He was ten when he came to America with his family. It was 1899, the last year of the nineteenth century. His dad was a proud shepherd, and Rolf was the youngest of his many brothers and sisters. The eldest, Margaret, was eighteen and the second eldest, Martha, was seventeen. They stayed in the old country with their husbands and children. Next oldest is Issac, at fourteen. He was in charge of the cattle but had a crush on a neighbor called Frances May. The other brother is Fitzwilliam, age thirteen. Fitzwilliam works with his hands, building barns and chicken coops. Rolf is left to milk the cows and feed the pigs.
"I want to help." He cries to his brothers.
"You're a baby." Issac teases.
"You'll ruin the farm." Fitzwilliam replies.
Rolf always slumps back to a small, withering cot in the barn. He is always defeated. With his father at work and his mother making clothes, Rolf can only do the simple chores, such as chucking the corn and sifting through bales of hay. With not many children around, he comes to make a few farm friends. He rolls in the mud with the pigs and runs in the fields with the chickens. He grows to understand a certain cow and a goat more than anyone else on the farm.
The years come and go. Four years later, their dad is greatly injured and needs to stay home. Issac, now eighteen, is married to Frances May and they have a young boy named Walt. Fitzwilliam is seventeen and takes over his father's job, while Issac and Rolf, fourteen, work the fields. His favored cow had gotten sick and died the year before, but he still remained very close to the goat. While plowing the fields, Rolf understood an alert cry from the goat's pen. The decomposing lock on the gate for the cattle had broken. The bull had gotten loose, charging toward the house.
Two-year-old Walt had been playing in a small pen near the house. Frances May had gone inside for lemonade and Issac was still in the barn. Mustering up his courage, Rolf shouts to the bull, blatantly showing off the redness of his sneakers the best he possibly can. The bull hears the shout and stops, before rounding about and heading for Rolf. He yells but runs like the wind. In an instant, he feels a small bout of pride bubbling up from rescuing his nephew. The feeling is gone just as quickly as he trips over the fading lock and falls against the broken fence.
Nothing can save him. He hardly has a chance to roll over as the bull counters him in a fatal trample. The bull doesn't stop until Issac, Frances and his mother are able to control the beast. By then, Rolf's short life has ended. They trace the hoof marks and come to a realization of the bravery he had displayed. During Rolf's funeral, his goat crawls over to the burial ground and collapses. He is buried beside his owner.
This had been in 1903. By 1910, the family had uprooted and three houses were placed around the barn. Wanting to be close to his brother, Issac, Frances and seven-year-old Walt moved into a blue house to the right of the barn. Four years later, a new family moved into the house on the other side of the barn. A man and woman and their two-
year-old son, Johnny. Johnny spent a lot of time in the barn, continuously talking about how he could hear pigs oinking and cows mooing. He never actually saw any of these animals and his parents chalked it up to childlike wonder.
In 1920, Johnny was eight-years-old. He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis a few years back. His only neighbor had been seventeen-year-old Walt and his wife from the city. Johnny carried around a plank of wood with a face drawn on it with radioactive chalk. Plank, as he called it, was his only friend. Two years after, Walt and his family left the neighborhood. Johnny had become bedridden, clutching Plank at his side all the while. He told Plank stories of what they would do when the illness goes away. His parents had been watching in the doorway during his last waking moments.
"We're going to climb.. the tallest trees and we'll.. we'll see all across, Plank. What's that? .. Yeah, it's okay.. to be scared.. I see him.. too, Plank. Think he's.. our guard.. ian angel? [cough, cough] Me.. too."
He held Plank to his chest with one arm, letting the other dangle lifelessly off the wooden cot. His parents had cried a long time, though they knew it was about to happen. When the funeral takes place, Johnny awakens. He felt healthy, and better than he had ever felt. Plank remains at his side, curious to the crowd of people gathered inside the barn. There aren't a lot of recognizable faces in the crowd, but he soon finds his parents, along with the doctor whose face he had grown accustomed to.
"Mommy? Why are you crying? I'm better. Look!" He gives a toothy grin, but his mom only cries more.
