by Scare Street
Tim laughed, one hand reaching out to smack Jena on the shoulder, “Damn, Jena. You look as scared as Meg.”
“Shut up,” Jena hissed.
“Hey, Meg, maybe you should call it,” Tim continued with more bravado.
Meg’s hand snapped out, slapping on the tap until the stream gushed and bubbled down the drain.
Blake huffed. “Don’t listen to him, babe. He’s just trying to freak you out.”
“How close is she now, Meg?” Tim spoke over the top of his friend. “Can you feel her breath on your neck yet?”
Blake continued to protest, alternating between cursing Tim out and showering Meg with praise. All the while, the puddles crossed the room, closing in on Meg’s back.
Her whole body was trembling.
“How far off is she?” Blake asked.
“She’s near you,” Meg whimpered.
Blake instantly yanked his feet back, causing Tim to break into a booming, mocking laughter.
“It’s not even your turn, man,” Tim said between laughing fits. “Are you really that afraid of a dead girl?”
Blake’s eyes narrowed while watching triumph spread across Tim’s face.
“Oh, come on, Meg,” Blake said, his voice taking on a sharpened edge. “You can do better than that.”
“Don’t push her,” Tim said. “Cut the cord whenever you feel like it, Meg. There’s no shame in it.”
Random puddles of water began to form a few feet behind Meg’s back. She cupped her trembling hands under the tap, staring at the mirror as the water sloshed between her fingers, mouth hanging open in a silent scream while watching it close in.
“You got this!” Blake bellowed.
“Don’t be a hero,” Tim chuckled.
Jena took a step closer to her friend, her sneakers stirring a stray puddle. All at once, Meg burst into motion. With an ear-splitting shriek, she squeezed her eyes shut and threw her cupped hands out. The gathered water splashed across the mirror. She didn’t stop until the entire medicine cabinet door was drenched. The polished surface rippled. Only then did she turn off the tap.
In the resulting silence, every stray drip sounded like a pounding drum.
“Oh, you chicken!” Tim boomed.
Warmth and life flooded back into the room. Tim continued to laugh, bouncing around the room and declaring his unquestionable victory. All of the tension that had tied up Jena’s insides for the past few weeks left her on a heavy sigh. She slumped back against the wall, endured Tim’s victory dance, and watched Meg carefully. She had sagged forward, her grip on the sink rim keeping her from crumpling to the ground entirely. Blake flipped his gloating friend off while slipping closer to Meg’s side.
“You good, babe,” he whispered while rubbing her back. “Tim’s just being an ass.”
Meg limply thumped Blake in the chest. Whatever residual anger she had didn’t last for long, and she was soon curling up against him, snuggling close for comfort.
“I’m not doing that again,” Jena vowed.
“What? It was fun. Who else can say they played tag with a ghost?” Tim threw his arms wide as if he was waiting for applause. “Come on! You guys can’t deny that you had fun.”
With Meg sobbing against Blake’s chest, neither of them were paying much attention to Tim. So he turned his full focus onto Jena and flung his arms out again.
“Yeah,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “You’re the king.”
Her shoulders tensed when she saw Tim flinch. He muttered under his breath, shifting his weight from one foot to the next, his brow furrowing in confusion.
“These puddles are everywhere,” he grumbled. “The polite thing for her to do would be to take them with her.”
His spine went ramrod straight.
“Tim?” Jena asked.
Eyes stretched wide, he spun around to look over his shoulder. A broken scream shattered the calm of the room. The noise erupting from him muted and morphed into a series of choked gags. His body convulsed. Water bubbled up from his mouth. A small trickle that soon began to froth and surge. Like the ocean itself was trying to pour free from his body. His face turned blue then purple as he fought against the water for a breath. The floor became drenched.
“Tim?” Meg babbled and screamed at random. “Tim! Oh my God. What’s happening?”
