May Bird Among the Stars Read Online Free Page B

missing eye had gotten stuck in the flip-flop of an Egyptian spirit and disappeared, never to be seen again by anyone except itself. He thought of his poor Black Shuck dogs whom—in a rash moment of anger—he’d banished to the Swamp of Swallowed Souls.
    He wanted the girl destroyed. The girl
and
her friends. And it certainly had to to be kept secret.
    But even the Bogey knew better than to unleash a spirit like Commander Berzerko. She had not been let out of her pen for over a hundred years … and that was probably best for everyone involved.
    Still, the Bogey’s white eyeball gleamed with a thought. There was another option.
    He reached for the skull-o-phone.
    For a moment he hesitated, his suction-cup-tipped fingers poised over the teeth. And then he began to tap the teeth with his fingers, dialing someone—a group of someones—who would surely take care of the girl.
    He called the Wild Hunters.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    That night May and the others camped far from the town, in case whoever had taken the residents of Everville returned. They used the classified section of the newspaper to build their fire. Because of this, they missed a few things that might have been of some interest to them.
    They had not seen the ad for Fast-Forward Motion Potion, for example, nor had they scanned the lonely spirits listed in the personals section
(Is It You-hoooo? Lost Soul Seeking Same).
They also missed the announcement for the gathering of a group called STARD (Spirits Totally Against Realm Domination) at an undisclosed location due south of the Scrap Mountains. The truth was, May and her friends were too concerned with their immediate futures to notice.
    Tomorrow, they decided after talking long into the night, they would head north—back into the emptiness of the Hideous Highlands.

Chapter Three
Something’s Gone Bad at the Snack Shack.
    C an you carry me?” Pumpkin asked.
    May rolled her eyes at Pumpkin. “I’m already carrying Kitty.” Pumpkin scowled.
    Somber Kitty stirred in his papoose, which May had fashioned out of some curtains she’d pulled from the train. He peered over May’s shoulder and waved his tail at Pumpkin contentedly.
    After two days of traveling, they were still following the train tracks due north. As the telep-a-gram had promised, May had felt neither hungry nor thirsty.
    â€œLook.” Beatrice pointed to a circular building up ahead and to the left. It was the long-promised Poltergeist Corral. It looked like someone—or something—fierce had shattered a hole right through the front wall, which was enormously high and at least three feet thick. They stuck to the tracks, studying the corral curiously as they floated and walked by. It looked like it had been abandoned for a hundred years, but flashing signs still hung crookedly from the walls:
    POLTERGEIST CORRAL
    POLTERGEIST TRICKS!
    THROW THINGS AT POLTERGEISTS
    PET THE poltergeists!
    Somber Kitty let out a low growl.
    â€œPoor poltergeists,” May said.
    The captain made a loud clicking sound with his mouth. “
Poor poltergeists!
Pah! Horrible creatures.”
    They kept moving, and soon the corral was far behind them.
    When they tired, the group camped alongside the deserted tracks, in the dusky shadow of a crumbling billboard advertising the Carnival at the Edge of the World. In the picture an enormous spiked black Ferris wheel soared above a park full of lights and attractions, countless specters and ghosts smiling at one another as they tried their luck at games or as their vaporous forms blew out of shape on the rides. The billboard was torn and peeling in many places but still displayed the words RIDE THE TUNNEL OF TERROR! VIEW THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!
    For some reason, it reminded May of Lucius. All those spirits smiling and laughing made her think of the horrible fate he was probably enduring under the sea.
    â€œWhy so sad?” Captain Fabbio asked,