21 Dares: A Florida Suspense Mystery

by JC Gatlin

Susan shook her head. “Yes, but McKenzie, Lindsey and Lindsay, Mr. Sherman and that cleaning lady with the really long name—we all came up with the actual dares.”

  “All except this last one,” Lindsey said. “Walking into an abandoned cigar factory to find a bunch of Halloween masks is all on your shrink.”

  Lindsay shook her head. “Well, we don’t know that it’s your shrink. Maybe it was McKenzie’s idea. Or Rocky’s.”

  “But the shrink is sending the text messages.” Lindsey frowned at her sister and put her hands on her hips.

  Lindsay mirrored Lindsey’s stance. “We don’t know that. Maybe McKenzie is sending them. Maybe she and Rocky are laughing at us.”

  “Stop it!” Abbie snapped at the twins. They looked back at her. Abbie sighed and read the new dare out loud.

  Abbie lowered her phone. She looked at Susan.

  “No. You’re absolutely not doing that.” Susan shook her head. “This is going too far.”

  “I agree. It’s an abandoned building. There could be homeless people hiding in there,” Lindsey said.

  “Or ax murderers.” Lindsay shuddered and looked away.

  Abbie shook her head, trying to wrap her head around it. “Why would he want me to do this?”

  “You’re not,” Susan turned away for a moment, then looked back at Abbie. “Is your doctor the guy in the picture? Is he the one who’s been following you?”

  “No, of course not.” Abbie hesitated, wondering. She got her phone out and flipped through the photos. She looked at the man in the tan trench coat and brown hat. “I don’t think so. It’s not him.”

  Susan took the phone from Abbie’s hands. She looked at the photo. “Hypothetically speaking, if it was him, why would he be following you?”

  “It doesn’t matter. You’re right. The game’s over.” Abbie took back her phone. She found some well of strength and sent a text message back to the caller.

  She waited for a return message, but none came. Abbie looked at Susan. “Come on, let’s go.”

  They headed west up the sidewalk.

  “This was all supposed to be fun, until it got weird,” Susan said. “In the next dare, we were going to make you Jersey Turnpike a guy at the bar.”

  Dharma laughed. “That’s when you pour alcohol on the floor mat and funnel it down a guy’s throat? That’s messed up.”

  “This whole night has been messed up,” Abbie said. She walked a couple steps ahead of the others. “I really appreciate everything everyone has done, but I just want to go home. Maybe I’ll take a bus back to Pembroke Pines this weekend and see Clinton Reed.”

  Lindsey caught up with her. “Who can blame you?”

  Lindsay came up on Abbie’s other side. “Yeah, we’re outta here too.”

  As the girls walked across the street, they were surprised by Abbie’s cell phone. It was the first time it rang all night. Abbie looked at the screen then stopped. “It’s McKenzie.”

  She answered the call. McKenzie’s frantic voice came through the line.

  “Abbie? Is that you?”

  “McKenzie?” Abbie raised her voice and spoke faster than normal. “I’m so mad at you right now! I know you’ve been talking to my therapist which has to violate like a thousand HIPAA laws.”

  McKenzie cut her off. Her voice sounded panicked over the phone. “Listen to me, Abbie. I don’t know where I am.”

  Abbie rolled her eyes. “You can stop right there. We’re headed home. It’s been fun and all but—”

  “Listen to me, damn it. I need your help.” McKenzie spoke through sobs. “I need your help, Abbie. Please!”

  Chapter 23

  Abbie held her phone to her ear. She thought she misheard. “What?”

  “Someone attacked us.” McKenzie’s sobs came through the speakers. She struggled to speak. “He came at us.”

  “Is this a joke?”

  “Help me! Please!” McKenzie’s sobs crackled through the phone.

  “Where’s Rocky?” Abbie wasn’t sure McKenzie heard her through the sobbing and asked it again. “Talk to me, McKenzie. Where’s Rocky?”

  “He’s dead.” McKenzie blurted it out then broke down in sobs.

  “What?”

  “He killed him, Abbie. He killed him.”

