Broken Spirits

by S. A. Hunter

  “Hey, don’t take your obesity out on the dress. Just kill yourself.”

  Rachel was going through a rack of tops when she stalked out. “Hey! Get back in there and put that on!”

  “No, kill yourself!”

  Mary shook her head and went to checkout.

  “You’re buying it? Awesome! I knew it would be perfect.”

  She didn’t answer as the cashier rang her up. She paid in cash and went to the door.

  “Kill yourself! Kill yourself! Kill yourself!”

  Rachel was finally beginning to notice her seething silence. “Mary?”

  “Will you just kill yourself, ugly! Make the world a better place!”

  Mary stood silently by the car until Rachel unlocked it. She pulled the door open violently and threw the bag to the floorboard. As she got in, she made sure to grind her boots into the bag as she strapped herself in. Rachel hustled to join her. Once Rachel was strapped in, Mary said, “Take me home.”

  “Ooh, are you going home to kill yourself?”

  “Mare, what’s going on? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. You need a dress, and I knew you’d drag your heels about getting one.”

  “I’ll get a dress later.”

  “Then why’d you buy that one?”

  “Yeah, fatty, why’d you buy this one?”

  “I’m going to burn it.”

  “What? But why? It would look nice on you.”

  The ghost was so single-minded that she didn’t even protest the fact that Mary was planning to destroy her. “Your friend is a good liar. You look awful in this dress, but then again you’d look awful in any dress. Let’s go home and take a bath with a toaster.”

  She shook her head and ground her boots into the bag.

  “Wait, don’t tell me. Is it haunted?”

  That caught the ghost’s attention. “Why’d she ask that?”

  Mary rolled her eyes.

  “It is, isn’t it? Oh man, that’s totally freaky. Who’s the ghost?”

  Mary didn’t reply.

  “Wait. Are you’re like psychic? Answer me!”

  Mary shook her head to herself. She was not engaging the ghost. She was getting rid of it.

  “I told you to answer me!”

  Mary firmly stared out the window and didn’t react. The ghost could scream all she wanted. She wasn’t going to waste any of her energy with her. She was destroying the dress. She couldn’t have left it behind to let it throw some other poor girl into a downward spiral. The ghost’s words hurt, but Mary could hear them clearly. She knew where they were coming from. A regular girl would have just sensed them. Like Kyle with Ricky’s locket. Ricky had twisted Kyle into hating women and wanting to hurt them. And she knew Kyle now. That wasn’t natural to him. This ghost would’ve influenced a normal girl to commit suicide. Even if she had everything to live for. Mary ground her boots further into the dress.

  “Fine. Don’t answer me.”

  Something odd began to happen. Mary’s feet went numb. She shifted them to knock out the numbness, but soon realized it wasn’t pins and needle numb like they’d gone to sleep. When she moved them, feeling wasn’t coming back. The bag was tangled up with her feet. She tried to kick the bag away and realized she could no longer move her feet. The numbness began to travel up her calves.

  “Rach, drive faster. I need Gran.”

  “What?” Rachel looked at her, and Mary’s face must have shown her mounting horror because the car surged forward. Mary tried to bend down to grab the bag. She’d throw it to the backseat. She needed to break contact with it, but she couldn’t reach her feet. She fiddled with the seat controls to try and get into a better position, but the seat couldn’t move enough to do her any good. The numbness kept creeping up her.

  “Stop,” she said.

  “You just told me to go faster,” Rachel protested.

  “I wasn’t talking to you.” Rachel’s mouth made a silent “O”, and she refocused on the road. The numbness was in her thighs now and approaching her waist.

  “You’re not much to look at, but you’ll do.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, hoping to stall the ghost. The numbness had passed her waist.

  “Trying on a new outfit.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Coming Attractions

  “Mary, what’s going on?” Rachel asked. She sounded panicky. Mary was panicky, too. She tried to force the numb parts of herself to move. The numbness was up to her chest. She still had control of her arms, but her lower half wouldn’t respond at all. She rubbed her legs and could feel her touch, but it was distant, dampened. She closed her eyes and focused on herself, trying to will feeling back through to her lower extremities. No ghost had ever tried to possess her before. She was finding it frightening and very rude.