Upset, he tries to shake his mom for attention, but she doesn't feel a thing. He is confused and clutches harder onto Plank. Out of nowhere, an older boy cuts through the crowd, riding on a goat. He immediately notices the terrified boy and easily realizes what is happening. He strides over.
"You there! Wooden boy!"
Johnny looks up to see the blue-haired boy staring directly toward him. The adults in the crowd pay him no mind, set on burying a very small casket into the ground of where a horse's stall must have been. Johnny watches as his parents leave with them before turning to the older boy.
"Who are you?"
"I am Rolf, son of a shepherd."
"I'm Johnny." He sniffles. "This is Plank."
"Do you have any other friends, Johnny?"
The boy shakes his head. Rolf holds out his hand, and carefully Johnny takes it. Rolf helps Johnny onto the back of the goat.
"How old are you?" Johnny asks out of the blue.
Rolf stiffens for a moment. "Fourteen."
Johnny easily accepts the answer. "Oh, I'm ten. Mom says when I turn eleven, I get a bicycle. She told me that last year before I got put in the bed. But I'm better now. So now I'll get the bicycle."
Shaking his head with a heavy breath, Rolf replies. "No, you won't."
"What do you mean? I'm better!"
"No, you're not, Johnny." Rolf stops the goat and dismounts. "Today I would be thirty-
three, but instead I'm fourteen."
"What do you mean?"
Johnny hops off, feeling uneasy about the tone of Rolf's voice. He looks back toward the barn but can't make out any people. His breath starts getting shallow and Rolf looks at him pensively. The older boy sighs.
"You aren't better, Johnny. Did you see that casket they placed into the ground?"
"Y-yes."
"That was you."
Johnny immediately began running toward the barn. He raced to find his mother and the doctor. Rolf let him go and grabbed hold of his goat. They sadly walked for a long time in one direction, knowing full well they'll only circle back. Johnny continued to race but never made it to the barn. Ten years later, Johnny had come to terms with the fact he is dead. They couldn't ever find the barn. Instead, there were four houses. Rolf stayed in the red house and Johnny found his old house. The blue house to the left of the barn is the same as the one to the left of the red house.
A man, a woman, an eleven-year-old bully and his four-year-old brother move in next door to Johnny. The bully doesn't do much, considering there are no other kids around the neighborhood. The younger brother, Eddy, is always fearful of him. The Great Depression had hit them hard, causing them to move to Pech Creek from wealthy New York. Two years later, in 1934, more houses had been built. While no one took up residence in the barn or houses surrounding it, most of the other newer houses had been filled. Eddy had taken an interest in money. At first, it was to simply peddle for bread. Then, he had learned the deception of the almighty dollar. He began scheming his way to money. He would give some to his family but hoard some away for himself.
In 1937, Eddy's brother turned sixteen and left home. Eddy was nine and his parents were constantly angry with him. His mother would be mad if she caught him taking advantage of the younger kids on the street. His father would be furious if he caught him sneaking schemer's money away from the family. Eddy made very little friends, and those he made never held on longer than a couple of months. 1939 was a particularly bad year. Both parents had been hounding him for weeks. His mother didn't care about morals anymore.
"These are fakes!" A ten-year-old boy named Benjamin leafs through the pages of a supposed Sub-Mariner comic book.
"This is scribbles!" A slightly younger boy named Jonas agrees.
A group of nine-year-old girls walk over with fists full of string and broken blocks painted red. The neighborhood easily knows the girls as Dorothy, Helen and Patricia. They are the Girl Scouts and can run fast as any boy. Eddy had sold the girls homemade yo-yos for four cents each (which is a lot, considering a gallon of gas was a dime) and the comic books for eight cents each. Eddy cut corners as he always did, by gluing the string to the blocks and coloring stitched pages.
With twenty-eight cents in his pocket, Eddy had fled the scene on his bike. With previous transactions, he was able to save up enough to buy a bike last year. Now eleven-year-old, he is being chased by an angry mob of ten and nine-year-olds. Patricia and Jonas have bikes as well, while the rest run quick as possible. Eddy races past a farmer's market and the running girls block his path. Swerving, Eddy pedals into a local river. He leaves his bike behind at the shallow mouth but refuses to be taken away from the change in his pocket. He starts swimming and only Patricia follows.
