Scary Mary (10 page)

“
What’s the plan?” Rachel hissed as they
crossed the street. She kept turning her head to look around,
acting far too suspiciously. she wished that she’d
chill.

“
Knock on the front door.”

“
What?” Rachel stopped short on the
sidewalk.

“
We have to make sure no one’s
home.”

“
But we already did that.”

“
No, we assume both parents left for work
already. If nobody answers, we’ll know for sure and then see if the
front door is unlocked.”

“
What if the front door is
locked?”

“
We go around back to see if the back door
is unlocked.”

“
And then?”

“
Then we bust a window.”

“
You’ve never broken into a house before
have you?”

“
Does that matter?”

“
Well, I brought chewing gum, and I think
I know how to do this nifty trick to disarm the security system
and--”

“
They don’t have a security system, and
Beverly Hills Cop 2 is like a century old. That trick won’t work
now.”

“
I’d still like to try it,” Rachel
grumbled.

She knocked on the front door loudly. When no
one answered, she reached out and tried the doorknob. It was
locked. She led the way to the back of the house. They climbed up
the stairs to the back porch and tried the back door. It was locked
as well.

“
Which window should we break?” Rachel
asked.

She scanned the back of the house. She didn’t
have many options to choose from. Most of the windows were out of
reach. Within her reach was a window over the kitchen sink, and she
could possibly climb through a high small round window that was in
the bathroom if Rachel helped her. She scanned the bottom of the
house and landed on her choice. “That one,” she said pointing to a
basement window that looked wide enough to wiggle through.

She climbed down off the porch and walked over
to the window peaking out of the ground. “I just need something
heavy to break it with.”

Rachel handed her a large brick. “Will this
work?”

She quirked her eyebrow and turned back to her.
“Did you bring this?”

She nodded. Mary shook her head. A brick was
probably the most innocuous thing Rachel had in her bag.

She swung her arm back to smash the window when
a thought occurred to her. She reached down with her free hand and
pushed on the window. It swung inward. She handed the brick back to
Rachel.

“
Shame, didn’t need it,” she said. Rachel
shrugged and slipped the brick back into her bag. Mary got on her
hands and knees facing away from the window. She started to slide
her body feet first down into the basement.

“
Don’t come down here. You’re
not welcome. If you come down here, I’ll make you
sorry.”

“
Oh jeez,” Mary muttered.

“
What?” Rachel asked. Mary clenched her
jaw and continued to wiggle backwards through the window. She was
halfway inside.

Something crashed in the basement, and glass
shattered. “I said don’t come in here.”

“
Mary, is this safe?” Rachel asked as Mary
continued cautiously to wiggle into the basement.

Mary wasn’t sure. Ricky sounded threatening, and
she knew he could follow through with his threats. Something flew
across the basement and hit the wall near her dangling legs. It
made her jump, and she banged her back painfully against the top of
the window frame.

“
No, it’s not safe.” She began to climb
back out of the window.

“
Wait, I changed my mind. Get
in here.”

“
Oh no.” Something grabbed her legs. They
weren’t hands, but their grasp was just as tight. Ricky started to
pull her into the basement.

“
Rach, grab my hands!”

Chapter 9

Unwanted Chats

Rachel lunged and grabbed her hands. Mary’s
boots scraped along the wall, but she couldn’t boost herself back
out. Ricky’s hold was too strong.

"Pull me out, Rach!"

“
Where you going, girlie? I said you
could come in.”
He pulled her further into the basement. Most
of her legs were in the room. If he pulled much more of her in,
she’d fall inside. She didn’t want to think about what would happen
then.

"What’s happening? What’s wrong?"

Mary shook her head and continued to struggle to
get out of the window. As she became the rope in a tug of war
between Rachel and Ricky, she realized how stupid this whole plan
was. What did she know about exorcisms? She may live with this
stuff, but she wasn’t a duck. She wasn’t born knowing how to swim
through mystical waters. In fact, she was about to drown.

