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"Watch out!"
Horns blared, the car jumped the curb, flattened a mailbox, and rammed into the corner of a restaurant. Airbags blossomed from almost every angle, cushioning the two fleshies, but Milos and Allie were hurled out of their hosts, and into the crowded restaurant they had crashed into.
Now everything depended on how quick Allie's reflexes were. Before she even hit the ground she reached out and grabbed someone--a waiter, still shielding his face from the crashing plate glass window. His thoughts were loud and panicked.
--what the--who the--how the--whoa is that a car--am I alive--yes--am I hurt--no--okay keep calm--keep calm--keep calm--
Allie hid within him, silent and still.Everyone jumped up and scurried deeper into the restaurant to get away from the accident--everyone except for a single woman who stood there scanning the room with eagle eyes. It was Milos.
"Come out, come out whoever you are," said the eagle-eye woman. "Ollie-ollie-axen-flee."
How stupid, thought Allie, if she gave herself away by correcting Milos's English. She lingered in the waiter, not taking him over, otherwise Milos might notice. She just hid inside him as he tried to herd diners out the door.
"This way, c'mon, everything's going to be fine. Is anyone hurt?"
Milos walked right past, and the second his eagle-eye fleshie was looking the other way, Allie left the waiter, hitched a ride in an exiting diner, then raced down the back alley. Finding herself on another street, she hopped into a man in a mustang who was fiddling with his radio--
--Hate this song--hate that song even more--there's never a good station--and this song's even worse--
She took control, floored the accelerator, and headed toward the highway. Once she was sure she had lost Milos, she took a moment to consider her next move. There was really only one place she could go. Nick was here in Memphis and he was in danger. She had to help him. She let the driver surface just long enough to scan his mind for directions to Graceland.
--what's happening--what's going on--who--who are you--
--oh shut up!--
Allie found what she needed, and put him back to sleep.
She was already heading in the right direction. Traffic was moving, and the Graceland exit came up in just a few minutes. Once she was on Elvis Presley Boulevard, traffic slowed, and it was faster to surf than drive. She launched out of Mr. Mustang, to another driver, and another, jumping two and three cars at a time when she could. Milos would know where she was going--but if she was lucky, maybe she could get there first. She surfed her way down the boulevard, until there, between convenience stores and gas stations, stood a mansion on a hill, completely out of place on the ugly urban street. Allie could tell there was something very odd about the place. It seemed to shift in and out of phase. It shimmered like a mirage in unsteady double vision, as if she were seeing two Gracelands--one in Everlost, and one in the living world, both competing for dominance.
Was this a vortex? She had heard about them, but had never actually seen one.
All at once she realized that there were Afterlights standing in front of the Graceland mansion. If they were Mary's children, then she was already too late!
There was no way in without alerting those Afterlights to her presence, which meant she would have to skinjack her way in. She hurried into the nearby visitor's center, looking for a suitable fleshie. Tourists meandered around, fingering gift-shop trinkets. It was a quarter to five, and the last tourist tram of the day was about to ride up the short path to the mansion. She launched forward, surfing every fleshie in her path, building momentum. The tour bus door had closed, but that didn't matter, she could launch right through the door, into the driver. She reached the last person between her and the bus, then bounded forward in a high arc toward it--but halfway there she smashed into another Afterlight, and he brought her down to the ground.
She was sure it was Milos--it had to be! Yet it wasn't. It was someone else--something else.
d them, above the cries of the living, came a voice far more pleased with this heart-rending moment than he should be.
"Well done!" said Milos, practically beaming. "Very well done, Allie!"
"Yeah, yeah," said Squirrel, "I'll bet she did that even better than Jackin' Jill."
"Congratulations," Milos said. "You have just brought a new soul into Everlost. Whatever you did to Mary in the past, she will forgive you now."
"I don't want her forgiveness."
"You may not want it, but you will need it," Milos said, very seriously. "Otherwise she will destroy you, and I do not wish to see that."
Danny's eyes rolled as he looked at Allie. "I'm so tired," Danny said.
Allie realized what would happen next. "Stay awake, Danny!"
"But I'm so sleepy. Just let me rest."
"Whatever you do, don't fall asleep!" Because she knew the moment he did, he would lapse into nine months of hibernation. If he fell asleep, he would become an Afterlight. But he wasn't one yet--he had no afterglow--which meant he was not entirely gone from the living world... .
Allie knew what she had to do. Without wasting an instant, she took Danny's soul and thrust him forward, plunging him back into his own lifeless body. The effect was instantaneous. The moment Danny was plunged back into himself, his body heaved, and he coughed up an explosion of water. The dead boy came back to life.
