My Friends Are Dead People (13 page)

“
Trick or treat?” said the
skeleton.

“
Trick!” I shouted
clearly.

“
Proceed at your own risk.
Next!”

Katie stepped up and didn’t even recite it.
She read a note written next to the proclamation about safety tips
and candy littering. Lin was even worse. He called the kitis
skeletis names and recited stupid limericks. After Lin was done
messing around, Dorian read the proclamation. Finally, we were
going to enter, but just before the stadium showed itself, Jacoby
and Dorian turned down into a stinky tunnel, webbed with rotting
vines and glowing algae. It seemed to go on forever. It felt like
we were hiking to the center of the Earth. Jacoby spent a lot of
time quietly talking to Dorian. I couldn’t make out anything they
were saying, even after the foot stomping died out in the
distance.

Katie and I stopped before a huge archway
with text running from one side of it to the other.

THE game

To secure a victory, the
samhain (player 1) must drive Jack (player 2) into the eternal
realm (10-meter-deep circular black hole) and have him/her touch
the back of it before the 3 minutes are up. The one with the
fastest time or most awarded points, will be granted the option to
choose who they play for the next round, with the exception of the
final three matches, in which players’ positions will be assigned
to them by the games’ officials.

Flying or hovering 10
meters above the ground level will result in disqualification.
Maiming your opponent is forbidden and will result in being banned
from all future festivals. The game will be halted if any player
uses magic that threatens the opponent’s life or if potentially
dangerous magic not listed below takes place, and a ruling shall be
reached before the game may resume. Perpetrators will be subject to
Haunt House penalties. Transforming more than twice in the same
game will result in disqualification. If a player receives outside
assistance before or during the match, the game shall end
immediately. Both the player and the abettor will receive severe
punishment. The Bellnicsi is considered extreme magic, and anyone
who summons it will be killed immediately.

THE code OF
magic

The game is over if there
is use of the following magic:

*
Ugo - invisibility

**Agigian - rapid
aging

Lo mosk - severe weight
gain

***
Masme - memory alteration

****
Binlisac - internal suffering

***
Endosac - external suffering

**
Qualop - loss of a bodily function

Psyclin
-
transportation

**
Treeplex - transformation

****
Scienfluke - chronic torture

***
Forsili - body control

******
Bellnicsi
- sound loss



The following three shall
be prohibited from playing due to their possession of violent and
baneful magic. If any of these three enters in disguise, the
penalty will be death.

the woman from
Brazil

********
Joriylalsecotol - extreme transformation

other extreme magic
unknown

Dorian, menala

********
Olisvmasian - extreme body control/torture

other extreme magic
unknown

Jack
Ottaggaemenel

******
Blin - vision failure

*********
Hauss - extreme
mutilation

**********
Linelscion -
magic loss

other extreme magic
unknown



samhains to be screened
before entering:

tortics

Unknown - may possibly
possess extreme magic

de-moan demons

Unknown - may possibly
possess extreme magic

Himalaya

Unknown - may possibly
possess extreme magic

Ronald Bass, skool
skeletis

Unknown - may possibly
possess extreme magic

Jacoby, hakin

Unknown - may possibly
possess extreme magic



“
Jacoby and Dorian, you
both are on here,” I said in amazement.

Jacoby and Dorian didn’t say anything as
they stepped into a lamp-lit chamber.

“
Jacoby,” Katie inquired,
following them in, “how come they think you’ve got extreme magic?
Do you?”

“
No. I’m an ordinary
halloween, but, because I’m able to look Dorian in the eyes, they
consider me to be a possible threat. Most unknown magic occurs in
unique halloweens, as for instance menalas or tortics, where there
may only be four or ten of their kind. Jack and the woman are one
of a kind . . . and so is Dorian, in a way. Right now Lin is the
only melflin in Halloween, so he is one of a kind . . . until
another melflin enters.” Lin’s ears perked up. “It’s more difficult
to determine what magic they possess when there are so few of them.
So they get listed as a precaution.”

“
Tortics are on the list,
too,” I said, worried. “How could they allow them to play
then?”

“
I guess the panel deemed
them admittable. If they obey the rules, I can’t see why not. You
can’t discriminate against someone solely because you’re afraid of
them.”

“
What’s a bell . . . nick
. . . sigh? Bellnicksigh?”

“
Bell – knee – see,”
corrected Jacoby, leaving it at that as he moved between two cells,
clouded with dust and gnats. Kala was huddled in the shadows of the
cage to our left, drawing endless circles in the dirt with his
fingers. He seemed unaware of the gnats crawling all over
him.

“
Kala,” disrupted Jacoby.
“Everyone’s here to support you: Lin, Katie–”

“
Where’s Dorian?” muttered
Kala, barely lifting his head. “Did he come?”

Kala spotted Dorian and shuffled up to the
bars. He looked to be in terrible shape, hunched over, quivering
and reeking of sweat.

“
Dorian, I don’t want to
do this,” he stammered, turning his bleary eyes to the
ground.

“
Kala, you shouldn’t have
accepted,” said Dorian.

Kala’s gaze slipped past Dorian into the
darkness of the cage directly across from him.

“
But I thought I was going
against Mick. I didn’t know he couldn’t continue after his last
match. I can beat a fopen mummy. I just wanted to show everyone I
had magic like you. Then I heard that the Beneficiary was signed by
a–”

“
You are like me,” said
Dorian.

