Chapter 10: Alicia Skellington

This is crazy. It's got to be.

"Miles, are you nuts?" I hiss. "Shh! He'll hear you!" he mutters.

A branch scratches my cheek, and I scrunch myself into a tiny ball as much as I can. "Miles, your plants keep scratching my face. Make them stop."

He hangs his head and sighs. "And just what am I going to do about it?"

"I don't know! We could stand up and walk in! It's your house!"

He rolls his eyes and quickly lifts his eyes to the windowsill. Miles decided we should stake out his house and watch Engleman, since their parents are out for the night. So here we are crouched in the bushes outside Miles' living room, watching Mike Engleman secretly play with his Barbie and Ken dolls.

I lean against the side of the house and stretch. "Miles. This is stupid. We already know he's scared of ghosts and that he probably accidentally killed somebody. This is not the way to find out more."

He shrugs. "So? I'm getting this on film. I'm quite happy getting blackmail."

Standing up, I brush the dirt off my jeans and glare at him. "I'm going to look up recent events at the library. You coming or are you gonna be weird?" "Nope. See you later." "See ya."

I jog off to the library and ask for the newspapers section. They're closing in half an hour, but I think I can find something before they shut down for the night. The head librarian, a wizened and shriveled old lady in a pink jumper, reminds me in a soft voice that I'll need to leave soon, and I nod my thanks before plunging into the old records.

The accident can't have been too long ago, so I don't bother searching beyond 2006. Recent accidents…vanishing kids…lots of situations pop up, but Engleman's name doesn't appear in any of them, so I keep scrolling. 2007…2008…2009…three years flash by without a single mention of him.

There. March 2010. "Missing boy Mike Engleman, age 14, found on side of road with the dead body of his neighbor, 13-year-old Sarah Conner, four weeks after their disappearance from the Conner's backyard. The two teens both had signs of dehydration and violent animal attacks. Engleman's father had no comment and refused to let authorities interview his son, who seemed shaken by the experience and continually mumbled apologies to everyone around him, even when not provoked. Said the parents of Ms. Conner…"

Violent animal attacks? Those have to be from the woods. But they were missing for a month…where could they have been? Surely I would have noticed them while I was walking to school every morning. But no, clearly they were hiding somewhere else.

Why didn't we hear about this earlier?

I check out the newspaper with my library card and stuff it into my backpack, determined to find out more. Next stop might be the news station.

Wait…March, minus four weeks, is February. Maybe the Cupids saw Mike and Sarah while they were flying out to cast love over the world.

I whirl around and head straight for the woods. Time to pay a little visit to one of our holiday cohorts.

~~~~~~a while later~~~~~~~

I yank the heart door open and leap in. The whole tunnel smells like sugar and flowers, and I gag. The sweetness is overpowering. Holding my breath, I swim forward, occasionally brushing the stripes of pink lining the black portal – soft as velvet. A small, heart-shaped window glows pink above me, and I propel myself forward to hurl myself out of the hole and onto a fluffy white cloud.

I hate other holidays.

Spitting fluff out of my mouth, I do a quick glance around. Chubby little babies with flawless blond curls and white diapers, both stained and clean, hover around my head. A voice dripping with sugar emerges from the crowd, and a slightly taller baby with auburn hair and rosy cheeks towers over me, attempting to look terrifying. "Hello, Halloween girl. Why did you visit us? Do you need to borrow a love spell, maybe?" He/She – I can't tell – blinks their eyes innocently, twisting at the perfect angle to shoot puppy eyes my way.

I stand up and brush bits of cloud off my sleeve. "Nope, sorry. I'm here for something more serious. Can I talk to the cupids who were on duty over my town three years ago?"

The cherub squints and pouts. "Why won't you use our love potions? I want to play with you!"

I sigh. "Okay, let's make a deal. If you'll take me to the cherubs I want to talk to, I'll buy one love potion from you. Agreed?"

The baby offers a wide, toothy grin and slaps its sticky hand against mine. "Deal!" The small crowd of cherubs flies off, and I glance around impatiently until they return. This whole world screams pink and innocence, but cupids are mischievous. Love potions always have side effects, and they end up causing trouble. I'll probably just throw it away.

Two cherubs fly up and greet me, smiling widely. "Hi! Did you want to talk to us?" they say in unison. I shiver. Their sync is creepy. I kneel to their level. "Yes, I needed to ask you some questions."

The cupid on the left holds up four fingers. "We only have time for three questions, so be quick!" he chirps.

I groan. This is why I hate other holidays. "Okay. First question. On Valentine's Day in 2010, did you see Mike Engleman and Sarah Conner running together in the woods?" "Yes!" they say in unison. I smile to myself. Maybe I will get somewhere.

"Question two. What did Mike and Sarah look like?" "They were clean at first. Then they got bloody. Then the girl was lying on the ground and their clothes got ripped."

The answer takes me by surprise, and I start, leaning backwards a bit. These cupids saw everything. Everything that happened.

I close my eyes and inhale deeply. "Question three. What happened to Mike and Sarah while you were watching them?"

The cherub on the right frowns – the first time I've seen that expression on a cupid. "They walked together. They were holding hands and smiling and laughing. Then we heard growling, and a little bear cub ran up and rubbed the girl's legs. They played with the baby and they smiled and laughed more with the cub. And then it's mama came, and she wasn't happy that they touched her baby. She growled and ran at them, so they climbed a tree and hid from the bear, but it smelled them and clawed at the tree and made a big cut in the girl's leg. The boy tried to pull her up, but he slipped and accidentally pushed her off. The bear made her dead and went away. We had to go when the boy climbed down because we had other jobs to do. That's three questions, goodbye!" The two cherubs join hands and fly away.

I lean back, reclining on the cloud, and run my hand through my hair. The violent animal attacks mentioned in the paper, I understand…but the dehydration didn't make sense. According to the cherubs' account, Sarah was dead for two weeks before the police found she and Mike. A dead person can't be dehydrated. And Mike's guilt…if the slip was an accident, he can't feel bad about killing her…can he? I need to find out what Sarah looked like, so I can make a convincing costume for Halloween.

A loud, familiar voice cuts through my train of thought. "ALICIA SKELLINGTON! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" I glance up to find my father storming through the clouds, scattering small cherubs as he goes.

Oh boy.

He places his hands on his hips and glares down at me. He seems so out of place in this pink and fluffy world, with his black pinstripe suit and bony figure. I almost want to laugh.

"Hi Dad," I mutter. He scowls. "Don't give me that casual attitude. Your mother and I were worried sick about you when you didn't come home for supper. You could have at least texted." I suppress a smile at the memories of Dad getting a cell phone so he could contact me when I was at school – his delight at pressing the tiny buttons and discovering he could talk to me without me being there.

"We're going home right now, young lady. You are grounded for two days, and that means you will not leave the house." "Dad, what about school? I can't just not show up."

He scratches his head. "Hm. I didn't think of that. All right, you're grounded this weekend. That means no cell phone, no scarevision, and you will NOT be leaving the house on Saturday or Sunday, understand?" I nod. "Yes, sir." He blinks. "What day is it?" "It's Wednesday, Dad." "Oh. Okay then. We're going home now." "Whatever you say, Dad."

I will never understand how such a scatterbrain created such an organized child.