I jogged away from her to get to my locker, slamming my books inside and grabbing the ones I’d need for the day. She didn’t follow me, but halfway down the hall I heard her voice rising above the morning din.
“I’m going to help you, Shauna! You’re my best friend.”
She probably meant that as a promise, but under the current circumstances, it sounded a lot like a threat. I headed for my first class, my eyes averted so I didn’t have to look at anyone, so I didn’t have to see any dead-girl faces staring at me from glass windows, doorknobs, or anywhere else. They’d waxed the tile floor last night, too, so I couldn’t look down. I had to stare at the books clutched in my arms and hope I’d find my way.
Shiny above, shiny below, Mary was everywhere and nowhere all at once.
I threw myself into my desk right as my phone vibrated inside my bag. It was probably Jess, but on the off chance it was my mom, I stole a peek. It was neither. Kitty texted me to tell me to call her after school, that her parents had let her stay home an extra day. I wanted to send her a message explaining Jess’s tie to Mary, but it was too complicated, too messy for a text. I sent her an abbreviated Kay with an emoticon heart.
The school day didn’t have much to do with school. The teachers didn’t bother teaching so much as letting my classmates talk among themselves. At one point, our guidance counselor came in to discuss resources available to anxious students. It was a pretty glum affair, and I trudged to lunch feeling like I should have stayed home after all. But anything was better than the depression jockey on my back.
It was strange to sit in the cafeteria alone. With few exceptions, my quartet of friends had been together for years, and yet there I was in the corner by myself. Kitty was home, Anna was dead, and Jess…well, Jess was across the room sitting with her softball cronies. I didn’t want to look at her, mostly because I didn’t want to give her any indication that there was a way to fix us, but toward the end of lunch, I glanced her way anyway. I couldn’t help it; I wanted to see if she was as sad as I was. That’s when I saw the red notebook. Red notebooks weren’t a noteworthy thing in general, but Jess hadn’t owned one before the Mary stuff. Either this was coincidence, or she had her summoning notes on the table in front of her.
Jess nodded at Becca, Laurie, and Tonya. She opened up the cover and her hands danced all over the place, her expression animated. This was her “I have a really good idea” sales pitch. I knew it because I’d fallen prey to that very same charisma when I’d agreed to summon a ghost in Anna’s basement. If that’s what she was doing now, if she was getting herself a fresh batch of idiots…
“You wouldn’t,” I whispered. Except she would. I knew she would. While Becca and Laurie dipped their heads forward to take a better look, Tonya stood up and waved Jess off, shaking her head. Jess called her back, but Tonya kept on walking, taking her lunch tray to another table to sit with other friends. Jess scowled after her for a moment, then turned back to the remaining two. I had a sinking feeling watching the three of them huddled together, a smile spreading across Jess’s face.
I had to warn the girls. I was obligated. But by the time I abandoned my seat and gave chase down the hall, they were gone. I saw Becca after the next class, but before I could grab her attention, she headed inside the science lab and her teacher shut the door. After school, I stood by the buses—Laurie bused in and out every day—but she never showed up. When the bulk of the students were loaded and the doors closed, I ran toward the parking lot.
My sneakers skidded through the grit just as Jess drove away with one body in her passenger seat, another in the back.
I called Jess, feeling obligated to warn her off of any terrible ideas before they became terrible actualities. She didn’t answer because she was a horrible bitch. A driven horrible bitch, which was even worse.
Mom said go straight home, but Mom didn’t know what I knew. I drove to Jess’s house, willing Jess’s car to be in the driveway when I got there, but it wasn’t. I ran to her front door and knocked. Mrs. McAllister answered with a dishrag in her hands. By the lift of her brows, it was clear she was surprised to see me. It made me sad to see her face; I probably wouldn’t see much of it in the future. Ditching Jess meant ditching her awesome family. Related to Bloody Mary or not, the McAllisters had been kind to me.
“Hey, kiddo. Good to see you. I’m so sorry about Anna.” Before I could do anything about it, I was pulled into another mommy hug. I indulged for a moment, my jaw clenching so I wouldn’t cry on Mrs. McAllister’s shirt. Sympathy was nice, but it tended to leave me a soggy mess, and I didn’t need that right now. I gently disengaged, my eyes glassy and swollen with unshed tears.