“
I’m not!” said Kala
coldly.

“
Why do you want their
respect when they treat you so badly?”

“
But why do they hate me?
I don’t have your curse.”

“
You must remember they
are jealous of who you are.”

Kala waited for Dorian to continue.

“
You belong to a menala
family.”

“
I do?” said Kala, as
though this was a revelation. “What about Meesi? She’s a
menala.”

“
Meesi has isolated
herself, but yes, she is family.”

Kala spotted Katie, and
his eyes widened with awe. “
Katie
Pundeff?
” he said. He swatted at some of
the gnats before he spoke again. “Is that your name?”

Katie nodded.

“
I can’t believe it. I
knew your father.”

“
What?”

“
He showed me a picture of
your mother. You look like her.”

A silent rustle in the second cage made Kala
tense up. Everyone turned around and looked into the shadows of the
dusty cage.

“
He’s in there somewhere .
. .” Kala whimpered from the back of his cage,
“waiting.”

Dorian intently eyed the corner of the other
cage, lit by an overhead lamp. However, there was too much dust in
the air to see clearly. A moment later, a brief disturbance stirred
up a flurry of leaves and dirt in a corner. Nothing was seen, but
whatever was in the cage was in that corner.

Jacoby turned back to Kala. “Kala, you’ll be
fine. They’re not as tough as you think. Remember, now, they can’t
break the rules. Kala, please come away from the wall.”

“
I’m playing Jack,” said
Kala sadly, cautiously shuffling his way back. “He’s going to lay
his hand on me. What if he gets angry? He won’t care about the
rules–”

“
Good luck, Kala,”
encouraged Dorian.

Kala must have liked what Dorian had said
because he came to life a bit and started swatting at the gnats
again. One struck Lin in the face. Lin swatted at it, and it
bounced off, in turn hitting Jacoby in the face. He didn’t look as
amused about it as I was.

“
Good luck, Kala,” I
said.

“
Good luck, Kala,” echoed
Lin. “I bet ten Choco Worms on you.”

“
You know what, Kala?”
said Jacoby. “You don’t need my luck. You’re more powerful than I
could ever be.”

“
Really?” said Kala,
deeply surprised. “Is that why you don’t like to use magic? Because
you don’t really have any?”

Jacoby nodded.

A hopeful smile spread across Kala’s face.
“My father’s coming. He’s coming to see me play.”

“
You have a father?” I
asked.

“
Everyone does,” he said
bitterly. “He’s my
human
father. My
human
mother spoke to him. He wants to see me. He feels
bad for leaving us when I died. I told her how he can sneak in.
Maybe you can sit with him so he won’t feel so alone. He hates
candy, so don’t eat it in front of him. He’ll be dressed like a
clown.”

Katie leaned her head against the bars.
“Tell me about my father.”

“
He . . . he gave me lots
of candy and asked me questions.”

“
What kind?”

Kala stood there pondering, trying to
remember. “He asked me a few. He knew a lot about us. He asked me
if I knew a special halloween living in–”

A clanging noise shook the tortic’s cage
behind us. Kala leaped away, squealing, almost running into the
back wall. We all peered inside the tortic’s cage. But the only
sound heard was the sound of the footsteps echoing through a tunnel
across the way from the one we went through.

“
Katie, we have to get out
of here,” said Jacoby, already heading for our tunnel.

Kala started to whimper.

“
Kala, stop! You’ll be
fine.”

Kala went still.

“
I’m staying just a little
longer,” said Katie.

Jacoby turned around at the archway. “Katie,
this can wait. We can’t be seen here. They’d kill Kala.”

A tall shadow fell on the wall. Katie
exchanged sorrowful looks with Kala.

“
Katie!” called Jacoby
more forcefully on his way to the tortic’s cage. He muttered
something in German, speaking in a grim tone that frightened even
me. It seemed like he was giving the tortic a threatening message.
After he was done, he walked away and headed up the tunnel. Katie
and I glanced into the cage one last time, still unable to see the
tortic, and then hurried after Jacoby.

We came out in Section Ghoul 44, just above
the game floor. It was barely brighter than inside. There were
hundreds of oil lamps along the rim of the arena’s forty-foot wall,
but it did little to light the seats, keeping the crowd in relative
darkness, all light focused on the arena. Below, a mighty dust
storm swept across the game floor, with rumbling thunder and
glimmering lightning. It was growing stronger and mini magical
explosions popped inside, giving us a quick look at the dirt floor
of the arena.

The stadium was packed to the last seat. We
had no hope of finding five open seats. But Jacoby didn’t seem to
care; he and Lin were leaning over a safety railing, peering into
the storm, which made the floor seem like miles away.

The crowd gasped and then booed as a dark
figure flew momentarily into view. Even after the storm subsided,
it was difficult to see what was happening past the lingering veil
of dust and air-mine explosions.

“
There!” Lin pointed,
spotting an opening in the cascading dust.

Hess was being slammed into the wall over
and over by someone underneath him. On the last impact, he let out
an anguished roar. The crowd moaned ghostly as a large purple
tarantula scuttled on top of him and started spinning him into an
electrical web.

“
It’s breaking the rules,”
said Katie just loud enough to be heard over the crowd. “They have
to stop the game!”

“
Some of the rules can be
broken, Katie,” said Jacoby. “Since this is the quarterfinals many
violations will be tolerated.”

He watched the spider drag the cocooned Hess
toward a dark hole in the wall.