October Girls: Crystal & Bone

by L C Glazebrook

  “Ouija board,” Dempsey ordered.

  The conjuring board lay flat on Cindy’s bed, amid blankets rumpled just enough to suggest the two teens had been making out. Pettigrew and Cindy sat together, and Cindy put her ring-littered fingers over the planchette. The letters of the alphabet were listed in two rows across the middle of the board, with a “Yes” in the upper right corner and “No” in the upper left.

  “Ask it something,” Dempsey said, peering through the camera’s viewfinder.

  Pettigrew leaned until his pale-green face was inches from the board. “Anybody there?”

  “Cut,” Dempsey yelled, resting the camera on his hip. “Point to the letters with the planchette. Like in the script.”

  “Like this,” Cindy said. She guided both her and Pettigrew’s hands to the letter A.

  “Yeah, except do the R first,” Dempsey said, aiming the camera again and zooming into the letters of the board. “Okay, Snake, roll sound.”

  Snake was operating the boom, a long pole that had a microphone on the end, one of his many duties as one-man crew. The microphone was encased in a cylinder that resembled a swollen gray bratwurst. He dipped the pole so that the bratwurst dangled just out of the frame, headphones clamped around his greasy head.

  Dempsey filmed while the planchette slid toward the R, then the O. Apparently Cindy had remembered the script.

  And remembered the name of the game, which is Royce.

  “Snake, cue the fog,” he ordered.

  Snake, who’d been watching the scene as if it were a movie, apparently had forgotten he was the entire crew. Dempsey stomped his foot, which caused the camera to wiggle, and Snake leapt to action, triggering the dry ice machine and billowing a low fog around the doorway.

  According to the script, Royce would walk in the room as if magically summoned by the board.

  “It’s moving on its own,” Pettigrew said.

  “You can’t say that,” Cindy said. “It’s not in the script.”

  “Serious.”

  “Just point it to the Y,” Dempsey said, as Snake hissed out another roiling tuft of fake fog. “If I have to yell ‘Cut’ one more time, I’m going to do it with a machete.”

  The planchette skated over the letter Y and pointed to the “No” in the corner above it.

  “Did you do that?” Cindy asked Pettigrew.

  The planchette scooted back and settled once again with its tip nudging the “No.”

  “I’ll take that as a ‘no,’” Cindy said.

  “Come on,” Dempsey said. “Move it to the Y and let’s get on with it. We’ve got the big crowd scene coming up.”

  Pettigrew took his hands from the rolling pointer. When he pouted, the fake stitches in his face smeared a little. “I didn’t move it. Something was pushing my hand.”

  Cindy let go of the planchette as well. When she did, it scooted to the “No,” and as she squealed and scooted off the bed in fright, the planchette skittered over the cardboard like a bug, nudging out the letters R-O-Y-C-E.

  Dempsey had it all on film, from the Frankenstein Monster’s vacant dismay to Cindy Slut-Goth’s naked panic.

  Royce stepped into the room, his white T-shirt straining over his pecs, blue jeans tight enough to cut off the oxygen to his shins. “Somebody call?”

  Dempsey seethed inside. Royce was supposed to say, “I am the messenger of darkness,” just the way Dempsey had written it. But he was more concerned about the mysterious, misbehaving planchette. He sensed the agent’s hand on the course of events, an executive producer who wanted to be in the loop.

  As he lifted the camera to film Royce’s reaction, it jerked in his hands. Thinking Snake had inadvertently bumped him, he grumbled in disgust and framed the shot again. “Take two,” he yelled.

  But Royce continued his slow strut through the fog, heading for the side of bed where Cindy was cowering. “Hey, sweetheart, good to see you.”

  “R-Royce,” she said, in a giddy tone.

  “Royce,” Pettigrew said, in a vacant tone.

  “Royce,” Dempsey said, in a scolding tone.

  “That’s me,” Royce said, clearly reveling in the attention.

  “Pettigrew,” someone said from the door. Dempsey sighed and rested the camera on his shoulder.

  It was the chick from the video store, the one who dug French. Her hair was unkempt and her eyes scrunched to angry slits. She was in witch’s costume, complete with crooked pointy hat, black skirt, and a huge purple wart on one cheek.

