Mr. Conjure, page 9
“Well, I’m spending the night. What about you, Taryn?”
“Uh, no,” she said, looking a little embarrassed.
“Mary, how often has Kyle spent the night at your house?” Rachel asked.
Realizing her mistake, her cheeks heated up. “Well, he has. You spent the night then too.”
“Yeah, but Gran knew the dire circumstances. My parents don’t. My girlfriend isn’t allowed to spend the night just cause.”
“Okay, okay. I get it. So I get to stay up all night making sure you don’t get attacked in your sleep. You need more friends.”
“We could call Eddie,” Rachel suggested.
“Wait, am I not standing here?” Kyle asked.
Both girls looked at him in disbelief. “If Taryn can’t stay, you certainly can’t,” Mary said.
“But Eddie can?” he asked back.
“He’s a freshman.”
“A baby.”
“He’ll probably bring a Teddy Bear.”
“And wear footie pajamas!”
“Aww!” they said in unison.
Taryn had her phone up to her ear. “Yeah, a sleepover, sorta. You’re going to make sure Rachel doesn’t get attacked by the bogeyman.”
“Wait, who are you talking to?” Rachel asked, rising from her bed. She swayed when she stood which alarmed Mary.
With her phone still to her ear, Taryn pushed Rachel back onto the bed. She collapsed without any effort. “All right, see you in a bit,” Taryn said before hanging up.
“Was that Eddie?” Mary asked.
“Yep. You’re right, you can’t stay up all night and watch over Rachel by yourself. You need help.”
“But Eddie?” Rachel said.
“He’s one of us, isn’t he?” Taryn said.
She had a point.
“This is going to be weird,” Rachel declared.
“That’s our normal,” Mary told her.
With Rachel sitting up at least, Mary aimed a table lamp at her to see her shadow. It showed up crisply on the wall with no undulating edges or movement that didn’t follow Rachel’s own motions. To be sure, Mary picked up Rachel’s phone and put it in her shadow. It didn’t start ringing or acting weird.
“Told you it’s not latched to me. This Shadowman is free-roaming. It isn’t tied to anyone.”
“But where did it come from?” Mary wondered.
“What about Ghost Mary?” Kyle asked.
“What about her?”
“She claimed to see monsters. She must have meant the Shadowman. Maybe she knows something about it?”
Mary had to admit that it seemed plausible. She’d assumed Ghost Mary was mentally ill, but maybe the cause of her craziness was the monster, instead of the monster being a symptom of her craziness. But had she summoned it like Mr. White? Mary didn’t know how he’d done it, but he’d given it his shadow, however that worked. The other Mary hadn’t seemed to know anything about the occult.
“We need to go back to that house,” Rachel said.
“Not tonight,” Taryn said firmly.
Rachel rolled her eyes. “No, not tonight. But tomorrow. We need to go back and kill that thing.”
“You don’t need to go anywhere. We can go back tomorrow,” Taryn said.
“You’re leaving me behind.”
“Rach, you can barely stand! I’m not letting the Shadowman have another chance at you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Stand up and tell me that.”
Mary heard people coming up the stairs. “Guys, chill.”
Both girls went quiet as Mrs. Pillar opened the door.
“Knock, knock. You have another guest. You aren’t trying to throw a party by having everyone show up one-by-one and hope we don’t notice, are you? Because I’m noticing.”
“No, Mom. Eddie’s the last one. Is it okay if he stays the night?”
Mrs. Pillar blinked in surprise at the question. She turned to give Eddie a second look. He stood straighter, but he didn’t reach Mrs. Pillar’s chin. He had his book bag with him which looked to be bulging. Mary wondered if it was full of board games again.
“What grade are you in?”
“Ninth, ma’am.”
“Does your mother know you’re attending a sleepover with girls?”
“Yes, ma’am. She’s who dropped me off.”
Mrs. Pillar thought about it for another second then shrugged. “Okay, it’s fine with me. Do you need anything, Eddie?”
He took off his book bag and pulled out a round plastic device with a cord. “Um, is it okay if I plug in my humidifier? It helps me sleep.”
“Oh, sure. Do you have nosebleeds a lot?”
He nodded.
“I understand. Did Rachel tell you I’m a nurse?”
He shook his head.
“Well, if you start feeling bad or something, let me know. I can help.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Pillar.”
Rachel’s mother turned to the rest of them. “Okay, that’s it. No more guests. Four’s your limit.”
“So if someone leaves, someone else can come over?” Rachel asked.
Mrs. Pillar laughed. “No, you may not cycle out people to bring in new faces. Taryn and Kyle, you both have to leave by eleven. Understood?”
They nodded.
“Okay, guys. Have fun. I’ll be in the living room.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
After she closed the door, Eddie asked, “So what’s going on?”
“Rachel’s an idiot,” Taryn said.
Rachel flopped back on her bed. “Here we go again.”
“Have you ever heard of a Shadowman? Shadowy beings that stalk people?” Mary asked.
“Um, I think so. They’re real?”
