Old Haunts

I screamed as the tiny rectangle holding the door to my room-my life-winked shut, leaving me in the darkness so thick and complete I could feel it on my skin.

"Whoa, calm-"

I whipped around, slapping my palm flat against the chest of-Jack. Again. Seriously, one of these times I was going to kill him by accident. Or on purpose. And I wasn't going to be sorry. "What's wrong with you! Let go of me!"

He raised his eyebrows and loosened his grip on my wrist. "Really? Okay, if you insist."

If he let me go, I would be lost in this darkness. Alone. Forever. The only thing you could see on the Paths was the person you were with-there was nothing else there. I hadn't wanted to use the Faerie Paths ever again, and now that I was here the familiar dread filled my entire body. I clutched his arm with my free hand. "Stop it! Why did you grab me like that? Terrorizing me at school wasn't enough?"

He shrugged. "Raquel told me to get you at eight."

"It's called knocking, dimwit!"

"I know I make it look effortless, but creating doors between realms isn't exactly simple. Pulling you through was easier than coming in for some polite conversation and perhaps a bit of tea, at which point I would have had to make another door. I didn't know you'd scream like a little girl."

"I did not scream like a little girl."

Flashing his dimples, he took a huge lungful of air and burst into an earsplitting-and decidedly little girlish-scream. "Like that. Only with crazier eyes and more flailing."

"Shut up."

"Gladly. We're going to be late." He slipped his hand down from my wrist to my hand and started walking. "Heaven and hell, your hands are cold."

I never thought I'd prefer the dead silence of the Paths over anything, but it had to be better than listening to this idiot. And I didn't need any reminders that my hands were cold. Cold, mortal, dying hands. "Can we not talk?"

"But you're such a charming conversationalist. Still, if you'd prefer to simply bask in the glory of my company, I understand. You're probably overwhelmed by holding my hand and want to enjoy the moment."

I rolled my eyes. "It's all I can do not to swoon, but I'll try to contain myself."

"I think swooning is highly underrated. You could bring it back into vogue."

I turned my head to look at him rather than focus on the inky black around us. It was like people on the Paths existed outside anything else. Jack and I were the only two creatures alive, for all you could tell. What a horrible thought.

"Where on earth did you come from?" I asked.

He grinned, but there was a strange tightness to his face. "Telling that story would require talking, which I seem to recall you requested not happen. And here we are!" With a flourish he waved a hand-at nothing.

I watched him expectantly. Nothing happened.

"Can't you feel it?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Feel what?"

"Come on. You've been through here as much as I have. You never tried to figure it out?"

I made the mistake of looking at my feet standing in the emptiness, and now I kind of wanted to puke. "Can we please get out of here?"

"Honestly, Evie, you don't know how to have fun, do you?" He put a hand flat out, and his eyes narrowed in concentration. The darkness rippled, light tearing through it but illuminating nothing as a door formed, opening into a painfully familiar white hallway.

"Home sweet home," Jack chirped, pulling me forward with him. The door shut behind us.

I felt like I had walked into a dream. When I left this behind, I let part of myself believe it ceased to exist. The fluorescent lights buzzing overhead drilled in the fact that the only different thing was me.

We both turned and looked down the length of the hall. A woman I didn't know, dressed in a pin-striped suit, ran past us, screaming bloody murder and swatting at the air around her head.

I sighed. "Yup, home sweet home about covers it."

I looked back down the hall, my attention drawn by the soft tapping of sensible pumps. This time the woman in a suit wasn't insane-or at least, not the running-around-screaming type. "Evie," Raquel said, pursing her lips to avoid smiling.

Another scream echoed; I caught a glimpse of someone running through one of the cross halls. He looked suspiciously like Bud, my tough and gruff former self-defense teacher.

"I leave for a few months and this whole place goes to pieces."

Raquel shook her head, shooting an annoyed look in the direction of the continued screams. "Well, since you're on the clock, why don't I show you to the problem area?"

"Sounds good to me." Being here was like deja vu. The faster I solved their problem, the sooner I could leave and freak out in private.

"You're welcome." Jack waved cheerfully, got a running start, and did several roundoffs down the length of the hall.

I turned to Raquel. "I think he's broken."

She heaved a don't I know it sigh. "Jack's past isn't one that contributes to stability. But he's a good boy."

He nearly got me disemboweled by my gym teacher. Good boy he was not.

More screams rang through the hall. "Seriously, what's going on here?"

"It's the poltergeist. Apparently we've pinpointed its current location."

"Yippee."

"If we can get this little problem taken care of, I'm certain that the other issues will be easier to address. Not only is it nearly impossible to keep employees functioning, important files keep disappearing."

I followed her down the hall, trying not to think about all the times I ran wild here. This wasn't my home anymore. I was here for work. A job. I could be professionally detached. As long as we didn't have to go to-

Central Processing. Raquel stopped right in front of the sliding doors. Of course. Because nothing could possibly be easy tonight.

"Here?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Of all the places in the Center, the poltergeist had to take up residence here. I closed my eyes, picturing her aquarium as it had been-blue-green water; tropical fish; living coral reef; happy, funny, capable Lish in the middle of it all, running the computers and saying bleep.

No matter how hard I tried to hold on to that image, I could only remember the jagged hole in the glass, Lish's lifeless body iridescent in the lights as it lay at the bottom of the pool.

I opened my eyes, realizing that Raquel had been talking for a while now.

"-understand why I can't come in with you."

I frowned. "Uh, sure." I raised my hand to the palm pad and . . . nothing happened. The strangest sense of betrayal and abandonment surged through me. They'd changed the locks?

"Sorry about that," Raquel said, waiting for me to move so she could palm the door. It slid open with a hiss, and she backed up out of view. "I'll leave it unlocked."

Taking a deep breath, I walked in. The emptiness of the large, white, circular room hit me like a blow. The aquarium was gone. No trace left except a faint ring around the middle of the floor. It was like Lish never existed. The door closed behind me, and I slid against it to the floor.

I definitely wasn't ready for this.

A bitter cold breeze tickled the back of my neck. Something dark darted past the edge of my vision. I turned my head, but nothing was there.

The lights flickered, then went out, except a single dim bulb.

"I've been waiting for you," a low voice hissed in my ear.

A tickle on my arm drew my attention to the black spider with a crimson hourglass belly creeping its way up. The last light died and a death scream ripped through the room as it plunged into darkness.