Slow Dance in Purgatory

The old song lilted softly out of nowhere, and the intercom crackled as if someone was preparing to speak. Maggie screamed and threw herself through the dance room door. She fumbled for the lights, slamming the door behind her. Her terrified reflection stared back at her from the mirrors that bracketed the dance room floor, and the song that had sent her shrieking into the room ceased as quickly as it had begun. Gulping for breath and trying not to cry, Maggie sank down to the floor, bracing her back against the door. She wanted out of this freaky-assed school! Maggie tended to swear when she was scared. And she was terrified. She wanted out of this freaky-assed school, but there was no way she was going back out into that long, freaky-assed hallway!

“Breathe, Maggie, breathe,” she told herself. “Gus said he was lonely, not dangerous. Lonely, not dangerous.” Maggie repeated the phrase to herself as she tried to calm her racing heart. Surprisingly, as her pulse began to slow her anger began to build, and before long she was royally pissed off. “How dare he?!” she thought to herself. She hadn’t done anything to him! Johnny Kinross might be lonely, but he was also a jerk! What he had done was just plain mean. He had scared her to death twice now, and it was getting old.

Standing up, Maggie yanked off her coat, tossed her duffle bag to the side, and marched angrily to the sound system in the corner. Flipping switches and cranking up the volume, Maggie plugged in her ipod and scrolled through her song list until she found what she was looking for.

Eminem’s “Not Afraid” blasted out of the speakers, and Maggie threw herself into the center of the floor, her movements bold and defiant, daring Johnny Kinross to make his next move. Eminem’s in-your-face style gave her courage, and Maggie pushed herself harder, leaping and lunging, spinning and kicking, until more than an hour had passed. Maggie’s skin shone with sweat, and her heavy hair stuck to her face and clung to her back.

Collapsing in the middle of the floor, Maggie pulled her hair up in a messy ponytail and leaned into a deep stretch.

“Take that, Johnny Kinross,” Maggie said out loud, and smiled widely when there was no response.

After about fifteen minutes of cooling down and stretching, Maggie could hear the sounds of the school coming to life beyond the dance room door. Time to head to the locker room and get cleaned up and ready for school. Maggie fervently hoped that Johnny Kinross didn’t frequent the girl’s bathroom. She didn’t think she could handle a pervert on top of everything else. Gathering her gear, Maggie headed for the door when she suddenly remembered her ipod still docked in the sound system. As she turned and headed toward it, the lights on the system blinked wildly, and a new song filled the room.

“I’m sorry, so sorry…” Brenda Lee crooned sincerely, and Maggie screeched and jumped a foot in the air.

The song cut abruptly, and Maggie yanked her ipod from the sound system, racing from the room and out into the rapidly filling hallway. She had had enough of Johnny Kinross for one morning. Apology not accepted.

***

She’d made him angry, and he had responded without thinking. He’d heard her say his name when she’d come into the school. At first, Johnny was pleased that she even knew his name – Gus must have told her. The pleasure disappeared abruptly when he realized what she’d said. “Johnny Kinross isn’t real,” she’d said. It had bothered him, and he’d lashed out with words of his own. He’d played the first song that came to his head, one that had his name in it so she couldn’t misconstrue its meaning. He’d scared her and immediately felt like a heel. Since when did he go around scaring beautiful girls? It used to be that girls hung all over him, even when he didn’t want them to. Now they just ran screaming.

Actually, come to think of it, Margaret hadn’t just run screaming. She’d gotten angry, too. He’d watched her dance again. He couldn’t help himself. He definitely hadn’t missed her meaning with the first song she'd chosen, and he had laughed at her courage. She wasn’t like the girls he remembered. And the way she danced… He could watch her all day. He didn’t know if he liked her music. It was more talking and swearing than singing, and it was a whole lot more angry than the music he grew up with. But he definitely liked her sass.

She’d said “take that Johnny Kinross,” and he had almost flashed into the room right then and there. That would have really scared her, though. So he had tried to be a little more subtle. He hoped she believed his apology – but from the way she raced out of the room, he thought maybe not. He would have to try again.

***

A few days went by and Maggie, Gus, and Shad worked side by side each afternoon after school. Maggie hadn’t complained to Gus or told him she was nervous, but he seemed to know and had found ways for them to all stay together. It couldn’t last though, there was too much ground to cover, and staying together didn’t make much sense. Plus, Shad had been like a caged puppy, yapping and nipping at her heels until Maggie was sure working in tandem was far worse than any run-in with a ghost. So, after three days of shadowing Gus, Maggie volunteered to get the trashes from the third floor on her own.