Scary Mary by S.A. Hunter Page A

depressing. Two
people had died down here. One of them still haunted it. Why’d
Ricky stick around? It was just a plain old basement. Nothing
special. It shouldn’t be spooky, but ghosts never seemed to care.
They took up residence wherever they liked. Well, time this one got
evicted.
    She moved gingerly around the boxes, attentive
for any vibes that might indicate spookiness. She knew how silly
that seemed, but it was all she could do. Nothing was coming to
her. She looked around the room with a little worry. She didn’t
want to call Ricky out, but he wasn’t responding to her
presence.
    “ Ricky?” she whispered. No response. The
furnace sat off in a corner. Boxes blocked her way. She began
clearing a path.
    “ Where are you, Ricky?” she asked in a
quiet voice. She didn’t want to reach the furnace as Terri
Kuwalchek’s face flashed through her mind, but maybe his anchor was
near it. Ricky still did not respond.
    “ Have you found anything?” Rachel called.
Mary jumped and knocked over a box. She blew out a breath in
frustration and put the box back in its place.
    “ Nothing yet,” she called back. She was a
little over a yard away from the furnace.
    “ Come on Ricky, talk to me. I’ll listen,”
she said. The front door slammed upstairs. Footsteps went into the
kitchen. Mary could hear talking but could not make it out. She
knew that she didn’t have much longer. If Ricky didn’t show up
soon, she’d have to go. She pushed the remaining boxes out of her
way and stood in front of the furnace.
    “ Ricky!” she hissed. She reached out to
the furnace, but the heat, coming off of it, made her stop short of
touching it. She got on her hands and knees and crawled around the
furnace. There had to be something, but all she found were some
petrified bugs.
    The new person was at the top of the stairs with
Rachel. “She’s not doing anything,” Mary heard her tell the unknown
person.
    “ Yeah right, she’s not,” Kyle said. He
came stomping down the stairs.
    “ Ricky, you stupid, unloved, piece of
feces, where are you?” Mary said, but the homicidal maniac didn’t
answer. She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. What was it, her
breath?
    “ What do you think you’re doing down
here?”
    Mary straightened and brushed off her hands.
“Hi, Kyle.”
    He stood at the bottom of the stairs with his
arms crossed. It looked like Mary was about to be evicted. “What
are you doing here, freak?”
    She shrugged. “I thought I left something.”
    “ In the basement?” he asked. He tugged at
his shirt collar, and his eyes darted around the
basement.
    She was already speaking before she thought that
maybe it was bad idea to antagonize him. “Don’t worry, I didn’t
disturb your dirty magazines.”
    Kyle’s face twisted in anger. “Get out of my
house.”
    “ I was just leaving,” she said. She
approached the steps, but he was blocking the way. She paused for
him to move. He didn’t budge.
    “ If you want me to go, you need to move.”
He continued to stare at her. His whole body was tense. She didn’t
want to touch him. She had the feeling that if she did, he’d lash
out. Rachel stepped onto the stairs.
    “ Hey, what’s up?” she asked.
    “ We’re going,” she replied. Rachel blinked
and looked at Kyle.
    In a low harsh voice, he said, “Don’t ever come
to my house again.”
    She let out a slow breath as she tried to remain
calm. “Fine, Kyle. Will you move?”
    “ I mean it. This is my house, and I won’t
have you in it.”
    Her eyebrows rose. “Is the deed in your name or
something?”
    He didn’t reply. He stepped to the side, forcing
her to brush by him to go up the stairs. “I will make you regret
the day you ever met me,” he whispered.
    She stopped dead on the stairs. She turned back
to him in surprise. “What did you just say?”
    “ I said get OUT,” he said through clenched
teeth.
    Cy appeared beside Rachel. “What’s going
on?”
    Mary’s mouth twisted into a grimace.