“Don’t call us ghosts,” Allie said.
Nick simply didn’t have the patience for Allies issues with word choice. “Face it, that’s what we are.”
“‘Ghost’ implies a whole lot of things that I am NOT. Do I look like Casper to you?”
“Fine,” said Nick. “We’re not ghosts, we’re Undefined Spectral Doohickies. USDs.
Are you happy now?”
“Well that’s just stupid.”
“We’re Afterlights,” said Lief. They both turned to him. “The others who pass through — that’s what they call us, on account of how we glow in the dark — in the daytime, too, if you look close enough.”
“Afterlights,” repeated Allie. “See, I told you we weren’t ghosts.”
Allie and Lief began to talk about monsters again, and, as far as Nick was concerned, this was a conversation he would just as well stay out of. Instead, Nick decided to hold his breath, to see if it were true that oxygen was no longer a requirement. Still, he listened.
“If nothing can hurt you here,” asked Allie, “why be afraid of the McGill?”
“The McGill knows how to hurt you in other ways. It knows how to make you suffer till the end of time, and it’ll do it too, if it gets the chance.” Lief’s eyes were wide, and he made sweeping gestures with his hands like he was telling a campfire story. “The McGill hates kids that get stuck here — hates the sounds we make. It’ll tear out your tongue if it hears you talk, and rip out your lungs if it hears you pretending to breathe. They say the McGill is the devil’s own pet hound that chewed through its leash, and escaped. It couldn’t make it all the way to the living world, but it made it to here. That’s why we have to stay in the forest. It doesn’t know about the forest. We’re safe here.”
Nick could tell that Allie wasn’t convinced. He wasn’t convinced himself, but in light of their current predicament, suddenly anything seemed possible.
“How do you know all this?” Allie asked.
“The other kids who come through the forest. They tell stories.”
“Did these kids actually see the McGill?” Allie asked.
“No one who’s ever seen it has escaped.”
“How convenient.”
Nick released his breath, having held it for ten minutes with no ill effects.
“Technically speaking,” Nick said, “there have always been monsters, or at least they were called that until people knew something better to call them. The giant squid. The megamouth shark. The anaconda.”
“See!” said Lief.
Allie threw Nick a withering look. “Thank you Mr. Google. The next time I need some crucial information, I’ll type in some choice keywords.”
“Yeah,” said Nick. “I’m sure your keywords will all have four letters.”
Allie turned back to Lief. “So, is this McGill a giant squid?”
“I don’t know,” said Lief, “but whatever it is, it’s terrible.”
“It’s made-up,” insisted Allie.
“You don’t know everything!”
“No,” said Allie, “but now I’ve got all the time in the world, so I eventually will.”
Nick had to admit that both Lief and Allie had their points. Lief’s stories reeked of exaggeration, but every story had some basis in truth. On the other hand, Allie had a practical view of things.
“Lief,” Nick asked, “has anyone who’s passed through here ever come back?”
“No,” Lief said. “They were all eaten by the McGill.”