  What was her name? Kristy? Bristol? And has nobody ever heard the phrase “Quiet on the set”?

  He had to get The Halloweening in the can tonight. The agent might pull the plug and Dempsey would be left hustling 60-second spots on YouTube or building iPhone apps, waiting for lightning to strike a second time. Trouble was, he’d already bartered his only soul, and he didn’t expect a sequel was in the cards.

  “She’s not in this scene, is she?” Snake asked.

  “I am now,” the witch answered.

  “Crystal?” Pettigrew said, stirring from his Royce-induced daze.

  “You didn’t kiss her, did you?” Crystal said.

  “Who?”

  Crystal pointed at Cindy, who was hugging the grinning Royce. “Her.”

  “No, we were just in bed together—”

  “In bed together?”

  “It’s not like it sounds,” he said.

  “It never is,” Crystal said. “You’re a …you’re a—monster.”

  “Be cool, Crystal baby,” Royce said. “I won’t tell him I was in your trailer the other night.”

  Cindy gave Royce a shove on the shoulder, face pinched in jealousy. “You were with her? How could you?”

  “Easy breezy, chicky wicky.” Royce smiled as if life was an unreality show and he was the Simon Cowell of the bunch.

  Dempsey gave up any hope of getting the scene under control, so he starting filming the scene. If the movie deal fell through, maybe he could come back with a romantic comedy.

  Double love triangles with a twist—one of the guys is dead!

  As he zoomed out so that the two couples were captured in a wide view, he noticed the glistening mist on the wall, as if the fake fog were made of real water and had left dewy drops on the surface of the Sheetrock. The drops rapidly congealed into festering pustules of orange and dark red.

  “Whoa, cool effect,” Snake said. “Looks like pizza barf.”

  Dempsey stomped his foot. The agent had already jumped the shark on the script, and now it appeared he was taking over the set design, too.

  Dempsey knew where this was heading. His original vision would be tossed in the garbage can, the agent would pull a Hitler on the project, and, when it flopped, Dempsey would get all the blame.

  Talk about development hell….

  “What’s that maggot mess?” Pettigrew said, pointing.

  “It’s the third Orifice,” Crystal said.

  “Do what?” Pettigrew said.

  “Like a subway to the stars,” Crystal said. “No time to explain.”

  “Gross,” Cindy said, puckering her lips in disgust.

  “Here comes my entourage,” Royce said. “Hangers-on, publicists, groupies, hairdressers, that kind of thing. They’ll be here any minute now.”

  Someone tapped Dempsey on the shoulder. He spun, nearly tripping over the tiny deck chair with “Director” stenciled on the back.

  Somebody had cranked up the stereo downstairs, booming a Lady Gaga beat. The fog grew thicker and reached waist high. The bed jerked and shook, tossing the Ouija board into the gray, murky mist.

  “It’s the Underlings,” Crystal said to someone behind Dempsey.

  Dempsey spun again, and the microphone cable wrapped around his shins.

  The fog solidified, becoming a shape and blocking his camera view. And there she stood.

  “Bonnie?” said Pettigrew and Cindy in unison.

  “In the flesh,” she said.

  “A ghost
?” Cindy shrieked.

  “Dude, I am out of here,” Snake said, dropping the boom pole and lurching through the fog and out the door.

  “Get back here,” Dempsey said. “It’s a horror movie!”

  Cindy screamed again and followed him out, her chains jingling. Dempsey tried to chase after them, but his feet were tangled. As he fell, he had the presence of mind to toss the camera on the bed, where it bounced and kept filming. The teens were all yammering at once as he braced for impact, grateful that Cindy’s room was carpeted in shag.

  Still, the landing knocked the wind from him. His face was inches from the dark space beneath Cindy’s bed, and something was moving under there.

  Lots of somethings.

  Please let it be cats. Or rats.

  Or even nice, normal snakes.

  “Nearly midnight,” Crystal said.

  Chapter 27

  Cindy Summerhill’s room was an odd place for the apocalypse to begin, but Crystal supposed enough sin had deposited itself there over the years.

