Ready for a Scare?

by P. J. Night

  They nodded.

  She eyed them suspiciously. The clanking of the heater had stopped, and a slight chill settled over her room. She pushed the bowl of uneaten melted green ice cream to the side of her desk.

  “No joke. We heard it. Really.” Spencer gazed unflinchingly.

  After all these years, she knew Spencer could never meet her eye if he was lying. But just because he believes he heard something doesn’t mean he really did, she assured herself. She was afraid to let her mind go down the other path.

  “I know it doesn’t make sense,” Gavin said. “But something is going on.”

  “What kind of something?” she challenged.

  “Something supernatural,” he said calmly.

  Kelly tried to laugh, but the croak that came out sounded more as if she were choking. Her throat felt unnaturally dry again.

  “I think we did it,” Gavin said. “I think, somehow, we brought back the spirit of that dead girl.” His eyes gleamed with excitement, although his face remained grim.

  Kelly stared at both boys. Spencer looked uncomfortable. He fidgeted in his chair. He gazed around his room. But Gavin looked, well, almost energized. His wiry body fidgeted expectantly. She wasn’t sure what to make of this, especially since she barely knew him.

  “Do you think we did, Kelly?” Spencer asked. “Do you feel anything weird?”

  She rubbed her icy fingers together, then tried to warm them with her breath. The whole night had been weird. Paige and June were missing. Chrissie was completely off-kilter. And she had felt a strange sensation after they had chanted. Electric. Dizzy. She didn’t know what.

  But she wasn’t going to admit it.

  “No.” She picked up her cell and dialed Paige. Nonstop ringing. June’s number went right to voice mail. She didn’t bother to leave another message, although she really wanted to scream at her friend. Where was she? Why were she and Paige doing this?

  “So?” Spencer asked.

  “So nothing,” she replied. She tried to control her frustration.

  “They’re not answering my texts.” Spencer held his phone up to the camera as if her seeing his phone would make her realize how odd it all was.

  “Mine either.” She sat quietly for a minute. The air around her had grown frigid. She could faintly see her breath as she exhaled. The upstairs heater must have died, she realized. She hoped the downstairs one was still working. It was going to be a long, uncomfortable night if they didn’t have heat.

  “I’m going to call Paige’s house phone,” she told them. She almost never called Paige at home anymore. Paige always had her cell by her side. She dialed and listened as the Coxes’ phone rang and rang. Where were Paige’s parents? They wouldn’t be out on a night like this. On the tenth ring, she hung up.

  Rummaging about on her desk, she uncovered the slim school directory under a pile of notebooks. An absurd-looking moose wearing a sports jersey graced the cover. She’d never understood why they had to have the stupidest mascot ever. She flipped to the Cs to check the number. It was silly, really. She’d known Paige since she was born. She didn’t have the wrong number. She knew that. But still.

  She dialed again, pressing each number deliberately. Ringing and ringing. No answer. “No one’s there,” she reported.

  “Isn’t Paige’s sister babysitting you?” Gavin asked. “Maybe she knows where Paige went.”

  Spencer perked up. “Yeah, Kel. You should go ask her.”

  Kelly sighed. “I don’t know if that’s the best idea right now.”

  “Why?” Spencer asked.

  She told them about how Chrissie had lied about being outside. She explained how disturbed and disconnected she seemed.

  “She’s possessed,” Gavin said matter-of-factly.

  “Oh, please,” she scoffed.

  “Think about it,” he challenged. “Think about when her behavior changed.”

  It was true. Chrissie had started acting odd after the chanting. After the smell of peppermint.

  Gavin’s dark-brown eyes burned through the screen at her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable. “We did something,” he said.

  She stood and turned her back on the boys. She needed a moment to think. To try to make sense of it all.

  She walked to her bed and grabbed the wool blanket folded at the end. An Authentic Vermont Blanket, of course. She wrapped the thick, bright-green blanket around her for warmth. Moving about her room, she came up with plenty of places her friends could have gone. She just couldn’t come up with a lot of reasons why they hadn’t returned her texts or answered their phones.

  Pulling back her shade, she gazed at the falling snow. Frost inched up the windowpane. It was going to be a big storm, she realized. Her mother had been right. She hoped her parents were okay. She hadn’t heard from them in a couple of hours.

