The Ever After

Chapter Ten: "Make the Most of Your Eternity!"

IN THE CLEARING, FOR A MOMENT IT WAS HARD TO tell whether the rippling on the lake had been made by the echoes of falling trees or something unseen underneath the surface. But as the seconds passed, the ripples grew larger, and a dark form took shape as it drifted upward and burst into the open air with a splutter.

The creature sneezed and spat and paddled its way to the shore, dragging its long skinny body along the ground and collapsing there like a piece of gum that had seen one too many chews. Its face was strikingly sad and melancholy, but this was not unusual. Somber Kitty was limp and half-dead. His big pointy ears lay flat and his skinny tail sagged on the dirt like the top of a deflated exclamation mark. He lay between life and death for several seconds. And then his nose began to twitch.

Pushing himself up onto wobbly legs, Somber Kitty sniffed harder. He stumbled several times as he followed May's path— across the dirt, into the trees, and up to a closed door.

He reached out one gentle paw and scratched at the door. He sniffed it again, then scratched again. He stood on his hind legs and sniffed higher and with more urgency.

Behind him the lake began to bubble. But Somber Kitty didn't notice. He was too sure that May was getting farther and farther away.

May turned to look at the door she had just come through, but it was no longer there. All that remained was a small gap with a sign below it reading: VIEW OF THE WATER DEMON IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT. She gulped and swiveled around, blinking while her eyes adjusted to the darkness. They were in a dark, flickering hallway. Pumpkin still had his cold, trembling hand around her arm, zapping her with tiny shocks of electricity. May yanked herself free.

His giant eyes drooped a look at her, and his white cheeks flushed pink. "Sorry." He stuck a finger in his mouth and looked down the hall. "We're safe now. They'll think the demon's gotten you, after all. Come back to finish the job." Pumpkin shivered. Before May could ask who the "they" was, he spoke again. "I think the only way out is there," he whispered. "It's very important no one sees you. Come on." He drifted down the hall and stopped at a door on the right. The blue light she had noticed seemed to be coming from the room that lay beyond it, flashing patterns on Pumpkin's ghastly face.

He looked back at her expectantly.

May stayed where she was, rooted to the spot. Her heart, which was still beating hard, told her to wait. He floated back toward her.

"If you stay here, May, you'll be caught."

May checked behind her one last time, then pushed on the wall. It didn't budge. At a loss she followed Pumpkin back down the hall, and they both peered through the flickering doorway.

They were at the entrance of an old-fashioned movie theater, complete with a squeaky projector that cast a long thread of light out over rows of seats filled with figures May couldn't quite make out in the dark. The whole place smelled dusty, as if it hadn't been used in a hundred years.

May shrunk to the left of the door, eyeing her companion sideways. He kept his gaze locked forward, his whole body trembling. She let her attention move to the movie in front of them. Up on-screen a thin man in a butler's suit was in the middle of saying something. His face was horribly pale, and his eyes were sunken and dark, his whole body as transparent as Pumpkin's.

May looked around her again, trying to make out the others in their seats, and then back at the screen. She shivered.

"Please look carefully at this list of items that are not allowed into the Ever After. If you are carrying any of these, please hand them over to the nearest greeter."