Memphis and Evie climbed onto the platform at Brooklyn Bridge station, pushing through the new coin-operated turnstiles, past the relic of a wooden ticket chopper, and headed straight for the empty ticket booth. Memphis wrenched open the door and pushed Evie inside, following on her heels. He slammed the door and locked it. The glowing wraith was nowhere to be seen. But in a moment, her small hands crept over the edge of the platform as she pulled herself up, crawling forward quickly, like a bug.
“I had a friend back home, Dottie, who was double-jointed, and I thought it was the berries. But that is truly hideous,” Evie whispered.
“Shhh,” Memphis cautioned.
The wraith child sniffed twice, then threw herself at the iron grating of the ticket booth. With a shout, Evie and Memphis fell back against the wall of the tiny space. The wraith’s arm pushed through the tiny cut-out at the bottom where change was made daily. And then it squeezed itself through like a snake.
“I. Hate. Ghosts!” Evie screamed. She yanked open the door and pulled Memphis after her as they ran up the steps toward the street. The first staircase ended in a corridor that branched left and right.
“Which way? Which way?” Evie cried.
It didn’t matter. At both ends, the wraiths were coming. And from below, the little girl had begun her ascent.
“Get behind me,” Memphis said, sweeping Evie back with his arm.
“I want to tell you not to be noble, but I’m terrified,” Evie said.
“Me, too.”
Instead, Evie came around and stood beside Memphis, holding his hand.
“I really wanted to be somebody,” Evie said, her voice catching.
The wraiths were closing in. The little girl had reached the top of the steps. She was a foot away. Evie could smell the rot on her and see the deep, dark gashes in her glowing skin. She wanted to shut her eyes but was too afraid. Memphis squeezed her hand.
The thing that had once been a little girl stepped very close to Memphis and inhaled deeply. She shrank back, hissing. She let loose a spine-chilling howl. The others answered. Memphis and Evie stood perfectly still. The girl slunk back down the steps, down into the dark, sniffing for other prey.
“Why did it do that?” Evie whispered.
“I don’t know,” Memphis whispered back. He glanced down the corridor, left and right. “They’re not moving. Let’s run while we can,” Memphis said, and Evie didn’t have to be asked twice. They kept alert as they inched up the next set of steps, not making a sound until they broke out onto the rain-soaked streets, and then, as the pounding rain washed over them, they let loose the screams they’d held back. People passing by under the cover of umbrellas stared at them as if they were lunatics. One woman covered her mouth with a gloved hand. “Dear me,” she said, and it was only then that Evie realized she still held Wai-Mae’s skull in the crook of her arm.
“We’re performing Hamlet,” Evie said, tucking the skull inside her coat. “Every evening at eight, and a matinee on Sunday.”
“Do you see Theta?” Memphis asked, whipping around in circles.
“Perhaps they got out first, and they’re already on their way to the graveyard,” Evie answered.
“I don’t want to leave without Theta.”
“I’m not going back down there,” Evie said. “We said we were going to Trinity Church. They’ll know to meet us there. The sooner we bury these bones, the safer we’ll all be.”
Rain coursed over Memphis’s worried face. “You certain about that?”
“I’m not certain about anything anymore, Memphis.”
Memphis gave the underground one last, woeful glance. He held the bones tightly to his chest. “It’s about six blocks to Trinity. We’d better hurry.”
“Time for your second act, Yorick,” Evie said, holding fast to the skull as she trotted after Memphis in the rain.
Sam and Theta had run north, coming out in a tunnel under construction, and the way ahead was a dead end, blocked by debris, steel and wood scraps, pipes, giant drills, and digging equipment. Sewer water and runoff from the storm streamed into the tunnel via a pipe. Already the water was up to their knees.
“Sam, stop!” Theta called, doubled over. “Where are Memphis and Evie?”