Chapter Seven: The First Exorcism of a Certain Soc

Disclaimer: I don't own Mediator or the Outsiders. That's kind of a given, ain't it?

Suze woke up as suddenly as though someone had yelled in her ear. Her mediator sense was tingling. Something was not right.

She glanced at the clock. Two a.m.! What had woken her up? She rolled over and saw Johnny's transparent face about an inch from her own. Oh.

"Whaddya want, Johnny?" she asked crabbily. "Wait," Suze said as Johnny opened his mouth. "Dallas, right?" Johnny nodded, and Suze cursed, rolling out of bed.

"It's not so bad," Johnny said in Dally's defense. "Okay, maybe it is, but—" Suze cut him off. "Just tell me what he did."

"The damage has already been done. He drove a Soc's car down the road." Suze stopped midway putting on a sock. "Oh. Is that all?" Johnny nodded. Suze pulled off her sock and flopped back into bed. "Don't bug me with things that happen to people who deserve it," she snapped.

"That's not all," Johnny said. Suze sat back up. "What? What?" she demanded.

"Bob Sheldon's back from the dead. He's after me."

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Johnny regarded Suze with wide eyes. He was afraid. Bob had beaten him up before, bad, and he was scared out of his wits. He couldn't kill Bob again…not that he would have the guts to, but it had always been an option before.

"Okay," Suze said, leaping up out of bed. "Where is he?" Johnny shrugged. "I don't know," he said truthfully.

"I was hanging around the Curtis', when he appears right before my eyes and says 'I've been looking for you, grease. You killed me, and now I'm gonna mess you up worse than ever.' Then he vanished. He still had bloodstains," Johnny said, shuddering at the memory of killing Bob.

Suze frowned. "Okay," she said. "I'll see what I can do. But we have to find him first, right? Just relax."

Johnny did relax. He wished he could still smoke. He had tried, but it had no effect whatsoever. He felt safer, though. What could happen?

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Bob Sheldon appeared in all his translucent madras Sociness a few moments later. Johnny gasped in fear and turned, if possible, paler.

Suze groaned. "What's with you freaks and showing up at these weird hours?"

"You're the mediator?" Bob said scornfully, looking her up and down. "You were expecting maybe a weird old lady with a crystal ball?" Suze shot back.

"You're here!" Bob said, glaring at Johnny. "Yeah, and I got here first, so beat it," Johnny said. Bob snarled, and it was clear he wanted a fight.

"Both of you cut it out!" Suze snapped. "My family's gonna hear you!" Johnny cursed at Bob and vanished.

Bob turned to Suze. "I was gonna ask you to help me get revenge on him, but for some screwed up reason you're helping him. He murdered me, you know that? He murdered me!"

"Like you weren't about to kill him and drown Ponyboy!" Suze shot back, unable to keep her mouth shut. Bob swooped down on her, howling, but Suze was ready. She drew her arm back and socked him really, really hard in the jaw.

Bob staggered back in pain. He clearly didn't know much about mediators. He swore loudly, and faded, just as Johnny had.

Suze sat quietly and thought. These damn ghosts were screwing up her life. She knew she had to help Johnny. Bob was only in it for the revenge. But what could she do about Bob? He clearly wasn't about to leave.

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It was the end of the week, and Suze was exhausted. Not because of the schoolwork or anything. Nope. It was all thanks to a certain late Bob Sheldon.

Monday, he had set her locker on fire. The fire department had had to come and everything. Suze had known who it was, but she told the principal she didn't know who would do it. How could she tell him it was a dead guy?

Tuesday, he had shoved her down the school's front steps, all the way down so that she crashed into the bike rack. She had a five inch bruise down her leg and a split lip.

Wednesday, he threw her headfirst into the garbage can. She struggled to get out until Ponyboy helped her out. She told him it was a Soc. Well, it was the truth.

Thursday, he put a tarantula in her lunch sack. Two-Bit Matthews kindly informed her that he could hear her scream all the way down in his English class.

Today, Friday, he had thrown her shirt and jeans into the swimming pool while she was in gym class. She had had to wear her gym clothes through all her other classes.

She never actually saw him while he was doing this. So how did she actually figure out it was him? Johnny informed her.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Suze screeched every time. "Because I was afraid. He really hates me, Suze. I'm scared," Johnny said, looking at Suze with those sorrowful, pained black eyes.

How could she say anything to him after that?

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It was Friday night. Ponyboy had asked Suze to the movies, but she had told him Saturday. She had something to do tonight.

She walked to the nearest general store and bought a bag of chicken blood, a ball of yarn, and a bunch of plastic sheets. The lady at the register gave her a funny look, but she didn't care.

She went home and got out the Mediator books she had bought for a dollar fifty from Madam Zinnia at the Chicago Craft Fair that she had always hidden from her mother. She turned to chapter eleven: Exorcism.

A few hours later, she glanced at the clock. It was eleven thirty. Suze cleared her throat, set to summon. "JOHNNY!" she hollered in ghostly undertones.

It was an ethereal voice, unheard to humans, but one that echoed throughout the ghost zone.

Johnny appeared a few seconds later. "Whaddya want?" he demanded, annoyed.

