Vengeance knows no Marcy

The three teenagers were trying to stay as quiet as possible as they made their way through the silent abandoned school building.

“I'm still not sure this is a good idea,” Jenny whispered, turning back to look at her friends who seemed to be hiding behind her.

“Why? I thought you were the most rationally-minded one in our little group,” Ned jabbed with a smirk. He was right — Jenny was one of those people who could walk through a cemetery during a Halloween night and be left unfazed, but something about the abandoned school wasn't sitting right with her.

Kasey shushed them both, and they continued to walk in complete silence, the sound of their footsteps being the only disturbance in the building that was otherwise completely still.

“This school doesn't seem like one of those abandoned buildings we'd usually explore,” Jenny added eventually, feeling the need to explain her uncharacteristic anxiety. “It's not just desolate. It feels... Dead.”

“I don't know if you noticed,” Ned retorted, “But buildings in general have a tendency to be inanimate objects. In fact, I would be more concerned if you said that the school seems like a living being to you. Concerned for your mental health, that is.”

Despite herself, Kasey let out a loud snort at that, immediately covering her mouth as soon as the sound left her.

“Guys, I'm trying to get some decent footage for our channel here. This is supposed to be one of those scary episodes, and you're ruining it,” she complained, adjusting the camera in her hands.

“I don't think we're gonna be seeing anything scary tonight,” Ned was trying to sound disappointed and mask his relief by waving his hand in dismissal. “Unless we somehow come across Marcy here.”

Jenny stifled a laugh, bumping into her friend's shoulder playfully.

“Yeah, that's right. If we really need a scary video, we should just make her the star of the episode. Her face alone is horrifying enough, and we've survived being in the same class with her for years. There's nothing that can scare us now.”

“Seriously, will you be quiet for five goddamn seconds?!” Kasey was losing her patience and, ironically, raising her voice. The hollow-sounding echo it created was unsettling to all three in the group, but none of them would admit to it.

“Oh, come on, Kas. Didn't you want to break Marcy's legs the other day?” Ned scoffed, distracting himself from the inexplicable uneasiness he was starting to feel.

“That's irrelevant,” Kasey shot him an irritated glance, though Ned wouldn't have noticed that in the darkness. “Besides, you're the one who threw literal stones at her like some kind of medieval vigilante.”

“I wasn't the only one doing that,” Ned put his hands up, exasperated by the accusation.

“But you started it,” Jenny butted in.

“Hey, whose side are you on?!”

“Shhh!” Kasey put her finger to her lips, shushing the banter down once more. “I think I see something.”

And indeed, there was something — or rather, someone, moving unhurriedly through the empty school corridors, blending in with the pale weathered walls. Kasey pointed her camera in the direction of the movement and braced herself before tip-toeing towards it, gesturing the other two to follow her. Jenny gulped and grabbed Ned by his sleeve, much to his dismay as he was already starting to back away.

“A ghost?” Jenny whispered, the volume of her voice barely managing to break the silence that now felt heavy and oppressive.

“You don't believe in ghosts,” Ned deadpanned, refusing to show his own emotions on his face.

“But she's transparent...”

And it was only then that Kasey and Ned noticed it, too. The young girl's silhouette didn't just blend in with its bleak surroundings — it was see-through, like stained glass.

“Well, that's great. What do we do now?” Ned asked, his tone unnaturally causal for the situation. “It's not like we can just walk up to her and ask her if she's a ghost, can we?”

“Um, excuse me?” Kasey lowered her camera to look directly at the translucent apparition in front of her. “I apologize if it's rude to ask, but... Are you, by any chance... Do you think you could possibly be... A ghost?”

Ned and Jenny looked at each other in disbelief.

“Or maybe we can,” Ned concluded.

The transparent figure looked at the explores as if she had just noticed them. For a few moments, a terrifying silence engulfed the place. The three friends felt small and helpless under the strange being's piercing gaze, but for some reason, none of them thought of running. More than anything, they just felt awkward — like they had been caught breaking into somebody's house for fun and filming their crime. Kasey almost opened her mouth to revoke her previous question, thinking they should just apologize and leave... But before she could do that, the silhouette answered her at last.

“Yes, your guess is correct. I am, indeed, a ghost. Look!” And with that, the girl waved her hand through the wall. Her voice was cheerful and almost naive, as if this was a totally normal answer to a totally normal question. Kasey looked back at her friends. None of them knew what to do now. They didn't expect to get this far. They were supposed to look for ghosts, not to actually find one...

“Um... Okay...” Kasey scratched her head, realizing that her friends weren't about to jump into the conversation. “What is your name?”

“Bella,” the ghost answered. “And what are your names?”

“Well, I'm Kasey... And behind me are my friends, Ned and Jenny.”

