Mr. Conjure, page 3
“We heard she did it because she played with Mr. Conjure.”
Faux Mohawk smirked. “What do you know about Mr. Conjure?”
“Heard he’s the real deal. Want to meet him.”
“You’re not supposed to meet him. That’s the whole point of the game.”
“What’s the game?”
“You wanna play the game?” he asked with a leer.
“Tell us what it is first.”
“You go to an old abandoned house alone. You make a salt circle and light a candle. You invite Mr. Conjure to play three times. You hide and close your eyes and you can’t open them again until you make it back to the salt circle.”
“If you open your eyes, you have to start all over,” the twin on the right said.
“Unless you see Mr. Conjure, then you start running,” the left twin said.
“But it won’t do any good,” said right twin.
“Mr. Conjure will get you,” left twin finished.
“What do you get if you win?” Mary asked.
“You get to live,” Faux Mohawk said.
“So you get the same thing as not playing?”
“You get proof that you’re better than everyone else. You fooled death.”
“How do you prove that you won?”
“You don’t die.”
“Again, the same result as not playing.”
Faux Mohawk’s face became hard. “Are you calling us liars?”
“Funny how you jumped straight to that.”
“Listen, bitch, we’ve played the game lots of times and never got caught.”
“Jenny got caught.”
The twins dropped their eyes at that, but Faux Mohawk’s face twisted into a sneer.
“She was dumb. She messed up and probably scared herself to suicide.” It was what Mary thought as well, but she hated agreeing with this guy on sheer principle. She’d seen his type before and steered clear of them; Guys that thought being crass and mean made them edgy and cool. But as soon as someone really challenged them, they folded. He was a coward so that meant he could never have faced something like Mr. Conjure. If he’d encountered him, he would’ve screamed like a baby and run home to hide under his bed. It just proved that Mr. Conjure wasn’t real, but she still needed to know where they went to play their game.
“Where’s the house?”
Faux Mohawk smirked. “You want us to take you there?”
“Not what I asked. What’s the address?”
“We’re not telling. But we’ll take you there.”
“Yeah, sure, we’ll just get into a van with four guys we don’t know. What could go wrong?”
“You chicken?”
“No, just not stupid.”
“You look pretty stupid to me,” he said.
Eddie jumped in then. “Do you know who she is? This is Scary Mary. Do you really think she can’t handle any of your stupid shit?”
The right twin tossed his head to scoff. “Scary Mary isn’t real.”
Mary had to raise an eyebrow at that. “That’s news to me.”
“If you’re Scary Mary, prove it,” he said.
“I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“You do if you want the address,” Faux Mohawk said.
“Come on, guys, this is boring. She ain’t Scary Mary,” left twin said.
“How am I supposed to prove I’m me?”
“Do something.”
Mary had to hold back a laugh. “Do what? Dance a jig? Do a cartwheel?”
“Here’s your proof,” Eddie said holding up his phone.
The video from the night of Tyler’s party started playing and showed Mary spraying people with the fire extinguisher. The boys moved in closer to watch the video. They glanced over at Mary a few times while they watched the video.
“It’s definitely her, but is she Scary Mary?” one twin asked.
“Who the hell is Scary Mary to you?” she finally asked. Scary Mary had always been a nickname to tease her with. When classmates had called her that, they’d been making fun of her. These guys were saying it like she was an urban legend like Mr. Conjure.
“Is it true you can move stuff with your mind? Can you curse someone and make them lose all their hair?” left twin asked.
“I heard if someone crossed your shadow that they’d get bad luck,” right twin said.
“I heard you could fry someone’s phone without even touching it,” left twin said.
“I heard you could make ghosts do what you want,” the guy with the headphones said, speaking up for the first time. Mary hoped the dim light hid her surprise at his comment. That had hit a little too close to reality.
“If you’re really Scary Mary, do one of those things,” Faux Mohawk said.
Mary looked at the guys in disbelief.
“You gotta be kidding me. Do I look CGI’d to you? Do I have a cape? Am I wearing a mask? I’m not a superhero. You want me to read your palm or deal you some Tarot cards? I can do those things.”
The guys turned to each other to quietly consult. Mary couldn’t believe some of the nonsense that had been spread about her. She glanced at Rachel and Eddie. Rachel looked amused. Eddie appeared a little guilty.
“Is there a goddamn listing for me on Spooky Board?” she angrily whispered to him.
Eddie winced. “Yeah. But I take down the craziest stuff I find.”
“You take down?”
“I’m the mod for the topic.”
“Since when?” Mary asked with gritted teeth.
“Since I posted a picture of us to prove that I actually know you.”
“Do you get any money for this?”
“No.”
“If you ever start, you gotta split it with me.”
“Okay.”
The boys had more questions.
“Is it true your grandmother’s a witch?” the left twin asked.
“She’s a fortuneteller.”
“Did you kill your parents?” right twin asked.
The question surprised Mary so much that she reeled back. “No, they died in a car accident. I was four.”
“What about—”
“What about the address?” Rachel cut-in.
Faux Mohawk sneered. “If you’re so scary, scare me.”
“I’m not a performing monkey,” Mary said.