  She crossed her room and flicked on her light. The glow brightened the room and her mood. Her friends’ disappearances suddenly seemed less scary. There is an explanation, she told herself. I just have to figure it out.

  She glanced back at her monitor. Only Spencer’s face was visible in the frame. Gavin didn’t seem to be around. Spencer waved his hand, beckoning to her urgently.

  She hurried back to her desk.

  “I need to talk to you,” he whispered. His eyes darted about anxiously. “Turn off your microphone. Use the keyboard.”

  She gave him a questioning look but followed his instructions.

  Kookykell2011: WHAT’S WRONG?

  SpenceX77: IT’S GAVIN.

  Kookykell2011: ??? WHERE IS HE?

  SpenceX77: WENT TO GET A DRINK. DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME. I’M REALLY FREAKED OUT.

  Kookykell2011: ABOUT MISS MARY?

  SpenceX77: WELL, YEAH, BUT ABOUT GAVIN, TOO.

  Kookykell2011: WHY?

  SpenceX77: IDK. IT’S A VIBE. HE’S ACTING REALLY STRANGE.

  Kookykell2011: STRANGE HOW?

  SpenceX77: NERVOUS. TWITCHY.

  Kookykell2011: MAYBE THAT’S WHAT HE’S LIKE.

  SpenceX77: THAT’S NOT IT. STARTED WITH THE MISS MARY THING. BEEN WEIRD SINCE. KEEPS MUMBLING STUFF UNDER HIS BREATH. TO HIMSELF, BUT I CAN HEAR. IT’S SCARING ME.

  Kookykell2011: WHAT’S HE SAYING?

  SpenceX77: STUFF THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. COLDNESS IS COMING AND YOU CAN’T BE HERE.

  Kookykell2011: WHO CAN’T?

  SpenceX77: IDK. HE DOESN’T SEEM IN CONTROL. IT’S AS IF HE CAN’T HELP SAYING THIS STUFF OR HE DOESN’T KNOW HE’S MUTTERING IT OR—

  Kookykell2011: WAIT. IT’S LIKE—

  Kelly stopped typing. She tried to swallow but couldn’t. Her lungs felt as if they were being squeezed. She recalled the strange things that Chrissie had muttered just a few minutes ago. She hadn’t told Gavin and Spencer what Chrissie had said. So why was Gavin saying the same sort of things?

  She sucked in air, trying to inflate her lungs. To breathe normally again. In and out.

  Kookykell2011: R U SURE?

  SpenceX77: YES!!!

  Kookykell2011: MAYBE HE’S PLAYING YOU. . . .

  She kept coming back to her know-all-the-facts nature. She didn’t buy into fortune-tellers and horoscopes and the other mystical things some of her friends believed. She liked science and reasoning. Everything for her always had a factual explanation. That was why she liked scaring her friends so much. All that supernatural stuff was fake, and she knew it.

  Tonight was the first time she was having trouble making sense of things.

  SpenceX77: MAYBE. I BARELY KNOW THE GUY. I DON’T WANT HIM HERE ANYMORE. SOMETHING ABOUT HIM IS WAY OFF. I DON’T TRUST HIM.

  Kookykell2011: I AGREE. BEEN FEELING THAT WAY ALL NIGHT.

  SpenceX77: WHAT DO I DO?

  She wasn’t sure. Maybe Spencer could fake sickness and ask Gavin to go home. She wished June would show herself. She was the best at these kinds of schemes. She’d create a believable story of why Gavin had to leave.

  Kelly glanced at Spencer’s webcam fr
ame to judge how worried he was. She froze.

  A dark shadow loomed behind her friend.

  Spencer had no idea. His eyes stayed focused on his keyboard. He was typing. She stared in horror as the figure glided closer. She wanted to scream but could only watch in mute terror as it reached out its arms and slowly brought them down . . . down . . . toward Spencer’s neck.

  She had to warn him. She had barely seconds before . . . Her fingers flew across the keyboard.

  Kookykell2011: WATCH OUT!

  She was too late. The attacker wrapped both hands around Spencer’s bare neck. His fingers squeezed . . . squeezed . . . squeezed the air from Spencer’s throat.

