Mostly Dead Girls

it might be the house that's haunted

In the movies and the PSA videos, it was usually the little kid who noticed stuff first. Ghosts, killers in the neighborhood, houses that had just plain soaked evil into their walls like a massive sponge-you name it, media loved stories about little kids who noticed it. If you listened to them, you'd think every five-year-old was a barometer tuned into the supernatural weather at all times.

"Hey," Faye said to Justin, "do you think the house is haunted?"

He didn't respond, too preoccupied with wrapping an action figure in a handkerchief. Instead, Julia poked her head into the kitchen, frowning.

"Faye, I asked you to get Justin breakfast, not ask him weird questions."

"I'm just wondering," Faye said, pouring cereal into two bowls. "You know that moving into a new house is risky."

"Yes, but this one is not haunted. It's practically brand-new."

Faye almost felt bad for knowing better. It was easier to be mad at Greg than Julia; Julia was tiny and curly-haired and looked like the kind of woman whose face turned up among victims of a murder spree. And as Faye's stepmother, it felt almost proper that they shouldn't get along. Faye gave her an awkward smile and added milk to the bowls. Look, stepma, I'm being normal.

"Batman's a mummy," Justin said, waddling the handkerchief-swathed Dark Knight along the table edge. He bumped it into Faye's arm. "He's gonna eat you."

Faye pushed a bowl over. "Will he take cereal instead?" She tried to check Julia's reaction to Justin's words, but her stepmother was already gone.

"Dunno. Does cereal have organs in it?"

Faye made a show of checking the back of the box. "Well, it's not Hayes Portman brand."

Justin stared at her, uncomprehending. Faye gave up and just shook her head. "Nope, no organs. Maybe Bat-mummies can make it by on fiber alone." Nobody appreciated her best jokes. She needed more friends.

And with that, her thoughts snapped back to the girl-Dorita-in the yard last night, and her hands shook a little as she handled her own bowl of cereal. She didn't really feel like eating, but she knew she needed to. It was risky enough to welcome a dead girl into the house while she was alone; doing it in a fog because she hadn't eaten anything would be stupid. Suddenly nervous about whether cereal would be enough, Faye poked around in the things Julia had left on the counter and found something promisingly labeled 'Natural Energy Boost!!'

"Faye, are mummies real? Like ghosts and bad guys and stuff?"

"Ancient Egyptians really mummified their dead," Faye explained, ladling twice the recommended dose of Energy Boost!! into her cereal, "and some of them had ghosts attached, but they weren't bad guys. I mean, wouldn't you be upset if somebody ransacked your grave?"

"Don't know. Why are you putting Mommy's powder in your food? She said only grown-ups needed it."

Faye carefully replaced the container. "I am a grown-up. Sort of. Compared to you. Don't tell Julia, OK?"

Justin started eating his cereal, which could have meant anything. Faye gave hers a vigorous stir and tasted the brown mess it was slowly turning into; it tasted like dried kale and graveyard dirt. She'd had worse, but she still dumped a few spoonfuls of sugar in before trying to eat again.

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By the time Julia and Greg were finally headed out the door, Faye's whole body was humming with nervous energy and anger. She tried her best not to snap at anyone, to smile and look as responsible and calm as possible when they looked at her-the last thing she wanted was them deciding she couldn't be left in the house alone. Still, when they were finally out on the steps, almost gone, and stopped, she was about ready to scream.