Ready for a Scare? (7 page)

“What?” she cried.

“It sounded like
‘Miss Mary, Miss Mary.'
”

A sudden chill shook Kelly's body. She shivered, pulling her hands farther into her sweatshirt sleeves. As the wind moaned through the trees, the branches slapped her window in angry protest.

This sleepover wasn't turning out as she'd planned. She wished all her friends were here with her. All together in her room, laughing with the lights on. Sitting alone in the dark in the storm was creeping her out. And she didn't get creeped out. Ever.

“Are you sure?” she asked Gavin and Spencer. She straightened in her chair, trying to shake away her nerves.

They nodded.

She eyed them suspiciously. The clanking of the
heater had stopped, and a slight chill settled over her room. She pushed the bowl of uneaten melted green ice cream to the side of her desk.

“No joke. We heard it. Really.” Spencer gazed unflinchingly.

After all these years, she knew Spencer could never meet her eye if he was lying.
But just because he believes he heard something doesn't mean he really did,
she assured herself. She was afraid to let her mind go down the other path.

“I know it doesn't make sense,” Gavin said. “But something is going on.”

“What kind of something?” she challenged.

“Something supernatural,” he said calmly.

Kelly tried to laugh, but the croak that came out sounded more as if she were choking. Her throat felt unnaturally dry again.

“I think we did it,” Gavin said. “I think, somehow, we brought back the spirit of that dead girl.” His eyes gleamed with excitement, although his face remained grim.

Kelly stared at both boys. Spencer looked uncomfortable. He fidgeted in his chair. He gazed around his
room. But Gavin looked, well, almost energized. His wiry body fidgeted expectantly. She wasn't sure what to make of this, especially since she barely knew him.

“Do you think we did, Kelly?” Spencer asked. “Do you feel anything weird?”

She rubbed her icy fingers together, then tried to warm them with her breath. The whole night had been weird. Paige and June were missing. Chrissie was completely off-kilter. And she had felt a strange sensation after they had chanted. Electric. Dizzy. She didn't know what.

But she wasn't going to admit it.

“No.” She picked up her cell and dialed Paige. Nonstop ringing. June's number went right to voice mail. She didn't bother to leave another message, although she really wanted to scream at her friend. Where was she? Why were she and Paige doing this?

“So?” Spencer asked.

“So nothing,” she replied. She tried to control her frustration.

“They're not answering my texts.” Spencer held his phone up to the camera as if her seeing his phone would make her realize how odd it all was.

“Mine either.” She sat quietly for a minute. The air
around her had grown frigid. She could faintly see her breath as she exhaled. The upstairs heater must have died, she realized. She hoped the downstairs one was still working. It was going to be a long, uncomfortable night if they didn't have heat.

“I'm going to call Paige's house phone,” she told them. She almost never called Paige at home anymore. Paige always had her cell by her side. She dialed and listened as the Coxes' phone rang and rang. Where were Paige's parents? They wouldn't be out on a night like this. On the tenth ring, she hung up.

Rummaging about on her desk, she uncovered the slim school directory under a pile of notebooks. An absurd-looking moose wearing a sports jersey graced the cover. She'd never understood why they had to have the stupidest mascot ever. She flipped to the
C
s to check the number. It was silly, really. She'd known Paige since she was born. She didn't have the wrong number. She knew that. But still.

She dialed again, pressing each number deliberately. Ringing and ringing. No answer. “No one's there,” she reported.

“Isn't Paige's sister babysitting you?” Gavin asked.
“Maybe she knows where Paige went.”

Spencer perked up. “Yeah, Kel. You should go ask her.”

Kelly sighed. “I don't know if that's the best idea right now.”

“Why?” Spencer asked.

She told them about how Chrissie had lied about being outside. She explained how disturbed and disconnected she seemed.

“She's possessed,” Gavin said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, please,” she scoffed.

“Think about it,” he challenged. “Think about when her behavior changed.”

It was true. Chrissie had started acting odd after the chanting. After the smell of peppermint.

Gavin's dark-brown eyes burned through the screen at her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable. “We did something,” he said.

She stood and turned her back on the boys. She needed a moment to think. To try to make sense of it all.

She walked to her bed and grabbed the wool blanket folded at the end. An Authentic Vermont Blanket, of course. She wrapped the thick, bright-green blanket around her for warmth. Moving about her room, she
came up with plenty of places her friends could have gone. She just couldn't come up with a lot of reasons why they hadn't returned her texts or answered their phones.

Pulling back her shade, she gazed at the falling snow. Frost inched up the windowpane. It was going to be a big storm, she realized. Her mother had been right. She hoped her parents were okay. She hadn't heard from them in a couple of hours.

She crossed her room and flicked on her light. The glow brightened the room and her mood. Her friends' disappearances suddenly seemed less scary.
There is an explanation,
she told herself.
I just have to figure it out.

She glanced back at her monitor. Only Spencer's face was visible in the frame. Gavin didn't seem to be around. Spencer waved his hand, beckoning to her urgently.

She hurried back to her desk.

“I need to talk to you,” he whispered. His eyes darted about anxiously. “Turn off your microphone. Use the keyboard.”

She gave him a questioning look but followed his instructions.

Kookykell2011: W
HAT'S WRONG
?

SpenceX77: I
T'S
G
AVIN
.

Kookykell2011: ??? W
HERE IS HE
?