“Yeah, and Rachel figured out the hard way that a Shadowman is what freaked Jenny out. We need to stay with her and make sure the Shadowman doesn’t come after her again.”
“I really don’t need guards. You see all the lights I have in here. The Shadowman won’t come near me.”
“And I’ve seen a Shadowman turn out lights. Someone has to watch and make sure there’s always light.”
“What does it do?” Eddie asked.
“If it touches you, it’ll make you weak and sick. If it touches you a lot, I’m not sure, but you might die.”
His eyes grew round.
“Light hurts it so we always need to make sure there’s light.”
“Okay… But what else do we do? Is there a way to get rid of it?”
“We kill it.”
“Um, how?”
“I have a knife, an athame actually. If I stab it, it’ll kill it.”
“Or I could stab it,” Rachel said.
“What? Why would you—”
“I’m the one targeted by the Shadowman. It’s going to come after me, not you. I’m the one who has to fight it.”
“No, I can take care of it. You need to—”
“No, you need to stop assuming you have to fix everything! I put myself in this mess. I’ll get myself out of it.”
Mary stared at Rachel. She was clearly serious about this, but Mary was not going to let her go and get herself killed.
“We’re all going to help fix this,” Kyle said. “It took like eight of us last time to deal with the Shadowman. There’s only five of us this time. We will have to work together to get rid of this one.”
Kyle had a point. It might only take one of them to stab the Shadowman, but trapping it and holding it to be stabbed was going to require all the help they could get. At least there was no Hand of Glory to deal with this time, and the Shadowman wasn’t possessing anyone.
Mary said, “Okay, we should all get some rest. We’ll make plans tomorrow to deal with this thing. We can meet at my house at nine o’clock. Everyone should bring all the flashlights you can and any other light sources.” This was mainly directed at Taryn and Kyle since they were the only ones leaving.
Kyle pulled Mary into a hug. “Be careful and don’t decide to do anything crazy tonight,” he said softly.
“I promise I’m not leaving this house until sunup. Half the reason I’m staying is to make sure Rachel doesn’t do something stupid herself.”
He rubbed her back. “Go easy on her, okay?”
“What do you mean? She went off by herself and did something dangerous. She can’t—”
Kyle squeezed her. “You know why you two are such good friends?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re both the same type of crazy.”
Mary wished they didn’t have an audience so she could kiss Kyle, but even though Eddie was staring at his feet uncomfortably while the couples said their goodbyes to their significant others, Mary wasn’t about to try to steal a smooch.
“Do me a favor and sleep with the light on tonight? Okay?” she said into Kyle’s shoulder.
“Was planning to. I’ll collect all the flashlights in the house and see you tomorrow.”
She nodded, and they finally parted.
Taryn and Rachel finished up as well. Taryn was red around the eyes and Rachel looked down.
Once Kyle and Taryn were gone, Eddie put down his book bag. “Where should I lay my sleeping bag?”
“Anywhere is fine,” Rachel said with a wave of her hand. But anywhere wasn’t fine. The floor was strewn with stuff. Mary cleared a spot by the computer desk for the boy’s sleeping bag.
“Thanks for coming over. I know this is pretty weird.”
“I never thought I’d be invited to a girl’s sleepover.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but there won’t be any pillow fights or hair braiding tonight.”
“Well, that’s probably for the best. I’d likely get a nose bleed and my hair isn’t very long.”
Mary had to grin at that, but she could tell Eddie was still troubled. “Hey, we’re just being overly cautious tonight. I really don’t think the Shadowman will show up, but we can’t take it for granted. All you need to do is stay awake and yell if the lights start flickering or you see a weird shadow.”
He nodded and cradled his flashlight against his chest.
“Do you want first shift or second?” she asked.
“I think I want second.”
“Sounds good.”
Eddie left to change into his pajamas.
“So it’s my turn to be babysat,” Rachel said.
Her comment reminded Mary of her own babysitter. Harvey was likely to go into a panic if she didn’t come home. She didn’t know what the ghost would do, but she didn’t want to find out. She grabbed Rachel’s phone and called home. The answering machine picked up. “Harvey, I hope you can hear this. I’m spending the night at Rachel’s. Don’t worry. Her parents are here and everything’s fine. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”
She hung up the phone and hoped the ghost got her message. She also hoped he was able to handle Ghost Mary all night on his own.
There was a tap at the door.
“Who’s there?” Rachel asked.
“It’s me. May I come back in?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah. We’re decent.”
Eddie slipped back into the room. Mary was disappointed to see that he was wearing normal pajamas and not footie ones like they’d hoped.
“I’ll wake you up at four o’clock to take over,” Mary said.
He nodded and slipped into his sleeping bag. Mary noticed he put in a pair of ear buds. He’d come well prepared. She had to admire that.
“So what do you want to do?” Rachel asked.
“Don’t know. Talk?”
Rachel grimaced. “Okay.”
“Hey. You’re in luck. I can’t yell at you at least.”
Mary stretched out on the bed beside Rachel. They both lay facing the ceiling. “Why did you go back on your own? You’ve yelled at me plenty for doing stuff like that.”