“Don’t know, you look kind of apish to me.”
“And you look kind of douchey to me.”
He straightened and stepped closer. “Say that to my face.”
Mary didn’t back down. “You look like a used feminine hygiene product.”
Faux Mohawk moved as though he was going to punch her, but she was pretty sure he was just trying to make her flinch, but the guy with the headphones stepped up and stopped him.
“This is getting boring. The house is at 251 South St,” he said.
“Finally,” Rachel sighed. They turned to leave.
“Goddamnit, Trey,” Faux Mohawk said.
Headphones guy called after them. “Wait, can we go see Jenny?”
“Yeah. Just don’t do anything stupid,” Rachel said.
“But she’s awake and stuff?”
“Yeah, she’s awake, just don’t upset her.”
“So I shouldn’t paint my face white and wear a torn up top hat?” Faux Mohawk asked sarcastically.
“Sure, go ahead. When her brother breaks your arm, the nurses can fix it for you.”
And with that, they left. Mary was so glad to be out of that dark, stuffy back room full of useless posturing and fake bravado. And as she glanced at her two friends, she realized how lucky she was to have them. She couldn’t imagine why Jenny hung out with those guys. If Mary had to be stuck with them or Vicky, she’d choose Vicky, and she’d once thought a cannibal would be better company than Vicky.
CHAPTER TWO
Hide and Seek
As everyone got back into the car, Rachel said, “We can get everything we need to play the game at my house.”
“Why would we play that stupid game?” Mary asked.
“Because we need to draw out Mr. Conjure.”
“He doesn’t exist.”
“Humor me.”
“Why? It’s ridiculous.”
“Jenny played the game. Something about it scared her so bad that she tried to take her own life. We can’t help her unless we know what exactly scared her.”
“That’s assuming something real scared her. Everything could have been in her head.”
“It wasn’t all in her head,” Rachel said.
“How do you know?”
“I just know. Okay?”
Rachel holding something back, but Mary let it slide for now. Mary glanced at her watch. It was almost seven o’clock. “Fine, we’ll do it your way, but I gotta head home at eight.”
Eddie had stayed quiet through all of this. Mary leaned in between the front seats to look at him. “You in or you wanna go home?” she asked.
Eddie didn’t look game. He was a little paler than normal. He had to swallow before answering. “I’m in.”
After a quick stop at Rachel’s home to pick up flashlights and stuff for the game, they pulled up to the abandoned house. There were “No Trespassing” signs posted every few feet along the fence. It looked like the house had been abandoned for a long time. Tall weeds filled the yard. Boards half-heartedly covered the windows. A new concern occurred to Mary. “What if someone’s in there?”
“You mean the guys? They seemed intent on staying at the store,” Rachel said.
“No, I mean like homeless people or crackheads. They won’t like us coming in.”
“If anyone like that were in this house, those guys would’ve pissed themselves the first time they met them. I’m sure it’s fine,” Rachel said.
Mary wasn’t so sure. She peered at the house and listened, but there was no sign that anyone was in the building. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t come in while the teens were inside.
Rachel turned on her flashlight and pointed the beam to a torn part of the chain fence. “Come on, this looks like the way in.”
They had to crawl to get through the hole in the fence. Once on the other side, they headed to the back of the house.
“Mary, do you have your ghost ears on?” Rachel asked.
She double-checked and nodded. “Yeah, they’re on, but I’m not hearing anything.”
The back door wasn’t locked. For all the “No Trespassing” signs, whoever owned the place didn’t seem too concerned about security. They entered what must have been the kitchen originally though everything that would’ve identified it had been stripped from the room. Pipes poked out of the wall. There was trash all over the floor. Mary realized that the window in the kitchen had been smashed and let in the outside air.
Evidence of past visitors was also apparent. Graffiti covered everything. A lot of it was stupid satanic stuff: upside-down pentagrams, 666s, inverted crosses. Mary wondered if it had all been drawn by the boys they’d just met.
They wandered through the rooms, finding much of the same as in the kitchen. The house was a simple one-story ranch. They found nothing unusual in any of the rooms. Mary was relieved to see no evidence that anyone called the house home.
“Well?” Rachel asked.
Mary shook her head. She’d heard nothing and had felt nothing through their tour of the house.
“Then we gotta play the game,” Rachel said.
“You have to play the game alone. No one else can be in the house when you start,” Eddie said.
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Rachel asked.
Mary rolled her eyes. “I’ll do it. But I think it’s stupid.”
“Then you shouldn’t do it. I will,” Rachel said.
“No, I’ll do it.”
“You’ll do it wrong.”
“Rock, paper, scissors,” Eddie said.
At the count of three, Mary did paper while Rachel did rock.
“Best two out of three,” Rachel said.
Mary shook her head. “Just give me the salt and the candle.”
Eddie cleared his throat purposefully. The girls turned to him in surprise. “You want a shot at this?” Mary asked in surprise.
“Oh no, definitely not, it’s just those guys didn’t tell you all the rules of the game.”
Mary groaned. “Great. Go on, tell me all of it.”
