Prodigal by Melanie Tem

Author:Melanie Tem [Melanie, Tem,]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press

16

"Halloween," Jerry told them, "is the celebration of angry spirits."

He looked around the circle lingeringly, as if he loved them all, and Lucy followed his gaze with her own. That was why she liked sitting next to Jerry: you looked where he looked, saw things the way he saw them, and sometimes you could feel his words in your mouth, his thoughts in your head.

Lucy hadn't been in the group long enough to recognize people under their masks. She didn't think Jerry could, either, so it must not matter. In group they hardly ever used each other's names. She remembered Stephanie, Mike, Billy, and she wondered if they remembered Lucy.

There was a witch with long silver nails and eyes that glowed in the dark. There was a ghost, but you couldn't see through it. Stretching out through the circle was a slimy green snake. On the other side of Jerry was some kind of animal with big teeth. On the other side of Lucy was a spider.

"How angry are you?" Jerry was asking.

Nobody said anything. The snake wriggled and the witch clicked her nails against the floor.

"How angry is your spirit?" Somebody in the circle moaned a little, and the animal with the big teeth growled.

Lucy was supposed to be a zombie, but she didn't think anybody could tell. She'd made up her costume herself, and she didn't really know what zombies were supposed to look like. Black pants, a black shirt of Rae's, white makeup on her face and hands, fake blood on her teeth. She'd told Mom she was too old to dress up for Halloween.

"Halloween is also," Jerry said quietly, "a celebration of sorrow, and fear, and loneliness, and guilt. A celebration of troubled spirits."

The room behind the school cafeteria, where the group met, was decorated for Halloween. A black cutout skeleton danced from strings overhead. Spider webs hit you in the face when you came in the door. Black cats with yellow eyes perched in all the windows, ready to jump on you at any minute; even though it was dark outside, you could see their silhouettes. Patches was a black cat, but he had white on him, too; at Halloween, Lucy didn't know what that meant.

"Who's sad in this room? Is anybody sad?"

Nobody said anything, but the witch was crying.

"Who's afraid?"

"I am," said the fuzzy voice of the spider, right at Lucy's ear, and she jumped. One of its hairy spiderlike legs brushed against her cheek.

"I am, too," said the ghost, and then, Lucy guessed, couldn't stop saying it. "I am, too. I am, too. I am, too."

"Who's lonely?" Jerry asked softly, lovingly. "Who feels guilty?"

"I do," said the snake, writhing and coiling on the floor.

"I do, too," Lucy heard herself say.

Jerry was nodding and smiling just a little; she'd pleased him. He had a nice smile, beautiful eyes, pretty rings. He wasn't wearing a costume, Lucy noticed for the first time, even though he'd said this was a costume party. But he did look different.

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