Read The Locker Online

Authors: Richie Tankersley Cusick

The Locker (9 page)

BOOK: The Locker
8.38Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Taking a deep breath, I yanked the door open with such force that Noreen and Jimmy Frank quit talking to each other and turned to stare at me.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

I was fidgeting so bad, I dropped one of my books, and when I leaned down to pick it up, two more fell out of my arms. Noreen and Jimmy Frank both bent down to help, and I bit my lip in frustration.

“Sorry,” I said again. “I'm so clumsy this morning.”

“Clumsy?” Jimmy Frank echoed, and I could swear there was a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

He straightened up and held out my book. I tried to take it from him, but his fingers tightened on the cover, and his eyes locked with mine.

“What are you so nervous about, Marlee?” he whispered.

“Hey, your face is enough to make anyone nervous,” Noreen shot back, nodding at me to hurry. “Didn't I see you yesterday, Jimmy Frank? Standing out in the middle of a cornfield with crows on your arms?”

He said something back to her, but I didn't hear. I was too busy cramming my books in my locker and trying to pull out the other stuff I needed.

“You go on,” I said to Noreen. “I'll meet you in homeroom.”

Noreen looked reluctant to leave me. “You remember where to go?”

“Sure, I'll only be a minute. There's no point in holding you up.”

Luckily Jimmy Frank turned to go; otherwise I think Noreen would have stayed right there with me. As it was, she hurried after him, and I heard her talking all the way down the hall until they both turned a corner and disappeared. Only then did I take a deep breath and face my locker again.

Nice and normal. No ghosts here.

I glanced up at the hall clock and saw that I still had a few minutes before the bell rang. Then I glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to me. And then I dug into my purse and pulled out the mirror, the photo, and the index card that Dobkin had given me.
I can't believe I'm doing this.…
And yet I stood right there with my little roll of tape and slapped the photo and the card up in my locker, and hung the mirror from a string I stuck to the back of the door.
There, that should do it. God, what an idiot!

The bell rang, nearly sending me out of my skin. I grabbed one of my notebooks and glanced back over my shoulder.

That's funny … just a minute ago there were other people in the hall.…

But not now.

In fact, as I stood there looking around me, it was like everything had totally disappeared in the space of a second—as if somehow I'd only dreamed coming to school this morning, walking with Noreen, opening my locker door …

Where's that chill coming from?

Giving an involuntary shiver, I stepped back and looked up both ends of the deserted corridor, trying to see if an outside door had been left open by mistake. It hadn't been this cold when I'd come to school only half an hour ago, but now the hallway was absolutely freezing. I could feel it raising hairs along the back of my neck and making little drafts around my feet—not just a breeze, but something much more forceful.

Really nervous now, I turned back to my locker and reached for my math book on the very bottom of the stack. I pulled on it, but it wouldn't budge. I pulled again, but it might as well have been glued to the shelf.

“What's wrong with this stupid thing?”

I was muttering to myself and tugging for all I was worth, and in the back of my mind I could feel my fingers getting colder and colder until they were almost too cold to work anymore. Thoroughly frustrated now, I held them to my lips and blew on them, and then I rubbed my palms together and blew on them again.

“This is
crazy!
What is going
on
around here?”

Giving a final heave, I felt the book come loose at last, and as I stepped back to catch myself, I happened to look up at the mirror on my locker door.

I looked …

And I looked …

And I felt a scream come up in my throat like a frozen lump of terror.

At first it was my own face I saw reflected there.

But then it began to fade …

To disappear …

And another one took its place, staring back at me, blurry and indistinct—like a watercolor portrait not quite dry, its mournful expression smeared and dripping and running together in tiny streams of brown and dark, dark red.…

The eyes were dull and vacant.

The mouth gaped wide.

And as I began to choke, sucking a strange coppery odor deep into my lungs, I was suddenly and violently aware of two things:

The dark, dark red was blood.

And the face staring back at me was dead.

10

I
don't know when it ended.

I don't know how long I stood there or how long I gazed at that hideous face.

It was probably only seconds, but it seemed like hours.

I only knew that some piercing sound was drilling into my brain, and as I finally blinked my eyes and made a strangled sound in my throat, someone grabbed my arm and spun me around.

“What is it?” Jimmy Frank demanded. His fingers dug hard into my flesh, and I couldn't pull away. “What's the matter with you? Why were you screaming?”

“The—the mirror!” I stammered. “Stop! You're hurting me—”

“What mirror? What are you talking about?”

“There's something wrong with my locker! Can't you see it—can't—”

“So they aren't rumors after all.” His eyes narrowed, and his voice sank low. “Something really
did
happen yesterday, didn't it?”

“Marlee! Hey, Marlee, what's going on?”

Jimmy Frank's hands fell away as Tyler ran up behind him. Through a strange sort of fog I saw the puzzled look on Tyler's face, saw him glance at Jimmy Frank and then back at me. And then, as I came fully to my senses, I also saw that the hall was swarming with kids, and that a lot of them were bunched up in little groups, whispering and staring at me. I wanted to die.

“Where was everyone?” I asked stupidly. I put one hand to my forehead and asked again. “Where was everyone a minute ago? Why wasn't there anyone else in the hall?”

“They were all in homeroom,” Tyler informed me. “Where you should have been.”

Jimmy Frank's eyes were glued to my face. He squeezed one hand into a fist. He raised it slowly up to my locker, and hit the door, slamming it shut.

“Didn't you hear the bell?” Tyler asked.

“Yes,
this
bell—” I was trying to think, but there were too many blank spots in my mind. “Not the bell for homeroom.… It wasn't time for homeroom when I …”

I looked helplessly at Tyler, who leaned back against the wall, took a yo-yo from his shirt pocket, and swung it lazily down to the floor. It recoiled into his hand, and he sent it down again … up … down … up … down. One by one, the kids who'd been watching us began to wander back into the general chaos of the hall.