“Would you have gone back if I asked?”
“Yeah.”
“Liar.”
“No, if you insisted, I would have.”
“But you thought the case was solved.”
“Ghost Mary seemed like a slam dunk.”
“Yeah, well. But I knew she wasn’t.”
“But how? I mean there was nothing around the house that indicated a Shadowman. Ghost Mary was clearly deranged. It seemed pretty easy to assume that she’d freaked Jenny out.”
“I knew Jenny wouldn’t just decide on suicide without good reason.”
“There’s never a good reason to commit suicide.”
“What if you were terminally ill and in excruciating pain?”
“I don’t think that’s suicide. And that wasn’t Jenny’s situation. How’d you know she wasn’t suicidal before this?”
Rachel was quiet a moment then said. “You can’t tell Taryn.”
Mary stiffened. She didn’t know if she wanted to hear what Rachel said next. The silence was heavy. Rachel was waiting. She was her best friend, but Mary didn’t want to know something bad that would change things between them. But she had to let her tell her. That was what best friends were for.
“Can’t tell Taryn what?” she asked.
“Taryn wasn’t the first girl I was interested in.”
“Oh.”
“I met Jenny at a concert. I liked her look, and she liked mine. We went out some. Even kissed, but we didn’t really click. I was attracted to her, but it just didn’t happen.”
“Are you still interested in her?”
“No! I care about her, but no, there’s nothing like that.”
“But she was your first.”
“Kiss. That’s all.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“You didn’t tell me anything about Jenny. I didn’t know about Taryn until you were together. I guess I just figured you would tell me these things as they happened.”
“I didn’t know what was happening. I mean I wasn’t sure. Introducing her to you when I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out seemed weird. I mean if it didn’t work out, then I’d have to tell you about it and I didn’t want to.”
“Rach, you can tell me anything you want.”
“Well, I didn’t want to tell you. Introducing you is a big deal.”
“Like meeting the family?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“I get it. And thanks.”
Rachel reached over and took her hand. “You’re my sister. You’ll always be a part of my life.”
Rachel’s words made Mary’s throat tight. “Same here,” she said.
They lay holding hands on the bed as the clock ticked.
CHAPTER FIVE
Tag, You're It
Rachel fell asleep while Mary kept watch. She had no trouble staying awake. All she had to do was imagine the Shadowman, and her body would go on high alert. She’d hid it from the others, but the Shadowman scared her more than any ghost she’d ever encountered, and she had no idea what they were. She didn’t know where they came from. She didn’t why they existed. She’d hoped to never cross paths with one again, but here she was sitting with all the lights on, afraid of the dark. Were they more common than she’d thought? Were they all over the world, hiding in the shadows and creeping out to siphon life force from sleeping humans? It’d be so easy for them to go around undetected. There could be thousands, even millions and no one would know. Thinking these thoughts made it very easy for Mary to stay awake. Too easy. When four o’clock came, she woke Eddie to take over, but when she lay down to sleep, she found herself staring up at the ceiling still, unable to close her eyes. Any flicker of movement caught her attention. She had to make herself close her eyes and breathe deeply, but her sleep wasn’t restful, and she woke at eight groggy and grumpy.
“So what is our course of action for today?” Eddie asked.
Mary frowned as she deciphered his question. “We go to my house and get the anchors and the athame. We take them to the house, corner the Shadowman, and get stabby.”
“Sounds simple,” Eddie said cautiously.
“Do you have a better plan?”
“No, simple is good.”
Rachel drove them to Mary’s house. Taryn and Kyle were there waiting for them. Mary gave the house a suspicious look. Something didn’t seem right. She unlocked the door cautiously.
“Harvey, I’m home—”
“Put her in the shed. Just put her in the shed. I can’t take it. This is not what I signed up for when I died.”
Mary looked around the kitchen. The counters were dirty and a two-liter soda sat on the table.
“Do you have any Mentos?”
“Uh, no, and none are ever coming into this house now.”
“But it’s so cool! I saw what happens on TV. I want to try it.”
“Not in the house.”
“That’s okay. The ceiling’s probably too low, anyway.”
“What else have you been up to?”
“When she wasn’t watching television, she was trying to imitate anything she saw on it. I’ve never hated cable television more than last night.”
Mary was silently glad she hadn’t shown Ghost Mary YouTube. She might have tried to heat up a knife to red hot and see what it could cut through or tried microwaving a glow stick or doing the millions of other things that you shouldn’t try at home. “Well, Rachel figured out that Mr. Conjure is actually a Shadowman. We’re headed back over there to kill it. I want you both to come with us.”
“No, I’m not going back.”
“You aren’t staying here by yourself.”
“You can’t make me.”
“Mary, if you don’t go with us, I’m putting you in the shed.”
“Fine.”
Mary went to the living room and found Ghost Mary’s anchor. She picked it up and took it outside where the others were waiting. They watched her with curiosity. “If you want to go in, go ahead. I gotta take care of this first.”
“What are you doing with Mary’s anchor?” Rachel asked.
“She’s getting a time out. Don’t worry.”
