Free The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts by Bxerk

about
it.”
    Benny sighed and scratched his hair out of
his eyes.
    “I, for one, have no idea what we might do to
stop them,” Takeesha said.
    “If they are threatened by science,” Nova
said, “then maybe that’s what we need to use to get rid of
them.”
    “But what are their weaknesses?” Max Kim
asked.
    “I don’t know,” Benny said. “Maybe we need to
find some ghosts and hold up different things in their presence
until we find their Kryptonite.”
    Nova found a log, sat down, and opened the
picnic basket. “You have all the science stuff, Benny. Can you
bring some things to school?”
    “You know, now that I think about it, that
could take forever,” Benny said. “There has got to be a better
way.”
    Nova passed out the wipes, sandwiches and
soda pops. Takeesha offered the chips around, but there were no
takers. While they munched and swallowed, Nova watched the horses
out in the pasture. They would graze for a while, and then with no
apparent reason, all move to a new plot of land where they resumed
eating.
    Blue Belle and Boomer scared out a rabbit and
chased it around until it dove into a burrow. The dogs dug the
ground and whined. “Belle, Boomer, come over here,” Nova
yelled.
    As if forgetting the rabbit, the dogs trotted
over, nipping at each other.
    “Benny your idea is so far the only way we
can do it. No one else has made any suggestions,” Nova said. Max
Kim and Takeesha nodded. Benny sighed and picked out a strawberry
from the picnic basket and ate it. “Max Kim has a surprise.”
    “I’ve got to show you my new magic tricks
with this mirror.” Max Kim reached into the big backpack behind
Benny and pulled out a foot-long mirror in a brown wood frame. That
in itself seemed like a magic trick. He handed the mirror to Benny,
who held it up, so Nova and Takeesha were reflected in it. Then Max
Kim proceeded to pull scarves, branches, and rocks out of it.
    But, after a moment, Nova was distracted as
another scene began to unfold inside the mirror. It was the man
with white hair, Nova had seen in the library, whom she now
recognized as another Neanderthal. He seemed to be standing over
her, with a fishing rod, dangling it over her head, although she
couldn’t see that it had a line on it. A strange rocky rim
surrounded the scene. Then she realized she was looking up through
the basin/mirror he had rotated his hands over when she saw him
last time. Nova almost called out, but she didn’t want to disturb
the…whatever was happening.
    The white-haired man’s fishing rod bent over,
and he pulled out what appeared to be a huge invisible fish. His
rod and line jerked, even though there was apparently nothing on
it, and he watched the hook with a look on his face so hungry he
was practically drooling over it. He wore a shimmery white tunic.
Nova couldn’t figure out what it was made of. Maybe silk?
    Then the white-haired man turned with
surprise toward something Nova couldn’t see. Suddenly he tipped the
basin up on its side. And that’s where it stayed. A little water
sloshed out, and Nova couldn’t see the floor, but for the most part
she could see what was going on.
    The first thing that happened was a soldier
ghost marched into view and leaned up against the wall. A smaller
and dirtier man with black hair in long spikes came into the scene.
He also wore a tunic made out of spider web? Nova wasn’t sure. He
used sign language for laser beam and pretended to pull his eye out
in a straight line toward the white-haired man. Somehow, Nova knew
this was the sign language symbol for a laser beam. The beam was
red and filled with fractals changing inside.
    The white-haired man managed to block the
laser beam by making a two-dimensional box with his fingers in
front of his own eyes- the mirror sign. The laser beam hit the
mirror, also full of fractals and ricocheted off, almost hitting
the small man, who rolled away just in time.
    Nova couldn’t believe what she saw. What did
it mean?
    The