  The queen-sized bed was upscale maple, with a plush duvet and café cinnamon bedspread that looked too smooth to have been rumpled by a serious make-out session. The curtains, drawn tight against the darkness beyond, were a cozy cottage white, and Cindy’s Teddy bear collection was arrayed neatly on a corner shelf, accented with cheerleading trophies and smiling family photos. Most horrifying was the cute little Tweety Bird clock and those adorable feathered stubs that were rapidly ticking toward twelve o’clock.

  The insufferably normal decor made the oozing Orifice on the wall above the bed all the more obscene. Crystal could hear the slithering, clicking scurry of unwholesome creatures amid its wet morass.

  Spooge, Lurken, and Underlings. Momma was right, dang it. She’ll never let me live it down, assuming I live at all.

  But Momma was back at the trailer, messing with recipes, trying to free Tim from the second Orifice. Crystal didn’t want to think about the Orifice in the video store. She only hoped Fatback Bob had closed up early for Halloween.

  “Your move,” Bone said to Royce.

  He shook his hips a la Elvis Presley and flashed a cocky, crooked grin. “How’s that?”

  “You have to go back, Royce,” Bone said, eyes lit by a green fury.

  “I’m not going nowhere but the top,” Royce said.

  “Uh, guys, there’s something under the bed,” Dempsey shouted from the floor, invisible in the mist, thumping the floor as he tried to untangle himself.

  “It’s only a movie,” Crystal said. “Think of it as a milieu. Or cinema verite. Or some other French crap.”

  “Cool getting Bonnie a part,” Pettigrew said. “But don’t you think it’s a little trailer-trashy to have someone play your dead best friend?”

  “I’m not that dead,” Bone said.

  “I’m serious,” Dempsey said, voice rising to a frantic pitch. “Looks like dust bunnies with fangs.”

  “Okay, okay,” Royce said, pointing at Bone like a Wild West gunslinger. “Looks like we got a problem here. It’s my movie and you come barging in wanting a piece of the action.”

  “You promised—”

  “That was over there and this is here.”

  “Whoa,” Dempsey said. “Good line. Is the film rolling?”

  “What are you doing with her, then?” Bone said to Royce, picking up a cheesecake photo of Cindy from her dresser.

  “And what were you doing with her?” Crystal asked Pettigrew.

  “This ain’t in the script,” Pettigrew said. “Gooey stuff on the wall, some actress pretending to be Bonnie—”

  Crystal stomped on his foot. “Answer the question.”

  “I ain’t done nothing yet,” Pettigrew said.

  “You kissed her in the script.”

  “That was a movie kiss. Ask Dempsey. It wasn’t even any good. Tasted like pennies.”

  “What are you grinning about?” Bone asked Royce.

  “You chicks crack me up. Worried about kissing at a time like this.”

  “Ouch!” Dempsey squeaked, still obscured by the thickening mist. “One of them bit me.”

  “Is it time?” Bone said.

  “Now or never.” Crystal grabbed the boom pole where Snake had leaned it against the wall. The gray, sausage-shaped casing at the end had a surprising amount of weight to it. The casing appeared to be fine wire mesh to protect the microphone but still allow the passage of sound.

  She swung the long pole at Royce, but the end got caught in the curtain. As she yanked, the curtain fell away, and half a dozen faces were pressed against the glass, all wearing masks or make-up.

  The party. Crystal had nearly forgot that Cindy’s crowd would be showing up.

  Pettigrew had climbed onto the bed and was peering into the Orifice. He sniffed at it and wrinkled his nose. Crystal knew from past experience the Orifice smelled like sulfur, stump water, possum dookie, and ashes, but Pettigrew appeared to be impressed. “Man, this looks real, whatever it is.”

  “Don’t touch it!” Crystal shouted, attempting to free the boom pole from the fabric.

  Royce leaned down to the camera on the bed and stuck his face near the lens. “Nearly Show Time, boys and girls.”

  Just as Crystal wrenched the pole free, Dempsey’s head popped up out of the fog. Somehow he’d found his megaphone and he pressed it to his mouth. “Royce,” he bellowed.

  Royce was still mugging for the camera, making faces, winking for posterity, and he ignored Dempsey.

  But Pettigrew immediately went slack and his mouth fell open. “Royce,” he moaned, looking for all the world as if Dr. Frankenstein had forgotten to plug in his brain.

