"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Twenty-Three: Monster Attack In The Hospital
(E Pluribus Unum)
***
The lights were flickering.
They buzzed overhead, more and more erratically with every passing second. Alistair could taste the manic static on his tongue, but more than that, he could feel the spike in the air, cutting through the overwhelming chill of death—panic from the ghosts, growing as frenzied as the lights, a low howl of fear building and building. Alistair watched the ghosts press against each other before flooding for the doors—desperate to escape the threat in the hospital.
Alistair turned back to Will, at seeing the way Will was stiff like a board as his hand was clamped against the back of his neck, the other gripping the candy packet in a white-knuckled grip, he and the others standing in a group as they eyed the lights.
"He's here," he said, voice cracking slightly.
Alistair gulped, and he looked at Cami, at her wide eyes, as Mike, Max, Lucas and El registered what was happening. As El got a look on her face.
Immediately they were rushing to the elevators, which the nurse noticed.
"Hey, hey, hey! Two at a time!" she shouted, but they ignored her as they gathered around the elevators. Mike slammed the button for the elevator, leaving them waiting anxiously for it to come down. Alistair's heart was beating a frantic tempo inside his chest, terror for Nancy and Jonathan pumping inside him with each erratic heartbeat. The almost suffocating panic of the ghosts didn't help as they screamed Run get out it's here it will get us need to get out get out before it gets us thought we were safe everyone get out RUN! over and over, pounding against Alistair's skull like frozen, electrified knives.
However, whatever the Upside Down or the Mind Flayer was doing to the lights, it was fucking up the elevator too, as it wasn't coming down.
"Stairs," Mike decided, and they rushed to the nearest stairwell, all but running up it. It was small and crowded, but the seven of them didn't care as they ran up. It was more crowded with all the ghosts stampeding down, running through them with a shock of cold that only Alistair could feel, their buzzing, panicked words now an incomprehensible scream of static in Alistair's brain, and it was all he could do to focus on his own fear for Nancy and Jonathan, to know they were in danger, to keep running, to keep following the flickering lights.
It was all he could do. He couldn't do anything else.
In response, cold flickered in his veins, reaching out, out, out, and—
Alistair reeled it back in, gritting his teeth. No. He couldn't do that. He had to keep running.
