Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 25 (Thursday evening)

The illusion flickered. A shimmering barrier sometimes showed blank desert, other times, charred ruins.

"It looks pretty bad, doesn't it?"

Verspri jumped. But no one stood within speaking distance, except Kessa, who was just emerging through the teleporter.

"Kami?" he asked.

"That's what is left of the seventh grade dorms," Kami kind of whispered. Verspri strained to hear. "I've tried searching for survivors. I don't think anyone's left here."

"Verspri?" Kessa's voice cut through Kami's. "Are you okay?"

He glanced back. Kessa shuffled side to side, a little ways from the twins, Isaac, and Razón. A golden circle winked out behind them. "Yeah," he said. "Sure."

"Well... You were just standing there."

"I know," he said, and turned away.

"So..." Isaac began, "did anyone think to bring a weapon?"

Verspri glanced through what remained of the school's outer defenses, to the charred ruins. "Why would you need a weapon? It's not like there's anyone there."

Isaac shivered. "That just looks awfully spooky."

Verspri tried not to roll his eyes. "We were just in a ghost town. Doesn't that seem a whole lot spookier?" he tromped to the illusory boundary, flickering in and out.

Tara coughed. "You know what? I'm beginning to think we didn't really think this through all the way."

"Yeah," Razón added, "we didn't bring food, clothes, water..."

"Good thing there's plenty of stuff in there," Verspri pointed forward and kept walking. The others gradually began to follow him.

"Verspri," Tamy called. "It's been a couple weeks. I don't know if we should...expect much."

Verspri stopped, spinning around. "Then why did you come? Why did any of you agree when I asked if you wanted to?" he glared. "You didn't have to walk through the teleporter. There was plenty of food and clothes and whatever else back there."

Kessa opened her mouth. But none of them said anything. Verspri growled and stalked away. He reached the barrier, but kept walking. Even when he got dizzy and colors swirled in his vision, he didn't stop moving.

"You know, Verspri, you saved my life," Kessa called, voice cutting in and out. "I would've still been in the administration building when everything went..." her voice trailed out.

Verspri halted just inside the barrier, inhaling deeply. Kessa and the others walked up beside him, and he gave up. "Everything went up in flames? Everything went up in flames because I decided it was a good idea to trap Cassy and set the whole place on fire?"

Kessa flinched. His classmates just stared at him.

Right. They hadn't known that. They hadn't known he was the one who did it. He looked away.

Kessa muttered, "it was going to go anyway."

"That's just what Mrs. Aterak told us!" Verspri shouted.

Kessa's eyes sparked faintly violet. "No, it's not. Why else would the stinkin' rain be flammable?"

"But who just puts a big self-destruct button on a school? A big self-destruct button that ends up with everybody getting killed?"

Kessa stared hard, but her eyes returned to their usual deep brown. "The kind of school that's training kids for war," she folded her arms, glancing away.