  And Crystal realized Dempsey hadn’t been addressing Royce at all. He’d been triggering the brainwashing effect by using the subliminal code word. The faces at the window bleated the name “Royce” over and over, a couple of palms smacking the window to get in, like zombies at lunch hour.

  Their idol was inside the room, and only a thin membrane of glass separated the zombies from their chosen meat.

  “Bone, a little help here,” Crystal said, but Bone had vanished.

  So much for counting on friends.

  Chapter 28

  “Royce. Royce. ROYCE!”

  Bone couldn’t believe these teenagers had fallen for the same line of manure that she had. Just went to show that a smile, a little charm, and a couple of well-timed promises could gain you the world.

  One thing’s not changed between dead and alive—”promises” still means “lies.”

  Sure, it was partly her fault. But nobody could really blame her for messing with Minerva’s potions, spreading Dempsey’s videotapes, and stabbing Crystal in the back. When you wanted your life back, you played for keeps and took no prisoners. Otherwise, you ended up in prison yourself.

  Forever.

  Royce raised his arms, clearly reveling in the adulation. More teenagers crowded at the window, their zombie eyes glittering with celebrity hunger. Bone recognized Freddie Hyatt, the undertaker’s kid who’d put a frog in her locker in fourth grade, and Wilma Rae Dawn, the class brain who now looked as brainless as a pro wrestler.

  The chant of “Royce” rose into the night, with Pettigrew also moaning the name as he swayed perilously close to the Orifice. Bone expected a Lurken tentacle to poke out and grab him at any moment.

  “Yessss,” Royce shouted, making sure he was in front of the camera. “Eat your heart out, James.”

  “Bone!” Crystal said. “Where are you?”

  Bone hated abandoning her best friend, however briefly, but she needed to remain invisible for her next trick.

  “Royce,” Dempsey said, flogging the megaphone to strike unseen creatures that scurried in the fog.

  “Ah, even the director worships me,” Royce said.

  “No, I want you to untangle me.”

  “It’s my movie now,” Royce said. “All of it.”

  Something brushed against Bone’s leg and she kicked at
it. A squeak rose from the mist. Whatever they were, they could see dead people. Feel them, too.

  “Stop him, Pettigrew,” Crystal yelled, twirling the curtain-covered boom pole like the flag bearer in a marching band. She planted one end in the carpet beneath the fog and pole vaulted onto the bed.

  Unfortunately, she overshot the mark, bouncing up and—thunk—slamming her head against the wall and tumbling her witch’s hat into the fog.

  Ouch. That had to hurt. The downside of flesh and blood.

  Crystal wobbled on her knees, eyes rolling in different directions like marbles dropped in a bowl. Her head was inches from the edge of the Orifice. A tentacle flicked out in excitement, brushing a strand of her blonde hair.

  They’re close—the Judge has them all gathered on the other side, ready to bust through as soon as Royce says the magic words.

  “Nice of you to join me, Crystal,” Royce said, grabbing the groggy teen. “The Aldridges have kept us locked out for way too long.”

  The zombies at the window kept on with their “Royce” voices. The rising drone of sound beyond suggested the yard was filled with hollow-eyed Royce worshippers, and Bone imagined the whole town murmuring his name. Tweety Bird’s stubby wings were nearly straight up.

  A minute ‘til midnight.

  Let’s see if I can get this right….

  Royce was bouncing on the bed in sheer joy, waving his arms. “Kneel, kneel!”

  The moaning of zombies filled the hallway. The Orifice swelled and throbbed like an electrified fungus. Tweety Bird started a maddeningly cute chirp.

  Witching hour.

  Bone drifted down through the fog and grabbed Crystal’s hat. The Spirit Rust was secreted inside the headband, and she pulled out the worn leather pouch that held the potion. Tugging the drawstrings open, she poured the gritty powder into her hand. A few grains dribbled through and down to the carpet before she remembered that she’d have to go solid.

  Third time solid. The last time.

  Well, it was fun while it lasted….

  Bone stood, and Crystal blurted out her name. Her name, not Royce’s. In the real world, she still had one believer, one fan, one best friend.