Scary Mary (11 page)

Mary didn’t talk to Rachel outside of school
either. When she’d call, Rachel’s father always said his daughter
was ‘out’. She hoped Rachel wasn’t parked out in front of Cy’s
house with binoculars, doughnuts, and a large cup of coffee. She
didn’t want the police to arrest her friend as a stalker.

On the third day, she decided to eat in the
school library because it was too hot outside. She hadn’t seen
Rachel all day, but she thought that it might be because she hadn’t
seen Cy either. She wondered how Vicky felt about his new
shadow.

She was quietly reading her history textbook,
trying to ignore the fact that she was lonely when a heavy book bag
dropped onto her table. She jerked her head up to find Cy scowling
down at her.

“
Call Rachel off, I can’t take any more of
her harassment.”

Rachel came up behind him and joined them at the
table.

“
Mary didn’t tell me to follow you around.
This was my idea.”

“
Really? You have your own ideas?” he
said.

“
Hey!” Mary and Rachel both protested. The
school librarian gave them a stern look in response to their
outburst. She might let the students eat in the library, but she
would not allow loud noise.

“
My house is not haunted,” Cy said through
clenched teeth.

“
Oh yeah? Mary, tell him what happened to
Terri. She lived in the house before you.”

“
No, Rach. If he doesn’t want to know,
it’d be wrong to tell him,” she said, remembering Mr. Landa’s
advice. She wouldn’t force her help on Cy.

He looked at Rachel triumphantly. Rachel’s eyes
narrowed in return. “Mary may feel that way, but I don’t.”

“
Rach…” Mary said uneasily.

He threw his hands into the air. “Fine. What’s
happened at my house before?”

She looked down at her hands trying to think of
how to answer. She knew that he didn’t want to hear what she had to
say. She felt a flash of anger at Rachel. She might be right, and
it might be good that she stuck to him and made him talk to Mary,
but it put her in a bad situation and caused him to resent both of
them.

“
Mary, just tell me,” he said. She looked
up at him. He’d calmed down some and was waiting for her to
answer.

“
A previous owner was burned terribly in a
furnace explosion. That’s where I think the ghost is. He killed
himself in the basement, along with his wife. He was a sick man.
The man died; the sickness stuck around.”

“
And what am I supposed to do about it?”
he asked. She could tell that he didn’t give any credit to her
news. He was humoring her.

“
Let Mary and me come over and check it
out. We can get rid of him for you,” said Rachel. Mary jumped at
the surprise offer. She turned to her friend.

“
Rach, that’s not a good idea.”

“
What? Are you scared, Mary?” he
asked.

“
It’s hard not to be afraid when you
believe in ghosts, and it’s hard not to believe in ghosts when they
tell you that they’re there,” she said. Cy rolled his eyes and
looked away.

“
We’ll come over tonight,” Rachel
said.

Mary stood and put her hands up to stop this
rash plan. “Wait, that’s too soon. We have to plan or
something.”

Rachel gave her a look that said not to ruin
this. She glared back that this was NOT a good idea.

“
We’ll be there tonight,” Rachel
repeated.

“
Whatever. I’ll see you after school,” he
said. He shrugged on his book bag and left with his hands shoved in
his pockets. Mary could tell by his hunched shoulders that he was
not happy about the upcoming evening.

As soon as he was out of the library, she
grabbed Rachel. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Her best friend shrugged. “Putting the ball in
motion?”

“
Why, so we can get squashed by
it?”

“
What do you need?”

“
A plane ticket to Bermuda would be
nice.”

Rachel grinned. “That could be our fee.”

She scowled at her. “We are not the
Ghostbusters.”

“
I know. We’re way cuter than Dan Ackroyd
and Bill Murray.” Mary wanted to shake Rachel and yell at her, but
the bell rang.