  “Get out of me,” she finally said.

  “No.”

  “You can’t stay.”

  “That’s what you think.”

  “No, that’s what I know.”

  “Mary, are you okay? Who is this ghost?” Rachel asked.

  “I’m fine. I don’t know and don’t care. When we reach the house, I need you to grab the bag and pull it off of me.”

  Rachel nodded her head, and the car sped up. Mary thought about telling her to slow down because getting pulled over would be very bad right now, but the quicker the bag was removed from her, the better. The numbness was up to her shoulders now and was traveling down her arms.

  Rachel bumped the curb when she pulled up in front of Mary’s house. Rachel threw open her door and rushed over to Mary’s side. Against Mary’s will and to her horror, her hand went to the automatic lock and pressed it.

  Rachel didn’t hear the lock engage and grabbed the handle, expecting the door to come open. Her pull threw her against the door instead. Mary heard her curse and watched her put her fingers to her lips.

  “Mary, open the door,” Rachel said through the window.

  The numbness was creeping up her neck.

  “I can’t!” she yelled.

  Rachel hit the button on the remote. Mary’s finger pressed the automatic lock instantly.

  “Use your key!” Mary shouted, seeing how the war of the automatic locks would go.

  Rachel jabbed her key into the lock and turned it. She held it in place to keep the lock from reengaging. As she pulled the door open, Mary’s body turned and kicked the door, throwing Rachel back. Rachel fell to the sidewalk with a yelp. Mary’s hand reached down and took the dress out of the bag. She could feel the ghost settling onto her face like a mask.

  “Oh no,” she barely managed to say before the numbness settled over her and shut her mouth. Her body lurched out of the car. Rachel scrambled up and grabbed the dress. She tried to pull it out of Mary’s hands, but Mary’s grip was too strong. She wanted to tell Rachel to pull harder, to not let go, but her jaw was locked shut. The situation suddenly reminded her of that disastrous break-in attempt at Cy’s house. Rachel had saved her then, but this time was different. This time was much worse. Ricky had only been holding onto her legs. He wasn’t making them move however he wanted.

  She looked toward the house. Gran, she thought. Gran! She silently pleaded for her to come rescue her. Mary knew she herself wasn’t telepathic, but Gran had always seemed to have a smattering of everything. Maybe she’d sense her. Her only hope was Gran at this point. Mary’s body suddenly lurched forward and pushed Rachel. Her friend let go of the dress as she fell back again onto the asphalt.

  “Come on, let’s go get dressed.”

  Mary wanted to shake her head, protest, drop the dress, or best of all, take back control of her freaking body, but instead, her body started walking toward the house on stilted legs. The ghost couldn’t seem to control her body fluidly, more like a marionette operator pulling strings to lift her limbs. Rachel jogged up beside her.

  “Mary, drop the dress. The ghost is controlling you.”

  If she’d had any control, she would’v
e glared at Rachel. The ghost just laughed.

  “I’m getting Gran.”

  Rachel raced up to the front door and went inside as Mary watched helplessly. Her body went up the steps and through the door. She stopped just inside, and her head turned to pan the room.

  “God, what a hovel.”

  The dig sparked Mary’s anger. Gran and she might not have been rich, but they did the best they could, and they had a nice home. It might not ever be featured in Better Homes and Gardens, but it was a good home! She’d been afraid before as she lost control of her body, but now her anger flared hot to melt away her fear. This ghost had no right to take control of her body. She was dead. Mary didn’t know how she had died, but she had no right to take over Mary’s life. Her indignity flowed into the anger, fueling it more, making it burn brighter. It all began to condense into a burning ball. All of the ghost’s verbal digs and suicidal urgings were jammed into the spinning ball forming in her chest. The ghost had no right to take over her life. Mary deserved to live as much as the next person. Her ball of anger intensified and grew tighter and stronger. She didn’t deserve this. She wasn’t a bad person! Her ball of anger reached critical mass and exploded.

