The Road to Nevermore Read Online Free PDF Page A

without the responsibility of looking after Uncle Mordecai’s lies.
    Liam Slackbones slept through the sharp knock at the front door.

    The front door complained loudly as Martha and the children stepped inside.
    The dark cottage smelled of wood rot. Martha’s nose wrinkled as she lit a runty candle, then lifted it high. The room contained
     only a few sticks of rough-hewed furniture. Flies circled the unwashed bowls overturned on the table.
    The children held on to Martha’s skirts as they crossed to the bedroom door. The room contained an old wardrobe and bed—both
     poorly made, as if the carpenters had thrown their lumber together and fled. A few heart thumps later, they noticed a gnarled
     old man in bed. His eyes were closed. He held a dry bean clamped between his finger and thumb.
    Martha brought the candle to her uncle’s face and gasped. “Looks like we’re too late, children. Uncle Mordecai has passed
     on.” She lowered the candle and her voice.
    She stood, head bowed in respect, then reached down with her free hand and drew a grubby gray sheet over the old man’s body.
     But as she was about to cover his head, his eyes snapped open. They were yellow as runny yoke.
    Martha shrieked.
    “Trying to take my last bean!” His voice was gravelly as his barren fields. “I know you are. But I’ll take it to the grave
     with me!”
    Martha whipped the candle back. Uncle Mordecai’s glare narrowed. “And you want my farm, I’m thinkin’. Well, too late for that.
     I’ve locked the deed away. No one gets it,” he finished, chest heaving in a rough coughing fit.
    Billy frowned and stepped forward. “That’s a nasty way to talk to our Martha.”
    Millicent was right behind him. “You should apologize.”
    Martha gasped. The vicious light in Uncle Mordecai’s eyes bore in on Billy. Then he snapped a gnarled hand around the boy’s
     neck. Billy’s eyes nearly popped from his head as Uncle Mordecai dragged him toward his flinty shard of a nose. Millicent
     screamed and lunged forward, aiming to pry open the old man’s grip.
    Billy recoiled with shock. His bones glowed bright beneath his flesh as dark sparks danced around his body.
    Uncle Mordecai’s hand dropped. His eyes rolled up. And in that instant—in the tiny gap between a tick and a tock—everything
     froze:
    Martha’s candle locked in flickerless flame. A shout of warning stuck to her lips.
    Millicent hung in the air, caught in the midst of her rush to save Billy.

Chapter 5
Shadewick Gloom

    Anyone who spends time in the Afterlife is sure to see Government Hall spanning high overhead. And those who travel the length
     of this great corridor will notice that one end of the building looks much like the other. Light Side or Dark: polished stone
     floors lined with offices stretch to forever. But on the Dark Side, the lights are set lower and the heat is set much higher.
    Around one particularly dark bend was the office of Shadewick Gloom. His title was Ambassador for the Department of Injustice.
     Which meant he was an exceedingly powerful Dark Side muckamuck.
    Gloom had not always worked for the Dark Side. Not so long ago, he held high office on the Light Side. Only one other Afterlifer
     had ever moved to the Dark Side from the Light—the fellow who runs the place. Both had fallen from grace, but one had fallen
     much farther—all the way to the Lower Realms.
    Higher beings rule the Afterlife from the Realms Above, but they do give a certain amount of autonomy to the Dark Side. They
     put lower beings in charge of Lower Realms, so they don’t have to get their hands too dirty, and there’s none as low as the
     big boss himself.
    Shadewick’s story was not as well known.
    Except by Uncle Grim.
    Shadewick Gloom used to escort souls to the Hall of Reception, everyone’s first stop in the Afterlife. For years, Grim had
     served as Gloom’s apprentice. But Shadewick truly enjoyed his time as the Grim Reaper, far more than he was supposed to.