Chapter 10

Denial

She stood outside Cy’s home experiencing a
different sort of nervousness this time: the gut wrenching, heart
palpitating, skin crawling type. Actually, it didn’t feel that
different from the first date jitters. What did she think she was
doing? Ricky had nearly got her last time. Going back into the
basement seemed an extremely bad idea, but she was the only one who
had a chance of helping Cy. He might not want her help, but he
needed it. She was relieved when Rachel arrived. She didn’t want to
go in alone, but then reconsidered when she saw that Rachel had
brought stakes and garlic.

“
Uh Rach, you’re referencing the wrong
horror movies for this.”

“
Be prepared for anything, I say.” Mary
shook her head but didn’t argue. If they made her feel safe, then
she wouldn’t rag on her about them; maybe they were her occult
equivalent of teddy bears. If she held them close, the monster
would go away, but then the monster could always view garlic as
nice seasoning for human and the stakes as handy toothpicks. Mary
put a stop to these thoughts. They were beginning to freak her
out.

“
Let’s just get this over
with.”

Rachel saluted with a stake. “After you, Dr. Van
Helsing.”

Mary grimaced. The idea that she was the
professor for their little group of monster hunters was not
encouraging. The professor was supposed to be the smart, collected
one. The way her brain kept taking little turns on the mental
merry-go-round did not instill confidence. Taking a deep breath,
she knocked on the door.

The door opened as she raised her hand to give
it a second rap. Cy looked out at them for a moment as if he’d
forgotten that he’d invited them over. She wanted to say hi but
waited for him to do it first. He didn’t say hi. He just stepped
back to give them room to come in. Her stomach did a little twist
as she silently went by him. Rachel looked around the house. She
took in all the pictures and stuff and said, “Hard to believe this
place is haunted.”

Cy snorted.

“
How do I get to the basement?” Mary
asked.

“
Through the kitchen,” he said, leading
them back. A low counter divided the kitchen and living room. The
door to the basement stairs was off to the side. He opened it for
her.

She went to the top of the stairs. “You guys
should stay up here,” she told them. Cy shrugged and sat down at
the kitchen table.

“
Don’t you need back-up?” Rachel
asked.

She shook her head. “It’s better if I go down
alone.” She glanced one more time at Cy to check on him. He was
flipping through a magazine. She wondered if he would still ignore
her when she came back up. Would he ask about Ricky? Would he
care?

She took the first step down and stopped. It was
awfully dark down there. “Where’s the light switch?”

“
At the bottom of the stairs.”

“
Perfect,” she muttered. She crept down
the steps slowly. The last one made a loud creak that made her jump
and almost fall. She gritted her teeth and told herself to calm
down. Ricky hadn’t even done anything yet. No reason to panic.
Yet.

The basement floor was cold cement. The chill
crept up through her
Doc Martens
and made her feet tingle.
She searched for the light switch. The wall was rough cinder block.
It was making the tips of her fingers tender as she brushed over
it. She was about to call to Cy again to ask where the light switch
was when she touched it. She flipped it and blinked at the sudden
illumination. The basement was stacked with boxes five high. The
light hung from a cord in the center of the ceiling. Her arrival
disturbed a couple of moths. They fluttered up to dance around the
light.

She scanned the room, but all her eyes could
register was junk, dust, and cobwebs. The space was depressing. Two
people had died down here. One of them still haunted it. Why’d
Ricky stick around? It was just a plain old basement. Nothing
special. It shouldn’t be spooky, but ghosts never seemed to care.
They took up residence wherever they liked. Well, time this one got
evicted.

She moved gingerly around the boxes, attentive
for any vibes that might indicate spookiness. She knew how silly
that seemed, but it was all she could do. Nothing was coming to
her. She looked around the room with a little worry. She didn’t
want to call Ricky out, but he wasn’t responding to her
presence.

“
Ricky?” she whispered. No response. The
furnace sat off in a corner. Boxes blocked her way. She began
clearing a path.

“
Where are you, Ricky?” she asked in a
quiet voice. She didn’t want to reach the furnace as Terri
Kuwalchek’s face flashed through her mind, but maybe his anchor was
near it. Ricky still did not respond.

