The Ever After

Chapter Nineteen: The Cave Dwellers

DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO THE CATACOMBS, May was dragged, through low tunnels and tiny crevices no wider than her shoulders. She struggled and kicked, but her feet couldn't find purchase in the sandy floor of the caves, and the light coming from behind her was blinding, making spots swim in front of her eyes.

Suddenly the space around her seemed to expand, and with an unceremonious thud she was tossed into a big cage that swung from the ceiling, right near a wall. She immediately threw her hands up before her face, shielding her eyes against the blinding light. And then the light zipped away and disappeared.

She waited in darkness for what seemed like half an hour or more, rattling her cage, wanting to get to Pumpkin. Then the light zipped in again and began to dim, helping her make out the vague outline of a human shape.

It backed up a step or two. When the light settled at a faint glow, May couldn't believe what she saw. Staring back at her was a boy, no more than twelve or thirteen, with sandy hair and wide blue eyes rimmed with long eyelashes. He had pale, fair skin, slightly rosy at the cheeks. He was tall and thin, wearing a white button-down shirt under a blue jacket, and a blue-and-tan-striped tie. He stared at her, looking almost as surprised as she herself must have looked.

"I didn't know you were pretty."

The boy seemed to think better of what he'd said, because he blushed scarlet, then he zipped across the room, a flash of white light, disappearing. The hall went dark. May felt something in her back.

"Ahh!"

She swatted between her shoulders, reached down and grabbed whatever it was, and flung it across the room. The glow appeared again. And there, scurrying away along one wall, was a ghostly tarantula.

Ha ha ha!

There was a white zip of light across the room, and the boy was standing in front of her again, holding his hand over his mouth and chuckling. "It's fake, you know! I really got you!"

"I don't think it's very funny," May said boldly. The boy immediately stopped laughing and pulled his hand away from his mouth. He looked suddenly scared and worried.

"Really? I'm sorry."

"Wh-What are you going to do with me?"

"Do with you?" the boy asked, his eyes wide, like doe eyes. "Do with you?" He scratched his chin and began to pace, illuminating the walls as he walked. "I guess the others want to see you. You're certainly a strange type of spirit."

May opened her mouth to say that she wasn't a spirit, but then stopped herself.

She leaned against the back of her cage. "What do you want?" she whispered, trying to keep the trembling out of her voice.

The boy blinked his doe eyes at her languidly, confused. "Want? Oh, I don't want anything. I've got everything I need right here."

With that the boy zipped around the room again in a white flash, bouncing off the walls and ending up across the hall.

"Then why were you chasing us?" May squeaked.

The boy squinted at her, seeming to try to make the ques- tion out. "Why? Oh, I don't know." He began to laugh. "You should have seen your face when I blew out your light." He broke into a delighted giggle. May clenched her mouth shut as he walked closer to the cage and stuck his fingers around the bars. Suddenly his eyes were serious again.

"Hey, do you think you might want to be friends?"

"Friends?" May whispered.

"Yeah." The boy smiled tentatively. "Here, shake on it. . . ." He stuck his whole hand into the cage. May couldn't hold back-- she slapped it away.