  “Who killed him? The man that’s been following me?” Abbie listened to McKenzie’s cries. A heartbeat later, Abbie yelled into the phone. “Was it the man who’s been following me? McKenzie, what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. He’s wearing a mask. A Gareth the Ghoul mask–” She stopped, then screamed. “No, get away from me! Get away!”

  A loud crash blared from the other end, followed by another. “McKenzie? What’s happening? McKenzie, are you there?”

  Abbie looked at Susan. “Something’s happening to McKenzie.”

  “What?” Susan looked dumbfounded. “What happened?”

  “McKenzie’s in trouble.” Abbie looked at the phone. Struggling noises rippled through the speaker. A thud! A whap! McKenzie’s screams of terror. “McKenzie? Are you there? McKenzie?”

  The phone disconnected. Abbie looked at Susan. “We need to call the police.”

  “Wha—” Susan stuttered. “What’s going on?”

  Abbie looked back at her phone. “Someone attacked McKenzie. Someone wearing another freaking Gareth the Ghoul mask. She said Rocky’s dead.”

  Dharma’s eyes widened. “Call the police. Now!”

  Abbie pressed “9” then “1” when a new text message came in. It was from McKenzie’s phone number. She opened the message.

  Abbie looked at Susan. “This is crazy. This can’t be happening.”

  “Something’s not right.” Susan looked down at the sidewalk.

  “I don’t care. I’m calling the police.” Abbie gripped her phone as Susan asked her to wait. Abbie wasn’t listening. “I’m calling the police. Right now.”

  A new text message beeped on their phones and Abbie opened the photo. It was a picture of McKenzie. Her eyes wide. Her face bruised and bloody. A twisted rag was tied between her lips. A box cutter pointed at her head. Its shiny blade pressed to her cheek.

  “Wait!” Abbie’s heart stopped. “Wait.”

  Susan saw it too. Then Dharma and the twins.

  Abbie paused. A new message beeped on her phone. Susan’s phone vibrated. The twin’s phones dinged and they held them up. Abbie opened the new text message and Dharma leaned in close to see it. Abbie read the text out loud.

  Abbie turned away from her phone. “This can’t be coming from Dr. Wachowski. He wouldn’t do this. He couldn’t!”

  “Do you think McKenzie’s in that old cigar factory?” Dharma stood beside Abbie, Susan, and the twins and looked back down the street.

  “Of course she is,” Susan said. The girls stared at her, clearly unsure what to do. Susan laughed. “McKenzie and Rocky are waiting to jump out and scare us. She probably put your therapist up to all this. Or maybe he put them up to it.”

  “God, I hope not. He is a little weird though.” Abbie ran a hand over the top of her head, pulling back her hair. She felt a headache coming on.

  “This can’t really be happening, can it?” Dharma’s thumbs tapped her phone. Susan approached her.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “I’m calling the police.”

  “Do you not see what’s happening here?” Susan snatched the phone out of Dharma’s hands. “Do you want McKenzie to get in trouble? And what about your therapist? He could lose his license over this little stunt.”

  “I don’t care.” Abbie paced as she spoke. “Something’s not right. We need to call the police.”

  “This isn’t a Jamie Lee Curtis movie,” Susan said. “Those Halloween masks of Gareth the Ghoul, the abandoned cigar factory, the over-the-top text messages, this is a prank. We’re being punk’d.”

  “It’s not a funny.” Abbie grasped her unicorn pendant. She tugged on it.

  “It’s still a prank.” Susan paused, as i
f letting her words sink in. “If we go back to the cigar factory, we’ll probably find McKenzie and Rocky there, laughing at us. I bet your therapist is there too.”

  “You really think so?” Abbie asked.

  “I don’t buy it,” Dharma said. “If this is a prank, they’re taking it too far.”

  “Exactly.” Susan pointed at Abbie for dramatic effect. “That’s why we don’t want to call the police. They’ve taken things too far and they’ll get in trouble now.”

  “But what about Dr. Wachowski?” Abbie tugged on her necklace till she felt like the clasp would snap on the back of her neck. She couldn’t help herself. “I just can’t see him doing this?”

  “Honestly, I’d change therapists,” Susan said. “I’m just saying.”

