Free The Carnival of Lost Souls : A Handcuff Kid Novel by Laura Quimby Page B

of the Dead,” Jabber said matter-of-factly. He must have noticed the look of utter bewilderment on Jack’s face, because he smirked. “Don’t you believe me?”
    “That’s impossible. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not dead,” Jack said, rubbing his temples. He couldn’thelp but stare at the deep blue veins that spidered across Jabber’s neck. Suddenly he realized why Jabber was pale, clammy, and smelled like dirt. “Whoa! No way, man! Are you dead?”
    “Very.” Jabber’s eyes never left the road in front of them.
    “Dead-dead?” Jack scooted away from Jabber.
    “Is there any other kind?”
    Head injuries caused hallucinations. Maybe Jack was actually in a coma, lying in a hospital bed, and this place was just a figment of his imagination. A weepy Mildred was probably on an all-night vigil, burning a candle at his bedside, yapping his ear off so he wouldn’t get
lonely
in his coma state.
    Jack rubbed the red rope burns on his wrists. This place felt a little too real to be a dream. Coma or no coma, this was getting creepy.
    “The Forest of the Dead has its own rules,” Jabber said. “The living are allowed in. But they don’t last long here.”
    “What about heaven and hell?” Jack asked.
    “Oh, sure. Heaven. Some people call it nirvana, paradise, cloud nine, a world-renowned place to spend eternity. And then there is hell or Hades, an ominous domain, a real scorcher, so I’ve heard, exactly where you don’t want to end up. But we are neither here nor there. We’re in the middle.”
    “Look, just to warn you, my social worker, Mildred, is going to be really angry when she finds out I’m missing. And she might look like a sweet little old lady, but she has the heart of a ninja. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”
    “Sounds formidable. You say your ninja guardian angel’s name is Mildred?”
    “Yeah, that’s right. And she doesn’t take crap from anyone,” Jack said. “Being dead won’t save you from her wrath. Once, I did something to get her girdle in a twist, and she pinched my ear so hard that I still have the scar.” Jack pulled his hair back and showed Jabber his ear. “Since you haven’t hurt me, I can ask her to look the other way. Just tell me how to get out of here, back to the professor’s house, and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
    “You can’t leave. The professor traded you to the Land of the Dead, and now you are the property of the Amazing Mussini. You will work for him for one hundred years, and then you can choose to move on—if you are ready to leave the forest.”
    “One hundred years! No way, I’ll be a hundred and twelve years old by then. I’ll be, be—” But the sentence broke off in his mouth. He couldn’t say it, so Jabber did.
    “You’ll be dead.”
    “This can’t be happening. The professor didn’t own me. You can’t just go around selling people’s souls. Itisn’t right.” Jack was used to being forced into strange places, but this was ridiculous.
    Jabber’s hand suddenly snaked out and grabbed Jack’s wrist. “Listen to me. You have entered the Land of the Dead—the underworld. Your soul has been traded, and it was a fair trade. Now do what you are told. Stay out of trouble and stay out of
my
way.”
    Jack looked down and saw the mark on Jabber’s wrist. Mussini had marked him, too. “So, is everyone lucky enough to get one of these?” Jack pulled away from Jabber and finally examined his new ink. He gently rubbed his finger over the spidery lines of the fresh tattoo on his wrist. The pain was gone, but the brand looked pretty permanent.
    Jabber looked away smugly. “When the professor tricked you into taking over his contract, you inherited his mark. And yes, we all have the mark of Mussini. But I’m the only one in the group who has ever figured out how the magic works.”
    “Magic?”
    “The tattoo is a powerful illusion. It is a magical compass.” Jabber pulled the horses to a stop and rolled up his