  “Noooo! Stop!” she cried. Then she remembered their microphones were off. Spencer couldn’t hear her. She grabbed her computer with both hands and shook it hard, as if she could somehow stop the horror with the force of her fear. She couldn’t just sit here and watch her friend suffocate!

  She wanted to cover her face, but she was afraid to let poor Spencer out of her sight. She stared in total helplessness as he weakened, growing limp.

  Suddenly Spencer’s eyes bulged. He twisted his body with a burst of renewed strength, jerking it left and right. The attacker’s grip loosened, and he leaned toward Spencer.

  Kelly narrowed her eyes and gripped her desk to steady herself. She stared at the face of Spencer’s attacker. It was a face she recognized.

  CHAPTER 10

  Spencer jumped up and pushed his attacker back. Then he spun to face him.

  Gavin.

  Gavin’s sinewy face broke into a huge grin. He laughed. “Oh, man. I totally scared you. Score!” He pumped his fist in victory.

  “That was so not funny!” Spencer spat.

  “It was just a joke.”

  Spencer’s cheeks reddened slightly, but he forced a strained smile. “Y-yeah, you got me.”

  Gavin ran his hand through his spiky hair. “Who did you think it was, dude?”

  Spencer shrugged. Kelly could sense him shrinking back as if he was putting up an invisible wall. It felt peculiar to sit across the street and watch the scene play out. Almost like watching a scary movie and not being able to help the victim.

  “You are such a wimp,” Gavin said. He gave Spencer a shove. Then another.

  Kelly winced. She knew guys shoved all the time. Yet with Gavin, she wondered if there wasn’t more to it. True, Spencer was way bigger than Gavin, but he was the kind of mellow kid who set ants free instead of squishing them. Gavin, though, had a barely contained aggression that pulsed right below the surface of his skin. She watched, still helpless, as Spencer backed himself up to the desk. She wasn’t sure what he was doing. Was Gavin advancing on him?

  For a moment, her screen was filled only by the heathered gray fabric of Spencer’s T-shirt.

  “Spencer!” she screamed. Was Gavin hurting him? Had he pushed him against the desk and hit him?

  Then she heard a blip. SPENCEX77 IS OFFLINE appeared on her chat screen. His face slid into view, unharmed. She sighed, realizing that he’d blocked his screen so he could exit out of their conversation before Gavin saw it. She exited too and turned her microphone on. She was glad he hadn’t heard her scream.

  “Kelly? You there?” Spencer asked from the bottom frame. Gavin stood alongside him. The frames on her screen where June and Paige should have been continued to pulse red. Danger. The word suddenly popped into her head. Red is the color of danger.

  “Yeah, I’m—” Her screen suddenly went blank.

  Wrapping the wool blanket tighter around her, she pressed enter. The webcam sleepover didn’t come back.

  Her computer was still on. So were her lights. They hadn’t lost power, she realized. She gazed at the screen. CONNECTION IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE. Her Internet service was down.

  The wind slammed against the house, rattling the trees. The frozen branches clawed angrily at the siding. She fiddled with her modem, hoping she could bring up the connection. The storm might have shut it down for the night.

  She watched the Internet icon at the bottom of the screen. It blinked, trying to connect.

  Internet down, she texted to Spencer. U OK?

  MINE DOWN 2, he replied quickly. But he didn’t answer her question.

  She waited, watching the blinking icon search for a signal, desperately wondering what was going on across the street. The scene kept replaying in her mind. She knew what she’d seen. It hadn’t been a joke—no matter what Gavin said or how much he laughed. Gavin really seemed as if he was going to strangle Spencer. The glare in his eyes wasn’t the look of someone joking. It was dangerous. Unhinged. If Spencer hadn’t fought back and turned around when he did . . . She shuddered to think about it.

  After what felt like an eternity, although it was really only a few minutes, the Internet icon flashed green. She was back online. She signed in to the webcam conference. Biting her lip, she wondered what she would find. Would Spencer be okay? Would June and Paige be back?

  A single frame popped onto her screen.

  The camera focused in on Spencer and Gavin sitting side by side. Spencer’s posture seemed much more relaxed. Gavin leaned back casually in his chair. Everything appeared okay between them. They seemed like buddies again.