SpenceX77: W
ENT TO GET A DRINK
. D
ON'T HAVE MUCH TIME
. I
'M REALLY FREAKED OUT
.

Kookykell2011: A
BOUT
M
ISS
M
ARY
?

SpenceX77: W
ELL, YEAH, BUT ABOUT
G
AVIN, TOO
.

Kookykell2011: W
HY
?

SpenceX77: IDK. I
T'S A VIBE
. H
E'S ACTING REALLY STRANGE
.

Kookykell2011: S
TRANGE HOW
?

SpenceX77: N
ERVOUS
. T
WITCHY
.

Kookykell2011: M
AYBE THAT'S WHAT HE'S LIKE
.

SpenceX77: T
HAT'S NOT IT
. S
TARTED WITH THE
M
ISS
M
ARY THING
. B
EEN WEIRD SINCE
. K
EEPS MUMBLING STUFF UNDER HIS BREATH
. T
O HIMSELF, BUT
I
CAN HEAR
. I
T'S SCARING ME
.

Kookykell2011: W
HAT'S HE SAYING
?

SpenceX77: S
TUFF THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE
. COLDNESS IS COMING
AND
YOU CAN'T BE HERE.

Kookykell2011: W
HO CAN'T
?

SpenceX77: IDK. H
E DOESN'T SEEM IN CONTROL
. I
T'S AS IF HE CAN'T HELP SAYING THIS STUFF OR HE DOESN'T KNOW HE'S MUTTERING IT OR
—

Kookykell2011: W
AIT. IT'S LIKE
—

Kelly stopped typing. She tried to swallow but couldn't. Her lungs felt as if they were being squeezed. She recalled the strange things that Chrissie had muttered just a few minutes ago. She hadn't told Gavin and Spencer what Chrissie had said. So why was Gavin saying the same sort of things?

She sucked in air, trying to inflate her lungs. To breathe normally again. In and out.

Kookykell2011: R
U SURE
?

SpenceX77: Y
ES
!!!

Kookykell2011: M
AYBE HE'S PLAYING YOU
. . . .

She kept coming back to her know-all-the-facts nature. She didn't buy into fortune-tellers and horoscopes and the other mystical things some of her friends believed. She liked science and reasoning. Everything for her always had a factual explanation. That was why she liked scaring her friends so much. All that supernatural stuff was fake, and she knew it.

Tonight was the first time she was having trouble making sense of things.

SpenceX77: M
AYBE
. I
BARELY KNOW THE GUY. I DON'T WANT HIM HERE ANYMORE
. S
OMETHING ABOUT HIM IS WAY OFF
. I
DON'T TRUST HIM
.

Kookykell2011: I
AGREE
. B
EEN FEELING THAT WAY ALL NIGHT
.

SpenceX77: W
HAT DO
I
DO
?

She wasn't sure. Maybe Spencer could fake sickness and ask Gavin to go home. She wished June would show herself. She was the best at these kinds of schemes. She'd create a believable story of why Gavin had to leave.

Kelly glanced at Spencer's webcam frame to judge how worried he was. She froze.

A dark shadow loomed behind her friend.

Spencer had no idea. His eyes stayed focused on his keyboard. He was typing. She stared in horror as the figure glided closer. She wanted to scream but could only watch in mute terror as it reached out its arms and slowly brought them down . . . down . . . toward Spencer's neck.

She had to warn him. She had barely seconds before . . . Her fingers flew across the keyboard.

Kookykell2011: W
ATCH OUT
!

She was too late. The attacker wrapped both hands around Spencer's bare neck. His fingers squeezed . . . squeezed . . . squeezed the air from Spencer's throat.

“Noooo! Stop!” she cried. Then she remembered their microphones were off. Spencer couldn't hear her. She grabbed her computer with both hands and shook it hard, as if she could somehow stop the horror with the force of her fear. She couldn't just sit here and watch her friend suffocate!

She wanted to cover her face, but she was afraid to let poor Spencer out of her sight. She stared in total helplessness as he weakened, growing limp.

Suddenly Spencer's eyes bulged. He twisted his body with a burst of renewed strength, jerking it left and right. The attacker's grip loosened, and he leaned toward Spencer.

Kelly narrowed her eyes and gripped her desk to steady herself. She stared at the face of Spencer's attacker. It was a face she recognized.

Spencer jumped up and pushed his attacker back. Then he spun to face him.

Gavin.

Gavin's sinewy face broke into a huge grin. He laughed. “Oh, man. I totally scared you. Score!” He pumped his fist in victory.

“That was so not funny!” Spencer spat.

“It was just a joke.”

Spencer's cheeks reddened slightly, but he forced a strained smile. “Y-yeah, you got me.”

Gavin ran his hand through his spiky hair. “Who did you think it was, dude?”

Spencer shrugged. Kelly could sense him shrinking back as if he was putting up an invisible wall. It felt
peculiar to sit across the street and watch the scene play out. Almost like watching a scary movie and not being able to help the victim.

“You are such a wimp,” Gavin said. He gave Spencer a shove. Then another.

Kelly winced. She knew guys shoved all the time. Yet with Gavin, she wondered if there wasn't more to it. True, Spencer was way bigger than Gavin, but he was the kind of mellow kid who set ants free instead of squishing them. Gavin, though, had a barely contained aggression that pulsed right below the surface of his skin. She watched, still helpless, as Spencer backed himself up to the desk. She wasn't sure what he was doing. Was Gavin advancing on him?