Everlost

“I think they’re Greensouls, Joh

“I can see that,” Joh

“We’re Afterlights,” Nick shouted out, “just like you, so leave us alone.”

Joh

“They might still got stuff,” said Raggedy Andy. “Greensouls always got stuff.”

“Welcome to Everlost,” Johnme-O said in a voice that wasn’t welcoming at all.

“This here’s my territory, and you gots to pay me for passage.”

Allie gave the boy holding her a punch in the face to get him to let go. “Is this how you always greet visitors?” Allie said.

Joh

Nick shrugged off the two boys who were holding him. “We don’t have anything to pay you with.”

“Yeah, so I guess you’ll just have to kill us,” Allie said snidely, and added, “Oh, sorry, guess you can’t.”

“Turn their pockets,” Joh

It was the other object in Nick’s pocket that got their attention.

“Look at this,” said a fu

The purple-mouthed kid held the hard, cold wad of gum and looked over at Joh

“Hand it over,” said Joh

He opened up his huge, beefy hand.

Still Purple-puss hesitated. “We can cut it into pieces,” he suggested.

“I said hand it over.” Joh

You didn’t say no to a palm that big. Purple-puss gingerly put the small, round wad into Joh

“Next time I have to ask you twice,” Joh

Purple-puss’s Adam’s apple bobbed nervously, like a walnut in his throat. Or a jawbreaker.

Then Allie and Nick watched in utter disbelief as Joh

“Oh, gross,” said Nick.

In response, Raggedy Andy punched him in the stomach. Nick doubled over out of reflex, only realizing a second later that it didn’t hurt. How a

Joh

“Ci

Nick only shrugged. “I chew until I can’t taste it anymore.”

Joh

“Can I have it next?” said Purple-puss.

“Don’t be gross,” Johnme-O said.

Allie laughed at that, and Joh

“You’re not the prettiest thing, are you?” he said.

Her lips pulled tightly together in anger, and she knew that made her less attractive, which only made her angrier. “I’m pretty enough,” she said. “I’m pretty in my own way.” Which was true. No one had ever called Allie a ravishing beauty, but she knew very well that she wasn’t unattractive, either. What made her madder still was that she had to justify herself and the way she looked to this big-handed creep, who chewed other people’s used gum. “On a scale of one to ten,” Allie said, “I suppose I’m a seven. But you, on the other hand, I estimate you to be about a three.” She could tell that it stung, mainly because it was true.

“Seven’s not worth lookin’ at,” he said. “And the way I see it, we’re not going to have to look at each other much longer, are we?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Nick, who did not like the sound of it any more than Allie did.

Joh

“We’ll do no such thing,” said Allie.

“I wasn’t talkin’ to you. We don’t need the likes of you around here.”

“Well,” said Allie, “I’m not going without him.”

And the others laughed.

“Oh,” said Raggedy Andy, “I don’t think he’ll want to go where you’re going.”

Allie didn’t quite know what that meant, but even so, she started to panic.

“Grab her,” Joh

Allie knew she had to think of something quick, and so she said the first thing that came to mind. “Stay away from me or I’ll call the McGill!”

That stopped them dead in their tracks.

“What are you talkin’ about?” said Joh

“You heard me!” Allie yelled. “The McGill and I have a special arrangement. It comes when I call it. And I feed it bad little thieves whose hands are bigger than their brains.”

“She’s lying,” said another kid, who hadn’t spoken until now, probably because he had such a nasty, squeaky voice.

Joh

“She’s a Greensoul—probably just crossed over,” the squeaky kid said, “which means she hasn’t even seen the McGill.”

“Besides,” said Purple-puss, “no one sees the McGill and lives.”

“Except for her,” said Nick, figuring out his own angle on the situation.

“That’s why I stay with her. As long as I’m with her, the McGill protects me, too.”

“So, what’s it look like?” Joh

“Well, I could tell you,” she said, using one of her father’s favorite lines.

“But then I’d have to kill you.”

The others laughed at that, and so Joh

“I think you’re lying,” he said.

“Guess you’ll just have to find out,” Allie taunted back. “Touch me and I call the McGill.”

Joh

He looked her square in the eye and said, “You’re going down.” With that, he snapped his fingers, a dry, brittle sound, like a cracking plate. Then three kids grabbed her, pulled her off the dead-spot, put her down on the living-world roadway, and began to lean heavily on her shoulders.

In an instant she had sunk into the asphalt up to her knees, and an instant later up to her waist.

“No!” she screamed. “McGill, McGill!” she called.

It only gave them a brief moment’s pause, and when the beast did not materialize out of thin air, they kept on pushing. Now it was easier for them, with Allie in up to her waist.