came down the stairs but he waited when he saw me staring at Sally.
“I don't remember anything,” she wailed.
“You're still here, so there must be something,” I said. I glanced at Mr. Jake, but he remained where he was.
Sally sucked in her lip and chewed. I thought I could see her brain work by the way her face contorted. After a while, her expression lit up, gained more color.
She sank to the ground. “I remember when a woman with dark hair put you into my arms for the first time. The woman said something but I forget what it was. You were so tiny, and the black hair on your head hardly more than fluff. Your fingernails were tiny chips of pink mother-of-pearl, and your eyes were so blue—so extraordinarily blue. It was as if the whole sky had hidden in your eyes.”
I had brown eyes. Did she remember a different baby?
Mr. Jake must have seen my doubt. He stepped forward. “Most babies have blue eyes at first. They become darker when they get older.”
Beasthunter Page 5
