Ghost Girl

by Ally Malinenko

  Scratch stretched that red-gloved hand out toward them as if he could pull their souls right out of their bodies.

  19

  PRINCIPAL SCRATCH STOOD BEFORE THEM, HIS RED-GLOVED HAND extended like a weapon. “My children have chosen you. They have deemed you special and for that I will do anything. I have already given you so much. But I am a generous man. I can give even more.”

  He extended a hand toward the gymnasium door. Through it came a familiar little bark and Zee and Elijah looked at Nellie. The mini poodle ran down the aisle, whipping past Scratch. He jumped up toward Nellie, and she scooped him up in her arms. Wait, Zee thought. A few seconds ago, Nellie’s arms wouldn’t even work. Now she’s holding Max. If that even is Max? He licked Nellie’s face and whimpered a scared little cry before leaping down and wiggling on the floor.

  “Yes,” Scratch said, standing behind Nellie. “I can give so much more.” He held his arms out like he was being bathed in a warm light.

  Like he was being fed.

  “Nellie, no!” Zee yelled. “That’s not Max! You have to fight him. That’s not your dog.”

  Nellie looked up at Scratch with a dazed look on her face. Almost as if she had never seen him before in her whole life.

  “Nellie, fight him!” Elijah cried. When she turned to look at him, she offered up the same blank expression that Zee had seen on the other people in town. Scratch clamped a firm tight hand on the back of the girl’s neck.

  We’re losing her, Zee thought with fear. “Nellie, let him go! That’s not Max!” she yelled. Zee tried to move, to get to Nellie, but she was still paralyzed by Scratch’s power. “You have to get out from under his hand!”

  Nellie turned toward them and smiled a smile that did not reach her eyes. “It’s Max!” she said. “My good boy.”

  “Nellie, please!” Zee cried.

  Scratch released his hand from Nellie’s shoulder, and she swayed for a brief second before going slack.

  Max, at her side, shifted and grew. His hair turned from black-and-white to tawny and rough. As Zee watched, unable to move, unable to scream, he transformed into one of the hounds and howled a cry Zee felt in her bones.

  Scratch stepped back from her, and Nellie swayed there, still upright, but limp and vacant and so far from okay. It reminded Zee of the way Elijah was in the woods. What was going to happen to Nellie? Zee wondered. How were they going to help her?

  At the back of the gymnasium, a figure appeared. Zee squinted trying to make out who it was. Could it be someone that will help them? The police? Another teacher?

  As it moved closer, Zee’s heart leaped into her throat. The blurry figure morphed and changed shape, an outline against the gym walls, running toward Elijah.

  “Oh, chicken!” the figure called.

  Zee watched Elijah’s breath catch as his mother ran right up to him. “We were so worried when you didn’t come home. Thank goodness I found you.”

  She bent down on her knees in front of him. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Where have you been? Your father and I were so worried.” She looked around. “What are you doing here?”

  When she leaned up to hug him, Zee watched Elijah relax into her arms, the warmth of her, the familiar smell, the thud of her heart. She kissed his head.

  “Would you like to go home, darling?”

  “Yes,” he answered sounding exhausted. “More than anything.”

  “Elijah!” Zee yelled. But the boy just gave her a blank look, like he’d never seen her before. Scratch already had his hand clamped on Elijah’s shoulder, but all Elijah was focused on was the fake mother before him.

  “Elijah, please,” Zee sobbed, the tears running down her face. “I know you think that’s your mother, but it isn’t her. Please! It’s Scratch making you see what you want to see. Remember what Aunt Betty said!”

  “Zee?” Elijah said weakly. “I feel so strange.”

  “You have to fight him, Elijah. Please. I can’t lose you!” Zee glanced frantically at Nellie, who remained unchanged, the hound circling her swaying body.

  “Look at me, chicken,” Elijah’s mother said, turning his face back toward hers. “I missed you so much.”

  A sob broke out of Elijah. “I thought you were gone. I thought you were never going to get better.”

  “Elijah, please!” Zee yelled. Her voice hitched as she cried. “Please don’t give in. Your mother is still at home and she’s still sick and I know that’s scary but it’s true. This is not your real mother.”