The water is freezing and she doesn't get far before a merchant walking by pulls her out. He demands to know what she is doing out there and when she explains the transaction, they look out in search. Eddy is nowhere to be seen and the merchant dives beneath the water. Eddy's leg had gotten caught by some seaweed. Trying to free himself, some of his money had fallen out. Only having riches on his mind, he tries to swim back down but runs out of breath. Just as he begins to black out, he notices an iron piggy bank leaning against a long plank of wood at the bottom of the river.
His coins fall directly into the bank, as if guided there. The plank of wood grows a lopsided face, winking at him. Eddy, flailing in defeat, reaches into his pocket. He holds out his last nickel, sending it toward the bank as his eyelids close and his body stops moving. Minutes later, he is freed from the depths but it is to no avail. His bike is given to the street kids, who take it more for compensation than memory.
Eddy doesn't wake up for six years. He doesn't recall his death but he isn't tired at all. He wakes up on a farm and carefully backs out. He doesn't remember his last scam as he grabs a few skipping stones and paint, ready to pass them off as chalk for five cents apiece. He confidently walks up to Dorothy's house and knocks on the door. When no one answers, he decides to move around back.
There are a group of teenagers in the backyard. A redhead who looks like an older Dorothy is sunbathing with a brunette who looks like an older Patricia. Two boys who looks like an older Jonas and Benjamin are goofing off in a pool. Eddy feels jealous but more importantly, he wants to know what is happening. He marches up to the Dorothy look-a-like and asks her where the younger her is. The teen ignores him.
A boy appears alongside a goat in the far corner of the yard. Another boy holding a plank of wood stands beside him, watching the transaction. Rolf and Johnny have been able to watch people aging and the neighborhood expanding for years, but no one has seen them. Some kids have heard a few animals, brushing it off later. Jonas had seen a wooden plank with a face drawn on it as he was falling from a rafter in the barn a few years back, but no one has seen one of the kids. Scared, confused and angry, Eddy yells Dorothy's name, shoving her off her chair. Rolf and Johnny are shocked.
"Dora?" Patricia calls out. "What just happened?"
Dorothy shakes her head and glances back to the chair. Her eyes widen, actually seeing Eddy. She sees him leering over her with the apparent anger in his eyes. She lets out a blood-curdling scream. The boys from the pool leap out in a heartbeat. The door to the house slams open, with several parents running in alarm.
"I.. saw.. Eddy!"
Dorothy screeches. Her face turns red and she is having trouble breathing. She starts crying and the other teens look terrified as well. Eddy is scared. He hears the adults trying to calm her by saying he's only a figment of her imagination. Eddy pokes himself, but he feels as real as anything. He glances back to Dorothy, who screams again, even harder. Eddy reaches out to console her, but he stop in his tracks upon hearing Patricia's words.
"Eddy died six years ago."
Quick as a flash, Eddy suddenly becomes very distant with the crowd. He looks up to see the boy with the plank and the boy with the goat. The goat-boy is holding a metallic piggy bank. Eddy's eyes widen, seeing the very things he saw at the bottom of the river.
"Am I.. Am I dead?" He squeaks.
"Yes." Rolf answers blatantly.
"How, how old are you?" Eddy whimpers unsure about hearing the answer.
"Rolf is fourteen." He answers quickly, then sighs. "But I would be fifty-six. This is Johnny."
"And I'm ten." He holds up Plank, as if the wood is talking to him. "Right, Plank. But I would be thirty-three."
"And, me?" He squeaks again.
"We were here when you turned ten." Johnny replies. "But you're eleven now. Plank says you would be seventeen."
Eddy looks back toward the teenagers. They are gone. The pool has disappeared. He looks around. Another house seems to have suddenly appeared. When Eddy turns back to Rolf and Johnny, they are standing before a barn. There is a crowd of people laying to rest a small casket. Eddy recognizes the Girl Scouts next to his bike.
"What? How are they?"