The ghost's face fell, her expression changing from innocent curiosity into something much darker. The three friends suddenly remembered that they were talking to a supernatural being, and that none of them had any idea what that being was capable of. The way she looked at them in that moment reminded them of it.

“Uh... Did we... Do anything to anger you?” Kasey managed to ask, taking a few small steps back.

“Yes. You did.”

And before any of them could react — they were all falling down into the pitch-black nothingness, unable to see or hear each other anymore.

“We will start with you, Jenny.” Bella's voice echoed in the empty space in which Jenny landed, surprised that she didn't injure herself after such a seemingly long fall.

“Where am I?!” Jenny demanded, but her question was ignored.

“You are a beautiful girl, Jenny.” Bella said instead of answering.

Jenny blinked once. Then twice.

“Uh... Thanks?”

“And that means a lot to you, doesn't it? It means so much to you that you would do anything to confirm that to yourself, even if it has to be at the expense of someone else.”

“What do you mean?” She tried to look at Bella, but she couldn't see anything in the perfect darkness. Until there was a sharp flash of light, and Jenny was surrounded by... Mirrors.

“What...”

Before she could finish her question, her reflections started talking.

“God, how are you so ugly? Don't you get jumpscared every time you see yourself? I must say, I admire your courage to take photos. I hope you at least don't post them anywhere. The is no need to traumatize random people on the internet by showing them that thing you call your face. We should get some free therapy from the school as compensation for seeing it every day.”

Jenny recognized those words. That was what she'd said to Marcy every time she bothered to look at her. She wanted to answer, to ask, to explain — but her voice was gone.

“And do you know what it does to one's self-perception when they have to hear such things every day?” Bella's voice cut through the endlessly repeating insults, and as if on command, Jenny's reflections started changing. She could see her face distorting in grotesque ways, her skin melting off, her teeth and hair falling out, and only her eyes stayed frozen in place, unable to look away. She tried to close them — but she would see the same things behind her eyelids: her entire body was changing its shape now, her limbs twisting in all the wrong directions, and it looked like her form was disintegrating into a shapeless cloud. She couldn't even estimate the size of her own body anymore, and with every breath she took, the image only got worse, turning into some kind of indescribable monstrosity with Jenny's eyes. She tried to remind herself that this was all an illusion, that this wasn't how she really looked — but found herself unable to remember what she actually looked like. The dark space around her filled with countless disembodied eyes, staring at her. Judging her. There was nowhere to hide from them. They were piercing through her with their disgusted, condescending, hateful gazes. Jenny felt hot tears run down what she thought was still her face, even though it no longer looked like it. She couldn't even wipe them off.

“I will leave you here to reflect on your actions... Ha, get it? Reflect? Because it's your reflections—... Yeah, whatever, bye.” And with that, Bella disappeared, leaving Jenny trapped in the nightmare of her own making.

“You're next,” Bella announced to Kasey as she appeared in front of her.

“Bella!” Kasey exclaimed with relief. “There you are! I'm sorry, I think I fell somewhere... We shouldn't have come here and disturbed you, and we apologize, so please—”

“That's not what I'm mad at you for.” Bella replied, cutting Kasey off.

“It's... not?”

To answer her question, Kasey's surroundings changed. She was standing in the middle of a sports field — the same one she had at her school, except that she'd had never seen it in the middle of the night before.

“Your problem is that you think just because something is easy for you, it should be easy for everyone.” Bella started, walking around her.

“I... I truly am sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're referring to...” But the trembling in Kasey's voice suggested otherwise.

“Then let me jog your memory... Get it? Jogging?”

Kasey blinked once. Then twice. Bella facepalmed.

“I swear, you're even slower than that other girl... Ha, yes, that's what I should've said! You might be fast on your feet, but you're slow on your brains... In your brains? With your brains? Ugh, English was never my favorite subject...”

“Um... Okaaay... So, do you think I could just, um... Go home now? Please?” Kasey fidgeted nervously with her camera strap, only now noticing the absence of the device that used to hang on it.

“Not go. Run.” Bella said, patting the baseball bat that had somehow appeared in her hands. “You don't want your legs broken, do you?”

Kasey's blood run cold.

“Is this about what I said to Marcy that day?”

Bella's eyes widened.

“Okay, maybe you aren't so stupid after all.”

Kasey took a deep breath. She still didn't understand anything, but she needed to pacify Bella somehow, even if she had no idea why a ghost haunting an abandoned school would care about her saying a couple of mean words to her classmate every other day, or how she'd even found out about it in the first place...

“Listen, that is a running joke in our class. If you can see my memories or something, then you must understand why it started. Marcy, she's... She just doesn't try. She had some kind of so-called disability that supposedly makes it harder for her to run, but we all know that's just an excuse. We're doing her a favor... And besides, she knows we're only kidding.”

Bella's expression shifted into something more thoughtful.

