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I will not leave my friends in those barrels, she told the stone I will not be a victim of this monsterchild YOU WILL RISE OFF THE FLOOR!

And it did! Although the stone sank deep into her ghostly hands, it caround! Allie did not let her excitement break her concentration She held her will in the pal with that stone It was heavy It was perhaps the heaviest thing she had ever lifted, but she did not feel its weight in her ht she could feel on her soul, and the strain was so great she felt her spirit would tear apart Slowly she oons backed away

"Here’s your stone," she said He held out his hand and she brought her hands over his The stone lingered in her hands only an instant longer, then it fell right through, and into the Haunter’s open palood A skill is best revealed when one has no choice but to show it"

"Free my friends"

"Five years of study," the Haunter said

"What?"

"You have shown your skill Now you must develop it, and discover what other skills you have--because where there is one skill, there are more Study with me for five years, and then I shall free your friends from their barrels"

Allie took a step back "That wasn’t our agreement"

The Haunter showed no expression "I said I would free them I never said when"

This tiht-out approach to the situation, she found herself lunging for the Haunter, which of course did no good, because his goons were there to hold her back Their strength seemed unnatural, even for Everlost spirits--and in a rabbed at the scarf covering one of their faces, and what she saw terrified her She should have known sohts all wore the clothes they died in, ere the chances of finding a teahts at all They were shells--and when Allie peeled back the scarf fro around the back of a head that didn’t exist

Allie screamed, reached for the other faces, and one after another, she revealed them as empty, soulless soldiers This trick was part of the Haunter’s skill;

wrapping clothes around e The hed

Handless gloves gripped her tightly, and carried her to the door "Come back when you are ready to learn," the Haunter said

Then they pulled open the heavy iron door, and hurled her out into the street, sla the door behind her

She tried to push herself up on her elbows but found she couldn’t, and realized she was sinking into the led to free herself, but only became more deeply e to take her down A garbage truck rolled over her, its wheels rolling straight through her head like it wasn’t there, and it only h that one of the rear tires blew as it crossed through her

The truck slammed on its breaks, and pulled over to the side of the street up ahead

Did I blow out that tire?

But if she did, she didn’t care Not now With a heavy force of will, she pulled herself upright Now standing waist-deep in the asphalt, she worked her legs, and pressed with her hands until she had pulled herself out of the street

She ran to the door of the Haunter’s lair For a quick -world door, and slah it She bounced off the solid steel, al back in the street

She pounded on the door over and over, rah s, but they were eternally blocked with security bars that had crossed into Everlost along with the rest of the building For hours she tried to find a way in, and by dawn she was no closer to freeing her friends than she had been when she started

As the jet-dark sky beca, the rain turned to sleet, and the pinpricks of rain passing through her became sharp darts of ice Discoe This dead/not-dead state robbed her of her right to feel with her body, and that uish of her soul all the more severe

Come back when you are ready to learn, the Haunter had said, but Allie already knew she would never be his student She was no monster, and neither would she study under a h She would come with a force of three hundred kids Mary’s kids They would tear the place down brick by brick if they had to, until there was not even a ghost of a ghost of a building

Allie ran all the way back to the greatdo the surprised looks of the kids on lookout She raced into the elevator with such speed that she hit the back wall The entire elevator shook, the doors closed, and in an instant she was surging upward

She and Mary h faith in Mary to know she would sacrifice herself for the safety of the kids in her care Together they would take on the Haunter, and who knows, perhaps it would forge soan at the top floor, but Mary wasn’t there There were kids in the foodless food court, playing their ames "Mary! Where’s Mary? I have to find her!"

Allie went to the arcade floor, the publishing room, the TV room, and everywhere she went kids followed, her coht out of their routines, like a speeding train pulling a swarht in its draft

Mary was nowhere

Vari, however, seemed to be everywhere Everywhere she went, Vari seeet there first

"Mary knohere you went last night," Vari announced "Everyone knows"

Allie looked around at the other kids, and Allie knew from the way they looked at her, and from the distance they kept, that she had suddenly become an outsider Someone to be feared Someone who could not be trusted