Erynn walked into school with the letter she had received the day before in her hand. She entered her geometry teacher's class and thrust it down on his desk.

"Mr. Williams!" she demanded. "What is this??"

Mr. Williams, who looked suspiciously like a snail, merely glanced at the letter and put his fingers together. "It's addressed to your parents, not to you."

Erynn felt anger swell up inside of her. She pushed it back down and said, as calmly as possible, "I have no parents, sir. I have two cousins who are my legal guardians and they gave it to me so I only assumed--"

Uh-oh. Erynn had said the dreaded word. Mr. Willams rose from his chair as his lips and bald head turned purple. He looked at her over the top of his huge glasses. His wispy white hair on the sides of his head seemed to stand on end as he said, "ASSUMED??? You assumed, eh? You should discuss it with your parentals before you enter this room to bug me!"

Erynn glared right back at him, but stayed calm. "All right, Mr. Williams, I'm sorry. But what's with the D you gave me? I have been doing well, getting at least 80% on my assignments! That can't possibly add up to a D! Mr. Williams, a B is more like it!"

Mr. Williams shook his head violently and clicked against the roof of his mouth. "Tsk tsk, Miss Hunt. Losing your temper towards a teacher. I'm afraid thats a violation of rule #5. Go to the principal's office. NOW."

Erynn gritted her teeth, but headed towards Mr. Edman's office anyway.

*****

"Ah, yes, here we go. A perfect punishment for a disturbed little girl." Mr. Edman pulled a paper out of his gold filing cabinet on his desk. Erynn felt like pointing out that she was not the one that was disturbed, and that she was not a little girl, but she kept her mouth shut.

"You will give me a 500 word essay on a past event in this town and how we can keep it from repeating itself. You can do research on the internet, in the library for old newspapers, whatever floats your boat. But turn it in to me by the end of the term or I will fail you. IN ALL SUBJECTS" He handed her the paper and ushered her out of the room.

Erynn turned just in time to have the door slammed in her face. She looked at the papter. 500 words. On a 3-day weekend. Great.

"Might as well head over to the library," Erynn muttered to herself. The library was only two blocks away, so Erynn walked over by herself.

She entered and the overwelming smell of books enfulged her. She made her way towards the front desk and asked the librarian where she could find the old newspapers.

"Oh, well of course, little dearie," the librian said, revealing prunes in her teeth as she smiled. "Just over there by the biologies."

Erynn thanked her and approached the cupboard. She looked through all the laminated newspapers until she found one that caught her eye. It had a faded picture on it, so faded Erynn couldnt tell what it was, and and headline that said, "DECEMBER 25, 1989--MAD MAN WITH SCISSORS FOR HANDS SKEWERS TEENAGER, IS KILLED IN STRUGGLE!"

Erynn scanned through the article. It basically said a man with scissors for hands, named Edward, was staying with a family when he cut the teenager and then fled to the house on the hill, where the roof collasped on him.

Erynn called the librarian over. "Excuse me, but do you have any more copies of this so I can see the picture?"

The librarian flashed her prune teeth again and said, "Oh, no, sweetie pie. Thats the only one we could find. That was such a big story, that Edward was." She sighed. "I was 30 then, and he seemed so irresistable until he broke into someone's house."

Erynn nodded slowly, said thank you, and left after collecting the information on the article.

She walked home, and as she did, she gazed at the gargantual house on top of the hill that overlooked the city. Did anyone ever go there? She supposed not, and begun her climb to the top after she dropped her backpack off at home.