Orphan of Mythcorp Read Online Free Page A

class. Ash has a
point. Perhaps with someone else at the helm, M-Mythcorp could be a
useful safeguard.”
    And then someone uttered the dreaded phrase:
“He’s mesmerized her!”
    The teacher raised her hand, tucked strands
of golden hair behind her ears. “No, no he has not. I am completely
in control. I just think he has a good point.”
    The bell rang, proving there was a god.
    The debate raged on though as everyone exited
room 214. Mrs. Deem received numerous sharp looks, questioning
glances. Hushed whispers of “Do you think she’s been mesmerized?”
accompanied the class as they bustled away.
    ‘ Maybe you won’t be sleeping on them
grungy cots after all’ Marie tittered. ‘Maybe it’s back to the Home
for you.’
    On the way out I asked Ash the obvious
question.
    “ Of course not.” The lie rolled right
off his tongue, like liquid butter. “Mrs. Deem just happens to be
smart enough to get where I’m coming from.”
    “ Right,” I cinched the backpack around
my shoulder. “Ready to tell me what that kook in the Park said to
you?” Ash paused in the hallway, inhaled, and then looked up at me.
“I told you. Now don’t ask again. See you around.” He may or may
not have called me a dick as he picked up the pace. I might just
have been hearing one of my spooks; Castor, probably. He loves
cussing me out.
    I could still hear the Internet History
guru’s debating down the hall as I checked my schedule. “Debate
Team,” I groaned.
    ‘ At least you know how it’s done now,’
Marie pointed out. ‘Holy freaking crap,’ she said. I looked up. For
once she was not dancing among the living. I followed her gaze to a
chestnut-haired guy. His stoic expression, unnatural good posture
and the close proximity of his eyes to each other were all very
interesting, but these things paled in comparison to what
surrounded him.
    “ Are those . . . all spooks?” I asked Marie. Her jaw was drooping
in awe—as was mine, no doubt.
    ‘ I’ve never seen such an assembly on
this side before. Even around you,’ Marie said.
    “ Yeah, no kidding,” I agreed. “What
does it mean? Can he see
them?”
    Marie didn’t answer. Her aura or ectoplasm or
whatever it is that comprises her existence, was flickering. It
does that whenever she’s about to disappear. “Hold up,” I grabbed
at her shoulder. Sheesh. Fifteen years and I still had the
occasional brain-fart. “Go and talk to them.”
    Marie hesitated. Meanwhile, it occurred to me
that I was standing here chatting away with a woman no one else
could see while staring at some guy. If I wasn’t careful, I’d come
off as a complete loony-tune.
    ‘ They look angry,’ Marie said in a
scared little girl voice. ‘I think I’ll just go back to
Limbo.’
    “ Don’t you dare—hey! Stop that
flickering! I’ll start ignoring you again unless you float over
there right this instant and talk to those spooks.”
    As she reluctantly floated over to the
cluster of spirits, I yanked the student manifest out of my back
pocket and scanned it. Ten ticks later I found the picture of the
spook-magnet and read his name below it. “So, what is your deal,
Charles Henri Sanson?”

Chapter 4
    Sanson
    Being unoriginal, my parents christened me
Charles Henri Sanson, the sixth in my family line with this name.
Or maybe the seventh. I can never remember. Either way, the name is
cursed and everyone knows it. Students avoid me in the halls.
That’s fine. It means I don’t have to avoid them. All I want is to
find a way to lift this curse so I can get me a girl who won’t run
screaming or get stricken with a sudden bout of lesbianism when she
learns my family history.
    Oh, and technically, I’m dead. Not
six-feet-under dead. Just an
extremely-rare-disorder-has-left-me-pulse-less dead.
    I was situating my books in my locker—number
666, naturally—when I happened to look up. Some black-haired
black-jeaned yahoo was staring at me. I’d never seen him
before.
    I grabbed my copy of