Ghost Girl

by Ally Malinenko

  “I could try. If what happened to her happened to me, I would want to get revenge,” Zee said.

  “That’s what happened when my aunt helped out a ghost on Route 66,” Nellie said.

  “You really do know this stuff,” Elijah said, giving her a warm smile.

  Zee pulled a new book off the stack. She flipped through the pages and stopped when she got to a part on demons. It talked about the history of demons, but what caught her eye was a sidebar that had a list of historical names.

  Azazel

  Demogorgon

  Hecate

  Loki

  Mephistopheles

  It was one of the last names, a nickname according to the book, that made Zee stop.

  Ol’ Scratch

  It couldn’t be a coincidence.

  Aunt Betty appeared holding a big red book, pulled out a chair, and sat down. “Kids, I think I might have found something out about this Principal Scratch.” She opened the book in her hands and read from the page.

  “Negative entity attachments, or NEAs, are spirits that have attached themselves to a person in order to siphon off their energy. NEAs feed off people’s feelings, good and bad, as well as their ideas and imaginations. NEAs can attach to one or many people depending on their strength. They are very persuasive, and as they persuade people and drain their energy, their powers grow. If an NEA gained corporal form, it would be very dangerous.”

  “What’s ‘corporal form’ mean?” Zee asked.

  “It means to have a body. To have physical form,” Elijah said.

  “That’s right,” Aunt Betty said.

  “So you think that Principal Scratch is an NEA?” Zee asked.

  Aunt Betty exhaled slowly. “It’s hard to say without having seen him do his actual work, but this sounds like what you were telling me. He starts as someone that inspires you, that convinces you that he can help. He raises people’s hopes, reads their minds, their dreams, their fears . . . and then they start getting the thing they want. So they keep at it. It’s a cycle, and each cycle makes him stronger. And he drains all their energy. He feeds off their needs.”

  “Have you ever dealt with an NEA, Aunt Betty?” Nellie asked.

  “Once, but it wasn’t a person. It was just a spirit.” She chewed her lip before saying, “It was very powerful, and I was much younger. Back then we didn’t call them NEAs.”

  “What did you call them?”

  Before Aunt Betty could answer, Zee said, “Demons.”

  Aunt Betty nodded. “Good instincts, Zee. When you are tied to the spirit world, you’ll see not everything is as it appears.”

  “Miss Betty,” Zee asked.

  “Aunt Betty, darling,” the woman said, squeezing Zee’s hand.

  Zee smiled. “Aunt Betty, is there a map of Knobb’s Ferry? And maybe some tracing paper?”

  “I’ll see what I can find.”

  After a few minutes, Aunt Betty managed to scrounge up a map in the archive section and tracing paper in the children’s craft section and brought them to the table. Zee spread the map out.

  “Uh-oh,” Elijah said. “What are we doing?”

  “Just an idea I had.” Zee spread the tracing paper over the map and made a point on what would have been her house. Then she found Elijah’s and Nellie’s homes and made a little dot on them. Then she found Deanna Jameson’s little apartment over the barbershop and marked that. Then the closest she could estimate to where the bog was.

  “Oh!” Nellie said, just a step ahead of Zee. “Of course.”

  “Why am I the only one that doesn’t get what is happening here?” Elijah said, and Aunt Betty smiled at him as they watched Zee start to connect the dots.

  “That’s a very powerful symbol, children,” Aunt Betty said, worry furrowing her brow.

  “My house, your house, Nellie’s house, Deanna’s house, and the bog, where we found the bracelet.”

  “And what’s in the middle?” Aunt Betty asked.

  Zee marked the center with an X. “That,” she said, “would be the school. At the center of this lies Scratch.”

  She glanced at the sidebar in the open book.

  Ol’ Scratch.

  Zee, Nellie, and Elijah looked at Aunt Betty, who hadn’t taken her eyes off the map. “You children were right to come to me for help,” she said with determination.

  18

  “COME ON, MY CAR’S OUT BACK,” AUNT BETTY SAID.

  “You’re coming with us?” Zee asked.

