Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Taking a deep breath, she opened herself to the world Beyond the Veil—the place she’d been shying away from since she’d seen her first ghost, (a horrible old man who’d had a heart attack in the room that served as her nursery)—when she was only one or two. The Shadow Lands—that was how she thought of the gray world between life and death—and she did her best to keep the door that led there closed.
But now, for the first time, instead of trying to hide from her Gift, Hanna used it. She swung the door wide and stepped through.
20
HANNA
In the outside world of the hospital, Hanna’s body quietly collapsed. Luckily, Bruin was standing beside her and he was able to catch her as she fell. He called frantically for Luna, but she shook her head.
“Hanna has gone hunting,” she told him, as he lifted her niece’s limp body in his arms. “Hold her for a moment—we have to give her time to search.”
Hanna heard them talking only dimly. Her spirit was in the Shadow Lands, the place Beyond the Veil, and she was searching in the gray dimness for any sign of the young life that had been torn too soon from its body.
“Luna?” she called softly, as she went. “Little Luna? Are you here? Can you hear me?”
But there was no answer, so Hanna went on.
It felt like she wandered forever, calling for the child in the half-light. Nothing grew in the Shadow Lands and no animals made their homes there—it was a sterile, lifeless, colorless place where nothing ever died and nothing was ever born.
In the distance she could see the dark shapes of mountains wreathed in shadows, but they never seemed to get any closer no matter how far she walked. Her feet were on a path made of flat, gray paving stones surrounded by a vast, sandy desert. The path wound ahead of her endlessly and seemed to have no beginning point and, by the same token, no end.
If she turned her head, Hanna could see the open door that led back to the hospital room where the little girl’s body lay. But it was getting further and further off and the light of the door was growing dimmer.
She understood instinctively that if she got too far from that door, she wouldn’t be able to find her way back again. If she lost sight of the Living Lands, she would exile herself in this cold, sterile, gray place forever. But the memory of that small body looking so shrunken in the too-large bed and the sobbing mother kept her going.
Just a little further, she told herself. Just a little bit further…
And then she heard it—a high, sweet voice singing softly, like a child singing to herself while she plays alone.
“Miss Mary Mac…Mac…Mac…
All dressed in black…black…black…
With silver buttons…buttons…buttons…
All down her back…back…back…”
Hanna’s heart skipped a beat—she knew at once it must be the girl she was looking for!
“Luna!” she called again. “Little Luna, is that you?”
The singing stopped at once and Hanna was afraid that she must have scared the little spirit away. But then, after a few more steps, she saw her.
Little Luna was crouched on the stone path just ahead of her. She was playing aimlessly with the sand that swept out from the path like a great, gray ocean. Her clothes were wet, clinging to her small body despite the arid environment around her, and her long blonde hair dripped water endlessly on the paving stones of the path—water which instantly evaporated as though it had never been.
“Little Luna?” Hanna asked, approaching her carefully, the same way she might approach a stray cat that was skittish and scared of people. “Little Luna, is that you?”
The girl looked up and Hanna was glad to see that her eyes hadn’t gone sunken and dull like the eyes of the dead. Her face was filled with curiosity.
“Who are you?” she asked in a clear, piping voice. “Why are you here in the gray place?”
“Your mommy sent me to come look for you,” Hanna said, kneeling down beside her. “Do you remember your mommy? She misses you so much.”
The little girl looked puzzled.
“But then…why didn’t she come looking for me herself? I’ve been here, waiting and waiting, but she and Daddy never came for me.”
“They can’t come for you, sweetheart,” Hanna told her. “Not everybody can come to the gray place.” She nodded around at the Shadow Lands. “I’m one of the only people in the world who can, so your mommy asked me to come and bring you back to her.”
Luna looked at her mistrustfully.
“Mommy says I’m not supposed to go with strangers. Are you a stranger, lady?”
Hanna bit her lip. She had to be careful how she answered—she was at the furthest limit she could go without getting lost forever. The door back into the hospital and the Land of the Living was barely a bright spark on the horizon. If the girl ran from her, she didn’t dare to follow or both of them would be eternally damned to wander the gray half-life forever.