“Thanks. Is Jess on her way here? I need to talk to her,” I said.
She reached out to stroke my forehead much like my own mom had done just this morning. And last night. And the afternoon before that. It seemed to be a go-to mom comfort gesture. “She’s on her way to Kitty’s. Maybe you can catch her there.”
My blood ran cold. Jess had two people in her car when she left school. She’d tried for another with Tonya, but Tonya had walked away. If Jess was on her way to Kitty’s, that would make four girls, and with four girls…
“Thanks, Mrs. M!” I said, sprinting for the car. I heard her call my name, but I threw myself in and peeled out of the driveway, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my phone. I dialed Kitty, waiting for her to pick up, but I got dumped into her voice mail. I kept dialing and she kept not answering. I sent a text; there was no answer. I didn’t know for sure if Jess was summoning Mary again, but between the notebook, the girls, and her earlier promise to help me, the pieces fit together.
I whipped around a corner hard enough that two tires lifted off the road. Kitty was a pushover. She would agree to anything Jess wanted. Well, maybe not a pushover—Jess was just good at getting her way. She’d bully and bully until people relented, myself included. If Jess threw Kitty a line about saving me, Kitty would want to help. I wished she’d tell Jess NO for once, but that was impossible. Kitty was too nice for her own good.
I tore up Kitty’s super-long driveway, nearly hitting her shrub wall at least four times before parking. My eyes strayed to the rearview mirror. I half expected it to have a tongue or fingers or some other dead body part lolling out of it, but Mary was nowhere to be found. I almost wished she were, because then I’d know she wasn’t inside Kitty’s house.
I rushed inside, not bothering to knock. Kitty did all of her hosting downstairs in the media room, so I beelined for the basement door. I reached for the knob just as screams blasted up from the other side of the door. There was the thud of feet on stairs before the door swung open and whacked me in the face. I doubled over as it struck my nose, my hands covering the stabbing ache. Becca and Laurie burst from the dense blackness of the basement, both of them panicked and terrified and frantic to escape. They shoved past me and scrambled for the front door, screaming at the top of their lungs the entire way.
Rot smell wafted up from the darkness, the unmistakable tang of too sweet, too sour, and too wet. Bloody Mary was here.
“God. GOD!” I lunged for the light switch and ran down the stairs.
The back wall of the media room had a big decorative mirror hanging over the leather couch, which was probably why Jess chose it to summon Mary. It was plenty big enough for Mary to pass through. The couch was pulled away from the wall, and there was a salt box on the floor beneath the mirror. The lines were fully formed; there were no breaks that I could see. Somehow, though, Mary had found a way through the wards. Maybe they’d dropped the handhold. Maybe they’d forgotten the candle.
Half the bottles from the bar were smashed, and the stools were thrown askew. A few of them were broken into pieces, long shards of wood littering the booze-drenched ground. The pool table was tipped on its side in the corner of the room, its felt top shredded by Mary’s claws. The couch was gutted, the springs from the cushions exposed and menacingly sharp.
&nb
sp; There was no one in the room. I couldn’t see Jess or Kitty, and although I had heard Mary’s laugh and smelled her distinctive stink, I couldn’t see her, either. I panicked that I was too late. Maybe Mary had dragged them both into the mirror. My stomach knotted at the thought, but then with crunching, squelching steps, Mary trundled out of the adjacent laundry room. I actually felt a little relieved to see her. She wouldn’t be here if Jess and Kitty were on the other side of the glass. She’d be too busy bleeding them like she’d bled Anna.
“Kitty! What happened? Where are you?” I called out, praying she was somewhere safe. My voice caught Mary’s attention and she craned her head my way, casting me a jack-o’-lantern grin with her crooked, broken teeth. There was a crack at the corner of her lip where the pustules had been the last time I saw her. They’d erupted, and now her smile extended up too far, into her cheek like someone had taken a razor to the edge of her mouth. The flaps of skin hung too loose, explaining the wet, wheezing sound Mary made every few seconds.
“Run! You need to run! The salt’s not working!” It was Kitty, her voice squeaking out from behind the upended pool table. It was smart to use it as a barrier against Mary, but it wouldn’t last. Mary was far too strong for a little thing like a pool table to stop her.
“Get out of here, Shauna!” Jess commanded from the same position. “Just go. I’ve got this under control.”