  “But, it is,” Elijah said as his mother kissed his cheek. “She’s better now. All I wanted was for her to get better and she is.”

  “You’ve got to let her go.” Fat tears rolled down Zee’s face. She knew how hard it was to accept the awful truth. She knew how scared Elijah was, how much he wanted this. Scratch’s cruelty hit her like a punch in the gut.

  “But she’s better,” Elijah said as the tears slipped slowly down his cheek. “If she’s better, I don’t have to lose her again. You don’t understand.”

  “I know what it’s like to lose someone,” Zee said, her voice hitching. “I know how scary it is, but, Elijah, please, I’m begging you. That is not your mother. Your mother is at home and she needs you.”

  “Lil’ chicken,” his mother whispered in his ear. “You know that it’s me. I’m so sorry for scaring you. I’m sorry for getting sick. But I’m better now. The doctor came and helped me. Things are going to change, I promise.”

  “Elijah, please! You have to fight it,” Zee sobbed next to him. “Get out from underneath him!”

  “I’ll take you home now, chicken. Just me and you.”

  Elijah nodded, but his face twisted. “I don’t feel good.”

  “Elijah,” Zee begged, “fight back!”

  “I promise never to get sick again. I know you were scared and I’m so sorry, but we’ve got each other now.” She touched his cheek, brushing away a tear. “You want to come with me?” She stood and reached out a hand. “I’ll take you home now.”

  Zee watched with horror as Elijah’s head started to slump forward and his eyes rolled back in his head. Scratch was draining him. Soon, he would just be an empty thing like Nellie was.

  “Elijah, you have to fight him! Please!” Zee cried. “You have to stay with me so we can save Nellie.” When he turned his head and she could see him focus on her, her heart lifted. “Yes, that’s it. See me. I’m right here. I’m real. She isn’t real, Elijah.”

  He looked back at his mother, who still stood before him with her hand outstretched.

  “Let’s go home now, Elijah,” his mother said, pulling on his hand. “I’ll make you a cake.”

  He looked up at her. “A cake?”

  “I’ll make you a cake of sticks and stones and dried-up leaves.” Her face stretched in a wide, wicked smile.

  “What did you say?” Elijah asked in a shaky voice.

  Her smiled stretched longer, like her chin was extending; her eyes shone a touch too bright. “I know it’s your favorite.”

  “No, please no,” he sobbed.

  Suddenly, Elijah gasped and pulled himself out from underneath Scratch’s hand as the thing pretending to be his mother cried out. She hunched over, her arms and legs contorting, and then sprouting fur. She landed on all fours, her face growing long and lean, a snout full of jutting fangs. The cry now turned into a howl.

  “Hoooowww muuuchhh loooonnnnnggggeeeer?”

  Zee watched Elijah’s body suddenly fill with life. His head lifted and his eyes opened as he gasped for air.

  “That’s it, Elijah—fight him!” she yelled. He looked dazed and ashen, but he wasn’t as far gone as Nellie. Elijah somehow managed to get out from under Scratch’s hold, and whatever that thing was that was pretending to be his mother had crept away.

  “Boy, you are proving to be quite a nuisance,” Principal Scratch said. He flexed his hand, and Elijah landed with a thud on the floor. Zee called for him, but he didn’t stand up.

  Zee
started to yell for someone, anyone. “Help!” she screamed. “Someone help us, please!”

  Suddenly the gym doors flew open and her father came charging in. “Zee, baby, are you okay? What’s going on here? Who is this man?”

  “Dad!” Her breath caught.

  “Darling, come here. Get away from that man.”

  “Dad, please help me!”

  “Baby, it’s me,” her father said. “I just got home. I’ve missed you and Abby so much. Look, she’s here.”

  Behind him, Abby came running through the gym. “Zee, I’m so sorry about before. I didn’t realize what I was doing. I was just confused. I’m not sure how it even happened.”

  Abby and her father both ran to her and hugged her. She collapsed into their arms. They felt warm and real. They were here to save her.

