November 27 1978
"You know, Mom would kill you if she knew you were going out tonight." Dana said.
"Good thing she won't find out." Melissa replied, fixing her hair. "You're not going to tell her, are you?"
"No!" Though maybe worth a visit to confessional. As she got older, Dana had been lying on her sister's behalf more and more often.
"Good. Then give me a hand with my necklace, will you? The clasp's stuck."
"I don't understand how you can ever take that thing off." Dana mused as she brushed the loose strands of hair away from her sister's neck. Melissa had been wearing it less and less lately, while Dana had been promised one on her sixteenth birthday.
"When you're older you'll understand. Religion… you're born into it. But no one should choose what you believe except you." Melissa turned to face her sister. "James - that's who I'm going to see tonight - he's always telling me about dreams and auras and Dana, when I'm around him I really believe what he's saying. He makes sense to me. When I'm in church the words just float up over my head. That," She said, pointing to the gold cross now in her sister's hand, "Is someone else's belief. Not mine."
"Dad's embarrassed of you." Dana said matter-of-factly.
The nightstand started to shake, but neither of them noticed.
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean your boyfriends and when you sneak out and when you say you aren't Catholic. Mom too. They're embarrassed of you, of what their friends and our neighbors all must think of you."
"Dana this is my life."
"Missy-"
The nightstand fell over. The whole house now seemed to be shuddering, and a bright light appeared in the window, drawing closer and closer to the house.
The window opened. The light was blinding, and Dana was unable to move.
"Dana!" Melissa yelled. "Dana!"
When the light finally subsided, Dana was alone in the room. "Missy! Missy!" she called. There was no answer.
She was holding her sister's gold cross necklace.