My Friends Are Dead People by Tony Ortiz Read Free Book Online Page A

Katie . . .” I
ventured.
    “ It wasn’t a costume,
Jesse,” repeated Katie. “It was real. You said so
yourself.”
    “ Said what?”
    “ You did see a
werewolf–”
    Katie shot up off the curb. A short dark boy
wearing striped overalls was staring at us from the middle of the
street. His ears kept fluttering and his skin was oozing black sap.
The boy scratched his black face, casually peeling some of the skin
entirely off.
    “ You know where the cemy
is?” said the boy in a very mature manner. “Cemetery?” he
explained.
    We stood there speechless, just gaping at
the boy. He rubbed his wet chin, thinking about what to say
next.
    “ Lin,” the boy introduced
himself. “My name is Lin. I like your costume, boy. Very original.
You supposed to be a dead boy?”
    I managed a nod.
    “ The closest cemetery’s
miles from here,” said Katie in a monotone. “But . . . you might be
looking for – there’s an abandoned one somewhere at the bottom of
the hill on Acacia. Is that the one–”
    “ Thank you, beautiful,”
chimed Lin with a pleasant smile.
    He hurried down the street, appearing to be
running, yet moving slowly. He glanced back, and, after seeing that
we were indeed following him, immediately picked up the pace. Katie
and I kept quiet for a while. After a couple of minutes, we reached
the bottom of Beverly Street and spotted Lin just as he disappeared
into an overgrowth of plants on a dirt crag just below my
house.

CHAPTER SIX
    The
GRAVEDIGGERS
     
    I wasn’t sure why we were following the tiny
boy. Perhaps we were hoping for some clue to the recent events. I
couldn’t believe all the bizarre things I had witnessed in one day.
Was this what I had been sheltered from all this time? This had to
be the reason why Oz didn’t let me go out on Halloween. There were
too many weird things going on.
    We pushed through the plants, stepped over a
low black fence, and crossed a field of tall grass to a desolate
scene of ancient tombstones and majestic trees, whose bushy tops
veiled the sky like a thick fog. One side of the graveyard had
evenly spaced tombstones, carefully arranged graves and neat piles
of raked leaves, while the opposite side was in total disarray.
That was where we saw Lin standing chatting with a peculiar-looking
man. He was in his early forties, about six feet tall and thin,
with scruffy black hair and dense stubble. The stranger wore a
shabby brown shirt that hung down to his knees and tattered pants.
He was covered in mud and grass head to toe. Despite his ragged
appearance, there was something pleasant about him.
    “ What do you think they’re
talking about?” I asked as we hid behind a crumbling
tombstone.
    “ Shorty’s telling him
about us,” said Katie. “They’re trying to figure out how they can
chop us up and roast us without getting caught. Or he’s asking him
for growth pills. I think the kid had enough of being called Old
Baby.”
    I cracked up out loud and quickly checked
myself. But it was too late. Lin and the man were looking straight
at us.
    “ Katie,” I muttered,
slowly backing away. “They’re going to chop us up.
Katie!”
    “ Lin disappeared,” mumbled
Katie.
    The short boy was gone, and the man
was ambling over to us, holding a long shovel over his shoulder,
moving through the dusty part of the graveyard, as if he was taking
a morning stroll.
    “ He’s going to bury us
alive,” I said.
    The man seemed to be a little over six feet
now that he was only yards away. His eyes were strange: they had a
faint orange ring around the pupils. He had to be a monster. Plus,
there was a large birthmark shaped like a curved hand snaking
around his left arm.
    He reached us with a confused look, but
smiled after he studied the dirt and glue on my skin.
    “ I thought I buried you
two already,” the man said calmly.
    Oh, my God, he thought we were walking
corpses. Now he was going to bury us alive.
    “ Come this way, you two,”
he said. “There’s much work to be