She kicked at the wall and tried to gain
purchase or shake Ricky off possibly, but he had her tight by the
knees. She was going to have finger shaped bruises there tomorrow.
Rachel pulled her arms, but all she was doing was keeping Mary from
slipping further into the basement.

“
Don’t let go,” Mary pleaded.

“
I think I can do better than that,”
Rachel grunted. She took a deep breath, and she threw all of her
weight back in one monumental heave and pulled her out. Mary winced
as her stomach scraped across the windowsill, but Ricky’s grasp
slipped, and she was able to wiggle the rest of her body out. She
curled herself into a ball and looked at the open window. Rachel
crouched down beside her.

Ricky’s voice boomed out.
“You think you can
get away from me? You’ll be back. Then it’ll be until death do we
part!”
Then he began to laugh, and his laughter doubled over
upon itself with every roll until it was one long inhuman howl that
was devoid of emotion and sanity. Mary stared at the open
window.

“
What’s he saying?”

“
Nothing now. He’s just screaming,” she
answered before she could reconsider. She looked up and met
Rachel’s eyes. There was something dark in her friend’s eyes. She
looked haunted.

From the front of the house, the sound of tires
squealing into the driveway reached them. They looked at each other
in alarm. That sounded like someone had just come back home.

“
What should we do?” Rachel whispered.
Mary stood up and peeked into the kitchen window. She had a clear
view to the front door, which swung open to reveal Kyle. He stomped
into the house with a scowl. Mary knew that she couldn’t risk
letting Kyle find them. She had to think of something to distract
him so they make their escape.

She crouched down by the basement window. “Hey
Ricky, you’re a foul-mouthed, stupid, weak, little man who didn’t
deserve a thing in life and got exactly what you deserved in death:
A dank basement full of junk that nobody wants, you included.”

A box crashed into the wall.
“Why don’t you
say that to my face?”
From inside the house, the two girls
heard Kyle exclaim in surprise and rush to the basement. Mary
slammed the window shut.

“
Run!”

They dashed from the back of the house to
Rachel’s car. They jumped in and were quickly rolling down the
street. “Shouldn’t we be worried about Kyle?” Rachel asked.

She was still trying to catch her breath and
settle her heartbeat. That had been intense. “I don’t think so.
Ricky should’ve gotten weaker once I left.”

“
But Ricky’s really dangerous on his own,
right? I mean he hurt Terri Kuwalchek. He could hurt Cy or his
family at any moment.”

Mary nodded. “Yeah, but my presence makes Ricky
a lot stronger and angrier. Now that I’m gone, he can’t hurl
stuff.”

“
So what’s our next move?”

“
I don’t know.” She rested her head
against the car window as she mulled it over.

“
Maybe we could try talking Cy into
letting us come over?” Rachel offered. The school bell rang as she
parked.

Ignoring the question because she didn’t think
Cy would ever invite her over again and that depressed her, she
looked at her watch. “I’m just in time to meet with Mr. Landa.”

“
Do you want to skip?”

“
No, I’ll go.” What Mary really wanted was
to get away from Rachel. She seemed to think Mary had all the
answers when she didn’t. Ricky had just proven that. She was lucky
that she hadn’t gotten seriously hurt.

She mulled over the situation more as she made
her way to Mr. Landa’s office. Rachel and Cy just didn’t get it. Cy
thought the whole thing was a hoax, and Rachel thought it was a
grand adventure, but Mary knew better. She knew Ricky was
dangerous, and she had to do something soon. If she didn’t, someone
was going to get hurt, maybe killed. She had to do whatever she
could to make sure nothing like that happened. She just wished she
knew what to do.

She realized then why responsibility was such a
heavy burden. It was because responsibility was stuff that she
didn’t want to do but had to. So did that mean going to see Mr.
Landa was a responsible thing? Mary frowned at the thought as she
dragged her feet into school.

