by S. A. Hunter
“We’ve got to find a way to destroy it,” Mary said as she slid down the wall. Gran rushed to her side and bent toward her.
“Take my hand.” She reached to take her outstretched hand, but as their fingers grazed, Ricky threw Gran away from her and flung the old woman into a chair. Mary watched in alarm as an electrical cord snaked out and wrapped around her, tying her to the chair.
“Somebody, tell me what’s going on!” Kyle screamed again from his corner.
Mary ignored him and staggered up unsure of her balance. “Rachel, have you got the locket yet?”
“Almost,” Rachel grunted. She was stretched out full length on the floor with her arm under the couch.
She lurched over to Gran and tried to tear off the loops of cord binding her, but they wouldn’t budge
“Don’t worry about me. Take one of the pouches from my pocket. Stuff the locket into it. It should weaken him.”
Mary nodded and took one of the pouches.
“I don’t understand. Why do you women keep defying me? She defied me too. I gave her everything she ever needed. Who got her this house? Who paid the bills? Who put food on the table? It sure wasn’t her.”
Mary made her way to Rachel, talking to the air, “And Julie should’ve just sat there while you beat her night after night without even a whimper.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s official. You don’t get any smarter with death. You’re still as stupid as when you were alive.” She knelt and tapped Rachel on the shoulder to give her the pouch. Rachel took it in her free hand while she still reached under the couch for the locket.
“Mary, you shouldn’t provoke an angry spirit anymore than he already is,” Gran warned.
“You’re mad she went on, aren’t you, Ricky? You’re mad that she left you here all alone. When she saw her chance to leave you, she did.”
“She didn’t leave me. I kept her here. Close to my heart.”
“Stop denying the obvious, Ricky. She’s gone. She left you. I don’t hear any voice but yours.”
“Mine’s the only one you need to hear.”
Mary looked around nervously. Ricky was getting angrier. She didn’t want to know what he might do next. “Rach, hurry up with that locket.”
“Got it!” Rachel popped up from beside the sofa. She fumbled with the pouch to stuff the locket inside.
“No, you don’t!”
The sofa lurched into Rachel and knocked her down. The locket flew out of her hands.
“No fair,” Rachel wheezed. Mary dove for the locket but missed it and landed on her stomach. The locket slithered into the hallway toward the bedrooms.
“This is my house! I make the rules!”
“No!” Mary cried. She needed to destroy the locket now before more than just property damage and bruises happened.
“Arf! Arf!”
“Chowder, go get the locket! The locket! Go! Fetch!” She didn’t know if Chowder understood what she was asking, but she had to try. Chowder barked again from the direction of the hallway.
“Mary, did you just ask the dead dog to get the locket?” Rachel asked. She tumbled over the back of the sofa and landed on the cushions with an oomph.
She got up and went toward the hallway. “Well, why else did you bring him?”
The locket came streaking out toward her at about six inches above the floor. She squatted down, and Chowder ran straight to her. She took the locket. “Good boy,” she murmured.
“Rach, throw me the bag!”
She threw the small pouch of herbs to her, but in midair, it did a right angle and flew into the kitchen.
“Interception!” Kyle giggled from his corner.
Mary gave him a ruthless glare, and he shut up. She was running out of patience and stamina. She looked down at the locket in her hand. ‘He’d kept her here. Close to his heart.’
She pried the locket open with her fingernails. When she opened it, a cold blast of air hit her in the face. Inside was a lock of blond hair.
“You’ve imprisoned me long enough, Ricky,” said a new voice. It was female and not happy.
The room started to fill with kinetic energy. A windstorm began that knocked over vases and tore pictures off the walls. From the overturned wastebasket, bits of paper swirled in the brewing maelstrom.
“Mary, what’s happening?” Rachel yelled.
“She’s unleashed another spirit,” Gran answered from her chair.
“Another one?”
“I put up with your abuse for three years, Ricky.”
“Everybody meet Julie, Ricky’s former wife.”
“Baby, I only wanted you to love me.”
“Does that mean she’s on our side?” Rachel asked.
“And in my foolishness, I did but not anymore. Time for payback.”
“You could say that,” Mary said.
The chaos in the room escalated. The floor began to shake, and the furniture began to slide around the room. As much as Mary wanted to give Julie a chance to get her due at Ricky, she really didn’t want the ghosts to destroy the house in the process.
“Mary, watch out!” Gran shouted as her chair came barreling toward her. Mary jumped out of the way and the chair hit the wall with a resounding thud.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, the chair took the brunt of it.”
“Do you have any ideas?” she yelled over the howling wind.
“Remember how I told you to never put tinfoil or silverware in the microwave?” Gran called.
“Yeah,” she answered in confusion.
“Well, this once you can.”
“You mean?” she said, comprehension dawning in her.
“Do it, before this gets anymore out of hand.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Rachel yelled. She was crouched beside the sofa shielding herself from the winds with a cushion.
“Do you really want to find out?”
“Good point. Let’s nuke’em.”
