Wicked Hungry

His hand moves over the board.

“S-I.”

“¿Qué nos está pasando?” he asks. “What is happening to us?”

“D-A-N-G-E-R.”

“What kind of danger?” Enrique asks.

“O-U-T-S-I-D-E.”

“The zombies?” Enrique asks.

“S-I.”

“What do they want?”

“G-A-T-E-W-A-Y”

“What kind of gateway?”

“T-O O-T-H-E-R-L-A-N-D.”

“What other land, bisabuela? What does that mean?”

The candles flare around us, and heat buffets my face, from the jaguar but also from Enrique, and then his face seems to change, scrunching up as his mouth closes, then opens again.

“Mucho peligro,” he says, but the voice is foreign, an old woman’s voice. “They gather outside for a show of force. Las pilulas. Un sacrificio. Purificación. A boy who is not as he seems. To reenter his world, he will rid our world of all humanity.”

I want to pull away and go to the window, but Jonathan holds me firm.

“What do they want? Why?” asks Jonathan.

“Through the gateway. Down deep in the Earth. They will call los ancianos. The old ones. Here, but also in the other world. An ancient evil. Un mal tremendo.”

“But where?” Jonathan asks, as Enrique’s knee trembles under my hand and Jonathan’s fingers tighten in mine. “Where is this hill? This gateway?”

“Aquí cerca. Not far away. Here. Past el cemeterio. Un centro commercial. They are building. A mall.”

I realize my eyes are closed. I open them, and then there is a whooshing sound and thunder outside, and the room is suddenly freezing cold.

Enrique scrunches his face up in fear and panic. “They pull me away. Watch out. Warn Enrique. Beware the pills. They will lead you to the truth, but others to lies. Beware the changeling boy, beware the piper and his flute. Beware the zombies that walk among you and those that are yet to come. Tengo que irme. I must go.”

The jaguar figurine starts to glow brighter than the candles and suddenly its head moves, roars, and Enrique goes still, his eyes rolling. Then he’s blinking, looking at us.

The jaguar has gone back to glowing softly in the candlelight, and the heat is gone.

“What happened?” Enrique asks. “Did she go? The last I remember was asking her about the other land, and then I blacked out or something.”

“Dude,” Jonathan says. “You were your great grandmother. Her spirit came into you. I could almost see it, like this big silvery thing. And then it was in you.”

“Really?” Enrique asks. “What did she say? What did I say?”

“There’s a gateway,” I say. “At the mall they’re building here in Lansfeld. Into some kind of other world.”

“And there’s danger from there,” Jonathan says. “The zombies we’ve seen. Great evil, but also great good, your great grandmother said.”

“Did she say anything about the Whelans? Or Zach?” Enrique asks.