"How'd you manage that?" I asked, taking the corded key from around her neck.

She waved her paw. "Rufus underestimates me sometimes. Actually, all the time."

"You're very clever, for an opossum."

Yvette's nose wrinkled in disdain. Her tiny teeth popped out. "For an opossum?"

"All the opossums I've ever met weren't half as clever as you," I hastily added.

"That's because I'm a magically-created opossum. Rufus probably never expected me to find out where he hides his spare keys, but I did and here I am with one. Serves him right for thinking I'm just a dumb rodent."

I smiled. "What time does Rufus usually go to bed?"

Yvette flicked her ears. "He's a night owl. If you're thinking of sneaking out, I'd wait a few hours. He's in the laboratory now."

"Good to know," I said. "Because I have to get back there."

"What for?" Yvette asked. "You left your gloves down there, by the way."

"Yeah, I know," I said. "But that's not what I'm after. I want to see if I can use his Chimbrelis to get back home."

Yvette laughed. "You better not get caught doing that."

"I won't, as long as you're my lookout," I said.

Her eyes glittered. "Not only will I be your lookout, but I'll tell you what his Chimbrelis's password is."

I was so excited, I hugged her and almost accidentally squished her. "You're a true friend, Yvette!"

"Don't mention it," she said, smoothing out her fur. "We pathetic, unmagical imbeciles have to stick together."

We passed the time playing an old board game we found in the bedroom closet called Runaway Rabbits and wondered who it could have belonged to since it's a children's game. I snorted at the thought of a child Rufus playing it.

Each player gets a white, flat marble "rabbit" that gets moved around the board. You take turns rolling the dice to see how many spaces you move your rabbit. The board has a bunch of obstacles, like A fox chases you, Lost in the forest, or Stop to eat some clover, so you miss turns or jump ahead. Whoever moves their rabbit to the hutch at the end of the board first wins.

After four rounds of Runaway Rabbits, Yvette scooted across the floor and put her ear to the wall. She motioned for me to stay silent.

"I just heard him shut his bedroom door," she finally said. "He usually falls asleep soon after he goes to bed, especially if he's been doing magic. We'll hear him snoring."

About fifteen minutes later, we heard Rufus's snores from down the hallway. We unlocked the door and stepped into the pitch-black hall.

Our biggest problem was that neither of us had anything to light the way. It was no problem for Yvette, who had good night vision. But I stumbled along the whole way down. A least it was too dark for me to see any other weird things Rufus probably kept in his house.

One of the times, I missed a stair and came down with all my weight on one foot. It made a clomp that echoed so loudly, we had to stand still as statues and hold out breath until we were sure Rufus hadn't woken up.

Then I accidentally stepped on Yvette's tail. She screeched. For the second time, we kept absolutely still until we knew we hadn't been caught. Finally, we arrived at the basement door.

"You know, I'm still not going to be able to see anything," I whispered.

"I guess we should have thought of that earlier," Yvette whispered back. "It's too late now; we're already here. Pick me up and I'll open the door, just in case."

I did as she asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not sure if Rufus put a spell on the door or not," she said. "It's safer for me to check because I think I'm immune to magic."

I frowned in the darkness. "You think? You mean you're not sure?"

"Rufus has hurled a bunch of curses at me since we met," she said. "None of them have stuck."

"What if they were fake curses?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't think he'd waste his time with that," Yvette said. "He'd make it be the real thing."

The door squeaked open. Stale basement odor wafted by.

"He didn't even lock it?" I said. "He's got to be one of the most negligent magic-users I've ever met. Addison would never let me snoop around."

"He doesn't take precautions half the time because he still acts like he lives alone even though I’ve been here for months and he thinks I'm too stupid to figure things out. And he also didn't count on you breaking out of your room," Yvette said.

She leaped down. "Just stick your fingertip right over the threshold. You'll know right away if it's okay for you to go in."

I cringed. "What happens if it isn't okay?"

Yvette tapped her paw on the floor. "You'll probably just get zapped or something. I don't think it'll be deadly."

The familiar hot and cold feeling washed over me. I slowly brought my finger to the edge of the door's threshold. The basement's darkness loomed in front of me like an infinite void. A lone cricket chirped somewhere down in the gloom.

What if my finger got blown off? Or my entire hand?

"Go ahead," Yvette said. "We can't stand here all night."

"Don't rush me!" I said, startled. "I don't want to get my hand killed."

"You're taking too long," she said. "We have things to do."

Again, I raised my finger to the edge.

Yvette jumped up and smacked my hand. I lurched forward, narrowly missing the top step. I only grabbed the banister by accident because I fell onto it.

Then I slammed down on a stair and cracked my shin. Tears sprang to my eyes as I stifled a scream.

Yvette scampered to where I knelt. "Sorry about that, are you okay?"

"I can't believe you did that. My shin is killing me."

"Well, it's better than getting your whole body killed," Yvette said.

"Thanks for your sympathy."

She shrugged. "I'm just trying to be practical."

"I could've fallen all the way down the stairs," I said.

"But you didn't, and you were going to take all night. Do you want to get to the Chimbrelis or not?"