  There was a pressure on the back of her neck, and suddenly it felt like her shoulders were on fire.

  Then a voice in her head, a voice that sounded a lot like Elijah, said, No one can save you but yourself.

  Her father grabbed her hand and pulled her away from Scratch. He held her tight, and the burning feeling was gone.

  He was here. This was real.

  “Zee, sweetheart,” her father said, holding her face between his palms. They were so warm, and her cheeks felt so cold.

  “Are you really here?” She looked around for Principal Scratch, but she couldn’t see him. Her father must have scared him away. That must have been what happened.

  “Yes, baby, we’re really here and we love you.”

  “We love you, Zee,” Abby said. “I hope you forgive us.”

  They each took one of her hands and walked her through the gym toward the open doors. She passed Elijah, still on the ground. Was he in pain? What was he yelling at her? Fight back? Against who? Everything seemed fuzzy. She glanced back. There was Nellie playing with Max. Look how happy she looked. She had everything she wanted.

  In the background, she could hear Elijah yelling her name, but it sounded like it came from a tin can on the end of a string. Why was he telling her that this wasn’t her father? Why was he begging her not to leave him alone? He told her to remember what Aunt Betty said. Why did that feel familiar?

  Have hope, even when it seems hopeless. Let it carry you through the dark.

  Something was wrong. Zee knew it deep down in her belly. She was forgetting something. Something very important. Something she told Nellie to remember. Something she told Elijah to fight. Aunt Betty told them to take care of each other. She glanced at him again, the way he stretched out his hand to her, the way he cried. Was that really Elijah?

  He cannot take that which is not freely given.

  But what did that even mean?

  “Zee,” Abby said, pulling Zee’s eyes away from her friend. “Please tell us you forgive us.”

  “Of course,” Zee croaked, “I love you both.”

  Abby hugged her tighter. “Good, because we forgive you too.”

  “For what?” Zee said. Her head hurt. Something was wrong. Abby looked strange. Sort of dead-eyed and blank. Zee looked at her father, and he looked the same.

  “Darling,” her father said, lifting her chin. “We forgive you for what you did to your mother.”

  20

  “W-W-W-WHAT?” ZEE STAMMERED.

  “Fight them, Zee!” Elijah yelled. It sounded like he was crying. “Keep your head clear! Scratch is messing with your mind. You’re seeing things that aren’t there.”

  Zee looked at her father. She steeled her voice. “You’re not him. You’re not my real father.”

  “Abby,” her father said, “help me. We must get her out of here. I don’t know what that man did, but we must protect her.” Her father pulled hard on her wrist.

  “No,” Zee yelled, pulling back. “You’re not my father.”

  A look of anger passed over his face, contorting it. “Of course I am, you little murderer. I’m your father and this is your sister.”

  “No,” she said. And then she screamed with all her might as she pulled herself away from them. As she did, the fake version of her father and sister vanished in a wisp of smoke.

  She was free! She could move. Zee ran across the gym toward Elijah, who was pulling himself to his feet. “Look,” Elijah said, and pointed at Nellie up by the bleachers. She was still in a catatonic state, staring blankly at the hound that was circling her.

  There was a low growl from behind them. At the doors, hackles raised, were the other two hounds. Zee and Elijah scurried away from them but toward Scratch. He raised a hand, and the doors to the gym slammed shut.

  As the dogs passed, Zee heard the voice once again, asking that question it had always been asking. A question Zee was sure she didn’t want the answer to.

  “Hooooowwwww muuuucccchhhh looooonnnn-ggggeeerrrr?”

  “It is time, my lovelies,” Principal Scratch said, reaching out to the hounds. Elijah and Zee moved back against the wall to avoid the dogs that trotted across the gym, but they didn’t even seem interested. They only cared about Scratch. They gathered at his feet, sitting too still, too un-doglike, and Zee and Elijah stared in horror.

  Speaking to the hounds, he said, “My children. You have suffered for too long in these bodies. You have chosen new forms.”

  The hound next to the catatonic Nellie howled in response.