The friends all looked to each other, just waiting for someone to declare it a hoax. Jena tried to rush forward, but the slick water caught her feet and sent her toppling into the wall. A dark shadow streaked across the putrid water, a reflection barely there before it was gone. Still, Jena knew what she had seen. A woman, still amongst the chaos, watching them from her perch upon Tim’s back.
With one last, bone-crushing thrash of his body, Tim flopped against the floor. Frothed water still trickled past his blue lips, adding to the dark shimmering pool that coated the tiles. His eyes were left open, staring at nothing. Shock kept the room silent. leaving only the soft trickling of water flowing down the drain to root the three remaining friends to reality. Jena righted herself against the wall but still rested heavily upon it. Cool, thick water lapped at her feet.
“This has to be a joke, right?” Meg asked.
“Tim, this isn’t funny,” Blake staggered.
The way Tim had fallen left only Jena with a clear view of his face. “He’s not joking.”
A ripple ran through the inky water. The distortion offered glimpses of a fifth body. Another person present and still clinging to Tim’s back. Both girls jolted back in surprise when Blake suddenly bolted for the bathroom door. He slipped over the slick surface, clutching at the doorframe to keep upright, and continued scrambling over his friend’s corpse.
“It’s there! It’s there!” he roared, one hand pointing wildly across the room.
Jena looked but could only see the tiled wall behind the bathtub. Quickly, she checked the mirror-like pool. Blake’s movements had stirred the water and the image was gone.
“The ghost is right there!” he bellowed, tripping over himself as he hurried down the hallway.
The moment he was out of sight, it was like something clicked for the girls. The shock that had held them frozen fell away, and they charged for their only exit. Their shoulders clashed against the doorframe as they forced their way out, and they continued to bounce off of the walls and each other during the mad sprint down the hallway. They stampeded after the fleeing boy, following him out of the small apartment, leaving the door gaping open behind them as they rushed along the narrow open-air balcony.
A twisting flight of stairs was the only way down from the converted two-story walkup. The old metal wobbled and groaned on rusted hinges as they raced down it. Converted from an old drive-up motel, nothing separated the bottom of the stairs from the open parking lot. Strategically placed lights kept the worst of the shadows away from the front of the building. The late hour kept people from witnessing or interfering. But it also meant that the parking lot was full. Jena and Meg kept a tight grip on each other as they slipped between two of the cars, each one sure that something would come crawling out of the clustered shadows to take them. Blake was already in the driver’s seat of his beat-up sedan by the time the girls caught up with him. Meg wrenched at the door handle frantically. It didn’t move.
“Blake!” Meg continued to pull uselessly on the handle as she smacked the palm of her other hand against the window. “It’s locked! Unlock the door!”
Blake didn’t look to her. Instead, his eyes scanned the lit walkway that ran the length of the building, lingering on the twisting staircase.
“Blake!” Meg screamed, her movements growing wild. She kept looking over her shoulder, following her boyfriend’s gaze, but there wasn’t anything for her to see.
“Is she here? Do you see her? Let me in!”
Each second of hesitation pressed down upon Jena until she was banging against the back window, her frenzied cries joining with her friend’s. She couldn’t stop looking back at the empty parki
ng lot, and the blazing halo of light that drenched the gaping wound the front entrance left in the night-shrouded building. Not even a breath of wind stirred, but she could feel something staring at her. Creeping closer.
“Blake!”
A sudden burst of movement caught Jena more by surprise than the outburst. Meg ripped her door open, leaping in and almost slamming it closed on her legs. The engine roared to life, rumbling the body and making it tremble beneath Jena’s hands. The closed doors and engine noise combined to make it impossible to hear what the two were saying to each other. For a staggered heartbeat, Jena was sure Blake was going to leave her there.
Meg was squirming awkwardly in her seat, ignoring Blake’s snapped words as she snaked her hand between the side of the seat and the car wall. Jena glanced back. Her blood ran cold to see the thrashing figure. A woman, barely older than they were, matted hair covering her face. Water oozed out of putrid blue skin. Her steps were uneven, a series of sharp pulls as if she wasn’t in complete control of her body. And left behind a trail of black water.
