Chapter 9

Two Days before Halloween

 

Shawna answered Tori’s call on the first ring. “So, how’s the lantern project going?”

“Not sure you’d believe me if I told you.” Tori crossed her legs underneath her and rested her back against the wall behind her bed.

“Did you open it and find out how it lights up?”

“Not exactly. It sort of talked to me.”

Shawna clicked her tongue. “Are you going cray out there at your granny’s? Because if you are—”

Tori laughed, picturing her friend’s gray eyes, wide and serious. “At first, that’s what I thought. I couldn’t open it. I tried different tools—”

“Why didn’t you just smash the freaky thing open?”

“Come on. I didn’t want to break it—there’s someone living inside of it.”

“Whaa?”

“I asked the lantern some questions and it—he—answered me. A tiny person told me his name was Jared by writing it in mirror image from the other side. He smeared the fogginess inside the glass. When I finally saw him, I asked more questions, only he was too small. I could see his mouth move, but I couldn’t hear—”

“Shut up!”

“I’m serious. So I borrowed my grandma’s stethoscope, figuring that would help. And it worked.” Tori sat waiting to hear something other than silence from the other end of her phone. She cringed as Shawna sucked in a long breath.

“Tor, I don’t know what to say. Is this Jared guy at least cute?”

“How can you think about that? I have to help get him out!”

Laughter jingled through the speaker of Tori’s phone. “The boy must be adorbs if you want him out so badly. He is, isn’t he?”

“Well...” She pictured Jared’s dark eyes and messy curls. “I think so, but it was hard to tell for sure because he’s not exactly solid. He fades in and out with the light.”

Shawna’s lips made a popping sound. “You’re not telling me that he sparkles.”

“Funny, no.” Tori blushed. “It’s more of a...glowing.” She twisted her lips, holding her phone away from her ear as she waited for Shawna’s laughter to die down. “Finished?”

Leftover giggles escaped before Shawna caught her breath. “Yeah, I’m good. Whew. So, what does Glowboy look like?”

Tori tilted her head to the side. “Dark hair, dark eyes—like Adam, but with a thinner face and more muscled, like someone who’s had to work a lot. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his pants looked like something from pictures my grandma showed me of my grandpa. His leg looked muscled too.”

“He showed you his leg?” Shawna barely got the words out of her mouth before erupting into another fit of laughter.

“Yeah,” said Tori, remembering how Jared had tried to show her a missing leg. But it was there, muscled and whole.

“Okay, okay. What are you going to do about getting him out of the lantern and stretching him out into a full-sized hottie?”

Tori frowned. “Don’t know. I haven’t worked that part out yet. Right now I need to make sure I can go back and visit him again without getting caught.”

 

Tori met her grandmother in the library to fill her in on the most recent updates.

“Then the stethoscope worked? You could hear the boy?” Tori’s grandmother adjusted her eyeglasses.

“It worked perfectly. I’ll leave the tools here tonight, though. They didn’t work and Jared told me the lantern was made out of material so dense it couldn’t be opened.”

“Then how is it that he got inside?”

“He started telling me a story of how he apprenticed under some guy named Machin who worked on mechanical devices and had a bunch of lanterns in his shop. Jared opened a lantern by making light bend through it. He didn’t give me the details on how that worked, exactly, but whatever he did must have opened the lantern and pulled him inside. He said that was the last thing he remembered before meeting me. Grandma, I think he is the light inside the lantern. He’s what makes it shine.”

Her grandmother pursed her lips. “It makes no logical sense; I know of no science that would back up what is happening here.” She pulled her shawl more tightly around her body. “But here’s what I think we should do.”

Tori watched as her grandmother grabbed a notebook from a pile of books and handed it across the table.

“Take this with you, Tori. Tonight when you visit Jared, I want you to take notes of everything he has to say, what he did to open the lantern—everything he can remember. In the meantime, I’ll conduct research here in the library and on the internet. Don’t think for a second that I haven’t kept up with technology. Some of my favorite medical journals are more conveniently perused online.”

Tori grinned. “Sounds great.”

“I wish I could give you a basket of food to give Jared, but I suppose it wouldn’t do him much good in his present form.”

“He doesn’t seem hungry, just confused...and lonely.”

“Well, then I think it’s wonderful he’s found you. Now, go spend some time with your parents before they go to bed. I’ll start researching. We’ll meet at the side door after everyone’s asleep.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Tori gave her grandmother a light peck on the cheek. “Thank you so much, Grandma.”

Tori exited the library and smiled to herself as she walked down the hallway. A collection of paintings lined the walls. She trailed a finger across the wooden frames as she passed, her socks slipping along the smoothness of the marble floor.

She found her parents sitting together in front of the fireplace. Kimmy lay asleep in his mother’s arms. Tori plopped herself on an overstuffed chair next to the couch.

“Hey, baby,” said her mother. “Your father and I have been talking, and we’re happy with the changes we’ve seen in you.”

Tori’s cheeks flushed. Her chest sunk with guilt. They have no idea. But she was also grateful, because she and her grandmother had been successful—they hadn’t been caught.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, trying her best to sound indignant. She’d found something marvelous, an anomaly surrounding a person who needed her help. And she would have told them all about it, if they would only listen.

Her father gazed at the fireplace. Flames reflected in his eyes. “Halloween’s just a couple nights away, hon. If you’re still up for taking Kimmy trick-or-treating—”

“I am.” Tori smiled as she looked at her brother’s face. His long lashes cast shadows on his cheeks. “He’s going to love it.”

She felt a gentle pressure in her chest, a dipping of her heart. Taking her brother out for the night meant less time to spend with Jared. He’d be alone for Halloween unless she could figure out a way to help him escape the lantern by then.