Emily The Ducking Booth Mermaid
A “How I Spent My Summer Vacation: I Became a Girl!” Gaiden
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman
Book One of Emily's Prom Story Arc
-2-
Does a Demon really haunt the Dram Club Classroom?

I took a deep breath as I climbed the concrete steps. My footfalls seemed to echo off the wooden walls, faint rays of sunshine seemed to break through the window. It was late in the afternoon, and the school was almost empty, I say almost empty because only those who had after school detention or were attending club activities remain. As well as a few nuns who were walking the hallways, their long,glass rosaries swinging as they chanted prayers under their breath. Maybe they were trying to cleanse the school of unwanted sprites? . The faint sound of the gray haired janitor whistling a little tune under his breath also echoed off the old wooden walls.

My mission this afternoon was simple: report to the drama club's room on the third floor. Meet the girl with an oval face and blonde hair and try on the costume. Now, I've done cosplay before. I even cosplayed at a local anime convention. Well I've cosplayed twice before, the first time was at a local anime convention like I said before. The second time was at a local renaissance fair. Well that only if you count dressing up as a country maiden as cosplaying. Scholars on the subject will debate that.

As I reached the third floor. I felt a chill come over me. Small dust bunnies seemed to swirl in the air around me. The air up here was stale and smelled like crayons.  It seemed the third and fourth floor of the school was not shown the same love and care as the first and second floor. Which makes sense because most classes were held on those two floors. And the chapel, gym and such were located in separate buildings that were connected to the school via a paved walkway.

Now, I'm not going to say the school is haunted. Because I don't believe school's can be haunted, though that is not often the case in Japan. Because according to the anime every school in Japan is haunted by at least thirteen ghosts. But this being a Roman Catholic school, I doubt it could be haunted. I mean if I was a ghost, the last place I would want to hang around is a school. And let’s be real here, if either you or I were a former student who had passed away on school grounds the last place on earth we'd like to spend our after life roaming around would be our school. 

Finally I reached the drama club's room, it was located in the middle of the hallway. Taking a deep breath I reached down and wrapped my nimble fingers around the brass door-nob. Once my fingers were wrapped safely around the door-nob I gave it a shove and the old wooden door creaked open. And soon I was standing in the middle of the room. 

The room smelled of paint, it was crowded with props, bolts of cloth, old sewing machines. In a corner there was an old bookshelf that was filled with dozens of paperback plays. And in the middle of all this mess stood the oval face girl. She stood standing ram-rod straight with her arms folded across her chest and her foot was tapping upon the wooden floorboard and with a cock of the head she fixed her gaze on the old clock that was hanging on the wall.

“You're five minutes late.” She said in an annoyed tone of voice.

“Sorry.” I said, taking a deep breath.

“Any reason that you're five minutes late?” She said, arching an eyebrow.

“I had to stop using the bathroom?” I said blushing a little.

“And it takes you five minutes to use the bathroom?” She asked.

“I had to take a shit.” I said simply. “Today's 'Irish Stew' gave me the shits.  Everything I eat at this school gives me the shits. That's why I always carry lunch from home with me.” 

“Did you wash your hands?” She said, taking a deep breath as she unfolded her arms.

“Yes,” I said, leering at the girl.

“Anyway, Miss. Emily Hannah Anderson.” The oval girl said, taking a deep breath as she started to pace around me. “I have some good news, the local hospital has decided to make a sizable donation to fund our prom. Since it seems you and your boyfriend both volunteered to staff their dunking booth. Sunflower Food Store also decided to donate several cases of frozen hamburger patties and a pallet of charcoal. Colonial Bread has decided to donate a lot of unsold hamburger buns. So it seems the fund-raiser is going to be a smashing success.”

“Cool.” I said smiling. “So we're not going to do the dunking booth?”

“Hold on.” The woman paused. “ Manchester Fun Time has agreed to give us free usage of their dunking booth. With the local fire department agreeing to fill it for free. So yes, we're still going to do the dunking booth. 

“Fine.” I said, taking a deep breath. “Let me go ahead and try on the costume. I'm ready to get out of this room, it feels haunted.”

“That's because it is.” The girl said, guiding me over to a old closet.

“Come again?” I said, leering into the back of the girls head.

“Back in the nineties. There was a club that was called 'The Paranormal Research Club' and this room was their club room.” The girl said as she reached up and pulled upon a braided piece of rope and a few seconds later the old, naked light bulb flickered on.

“Right, like a Roman Catholic School will allow a club that is devoted to paranormal research. That shit would get shut down quicker than Nickelodeon shut down reruns of 'Cry Baby Lane'.” I said taking a deep breath though the air inside the room did seem to grow colder.