“Oh, God,” Jena gasped, rapidly smacking the door in an attempt to make her friend hurry.
It’s not my turn! Meg’s scream echoed her own panic. The car lurched back a few feet, barely missing Jena’s toes before jerking to a halt. Meg unlatched the door and pushed at it from the inside as Jena scrambled closer. The woman followed, lumbering back and forth, looking at nothing else but them.
“Get in the God damn car!” Blake howled as Jena fumbled with the door.
The moment she was inside, he stomped on the gas, lurching them forward. The tires squealed against the pavement, and the front bumper almost collided with the rows of mailboxes. With one last violent yank on the wheel, the car burst out into traffic. Jena was tossed across the back seat as the air filled with blaring horns and the sharp squeal of tires.
“You were going to leave us!” Meg screamed, bracing herself against the dashboard as the car lurched from side to side. “You bastard! How could you do that?!”
“I didn’t do anything,” Blake snapped.
High beams drenched the inside of the car, blinding Jena as she finally managed to get upright. The oncoming car swerved as they did. Sparks flew from the side of Blake’s car as they scraped along a lamppost.
Blake cursed through his teeth. “You’re in the car, aren’t you?”
“You thought about it!”
“Thinking about it isn’t doing it! You’d know that if you’d ever had a thought!”
“Really, Blake? You’re calling me stupid now?” Meg shrieked. “At least I’ve never left someone for dead.”
“You’re in the bloody car!”
“Red light! Red light!” Jena thrust a hand between the two front seats to the stop light that neither of the others seemed to notice.
The sharp turn smacked her against the window. Another array of horns had them stabilizing once more.
“Are you trying to get us killed?” Meg screamed.
Blake glared at her. “I just saw my best friend die.”
“We all saw him die! You’re not special!”
“Yeah, well, it’s after me now, isn’t it?”
Meg’s arm flew about the limited space. “I saw her, too! So did Jena! How can we see her if it’s not our turn?”
“That’s how it works. Everyone gets one go. The bitch has reset it.”
“Then why can we see her, Blake? Why can we see her?”
“I don’t know!”
“Pull over,” Jena said. Before they could argue, she added, “If we end up in the emergency room, we’re not going to be in any condition to run.”
“Yeah,” Blake chuckled maniacally. “Yeah. Sure. Where do you suggest?”
“Somewhere out in the open. Where we can see anyone coming up.”
“With people,” Meg added. “Somewhere with a lot of people. And bright lights.”
“Right.” Blake didn’t let up on the gas as he thought. “The cinema! There’d still be a few late showings. We can stay in the parking lot.”
All three of them had been so focused on having some kind of plan, any kind of plan, that they didn’t know what to do now that they had it. They settled back in their seats, holding their stunned silence as the car slowed and weaved around the thinning traffic. Their cheap apartment building was set on a major road and, once they left that behind, the nightlight quickly dwindled. Before long, the mall’s orange neon sign loomed over them. Blake took them up to the roof parking. A few random cars were speckled around the area. Dozens of lamps kept away the shadows, and a pair of electronic doors opened up to the warm and welcoming glow of the cinema. A few people moved about, barely paying them any attention as Blake pulled numbly into a parking spot.
He let the car idle for a moment before he turned it off. Then they sat in numb silence, each one staring blankly before them, none daring to break the silence. A group of kids hurried past. They cackled with laughter, randomly nudging each other. One particular shoulder slam sent a wiry boy into Jena’s window. She jumped. The pure terror in the passenger’s eyes caught the boy off guard. He mumbled repeated apologies, sheepishly skulking back to his friends who were laughing at him.
“She killed Tim,” Blake said at last.
“I know.”
Jena was sure that Meg had only answered her boyfriend because of a desperate need to keep the returning silence at bay.
“I’m sorry, baby,” Meg continued.
“That bitch killed him!”