  “Of course I am. I have more experience with this than you do.” The trio squeezed into Aunt Betty’s pickup truck, and soon they were rumbling down toward the highway.

  The problem was, they couldn’t get there.

  “Didn’t we already pass that bus station?” Elijah asked, pointing as they raced past the station.

  Aunt Betty’s brow furrowed. When the bus station appeared again, Zee and Nellie pointed it out.

  “What is going on?” Nellie asked the third time the bus station zipped past the truck. “Are we stuck in some kind of loop?”

  Aunt Betty pulled the truck over to the side of the road. “This is some powerful magic, children. It seems the whole town of Knobb’s Ferry is cursed. I can’t drive you back there. I suspect no one could.”

  “How do we get home?”

  “Oh, you can get home. The next bus that pulls out of that bus station will take you home. Problem is, I was going to help you. That is what that man is trying to stop.” Aunt Betty pulled the truck back out onto the road, and then, when the bus station appeared again, she pulled into the parking lot. They climbed out of the pickup truck as the bus appeared in the distance.

  “Come here, all of you,” Aunt Betty said, hugging them all so hard they thought they were going to pop.

  She looked at each of them in turn and said, “Take care of each other. Love and friendship are the strongest allies you have.” She touched the side of Zee’s face. “Your gift is powerful and it will help you, but you all must protect each other. And you, Elijah, watch out for them. Listen even when they cannot. Same with you, girls. Have hope, even when it seems hopeless. Let it carry you through the dark. You must believe in hope even in the dark or you shall never make it to the dawn. And most of all, hold tight to each other.” Aunt Betty gathered their hands into hers. “NEAs can’t feed off you if you protect each other. Keep each other clear. Don’t fall prey to your wants. Or your fears. That will feed him. Don’t listen to his lies. Life is full of loss. Lies do not protect us from that. Loss must be met head-on. There are few stronger ties in this world than friendship. Not even a demon can cut through that.”

  Nellie, Elijah, and Zee all looked at each other, grim determination set on their faces. The bus to Knobb’s Ferry rumbled up to the stop. “I wish I had more time,” Aunt Betty said.

  “Thank you for everything,” Nellie said. Aunt Betty hugged them all again, and they boarded the bus.

  “Oh, and children!” Aunt Betty yelled from the sidewalk. Zee pulled down her window. “Don’t forget: The trickster, no matter how powerful, cannot take that which is not freely given. As long as you don’t give in, he has no power over you. Never forget that.”

  The bus pulled out, and the three of them waved frantically to Aunt Betty, knowing that now, even more than the knowledge they gained, she had given them courage.

  For all of Aunt Betty’s wonderful advice, the first thing she did suggest was very practical. She convinced them to get help. Since she couldn’t come with them, she suggested that before they tried to confront Scratch, they needed to talk to the police. But by the time they were standing outside the station doors, that whole thing seemed insane.

  “They’re not going to believe us,” Zee said. “It all made sense around Aunt Betty, but now it sounds crazy.”

  “Yeah, that’s magic for you,” Nellie added.

  “Listen, we gave them the tip about Deanna’s bracelet; that has to count for something,” Elijah said. “They need to understand what ha
ppened out there in the woods and what her ghost told you about Principal Scratch. I’ll even tell them about how my mother has been . . . different.”

  “And my dog,” Nellie added.

  “What if they’re all under his spell?” Zee asked. “Scratch is really powerful.”

  “If there’s any chance that we can get someone else on our side,” Nellie said, “someone with authority, we should take it. And if not, we’ll have to do it on our own.”

  Zee exhaled. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

  Inside the station, a bunch of police officers were milling about, having loud conversations and drinking coffee even though it was nearly 4:00 in the afternoon. None of them stopped to acknowledge the trio. Zee approached the desk. Behind it one of the police officers was seated, his back turned away from them. He was yelling to one of the other officers about the outcome of last night’s game.

  “Excuse me,” Zee said, but the man behind the counter continued to ignore her. She had a bad feeling about this.

  Nellie, clearly annoyed, banged her hand on the counter and shouted, “EXCUSE ME!”