“No, you don’t,” I said. I made my way to the closest broken stool, my fingers wrapping around a snapped leg. The end was jagged and sharp. Under normal circumstances it would make a fine weapon, except Mary was anything but normal. I watched her walk over a sea of broken glass to get to me, some of the pointy bits wedging into the soles of her feet. It didn’t slow her down, not even when each foot left a perfect footprint of sludge-blood in the carpet.
I wasn’t going to lose Kitty to Mary, too. I circled the ghost and moved toward the pool table, keeping Mary in my sights at all times. I walked backward, navigating the floor debris as best I could, only stumbling once or twice in my circuit.
“Leave, Shauna,” Jess repeated.
“You’re not getting Kitty killed, too. What’d she tell you to get you to summon her again, Kitty? That you could help me? Well, you can by taking the ghost. It’s a shitty deal,” I said, my eyes pinned on Mary, the stool leg raised in case she grabbed for me. She was only about six feet away now. I continued to retreat, past the pool table and toward the carcass of the sofa. Mary was content to follow, as if she knew that there was nowhere I could go.
I heard Kitty whimper my name right before the pool table flew away from the wall. It could have been Kitty trying to escape; it could have been Jess flinging Kitty in Bloody Mary’s direction. Either way, Mary’s attention snapped away from me. She charged the pool table, her skeletal hands gripping the side and heaving it over her head as she screeched. Jess and Kitty dove away from her, Jess going left toward me while Kitty rolled right, crunching over broken glass, as the table crashed into the wall.
I slid behind the couch. Mary sniffed the air, her eyes flitting from Kitty to Jess to me, as if she didn’t know which target would prove the most succulent. When she turned toward Kitty, I let out a shrill whistle and slammed the stool leg against the couch.
“Over here, you dead bitch! Come on, it’s me you want!” I tried to taunt her into coming for me by making a clamor, but Mary cast a grin over her shoulder and spun back to Kitty, her hands swiping. Kitty made a break for the bar, pieces of bottle glass breaking beneath her shoes. Mary liked the chase; she followed Kitty, shriek-laughing and lunging in a twisted game.
I moved out from behind the couch, starting toward Mary with the stool leg at the ready, when I felt an arm wrap around my waist from behind. I was wrenched back and slammed into a tall, warm form. Jess. Her free hand grabbed for the stool leg in an attempt to wrestle it away from me. I gripped it tighter, but Jess grunted and kicked her knee into the back of mine. We tumbled forward as one unit, narrowly missing the exposed springs of the couch, my elbows slamming down into the glass and splintered wood.
“No. Leave it alone,” Jess growled, giving the stool leg another jerk. “Just let Mary grab her and we’ll see if—oomph.” She snarled as I elbowed her in the gut, shifting her position so she could better sprawl on top of me to pin me. Her left hand buried itself in my hair, her right sliding under my chin and gripping hard. “Knock it off. If Mary cuts her, she gets her scent. It’ll buy you time. We can save Kitty later.”
“ARE YOU INSANE?” I screamed. “You can’t trade one friend to Mary for another.” I bucked like a bronco, but Jess had me secure. She flexed the hand in my hair and pulled my head back before tearing the stool leg from my grasp. It landed a few feet away. I heard crashes from the bar and glanced up in time to see Kitty hurling the remaining liquor bottles at Mary’s head. Mary just laughed and leapt toward her, nearly catching her by the sleeve.
“I’m doing this to save you! Stop being such a pain in the ass!” Jess shouted, loud enough that my ears rang. She yanked on my hair, making my scalp tingle with the force. No matter how much I writhed and kicked, I couldn’t shake her, she wouldn’t let go, and I grunted my frustration, the heel of my sneaker smacking her in the shin.
“Come on, Jess! I don’t want this. Let me go. Let Kitty go, for God’s sake. Let me go!”
“Shut up, Shauna. This is temporary. Just so she doesn’t kill you before we can solve it. Kitty will be fine. I promise. I promise she’ll be fine. We’ll figure it out!”
“No, Jess! No. GET OFF OF ME! GET OFF!”
