Stolen Life: The Scary Mary Series, #7

By S.A. Hunter

A few months ago, Mary didn't know she had any living relatives until Jake contacted her. He may live a few states away, but distance means nothing to him. He can go wherever he wants with his mind's eye, except one place. It's a place of death and shadows, and their relative Tracy Rathbone has been trapped there for nineteen years. Jake needs Mary's help to bring her home.

Mary wants to help, but she's cautious. Tracy is in the land of Shadowmen, the terrifying creatures that slip through cracks and take a person's life force. Mary has only ever gone up against one Shadowman at a time and each time she has only barely won. Going up against an army of them would be impossible.  

She doesn't need to worry about the Shadowmen though. Tracy has a plan. She just needs Jake to bring Mary to her. She'll take care of the rest. Mary really should've asked more questions about the plan. Because it isn't so much an escape plan as a trade, and Mary's the one being traded.

Abandoned, alone, and scared, Mary must figure out how to get home and take back her stolen life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S.A. Hunter
• Release date: Jul 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393586173

Book preview

Chapter 1

Sneaking Away

During the morning break at school, while her classmates chatted about their weekends and got homework help, Mary was hiding in the second floor girl’s bathroom. She’d taped a hastily written Out of Order sign to the door of the handicap stall. She huddled on the toilet seat with her feet pulled up so they couldn’t be seen. Her hands were over her mouth to stifle her breathing. She was hiding from a terrifying monster. No horror movie had prepared her for what was stalking her. If it found her, it would tear her to shreds with its razor sharp tongue. She’d choke on the sickly sweet noxious fumes wafting from it. And its nails, better to not think about the long, sharp, dripping red nails. If they got a hold of her, she was done.

A pair of strappy platform sandals appeared under the door.

Mary, I know you’re in there, Vicky said in an aggrieved tone.

She stayed quiet, hoping the cheerleader was bluffing and that she’d manage to fool her.

I can see you, she said. Mary saw her mascaraed eye in the crack of the light green stall partitions.

That’s a bathroom foul. You’re never supposed to do that, she said giving up the delusion that she’d fooled her.

Come out here and talk to me.

Do you really want to do this face-to-face?

Better than face-to-bathroom stall door.

I’m surprised you tracked me down. I figured you’d prefer to text or something.

That would be preferable if I thought you would reply. But so far you’ve ignored my voicemails and instant messages. No, as much as it annoys both of us, we’re doing this here and now. And you’re not getting away.

Mary sighed and let herself out of the stall. She went and leaned against a sink. Vicky watched her warily like she expected her to bolt at any moment.

Okay, what do you want?

Vicky stared at her incredulously. I want to know what the hell that dream was about. Where were we? Who were we inside?

She was referring to the shared dream that they had two days ago. Mary had been ducking her since she woke up from it. The dream had involved her, Vicky, Jake, and someone she didn’t know named Tracy. They’d gone somewhere that hadn’t been on Earth. And it had been the home of the Shadowmen, Mary’s biggest fear. She’d barely defeated one of them last week, but that other place had hundreds of them, maybe thousands and all of them were searching for a way to get to their world.

Tracy was trapped there. Mary didn’t know how she’d gotten there, but she had no way home. Jake claimed that she was his aunt, but like Vicky’s calls to Mary, he hadn’t replied to any of Mary’s messages after giving her that incredible information. It was quite frustrating.

To answer Vicky’s questions, she said, I don’t know, I don’t know, and I don’t know. Good talking to you. She moved to leave the bathroom.

Vicky threw out her arm to stop her. You know something. Were those weird things Shadowmen?

She stopped and slumped. Yes.

What about the electric monster?

That one was new to me.

But you know what it is?

No, I have no idea.

Really? Vicky didn’t sound convinced.

Why would you think I’d know? It was a big monster made of lightning. They don’t exist here.

Are you sure?

Mary didn’t like getting interrogated. She especially didn’t like getting interrogated by Vicky. You know what, you’re right. I have seen one of them before.

Where?

In a massive compendium of rare and strange creatures. It’s called a Raikou.

What are they?

Let me pull up the compendium on my phone.

It’s on your phone?

Yep.

Mary did a quick search for the name and turned it to show Vicky.

Why are you showing me a Pokémon?

Mary didn’t answer just continued to hold up the phone. Vicky pushed it away. 

Fine. You don’t know what the creature was. But you must know something. What was that place?

Mary shook her head. Really, I don’t know.

What did you do to make the dream happen?

Why do you think I did something? You’re the one with dream powers.

Don’t call them that.

Why? What do you call them?

I don’t call them anything because I don’t use them.

Well, you did. You used them to take us to that place.

No, I didn’t. And that wasn’t a normal dream. I know dreams. That wasn’t a make-believe place. It was real. We left our bodies and went somewhere. I don’t want to do that again.

I don’t know what caused us to have that dream. It was as much of a surprise to me as you.

Then did the other girl cause the dream?

