Ghosts on Board by Fleur Hitchcock

tiny little self-important bits of metal – feel my rage.’
    The bars fall away from the flame like sticks of butter and within a minute he has cut a doorway and is standing inside the cell, pots and pots of dust arranged around him.
    I panic.
    Supposing Flora Rose and Billy dropped the key on their way back to Eric and Jacob? Supposing they haven’t changed the dust for chocolate powder – supposing I’ve just failed to prevent him from being the most powerful evil genius in the world?
    He empties a pot of dust over his head and begins to laugh. The dust flies up into the air around him, glittering and spinning in the draught. ‘I have it! I have it! This is it! I am invincible, unstoppable! Fire and water, come to me, make me strong!’
    He dances, he whirls, he laughs, he shouts, and I’m more and more worried. He appears to be becoming more solid, less grey, but it’s difficult to tell in the dull red glow of the bulb. It could just be that he’s getting coated in chocolate, or it could be that there’s still some magic dust left in there. ‘Yes, yes, yes! At last. Bow down, World, before me. I am the most powerful being of all time, the greatest man alive, or dead. Everything shall be mine – all mine,’ and he giggles madly, tasting the dust on his tongue, rubbing it into his hair, his hands, his clothes. He pauses and licks his hand. ‘Mmmm, chocolate! Oh wonderful dust, you taste of chocolate. How appropriate! AWE-SOME! I am a god, a demigod, an all-things god, a superpower. I am that rare thing, a superhero with a brain – they will worship me!’
    He’s reached the stage of lying on the floor on his back like a dog, chucking handfuls of dust into the air, when quite suddenly the ground gives way beneath him.
    It’s my cue and I race out and up the passage, out of the castle courtyard and around the outside of the walls, tumbling and tripping over the tussocks and earthworks until I see Eric and Jacob standing staring at the bottom of the ancient medieval toilet chute.
    Finding an extra burst of energy in my legs I race over the grass to join them.
    â€˜Wow!’ says Eric.
    â€˜Awesome!’ says Jacob.
    An explosion of chocolate powder bursts from the wall – followed by a heavy thump.
    There on the ground in front of us is Victor, pale and chocolatey in uneven patches. He gazes at his hand. Beneath the cocoa powder it’s definitely faded to grey. ‘Oh no,’ he says. ‘I’m turning back into a ghost. This is terri—’ But before he’s finished speaking, Eric turns on the sprinklers at the end of his fingers and drenches him with freezing cold water, washing off all the castle’s magic dust and all the chocolate powder.
    â€˜Chaps!’ he manages to stutter. I form my thumb and forefinger into an O, step back so that Victor is right in the middle and  … 
    Click.

Chapter 20
    â€˜Chaps - this is not fair!’ Victor squeaks. ‘Not fair at all.’
    â€˜Now what?’ asks Jacob, crouching down to look at the curious little grey figure squirming in the puddle. ‘Did I look like this when you shrank me?’
    â€˜Yes, kind of, but redder and  …  rounder,’ I say, taking a small, yellow, plastic capsule out of my pocket. ‘Let’s put him in here for now.’
    â€˜He’ll suffocate in there,’ says Eric.
    â€˜He’s only half human,’ I say.
    â€˜Exactly,’ says Flora Rose from nowhere. ‘The minute he gets more ghostly he’ll be out of there. You can’t imprison ghosts. And you won’t be able to see him.’
    We stumble down the long grass slope until we reach the path that winds up the hill towards the model village.
    â€˜Couldn’t we keep him underwater?’ asks Jacob, panting along at the back.
    â€˜What about a metal box? A lead box?’ says Eric. ‘Even radiation can’t get