Mr. Landa looked up from his desk when Mary
tapped on his door and stuck her head in. He waved his hand for her
to come in, but Mary stayed at the door. She was staring at his
desk. It was a new desk.

"Where’s your desk?"

"I sent it to surplus, though it should probably
be trashed. The thing was a safety hazard."

"Yeah, I really liked it."

Mr. Landa’s eyebrows quirked at her
statement.

She slipped into the office and sat down. She
didn’t know what to do. Mrs. Brown was gone. Who was she going to
talk to?

“
How’s your first full week back at school
going?”

“
Not that great,” she replied.

He nodded sympathetically. “Some students are
giving you trouble?”

“
Yeah.” She slumped in her seat. She
folded her hands and looked down at them. What would Mrs. Brown say
right now?
Don’t let them get to you. You’re better than
them.
Which were nice things to say, but they weren’t going to
help her with her problem, and she needed help. She was going to
have to try something unprecedented. She was going to actually talk
to Mr. Landa. They were going to have an actual
conversation.

“
How are they bothering you?”

“
They’re saying stuff about me. You know
the usual that I’m a freak.”

“
And what do you want to say to
them?”

“
Shut up.”

Mr. Landa blinked at her. With a jolt, she
realized how that had sounded. “That’s what I’d like to say to
them,” she clarified sheepishly.

Mr. Landa’s eyes softened as he caught on. “You
know that their words don’t mean anything, right?”

She shrugged. “I still don’t like being called a
freak.”

He nodded. “No one likes being called names, but
the secret to stopping the sting is to realize that the people
calling you names are beneath you. What they say doesn’t
matter.”

“
Yeah, I get that, but people I like are
starting to call me a freak too.”

Mr. Landa actually looked upset on her behalf.
“If that’s true, then you need to reevaluate why you like them and
if you should continue.”

She chewed on this. Why did she still like Cy?
She still thought he was a good person. He’d been nice to her for a
while, and even though he didn’t like her anymore, he hadn’t been
mean to her. He hadn’t tried to hurt her. She couldn’t blame him
for freaking about the séance and the paranormal explanation. It
hurt that he wouldn’t give her a second chance or the benefit of
the doubt. Should she just stop liking him? Could she do that? No,
she didn’t think that she could just turn off her feelings like
that. She didn’t want to turn off her feelings like that, and there
was still the matter of Ricky.

She sighed. “It’s more complicated than that.
I’m worried about this person. I think he’s in trouble, but he
won’t listen to me about it. I don’t know how to reach him.”

Mr. Landa bent his head as he thought about it.
Mary found herself actually waiting for his answer. She’d never
really tried talking to him before. This was the first honest
conversation they’d ever had. It surprised her how well it was
going.

“
Can you tell me what type of trouble this
person is in?”

She shook her head.

“
Is it drugs?”

She shook her head again.

“
Family?”

She shook her head again and dropped her head.
It looked like Mr. Landa wouldn’t be able to help her.

“
Mary, if this person is in trouble then
you should help him if you can: Be there for him, give him support
and understanding, and don’t judge him.”

“
But he doesn’t want me around him. He
doesn’t think he’s in trouble.”

He gave her a wry grin. “Sometimes the help you
don’t want is the help you need.”

“
Is there irony in that
statement?”

He chuckled. “Maybe a smidge.”

“
So what should I do?”

“
Be available, but don’t smother him.
Don’t avoid him, but don’t follow him around. If you see him in
trouble, offer him help or get someone to help him. It’s all you
can do.”

Over the next two days, Mary took Mr. Landa’s
words to heart. She kept out of Cy’s way, but she didn’t avoid him.
Rachel, she observed, did not have the same philosophy. Mary saw
her best friend dogging him in the hallways. Cy’s face looked tense
each time she saw them. Mary dearly wished to know what Rachel
thought she was doing, but when she tried to confront her friend
about it, Rachel dashed away saying she couldn’t chat--She had to
keep the target in sight. Mary decided not to ask again.