  “No. I can’t do this.” Abbie conceded to the hopelessness of the entire night. The party, which she didn’t even want in the first place, had turned into a disaster. She walked a couple of steps along the sidewalk before throwing her hands up and yelling. “I’m done. I’m going home.”

  Susan yelled behind her. Abbie stopped as Susan’s voice echoed down the empty street. “What would Buffy do?”

  “Excuse me?” Abbie looked back over her shoulder. McKenzie glared at her.

  “So you’re just going to let McKenzie and your stupid therapist win?” Susan asked. “What would Buffy Summers do? Would she save her friend or would she just go home?”

  Abbie shut her eyes. At the end of the second season, after Buffy had to kill Angel—the love of her life, her soul mate—she finally threw in the towel. She gave up and walked away. Left Sunnydale. But she came back. There were still five more seasons of fight left in her, plus all the comic books and TV tie-in novels.

  “Of course,” Abbie said under her breath. “What would Buffy do?”

  Abbie opened her eyes. Turning around, she headed back to the group. Susan smiled.

  “Exactly,” Susan said, putting an arm around Abbie’s shoulder. “Now let’s go back and show McKenzie that we can kick some vampire ass.”

  Chapter 24

  The girls crossed the street, headed back to the cigar factory. Lindsey lagged behind. “You really think there’s going to be vampires?”

  “Vampires aren’t real.” Lindsay motioned for her sister to catch up as Susan laughed.

  “You obviously haven’t met some of the men I’ve dated.” Susan stepped up onto the curb, moved faster down the block.

  It took them nearly ten minutes. When they arrived, Abbie sent a text.

  After a moment, she received a response.

  Abbie looked at Susan. “Dr. Wachowski is on the roof?”

  “More like McKenzie and Rocky,” Susan said. “They’re probably waiting to jump out and scare us half to death.”

  Abbie gulped. “Unless I fall to my death.”

  Susan took her hand. “I’m going with you.”

  “Really?”

  “I got you into this.” Susan stood up straight, put her hands on her hips. “This is just as much on me as it is McKenzie and everyone else.”

  “You don’t have to this,” Abbie said. “But I’d really appreciate it if you did.”

  “I’d go with you too,” Dharma said, her white blonde hair blowing in the wind. “But this isn’t like screaming outside a bar. This is messed up.”

  “That’s okay.” Susan winked at Dharma. “And when they jump out at us, I’m gonna knock their teeth down their throats.”

  Abbie looked back at the old stone factory. “I don’t think they’re in there.”

  Susan shook her head slowly toward Abbie and grinned, as if she knew something Abbie didn’t. Then, she turned back to Dharma and the twins. “Stay out here and at the first sign of trouble, call the police.”

  “How will we know if it’s trouble?” Lindsey looked at Susan then over at her sister.

  Lindsay nodded toward her, then back at Susan. “We’ll hear you scream?”

  Susan scratched her head, as if seriously thinking about it a moment, then smirked. “Yeah, if you hear me scream, it’s probably trouble. If you hear McKenzie scream, you’ll know I’m handling it.”

  Together, Abbie and Susan walked past the lonely guard shack and across the yard. They opened the metal doors and entered the dark factory. Abbie held up her phone and turned on the bright flash, using it as a flashlight. Abbie shined her light on Susan’s face to see how she was doing.

  Susan took out her phone. The screen lit up and she turned on her flash. It bathed the wall behind her in a stretch of white light, then darkened. She shook the phone. The flash returned. It brightened, lighting the warehouse.

  “Guess it’s working again,” Susan said, holding up her phone. They stepped cautiously past stacked boxes, many of them damp and mildewed, and empty wood pallets. Abbie trembled as they came to the small office. The grey Gareth the Ghoul masks lay inside.

  “Why would they leave those masks here?” Abbie swept the room with her phone light. Cockroaches scurried into the corners. “That’s not cool.”

  “Maybe they didn’t realize how it would affect you,” she said. “Do they know about your sister?”

  “McKenzie does, yeah.” Abbie’s beam of light followed the floor to a metal door. It was marked “STAIRS” in dull yellow block letters. “Everyone back in Pembroke Pines knows.”

