May Bird Among the Stars (24 page)

May looked at all these things in awe as Lucius hovered by the door. Her heart thrummed.

“Oh …”

“What?” May looked at Lucius, who had turned pale.

“Someone's coming.”

Lucius grabbed the back of her shroud and yanked her down, shimmying both of them under the bed. They lay there, sick with fear.

A moment later a pair of feet drifted into the room. Another moment later two knees in black trousers appeared as the figure knelt on the floor. One unmistakable, horrifying suction-cup-tipped hand swept a wide arc under the bed. Back and forth. May pressed back, the fingertips within inches of her. She grabbed Lucius's hand, her own sweaty and trembling. And then the horrible fingers closed around something near her feet: a white, shiny piece of fabric.

The Bogey's hand disappeared, and he stood up. Then there was a rustle as the fabric was unfolded. From under the bed, it looked like a sequined, bell-bottom jumpsuit. While May watched in horror, the Bogey changed into the jumpsuit. And then he drifted out of the room.

After a few seconds passed, May tapped Lucius's back. “He's gone.”

They peered out at the door for a moment longer, wanting to make sure. “In that outfit he really looked like a
boogie
man,” May finally whispered.

“There must be a trapdoor or something,” Lucius replied. May realized with a start that they were under the bed, right where she had been trying to get to all along.

“You're right!” She pivoted around on her belly and started searching the floor, coughing at the dust bunnies.

They felt all over the floor with their hands. Nothing. There was only one other thing underneath the bed, tucked back in the far corner—a tiny sack of some sort. May ignored it, feeling frantically along the ground. Finally, she and Lucius crawled out from under the bed and stared at each other.

Reconsidering, Lucius ducked back under and pulled out the little sack. They both looked down at it. May's heart fell into her feet.

FOR MAY BIRD,
the tag said.

Glowing on the bag itself was a stamped label:
SACK-O'-STARDUST.

May read the fine print under the stamp:
This Sack-O'-Stardust handcrafted by the spirits of North Farm. Good for inducing sneezes, putting out fires, and not much else.

She raised her eyes, pale as Lucius. “What does it mean?”

Lucius opened the sack. “There's a note in here,” he said, pulling it out and handing it to her.

May stood with her back to the Bogey's closet and slowly unfolded the paper. What it said made her blood run cold.

May,

Home is behind you now.

Sincerely,

The Lady

May grabbed the sack from Lucius's hand and looked into it. “Dust,” she whispered. “It's just dust.” Was this a prank? A joke? May squatted and looked under the bed again—but there was nothing there.

May's body heated like a flame.

“The Lady of North Farm …,” Lucius mused. “I hear she's very tricky.” He looked at May sympathetically. “I suppose it was all rumors after all.”

“But she said …” May thought back to many things the Lady had said. And what she kept coming back to was this: that she was good, but also partly evil.

“Did you do something to make her mad?” Lucius asked.

May's head was spinning wildly. She couldn't speak or even think. She had relied on the Lady. She had counted on the Lady.

She had been wrong.

May clenched her fists, her eyes filling with tears. “What do I do?” Helplessly, she peered at herself in the Bogey's mirror.

The anger boiled inside her like lava. She waited for the tears to creep back under her eyelids, and then, with one shuddering breath, she pulled her bow from her back and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

May turned to Lucius. “To get what belongs to me.”

As she floated out the door, Lucius zipped after her in awe. “Wait!”

May swiveled on him, her eyes flashing. “I'm not going to let things happen to me—to us—anymore. I'm going to make them happen.” Her mouth straightened into a determined line. “I'm going to start with the Bogey. I'm going to make him tell me where my cat is.”

She turned away quickly and strode ahead.

“You've gone mad!” Lucius yelled behind her, trying to keep up.

And he was right. May was so mad, she could hardly see.

In fact, floating down the hall, her bow in hand, the super-novas on her bathing suit exploding, her black hair flying, she was the very picture of a warrior.

Commander Berzerko turned the corner into the cavern of the Swallowed Souls, meeting her prey's eyes, her canines poking out of her jowls in a crocodile-like smile.

Somber Kitty, his back to the swamp, panted, his tongue hanging out of his mouth in an unsightly, embarrassing manner. His tail stood straight up. He swiped out with one tired paw, but caught nothing but air. “Meay.” His knees gave way.

The commander, letting out a thin, satisfied hiss, took a step closer. And then she floated into the air, puffing out. Her fur became spiky, smoke poured from her ears. Somber Kitty wiggled his nose, sniffing the air. He tilted his head to the left and the right.

“Mew,” he said curiously.

And then Commander Berzerko's tail lashed out toward him.

At that moment Kitty's fatigue, which he of course had been faking, disappeared. With astounding energy, he leaped sideways, dodging the tail gracefully.

And then Somber Kitty did what any cat who knew martial arts would do. He gave Commander Berzerko a swift karate chop. The commander careened against a nearby wall and bounced back, howling.

As she flew by him, Somber Kitty leaped into the air and executed a lightning-fast judo kick, sending the commander flying across the cavern like an air hockey puck. The commander let out a mew of surprise as she sailed right into the swamp.

She scrambled against the edges of the bubbly ooze, letting out a long screech. But the bubbles, barking and snarling, dragged her down.

One outstretched paw remained above the swamp's churning surface for a moment longer, and then it, too, sank out of sight.

Nothing remained of Commander Berzerko but a small and sparkling object lying on the shore.

Somber Kitty sniffed the glistening diamond collar with disdain, then hurried away.

