Haunted hallways, p.6
Haunted Hallways, page 6
Radha stretched out her arms and Myna filled the space between them. Radha felt thin, cold air enveloping her, and it made her feel warm.
“I don’t want Tanvi to kill you, but I’m afraid she might,” Myna said, at last.
“I would-dn’t mind,” Radha blurted out.
Myna didn’t look too shocked. She smiled at her sadly. “You wouldn’t like it much.” Then after a moment’s pause, a familiar mischievous grin flickered on her face. “But I know what you might like—revenge.”
Radha nodded. “I’d like to frighten her, really frighten her.”
“I have a plan.”
The next day. Radha relished the look of surprise on Tanvi’s face when she saw the girl energetically slurping the soup. In the first period itself, Kamala got thrown out of class for not having her physics book. Without Kamala to prompt her, Tanvi stumbled in her answers.
At lunch, Tanvi cornered Radha. “Where’s the book?”
When Radha didn’t respond but placidly continued reading a book of poetry, Tanvi changed her tone. “I’ll really kill you if you don’t tell me.”
Radha handed her a letter. Tanvi opened it, read it, and crumpled it. The bell rang.
When the clock chimed midnight, they were waiting for Tanvi in the auditorium. With Myna guiding her hand, Radha had drawn a pentagram on the stage with salt. Candles were lit on all five corners. Radha had heard stories about tantric rituals and exorcisms being performed at Kali temples back home, but she didn’t really believe in such things. Yet that didn’t matter, for she believed in Myna.
Tanvi cautiously stepped in and walked down the aisle. “Radha?” she called. She noticed the flickering lights and walked up onto the empty stage. At the center of the pentagram lay the physics book. The wind moaned through the trees outside. “What a sick joke,” Tanvi said, stepping into the circle. She lifted the book and then let out a shriek, as though she had touched red-hot iron. “It burned me,” she cried out, dropping the book. “What the fuck have you done, bitch?” She ran to the edge, but she couldn’t get out. It was as though a wall of invisible glass had descended upon her. “Let me out,” she screamed, her hands flailing at the emptiness.
The cobwebbed chandelier turned on. Tanvi screamed, startled by the lights. “Stop it! It’s not funny anymore.” The bolt loosened. The chandelier swayed dangerously. Tanvi’s shrieks for help fell upon an empty stage. “Radha, please stop it. I’m sorry,” she begged.
“I t-think that’s enough,” Radha said, emerging from her hiding place backstage.
“C’mon, the fun has just started,” replied Myna, materializing on top of the chandelier, her face glistening with glee. “We need to complete the ritual.”
“Who is that? Who are you talking to?” Tanvi shouted, helpless, trapped under an invisible bell jar. Behind her, the book burst into flames, and through that, a black hole appeared. Myna pointed Radha to it. Tanvi followed Radha’s gaze and yelped.
“What the fuck is that?”
Even Radha was confused. “Myna, w-whhat is that?”
Myna didn’t answer. She soared around the circle, like a caged bird set free. Finally, Tanvi saw her and screamed, “Marina was right! All this time you were really talking to a ghost!”
Myna flashed a smile at Tanvi. “That’s the other side.”
“What are you tr-trying to d-do?” Radha asked, her voice betraying a thin note of fear. “I s-saaid it’s en-nough.”
Myna turned to face her. Her eyes glittered with a strange light, and suddenly Radha felt that she couldn’t recognize her. “Is it really? Do you know for how long I watched you in the dormitories, crying yourself to sleep? Holding a pillow to your heart because nobody would ever touch you? All because a couple of silly girls made fun of you?”
Radha stared at her, aghast. Myna went on, “She isn’t going back. I’m taking over her body.”
A spectral hand appeared from the chasm. “Help me,” Tanvi shouted, but the soundproof auditorium was too far away for anyone to hear.
“We c-can’t k-k-kill her!” Radha screamed back.
“I thought you hated her.”
“That’s not the same as wanting someone dead!”
Myna stopped. “Isn’t it?”
Radha took a deep breath. “I know that’s what happened to you, but we can’t just sacrifice Tanvi!”