  They headed for the stairwell and opened the heavy metal door. It squeaked loudly, and the girls stepped into the dark corridor. They shined their phone lights up the stairs. A rat sat on the third step, looked at them with red eyes, obscenely naked ears and a scaly tail as long as its body. It reared up on its hind legs.

  Susan screamed. The rat jumped from the step and scampered away in the shadows beneath the staircase.

  “It’s just a rat.” Abbie shined her light up the steps. “This building is probably infested with them.”

  “I hate rats.” Susan gulped a deep breath. “I hope we don’t see anymore.”

  Abbie shined her light as far up the staircase as she could. It looked like it raised-up five levels, at least. Taking the first step, Abbie started the climb upwards. Susan followed.

  “So what happened to her?” Susan footsteps echoed around them, through the stairwell. “Your sister, I mean.”

  Abbie gripped her unicorn pendant, remembering her sister. “We were attacked in our home. I was about five years old. Heather was twelve.”

  “And he killed her?”

  “Slit her throat with a box cutter.” Abbie let go of the pendant. She moved faster up the steps. “Heather protected me, gave me time for the police to get there.”

  “And the man that attacked you? He had a tattoo?”

  “On his right arm. It was Gareth the Ghoul. I saw it as he took my sister away.”

  “I’m really sorry.” Susan remained a step behind as they came to the first landing. She paused. Abbie listened for movement. McKenzie and Rocky could jump out at any point. But, she heard nothing.

  “Thank you,” Abbie finally said. “I really try not to think about, well, you know?”

  “I’m surprised you don’t have nightmares.”

  “I used to. Now nothing about it even feels real anymore. I mean it’s like I’m remembering something I watched on TV a long time ago.”

  They passed the third floor landing. Around every corner, Abbie prepared her nerves for a sudden jolt. She knew it was coming. It never did.

  They finally reached the top level. Abbie peered over the railing, down to the dark five levels below. A door marked “ROOF ACCESS” waited to be opened. They pushed it, found it unlocked. The girls stepped outside, onto a flat, concrete rooftop. A three foot wall outlined the perimeter. Behind them, the stairwell door slammed shut. Abbie jumped.

  The wind rushed, screamed. It blew Abbie’s hair wildly around her head. Susan’s shirt tail flapped as if she had wings.

  “Hello?” Susan called out. Her voice echoed. “Is there anyone out here?”

  No one answered. Abbie sent a tex
t message.

  Abbie looked around. They were alone. There really wasn’t anyplace for McKenzie and Rocky to hide. She wasn’t sure if she really expected them to be out here anyway. Honestly, she didn’t know what to expect.

  “So where are they?” Abbie asked. “If they’re going to jump out and laugh at us, then where are they?”

  “I don’t know.” Susan whistled, motioning toward the city lights on the horizon. She walked to the ledge, leaned against the perimeter wall. “What a view.”

  Abbie stepped beside her. Far off fields of light stretched ahead of them. Vivid down town high-rises lit the horizon. Glistening blue on the Causeway reflected in the bay. Stars spotted the dark above, a few of them moving.

  “Tampa International Airport is out that way,” Abbie said. After a moment, her phone chirped. A text message came through.

  Abbie read the message, then typed, “It’s too windy. I’ll fall.” Susan asked what was in the message. Abbie didn’t answer her. Before she could hit SEND, another text message came across.

  Abbie read the message then typed back.

  She waited for an answer, then typed.

  Again there was no answer. After a minute, she typed.

  Several long seconds passed before Abbie’s phone chirped. It was a video file of McKenzie. She was crying, pleading for her life. The video stopped.

  “I don’t think this is a joke,” Abbie said.

  “What’s going on?” Susan leaned against her. “What’s he texting you?”

  “He wants me to crawl out on the ledge and take a selfie.” She looked at the narrow brick ledge. The perimeter wall was barely a foot wide. It was a thin strip, with a very long drop down the side. The street was five stories below. Abbie’s phone chirped again with another text message.

  Her phone chirped, but Abbie didn’t open it. It went off again as she stepped to the short perimeter wall. The wind picked up. Her phone chirped. Abbie climbed atop the narrow ledge.