Stalking Shadows (Scary Mary) (2 page)

“Vicky’s in a coma.”

That jerked her head up. “What?”

“She’s been a coma since the accident. She’s not on life support, but she can’t wake up. I heard she may not wake up for a while.”

“For real?” Goose bumps formed on her arms. Her dream was coming true. She mulled that over. Before this news, the fantasy of Vicky being in a coma would’ve made her smile whimsically. The reality of Vicky in a coma didn’t give her any sense of whimsy.

“Yeah, Cy’s been sitting with her. He feels responsible. He was the one driving, but it wasn’t his fault. Another car hydroplaned across the road and hit them head-on. They were both wearing their seat belts, but the SUV rolled, and well, they both got hurt pretty bad. The SUV’s totaled.”

“God, that's awful.” She hoped the SUV hadn’t landed on its roof. Her family's sedan had. She’d been so confused. Mom had told her everything would be okay and not to be scared. Only problem was, Mom’s lips hadn’t moved. “Were the people in the other car hurt?”

Kyle shook his head. “Not bad, they only had bumps and bruises. The police are going to charge them with reckless driving or something.”

She looked at the hallway floor. This was a lot to process. “Mary, there’s something else--”

“They were on a date,” she said. She glanced up for confirmation. His face was pinched, but he nodded. She’d known Vicky was interested in Cy and that they’d been hanging out some. She hadn’t known it had progressed this far.

“Thanks for telling me, Kyle.”

He gave her a nod and touched her arm. “If you need updates, just ask.”

She gave him a tiny smile. “Thanks.”

The bell for class sounded. She needed to head to second period. She didn’t feel well. It was like there was a pit in her stomach. Not a gaping hole pit, but like a fruit pit. It was round, hard, and had a sharp point that poked at her. She wanted to throw it up. She didn't need to fake nausea now. She really felt sick.

She and Cy had gone on one date that had ended with Vicky crashing it, him yelling at Mary, and the whole school whispering that Mary was some kind of witch. Things had died down. It had become old news, but she and Cy hadn't hung out outside of school since then. He’d eaten lunch with her a couple of times, and they still sat together in English, but that was it. She knew Vicky had been pursuing him. She’d made her interest in him well known, but Mary hadn’t thought he would really take the cheerleader seriously. They’d bonded over trash-talking Vicky in the first place. It made her angry that he’d finally bent to the popular girl’s will.

He’d been the only boy in school who’d ever shown any interest in Mary, and she’d liked him. Now he was hanging out at the hospital bedside of another girl, a girl who was popular, pretty, and absolutely normal. The pit poked her.

*    *    *

She went outside to have lunch with Rachel in their usual spot. She sat down in the grass and waited. The sun felt nice and warmed her back, though there was a hint of autumn chill in the air. Other students were scattered about, sitting in clumps as well. Her best friend joined her a few minutes later.

“How you doin’?” Rachel asked.

She gave her best friend the biggest, fakest smile she could muster.

“Geez, that bad?”

She turned away and shrugged. News certainly traveled fast. She’d caught a few people whispering and pointing at her in the halls. They were probably debating how she'd caused the accident. Maybe she'd sacrificed a black cat or made a voodoo doll. The rumors didn't bother her. What bothered her was the fact that Cy had gone on a date with Vicky and hadn't told her. What was that about? Had he kept it a secret because he’d known it would upset her, or had he just not thought to tell her because she wasn’t important enough to tell? Maybe they weren’t really friends. Maybe they were just two people who sat by each other occasionally like casual acquaintances. They knew each others names, but they were really strangers to each other.

Mary dug out her lunch bag. In a flat voice, she said, “Vicky’s in a coma. Yay.”

“How’d you hear?”

“Kyle told me. What have you heard?”

“That Cy was driving Vicky home from a movie when a car crashed into them. Their car rolled, and Cy got a broken collar bone and a dislocated shoulder, and Vicky’s in a coma.”

