Character Analysis
Mary shows up as an old lady at the soup kitchen where Nikki volunteers. And when we say old, we mean really old: "Deep wrinkles filled every inch of her face. The skin around her eyes was pinched in the corners, as if she'd spent years squinting. Despite this, her eyes looked clear and fresh" (4.12). Hey there, granny.
She seems to recognize Nikki, though, and she says weird things that makes Nikki feel "like she could see inside me, to the guilt that was there" (4.20). Strange, huh? But then Mary also insists that she's eighteen years old and doesn't remember what year it is, making most people think she's struggling with dementia. She also refers to a middle-aged woman as her mother, again making it sound like she's delusional.
Turns out, though, that Mary is Meredith Jenkins, a girl from Nikki's high school. She was dating Maxwell Bones, an Everliving who took her to the Everneath as a Forfeit. Meredith apparently hoped to beat the game and stay herself, but she fails. She has a theory about how loving someone on the Surface can help anchor you so that you survive in the Everneath, but it obviously doesn't work for her, possibly because her mom is so distant, which Daughters of Persephone are supposed to be.
Meredith went to cheerleading camp with a bunch of other teens, and when Nikki comes hysterically looking for Cole, Meredith isn't very nice to her, telling her: "It's not a good time, Nikki. Why don't you go home and I'll give him a message?" (21.107). She even starts to close the door on Nikki. But when we realize what a distant, messed-up background she comes from, we can kind of see why she might not act very nice. She's basically been raised not to care.
So now we now Mary's not crazy, she's just suffering because she's had half her soul sucked out. She finally tells Nikki her real identity, but she's scared, too, as evidenced by the fact that "She started rocking back and forth" (22.136). She gives Nikki her family's bracelet, which contains a secret of the Everlivings, and tells Jack to remember Orpheus. In her own messed-up way, Mary is totally brave for revealing these things to Jack and Nikki.
In the end, Mary gets out of town in an effort to escape the Tunnels, but fails, and gets sucked back into them for eternity. Poor Mary—another victim of the Everlivings.