Myna’s face was glazed with spectral tears. “Even if it means I can live again?” The spectral hand was scurrying toward Tanvi. “That’s why I did this!” Myna cried. “My body’s gone but my soul is still here. I can breathe again in Tanvi’s body. I can run in the playground like the other girls. I’ll taste chocolate and wine again. I’ll hold you like no one else did. Don’t you want that—if not for me, for yourself?”
Radha stared at her best friend, incredulous. “You…you’ll be in Tanvi’s body?”
“I know you find her body beautiful.”
“Please, I’m sorry for everything,” Tanvi wailed. The spectral hand gripped Tanvi’s leg. She stamped at it, and it let go, but the chasm got larger. “Please, Radha, I’m sorry for everything.”
“Myna, you n-need to st-stop this,” Radha cried.
“I can’t,” Myna replied.
Radha looked around, trying to find an escape. She surmised that the creature wanted a soul. The pentagram would prevent it from escaping, but it was also trapping Tanvi. She’d have to break the magic circle—but that was too great a risk. For a moment, Radha looked up longingly at Myna and wondered what the other side would be like. She thought she could see a way. “T-Tanvi,” she whispered.
As if reading her mind, Myna’s ghostly hands shoved Radha’s shoulders. “Stop it, what do you think you’re doing?”
The force of that spectral throw set Radha tumbling off-balance. But she had shouldered harsher blows and bruises during P.E. She got back up and placed one foot inside the pentagram. “We need to push that cr-creature b-ba-ack,” she cried to Tanvi.
Myna screeched at them. “I did this for you! I did this to save you!”
Radha looked up at the ghost. “No, you did it for yourself!”
“A life for a life!” Myna cried. “That’s how a bargain works!”
Tanvi reached out and caught Radha’s arm. Myna was so close to them, beseeching Radha, “You wanted me. You wished that I was real. You almost kissed me.”
Tears streamed down Radha’s cheeks. “I’m not g-going to ki-kill for you!”
Myna’s expression faltered. “You’re nothing, totla.”
Radha didn’t flinch; instead, she concentrated on pulling Tanvi out with all her might. “I’m n-nothing like you,” she screamed.
She fell backward, with Tanvi on top of her. Her feet displaced the salt lines, breaking the circle. A livid Myna swooped down to them, but just then the spectral arm reached out, grasping for Myna’s shimmering form, and the lights went out, plunging them into darkness. Tanvi found Radha’s hand and tightly clutched it. Radha heard the feral scuttling of claws getting closer and closer. Without another word, they ran hand-in-hand, out of the auditorium, into the chilly grounds. As Radha bolted the doors shut, they heard the chandelier crash and shatter.
“Do you think it will hold it?” Tanvi gasped.
“I think the cr-creature will go back, now that it’s had its f-fill,” Radha said, but she wasn’t sure. And the only person who might have had the answer was gone.
Tanvi looked at her with terror, as though Radha could destroy her life in an instant. But Radha had no time to relish the feeling of being powerful, as something pounded loudly on the doors.
They ran through the moonlit playground, holding hands till they reached the dorms when Radha could not hear the scuttling anymore. As she crawled into bed, with a sobbing, shaking Tanvi below her, Myna’s beseeching face swam up. Radha fought back her tears as it slowly dawned on her that love and hate were two sides of the same coin, each a ghost haunting the other. A girl and her hated reflection in the mirror. She realized that the other side wouldn’t be any different, and she wept softly for the ghost of the girl she could have been.
REMAIN NAMELESS
KATALINA WATT
Content/trigger warnings: femicide, grooming, misogyny, murder, pedophilia, sexual assault, suicide
Meli heard the story from Teresita, leaning against her locker the morning Headmaster Reverend Thorne had found the girl’s body. Meli rolled up her skirt, watching Teresita’s cleavage straining against the buttons of her school blouse. At least Meli was taller, gangling limbs and all.
“Found her tangled in the willows at the lake,” Teresita said, winding gum around her finger. “Thanks for the curfew, bitch.”
“What happened?”
Teresita shrugged. “Couldn’t cut it, I guess. Rather her than me.”