  Her eyes roamed her screen. The frames where June and Paige had been—the frames that had turned bright red—were no longer there. She tried to dial into their computers. The connection failed repeatedly. No one was at the other end to link into the videoconference site.

  “Can you guys see June and Paige’s frames?” she asked. The panic began brewing again in her stomach. The red frames were disturbing, but at least they had been something. A lifeline of some sort. Without them, she felt very far away from her friends.

  Spencer shook his head. “They disappeared. Can you see them?”

  “Nope.” She glanced at her cell phone. No texts. No messages. “I think we need to do something.”

  “There’s nothing to do,” Gavin replied.

  “That’s so wrong!” she cried. She’d had enough of him. Her fear and frustration bubbled up, congealing into anger toward him. “You barely even know us! And you have no idea where my friends are. I’m going to find them, and you can’t stop me!”

  Gavin threw up his arms in mock surrender.

  “Calm down, Kel,” Spencer said. “You’re right. We need to do something. But this webcam thing isn’t working.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Something is wrong. We need to figure this out together. Gavin and I will come over there. We’ll all sit down—Chrissie, too—and make a plan.”

  “Good idea,” she agreed. She wasn’t thrilled about Gavin coming too, but decided not let that get to her. She wanted company. “Hurry, okay?”

  Spencer nodded. “Be over in a sec.” He logged off.

  She left her chair and flopped onto her bed. The chill had completely invaded her room, making her long to snuggle under her plaid comforter. She resisted. Spencer and Gavin would be here in a moment. She waited.

  And waited.

  She rolled over, watching the clock on her bedside table. Ten minutes had passed since Spencer had logged off. She wondered what was taking so long. She pulled her sleeping bag off the floor and draped it over herself. Staring at her ceiling, she let five more minutes pass. Then she sat upright.

  Spencer had been running across the street to her house since they were in kindergarten. It took two minutes, at most.

  She flipped open her phone. WHERE R U??? she texted.

  She waited. No reply. No ringing doorbell. Nothing.

  Maybe he’s waiting at the door, she thought. Maybe the doorbell is busted. She leaped off her bed. How horrible of her to leave them outside in the brewing storm. She raced out of her room and down the hall. At the top of the stairs, she stopped.

  The smell.

  The bracing scent hung thickly in the air. She stood startled, as if slapped in the face. Every nerve tingled as she inhaled.


  Peppermint. Again.

  No one was in the hallway. The stairs were empty. She couldn’t explain where the mysterious odor was coming from. Suddenly, more than ever, it felt urgent that Spencer be at the door. She needed him to smell the smell. To tell her she wasn’t going crazy. To explain everything.

  She hurried down the steps.

  The temperature change was obvious as she reached the foyer. The heat was still on down here. The murmur of the TV reached her ears from the family room. She could still smell the peppermint, although perhaps more faintly than before.

  Twisting the lock on the front door, she reached for the brass handle. She pulled hard. An enormous gust of frigid air swept through the house as she opened the door onto the storm. Her hair flew about her face, and she leaned into the wind.

  The front step was empty.

  No Spencer or Gavin.

  The outside lights on either side of the door cast a faint glow on the inky darkness of the night. Snow swirled about—the fat flakes carried in circles by the incredible wind.

  She peered down the deserted walkway. It was covered by an untouched layer of fresh whiteness. No boot prints. They hadn’t tried to come up to the door.

  Still inside the house, she tried to see across the desolate street. The neighborhood was quiet, except for the howls of the wind. Everyone was inside, protected from the oncoming storm. She stared at the outline of Spencer’s house. A shiver ran along the base of her neck.

  The house was dark. Completely dark.

  Twisting her head, she tried for a different angle. Her eyes teared from the icy gusts. But no matter how hard she squinted, the Stones’ house continued to blend in with the blackness of the sky. No lights were on. No lights inside. No lights outside.

  It was as if no one was home.

  As if no one had ever been there.

  The house was totally abandoned.

  CHAPTER 11

  Kelly slowly shut the front door. She stood motionless on the woven mat, trying to piece together the puzzle.

  Spencer and Gavin had been in their house a few minutes ago. She was sure of it. And Spencer’s little brother Charlie had been home too. And Spencer’s mom. They wouldn’t all leave suddenly in the night, would they?