The Ever After

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Book of the Dead

THE FLOATERATOR CAME TO A SCREECHING halt and the two doors opened, spilling May and the others onto the top floor of the Eternal Edifice.

The group looked at one another, smiling weakly with relief.

The wail of the sirens drifted up to them, but only faintly. "Ohh," Pumpkin moaned, holding up his arm, which had a spear-sized hole running right through the middle of it.

John, who was sweating profusely, immediately dug into his knapsack, pulled out an ancient nutcracker, and went to work on the button of the floaterator, yanking it out, and then digging at the wires inside. The others gathered around Pumpkin.

"Does it hurt?" May asked.

Pumpkin shook his head.

"We're in trouble," John grunted over his shoulder. "But this'll hold 'em fer a bit. Ghouls and bogeys can't fly, after all."

Nobody was quite listening to him, though. Beatrice, Fabbio, Pumpkin, and May had turned their backs and were staring down a long hallway filled with light, which fell in colored stripes across a crystal blue floor. On either side the walls were made of stained glass, of the richest hues May had ever seen-far deeper and more vivid than anything she'd seen on Earth, in shades she'd never dreamed might exist. In several places the glass had shattered, leaving shards scattered across the floor ahead. A revolving door spun at the end of the hall.

The group drifted slowly down the hall in silent awe. The hallway felt so far above everything happening in the city, and it was so breathtaking, that for the moment the danger below seemed a distant memory.

The glass, once May looked at it more closely, appeared to depict different scenes. The first, on her left, she knew well. And she was no longer surprised. It was of a giant tree growing out of the snow, but lush and full of green leaves and giant magnolia flowers. The eyes that peered out from behind the leaves were the deepest sky blue. Were they hunting her? Welcoming her? Chiding her? The eyes were too mysterious to tell.

May moved on. The next scene showed a vast black ocean, giving a view of the depths, where at the very bottom, waiting on the murky ground underwater, were several horrible-looking creatures-ghouls and goblins and others.

"That must be South Place," Pumpkin whispered behind her, his voice shaky.

The next scene was one May recognized-it was a view of Earth, but divided into four corners, with a tiny star marking a spot in each corner. "The portals?" May whispered. Surrounding the Earth was a large border, also divided into four parts. In each there was a scene from Earth: monkeys gathered around a steaming pool with Mount Fuji in the distance, an old airplane flying above an aqua blue sea dotted with islands, a stone well in the middle of a desert-

"May!" Pumpkin gasped, thrusting his white finger toward the last scene. But May had already seen it. The picture was of a small, swampy lake, nestled into a blanket of trees. Far off in the hills beyond it, a white house could be seen.

Tears quivered on May's eyelids.

She felt an arm around her, and Pumpkin leaned his big round head against hers.

"We're close," he whispered.

May accepted his cold hug gratefully. She hoped he was right.

Her feet crunched on shattered glass as they moved forward again, this time to a scene that showed a dark figure cloaked in black, with glowing red eyes and long skeletal fingers. He held up his hand while a group of four eight-legged creatures bowed to him. "The water demons," Beatrice said, floating up behind them with Fabbio at her side.