“
Have you found anything?” Rachel called.
Mary jumped and knocked over a box. She blew out a breath in
frustration and put the box back in its place.

“
Nothing yet,” she called back. She was a
little over a yard away from the furnace.

“
Come on Ricky, talk to me. I’ll listen,”
she said. The front door slammed upstairs. Footsteps went into the
kitchen. Mary could hear talking but could not make it out. She
knew that she didn’t have much longer. If Ricky didn’t show up
soon, she’d have to go. She pushed the remaining boxes out of her
way and stood in front of the furnace.

“
Ricky!” she hissed. She reached out to
the furnace, but the heat, coming off of it, made her stop short of
touching it. She got on her hands and knees and crawled around the
furnace. There had to be something, but all she found were some
petrified bugs.

The new person was at the top of the stairs with
Rachel. “She’s not doing anything,” Mary heard her tell the unknown
person.

“
Yeah right, she’s not,” Kyle said. He
came stomping down the stairs.

“
Ricky, you stupid, unloved, piece of
feces, where are you?” Mary said, but the homicidal maniac didn’t
answer. She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. What was it, her
breath?

“
What do you think you’re doing down
here?”

Mary straightened and brushed off her hands.
“Hi, Kyle.”

He stood at the bottom of the stairs with his
arms crossed. It looked like Mary was about to be evicted. “What
are you doing here, freak?”

She shrugged. “I thought I left something.”

“
In the basement?” he asked. He tugged at
his shirt collar, and his eyes darted around the
basement.

She was already speaking before she thought that
maybe it was bad idea to antagonize him. “Don’t worry, I didn’t
disturb your dirty magazines.”

Kyle’s face twisted in anger. “Get out of my
house.”

“
I was just leaving,” she said. She
approached the steps, but he was blocking the way. She paused for
him to move. He didn’t budge.

“
If you want me to go, you need to move.”
He continued to stare at her. His whole body was tense. She didn’t
want to touch him. She had the feeling that if she did, he’d lash
out. Rachel stepped onto the stairs.

“
Hey, what’s up?” she asked.

“
We’re going,” she replied. Rachel blinked
and looked at Kyle.

In a low harsh voice, he said, “Don’t ever come
to my house again.”

She let out a slow breath as she tried to remain
calm. “Fine, Kyle. Will you move?”

“
I mean it. This is my house, and I won’t
have you in it.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Is the deed in your name or
something?”

He didn’t reply. He stepped to the side, forcing
her to brush by him to go up the stairs. “I will make you regret
the day you ever met me,” he whispered.

She stopped dead on the stairs. She turned back
to him in surprise. “What did you just say?”

“
I said get OUT,” he said through clenched
teeth.

Cy appeared beside Rachel. “What’s going
on?”

Mary’s mouth twisted into a grimace. She decided
that she definitely didn’t want to be there anymore. She took the
rest of the stairs two at a time and brushed past Rachel and
Cy.

He ran after her and caught her by the arm.
“Mary, what’s up?”

She flung his arm off. “I’m leaving. That should
make you and your brother happy.”

“
Did Kyle threaten you or something?” he
asked. His tone caught her attention. He hadn’t asked lightly. He
sounded concerned, and the concern was aimed at her.

“
He told me to leave.”

“
What else?”

His persistence was making her nervous. He
sounded worried for her, but that couldn’t be right. He didn’t want
her in his house either. Why was he insisting on questioning her
about Kyle? “He told me to never come over again.”

“
And?”

“
And nothing! I have to go. Rach, come
on.” Rachel grabbed her garlic and stakes from the kitchen and
followed her out.

They were halfway to Mary’s house before Rachel
spoke. “So how’s Ricky?”

“
No clue.”

Rachel pulled the car over abruptly. She undid
her seat belt and turned fully to face Mary. “What happened in the
basement?” she demanded.