"I'm going to get rid of Bob Sheldon once and for all," Suze said, a manically evil glint in her eyes. She had never tried exorcism, and it sounded like fun. Sort of. But Suze was weird that way.

Johnny swallowed hard. "Y-you mean—" he stuttered nervously. Suze nodded. "But you're going to have to take me to the fountain where you killed him," she said very matter-of-factly.

Johnny sighed, rolled his eyes, and held out his hand to Suze. "I can't believe you're actually doing this," he sighed. Suze drew back her hand. "Are you telling me that you want Bob haunting you for the rest of your ghostly days? If he keeps getting in the way, he'll kill me before I can help you."

Johnny shook his head violently. He didn't want that to happen. "Okay then," Suze said, taking his hand. It was cold and clammy.

The room started spinning and fell away. There was bright light, and Suze landed with a splash.

"Next time, Johnny, try aiming a bit outside the actual fountain, okay?" Johnny shrugged apologetically, grinning sheepishly. Suze was soaked.

She hauled herself out of the fountain, and turning to Johnny, said, "You don't have to stick around if you don't want to. Actually, you'd better get out of here. You might get exorcised along with Bob. Then I'll never see you again."

Johnny nodded, said "Good luck," quietly, and faded. In ghostly undertones, Suze summoned Bob.

"BOB! GET YOUR LAZY BEHIND OVER HERE NOW!"

Bob appeared. "What?" he demanded annoyed. "Whaddya want?"

Suze took a deep breath and said the lines she'd been practicing all evening. "Bob, I've decided you were right. I've given up on Johnny, and I'm going to help you."

Bob stared at her, stunned. Suze stared right back, meeting his gaze evenly. "What's with the chicken blood?" he demanded.

"I'm going to send Johnny away. Then you'll be free. Okay?" Bob nodded his consent. "Okay. You have to stand at the exact spot where he killed you, close your eyes and remember him killing you, and close your eyes. You have to keep your eyes closed, otherwise you'll be sent away too. Got it?"

Bob followed her instructions exactly. He stood on the spot and closed his eyes. His mouth set into a hard, grim line, and a slight frown appeared on his face, and Suze knew he was remembering.

Silently, she lay out the plastic sheets and arranged the yarn in the shape of a pentagram. She poured the chicken blood, chanting Madam Zinnia's spell. "Ash akeys polay hatsayou kabhi jambo…" Red smoke filled the area and Suze almost choked on it.

"What's that smell? It that smoke?" Bob asked curiously, opening his eyes a fraction. "Keep your eyes closed!" Suze said urgently, but it was too late.

"What's going on?" Bob said, looking around frantically. "You're not trying to help me! You're trying to send me away!"

Suze watched in horror as Bob's eyes turned red and he let out a howl of rage. Before her eyes, he grew, taller and taller, engulfed in the smoke. Suze started to frantically chant again. Maybe if I keep going, it'll work anyway.

She kept frantically chanting, watching in horror as the earth started shaking beneath her feet, as the sky turned blood red and Bob roared in anger. The red smoke was everywhere, and Suze inhaled a lot of it. It was making her dizzy. Wind was whirling around like a tornado.

Suze finished chanting and looked up. She screamed in horror, as a pentagram appeared in the sky. It was raining thick red drops of chicken blood. Gross! Suze thought briefly, but what happened next wiped all thoughts out of her mind.

It was like there was a giant vacuum in the sky, in the heart of the pentagram. It was sucking up everything, the plastic sheets, which were blowing all over the place, the red smoke, the chicken blood, trees, grass, the sidewalk, everything. Only Suze seemed to be immune to it.

With an enraged howl, Bob wailed "NOOOOOOO!" as he, too, was sucked into the swirling mess. Suze was breathless; staring as Bob was sucked away.

Then it stopped. The plastic sheets and yarn setup Suze had set out was gone. The fountain, at least, was still intact. The sky turned black again, dotted with glittering stars. Suze sighed and relaxed, as the final breeze died down.

Too bad it wasn't over. Suze heard creaking of tree branches, and screamed, running frantically out of the way and one tree after another crashed down. She collapsed in the middle of the whole mess when all the trees had fallen, trembling.

Bob Sheldon was gone. Forever. No longer would he haunt Suze or Johnny. Now she could really get down to work.

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Ponyboy heard the crashing even down by his house. He ran outside, ignoring Darry's yell of, "Pony, where're you going?"

He ran to where he heard the next scream and more crashing, still running even after all the crashes had stopped. He found Suze sitting by the fountain where Johnny had killed Bob Sheldon, surrounded by broken trees, trembling violently and clutching a book.

"Suze, what happened?" he blurted out. Suze turned to him, her eyes wide with fear and apprehension.

Uh oh, Suze thought. I've got a lot of explaining to do.

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Hah. So that takes care of that. I'm wondering how I'm going to finish this story. Hmmm. Meanwhile, I'm resisting the urge to start another new story, this one about Steve. I'm resisting. I promised myself I'd finish at least one of these stories before I start another one.

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter, I worked hard on it (harder than I did on my English essay, anyway—I haven't even started it. : ) ) so review.