I
t had been an agonizing few minutes for Beatrice, Pumpkin, I … and Fabbio. They just didn't know what to do. Hurry into the lighthouse and head after May Bird, which also meant heading into pretty certain doom? Or stay where they were, which would leave their friend in danger? Nobody, of course, considered choosing the second option. But they couldn't quite figure out how to tackle the first.

“I don't know how, but I'm going after her,” Pumpkin finally said, pushing up against the sewer grate as Bea held him back.

“Pumpkin, wait!” She grabbed the bottom of his trousers, but Pumpkin kept floating forward, until—holding on with all her might—Bea flopped out onto the street in a heap.

Fabbio leaped out of the sewer and tried to pull her back by her feet. “We are just … needing to … think of a plan, Punkin.”

It was as they were pulling Beatrice like a jump rope when they noticed a pair of familiar slitted green eyes staring at them through the lighthouse doorway.

Beckoning.

•   •   •

The Bogey, whom May and Lucius had caught up with a mere two halls away from his room, drifted on ahead, and May drifted along behind him, Lucius tugging on her shroud from time to time and making an
Are you crazy?
face.

“You don't have to come,” she whispered over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off the Bogey's back.

They floated all the way up to the first floor of South Place behind him, then twisted through a maze of hallways.

Soon they came to a pair of double doors at the end of a hall. The Bogey paused, straightened his white bell-bottom jumpsuit, adjusted his top hat so it sat just so, and pushed through the doors and through a thick curtain.

May and Lucius slipped in after him, peering out from behind the curtain as the doors closed behind them. They were in a dark room sparkling with purple strobe lights crisscrossing the floor. Somewhere far above, someone coughed.

“And now, introducing your host …”

May stood up straight, pulled an arrow from her back, and aimed.

From all around, a thrumming beat began. From above, a spotlight focused on the Bogey.

“… the Bogey!”

And then the world seemed to come to a halt.

May's heart froze within her as her eyes drifted upward to take in an enormous hall—nine stories high, layered with hundreds of jagged balconies piling one on top of the other to the ceiling. And each one was teeming
—teeming—
with ghouls, goblins, zombies, trolls, mummies, and every other dark thing that had ever roamed the realm. There were so
many tiers extending so far up that May couldn't even see beyond them.

An enormous clock ran up one side of the vast hall, with an equally enormous golden pendulum, and draped across it was a banner lit by a spotlight:

REALM takeover KICKOFF PARTY

The strobe lights flickered across the masses that were clinging to the balconies like countless germs. Their teeth were large, their claws sharp, and their faces were set with malice.

The first beats of a song began to pound over loudspeakers all over the walls, shaking the floor. May and Lucius shrank back against the door. In the middle of the floor the Bogey thrust his arms upward in a dramatic maneuver. And then he began to dance.

The Dastardly Disco had begun.

S
outh Place appeared to be deserted. But Fabbio, Bea, Pumpkin, and Kitty knew better.

“Where is everyone?” Beatrice asked. With no one to hide from, they were winding down the spiral of the realm in a fraction of the time it had taken May and Kitty.

“I have very bad feeling no words can describe,” Fabbio offered. “Which is not usual for me,” he added in a whisper.

Ignoring their gut instincts, which told them to escape while they still could, they followed Somber Kitty farther and farther downward.

Up ahead, they could hear the sound of impossibly loud music.

As May and Lucius watched from the cover of the curtains, the ghouls and goblins and zombies poured down from the balconies—climbing, scrabbling, practically dripping from the tiers above to join the Bogey on the dance floor.

Blame it on the sunshine,
Blame it on the moonlight,
Blame it on the good times,
Blame it on the boogie …

Everywhere, they fell into the same steps as the Bogey:
Step, step, growl. Step, step, growl, lurch.

It was the world's most terrifying line dance.

Back and forth, around and around, the Dark Spirits jerked and slithered.

For the length of the song, the Dark Spirits did their dance, and the two friends behind the curtain looked on in awe. When the music finally stopped, a microphone descended from somewhere far above, landing in the middle of the floor, where the Bogey scooped it up. The clock marked the time: 11:56.

“In a few minutes the guest of honor will be arriving.”

The Dark Spirits scrambled back up to their seats, snarling and stomping as they arrived in their rows, until only the Bogey was left on the floor.

“He's taken a trip down from his fortress to make a special announcement,” the Bogey continued. “So special that you've all been excused from your haunting duties for the night.” More snarling and stomping. “At the stroke of midnight he'll be arriving….

The music leaped to life again. Everyone peered at the clock. It was 11:57. Every head turned in the direction of the ninthfloor balcony, which was completely empty. May, too, stared at the empty balcony. She knew, of course, who would be appearing there. Her fear had turned into a ribbon inside her, tying her to the place where she stood.

Lucius took hold of the back of her shroud and whispered in her ear, “We've got to get out of here.”

•   •   •

Far down at the end of the hall Somber Kitty saw a pair of double doors. He sniffed the air, then turned back to the others.

“Meay,” he said very surely, and zipped ahead.

The others hurried after him.

May let Lucius pull her backward, toward the doors. One step. Two steps.

Thwap!

As the doors behind them burst open, they went hurtling forward, sailing through the slit in the curtains and sliding onto the dance floor. Pumpkin, then Beatrice and Fabbio, came sprawling after them. Only Somber Kitty stayed on all fours. The group landed in a tight knot, in full view of all the spectators.

The hall went completely quiet.

For a moment no one knew what to do. May pulled her death shroud tightly around herself as she and her friends stood slowly, peering about the hall. The Bogey was frozen in place, his white eyeballs glinting at them. Even the thousands upon thousands of Dark Spirits were still as statues.

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.

U
tt
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.