"You need to leave this place."
Her head jerked up, lips curling back in a snarl, and I stepped back. The cold metal of the lockers pressed against my shoulders, and I swallowed hard. "You can't stay-" I started, and then there was a rush of wind as she suddenly surged forward.
It was like I'd been dunked into a tub of ice water. I couldn't see anything but that blue light, and all around me there was this horrible sense of pressure, like hands were pushing on me as hard as they could. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was her voice in my mind, shrieking so loudly I could barely make it out. Pay they have to pay have to pay, over and over again. Images played behind my eyelids. I saw blood on a microscope, saw Mary's ghostly hand clutched around the base. Then there was a cave, and fire? Something bright, something that burned.
And then suddenly the cold and the pressure were gone, the shrieking was silent, and Mary was no longer up against me, all around me.
She hovered there in front of me, chest heaving in and out as though she were still breathing, and she had a frantic look in her eyes. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, head tilting back to cry at the ceiling.
And then she rose up, hovering high over my head before vanishing.
I stood there against the lockers, nearly panting. My knees felt watery, but I made myself stay on my feet. Brannicks don't slump to the floor just because a ghost gets up in their face.
Still, as I pushed myself off the lockers and scrubbed a shaking hand over my mouth, I had to admit that that had not been your run-of-the-mill ghost. I'd seen ghosts before. I'd seen them sad and confused, maybe a little irate. But I'd never seen one as furious as Mary Evans, and I'd certainly never had one try to... God, what had she been trying to do? It had almost felt like she was trying to climb inside my skin.
Shuddering at that thought, I pushed open the bathroom door. Inside, I splashed cold water on my face and tried to get my heart rate back to something resembling normal. Reminding myself that coming face to face with Mary Evans was a good thing-hey, now I knew what I was up against-I stepped back into the hallway.
A shadowy figure suddenly appeared in front of me, and with a choked shriek, I reached out and grabbed the front of a shirt, slamming the person against the lockers.
Anderson blinked back at me.
"Oh!" Loosening my fingers, I let him go, smoothing his shirt out with the flat of my hand. "Sorry, you scared me. I startle kind of easily."
Tucking his hair behind his ears, he nodded. "I noticed that." I waited for him to give me the "You Violent Freak" Look Ben McCrary had given me, but to my surprise, Anderson just smiled and said, "I knew you dressed like a ninja, but I didn't think you actually were one."
I laughed. "I didn't hurt you, right?" I asked, but Anderson waved me off.
"No harm, no foul. Romy was looking for you. She took the gym while I headed up here."
"Where's Dex?" I asked before I could stop myself.
Anderson shrugged. "His Nana needed him, so he went home." He frowned, looking more closely at me. "Are you sure you're okay? You're kind of pale."
We opened the breezeway doors, stepping back outside. "Yeah, just..." I trailed off, and Anderson nodded.
"Overcome with the majesty of team sports. I understand."
Chuckling, I shrugged. "Something like that." The air didn't feel so cold now that I'd had a ghost trying to snuggle me, and I took a deep breath as we walked down the hill. We had just gotten to the gym when Anderson said, "Hey, Izzy."
I turned and he stood there, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. "Uh...thanks for being so cool with Romy. I know she likes hanging out with me and Dex, but with you...with you being, like, you know, a girl and stuff-"
I stopped Anderson before he could actually choke on his tongue. "It's easy to be cool with Romy. She's a cool girl."
Anderson wasn't as good-looking as Dex, but the goofy grin that spread across his face was seriously beautiful. "She's the coolest girl," he enthused, and even though I'd just been scared half to death not ten minutes before, I discovered I was grinning, too.
"Who is?" Romy asked, coming up behind him.
Anderson's ears reddened and he kicked at a nonexistent rock. "This girl," he babbled. "This girl who's cool."
Romy raised her eyebrows. "Huh. Informative, Anderson." Tugging at my hand, she started pulling me toward the parking lot. "Come on, Iz, my mom's here."
"Bye, Anderson," I called, waving to him with my free hand.
He gave a sheepish wave back and then turned away.
"So," Romy asked as we stepped into the parking lot, "other than getting ditched by Jerk-Face Adam, how was your first Official Mary Evans High Event?"
I looked back at the school, and even though I couldn't be certain, I thought I saw a flash of blue light.
"Eventful."
CHAPTER 16
Romy's mom drove a minivan, one of those fancy ones with the doors that open on their own and TV screens in the back of every seat. As we clambered into the back, I stepped on one doll, a handful of crackers, and a pile of Legos.
"My siblings are beasts, sorry," Romy said, flopping into her seat.
"They're also four," her mom informed me, catching my eyes in the rearview mirror. Her hair was a few shades darker than mine and pulled up in a haphazard ponytail. A large spot that looked like it might have been grape juice stained her T-shirt from the collar to the middle of her chest.
I noticed the booster seats and looked over at Romy. "You have three siblings?"