Thunder cracked outside, the white light lighting the whole bunkroom. A girl about seventeen was sitting near the fireplace in by the front desk, reading a book that Kloppman had given her. Her black curly hair was in a mess, her olive colored skin glowed against the fire, and her green eyes flashed across the pages of the book, eager to find out what would happen next.

"C'mon, SB," someone begged her. "Come out with us? Just for the night?"

SB looked up.

"Now? I just got to the best part…" SB said, pouting.

The girl laughed. It was a kind of laugh that always comforted you. The girl tossed her red hair away from her freckled face and grinned down at SB.

"But you always have your nose stuck in a book!"

"I know, but that's because I have nothing else better to do!" SB said, exasperated.

"Hello. You've got friends that want to hang out with you?" she said.

"Fire," SB laughed. "You guys are always out partying at Medda's. Me, I just wanna stay here and get some quiet time to myself and read. The guys are always around during the daytime and I get no peace."

"Come oooooooooon. Just this once? Please?" Fire said, pouting.

"What's goin' on?" someone said from behind Fire.

"Hey, baby," Fire said, smiling at him as he pulled her close from behind.

"She's trying to get me to go out," SB said, laughing.

"You should. You always have your nose stuck in a book," he said, running his hands through his frizzy curly black hair.

"Told you," Fire said, laughing. "And Mush, get off me! I'm in no mood!"

Mush laughed and let her go.

"Fine then, I see how it is," he said, and he walked away.

Fire just simply rolled her eyes.

"So please? Just this once?"

SB sighed, putting her book down.

"Fine, I'll go," she said with a grin as she got up.

Fire smiled and ran upstairs.

"HEY GUYS! SHE'S COMING!" Fire said, laughing.

"Hey squirt," someone said from behind her.

"Hey," SB said, turning around.

She saw herself stare into dark brown eyes.

"You comin' tonight?"

"Yeah you bed. Fire talked me into it," she said, smiling at him.

"Good," he said.

Other than Fire and Mush, Bumlets was one of SB's very close friends. The four of them practically grew up with each other, but none of them new SB's past. Only Fire did. She's the one that practically knew everything about SB.

"Come on, let's go," Bumlets said, pulling her up by her hand and interrupting her thoughts.

"Let's go and have some fun!" Mush said, grabbing his coat and putting it on and heading out the door.

He was soon followed by Bumlets, Fire, and SB, who was looking nervously around her. The area that Mush had taken them to was oddly familiar. She looked at the remains of a burned down house, and then a boarded up house next to it. Then it hit her. She backed away.

"Guys…" SB started.

"Mush, what are you doing? Why are we here?" Fire said, the surroundings obviously familiar to her too.

"We're here to have a little fun. Why? You scared?" Mush said, grinning.

"It's said that the family and the maid here died a horrible death. And the house is haunted. No one knows what happened to the girl…" Bumlets said, pulling his cap over his head.

SB cringed.

"Mush, I don't think it's a good idea…" Fire warned, her tone hard.

"Hey guys! What are you doing here!" a voice said from behind.

Startled the four turned around.

"Shimmer! What are you doing here?" Mush said, sighing.

"You guys happened to forget there's a party at Medda's?" Snoddy said, nodding at them.

"Isn't there every night?" SB asked, rolling her eyes.

"Why are we all here?" Shimmer asked, looking at the boarded up house.

"We're here to have a little fun," Bumlets said, grinning.

"Guys I don't think…" Shimmer said.

"The Delancy's! Run! If they catch us here, they'll skin us!" Snoddy said, pulling all of them towards the house.

"No!" SB said. "I'm not going in there!"

"Come on. We have no choice," Fire said, her face white and obviously as scared as she is.

SB took a deep breath and nodded. She was turning white herself as well. She wasn't sure what she was getting into.

"Fire," she whispered as soon as they got into the house and pointed towards the nearest doorway.

"Oh, my god," Fire said, turning away.

"Oh, look, it's a doll!" Bumlets said, picking it up. "Hey, look SB! It looks like you but a hundred times younger!"

Mush, Bumlets, Snoddy, and Shimmer giggled as Fire and SB gave each other uncomfortable looks.

"I don't want to be here," SB said, backing away.

"Come on, get a grip on yourself, SB. Do you want to be caught by the Delancy's?" Bumlets said quietly to her.

"I'd rather be caught by them, then to stay in this house," she said quietly.

"No you don't," Shimmer said. "At least, there's no one here. They don't know we are here. If they saw us…imagine what the pain would be."

Everyone shuddered at that thought. SB's eyes grazed over the broken and dusty banisters and down to the door near it.

"You okae? I mean, you look kind of white," Snoddy said, looking at SB.

She nodded, then took in a deep breath. I can do this, she said to herself.

"Did you hear that?" Mush said, motioning everyone to shut up.

SB held her breath. Sure enough, it sounded like footsteps from the second floor. She squeezed her eyes shut, and grabbed Shimmer by the arm.

"Ow!" Shimmer whispered.

SB looked over by the door, then grabbed Fire's arm and pointed again. The two girls stared in horror.

Sure enough, the doll was gone.



"Oh, my god, oh my god," SB said, pacing around.

It was all coming back to her. Images of her mother and father dead and hanging there flashed in her head. She remembered, clearly, the doll and how much it looked like her.

"Sounds like footsteps from above. Let's go out," Snoddy said, turning towards the door.

"Get out, NOW!" SB said, running towards the door as the footsteps grew louder.

The two grabbed the knob of the heavy door at the same time and tried to pull. The door wouldn't budge.

"That's strange. The door's not locked," SB said, pulling at the door again.

"Shit," Fire said, as the footsteps got louder.

"The Kitchen!" Shimmer and Mush both said, and the six of them ran into the kitchen.

"SB…SB are you alright?" Fire asked.

"Fire…Do you remember…When I got the doll, and I showed it to you?" SB said, looking at her.

"Yes…Yes I do," Fire said, thinking hard.

"Why did you drop it?" SB asked.

"Because…Because it moved…I don't know. I was imagining things," Fire said, trying to remember.

"What are you guys talking about?" Bumlets asked, scared.

SB looked at Fire. Fire nodded and SB sighed. She pulled something out of her back pocket. It looked like a newspaper article, old, brown, tattered and partially torn, and handed it to Mush and Bumlets.

"What's this?" Shimmer said, as her and Snoddy scooted to get a closer look.

SB leaned against a broken piece of counter.

"'A horrible tragedy fell on the Thelens as police searched the house for clues on who murdered Ellen and George Thelen, and Margie Cartiez, the household maid and cook,'" Snoddy said, reading from the piece of newspaper.

"'Police say they have found nothing, but two bodies hanging from the banisters of the staircase from the second floor, and the body of Margie, with her head smashed in. The girl has not been found. "We don't know where she is," the police said.'," SB said, her voice hollow.

She had memorized every single word on that newspaper. The others were silent.

"And the girl is you," Shimmer said silently.

"No you guys know why I was so scared to come in here?" SB said, looking at each and every one of them.

The four nodded.

"And where do you play in all of this?" Mush asked Fire.

"I was her childhood friend. Me and her lived next to each other. The house next door was burned…" she started.

Fire shook her head.

"We need to find a place out of here," Snoddy said, panicking.

Everyone was silent, looking around another, thinking up of ideas.

"Welcome back Joie," a voice from outside the kitchen said. "I've missed you."