"You can't talk to them, Ed-boy." Rolf shakes his head. "The cul-de-sac is letting you see your burial from six years ago."
"You're buried in the stall next to me." Johnny adds. "And Plank."
Eddy watches in silence. Rolf and Johnny give him space as Eddy watches hi mother cry and his dad yell in the distance. He sees the girls of the neighborhood offer the broken toys to be buried alongside. Eddy starts to cry. Across the street, a new family is moving into the old house Walt and his family had once obtained. There is a woman, a five-year-
old boy and a baby girl in a carriage.
World War II had just ended. The woman had her child and only an hour later had been informed her husband was killed. The woman immediately gained a job as she arrived, with Patricia already signed on as a free nanny. Five years later, in 1950, the mother is always upset. She hardly has time for her kids and Patricia has moved on to college. Dorothy takes over, despite what doctors say - proclaiming she is mentally unstable. The girl, Sarah, is five. She is controlling, even bossy toward the older neighbor kids. Her brother, Ed, is ten. He flips through comic books and watches monster movies at other kids' homes. He is strong and tall, so other kids stay away. Despite this, he continuously wants to make friends, but is scared to do so.
Soon, Dorothy leaves Peach Creek. She is twenty now, with no one to care for her. No one knows just where she disappears off to. Years roll by. In 1953, Ed and Sarah's mom is laid off. She has been acting careless and is no longer deemed a fit mother. She decides to drive the kids to their grandparents' house for a visit, but she has trouble steering. When she passes out at the steering wheel from either overmedication or sleep-
deprivation, her foot slams onto the gas pedal. The car crashes, violently, into a picket fence. Ed is thrown through the windshield, striking into the wooden spikes. He dies instantly, whereas his sister slowly suffocates within the car. Her seatbelt had wrapped around her throat, twisting her body into a contortion.
She died minutes later. Their mother was convicted of assisted murder and thrown into jail in the town over. She is let on parole a few weeks later for the funeral, taking place at the infamous barn. Before they are able to arrive, the woman commits suicide in the backseat of the patrol car. Ed awakes as the ceremony begins. He identifies his grandmother, crying fearfully at a hole in the ground.
"Grandmother!" He calls out, running to her.
She doesn't look up but he is determined. He runs directly to her, asking her how long she will be staying. She doesn't respond and he sees the box being lowered. He doesn't see his sister, though she is there. She sees two boxes. One is small and the other is taller. She looks around the crowd and spots her granddad.
"Granddad! Where's Ed?"
He doesn't even look up. She doesn't see her mom or her brother. She runs to the boxes being lowered and tries in vain to stop them. She touches the box and an electrifying chill runs across her arms. She looks around again, this time seeing three kids a little older than her, watching her. The tall boy looks sad. Another boy is holding a piece of wood with a face drawn on, and the other is holding a piggy bank. She gasps and closes her eyes to cry.
"Do not cry, Little Sister."
She hears her brother's voice and opens her eyes in a frenzy. Instead of seeing Ed, she is standing alongside Rolf, Johnny and Eddy. Her eyes become glued to the barn, where the crowd is thinning out. She spots her brother talking to a box.
"You are safe now."
Thoughts of running after him are halted. She hears her brother's words and glances around. The boxes are being covered by dirt and the events circle in her head.
"Where am I?"
"Peach Creek." Rolf answers simply. "The cul-de-sac. You moved in on my land."
She shakes her head. "Am I dead?"
The boys look around, sighing in response. She knows it means yes. She worriedly looks over to her brother.
"What about Ed?"
No sooner has she said this, the barn dissolves from view. It is a shattered sand pit and her brother is dazed, standing next to her.
"Little Sister!"
Tearfully, Sarah turns and gives her brother a big hug. He laughs at the thought of hugging his sister again.
"I thought you were in the ground."
"I am."
It takes a while, but the kids introduce themselves. It is made known that they are, indeed, dead. Years pass, but Rolf is still a farmer's boy. Johnny continues to talk to Plank as if he were a real person. Eddy still looks for loose change that he could possibly pocket. Ed is protective over his loudmouth sister. They are different, but they are friends. Nineteen years later, in 1972, a five-year-old girl and her forty-two-year-old mother are walking through the vacant lot where the barn once stood. There are still memorial markers with the lost children's initials where the stalls once stood.