“You have to make a salt circle, light a candle, and from within the circle, invite Mr. Conjure to play with you by saying three times, ‘Mr. Conjure, would you like to play? Come play with me.’ If you hear three knocks that means Mr. Conjure has agreed to play. If you don’t hear anything, the game could still be on and you need to hide. Blow out the candle and leave the salt circle. Find a place to hide and stay there. Close your eyes and silently say, ‘You can’t see me, Mr. Conjure,’ thirty times. When you’ve done that, go back to the salt circle, but you have to do it with your eyes closed and avoid Mr. Conjure. You’ll know if he’s near if you hear footsteps, knocks, breathing, whispering, or giggling. If you think Mr. Conjure is near, become perfectly still. Repeat ‘You can’t see me, Mr. Conjure’ thirty times again. You have to get back into the salt circle without breaking the circle and light the candle with your eyes still closed. If you open your eyes, you have to hide again, only it has to be in a different spot and say the phrase thirty times again. Once you’re back in the circle and have lit the candle, check to make sure the circle is still closed. If the circle is broken, close it and hide again. If the circle isn’t broken, you say five times, ‘I won the game, Mr. Conjure.’ If you hear five knocks that means Mr. Conjure wants a rematch and you’ll have to hide again. If you don’t hear anything, you’re safe. You should say, “Thank you for playing with me, Mr. Conjure.” And you can safely leave the salt circle and leave the house.”
Mary wanted to say this was stupid, but she knew if she did that Rachel would insist on playing the game instead of her. “Where’s the salt and candle?”
Rachel pulled out a canister of salt and a fat white candle.
“You should use wooden matches to light the candle,” Eddie said.
“I know. I got’em here.” Rachel held up a small box of wooden matches.
Mary took the items. “Okay, I’m all set. Go wait in the car, and when I’m done, I’ll join you.”
“But what if something goes wrong? What if you need help?” Eddie said.
Mary really didn’t think anything would happen but humored him. “If I yell, you should be able to hear me pretty easily. Just keep a window cracked or something.”
Rachel still didn’t look happy. “Don’t half-ass this. You may not believe Mr. Conjure exists, but Jenny does. She’s so scared of him, she tried to kill herself to escape him. I want to know if he exists and how to stop him.”
Mary nodded. “I’ll do it exactly like Eddie told me. Don’t worry. And if anything happens, I will tell you.”
Rachel and Eddie left Mary alone in the house. With them gone, Mary swept the center of the kitchen floor with her feet to clear it for the salt circle. She still didn’t think Mr. Conjure was real, but for Rachel, she’d do the ritual. She poured the salt to make a circle and sat down inside it with the candle in front of her. She lit the candle and took a deep breath.
“Mr. Conjure, would you like to play? Come play with me.
“Mr. Conjure, would you like to play? Come play with me.
“Mr. Conjure, would you like to play? Come play with me.”
Mary had to admit that on the third repetition, goose bumps formed on her arms and the candle flickered, but she was pretty sure that was due to the breeze coming in through the broken window. She listened for any knocks when she was done, but there were none. She blew out the candle and rose. She didn’t want to hide too far from the kitchen if she had to make her way back blind. She ducked into the bathroom. It was pitch black in the small room, but it was close the kitchen. She wouldn’t have any trouble finding her way back. She got into the tub and closed her eyes.
Using her fingers to count, she silently began to mouth, “You can’t find me, Mr. Conjure.” She swiftly became chilled while she crouched in the tub and she thought she felt a spider fall onto her head. She kept repeating the phrase, squeezing her eyelids to stop herself from opening them.
When she reached thirty, she stood up. She had to hold out her hands to feel for the wall and climb out of the tub. She was surprised to find the bathroom door closed because she was sure she’d left it open. As she pulled it open, it let out a long creak. Goose bumps cropped up on her arms again. Tracing the hall’s wall with her fingers, she made her way blindly back to the kitchen. It was basically a straight path. The tricky part was going to be getting back into the salt circle in the middle of the floor. She had to find it and not break it. She hadn’t felt or heard anything supernatural during her blind trip from the bathroom, but she had become tense and jumpy. She didn’t like being sightless. Everything she heard sounded louder. The walls felt alien and strange though she could visualize them clearly. She hadn’t smelt the mildew permeating the air before, but now it filled her nose and made her breathe shallowly through her mouth. She stopped at the end of the hall which seemed to take her four times longer than it should have to reach, and she got on her hands and knees. She crawled toward the center of the kitchen, carefully sweeping her hands across the floor to feel for the salt circle. As she crawled, she realized what a vulnerable position she’d put herself in. If anyone was there, she would be easy to overpower, and she wouldn’t see them because she had her stupid eyes closed. Sure, Rachel and Eddie were outside watching the house, but it would be easy for someone to sneak by them.
When she felt the salt, she carefully got into it and found the candle. She’d kept the matches in her pocket. She struck one and carefully lit the candle.
When she was sure it was lit, she opened her eyes. She checked the salt circle and was relieved to find it unbroken. She began the end of the ritual.
“I won the game, Mr. Conjure.
“I won the game, Mr. Conjure.
“I won the game, Mr. Conjure.—”
There was a loud bang from outside. It made Mary catch her breath.
