Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 32 (Wednesday)

The door opened and Dryda jumped in surprise, recalling Kwayo telling her they'd done something bad, probably. "Kwayo? Bella?"

The door knob untwisted, and Bella--tinier than Dryda's hand--dropped to the ground. "We need to open the window," she said, growing to maybe a meter tall. "Kwayo got someone."

Tago sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What? Why do I get someone, Bella?"

Dryda stared blankly. She shifted back and forth on the dusty concrete.

"I said Kwayo," Bella told him, shutting the door. "Kwayo has a person. Is everyone else awake?"

Dryda wordlessly maneuvering around boxes to the corner and shook Rielle awake. "Get off me!" Rielle yelped, and Dryda hopped away before Rielle kicked her.

"Oh," Rielle rubbed her eyes, sitting up from the floor. "What was just happening?"

"We need to open the window," Dryda explained, tapping Zillie on the shoulder. He didn't wake up.

"Wake up peeps!" Rielle said loudly in his face, and he jumped to a seat. "Wake up!" Rielle shouted at Manuel.

"I was awake the first time," he mumbled, rolling onto his side, "you don't have to shout it at me."

Dryda glanced up at tapping from the grimy window. Kwayo's blurred face appeared. Hurry up, will you? I think she's waking up.

"Kwayo says she's waking up," Dryda informed the room. "Who's she?"

"It's kind of complicated," Bella muttered.

Tago climbed to the windowsill, but the window latch clicked before he reached it. Tago froze.

"Got it," Rielle announced.

Tago bit his lip, carefully pushing against the sliding window, dirt and probably more than one crawly bug trickling down his arms. Zillie stepped forward, an icy fog pouring from his hands. "Watch out," he aimed his palms towards the dirt.

Tago ducked beneath the stream of fog, covering his head. "Is everyone trying to kill me?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you," Rielle said.

The fog cleared, revealing a thin sheet of ice covering the space behind the window.

"Um, Zillie," Bella put her hands on her hips, "you basically just made another window."

Zillie blushed. "Oops. I was trying to just freeze the dirt in place."

"Great job," Rielle snorted.

"Hey," Dryda said, "Tago could just melt the top part."

Tago resumed pushing the window open.

So...am I just supposed to break through that? Kwayo asked.

One second, she replied.

"Just have Tago melt the top part," she repeated.

Manuel glanced at her, a spike sprouting from the back of his hand. "I was just going to stab it."

"I think Tago doing it will be quieter," Zillie said, and Manuel sighed, the carapace spike receding into his skin.

"Uh...alright," Tago visibly gulped, but placed his palms at the top of the ice barrier. His hands glowed red, and water dribbled down the windowsill.

"Whoa," he whispered, "this feels so weird. Like quicksand, only without the sandy part."

His fingers broke through the back of the ice, and he pushed sideways, like a slow motion swimming stroke. Slower than a snail. So Dryda knelt, gaze tracing the water dripping from the window and cascading to the concrete floor, pooling in a neat circle.