“It was a secret club.” The girl said, smiling sweetly. “According to the story,  one of the members decided to make a spirit-board one day in shop class. You know, they used the basement as kind of a shop area back in the day? Like back in the nineties they used to have wood-working and metal-working. Anyway this guy was also a boy scout that attended school here. Even though he and his family went to the Episcopal Church.”

“I never understood why our biggest rival is St. Andrew's Academy.” I wondered where in the world the girl was going with the story. And considering how far she was in the closet, I was starting to wonder if she was going to somehow stumble in Narnia. 

“Because. We're Roman Catholic and we say Mass the correct way and St. Andrew's is Episcopal and their nothing more than poor copycats.” She said muttering under under her breath. “Anway where was I? Oh this boy made this spirit-board right and late one night he and some other members of this 'paranormal research' club broke into school and used this spirit-board to contact a demon that called itself  'Moloch' which is like really bad news.”

I was getting a little creeped out by all this.

“Anyway several sessions in and this demon called 'Moloch' wanted them to perform a Black Mass here.  In this room. He also wanted them to make an offering, some stories said the demon wanted them to offer a baby, a human baby, some say it required something like a kitten or a puppy.”

“Girl.. did you invite me here just to tell a creepy ass story or did you want to try on the costume?” I said I was losing my temper a little. I felt bad about snapping on her, but things were getting a little creepy. 

“Hold on.” The girl said, taking a deep breath. “The story is just getting good, and the costume it seems is hidden in the very back of the closet.”

“Okay.” I said, crossing my arms.

“So, like I said, this demon who named itself 'Moloch' wanted something as an offering. So they took a kitten, a very young kitten. Like one that was still nursing from its mother and at the height of this Black Mass they opened the thing's throat and spilled it hot, warm blood on the floor.” The girl said.

 “That is some dark magic.” I muttered. Now for those of you who don't know, I'm not really a Christian. I'm more of a pagan. I also believe that at its heart Christianity maintains a lot of pagan beliefs. I'm not going to deep dive into what I believe, but my final thoughts on Christianity as a whole is that it could be a force for good but so often has been used as justification to enslave man's fellow man. 

“What?” The girl finally seemed to have found the mermaid costume as she was holding something up to the light.

“I said that was some really dark magic?! Doing shit like that gets you hexed. Gets you haunted?!” I said with a little too much pepper.

“Emily?” The girl said as she popped head out of the closet. 

“Did you notice the room just get a little chilly now?”

“Girl,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “It spring in the fucking south. It's going to be bloody chilly, and now that you told me we were standing in a room were some novice wizard performed a blood offering to a demon.. Well.. I just want to try the costume on and get out of here.” 

At that moment the old wooden door swung open. The girl and I just looked at ach other, both of us a little confused. Then it happen the door slammed shut. The windows rattled in their frames and the force of the slam echoed down the long empty hallway.

Well.. I bolted. The girl bolted too.
“What was that?!” The girl screamed as we rushed toward the stairs.

“YOUR FRIEND!” I shouted. Now, I'm the girls track team, so I can sprint if I wanted too, problem was, I was wearing a skirt and its hard to really gain traction in a skirt, plus my shoes had a slight heel to them, again hard to gain traction when your wearing a skirt and low heel shoes.

“MY FRIEND!?” The girl shouted as she pushed herself to keep up with me.

“YOU NEVER NAME A DEMON YOU DUMB BIMBO!” I shouted. As I bounded down the first few concrete steps.

“How do you know all this?” The girl seemed to follow me lead and like me was taking the stairs two at a time. 

“I'm a witch.” I said bounding over the concrete steps. 

“..” The girl said nothing and for several long minutes the only sound to heard was the leather sole's of our shoes grinding away at the concrete. Soon however we reached the first floor and then it was a full on sprint to reach the wooden door. For two long minutes we sprinted toward the main front door, once we reached it, we pushed open the lock and stepped outside into the late afternoon sunshine.

“I'll get Sister Smith to fetch the costume for us.. you can try it on tomorrow after your interview or before the event.. it should fit you.. I'm just.. I don't want to go back up there alone.. I mean I had you, I just don't want to go back up there alone without you knowing Holy support..”

I could think of nothing to say as I placed my hands down upon my knees and watched my chest heave up and down as my frail ass body went into hyperdrive. I could feel the sweet as honey air of a southern spring afternoon being forced into my lungs that seemed to burn as if they were on fire.

To Be Continued.