  The officer spun around and stared at the children before him. “What’s that?”

  “We need to talk to someone about Deanna Jameson,” Nellie said. Zee was struck by how confident Nellie sounded. Nellie was a girl who demanded to be listened to.

  “What was that, kiddo?” the officer said with a condescending laugh. “You want to talk about a murder? Is this for the school paper?”

  This made the nearby officers laugh.

  “No,” Zee said, finding her courage. “It is not for the paper. I’m the one that called in the anonymous tip. I’m the one who found her bracelet.”

  He snorted in response, “Yeah, sure you did.”

  “I did. I found it in the bog out past the North Woods. Right along One Mile Creek.”

  The officer squinted. “Am I supposed to believe that you three kids found the best clue we had in this case and called it in?”

  “We’re not kids. We’re eleven,” Elijah added.

  “Well, my young Sherlocks,” the officer said, giving a smug smile, “how did you go about finding a bracelet in the middle of a bog deep in the woods?”

  “Because her ghost came to us and told us,” Nellie said. Zee appreciated Nellie including herself and Elijah. Now all three of them could get laughed out of this station instead of just her.

  And laughed at they were. The officer gathered up everyone he could find nearby and filled them in. After a few more minutes of laughter, he said, “Wait. Is her ghost here now? Is she talking to you?”

  Someone behind him made a creepy “oooooohhhhhhh” moan. Others laughed. Amazing, Zee thought to herself. You never really do grow up. It’s like your whole life is always going to be varying versions of school.

  “No,” Zee said. “We set her free. But she told me who killed her.”

  The main officer shushed those around him. He leaned over the counter, and a serious look spread across his face. Zee knew better than to trust it.

  “Who? Who did she finger for the murderer?”

  “Principal Scratch,” Zee and Elijah and Nellie all said at the same time.

  There was a stunned silence that rippled through the room before everyone in hearing distance erupted in laughter.

  Zee sighed and turned to leave.

  The officer held up his hands to silence everyone’s laughter and said, “So you’re telling me that the man who saved my marriage is a murderer?”

  Someone from the back said “Yeah, the man who helped cure my son also kills pretty little kindergarten teachers?”

  “And the man who got me a new home is also a stone-cold killer?” someone else yelled.

  “I told you this was pointless,” Zee said. They left the station, shutting the door on both the laughter and the mocking comments from those officers.

  Back out on the street, Zee looked at her friends. “No one is going to believe us. The whole town is under his spell. He gives them what they want most in the world. They’re loyal to him.”

  “So what now?” Elijah asked. “We’re totally alone in this?”

  Zee looked at her friends. She thought about Abby. About how washed out and wasted away she seemed. She thought about how Scratch was manipulating her, playing her like a puppet. She thought about Elijah’s poor mother, sick in that bedroom while a fake one danced around his kitchen. She thought about Nellie’s dog. All these people believed because of one man who was playing them like a violin.

  “We were never alone,” Zee said.

  “No,” Nellie said. “Like Aunt Betty said, we’ve got each other.”

  Zee raised her fist, and both Nellie and Elijah bumped it in solidarity. As they headed toward the school, each step felt like something was pulling them along. Something was dragging them toward it.

  Something evil.

  The front doors to the school were unlocked, but the lights were out—casting what seemed familiar in an unknown light. It was just starting to get dark outside. They walked in, shoulder to shoulder, and headed down the long hallway. Zee could swear the others could hear her heart pounding. The classrooms they passed were empty.

  “Where could he be?” Elijah whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Nellie answered, “maybe visiting more families and messing with their heads.”

  The loudspeaker squealed to life. “Hello, children.” Principal Scratch’s velvety voice filled the halls and the classrooms. “I’ve been waiting for you three.”

  A shadow slid down the hall ahead of them. Was it Scratch? Zee grabbed the hand of Elijah, who then grabbed Nellie’s. They watched the shadow grow closer, slinking up the wall. By the time it turned the bend, Zee’s heart was in her throat and Elijah was squeezing her hand so hard she thought it might break.