I screamed myself raw, twisting and turning. Mary got closer and closer to catching Kitty with every swipe. She edged her way around the bar with a series of rasps and chitters, her lips twisting up to reveal mold-riddled gums and yellow fangs. Another dry rustle of laughter and she tottered toward Kitty, her talons extended to rend flesh from bone. Kitty whimpered and dove across the bar, trying to vault to the other side, but Mary grabbed for her leg, her hand twisting in the hem of Kitty’s jeans. Mary jerked back, and Kitty sailed down the polished wood.
Kitty gave a plaintive wail, and I knew this was it. If I didn’t do something, Kitty would either be cursed, maimed like Bronx, or killed. I couldn’t let any of those things happen. I had to lure Mary our way, but how? Without the bar stool, the only things I had within arm’s reach were glass shards from a broken champagne bottle, but they weren’t big enough to inflict much damage.
But then, maybe I didn’t need to do a lot of damage.
Blood. Bloody Mary loved blood. After the doorknob exchange, she’d slurped it off of her fingers like it was her favorite candy. If I wanted to make Mary give up Kitty, I had to give her an incentive. I reached for the nearest shard of glass and slammed it into the back of Jess’s hand.
“You bitch. YOU BITCH!” Jess howled, rolling off me to cradle her injured hand to her chest. Blood welled up thick and fast, ribbons of it running down her wrist, dripping over her lap. It was possible it wouldn’t be enough, that Mary only wanted my blood, but if that was the case, I’d jab myself in the palm to make her come this way. I had no qualms about offering Jess in my stead first, though. She deserved a little pain.
The effect was immediate. Mary swiveled toward us, catching the scent. She tossed Kitty aside like an abandoned toy to charge me and Jess, a rattling wheeze erupting from her lips with every step. She stopped just in front of me, so close I could see glass poking out of the meaty parts of her feet and through her rotting toenails. A rain of swamp water droplets splashed down over my head as she leaned over me to grab Jess. I dove for the bar stool leg, Jess screaming in terror behind me. Glass tangled in my shirt, tearing the fabric and scratching my skin, but I didn’t stop crawling until I had the weapon in my hand.
Mary pulled Jess close. Jess shrieked and flailed, but Mary’s grip was ironclad. I pushed myself to my feet and edged away, watching them. For all that I hated Jess, I couldn’t watch her get maimed or dragged into the mirror. I stumb
led toward the back of the couch and spotted a Tupperware container full of salt on the floor. I picked it up and got a handful, throwing it at Mary. I waited for her flesh to burn, but the granules just hit her and fell to the floor. She lifted Jess’s hand to slurp the open wound, swallowing every drop of blood with a delighted groan.
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Get it off. Get her off of me. SHAUNA, HELP!” Jess looked at me, her eyes wide and pleading. I tried another handful of salt from the container, and again it did nothing. I began to tremble, my teeth chattering like I’d been dunked in ice water. We had so few advantages against Mary, and now one of the staples was failing us.
“It’s sugar,” Jess said. “Get Kitty’s stash. Hurry. She…Hurry!” Mary was rubbing her face against Jess’s injury now, like a cat marking its territory. It took my brain a moment to absorb what Jess had done. Sugar instead of salt. She’d laid false lines in front of the mirror so Mary could come out and grab one of the girls. It wasn’t that Mary had grown immune to the stuff, it was that I didn’t have the right stuff to hurt her.
For a second, I almost let Bloody Mary have Jess for all the pain and hurt Jess had caused, but I couldn’t be that person. I couldn’t be Jess. I looked over at Kitty, who had retrieved the box of salt from the floor. She tossed it to me, and I tore off the top to get a good handful before flinging it Mary’s way.
The salt struck Mary in the side of her neck, oily smoke wafting from her skin. She let out a furious howl and jerked away. I’d thought the pain would send her scampering back toward the mirror, but as Jess shimmied away from her, trying to escape, Mary snatched at her blond hair, wadding it in her fist. Mary’s other hand pulled back before she swiped it down, her claws raking Jess’s shoulder blades. Jess screamed. She was marked as I’d been marked. Those razor nails had claimed her with five bloody tracks.
Jess wept for pity, but the ghost paid no mind. Mary snickered as she leaned in to drag her white, blood-smeared tongue up over Jess’s cheek, leaving a glistening snail trail of spittle across Jess’s face. Jess looked like she wanted to shrivel up and die, but she couldn’t—Mary held her too tightly. She’d become Mary’s prize of the day.
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