Slow Dance in Purgatory (30 page)

             
“So I’m thinking maybe this girl is into some scary stuff, like the cult, you know?”

             
“Yo, Derek,” Shad called, trying to be cool, “Maggie’s the nicest girl in the world.  She’s not into anything strange, man!”

             
Derek smirked and slammed his gym locker, closing in on Shad with a few of his friends trailing behind him. 

             
“Hey, guys!  It’s crazy Maggie’s little friend.  I think little Shad here needs a swirly, whaddayou guys think?  Maybe it’ll knock some sense into him.”

             
Shad danced out of reach, his brain scrambling for a way to distract the conversation from Maggie and swirlies.  He snatched up the first thing he could think of.

             
“You think she’s crazy?  I’ll tell you what’s freakin’ crazy.  My grandpa says fifty years ago there was, like, a murder here inside our school.  Two brothers died.”  Derek and his friends stopped advancing.  Shad continued, encouraged.  He was so brilliant!

             
  “One brother shot the other brother, and they fell over the balcony up on the third floor and landed right in the middle of the rotunda.”  Shad noticed the guys were actually listening to him.  They gathered around him, and he quickly warmed to the story.

             
“So the police come, and they see the one brother lying dead on the floor.  My grandpa said his neck was broken.  But the other brother….”  Shad let his words hang in the air for maximum suspense.  “The other brother was nowhere to be found.”  The guys ooh’d and aah’d a little and leaned in.

             
“And get this.  There was this pool of blood on the floor that the police were sure belonged to the 2
nd
brother.  There was a witness, see, and he swears both brothers fell over the balcony and were lying unconscious when he went for help.  When he gets back with the police, the older brother is gone.  So they searched the school up and down, and they couldn’t find anything.  It was like he just vanished.  My grandpa says a few days later the kid’s name was written on every chalkboard, like he was trying to tell them something.”

             
“Whatever, Jasper.  Nice try.”  Derek was waving him off, dismissing him as he walked toward the door connecting the gym to the men’s locker room.  A few of the other guys moved to follow him.  Shad tried again, eager to keep the attention he’d held just a second before.

             
“I’m dead serious, man!  My grandpa has seen this guy….more than once!  Here in the school…and he never ages.  He always looks exactly the same – that’s how my grandpa knew he was a ghost.  And he’s not the only one who’s seen him…. there are other people that have, too.”  There was no way that Shad was going to tell them Maggie was one of those people, but Derek was listening again.

             
“This school has a ghost.  That story I told you?  100 percent true!  And all that strange stuff you’re talking about? It’s probably him.”  Shad mentally high-fived himself on that bit of sheer genius.  It had just popped right into his head.  He continued.  “I work here after school, you know.  I’ve seen my share of scary shit, man.”  Shad threw in the cuss word for good measure, knowing it made him sound more mature.

             
A shrill whistle blew, and Coach Tenney bellowed through the door.  “Let’s go ladies!  You’re all late!  Get your pink panties out here now!” 

             
Everybody headed for the door, all conversation ended for the time being. 

             
“So, Shad.  You’re on our team today.”  Derek slung a heavy arm over his shoulders, wedging Shad up between him and Trevor as they walked.  “You can tell me a little more about this ghost we got here at Honeyville High, right?”
             

***

             
Shad stuck the key in the side door and tried not to let the guys see that his hands were shaking.  It took him two attempts, but they didn’t seem to notice.  They were too busy laughing and flirting with the girls they had brought along.  They had picked Shad up about twenty minutes before and made him sit behind the back seat in Derek’s mom’s suburban.  The rest of the seats were crowded with several members of the football team and a few of their girlfriends.  One of the girls had researched séances on line and had picked up a bunch of candles and other strange stuff for the big event.  It was all stuffed in the back with Shad.

             
Shad had been excited just to come along.  He knew he had been included because he had access to a key, but he ignored that small detail.  The guys had been cool to him all week, ever since he’d told them about Johnny Kinross.  He had even squeezed some more info out of his grandpa, and he’d exaggerated a little, too, making it possible for him to get a few more days mileage out of it.  What good storyteller doesn’t? 

             
In P.E. that morning, Trevor had pulled him aside and sworn him to secrecy.  Then he had asked him, all serious and hush hush, if Shad could get them into the school that night for an exclusive ghost buster’s bash.  Derek, Trevor, and a few of the guys had come up with a plan to call the ghosts of the dead boys and have a little fun in the process.  Shad’s immediate reaction had been stone cold horror.  There was no way he wanted to be in the school, at night, playing Ouija board games and contacting ghosts.  What if they pissed Johnny Kinross off?  Shad knew he existed, even if they didn’t.  He had seen that message appear right before his eyes, and he wouldn’t soon forget it.  But there was no way he could let Trevor know he was afraid.  So he smiled, slapping Trevor’s hand, and told him he could absolutely get them into the school.  He wasn’t going to let them down.

             
Gus thought he’d been invited to a party at Derek’s house, at least that’s what Shad told him.  Grandpa Gus didn’t know Derek or the others very well, and it was easy to fudge on the details.  His grandpa had fallen asleep in his big chair while watching something extremely boring on public television, and it had been a piece of cake to take his work keys from the rack by the door.  He would return them later tonight when he got home, and Gus would be none the wiser.  When they had honked for him at nine o’clock, he’d left right through the front door, as natural as you please.  Grandpa Gus hadn’t even stirred

             
So now here he was, key in hand, opening the doors for ten of the most popular kids in school, hanging out with them, and scared to death.  As soon as the door swung open, Derek was there, shoving past him, leading the way through the dim hallways and into the dark belly of the school.  They didn’t turn on any lights; Shad was pretty sure it was to keep the girls a little scared, because the ladies were clutching the arms of the boys who had invited them, and the boys seemed to be enjoying every minute of it.  Just wait until Johnny Kinross started messing with them.  These guys wouldn’t last ten seconds.  Shad longed for the lights.  He was at the back of the pack, and he kept sending furtive glances over his shoulder. 