“I wonder what movie they went to see.” Mary didn’t know if her interest was ghoulish or pathetic. She bit her tongue to keep herself from wondering aloud if they’d gotten two popcorns or one to share. That would be pathetic to ask. She’d shared popcorn with Cy when she’d been at his house.

“That’s not important.”

She looked at Rachel. She must not have looked good because Rachel rolled her head back and growled in frustration. “You cannot let this bother you. It was one stupid date.”

“One stupid date that I know of. Have they been dating? Did you know they were going out?”

“Yes, of course I knew because I’ve been secretly stalking Vicky all this time. I have a small shrine to her in my closet. Every night, I burn bubblegum incense and cuddle a Kleenex she once sneezed into while I Photoshop her picture onto the covers of
Glamour
and
Vogue
.”

Mary slumped and picked at her sandwich, tearing off small pieces of crust and throwing them into the grass. “So, you don’t know if this was their first date or their fifth?”

“If they were a couple, Vicky would’ve had T-shirts made. It was probably their first date, and she tricked him into going. He probably thought he was taking her grandpa to the airport or something, and she gave him directions to the movie theater instead, and since she already had pre-purchased tickets, why not go see the movie anyway because both of Vicky’s grandfathers are dead.”

“Nah, she probably shot him with a tranquilizer gun and drove him to the movie theater, and he came to as the credits rolled.”

“Even more likely. So see, not as bad as you think.”

“I don’t know. He’s obviously worried about her, which means he cares, which means he likes her, which means they’re totally a couple. Right this moment, he’s probably hanging out by Vicky’s bedside like Prince Charming hovering over Sleeping Beauty, and I’m the evil fairy trying to train some flying monkeys to whisk him away.”

“Wasn’t the Sleeping Beauty villainess named Maleficent? And she didn’t have flying monkeys. That was the Wicked Witch of the West.”

“I’m sure the Wicked Witch of the West would’ve loaned her some flying monkeys. They were probably pals, trading potions and stuff.”

“So I’m the Wicked Witch of the West?”

“No, I always imagined you more as a Mad Madam Mim.”

Rachel stared at her for a few blinks. “You’ve thought about this?”

“The villains are more interesting.”

“Let’s focus on something else.”

“What?”

“Well, I’m gonna flunk biology and be disowned by my father.”

“I told you taking that AP class was going to be tough. You should’ve stuck with CP like me.”

Rachel fell back onto the grass. “I know, but Dad was going on and on about how I have to take some advanced placement courses, and I wasn’t about to try AP History or AP English.”

“And you wanted to dissect stuff.”

“Dissecting stuff is cool. I need to take these classes if I’m going to be a coroner.”

Mary shivered. Rachel had recently decided her life's goal was to be a coroner, and it freaked Mary out. She dealt with ghosts, so she knew a good bit about death, but she didn’t want to know the science of it. She didn’t want to face the physical evidence. The spiritual evidence was enough for her.

“If you need help studying, I can quiz you. I may be only in lowly college prep, but I do know how to read.”

Rachel lifted her head and grinned. “Thanks. Maybe we could get together Wednesday. I have a test on Thursday, and I have to ace it to start getting my grade up.”

Mary nodded. Helping Rachel would keep her from obsessing over Cy.

“So Kyle told you about Cy and Vicky?”

She was surprised that Rachel was going back to that topic. “Yeah, he found me during TAB. He was upset, too that Cy hadn’t told me about the accident.”

“That was nice of him.”

“Yeah, it was better hearing it from him than overhearing it in the hallway or something.”

“He’s been pretty nice to you since Ricky.” Ricky was the nasty ghost that had possessed Kyle and made him try to kill her. After all that, she’d figured he’d avoid her like the plague or maybe pick on her more, but instead, he said hi to her in the hallways and openly talked to her. It surprised her because she could count on one hand the number of people who were nice to her.