  Around the corner, a figure crept. But it was not Principal Scratch. Instead they watched with horror as the hound appeared in the hall, threw back its head, and howled. The cries filled the hall, and then the creature leaped forward and gave chase.

  The children ran, arms pumping, for the nearest classroom, the hound close on their heels. They got inside and slammed the door shut.

  “We’re trapped,” Elijah said, his face painted with fear. “What do we do now?”

  “I have no idea,” Nellie answered.

  After a few minutes of pacing and barking and scratching at the door, the dog started to whine before it gave up and trotted down the hall.

  “Do you think it’s gone?” Zee asked as she took a few tentative steps toward the door. Nellie and Elijah followed as the trio cracked the door open and peered down the hall. It was empty. The hound, it seemed, had been scared off.

  There was a loud crash behind them as desks went flying. All three of them screamed at once. Zee spun around. The hound was inside the classroom. Zee stared with horror at the open window. She didn’t even have a chance to tell them to run before they were charging out of the room. The creature was hot on their heels. They all turned right at the next hall, sprinting down to the science wing and the cafeteria. Before they could reach another classroom, another hound appeared ahead of them.

  “This way!” Nellie yelled, pulling them toward the gymnasium. They yanked the doors open and tumbled inside, then shut them again just as the hounds slammed up against the wood. Zee, Elijah, and Nellie scrambled backward into the darkness of the gymnasium. Elijah got up and found the big light panel on the wall. He flipped the switch up.

  Principal Scratch stood in the middle of the room.

  Nellie reached for Zee’s and Elijah’s hands.

  “Hello, children. Are you finally ready to confess?”

  “We don’t believe your lies,” Nellie said, just like her aunt had told them. “You can’t hurt us because we know what you are.”

  Principal Scratch threw back his head and laughed. Outside the doors he was answered by a lone howl. Then another.

  He strode toward them. The trio
scurried away as he approached and shot out that one red-gloved hand and snapped his fingers. A surge of heat, like electricity, sizzled through their hands. Nellie hissed and let go.

  “Did you really think that would work on me?” Principal Scratch asked with a smile. “Do you not know who I am?”

  He flexed that gloved hand out again, and they froze in place.

  Literally.

  Zee couldn’t move her legs anymore. She couldn’t move her arms. She managed a side glance toward Nellie and Elijah and saw that they were also stuck fast.

  Oh no, she thought. What have I done?

  Principal Scratch took his time walking toward them, each click of his boots on the shiny gym floor tapping a terrifying tempo. He hooked a finger under Zee’s chin and lifted her head up. His sunglasses slipped down his nose just enough for Zee to see his eyes. She squeezed her own shut. But it was too late. If she survived this, she would never forget what they looked like. Stone-cold black eyes—no white, no iris—just endless black with red pupils. Like two perfect drops of blood floating in the dark.

  “What are you?” Zee managed to ask.

  “I am your nightmares. I am your doubt. I am your weakness and fear and jealousy. I am everything you hate about yourself. I am hate itself. And I have been walking with you your whole life.”

  He stood in front of them. “I know what you yearn for. I can see into your hearts. All of you,” he said, holding his hands out.

  “You,” he said, pointing to Elijah. “I have fixed your mother.”

  “That thing is not my mother,” Elijah growled.

  Principal Scratch ignored him, “And you. I saved your little dog. Don’t you see? I give and I give and I give. I have healed this town. And, in exchange, I only get one small thing.”

  “What?” Elijah asked.

  “Nourishment. Fulfillment. Each wish is a morsel. Each desperate want, a bite. You see, when they talk to me, I get to feast on their souls. Bite by bite, I eat them up, until there’s nothing left. I’m almost done with some of them. Soon they will drop to the ground, nothing left but a worn-out husk. They’re all so deep into their fantasies they can’t even see themselves wasting away. So determined to get what they want, they don’t realize what’s happening. Humankind is weak. They will abandon each other for their own desires. Eventually you three, who have proved so difficult to manage, will give in too. And I will relish eating your wishes and hopes and dreams. So young. So fresh. So tasty.”