“It was the mirror,” I said at last, and though Tyler raised an eyebrow, he didn't look up from his toy.

“What mirror?” he asked.

“Inside my locker. Just look for yourself—it's horrible.”

This time Tyler straightened up. He tucked his yo-yo away and flashed me a look of such total bewilderment that I might have laughed if I hadn't been so terrified.

“Just what we need around here,” Jimmy Frank muttered. “A brand-new wave of hysterics.”

Tyler shrugged and nodded. The two of them crowded close to my locker, opened the door, and looked in.

“I see the mirror,” Tyler said softly.

“And who's
in
the mirror?” I could barely get the words out.

There was a long, long silence. I put one hand to my forehead, suddenly afraid I might faint.

Tyler sounded apologetic. “We are.”

I stared at him. I stared at Jimmy Frank. Then I crept up between them and slowly craned my head till I could see my own reflection sandwiched in with theirs.

“Someone was in the mirror,” I mumbled. When neither of them answered, my voice rose defensively. “Someone
was
there! And it wasn't me!”

Jimmy Frank swore under his breath and turned back to his locker. “I'm not gonna be late on account of some loonytune.”

“He means you,” Tyler explained. “Come on. We've got to get to class.”


You
believe me, don't you?” I asked, gathering my stuff and following him. The desperation in my voice embarrassed me. “I'm
not
making it up—I'm
not
imagining it!”

“Hey”—Tyler turned toward me and walked backward, nodding his head emphatically—“I believe in everything.”

“I know what you're thinking,” I went on, following him, not even sure he was listening anymore because now he had his back to me again. “You're thinking I have bad eyes or—or—maybe somebody came up behind me in the hall and I didn't hear them, but it wasn't like that. It wasn't like that at all. This thing—this person in my mirror—it was—
she
was—”

“She?” Tyler glanced back but kept moving. “You said ‘she.' How come?”

“I don't know,” I said truthfully. “I don't know why I said ‘she'—it just
seemed
like a she—”

“And you
also
said,” Tyler scolded, walking backward again, shaking his finger at me, “that you weren't crazy like old lady Turley. Were you lying to me?”

“I said I
might
be,” I threw back at him, not really appreciating the teasing. “But the truth is, I'm
not.

He opened his eyes wide and gave a slow, solemn nod. “Um-hmmm … and I
believe
you—”

“Will you stop it and just listen a minute?” I burst out. “She wasn't real! I—I can't explain it exactly, but the face in the mirror was all wavy and blurry, and it was like
her
face was superimposed on
mine!
Like a
dream
—only I was wide awake! It was horrible—I couldn't stand the way she was looking at me!”

“Well, you've got everyone else looking at you now,” Tyler mumbled out one side of his mouth. “Keep your voice down.” He took my arm and hustled me quickly through the hall, greeting each curious stare with a smile and a nod. “Hello there. Hello … hello …”

“I'm not crazy,” I said furiously as we rounded a corner and I broke free of his grasp. Tyler stepped back and threw his hands in the air.

“Would
I
know the difference?”

I stared at him. My mind was going in circles so fast that I couldn't think … couldn't focus … couldn't make sense of anything. After a long while I finally nodded. “You're right,” I said, trying to be calm. “I don't know what's been happening to me, but there has to be a logical explanation for it.” When Tyler didn't say anything, my voice rose again. “Do you have any idea how upsetting this all is? How embarrassing?”

I ducked my head, suddenly afraid I might start to cry. I felt Tyler's arm slip gently around my shoulders … felt his lips move close to my ear.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered.

I didn't want anyone to see us like that, and yet part of me wanted to just stand there and have him close to me forever. I felt scared and all mixed up, and it was a relief to finally get ta class, though I can't tell you a single thing that went on the rest of the morning.

At least … not till lunchtime.

I left the building fast, pretty sure that everyone had heard about my second big locker fiasco by now. I couldn't stand the thought of being stared at and laughed at, so I took off down the sidewalk to the kindergarten, suddenly wanting more than anything to see Dobkin. Funny how his and my minds have always worked together at times of great crisis—no sooner had I left the campus and gotten halfway down the block than I saw his blond head bobbing toward me from the opposite direction.

“How did you get out?” I greeted him. “I thought it was against the rules.”

“What can they do—expell me?” He shrugged. “And who's gonna miss me with a hundred other kids taking naps?” He thought a minute, cocked his head at me, and added, “I stuffed my sleeping bag with some teddy bears. They'll never know.”

“Genius.” I ruffled his hair, and though he grimaced, deep down I knew he was pleased.

“So what prompted this great meeting of the minds?” I asked casually.

“Why don't you tell me?” he countered.

I could see a sheaf of papers under his arm, and as each of us waited for the other to start, I spotted an empty bench at the corner bus stop, and we sat down.

“Here,” Dobkin said proudly, “is all the information I could find on Suellen Downing.”

My mouth fell open. Even though I tell myself that Dobkin can never do another thing to amaze me, still he always manages to do it.

“Where on earth did you get these?” I demanded, opening the folder he handed me, flipping quickly through a stack of photocopies.

BOOK: The Locker
8.38Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Playing with Fire by Peter Robinson
The Shadow Sorceress by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Diamond Club by Patricia Harkins-Bradley
The Kiss (Addison #1) by Erica M. Christensen
A Wedding in Apple Grove by C. H. Admirand
Z-Risen (Book 1): Outbreak by Long, Timothy W.
Lab Rats in Space by Bruno Bouchet
A Kiss Beneath the Veil by Aimee Roseland