“And that was why you told her that if she doesn't quit whining and start running like everyone else, you'd break her legs to give her a 'real reason' not to run?”

“Yes, yes. She knows it was a joke, too.” Kasey exhaled with relief. Surely, Bella understood. Surely, she would let her go.

“But she doesn't. She thinks you're serious every time you say that.” Bella said solemnly.

“Um... What? How do you... know that?”

“That's irrelevant.” The ghost's voice took on a sharp edge. “Now, run.”

A sports whistle appeared in Bella's hand, and when she blew it, the sound was so loud and piercing that Kasey gasped and covered her ears — but it didn't help. The whistling reverberated inside of her skull, cutting through her brain, tearing through her eardrums, screaming at her mercilessly. It would never stop. Until it did.

Kasey sighed. If Bella wanted her to run, then fine. She was good at running. Or so she thought, before she tried making the first step. Her shoes felt like they were made of lead, and she could barely put one leg in front of the other. A baseball bat, now levitating on its own, gently tapped Kasey's legs as a reminder. Countless dark figures formed behind her, their mouths twisted in mocking smiles. They were getting closer fast, faster than Kasey could run from them. Terror filled her veins, and the rush of adrenaline made her finally start moving. Her lungs burned as she panted, her legs felt like they would fall off if she didn't stop — but if she did, something much worse would happen to them. She kept wanting to justify herself to Bella again, to say that this wasn't fair, that there was no way it could actually be that bad for Marcy — but she didn't have enough air left in her struggling lungs to even try to speak. And Bella was no longer there. A horrifying thought crossed Kasey's mind then — she didn't know when the run would end. She didn't know if it would ever end. But she couldn't run forever, so was she just delaying the inevitable? She looked back, only to be met with the same blood-curling grimaces, their white teeth shining against the darkness of their blurry silhouettes. And the baseball bat kept nudging her. Perhaps it would be smarter to just stop now and accept her fate — but she couldn't. The fear wouldn't let her. And so, she ran.

“Last, but most definitely not least.” Bella's voice caught Ned's attention right away, but the stunned guy didn't say anything.

“You are, by far, the worst.” Bella continued, not waiting for a reply. “I don't think I need to remind you why.”

The next moment, Ned found herself in the school yard. He was standing at the same spot that Marcy had been standing at a few days prior. The events of that day unfolded in his head, and for some reason, he found himself narrating them to Bella, as if something was forcing him to.

“I was hanging around with the guys from the football team when Marcy approached me. I think she thought I wanted to be friends with her because I let her borrow my pencil on the previous lesson. I only did that because the teacher was staring at me. But I couldn't be seen hanging around Marcy, not by the coolest people in the entire school. She was being way too friendly, and the other guys were starting to mock me... One of them joked that we could try throwing stones at her to make her back off. So I did. I threw the first stone, and... The others followed suit. She ran away in tears, but she wasn't injured, so it was okay—”

“No.” Bella interrupted him. “It wasn't.”

“I know.”

When Ned became surrounded by levitating stones, he didn't try to run. He didn't even try to dodge them. Instead, he just covered his head and face with his hands and waited for the onslaught to stop. Bella didn't know if it was out of remorse or just helplessness, but she guessed the latter. When Ned managed to peek between his hands and look around, the ghost girl wasn't there. Instead, the stones were being thrown by faceless male figures in football uniforms.

“Bella!”

Marcy's voice cut through the dark space, and the ghost's attention snapped to her immediately.

“Marcy,” she greeted her happily and ran towards her. “You won't believe who came to visit me today.”

“I thought I was the only one who visited you.” Marcy tilted her head, and her confusion only deepened when Bella gestured towards Marcy's three main bullies that were lying unconscious on the ground.

“Wait, those are... What are they doing here?! And what did you do to them?!”

“Nothing they haven't done to you,” Bella shrugged. “You've told me quite a lot about them, so when you sent them to me, I knew what I had to do. I can't hurt them physically, of course, but I can create enough nightmares for them to lose their minds...”

“Bella, I did not send them to you.” Marcy clarified.

“Even so...” Bella stalled, “They're getting exactly what they've earned. I won't let them make you do the same thing I did all those years ago.”

Marcy glanced at the unfortunate trio, and then back at her ghost friend.

“Don't worry, I won't. You had no one... But I have you. And that's enough. Besides, I don't think they will bother me anymore. Not to mention that, if they die here, they'll probably start haunting this place, too. And I prefer it with only the two of us here.”

Seeing Marcy's smile, Bella let out a long sigh and finally relented.

“Fiiine... I'll let them wake up. But you'll stay with me for the rest of the night. It's boring here without any bullies to haunt.”

“I'll gladly keep you company, as always,” Marcy replied with a chuckle.

As Jenny, Kasey and Ned finally scrambled to their feet and ran without looking back, the last thing they heard was Marcy's loud, vigorous laughter.