Savannah’s eyes widened but she kept chanting, “Beyond the reach of sacred realm. Free of the ties that bind you. Break through the veil, my call at the helm. Bring forth what is hidden to be seen anew.”
Wild, raw energy shot down my spine, through my legs, and into the ground under my knees. I felt it explode out of me. The air around me pulsed with electricity that made all of our hair stand tall. It spilled out of my body in one big cold wave. The blanket under my knees turned to ice. In a split second, the icy wave spread out around me, freezing every strand of fabric in the blanket.
“Guys…” My eyes widened. “Guys.”
Savannah and Gigi looked to each other and I saw fear flicker in their eyes.
“Guys, what’s happening?”
The ice hit the ground all around the blanket. A wicked gust of wind ripped through the cemetery. Fog dropped from the cloudless sky, clinging to the trees and the tombstones. The ice spread faster than a wildfire, covering every inch of ground in the blink of an eye. Every blade of grass, every twig, every speckle of dirt – all ice. The battered stone of the tombstones glistened like glass as the ice swallowed them whole. The trees swayed and groaned like they were screaming out in pain as the ice inched up their trunks and out to each branch. Everything was frozen solid as statues.
I exhaled a shaky breath and it came out in thick white cloud.
Snowflakes rained down from the sky.
The ground trembled so hard our candles tipped over. The flames slid onto the frozen blanket, dancing over the ice like it was taunting us. The wind howled like a tornado. Every muscle in my body tightened but my teeth rattled together. I was shaking, or maybe we were all shaking. My hair whipped around my face and coiled around my neck and arms. Savannah’s eyes were wide and her face pale. Gigi mumbled a string of eloquent Spanish that I didn’t understand but it sounded like a prayer.
And then the wind died like someone flipped a switch.
The fog swirled. Electricity tingled along my skin.
A soft blue light poured out of the ground like a rising tide. It grew denser and taller, then began to sway and move – then shot straight up. Pillars of light filled the cemetery. And then they moved. Everything was happening in slow motion yet faster than I could track at the same time. It was like time stopped existing.
Those glowing pillars of light moved and morphed…into people. I blinked rapidly, trying to make it go away but every time I reopened my eyes they looked more and more human until the entire cemetery was filled with people. With spirits.
My breath left me in a rush.
I glanced left and right, then right and left. We were surrounded. Spirits stood shoulder-to-shoulder watching us. Waiting. For what, I didn’t know and didn’t want to. My body trembled. Spirits rose from the ground one after another, from every tombstone in the cemetery and then some. They wore all different styles of clothing, some old and some frighteningly modern.
“Saffie,” someone whispered.
“What?” But I kept my eyes on the glowing spirits.
“Saaaaffiee.”
“What?” I hissed and looked to my friends. “Who said my name?”
They both just stared at me with wide eyes, shaking their heads.
My stomach sank. “You said my name. One of you whispered my name. Right? RIGHT?”
“SAAFFFIIIEEEEE,” that whispering voice shouted.
We gasped.
A wild tremor ripped down my spine. “You heard that? Tell me you heard that.”
Gigi nodded and kept chanting her Spanish prayer.
“What have we done,” Savannah whispered.
“Saffieeeee,” they called for me.
My name echoed around the cemetery, each one raised my pulse several beats. My heart sounded like hummingbird wings in my chest. I gasped for air but none came. Golden glitter erupted from inside of me and flew in the air above our heads. When it hit the trees above us they swayed and groaned. Chunks of ice broke off the branches then dropped down on us. Under the ice, the bark turned a warm, vibrant brown and leaves sprouted in the brightest shade of green.
“SAFFIE.”
“What…what is…why are they saying my name?”
At the sound of my voice, every single spirit turned and looked right at me.
OH GOD.
NO, no, no. NOPE.
“This isn’t happening, This is a dream,” I heard myself whisper.
The spirits’ glowing translucent eyes snapped to me. Their stares were not vacant and empty but sharp and concentrating.
“Saffie…”
“What?” I shouted to them in a panic. “What do you want from me?”
They took a step forward, then another…then another. I choked on a scream. They didn’t answer my question, they just came for me. Together. At the same time, like I’d unlocked their ability to move. Their ghostly feet walked above the piling snow and ice toward me. Their eyes zeroed in with fierce concentration.
“Nope. Nah-uh. No, ma’am.” Savannah tugged our hands and dragged us up to our feet. “Time to go. Now. Not doing this.”
Savannah reached to pick her notebook off the ground. She grunted as she pried the ice off of it. “Gimme, dammit. MINE. Get ya’own, ma’am.”
Gigi grabbed Savannah’s satchel and dove for the candles.
I looked up to face the army of spirits marching toward us – no, not us. ME. Each and every pair of eyes were locked on me. “Why me? What do you want from me?”
“Shit, the candles are frozen!” Gigi shouted, her voice trembling. “The blanket is stuck, too!”
I reached for them but my palms were raining golden glitter. It hit the frozen blanket and the ground hissed and groaned. The world rumbled under my knees and then the ice exploded right under us. The ice cracked under my hands, giant crevices shot across the ground in every direction like a shattered frozen lake. The ground opened up and the candles were dragged down into the dirt.
“The candles!” Gigi hissed.
“Theirs now, ma’am.” Savannah reached for her. “Abort mission! We gotta go.”
Blue light flashed at my feet and then a spirit shot up out of the ground right between Gigi’s hands. She screamed and jumped back. Light flashed around her – and suddenly she turned into a penguin.
I screamed and dove for her…to do what I had no idea. One second she was a human the next a penguin. What the hell, what the hell, what the hell…
Savannah smacked her on top of her penguin-head with her notebook and shouted, “Switch back!”
Gigi squawked and flapped her fins, her eyes wide and panicked.
I screamed again. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD.
She’s a penguin!
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” I screeched.
“We’ve been working on this, Gigi!” Savannah hollered and groaned. She shoved her notebook in her satchel then threw her hands in the air. “All our hard work gone, ma’am. GONE. We’ll have to start over. Were you working on your breathing?”
“Breathing? What do you mean?” I glanced back and forth between the spirits closing in around us and my friend that was somehow now a freaking penguin. “SHE’S A PENGUIN! WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHY? What? How? Savannah!”
Savannah grabbed Gigi’s penguin wings and shook her. “Change back!”