Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 60 (Tuesday)

Kwayo woke with a pounding headache. He was a human, he noticed. Fingers and toes and probably a massive bruise on the back of his head. "Uuugh," someone groaned behind him.

"I am awake, right?" that was Bella.

Kwayo sat up, staring at a widening crack near his feet.

"What exactly just happened?" Isaac asked. He stood, shakily, leaning on a steep pillar of metal stabbed into the ground. That was the center of the large cracks in the floor.

"We fought a thing with our brains," Kessa told him. "Pretty sure."

Kwayo recalled the past seconds, or possibly hours, of gripping onto Teremki and Ana, pushing against the tidal wave of maddened minds threatening to drown them.

He carefully stood, trying to survey the rest of the room. He wasn't where he dove into the billowly ghost, so he assumed he'd sort of swam through the cloth ribbons. And given the fact that Teremki, Ana, and their classmates were right next to him, they seemed to have swam through it too.

"How'd the room get destroyed?" Tara whispered. "Is that scary ghost gone?"

"I don't see it," Kwayo said, taking in the towering walls cracked like glass, chunks of metal barriers scattered on the floor, and dirt crumbling from the vaulted ceiling. "Although the ceiling might not be stable anymore."

The portals are all gone, Dryda said.

Portals? There was more than one? He asked.

There was one to the ghost town.

Kwayo tried shapeshifting to a gyrfalcon, but instead his knees trembled.

That's how we got here, Ana supplied. With Lina.

Metal clanked behind him, and Kwayo spun. But it was only Addie, climbing over metallic rubble. She slid down an incline, disappearing.

So we're stuck here? Kwayo asked. Distantly, the walls screeched and dirt cascaded from the ceiling. After everything, they were stuck here?

"Lina?" Ana crouched beside Lina's curled form. "Are you okay?"

Lina's eyes popped open. "Yep. My head hurts."

Ana sent relief but also slight confusion through their telepathy. "Why did you run in here?" Ana asked.

Kwayo picked his way through the rubble toward them, shielding his eyes from tumbling dirt. Is this really important right now?

"To squash the thing," Lina sat up, wide eyes taking in their surroundings. "That was fun."

"That was not fun," Kwayo planted his hands on his hips. "That was terrifying. And dangerous."

"Guys!" The sound of Addie's voice made Kwayo jump. "I think Ripple's okay!"

"Can we go now?" Lina asked.

Ana bit her lip, glancing up at Kwayo. "Lina, we're not sure how to...leave."

"We need to look for an exit," Kwayo swept his gaze over the rubble and the dim metallic walls and their friends carefully sitting up. "Preferably before the ceiling--"

The room shifted, smooth silver metal going pale white. Kwayo's feet lost contact with the floor.

"Wha--" Ana yelped, arms paddling.

Kwayo unsuccessfully tried shifting to a pigeon, knees trembling with the effort. He kicked toward Ana, unmoving above the pale floor. Slowly, streaks of pink and green, like rows of fish scales, bled through the floor and crept up the walls. Like something dead flushing with life.

"Not this again!" Tamy cried.

"Ve-Are!" Verspri's voice yelled.

The room shifted again, leaving Kwayo gagging on the clouding scent of rotting fruit. The walls throbbed like a heartbeat, neon blue.

Lina twirled past Kwayo, limbs splayed in aerial cartwheels. "This place smells gross," she wrinkled her nose and Kwayo fell to the lawn. A real lawn, real grass, wet with dew between his fingers. He glanced up--toward a real sidewalk. Beside a half-burned dorm building.

Lina panted and frowned, flopping to her side in the grass. "This isn't the town. Why's it so far away?"

"Wait," Treble rose unsteadily to her feet, dozens of feet down the sidewalk. "This is our dorm. Can I get my stuff before we...leave again?"

"Assuming it isn't burned," Addie slowly approached the door, squinting into the gaping hole. "Come on."

"I'll get Vizz and Maro's stuff," Treble said, ducking inside after her. "You get Ripple's?"

Kwayo knelt in the grass. What just happened?

Don't ask me, Ana frowned at Kwayo, her hand hesitating over Lina's shoulder.

Where's Ve-Are? Verspri said. That was her weird dimension.

Kwayo glanced at Lina, who flopped onto her back. I thought Lina did that.

"I'm sleeping," Lina said to the air. "And then I'm sleeping in the ghost town."

That was definitely Lina, Ana said.

I didn't know she could do that, Teremki sent.

No duh, Ana replied.

Are Lina and Ve-Are twins? Kwayo asked. Maybe they got the same powers.

An image of a giant turquoise panda flashed through his thoughts.

Or similar powers, he amended.

"What do we do now?" Tara called.

"What even was that?" Zillie said.

"We wait for them to get back!" Kwayo shouted over his shoulder. "Then Lina teleports us to the ghost town!"

"That was Lina?" Zillie asked, sprawled in the grass.

"But...Ve-Are..." Isaac's voice trailed off.

"This is going to be fun trying to explain," Ana muttered.

Kwayo sighed. I vote Verspri does it.

Hey--

You have met Ve-Are before, Dryda sent, mingled with muted grief.

Verspri mentally grumbled.

Dryda...are you okay? Ana asked. What happened?

Mixed images of a small boy in bed, hugging a still form in a dusty street, finding someone lost only to lose him again. I...I don't know how to say...

Kwayo stood and turned, hunting for Dryda across the lawn. He tried sending comfort, like a furry bear hug.

It's okay, Dryda, Ana sent. You don't need to say anything.

***

Kwayo dropped to the dusty street, still gagging on the scent of decaying bread. Around him, his classmates flopped to their backs, or stared around in wonder.

"We actually made it," Tago said. "And I didn't throw up."

"You're welcome," Lina did a somersault in the dust.

Kwayo lowered to his knees. I'm tired, he sent. Has anyone claimed my bed?

I didn't, Verspri sent.

...Obviously.

Ana snorted, eyeing the distant pillars of smoke and flickering house illusions. You'll be lucky if none of the lizards blasted your house to ruins.

He shrugged. Maybe Chamrik protected it.

She rolled her eyes. Right.