Gigi-penguin squawked and thrashed around.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. She’s a penguin. How is she a penguin? What is happening? This can’t be real. This can’t be happening. One second she was her normal human self the next she was a little three-foot-tall penguin. My stomach turned. My whole body rattled.
Something sharp and hot brushed over my arm. I turned — and screamed. The spirits were upon us. The world wobbled and spun around us. I threw my hands out to catch my balance as my mind spun and more of that glitter shot out of my palms. What is this? What is this? What is this? A gust of wind rushed through the cemetery, carrying the glitter all the way across. Everywhere the glitter touched green grass sprouted up from the crevices in the ice. Pink and yellow flowers popped up everywhere. I gasped.
What is happening?
I tried to count out of order like Dr. Troy suggested but it wasn’t working. The spirits reached out with their blue glowing ghostly hands, clawing at my clothes. I screamed and swatted at them.
Gigi screeched but she was still a penguin.
“What do we do? How do we make them go away?”
“I don’t know! This has never happened before!” Savannah screamed back. She dove into her satchel and pulled out a long, skinny object then held it up in the air and aimed it at the ghosts. “Come closer and you gon’ catch these hands, ma’am. Back up.”
“They’re not backing up!” I huddled closer to them. We were surrounded. “What do we do?”
Savannah flicked her stick in the air and little specks of glittery light poured out of it. The spirits hissed and jumped back. Savannah turned to me and pointed over my shoulder. “RUN! NOW!”
Oh, shit. I spun and sprinted for the iron gate. With every step spirits lunged for me and each time I screamed. Their hands were so cold they burned. The glow of city lights were just ahead. We just had to get out of this cemetery. I glanced over my shoulder and my feet stumbled. Savannah was running a few feet behind me – carrying Gigi-penguin.
“Don’t stop! Go, go, go!”
I gasped and refocused on the gate ahead of me and ran. “Where do we go?”
“My car, my car, my car!” Savannah screamed from a few feet behind me. “Go, go, go!”
My legs burned in protest, but I pushed harder, I dug harder. The gate was just a few feet ahead, we were almost — a huge spirit shot up right in front of me and blue light flashed in my face. I tried to stop but I was moving too fast and my feet slid across the ice. I waved my arms to try and slow down. My toes hit an uneven ice crevice and then I was flying headfirst through the air.
A dozen glowing blue translucent hands appeared out of thin air and grabbed me. I screamed as the spirits plucked me out of the sky — and gently lowered me to the ground. I felt several hands grip my shoulders and then I was on my feet. For a moment, I was as frozen as the ground beneath me.
Savannah sprinted by me with Gigi-penguin wrapped in her arms. But I didn’t know how she was running so fast carrying something almost as tall as her. She waddled with alarming speed. “I can’t stop, keep moving!”
I shook myself then raced after her. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.
Savannah stopped at the gate and started to sit Gigi-penguin down. “SHIT! THE GATE! We gotta go over!”
Over? HOW? I dove for the gate and yanked on it but it didn’t budge, which made sense since we climbed over to get in. I screamed in frustration and rattled the gate. OPEN, OPEN, OPEN— gold glitter erupted out of my hands. The iron gate shrieked and the lock dissolved into dust. The door swung outward, dragging me along with it.
What the hell, what the hell, what the hell—
“Saffer—” Savannah screamed and slid to a stop beside me.
I looked up and my heart dropped. There was a line of spirits standing in the street, blocking our only path to her car. “Where do we go?”
Gigi-penguin squawked and thrashed in Savannah’s arms.
“Night Haven!” Savannah’s blue eyes were wide with fear. She turned to the right and took off running. “Night Haven! Night Haven!”
Oh right! My house was just around the corner. We could get there quickly on foot. I spun and hurried after them but the spirits were closing in fast. They swarmed us from every direction. My neck hurt from whipping my head around to look. A wall of blue light flashed up ahead as the spirits stretched all the way across the street.
Savannah cursed and took a sharp right turn around the dark wood house. “THIS WAY!”
“I’m coming,” I tried to shout back, but it came out in a whisper.
"Saraphina?”
I glanced over my shoulder just as spirits charged after us. My toe caught on something and I stumbled a few feet before catching my balance. I should have been able to keep up with a girl carrying a penguin but I couldn’t stop looking back at the spirits. They were everywhere.
Savannah slowed and half turned, her face was sheet white. “Saffie! Where are you?”
“DON’T STOP,” I yelled up to Savannah. “I’m coming, just keep going!”
“Saraphina?” A woman shouted. “Saraphina is that you?”
I stopped and spun around. I knew I needed to keep running. I saw Savannah getting further away in my peripheral vision, but this spirit said my name. My real name. Saraphina. I frowned and scanned their ghostly faces. Is that you? One of them knew me.
“Saraphina?” She yelled again, from off to my left.
I spun and then spotted her standing just outside the memorial, glowing that same translucent blue but her eyes were sharper. Clearer. She wore a long-sleeved flowing dress and her dark hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders.
Her eyes widened and she gasped. “It IS you!”
I froze. She knew me. They were strange words to say if they weren’t true. My heart was beating out of my chest and my fingers trembled. The other spirits closed in around us. I wanted to run, I needed to run and catch up with Savannah and Gigi but something in her voice made me stop.
“Y-y-you k-k-know me?”
“Of course I do,” she cheered with a wide grin. “It’s me, Bridget Bishop.”
I shook my head and tugged on my hair. “I-I-I-I…don’t remember—
“How are you alive still?”
“What? How — what do you —” My whole body was trembling now. I felt cold deep down into my bones. “How do you know me?”
She frowned and cocked her head to the side. “We were neighbors, before the trials.”
And then it clicked. Bridget Bishop. “Wait, I’ve heard your name. You were…you were…wait, that was 1692. You can’t know me.”
“We were friends. Your dog Olli used to play in my yard. Oh, I’ve missed you two.” Bridget grinned and put her hand on my arm. “Saraphina, how are you alive? It’s been so long.”
How am I alive? What’s been so long? She had to be confused. I must have looked like someone else – but she knows my name – no. No, can’t be. “Sorry, you must be mistaken —”
“RUN!” Bridget gasped and grabbed my wrists, her ghostly fingers tingled against my skin. “Run!”
“What? Why? How do you know m —”
“Demons!” Bridget screamed and pointed over my shoulder. “Run, Saffie, RUN!”