  “GET OFF ME!”

  She clenched the dress in both hands and tore it in half. It ripped with a shriek. There was a blast of hot air, and she stumbled back into the television, quickly stopping herself from knocking it over. She straightened and stood there panting. She was in full control of her body again. She looked down at the dress, now in two pieces, one in each hand. She brought them up to her face and knew the ghost was gone. There wasn’t a trace of her any longer.

  “Mary!” Gran rushed into the living room and sprayed her with frankincense oil while waving a bell in her other hand. “Get out of her, you terrible spirit! I command it!”

  Rachel was right behind her with two more bells. They rang them at her like demented Salvation Army bell ringers.

  Mary held up her hands to ward them off. “It’s gone! Stop ringing the bells.”

  “I said be gone, spirit!” Gran splashed her again with the oil. Mary wondered how many times she’d have to wash her clothes to get rid of the smell.

  “She’s gone, Gran!” Mary shook the two halves of the dress to ward off another oil attack.

  “Oh, yeah? Prove it!” Rachel said.

  “You secretly like Justin Bieber.”

  “Fiend!” Rachel shouted and shook her bells at her.

  “Mary?” Gran said. She set down the bottle of oil which was mostly empty now anyway and came over to her. Mary started wiping off the oil on her face with the dress. It was just a dress now. Actually, it was just rags now. No longer even a dress.

  “She’s gone. I ripped the dress apart, and she’s gone.”

  “But Rachel said she possessed you. How were you able to gain back control?”

  Mary noticed Gran was bobbing and weaving as she peered into Mary’s eyes, and she still had the bell in her other hand. She obviously still suspected Mary was faking.

  “I don’t know. I just got really angry. I mean really angry and ripped the dress apart.”

  “Whoa, you hulked out?” Rachel said. Mary had to smile at that.

  Gran reached out tentatively to touch her forehead. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

  Mary finally let herself relax and looked down at herself. She felt jumpy from all the adrenaline, and the frankincense was giving her a headache. “I feel fine for the most part. The ghost is definitely gone. I guess ripping it apart was all it took to destroy her connection. I was trying to bring it home to burn it. I didn’t know she’d be try to take over. She was evil, Gran. She was whispering at me to kill myself.”

  Gran took one of the dress halves from her and ran it through her hands. “I’m not sensing anything either.”

  “Is that what happens when you invite a spirit in?”

  She knew Gran did that occasionally. She’d always made it seem so blasé. It had always weirded Mary out and honestly, the concept freaked her out a bit, but Gran had never seemed much worried about it. Now the idea of letting a spirit in made Mary want to hurl.

  Gran shook her head. “No, I never let the spirit have control of my body. I invite it in to more easily communicate with it.”

  “I didn’t invite her in, and I didn’t let her have control. She just started creeping up me and taking over.”

  Gran sat down with a sigh. She fretted with the piece of the dress she still had. “You may have given her enough strength to attempt possessing you.”

  “I didn’t do this on purpose!”

  “I know, dear. This is my fault.”

  “What? How? You didn’t donate that dress to Goodwill.”

  Rachel gasped. “I forced you to try it on,” she said.

  Mary looked over at her and saw her friend’s eyes were wide with panic. “This isn’t your fault either. It’s nobody’s fault except the ghost’s, and she’s gone.

  Gran was shaking her head. “I’ve never worked with you to control your powers. They were always so strong. Usually, one has to work on focusing them, calling them forth, but you never needed to. You could always hear ghosts clear as day. I let it go, thinking how gifted you were. I never worried about you having difficulties. I was foolish. I thought I didn’t need to teach you how to focus or control your ability because you had no trouble hearing the ghosts. You didn’t have to call them or strain to hear them, but I should’ve been teaching you focus and control so you could keep the ghosts out, block their voices. This is my fault.”

  Mary was too tired to argue. She just wanted to go upstairs, take a quick shower, and put on new clothes. “How about you just start training me on how to block ghosts then? How’s that?” She didn’t wait for a reply and hustled up the stairs. She was worried now that they would be late to meet Kyle. She didn’t want him to think they might stand him up.

