My Friends Are Dead People (20 page)

“
Oh, we are very close,”
said Lin’s echoing voice over the muffled sounds of clanging steel
and heavy rattling. “I can hear the children of the
wild.”

“
What do you suppose . .
.” said Katie.

The next area was a room of stacked cages
holding goblins, mummies, zombies, and a massive red gorilla
puffing red fumes. Lin walked around, nodding.

“
I wonder why they’re
locked up,” said Katie.

“
Whatever the reason, we
should keep it that way,” I replied, eyeing a creature inside a
dark cage in the middle. All I could see were two big meaty green
legs hanging off a rock bed. The calves were huge, and the ankles
were as thick as my waist.

“
That thing’s creepy, no?”
said Katie, looking in with me.

“
I think it’s sleeping,” I
said.

“
It’s dead,” said Lin.
“Halloweens rarely sleep. Our days are too precious to waste. Not
sure what that is and why it’s held captive in the zoo, but . . .
Oh! Look here!”

We went over to Lin. He was pointing at a
spiked goblin.

“
Okay, here is what is
known as a
clouded
leopard
.”

The goblin’s gleaming eyes narrowed.

“
They’re not something to
laugh at, Katie. The name comes from their cloud-like spots. If you
can see, their pupils are neither round, nor narrow. This one looks
angry – why don’t we move on to the gorilla?”

Lin walked across to the opposite side,
stopping at a large empty shelf built into the wall.

“
Jesse, stay where you
are. Don’t come any closer,” he warned.

But I was already there. A mysterious red
box was resting alone on the second shelf.

“
What is that?”

“
Jesse, there’s a way out
of here,” beckoned Katie by an open door. “Come on, let’s
go.”

Something was written on the box. I looked
closer.

Jesse

“
Don’t open that,” ordered
Katie.

“
She’s right,” said Lin.
“The zoo holds many mysteries that shouldn’t be toyed
with.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off my name. Someone
knew that someday I would come here.

“
Jesse,” alerted Katie.
“Lin’s changing again. Lin?”

“
Hey, Katie,” he said in
his regular childish voice. “I can’t believe we got past sarscas
and a mummy! Katie, you were amazing! Jesse, that was a good throw!
We did so well!”

Katie and I smiled.

“
Hey, Lin!” we said
simultaneously.

Lin took the box and looked at it. He didn’t
inspect it, but just stared at it. “You going to open it?” he
asked. “Looks like something’s inside.”

“
But you just told him not
to,” reminded Katie.

“
Yeah, but that was then.
Come on, Jesse, open it.”

I took the box from Lin. Why would my name
be on it? I had never been here before. I thought about the box
that Oz had put the envelope in–

Katie ripped the box out of my hands.
“You’re not going to open it!”

“
Why not?” I said, trying
to take it from her.

“
It’s a trap! Lorseria is
trying to use your curiosity against you.”

“
But how would you know? I
don’t care anyway. I’m going to open it.”

Lin took the box away from Katie and held it
to his ear. “Nothing’s moving inside.” He shook it hard.

“
Stop!” I shouted, yanking
it away from him. “You’ll break it.”

“
Yeah, Katie’s right. I
have a bad feeling about this . . . something from the
past.”

“
What if it triggers the
cages to open?” said Katie.

“
Yeah,” agreed Lin. “I’d
hate you forever, Jesse.”

“
I’m opening it,” I
announced. I popped open the top and pulled out a note and a small
key.

“
What’s the note say?”
said Lin, leaning over my shoulder.

I knew you would open it!
This is a key to open any of the cages you like, but choose wisely
or this mistake will be your last. There is one who will not harm
you. And the door is now shut.

Lorseria

Both of the doors leading to the room
slammed shut – the one to the right and the one we came in through
– locking us in with the scary and strange samhains.

“
We’re going to die!”
cried Lin. “I told you! Why didn’t you listen to me? I’m not due to
die yet!”

“
We should’ve gone through
the door, Jesse,” said Katie, shaking her head.

“
Okay, let’s just choose
one,” I said, knowing that was all we could do.

There was a short silence; and then growls,
moans, and whispers came from all the cages. I walked over to the
samhain with the giant green legs.

“
Can you step forward?” I
said. “I may release you if I can get a look at you
first.”

The legs didn’t budge. I looked closer and
noticed a name tag on the right ankle.

Franky

“
Fine. Have it your way,
Franky. I’m not letting you out then.”

“
It’s dead, I told you,”
said Lin, peeking into another cage. “What’s its name, Jesse? Does
it have a name tag?”

“
What about this?”
suggested Katie at the other end.

I walked over to the tiny
cage she was looking at. A red-eared rat was snoozing underneath a
blanket of hay. Its name was
Sloop
.

“
I don’t know,” I said. “I
guess it does look pretty innocent.”

“
Let’s look at some more
first.” Katie spotted a tall ladder and immediately climbed up to
the second level of cages.

“
Katie, careful! They
might grab you!”

“
I’m fine,
Oz
,” teased Katie,
stepping onto the ledge.

“
What do you
see?”

“
A blonde furry thing.
Kind of looks like Sandy–” Something fiercely rammed itself into
the bars of the cage. “Okay, no, not this one.”

She climbed to the third level, which looked
unstable. She nearly lost her footing at the top. I clutched my
face.

“
Don’t go too high,” I
said nervously.

“
Anything else,
Oz?”

“
I am not – just hurry
up.”

There was some clattering in a cell near me
and Lin, directly underneath Katie.

“
Hey, pick me, I’m funny,”
said a little bearded man. He was fiddling with his crusted fingers
and toes. His name was . . .
Pick
Me
.

“
You want me to tell you a
joke?” he croaked. “Okay, okay, fine. There was Hell and Heaven;
bad and good. And now they’re friends! Get it?”

