Everwild (Skinjacker 2)

When he was done, the chocolate golem was not much to look at. Its shape was roughly human, but it was little more than a mound on the ground. Its face had no features, but Mikey hoped that wouldn't matter.

It was early dawn now. The sun was threatening the eastern horizon. Newsboys in the living world were hurling papers featuring headlines about the destruction of the Union Avenue Bridge.

Mikey put the finishing touches on the golem. He scraped a line for its mouth; and above it, pressed his thumbs in, creating indentations for its eyes; then beneath the eyes, he shaped a small bump of a nose. He poked two holes for ears, and then put his lips close to one of the holes and whispered

"Wake up ..."

A moment passed. Then a moment more. And then two eyelids rose, revealing a pair of eyes that were the same shade of brown. The golem blinked, then blinked again.

"Am I?" said the golem. "Am I?"

"Are you what?"

"Am I ... here?"

"Yes," said Mikey, "you are. Do you know your name?"

The golem looked at him blankly. "Do I have a name?"

"Yes. Your name is Nick."

"My name is ... Nick."

"Say it again," urged Mikey.

"My name is Nick!"

The holes on the side of the golem's head grew into actual ears. The slit that was its mouth became a pair of lips.

"My name is Nick!" the golem said again, and sat itself up. "Is your name Nick?"

"No. I'm Mikey."

"Mikey McGill!" said the golem, pleased with itself. Its shapeless body took on human curves. Its lump of a nose spread with two nostrils.

"What do you remember?"

"I don't know," said the golem. He looked around, then said. "Allie!" And suddenly his mittenlike hand divided into fingers and a thumb. He looked at them curiously.

"Yes! Yes, Allie!" said Mikey.

"But ... but what's an Allie?" asked the golem.

Mikey sighed. This wasn't going to be easy, this wasn't going to be quick, but in Everlost, time was a plentiful thing.

"Allie's a friend," Mikey told him, "and you and I have to help her."

The golem stood, then walked, and when Mikey felt confident that the golem was sure-footed enough, he led them both west, toward the Mississippi, until they could no longer fight the wind.

There was no way they could cross the bridge, there was no way they could forge the river... .

... But there was another way to get to the other side.

Now, as they stood in place, they both began to sink into the living world. The golem looked down, to see his brown ankles had already disappeared into the earth. "We sink if we don't keep moving!" he said. "I remember now!"

"Good," said Mikey. "Keep on remembering."

They were up to their knees now, but Mikey made no move to pull himself out, and so neither did the chocolate golem.