The five-year-old flower child Nazz discovers a patch of flowers sticking up from the cracks. Curious as ever, she begins to pick at the pavement, uprooting the splintered cement. Her carefree mother joins in, until they reach something that causes her to jump in fright. After years of therapy, she had become convinced the boy from her childhood was merely a figment of her imagination. Her parents even coaxed her after the scare in her teen years, saying the bike had been a gift from her friends.
That year, she had collected the bike's handlebars - which had been buried beneath her house - and torn off a tassle. She'd gone down to the old abandonded barn and secured the tassle in Eddy's grave, before dropping the rest in the river. Now, Dorothy and her daughter Nazz sit in silence in the middle of the lot. The very tattered tassle sits, tied to the root. Dorothy had to succumb to therapy once again, so Nazz stayed with her loving father and her siblings most of the time.
Her eldest sister Prosperity is twelve. Then comes August, at ten; Windsong, at seven; twins Aurora and Ashton at four. In 1976, the lot had been transformed to a simple patch of land. The memorial markers stayed. Prosperity is sixteen, losing her flower child innocence for the drive-in movies in the next town over. August is fourteen. He still runs barefoot but is no longer a vegetarian like his parents would want. This is his rebellion. Windsong is eleven. His rebellion is going with his friends to the memorial land patch. Nazz is nine and the twins are eight. They continue to trust all people.
Three years later, Nazz was going to sleep over at a friend's house. Unfortunately, the friend suddenly became sick and the sleepover had been postponed. Prosperity was going on a date, but it had been cancelled due to her date having to work. August was supposed to work night shift but his friend needed the cash more. Aurora and Ashton were going to go to a birthday party but they had come down with fevers. Nazz's friend wasn't actually sick, though. She has been informed that her dad had broken out of prison. Her dad had been sent away after killing her mom a long time ago.
Nazz and her family live in the dad's old house. This is exactly where he heads to one night. August had been asleep on the couch. The man found a knife on the counter and quickly killed the boy. He moved along the bedrooms on the bottom floor, expertly killing Prosperity in one fluid motion. Carefully, the man crept up the stairs, discovering the twins. He expertly slit each of their throats before they had a chance to awake. He crept into the main bedroom and deliberately sliced the wrists on Dorothy and her husband.
Nazz had been awakened by a small shuffling noise, having been a light sleeper most of her life. She gasps in silence, seeing the figure hovering over her parents. Her mother doesn't say a word but carefully orders her daughter to run, with only a twinkle in her eye. Nazz understands and creeps into her room and out the window. She carefully climbs down, but as she reaches ground, the killer sees her through a vacated window. With some sick, twisted game etched into his brain, the criminal begins to chase her.
Nazz runs fast as her twelve-year-old legs can carry her. The neighborhood is very small and there aren't any policemen within. She races toward the patch of land, considering just over the hill is the next town. She trips over the crack in the pavement where the tassel had been dug up years earlier. She attempts to scramble to her feet, but it is no use. The man already captures her, slamming her against the ground. Sadistic thoughts run through his mind as her head collides with the hard gravel beneath.
He savagely pulls down her pants, dissolving her virtuousness. She attempts to cry in pain but the man only hits her harder against the rock until, finally, her body ceases to move. The last thing she sees is a sunflower drifting to the ground. There had been one witness to this: a three-year-old child. The child has exceptional memory. He had frozen in place, terrified inside a drainage pipe when the event occurred. Nazz had been his babysitter. After expertly pointing out the man, the child had been named a hero.
Nazz had been buried where she had been victimized. Her family had been buried elsewhere and the killer had been given the death penalty. The child sat quietly up front at the funeral. His hat covered his hair and drooped over his eyes. He wanted to cry and yell, but he couldn't. Nazz had awakened in time for her funeral. Out of everyone there, she could immediately pick out three kids. Juno, her best friend, was off to the side with her mom. Nazz walked over with a waiting hug, but Juno never looked up.