“Yeah, he’s still grateful that I helped him. I figure it’ll die down in a while.”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem so much grateful as interested in you.”

Mary looked at her in confusion. “He’s just being nice. Sure, he was a complete meathead to me when I first met him, but he’s mellowed since then.”

Rachel didn’t reply. Mary shrugged it off and finished eating her lunch.

“Wasn’t Mad Madam Mim like kind of dumpy and crazy?”

“She could make herself look however she wanted. She chose to look dumpy, but she was definitely crazy.”

“Huh.”

“It’s how I picture you at seventy.”

“You know, I sometimes can’t wait to be old. Old people get away with the best stuff.”

“I know, just look at Gran.”

*    *    *

Mary worked on her homework in the living room. She was also tossing a red squeaky ball across the room. It would float back to her, and she’d toss it again. It was either toss the ball or have Chowder, their little ghost dog, whining at her feet. His body currently sat on top of the television. It was his anchor. Ghosts needed physical objects to tie them to the earth. Anchors could be anything. Ricky’s had been a locket. Becca, a little girl ghost who’d terrorized Mary when she was six, had anchored to a doll. But Chowder’s anchor couldn’t have been more obvious. He was a ghost, but he still had his body. He just couldn’t move it, which was good. Having a zombie dog would be even worse than a phantom one.

Gran was finishing up with a new client. Mary had placed an order for a large pizza to be delivered. It should arrive any minute. She was still bummed about the Vicky/Cy thing, but it was slowly sinking away.

She heard a car start up behind the house, and a few moments later, Gran came through the beaded curtains. Mary closed her textbook and put down her pencil. “How’d the session go?”

Gran smoothed back her grey hair and took a seat. “Mrs. Beadley is having some trouble with her dead husband.”

“What sort of trouble?”

“Dating mainly. He doesn’t like the fact that his widow is getting back into the game. If she brings a man over, he makes the lights flicker or the radio come on to frighten away her date. She’s at her wit’s end.” The red ball dropped at Gran’s feet. She tossed it across the room.

“He hasn’t tried to hurt her, has he?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. She seems positive he’d never escalate that far. She remembers him quite fondly, but he’s annoying her a great deal now. She thinks it’s time for him to move on, like she’s trying to do.” The ball floated back to her, and she picked it up again.

“Any ideas about how to deal with him?”

“I think I’ll have to go to their home. She doesn’t have any idea what he could be anchored to.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

Gran sighed and looked down at the squeaky ball in her hands. “I shouldn’t ask, but I think your presence could help.”

“It’s no problem. If he’s as harmless as you say, it’ll be fine.”

The doorbell rang, and Gran got up to get the pizza. She tossed the squeaky ball to Mary. Chowder barked.

Mary pretended not to hear him while the door was open. Once the door was closed, she threw the ball as far as she could to get rid of Chowder for a bit.

“Did anything happen at school today?” Gran asked as she gave her a pizza slice on a paper plate.

She eagerly took a bite of her pizza, nodding her head while she chewed. “Cy and Vicky Nelson were in a car accident over the weekend. Cy broke his collarbone and dislocated a shoulder. Vicky’s in a coma. They don’t know when she’ll wake up.”

Gran froze with her pizza halfway to her mouth. “Mary, that’s awful! Are you going to visit the poor girl?”

It was Mary’s turn to freeze. “I don’t really know her.”

“But she's a friend of Cy’s. Surely, you’ve met. I bet Cy would appreciate it if you visited.”

She didn’t know what to say. “Her family probably doesn’t want too many people crowding in right now.”

Gran frowned slightly. “You might be right. Well, you could send a card, at least.”

Mary didn’t think Hallmark made a card that would cover how she felt about Vicky: ‘Sorry you were in an accident and put in a coma. Stay away from the boy I like.’ It didn’t even rhyme.

“I promised Rachel that I’d help her study for a biology test this Wednesday,” she said, in an attempt to get away from the subject of Vicky and Cy.