Mary wanted to lie to her and say she didn’t know so she wouldn’t have to keep answering questions, but Vicky was involved whether Mary liked it or not and she had a right to know as much as her. I think my cousin caused it.

The girl’s your cousin?

No, I don’t know who the girl is, but I think my cousin caused the dream. He can see stuff far away, and he was helping us see the girl. Though she didn’t know how Jake had been able to share his vision with them. His remote viewing ability let him see anything he wanted. He could send his mind’s eye across time zones to look at things. He’d started watching her when he’d learned about her. He’d helped save her life when she was possessed by a Shadowman. They had never met, but he’d been able to tell her friends where to go to save her. She’d read about others remote viewing such far-flung places as Mars, but she’d written the claims off as hyperbole, but the place in their dream hadn’t been Earth and Jake had somehow shown it to them.

Well, have you talked to your cousin? Does he go here? I want to meet him.

He lives in Alabama. He thinks the girl is his aunt, but I couldn’t get much more out of him.

Wait, is this the guy that called me when you were possessed?

Yeah, that’s him. He’s thirteen.

He thinks we’re friends? Out of everything, Vicky sounded the most incredulous about that.

I don’t think so. Why?

He called me to help you when you were possessed and now he pulls me into a weird dream with you. Tell him we’re not friends.

Yes, I’ll just put that at the top of my list of talking points for when I chat with him next.

Good. And then find out what’s up with that girl in the other place.

I’m surprised you want to know anything about her. I would’ve expected you to tell me to leave you out of my weirdness.

Yeah, well, maybe I know it’s no use telling you that. I gotta get to class. Send me a text when you find out more.

After Vicky marched out of the restroom, Mary slumped over the sink, glad to finally be free of the prom queen. She was right though. She did need to find out more.

Mary had tried to speak to Jake again since they woke up from the dream. He’d immediately called her and claimed to have known where they had gone and who they’d been with. He’d said the girl was his aunt Tracy. She’d never heard of her, but then again, she hadn’t known about Jake until that year.

Jake ended the call before she could get more information from him. She’d been sending him emails, texts, and messages without a single response. She was on the verge of calling his grandmother, her great-aunt Beatrice to find out if he was all right. But calling Beatrice was only in case of emergency. Gran’s sister was scary. She could make people do whatever she wanted. All she needed to do was tell them to do it and they’d do it even if they didn’t want to. She’d used her ability on Gran and Mary before. Being unable to speak or move because their free will had been usurped had been frightening. The only thing that kept Beatrice from being some evil villain was her strict moral code. She’d never used her abilities to hurt anyone. 

When her text alert sounded, she looked at it eagerly thinking it was Jake, but it was Kyle. She scolded herself for her brief disappointment that it was her boyfriend and not her cousin. He wanted to know where she was. She sent a reply saying the bathroom.

*Got time to c me?*

*Yeah. Why?*

*Miss u.*

Even while she rolled her eyes at his reply, she did get the warm fuzzies inside. She was grounded for an indeterminate amount of time. That meant no dates, no hanging out with friends after school, no opportunities to see Kyle except at school, and when he drove her back and forth. The way it was now, they’d spent more time together before they were dating.

*Where r u?*

*Front doors.*

Rather than reply, Mary went to meet him. The break was almost over, but she still had a few minutes. Or at least she thought she did. She reached the front doors and saw Kyle. She gave him a big smile and just as she was leaning in to give him a big, lazy hug, the bell rang.

Dammit, Mary muttered against his fleece-covered shoulder.

His sigh was unhappy too. See you at lunch?

She nodded and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. She was getting better about the public displays of affection, and Kyle seemed to appreciate it if his goofy smile was any indication.

When lunch arrived, she stayed sitting at her desk. She’d been checking her phone between each class to see if Jake had finally contacted her. With a jolt, she saw an email message from him.

*I know I should’ve called back, but don’t have many chances. I can’t let any of my family know what’s going on. You were right. Telling Grandma anything about this would be a bad idea. Can’t now anyway. When I tried to ask her about Tracy, she ordered me to never say her name again. I mean ORDERED. I can’t give up on this though. I need you to do me a favor. Can you go to your grandmother’s room and look in an old box in her closet? It’s on the top shelf. It’s round with flowers on it. It has a clasp and a handle. There’s some important stuff in there that you need to see.*

He had not answered anything. In fact, he’d only given her more questions. What could Gran have that explained any of this? She hit reply and tapped quickly.

*What was that dream? Where did we go?*

She hit send, but she knew that she wouldn’t get a reply any time soon. She was beginning to appreciate how frustrated Vicky was with her, but unlike her, Mary couldn’t confront Jake face-to-face. If she could question him in person, she would have no qualms about cornering him in the boy’s room to get her answers. He was lucky he was a couple of states away. 

She pushed all her frustration aside as she headed to the art room. Lunchtime was a welcome respite from classes. It seemed like either Mary had a test coming up in each one or a big paper due. She was swamped with schoolwork. She didn’t so much sit down in the art room as collapse onto the stool.