She struggled to her feet and began to hobble toward the kitchen. Rachel got up and put her arm around her waist to help her walk. They fought their way to the kitchen. ‘Oh goody, the kitchen,’ Mary thought with a grimace. Taking one step was a mini-battle. The winds felt like they’d gotten to class four hurricane status. It was amazing that the windows hadn’t shattered yet. Kyle huddled in a small ball, staring wide-eyed at the chaos around him. Mary didn’t spare him more than a glance as she and Rachel made their way into the kitchen.
“I just want to know one thing, Ricky. Why did you kill me? Why did you decide to come home that day and put a bullet in my head?”
“Like you don’t know. Did you think you could get away with cheating on me? I knew, and I decided to put a stop to it.”
“Cheated? Who would I cheat on you with? One of your buddies? They were worse than you, and their wives had the restraining orders to prove it.”
“Not one of my friends. That Paul that kept calling here all the time and one time came to the Police Department to pick you up. You spent the night with him, and don’t you deny it!”
“Yes, I spent the night with Paul, and God, I wish I had slept with him, but I didn’t. Paul was helping me. He was my psychiatrist, you bastard.”
“Do you think this will work?” Rachel yelled. They were almost to the microwave.
“No, but it’s our only option!”
“Then now or never.” Rachel staggered to the counter. She wrenched open the microwave door and got out of her way. Mary hurled the locket inside and slammed the door shut.
“How long?” she asked.
“Does it matter?”
“Right. Time to go, Ricky,” Mary called. “You too, Julie,” she said to herself as she punched in 9999.
The cook light came on, and sparks began to go off inside the microwave,
“Mary, get—” Gran shouted.
“Nooooo!” Ricky screamed.
Julie let out a long sigh. “Free at last...”
<
br /> The protective glass exploded outward. The two girls dropped to the floor. Small slivers of glass fell onto their backs.
“—out of the way,” she finished. The wind suddenly stopped, and everything in mid-air hung motionless a half second and then dropped. Gran untangled herself from the electrical cord as it fell limp.
“Is that it? Did we kill them? Again?” Rachel asked in disbelief as she helped Mary to her feet. Mary was having a hard time standing up. She couldn’t put any weight on her bad ankle. It appeared to be already swelling.
She looked at the wreckage in the kitchen. Sometime during the battle, the fridge had been flung open, and food and drink hurled to the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. All the cabinets were open and a few of the doors still swung slowly back and forth. But it was silent. Gloriously silent.
Until the smoke detector went off.
She jumped back and hit the counter awkwardly, banging her elbow and shifting to her bad ankle.
“Kill it!” Rachel screamed and grabbed a rolling pin.
“Oh God.” Mary laughed and collapsed back to the floor. A happy invisible dog instantly besieged her.
Gran calmly came into the room, reached up to the smoke detector, and wrenched out the battery. The incessant beeping stopped.
Kyle staggered to his feet and looked at the wreckage in horror. “What am I going to tell my parents?”
This sent Mary into another fit of giggles.
Rachel stepped over to him and grabbed his shoulder. “You could tell them the truth. A homicidal ghost tried to kill a girl from school, she saved your life, and in the process, destroyed your house.”
“We’ll help you clean up,” Gran said, bending over and looking under the sink for cleaning supplies.
“I am not doing the microwave,” Rachel declared.
“Could we go to the hospital first?” Mary pleaded from the floor.
“Why?” Rachel asked.
“So I can get my whole body X-rayed.”
Chapter 14
Conclusions
"So how did you guys know to come here?" Mary asked as Rachel helped her out to the station wagon to go to the hospital.
"I saw the note on your locker. I was really pissed that you didn’t tell me about it as soon as you came out to lunch."
"I hadn’t seen it yet."
"Oh."
She gave Rachel a sideways glance. "I did want to tell you when I saw it after lunch, but you’d stormed off."
Rachel sighed. "Oh jeez, I’m such a bad friend." She opened the door and helped her get into the station wagon.
"No, you’re not. You were awesome today. So you saw the note and called Gran?"
She nodded. "I was mad, but I knew you needed help. You can’t do everything yourself."
Mary stretched out on the backseat and nodded. "I know, and I will tell you everything. I’ll bore you to tears with everything."
Rachel grinned. "If I start snoring, just poke me." She smiled back.
"I expect to be told things too. Next time, you will call me before facing something like this again," Gran said as she got into the driver’s seat. Mary nodded again. She was beginning to feel like a bobble head, but she deserved it. She hadn’t been thinking when she’d rushed over.
Kyle got in the front passenger seat.
Mary gave her grandmother a questioning look through the rear view mirror. Her grandmother just shook her head minutely.
Gran started the car and turned to Rachel. "I’ll be back shortly to help with the rest of the cleanup."
"You better. I might mix cleaning chemicals or something. There are many reasons my family has a housekeeper."
She grinned and waved to Rachel as they drove away. The grin slipped away when she turned and stared at the back of Kyle’s head. Why was he coming with them? He should be helping with clean up most of all.
~~ ~~ ~~
She sat in an uncomfortable silence beside Kyle in the emergency room. At the house, Gran had looked at Kyle’s head and cleaned the cut made by the lamp. It wasn’t bad enough for stitches. Gran had interrogated him thoroughly about how he felt. She’d looked closely at his pupils and declared that he didn’t have a concussion. He didn’t need to see a doctor, but he’d come with them to the hospital anyway.