The little man tumbled over, laughing,
kicking his feet, and tossing clumps of hay up in the air.

“
I don’t get it,” I
said.

“
This monster’s stupid,”
said Lin.

“
Let’s pick him. He’s a
perfect choice.”

“
Hey, want to hear another
one?” said the dwarf. “This one gets the flying candy. Okay, okay,
don’t get too excited.”

We weren’t.

“
There was a foul odor . .
.” The man pressed his face against the bars and whispered
secretively, “then everyone ran and screamed. Ha-ha-ha!”

The man fell over, cracking up.

“
I kind of get it,” I
said, “but it’s not funny.”

“
It does look friendly,”
added Katie, joining Lin and me.

The man grinned, revealing crooked yellow
teeth.

“
Gross,” said Katie.
“Brush your teeth.”

“
So, what do you think,
Lin? Lin?”

Lin was looking into another cage at a
purple woman with black spots.

“
Hello, Lin,” said the
woman in a beautiful chirping voice, sitting on a bench deep in the
shadows.

Lin and I stuck our heads through the bars
to get a better look. Her eyes were watery, and she had black
eyeliner smeared down her cheeks.

“
Katie, we found the one–”
I called excitedly. I cleared my throat and asked, “What’s your
name?”

“
Lowl,” she said
sadly.

“
That’s a pretty
name.”

“
Beautiful name,” declared
Lin.

“
Who locked you up?” asked
Katie rudely.

“
Katie, be nice,” I
said.

“
What do you mean ‘be
nice’?” she snapped at me strangely.

I ignored her and stared back at Lowl. “Did
the tortics lock you in here?”

She nodded.

“
Okay, well, you can stop
crying now.”

Just then I noticed that there were two
keyholes. I scanned the area and spotted the second key hanging
inside the shelf five feet away. Lorseria really didn’t want her to
get out. He didn’t want anyone to take her. I bet he wanted her for
himself.

“
You sure she’s the best
one?” said Katie. “Something’s weird about her cage needing two
keys.”

“
Jesse, give me the keys,”
ordered Lin. “I’ll open it.”

“
No, you’re not,” I
argued, slamming my back into him and sticking the keys inside.
“You are free, Lowl. It’s okay, you can come out. I won’t let
Lorseria hurt you anymore.”

Lowl elegantly uncrossed her legs and got
up, then gracefully walked over in high heels. She was gorgeous,
and so was her shredded, black evening gown. I instinctively
straightened out Oz’s green jacket.

“
Thank you, Jesse,” smiled
Lowl. Her light blue eyes shone stunningly against her purple skin.
She turned to Katie. “Who are you, little thing?”

“
Jesse?” said Katie,
tugging on my jacket. “Jesse!”

“
What? What do you want?”
I yelled.

“
Jesse, there’s something
wrong with you!” said Katie promptly.

“
I believe there’s
something wrong with you,” countered Lowl, setting a hand on
Katie.

Katie viciously struck Lowl’s hand away.

“
Katie, you shouldn’t have
done that,” scolded Lin.

“
Lin, Katie’s turning on
us,” I said.

“
She’s
jealous.”

“
She is jealous. We have
to get rid of her.”

“
Let’s throw her in the
lava.”

“
Jesse,” Katie cried,
shaking me. “She’s got you in some kind of a trance. Snap out of
it!”

“
There’s nothing wrong
with
them
,” said
Lowl. “There is something wrong with you. Jesse, Lin, can you push
this little girl into the gorilla cage for me?” She handed
me
a new key. “This can open any door but
mine.”

This was my chance to impress Lowl. Lin and
I both hurried over to Katie.

“
Please, Jesse!” cried
Katie, flinging Lin and me to the ground. “Lin, snap out of it!
She’s got you–”

Lin brought out his knife.

“
Lin, you know me! Lin! .
. .
Jesse, it’s me – your best
friend!
” She kicked me in the
leg.

“
Ow! Ow, Katie.” I noticed
I was gripping her really tightly.

“
Please, stop,” she
muttered, worn out.

I released my grip, feeling disoriented.
“Katie?”

“
Jesse?” she gasped,
searching my eyes. “Jesse, she’s using you and Lin.”

The all-purpose key flew out of my pocket
and clattered on across the floor to the middle cage. A giant green
hand, with thick bolts drawn through its wrists, reached through
the bars and picked up the key.

“
Not
him
,” wailed Lowl, frantically placing her
long fingernail into the keyhole of the gorilla’s cage.

The giant hand proceeded to put the key in
the keyhole. The door slowly opened, and out of the shadows,
emerged a massive green figure, about ten feet tall, with heavy
sullen features, a flat head, and two black bolts drawn through his
neck. He wore ragged brown pants and a ripped shirt, both too small
for his frame, so that his mighty muscles rolled menacingly
underneath the fabric with each move.

Lin watched in awe as the green giant
stomped by. The big gorilla stood up tall on his hind legs, still a
foot shorter than Franky, and roared into the giant’s green face as
he reached Lowl. Franky didn’t even look at the animal. Nor did he
react when the gorilla swung his huge fist into him. It was like a
child had punched him. Barely looking at the gorilla, Franky
pitched the animal back into its cage. He snatched Lowl’s hand and
lifted her up so he could look straight into her eyes.

“
Leave these kids alone,”
he said in a low angry voice. He tossed her into the cage as well
and closed it. He turned back to us as we stood there speechless,
looking up at him in complete awe.

“
Thanks,” I got out at
last.

“
You’re very welcome,
young man.”

“
Uhmm . . .” I didn’t know
what else to say to him. . . . “We have to go now,” I said, feeling
exhausted and eager to get out of that place.