  She rushed to get cleaned up. She’d dressed up initially. She’d been wearing her best jeans and coolest shirt. The frankincense oil had better come out. Her makeup was ruined, too. She washed her face and reapplied her mascara at least. It was all she had time for.

  She jogged back down the stairs. Rachel was waiting on the couch. “Where’s Gran?” Mary asked.

  Rachel jerked her thumb toward the office. “That way. You sure you still want to go?”

  Mary paused to think about that. Here was an out. No one would blame her for canceling. Kyle, more than anyone, would understand. But it wasn’t the earlier freakiness which was making her think about canceling, it was her nervousness about seeing Kyle. She’d be lying if she backed out and said it was because of the dress mess.

  “No, we’re still on. Let me just say bye to Gran.”

  Rachel nodded. “I’ll start the car.”

  Rachel seemed kind of down. Mary hoped she wasn’t seriously blaming herself for what happened. She’d have to try to convince her on the way there that it wasn’t her fault and then drop the subject completely because she didn’t want to freak Kyle out with the story. She went back to Gran’s office. She was there polishing a large quartz crystal. “Rachel and I are heading to the theater. You need me to do anything while I’m out?”

  Gran looked up with a smile, “Just have a good time, but don’t make plans for tomorrow. You are going to have a very full day. After the funeral, we start your training.”

  She nodded and felt her stomach drop a little. Why’d she have to suggest training? She liked having free time. She went outside and joined Rachel in her car.

  “Are we going to be late?” she asked, checking her watch. It was seven forty.

  “Don’t worry. I called Kyle and asked him to buy our tickets.”

  “You called Kyle?” For some reason, that seemed wrong to her. What was Rachel doing with his number?

  As if sensing the spark of irrational jealousy, Rachel said, “It was stored on your phone. He said sure.”

  “What’d you tell him?”

  �
��That we were running late due to a ghost emergency.”

  Mary groaned. “Did you really tell him that?”

  “Don’t worry. You can fill him in on all the details while you snuggle as the lights go down.”

  “What?”

  “And you still owe me a box of Goobers.”

  Mary slouched in her seat. Maybe inviting Rachel along had been a bad idea. Kyle was waiting for them out front. When he turned and saw them, he raised his hand and waved with a smile. As if on cue, Mary tripped on the curb. Luckily, she didn’t face plant, but it was a close call.

  “Easy, girl. Remember, it’s just Kyle,” Rachel whispered.

  Mary threw her a grateful look for catching her and turned back to Kyle, who’d walked over to join them. He was dressed casually, but he was missing his letterman jacket. He looked weird without it. He looked more like Cy. Of course, they were brothers so they looked sort of alike anyway, but as she looked closer, she realized that she’d seen Cy wearing the same green T-shirt. It was tighter across the chest on Kyle. It didn’t look too small on him, but his clothes were usually baggier. Why was he wearing Cy’s shirt? She couldn’t imagine that they shared clothes.

  “Hey, is everything okay?” he asked. She found herself staring at his chest as she nodded.

  She jerked her eyes up. Praying he hadn’t noticed. “Yeah, did you get the tickets?”

  He held them up. Rachel and she reached for their wallets. Kyle stepped back shaking his head. “Nope, it’s on me.”

  “What? No, we didn’t ask you to buy them to make you pay,” Mary protested as she pulled her money out.

  “Thanks, Kyle! Hey, you want us to get you anything from the concession stand?”

  “I’ll get it,” Kyle said. They headed inside. Mary kept her money out.

  “No, let us buy the popcorn and soda,” Mary said and took first place in the line. Kyle tried to step up beside her, but she jumped in front of him and blocked him from getting in front of her.

  “Mary,” he huffed.

  “No, let me pay. What do you want?”

  “Popcorn’s good and Dr. Pepper.”

  When they reached the front, Mary made sure to be front and center at the counter. "Two medium popcorns and two medium sodas."