Meli adjusted her pile of books. “No note? Don’t they know who she was yet?”
“They never know anything.”
The ghost of the girl watched Meli and Teresita discussing her death. The willow branch crept around her neck, embracing her. The life had been squeezed out of her. Water in her throat, mulch in her nose. Now she was no longer a girl; she was a kaperosa. She silently screamed her name, but they didn’t hear her.
“Are you going to see him again?” Meli asked, applying the wand of cherry lip gloss. The bottle was nearly empty already. She’d have to steal more of Teresita’s cigarettes to trade.
Teresita cupped her hand against her mouth. “This weekend.”
Meli squealed. “What are you gonna wear?”
“I need you to alter my dress.” Teresita smoothed her hair, an impulsive habit Meli knew like a warning.
“You have such a good figure, I can definitely work the neckline.”
Teresita practically purred.
“He’s gonna love it,” Meli agreed.
The blood wouldn’t stop. Meli sucked her finger, hot rust filling her mouth. It was a good thing the dress was red, otherwise she would have ruined it. Their Sunday dresses were shapeless crimson drapes of wool.
“I’ll be too hot,” Teresita lamented, flopping down onto Meli’s bed.
Meli shrugged. “I can’t exactly cut it.”
Teresita threw a pillow at the wall. “We’re all gonna die virgins wearing those sacks.”
Meli cracked a smile. “Look here,” she said, pulling Teresita up and holding the dress to her. It was long, almost touching the floor, but Meli had pinned soft pleats so the fabric didn’t swamp. She’d nipped in the waist and adjusted the sleeves so it would fall off Teresita’s shoulders. When her friend tried it on, she was pleased by the strong suggestion of cleavage.
“He won’t be able to resist.”
“Did you see Willlow’s body?” Rosa asked. The others had started calling the kaperosa Willow, on account of where she was found.
“No, but Tess did.”
Rosa’s eyes widened, looking around the chapel. The girls filed in for afternoon mass and the teachers gave up trying to quiet them.
“She’s not here,” Meli said.
Rosa gave a knowing look. “At least one of us is getting some. Poor girl though, what year was she in?”
Meli bit her lip. “Fourth year, I think. She looked young, according to Tess.”
“God, the babies are too soft these days. Do you remember The Strikes?”
Meli shuddered, her buttocks reddening at the memory of the wooden paddle, the horrid slap of wood on flesh.
Rosa put her mouth to Meli’s ear. “I overheard Tess’s confession one time—she said she liked it.”
“You’re making that up.”
“It’s true. You’re just offended because she told me and not you.”
Meli reddened, trying to think up some cutting response, but the organ sprang into life. They barrelled into the first hymn and Meli pulsed with anger, channelling her rage into an unwavering alto. If she couldn’t rip Rosa apart with words, she could at least deafen her reedy descant.
Reverend Samson Thorne was counting heads. Meli watched the Headmaster’s lips moving. Their eyes met. Meli pressed her forehead down into her clenched knuckles, choking back the smell of candle wax. She turned to the crucifix, but Thorne blocked her view.
“Teresita?” he asked, folding his arms.
“Studying for chemistry,” Meli bleated.
Thorne nodded.
Teresita had smirked as she’d fed Meli the lie to regurgitate. “My grades have slipped. He’ll approve of me being proactive. Besides, you’re his favorite pet. He’ll eat up your every word.”
Teresita was studying chemistry—of a kind. She’d hopped the crumbling old walls at the edge of the grounds, trying not to muddy her shoes by the willow banks. Her boyfriend was waiting with his motorbike. He’d brought a picnic, and they sprawled on the soft grass watching the clouds. Finally. They’d messed around before, but only over-the-clothes stuff.
“I never get to have fun anymore,” Teresita sighed, stroking his dark curls.
He pouted. “It’s that stupid curfew, right? So unjust.”
“You have no idea how hard we work,” Teresita agreed, taking a swig of beer. “We just want to blow off steam, have a little fun.”
“We could have a bit of fun,” he said, running his hands up her leg.