Nazz also sees Hector, Prosperity's boyfriend, in the back. He is wearing shades and a black hat concealing most of his face. Nazz tries to tell him it is okay to cry. It is no use. No one can see or hear her. She walks back to a small distance, watching her box go into the ground. She knows exactly what is happening. She scans the crowd and is upset that she doesn't see the other child. A young voice startles her.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
She looks down to see the young child glancing up to her. The boy's eyes are watering, but he can't muster up enough to cry. He reaches for her hand and she is surprised when she can take it. She smiles softly to him.
"It's okay, Edd. It doesn't hurt."
"If I sometimes talk to you, will you listen?"
"Promise." She nods. "Cross my heart."
Edd makes the 'cross-my-heart' motion with a soft smile. Tears flow freely as he lets go. He walks back to his parents, clutching his mother's leg. Nazz looks back to Hector and sees that he is also crying. Juno sobs into her mother's shoulder. Nazz sighs, watching it unfold. As the dirt piles onto her casket, she tunrs and is greeted by four boys and a girl.
In 1983, Edd is seven. His intelligence has granted him able to skip a grade. His parents are very strict, but also very busy. They leave him sticky notes everywhere, since they are at work most of the time. He had corrected an older boy on his essay, prompting the teacher to change his grade from a B to a C+. The older boy and his group of friends ganged up on Edd after school. The small schoolhouse had been built on the small pach of land. The boys had pummeled Edd, tossing him into the drainage pipe where he had watched horrible things go down.
"Nazz? Are you here?"
Nazz can feel a tug in her spirit. She heads toward Rolf's house, which dissolves to the schoolhouse. She finds Edd, tattered and scared, calling her name. Carefully, Nazz takes a dandelion and determinedly blows the seeds into the air, circling Edd. The boy smiles.
"I knew you'd come." His smile soon deflates, though. "I don't like school, Nazz. I don't think it's worth it."
Nazz covers her mouth in shock. Worried that Edd might do something drastic at such a young age, she tries to stand him up. With all her might, she pushes and pulls at Edd's back and shirt. Eventually, the boy stands.
"Thanks, Nazz." He gives a weak smile and grabs his loose backpack. "I knew I could count on you."
Edd doesn't live too far from the school, occupying Johnny's old house - though renovated. Three years later, his parents are highly controlling, but he doesn't mind much. He grows much more shy and meek, but it doesn't stop his intellectual prowess. Between homework and household chores, Edd develops a routine of curious experiments. His parents allow him many scientific tools, though they still dominate his life with rules. He is now ten, with hyper-tensive obsessive-compulsive disorder and an unfounded phobia of germs. Still, he obeys authority.
During spring break, he conducts a certain experiment he believes will cure the world of the common cold. As a peculiar chemical is inadvertently dropped onto the steaming plate of his Bunsen burner, it dissolves into the gas pipes beneath his house. Travelling underground, the chemical drops into a leaking gas pipe connected with the school. In an instant, Edd, his house and the school are torn to pieces. He awakes from the blast three years later, when the new school is larger and takes over the area where his house once stood. Confused, he begins to inspect the area, only to be diverted to his own funeral.
The bullies and his family seem so faded. Meanwhile, a soft flower changes his direction. Much more clearly, he can see Nazz - as well as a younger girl and four boys around his age. He forgoes his own funeral, as seeing Nazz he accepts his death. He cautiously glances around the group before giving Nazz a content hug.
"I never thought I'd be able to do that again." He smiles.
"You never gave up." She smiles back, a little softer.
"You're right." He nods, letting go. "It doesn't hurt."
The schoolhouse-funeral transforms back to the larger school building. Nearly invisible people walks past the other kids. They aren't transported any longer. They live with the other kids, but are unseen and unheard. Curious and scientific as Edd is, he plans to discover a way to interact with the living children. He continues with this as years pass, which go about too quickly in death.
In 1993, Eddy's old house is near demolished. A seven-year-old boy named Kevin lives there with his abusive alcoholic father. The man never shows him any positive attention and he takes it out by harassing the other kids of the neighborhood. A destructive tornado hits the neighborhood, resulting in a lot of shoddy houses falling to the ground and a lot of families moving out. Kevin stays put. His house isn't damaged, and neither are any of the original houses.