"Yeah," I scowled.

"Then let's get to it. Unless you want me to help you down the rest of the way?"

"No, that's okay," I said, jumping to my feet. Nothing like tough love from an opossum to get your behind in gear.

Yvette climbed up on my shoulder and acted as guide as we descended to the bottom of the stairs. We did this without any further mishaps.

"I wish we could get that coluire globe to work," I said.

"I know how to do it," Yvette said. "But it won't turn on."

"That’s not helpful."

"Hey, I got us out of your room and down here, didn't I? Give me some credit."

"Sorry," I sighed. "This has been really stressful and I thought I was going to get killed back there on the stairs."

"Let's get to the Chimbrelis. We need to be extra careful not to make any noise," Yvette said. "I'll tell you where to step."

My vision was only a little better than when we stood at the top of the stairs. I didn't like not being able to see, but I was more afraid of a zombie lumbering out of nowhere to eat us alive than making too much noise-- a rotting, moaning, drooling, stinky undead person with greenish-purple skin falling off and intestines hanging out and no teeth, staggering after us in slow, endless circles around Rufus's stone table until we were turned into zombies too.

I tried not to think of the possibility of a speedy zombie. That would be even worse.

The Chimbrelis came into view right in front of us. I could barely see the carved claw feet of the pedestal.

"Here we are," Yvette said. "The password is 'revenant'. Real imaginative, huh?"

I took a deep breath.

"Hey, who are you going to call, anyway?" interrupted Yvette. "Isn't Addison still in the hospital?"

"There's an emergency number," I said.

"There is?"

"It's run by a bunch of magic-user volunteers. They know who I am. If anyone can help get me out of here, it'll be them."

Just as I was about to speak to the Chimbrelis, a giant blast of light flared in my eyes, as if someone had struck a very large match. Yvette and I were stunned, momentarily blinded.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in this basement?" demanded a woman's imperious voice.

For a second, I was too shocked to answer. The flame was still glaring as bright as the sun, and in the center of it stood an angry looking woman in lavender colored robes and practically dripping in jewels.

"Roanna!" squeaked Yvette.

Rufus's ex-wife! My stomach dropped lower than the soles of my feet. I blinked a bunch of times until my vision became much less blobby.

"What are you still doing here, rodent?" Roanna said. She turned to me, a sneer pulled across her otherwise lovely face. "And who are you?"

I stared like a dimwit.

Rufus's bare feet thudded down the stairs.

Yvette smacked my arm. "Tell her who you are!"

"I-I-I'm Coralie. We were just—"

"Trespassing," said Rufus, holding up the key we’d left in the bedroom door. "How did you find this?”

"Well you know, Rufus, maybe if you didn't assume that people were so stupid all the time," Yvette said.

"What does that mean, you disrespectful vermin?" he shouted.

Yvette gasped, indignant.

"Never mind. I'll deal with you two later." He pointed at Roanna. "And you are not supposed to be here, either."

"Maybe I missed your handsome face," she purred.

"You don't miss any part of me," Rufus growled.

"Fine," she said. "I came to check on your little problem."

"How on Ransara do you know about that?" Rufus said. “Did you have something to do with it?”

"Darling, I created that pendant you were desperately trying to recover," Roanna said. "And then some miscreant pickpocket managed to steal it away from me. So, I did some magical-object-tracking of my own. Surprise, surprise, here it was. That over-educated nerd Addison made it next to impossible, might I add."

"Hey, Addison isn't a nerd," I said.

"Why don't you shut up," Roanna said.

"This is an outrage," Rufus said. "I have three trespassers in my laboratory. Everybody clear out, now."

Roanna's flame guttered to darkness. We all followed Rufus upstairs to the kitchen.

"Are we in trouble, darling?" Roanna smirked.

Rufus slammed his fists into the table. Roanna and Yvette were unaffected by the noise but I jumped a mile. Obviously, I was the only one unaccustomed to his outbursts.

"I cannot believe I was woken up for this,” he said. “Everybody sit down. You all owe me explanations.”

Roanna sat primly on one of the kitchen chairs, where we gathered around the table. It had the same screaming faces theme as much of the other furniture in the house. "I miss this kitchen table set," she said running her fingertips over the glossy black wood. "I should have insisted on taking it, too."

"You took enough," he said.

She peered at him through a fringe of dark lashes. "Not nearly as much as I would have liked."

Rufus shifted in his seat. "I've had enough of that topic to last me another lifetime. What are you doing here?"

"I've told you already," Roanna said, twisting one of the many gleaming rings that adorned her fingers. "You have a problem you can't solve in your laboratory, and I wanted to see it for myself."

"It isn't anything I can't handle on my own," Rufus said.

"No, you can't," she said.

Rufus stared daggers at her. "I can fix it. I just need more time."

"You have no idea what you're doing," Roanna said.

"Are you calling me incompetent?" he said. "Remember who conjured the undead legion Zhirkhux to fight against the fire imps that escaped the giant crevasse at Mount Ximmolur?"

She rolled her eyes. "Do I have to hear that story again?"

His nostrils flared. I thought he was going to strangle her.