Blake’s outburst made the girls jump. He slammed his fits against his steering wheel, flailing wildly and hitting the horn more times than he did the dashboard.
“It’ll be okay,” Meg said.
He whirled onto her. “That’s easy for you to say when you’re not next.”
“I saw her, too, Blake,” she protested. “It’s just as likely that she’s coming after me. Or Jena. It’s not just you!”
“Oh, so suddenly you know how this ghost thinks? I didn’t know you were a medium.”
“You hypocrite.”
“Guys,” Jena cut in. “Why don’t we discuss what we actually do know instead of spouting off what the other one doesn’t? We might actually be able to come up with a plan.”
“Fine,” Meg said.
She opened her mouth to continue but Blake interrupted.
“Nah, I’m not ready to hear your voice. Let Jena go first.”
Meg’s mouth scrunched up and her eyes burned with rage. “Fine.”
They both twisted in their seats to fix Jena with equally demanding stares. The fear within them took her breath away.
“Tim asked me to play the game. He said that it’s an old legend in his family.”
Blake snorted. “He got it off the internet.”
“He’s always such a liar.” Meg caught herself. “He was.”
“He told me that the ghost just follows you. That the game is to try and stay out of her grasp until you’re tagged out of the game,” Jena continued. “There was never any mention that it would go around again.”
“He didn’t tell me that, either,” Meg said.
It struck Jena then like a blow to the side of her head. “Did Tim tell either of you how to finish this?”
“It’s finished after everyone’s had a go,” Meg said.
Blake scoffed. “Obviously not.”
“I’m just saying that that’s what Tim told me,” Meg snapped back.
After an instant’s hesitation, the girls could see it dawn upon him. The color drained from his face as his jaw hung loose.
“Tim never mentioned it,” he mumbled.
“So, she just gets to keep going until she kills us all?” Meg shrieked. “That was never part of the deal. I didn’t sign up for that!”
“None of us did,” Blake snarled.
“Well, yelling at me isn’t going to make it better.”
“I’m yelling because you’re yelling.”
“Guys,” Jena broke in agai
n, trying to disrupt the flow before they became too entrenched in their argument. “We all saw her. The pattern might be thrown off now. It could be a free-for-all. We’re all in the line of fire.”
“Great, then you won’t mind me passing it on. Since it won’t matter at all.”
The anger leeched from Meg’s face, replaced with horror. “You mean pass it onto Jena?”
“You’d rather this ghost bitch come after me?”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Meg said, hovering somewhere between enraged and offended. “All you’re going to be doing is prolonging the cycle. Is that what you want? We need to find a way to end this completely.”
“And how do we do that?” he challenged.
“Tim found it on the internet. We’ll just have to find the same story he did.”
“Yeah, that should be easy.”
“But worth a shot,” Jena said. “Between the three of us, we should know all of his favorite sites.”
“You think you know his entire search history?” Blake snapped.
“That’s it, baby, you’re so smart.” Meg grasped his forearm with both hands. “We just have to check his search history. We’ll get his laptop from his apartment and look while we keep driving around.”
After taking a long breath, Blake took his girlfriend’s hand and squeezed it. “Okay. We’ll get right into it the second we move her onto Jena.”
“But—”
He cut her off. “Jena’s a big girl. She can take it. Besides, it will buy us more time. It’s not like Jena let her get that close.”
“Actually, I beat you,” Jena said. “I’ve got half an inch of leeway at most.”
“Yeah, you’d say that. I bet you have plenty of space.”
“You do, too, now,” Jena shot back. “She’s back at your apartment. You know how long she takes to get anywhere.”
“She’s also supposed to start on the horizon. The bitch is breaking all the rules.”
Jena balled her fist to keep from hitting something and continued saying, “Which means she could be coming after us as much as you.”
“Then where’s the harm of moving her on to you?” Blake challenged.
“Stop it, both of you!” Meg cut in. “This isn’t going to help. So this is what we’re going to do—”