In the winter of 1999, Kevin had arrived home at the epitome of his father's drunken rage. He was unable to shield himself or run out for help. Kevin attempted to stand up to the man, yelling at him to stop. His father was much too cynical to think about the consequences. He had been angry and Kevin had too, holding out as long as possible. A neighbor had seen the thirteen-year-old boy attempting to crawl through the snow to safety. An ambulance had come and lifted Kevin to the back. The last thing he saw was his old rusty bicycle leaning against the garage. He closes his eyes and his heartrate drops. He breathes his last breath as the ambulance passes the school.
He is buried behind the school, along with the other kids - who show up to his funeral. Rolf is the only child not to show. As of this year, his memories have begun to dissolve. He doesn't remember anything past 1929 and it is pushing backward. After accepting the fact that he is dead, he sees a glimpse of how the school looked long ago as a barn. A few months later, in the new millineum, a new family moves into Kevin's old house. A sickly eight-year-old boy named Jimmy wears dental headgear and has leukemia, resulting in him being bedridden. He has had cancer since he could barely walk.
Only half a year after moving in, Jimmy dies in his sleep, dreaming of the ghosts of the lost children - believing them to be his imaginary friends. Jimmy awakens the day of his funeral. He still maintains the braces, but feels better than he has in years. As he watches his own funeral go past, he notices a glimmer of his imagination not too far in the distance. He eagerly joins them, despite being the youngest.
Twenty years pass. Rolf has regained his memory. He and Johnny had gone through certain ordeals having been over one-hundred-years-old, chronologically. Another ten pass and Eddy goes through the same. In 2030, a nightly demon begins to play tricks on the living. He is a torturous soul, after the tormented spirits. As he finds out, he has no control over the departed and leaves to find a substitute. Another twenty years pass. Ed and Sarah go through the one-hundred-years ordeal.
The deceased children begin to see a young redheaded girl in lonely areas. She isn't as faded as the living, though she is noticeable. She is maybe three or four, and she disappears any time the others near her. Ten years pass. The redhead is still around. Her curly hair covers her eyes, as she is now a teenager. A very young blue-haired girl begins to follow her. Another ten years pass. Nazz goes through her tribulation.
It is 2070. The redhead hasn't aged and the blue-haired girl has caught up to her. Her hair is in a swoop and her bangs cover one eye. They seem to wander around aimlessly without actually doing much of anything. Another ten years and off goes Edd. 2080. There is now a young blonde girl following the aimless teenagers. Yet another ten years pass and the blonde has reached her growing point. The blonde and the blue-haired girl are younger than the redhead. Each of the girls are drawn to an Ed. The blonde, revealed as May, likes Ed's simplicity. The blue-haired girl, revealed to be Marie, likes Edd's intelligence. The redhead, revealed for all to see as Lee, likes Eddy's unsympathetic schemery.
The years toll and the three teenagers are proven to be sisters, sharing a common dad. Kevin undergoes his ordeal in 2086. 2093 is a big year. Jimmy experiences his misfortune just as the world goes under. The apocalypse hits and the nine children learn the three sisters are daughters of the dark Lord Kanker, the hideous shadow demon from years ago. Peach Creek is closed off from the regular world. Lost souls may be heard from one point to the next, but the children are truly alone. Kanker leaves the Earthly planes, as his daughters settle in a radioactive area in a small bout away from the neighborhood.
Rolf remains fourteen, farming to his heart's content. Ed and Kevin are thirteen. Ed acts brainless but is very brave, and Kevin is a bold bully. Nazz is twelve, an honest flower child. Eddy is eleven, a pocket-sized swindler. Johnny and Edd are ten. Johnny plays games with a plank of wood and Edd works on science experiments. Sarah and Jimmy are eight. Sarah is bossy but good-natured. Jimmy is feminine and fair. These kids are their own enemies and friends to the end. For these kids, there is no Heaven or Hell. There is only a cul-de-sac of purgatory.