"There were throngs of those vile little monsters swarming down the volcano, incinerating everything they touched," he said. "Entire forests burned, in case you've forgotten."

"I haven't," Roanna said, inspecting a lock of her curly hair. "You wouldn't let me."

“How about crimes I’ve helped solve interviewing deceased people? None of that ever counted. You know, that’s part of why I started hating you," Rufus said, his knuckles turning white. "You're a selfish hag who never gave me credit for my achievements."

"And you spent half our marriage in a dingy basement, too busy playing with dead things to appreciate a woman of my talents," she sneered.

"How about all the precious time you spent with my cousin on your special projects?" he said.

Roanna looked down her nose at him. "Harte was better company than you ever were. In more ways than one."

My stomach clenched at the sight of re-lived anguish, shame, and betrayal on Rufus's face.

"What are you staring at?" he snarled at me.

I wanted to disappear under the floor, so I didn't have to hear or see the rest of this argument. What if they fought all night? What if they killed each other in the process? I just wanted to go home and see Addison.

Yvette drummed her tiny pink paws on the table as if bored by the conversation. "That was a low blow, if you know what I mean."

"Shut up, rodent," Rufus and Roanna snapped.

She put up her paws in mock surrender. "I give up. I'm going to bed."

Before she could even turn around, Rufus grabbed her by the tail. "Not so fast, ratty."

"OW, HEY!" she squealed.

"Stop, you're going to hurt her!" I said.

"You're killing me!" Yvette squeaked, suspended in midair by her tail. She chittered and scrabbled frantically with her arms.

Roanna snickered. The woman was a migraine in human form.

"You have yet to explain what you and the other brat were doing in my laboratory," he said.

"Yvette brought me a key," I blurted. "Now can you put her down?"

"Go on," he said, gesturing with the hand that held Yvette's tail.

"I'm gonna be sick," she moaned. "There'll be bug guts all over you if you don't watch it."

“I left my gloves down there,” I said. “Please, can you put her down now?”

Rufus plunked Yvette onto the table. She smoothed out her fur and examined her tail for damage. There wasn’t.

“You could’ve really hurt me,” she scolded.

He opened his mouth to reply when Roanna cut in. "Where is the pendant?"

He glowered and crossed his arms. "It's locked away."

"Let me see it."

"Absolutely not."

Roanna gave an exaggerated sigh. "Darling, please. You don't even know how to use it."

"I know enough and I am not your darling anymore."

She raised her eyebrows. “You are clueless.”

“You keep turning up like a bad copre coin,” said Rufus, his lip curled.

I wondered if there had ever been a time when they didn't fight.

Rufus turned to me. “You haven’t gotten around to telling me why you needed to use my restricted magical equipment?”

I stared like an idiot. “What restricted magical equipment?”

He glowered. “All of it, but specifically the Chimbrelis.”

I started to ask how he knew but instead I explained my plan to call the emergency line.

"You have to admit, darling," Roanna said to Rufus, "that for a witless child who doesn't seem to have any sort of powers--"

"I'm not witless," I said. "You don’t even know me."

"What a shame. I was just about to compliment you on your boldness, but I shall call you foolish instead," Roanna said. “I seem to be surrounded by fools.”

"You might try holding your tongue," Rufus said to me. He turned to Roanna. "As for you. There isn't a single reason for you to be here and I'm tired of being insulted, so you can go."

"Shouldn't you be used to her insults by now? I thought you would've developed some sort of immunity to them," Yvette said.

Rufus hissed ferociously at her, sending her scuttling with a shriek across the smooth wood. She slid off the side and landed on the floor, clambered back up, and hissed back.

I waited for Rufus to destroy her right there where she stood in a fighting stance, her tiny pink hands balled into fists. She reminded me of a cartoon drawing I saw once in a newspaper of two dogs in a boxing ring.

Instead, Rufus did his trademark cackle. It made Yvette even angrier.

"After everything I've done for you, and you toss me off the kitchen table like a moldy potato," she hissed.

"What have you done for me, you little rat?" Rufus said. "Given me allergies, spread your hair everywhere?"

Yvette’s nose quivered. "I haven’t done any of those things. You haven't sneezed once since I got here, and I hardly ever shed."

“You’re forbidden from using the Chimbrelis,” Rufus said to me.

“I would’ve used your phone but Yvette told me it was broken,” I said.

“We were getting a lot of calls from people looking for a restaurant with almost the same number as ours, but was one digit off,” said Yvette. “Ruddy got sick of hearing it ring all the time so he ripped it out of the wall and smashed it.”

“Who’s Ruddy?” I said.

An ear-splitting door slam and the clamor of rattling chains erupted from the laboratory. Nobody jumped except me. Then an eerie noise that resembled somewhere between someone getting sick to their stomach while screeching, moaning, and howling at the same time sounded up the laboratory stairs.

Yvette clapped her paws over her ears. "Oh no, he's awake."

"You still have that thing?" Roanna asked in an acidic tone.

Ruddy, whoever that was, barf-screech-howled again and made more slamming noises.

"Curse you, Ruddy!" Rufus said, dragging his hands over his face in consternation.