             
He reminded himself again that he was making progress with the football team – and maybe, just maybe, tonight they would actually work some hocus pocus that rid the school
and
Shad of Johnny Kinross forever.  Maggie would thank him later.  Plus, since he’d told the guys the story of the ghost, nobody had said a thing about Maggie being strange.  He didn’t want anybody giving her any trouble, even if he was so disgusted with her right now he almost wished he hadn’t saved her neck.  It would serve her right if she was labeled a witch.  Because she was definitely consorting with ghosts.

             
“So where are we gonna do this, Derek?”  Trevor’s girlfriend giggled nervously, clutching Trevor’s hand as he stopped walking and turned to the ring-leader of the group, waiting for a response.

             
“We should do it in the rotunda.  That’s where it happened right?  I mean, what better place to summon the spirits of the dead than in the place they died?”  Derek grabbed Dara and cackled maniacally, and a couple of the girls and even a few of the guys twittered nervously.
             
“Knock it off, Derek!”  Dara wasn’t amused.  She hadn’t forgotten how it felt to be locked in the dance room in the dark, unable to get out with eerie messages echoing around the room.  She couldn’t believe she had agreed to come.  Derek was way too devious and sneaky.  She wouldn’t put it past him to stage something just to freak everyone out.

             
The rotunda was almost completely floor to ceiling in glass along the curved front side, and Shad spoke up from the back of the pack. 

             
“You don’t want to do it in the rotunda, man.  If anyone drives by the school they’ll see your candles flickering, and we’ll be busted that quick.” 

             
“Hmmm, not a bad point, Shadrach.”  Derek stroked his chin thoughtfully, the green of the exit sign leading to the third floor stairs flickering ghoulishly over his face. 

             
“By the way, Shad….what are you still doin’ here?  This is an adults only event.  It’ll be way too scary for the kiddies, don’t you think?  Come on guys.  Let’s put the baby in his room.”

             
Before Shad knew what was happening, three of the guys had surrounded him, pinning his arms and legs and lifting him like they were going to use him as a battering ram.
             

             
“Whoa….?  Hey, hey, guys!...Stop!... What the heck?...I got you in here!  You can’t do this!”  Shad sputtered, kicking and arching, trying to get free of three pairs of powerful arms.  They moved quickly up the stairs and down the hall, Shad held securely between them.

             
“Where is the baby’s room?”  Derek shouted gleefully.  “Oh look, there it is!”

             
The senior lockers lined two of the third floor halls, and one of the boys who wasn’t carrying Shad smacked a locker dead center with his big fist.  It swung open immediately.

             
“Works every time!” the kid crowed happily.  Shad screeched and began begging in earnest. 

             
“You can’t put me in there!  It’s dark up here!  I’ll suffocate!   I’ll go crazy!  What if I have to pee?”  He thrashed desperately.  His pleas went unheeded.

             
“Here you go, baby Shad!  Nighty night!”  Trevor shoved Shad’s upper body into the locker roughly as someone else bent his legs into the long narrow opening.  For a moment, Shad thought he would be able to prevent them from shutting the door, and he scrambled desperately, trying to push his way back out.  He almost wiggled free, but at the last second, Derek punched him hard in the stomach, and Shad collapsed, cradling his belly with his arms, gasping for air.  Trevor wrenched Gus’s ring of keys from his front pocket, and with another heavy shove, Shad was forced back in to the locker.  The door was slammed shut, closing over his horrified face.

             
“That’ll keep the little shit for a while.  We’ll come back and get him when we’re done,” Derek chortled, slapping a few of the guys across the back.  “What’d he think we were gonna do - let him hang with us indefinitely?”

             
One of the girls protested, “Get him out, guys.  You’re so mean!  We can’t just leave him up here all alone!”  Shad could hear her faintly as the footfalls grew farther away.  She must have been overruled or reassured, because no one came back and let him out.  He yelled after them, begging them to change their minds, promising them that they would be sorry, but silence was his only response.  Shad breathed slowly, trying to keep the hysteria from overpowering him.  There were slats in the door.  At least he wouldn’t die for lack of oxygen, which provided some small comfort, but it was very small comfort indeed.

             
The locker smelled like sweaty socks and beef jerky.  The sneaker on his right foot was wedged at an odd angle, tweaking his ankle which was already throbbing like a bad tooth.  He tried to pull his foot free, but didn’t have enough room to even scratch his butt.  He wiggled his other foot until it rested on the bottom of the locker.  Pressing down, he released his weight from the foot that was torqued and managed to relieve the pressure by several degrees.  That was better.  He tried butting his head into the locker door, thinking maybe he could pop it back open.  It didn’t work, and before long he was seeing stars, and his head hurt almost as badly as his ankle.

             
“
I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy
..”  Shad’s ring tone jangled merrily from his back pocket.  His heart leaped joyfully in his chest.  His phone was still in his pocket! He wiggled and shimmied violently, trying to work at least one of his arms down and around his body.  His phone stopped ringing.  He kept squirming and was just about there when his phone, loosened by his writhing and wiggling, dropped from his pocket and hit his left shoe with a dull thud.  Shad felt the tears welling up in his eyes and clogging his throat.