  “They marked you back in the cemetery,” Scratch said, pointing at Zee and Elijah. “Get out, while you still can.”

  “No,” Elijah said. “Not without Nellie.”

  “You will get no other warning,” Scratch said, lifting his red-gloved hand, and the gym doors banged open as if offering salvation.

  Zee thought about all the things her father had taught her. How to stand up for herself. How to stand up to bullies, even if those bullies were adults. She thought about what Aunt Betty had said, about how they must hold tight to one another. About how consent was their weapon. Or maybe, their shield.

  That which is not freely given.

  And then Zee Puckett threw back her head and laughed.

  “No,” she said. “That’s not how it works. You can’t threaten us.”

  “You don’t know what I can do,” Scratch said, his voice velvet smooth. It carried through the gym and landed all soft and whispery in her ear. It was somehow worse that he didn’t yell.

  She stood her ground. “You can’t just take our dreams, our hopes, our souls.”

  “I won’t give you this opportunity again. Get out.”

  “Zee,” Elijah whispered, “what are you doing?”

  “I’m calling his bluff. It’s just like Aunt Betty said,” Zee whispered back. And then to Scratch she said, “You can only take what is given to you freely. You show people what they want the most. When they believe your lies and whatever you conjure up, they offer up their hopes and dreams and you eat them little by little. But ours are not freely given. Not even you, Scratch, can take what was not offered. That is the pact in all the stories. For centuries, that has always been the rule.”

  He looked angry, but he made no move to defy her. He tilted his chin up and said, “Are you so sure of that, little girl?”

  “I am. If there’s one thing I know, it’s stories.”

  Scratch watched them for a beat and then laughed low and long. “Shame. You both would have made fine homes for my children. And I so wanted to eat every morsel of your dreams. Especially yours, Zera.”

  He strode over to Nellie, and the hounds followed him. “So be it. Stay, then. Watch your friend fall lifeless.”

  “No!” Elijah yelled. “Nellie, wake up!”

  But Nellie stayed where she was, looking like an empty doll. A doll that was ready to be filled with something else.

  With a snarl, the hound that was with Nellie knocked her to the ground, pinning her down. It pulled its head up in a howl and then opened its jaws. The hound’s mouth stretched wider and wider than should have been possible, unhinging like a snake. From its distorted mouth came t
he question, “Hoooooowwwwwwww muuuuccccchhhhhh looooooonnnnnngggggeeerrrr?”

  Scratch yelled, “You have waited long enough. Now is the time!”

  The hound reared up on its back legs, its huge paws in the air above Nellie. Out of its wide twisted mouth came a stream of black smoke. It was a dark, deep blackness, the blackest black, twisting like a tornado up to the roof of the gym, before dropping down and heading toward an unfazed Nellie.

  “Yes,” Scratch said. “She is yours now.”

  “NOOOOOO!” Elijah screamed, and ran forward. He sprinted across the gym, Zee on his heels. He shoved the dog aside. The shaggy body fell over and vanished in a thick pile of black ash.

  Scratch yelled and dived toward him, but Elijah was fast. Before the smoke could reach Nellie, he’d already pushed her out of the way. Everything slowed down to stretched seconds as Zee realized what was happening.

  “No,” she whispered, running toward Elijah, but it was too late. “No, no, no, no!”

  The thick tornado of smoke missed Nellie.

  But it found Elijah.

  Zee stuttered to a stop, her heart hammering as she watched the smoke fill her friend. It tunneled into his mouth, wrapping itself around his head. Elijah stood there, arms thrown out, locked in place.

  “Elijah! NO!”

  He collapsed to the floor as the last little wisp of smoke disappeared down this throat.

  In a panic, Zee turned Elijah over and looked at him.

  No. No. No. No, Zee thought. Not Elijah. She couldn’t lose him. She laid her head on his heart and heard the small pitter-patter of its beats. He was still alive.

  But was he still Elijah?

  “Elijah, wake up,” she said, gently shaking him. Please wake up. Please. She begged with her voice, and her mind, and her heart. Why hadn’t it been her? Why hadn’t she beaten him here? “Elijah, wake up, please!”