A. Rolland - Of Breakable Things

Not likely. Chase was never one to stray from order, but to Alex’s exasperation, Jonas didn’t seem willing to offer more of an explanation.

“Where are we going?”

Jonas looked back haughtily over his shoulder. “There’s a festival tonight.”

“A what?”

“A festival. Like a party.”

She doubted this day could become any stranger. Death, third grade, California, and now a party? A part of her would prefer to curl into a ball and take time to process this unbelievable world, but Jonas wasn’t the type to sit at her side and pat her hand. If she needed to go to this festival in order to keep him around, she’d do it.

“Feel that charge around us? Spirits like to let loose. You’ll learn that pretty quickly.” He skirted around some loose bricks. “One of the perks of being dead. With all the time in the world, why not have a little fun?”

She understood what he meant about the charge. The air around them began to tremble. “Is that why you’re dressed up?”

Jonas hurriedly rolled the sleeves of his button-down shirt. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“How could you not know what you’re wearing?”

“Because it changes according to my mood.”

“Is everyone that way?”

“Of course.”

That explained the eccentrically dressed kids in the courtyard. Ellington had said the mind created its own version of reality. She just hadn’t realized how public it would be.

“You look nice,” Alex noted. “Is there an occasion for this party?”

“Actually, yes. Autumn is like Christmas around here. Best time of the year. A small piece of the world dies for a bit, just like us. Spirits celebrate all over the world. One of these days I’m going to travel to one of the larger festivals. I hear it’s insane in other countries because they aren’t confined to the city like we are.”

Jonas always used his hands for emphasis when he spoke, and she noticed he had something clutched in one of his fists. “What’s that?”

“My mask for the festival. It’s a masquerade.”

This kept getting worse. “I have to dream up a costume?”

“Or maybe we can just find a sheet to throw over your head.”

Alex bit her lip. How ironic that after everything she’d been through in the past few hours, her biggest concern was a costume.

“I’m kidding,” Jonas said with a roll of his eyes. “Can’t you hear it yet? The music? It’s already started.”

They crossed through a guard of gnarled trees and emerged onto a dark cobblestone road. Knobby lampposts with orange lights bathed the throngs of people who flooded the streets. Alex glanced up at the signpost. They stood on Lazuli Street, but she could not read the name of the adjacent road because the sign itself wore a feathered, birdlike mask.

“If you can’t dream up a costume, here you go.” Jonas stopped next to a table that was littered with disguises and nodded at the vendor. He took a blue mask with peacock feathers, and fastened it gently around Alex’s head. “Now you don’t have to be the new girl until tomorrow.”

Alex liked this idea. No one would be staring at her tonight; she could be the one doing the watching. Since when did Jonas understand her so well? “What’s the purpose of the masks?”

“It’s tradition. Like I said, some festivals are outside of our own cities. If everyone wears masks, no one can distinguish the living from the dead.”

The party was like Mardi Gras. People hung over the distorted iron balconies of the shops, toasting with stemmed glasses in their hands and shouting merrily to the people who danced and sang below. Games with dice and wheels, bands, tables of books, and holograms of advertisements lined the streets. Vendors smiled and offered vials, stones, or odd-looking gadgets. Some tables were even clustered with steaming cups, from which Alex shied away. What could a spirit possibly drink?

Was Chase somewhere in this mess? Would she even recognize him if he was? Yes, she thought without doubt. Even if she were blind, she could find Chase.

Alex watched a girl peel off Jonas’s mask and hand him an alternative, this one more like a headdress of a great black bear. Jonas laughed loudly, his face engulfed by the fangs of the beast. The girl thrust a champagne glass in his hand, filled with a gray swirling mist, and he tipped back his head to empty it.

The exchanging of masks seemed to be the custom. The first person who tore off Alex’s mask surprised her so greatly that she cried out in shock, though the noises around her drowned it out. The girl narrowed her eyes at Alex and opened her mouth to speak, but Alex quickly snatched her cardinal red mask in return.

The horde of hidden faces and maniacal laughter disoriented her. Alex clung tightly to Jonas’s arm. He stiffened, and through the fangs of the bear, Alex could see uneasiness flicker in his eyes. In that same instant, Alex was jostled by the crowd. Jonas had no choice but to catch her fall. He helped her find her feet again, his expression unreadable.

“Crazy, huh?” he whispered into her ear. “You should see this place on All Soul’s Day. It’s twice as nuts.”

An invisible wave herded them to the right, out of the street and up the sidewalk. The crowd sliced itself in half cleanly, making way for something Alex could only see on tiptoe. It resembled an approaching fog the way it drifted above the heads of the partygoers who clapped and cheered in excitement. Alex jumped and swayed from left to right to get a better view, but she was too small.

Jonas watched her with amusement. “Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand and elbowing his way to the edge of the crowd.

And then Alex could see that it wasn’t a fog at all, but dancers. They moved like nothing she’d ever seen before. Weightless and wispy like rolling clouds, they moved so rapidly that their black and white costumes created a gray haze to shroud them. She stood dumbstruck and mesmerized until something she feared was blood began to splash out into the crowd. These dancing storm clouds produced a horrific rain. She stepped even closer to Jonas.

“Don’t worry. They’re poppy flowers.”

A red drop landed on her forearm. He was right. It was only a petal.

As the dancers continued on their path, trickling by in perfect cadence, their porcelain masks hid all the emotion their movements so sublimely portrayed. Behind them, the crowd spilled back into the street, a confluence of the two masses.

Just as quickly as the dancers arrived, they were gone. Alex realized she hadn’t been breathing this entire time, not that it mattered. She exhaled, and her cold breath became visible. All that was frozen burst back to life with new vigor.

A jazz band kicked into gear above them. Alex felt a zap of energy and noticed a hand resting lightly on her shoulder. “Care for a reading, young one?”

“Sorry?”

The cat-like mask only covered the eyes of the woman who spoke, and Alex watched the corners of her lips curl upward in an appropriately feline sort of way.

“No thanks.” Jonas yanked Alex’s hand and pulled her back into the street. “Stay away from those,” he hissed, jerking his head in the direction of the shop.

“Those what?”

“Aura readers. They’re like fortune tellers.”

“Oh.” She glimpsed back over her shoulder with interest.

“Don’t even think about it. They’re unreliable.”

The street forked, and Jonas steered Alex to the left, where the noise was less deafening. Puffy lollipop trees lined the road, their color fading in and out like blinking Christmas lights.

“How are they doing that?” Alex asked. Another spirit stole her mask, leaving her with shimmery feathers resembling angel wings.

“Too many feelings,” Jonas said. “They can’t decide.”