Teresita knew pleasure. She had taken it from herself, fingers into soft hot dough in the sleeping hours when Meli’s breathing was deep and rhythmic on the other side of the dorm. She dreamt of boys slipping inside her, wrapping her arms and legs around her boyfriend. Of bodies rather than brains for once. She wanted to be pretty, and she wanted to be wanted. She knew sin and it was delicious.
Meli whispered feverishly, repeating prayers and incantations until they ceased all meaning and became desperate sounds. She thought about Teresita. They would be having sex, no doubt about it. She might be on her knees in the dirt. She would tell Meli all about it, whether she asked for the details or not. Teresita was like that, and partly because Meli thought she felt sorry for her.
“You never show an interest in boys,” she’d said, something sharp beneath her tone.
“I’m not interested in boys,” Meli deliberately let her gaze linger on Thorne.
“No?!” Teresita gasped teasingly. “You are full of surprises, Meli.”
“I just want to be treated right. And you know boys our age don’t know how to do that.”
That was before Teresita got her boyfriend. She thought about Rosa’s barbs. Meli blushed now in the pew as Thorne swept past her. His cologne was woodsmoke and whisky. God, how often she had looked at their chapel Renaissance icon of Jesus. He was holding his cross aloft, like it weighed nothing, the strength of his muscles and that flimsy white cloth around his waist. She had secret night thoughts, imagining she was the cross and Thorne was Jesus.
Teresita adjusted her dress and checked her face in the compact.
“Excuse me, miss,” the young man emerged from the woods. She jumped out of her skin, expecting herself to be alone. Her boyfriend was taking a piss. “Where’s Mallory Thorne School of Excellence?” He checked his paper and blinked in the afternoon glow.
He was cute. Teresita smiled and watched him blush, taking in the motorbike, the picnic remnants on the grass. Then she noticed his car, the caduceus: two snakes coiled round a staff. A medicine mark.
“Mallory Thorne?”
“That’s right. I know it’s around here. Got a bit lost just outside town. Not sure I followed the right road.”
“Yeah, some of these roads lead nowhere,” Teresita said, and he noticed the ice chips brittle in her voice.
“You a student there?” he asked, pushing back his glasses. It was her turn to shift uncomfortably.
“Maybe.”
He laughed. “Do they know you’re out here?”
“What’s it to you?” she crossed her arms, looking back into the trees. “My boyfriend’s here so you better watch it.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Just looking for the school. No trouble.”
“You don’t want to go there.”
“Why’s that?”
“The school is trouble.”
His upper lip quirked in a bemused smile.
“That girl you’re collecting, do you know what happened to her?”
“Finding out is sort of my job.”
Teresita let out a frustrated grunt. “She killed herself. It’s toxic up there.”
He softened. “I’m sorry about your friend, but I’ve got a job to do.” He turned back to his car, defeated.
Teresita reached out to grab his arm. “You’re not listening. It won’t be long till you’re fetching another body.”
Their eyes met. Whistling and branches snapping. Teresita’s boyfriend emerged from the trees and became alert, sussing the situation.
“Who’s this?” he asked, stiffening.
“Looking for directions to Mallory Thorne,” the medic asked, brandishing his paper.
“Up the hill,” Teresita’s boyfriend pointed. “Follow the dirt track to that massive fuck-off castle. Can’t miss it.”
The medic smiled tightly and stalked back to his car.
“What a creep,” Teresita’s boyfriend said. “Good thing I came back when I did.”
Teresita gave a brittle laugh, looking back up the hill at Mallory Thorne. It threatened to tumble into the lake which surrounded it.
“I can’t believe you set me up, you bitch!” Teresita slammed into Meli, knocking her to the ground. “Why did you dob me in? After everything I’ve done for you?”
What was Tess talking about? Dizzy as she was, Meli wasn’t sure. Tess was her only friend, but an average one at best.
“I didn’t tell!” Meli insisted, scrambling to her feet.
“You liar. Thorne pulled me into his office after breakfast. He knows I broke curfew. Why didn’t you cover for me?”
“I did,” Meli yelled, bewildered. “I told him you were studying for your chemistry finals. He didn’t follow up.”
“Then how the hell did he know?”