He hadn’t said anything on the ride to the hospital. After helping Mary fill out the insurance forms, Gran had left to go back and finish helping Rachel clean-up. She didn’t know why Kyle stayed with her. Gran hadn’t said anything about him staying. She just left them sitting together with the promise to be back in a couple of hours.
Well, if she was stuck with him, she took a deep breath. “Could you tell me why you were wearing Ricky’s locket?”
Kyle sat hunched over with his hands clasped together. He shrugged his shoulders in response to her question. “Just a dumb idea I guess.”
“But how’d you end up with it in the first place?”
He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. “I found it when I went down to the basement after I heard all this stuff crash down there. All these boxes had fallen over, and when I started putting them back up, the locket sort of fell on my shoulder. It scared the crap out of me. I thought it was a freaking snake. When I reached down to pick it up, I thought I would show it to Mom, but when I picked it up, I changed my mind. I decided to wear it, and I got meaner everyday that passed until I couldn’t hold in the hatred anymore.”
She sat there in shock. She knew exactly which day he was talking about. She’d lured him into the basement by riling Ricky up. “Ricky decided for you to wear the locket. You didn’t have a chance from the get go.” She wasn’t sure if her words were to reassure him or herself.
“Then I was possessed or something?”
Her eyes slid to him. “That’s what I think. Or did you really want to go twelve rounds with me?”
“Oh God,” Kyle said, putting his head in his hands. “I can’t believe I did all that. I mean I really wanted to hurt you.”
“Hey,” she said, grabbing his shoulder. “You didn’t want to hurt me. It was Ricky. I don’t blame you.”
“Still, you’re not supposed to hit girls. Hitting on them is fine, but…”
Mary smiled. Even if it had been Kyle’s body that had terrorized her for the past couple of days, it hadn’t been Kyle, the person. She was beginning to like Kyle, the person, or at least, she didn’t want him to suffer bodily harm.
“I should’ve been stronger,” he murmured.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Kyle shook his head. It would take him a little while to get over it, but she was positive he would. A nurse came over to them, pushing a wheelchair. “Miss Hellick, we’re ready to see you now.”
“Thanks,” she said. With Kyle’s and the nurse’s help, she got into the wheelchair. Her ankle had swollen to the size of a grapefruit, and the tiniest weight on it hurt like a thousand bee stings. As the nurse prepared to take her to an examination room, she turned back to Kyle. “Go home and help with the clean-up. Tell your parents you accidentally destroyed the microwave. They’ll believe you. Don’t worry about it. It’s all over.” He nodded.
“Mary?” he called.
She turned back again.
“Thanks, you know, for saving me and stuff,” he said, suddenly self-conscious. She smiled.
“No problem.”
~~ ~~ ~~
She sat silently in the front seat of the station wagon on her way to school. The doctors had said she shouldn’t do a lot of walking for the next month. Yep, she had sprained her ankle and was using crutches in the meantime.
How Kyle had ended up with the locket still troubled her. She felt culpable, and she didn’t like that. She’d been trying to help, but maybe she’d made things worse.
“Gran, I went to Cy's house one time that you don’t know about.”
Gran turned and looked at her inquisitively. Mary squirmed in her seat. “I went over when no one was home to get rid of Ricky, bu
t I couldn’t get into the basement safely. Kyle showed up while I was trying and instead of just running, I riled up Ricky to cause a distraction and make Kyle go to the basement.”
“Why did you send Kyle to the basement?”
“I wanted him in there so he wouldn’t see me leave that’s when Ricky put the locket on Kyle.”
“Oh.” Gran took a deep breath through her nose and looked out the windshield in thought.
“It’s my fault Kyle got possessed. Isn’t it?” Mary scrunched down in her seat unhappily.
Gran didn’t answer immediately. When she did, it wasn’t with denial. “It was wrong of you to knowingly send a person into a place with a malevolent spirit. You put him at risk. You couldn’t have known Ricky would give Kyle his anchor, but he could have hurt him. You have a very special gift that you must be responsible with. You know that there is more than just the living plane, and while others may not know or believe, you have to be conscientious of their safety.”
Mary nodded. She must have looked miserable because Gran reached across and stroked her head. “I’m glad you told me about this and proud that you could discern that you may have done something bad, but in the end, you also did a great deal of good. You not only expelled Ricky but also released the spirit of his wife. You gave the Ashers a house that they can now truly make their home. Learn from this experience, and you’ll be able to do more good the next time you help someone.”
Mary gave her grandma a startled look and said nervously, “I don’t want to make this a regular thing. I want to live as close to a normal life as I can.”
“I know, but someone may come across your path like Cy did, that you’ll want to help.” She nodded and gave her grandmother an easy smile. Once again, the fortuneteller had cemented her claim to coolest Grandmother ever.
She waved goodbye with a crutch as Gran pulled away from the school. She was struggling with a side door into the school to avoid most of the early morning crowds when a nice person pushed the door open and held it for her.
“Thanks,” she said. She was too preoccupied with her crutches to look up at the person.