مدرسه روح زده فصل 28

The haunted School - Chapter 28

No. Not Greta.

To my shock, Thalia stood in the elevator doorway.

She peered out tensely. Her blond hair gleamed in the elevator light. Her blue dress sparkled brightly. The color almost hurt my eyes.

A red-lipped smile spread over her face. “I found you! I did it!” she cried happily.

She came running out of the elevator. With a happy cry, she threw her arms around Mary and hugged her tight. Then she hugged Eloise and Seth, Mona and Eddie.

Happy cries rang out from everyone.

“Thalia—you came back!”

“Are you okay?”

“We’ve been waiting for you!”

“Whoa—wait—the elevator!” I cried. “Don’t let it go!”

I made a frantic dive.

Too late.

The doors slid shut.

I crashed into them and bounced off. “Nooooo!” I let out a long, frantic wail. “Nooooooo! The elevator! The elevator!” I banged on the doors with both fists.

I spun around to face Thalia.

She gasped and raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh—I’m so sorry!” she cried. Her blue eyes grew wide. “I—I was so happy to see my friends, I forgot!” “But—but—” I sputtered.

Trembling, I slumped against the wall. Our one chance to escape. Too late… too late… The five gray kids circled around Thalia, hugging her, laughing, asking her a thousand questions.

“We missed you so much!” Eloise cried. “We waited for you to come back and rescue us.” “I missed you guys too,” Thalia told them. “I tried to come back. But I couldn’t find the way. I didn’t know how to get back here—until tonight.” She turned to Ben and me. “I escaped a few weeks ago,” she explained. “Just before school started. I went over to your world, the real world. But I had to disguise myself.” “You mean—” I started.

“The makeup,” Thalia continued. “The makeup and the lipstick. I had to keep putting that stuff on all the time. To cover up my gray skin. I—” “But your eyes—” I interrupted. “They’re blue.” “Contact lenses,” she explained. She let out a long sigh. “It was so hard, so much work. I had to be so careful. I had to apply coat after coat of makeup and lipstick. I couldn’t let anyone know.

“Kids made fun of me,” Thalia sighed. “But that wasn’t the worst part. I wanted to stay in the world of color and brightness. But I was a fake. A phony, covering up with makeup. I no longer belonged there. I belonged here in Grayworld.” Thalia sighed again. “But I couldn’t find the way back. Then tonight, you and Ben didn’t return to the gym. I went searching for you. I found the hole in the boarded-up wall. And I found the elevator. And it brought me here, to my friends.” “Welcome back,” Mary said, putting a gray arm around the shoulders of Thalia’s dress. The color on the dress had already started to fade.

“You’re right. This is where you belong,” Seth told her.

“When you escaped, we thought about you all the time,” Mona added. “We wondered how you were doing. And we wondered if you would come back for us.” “You don’t want to go there,” Thalia replied. “And I don’t want to go back. We don’t belong there. We cannot live there. I don’t want to pretend anymore. I just want to stay here with you and be myself.” She pulled a makeup kit and a tube of lipstick from her bag and tossed it down on a desktop. “No more makeup. No more lipstick. No more pretending.” “But what about us?” Ben cried. “Tommy and I have only a minute or two more before we’re totally gray!” “Aren’t you going to help us escape from here?” I pleaded. “Aren’t you going to help us get back?” Thalia shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, guys.”