The gang was all there. Seeing so many faces turning to greet her was a little weird. It used to be just her and Rachel. Now they both had significant others and they’d adopted a freshman. They had a nice little family.

Mary, since you’re a real medium now, have you called up any cool ghosts? Rachel asked.

She frowned at the question. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was a little offended by Rachel’s comment that only now was she a real medium. No, I haven’t summoned anyone. And not all dead people become ghosts.

But there have to be some famous dead people you could contact?

There might be, but I don’t know who they are. And if I tried to randomly guess one, I would most likely go bonkers. It’d be like searching for a phantasmal needle in a spectral haystack.

Oh, I like that, Eddie said and he wrote it down. That had been something he’d started doing recently. Documenting her. It made her uneasy.

Well, if you could say contact Emily Dickinson that would be cool. I have some really important questions to ask her, Taryn said.

When’s your paper due? Mary asked.

In two weeks.

I’ll see what I can do.

Taryn smiled at her offer.

Fine, we won’t try to contact Elvis, Rachel said.

No point. He’s not dead, Mary said.

Her best friend let that slide, rather than be derailed into a passionate debate over the King of Rock’s corporealness. It surprised Mary that Rachel wouldn’t even entertain the possibility of Elvis being alive. She’d consider a secret race of lizard people controlling the world before the possibility that Elvis had faked his own death. Have you tried contacting any new ghosts in general?

Mary’s mouth twisted at the question. It wouldn’t feel right. Imagine calling up complete strangers and saying, Hello, who are you? Got anything juicy to tell me? No? Well, bye-bye then. I mean I’d be like a psychic telemarketer. Yuck.

Fine. So you’re back to not using your powers as much as possible, Rachel said.

Yep!

You are so boring.

Yep!

I like boring, Kyle said into her ear, which made her shiver.

Rachel saw this and made gagging noises. Ugh. You two are so heteronormative!

I think it’s sweet. I wish someone would whisper sweet nothings into my ear, Taryn said.

Eddie cleared his throat. Everyone turned to him in surprise. Mary was delighted that he was fake volunteering. A low growl came from Rachel, but it seemed he hadn’t been about to offer Taryn assistance. He hunched his shoulders defensively. I just wanted to tell you that I won’t be here tomorrow.

Got an away match, huh? Kyle asked.

It’s the state finals. Eddie was on the math team. They’d done really well it seemed.

Good luck! the girls said.

He nodded bashfully.

How long will you be gone? Mary asked.

Oh, I’ll be back on Monday. It was currently Wednesday.

Nice. You get to miss two days of school.

Oh, we won’t miss much. We have worksheets and video lectures to watch.

Not so nice then.

Well, it is if you like school.

You actually like school?

Well, the learning part.

You are so adorable, Rachel said. Eddie leaned out of reach of her hands as she tried to pinch his cheeks. 

Taryn nudged her girlfriend.  So are you going to give it to her? 

Mary’s ears perked up. She was the only her they could mean. Give who? Give what? Give now?

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t look like she wanted to give her whatever it was, but she pulled out a flattened glittery purple gift bag and slid it over to her. As Mary reached to take it, Rachel pulled it back slightly. You have to appreciate it.

Mary nodded eagerly. I will. Promise. Gift now.

Promise promise? Rachel asked.

She frowned. Why did a gift need a serious promise? What did you get me?

She let her have the gift bag. Just open it.

No longer excited, Mary pulled out the white tissue paper peeking from the top. She peered into the bag and saw a book. She pulled it out and was immediately disappointed.

The Top 25 Haunted Places in America, she read.

Rachel leaned forward. It’s really well researched with full histories of each place and who haunts them. You can call one of those ghosts up easy.

She opened the book to the table of contents. The Amityville House is listed here.

Yeah. What’s your point?

It’s not haunted.

What do you mean? Of course, it is. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated it.

It was a hoax.

How do you know?

Well, of course, I read about it. A deranged teen did kill his entire family there, but nothing supernatural happened. People live there now without any issues. The family made it up for money with the help of the lawyer for the deranged teen.

What about Annabel?

Mary had to admit she wasn’t sure about the possessed doll the Warrens claimed to own. She didn’t believe a demon possessed it. If it was real, it just had a really malevolent spirit. Maybe, she admitted.

Well, skip the chapter on the Amityville House and go to something else.

Mary scanned the table of contents. You mean like the Rolling Hills Asylum?

Yeah. It’s gotta be super haunted.

Humoring her, she flipped to the chapter and skimmed the first page. It started as a poorhouse and ended as a nursing home. It has over 1700 documented deaths.

See? It’s gotta be chock full of ghosts. It tells about a few specific ones. You can call one of them to you.

But why would I?

Because it would be cool.

Would it though?

Yes.

But would it though? she said again this time in a higher pitched sarcastic voice.

Rachel reached over and snatched the book back. If you don’t want the gift, just give it back.

Somehow that didn’t feel like much of a gift to me.

Gave it to you, didn’t I?

But did you though? she asked using the same high pitched voice again.

WHEN KYLE PULLED UP behind