It was a dismal day, the sky was streaked with gloomy grey and it had been raining off and on all afternoon. This was depressing to Leona Collier, a seventh grader at Derry Junior High for the last few days of Spring Break before she had to go back to school were spent like this-- cooped up in her room with nothing better to do than spend the whole day staring out her bedroom window watching the rain fall down. She couldn't go anywhere because of this weather and her mother, when sober, had warned her to watch out because another child had gone missing. So far, three kids were missing and the remains of a nine-year-old girl had been found in a storm drain. There wasn't much left of the girl, whatever got a hold of her had ripped her apart. The thought sent chills up Leona's back.
This was the sort of thing Seth was into. Seth Florin was Leona's classmate and he was one of the few people she actually talked to at her school. He wasn't really her friend though, he was Dustin's friend and he only gave her the time of day when Dustin or Caitlyn were around. Dustin Davis was Leona's best friend and Caitlyn Sellers was her cousin. Seth and Dustin had been joined by the hip since the days of fat crayons and safety scissors, and they were both in love with Caitlyn. It was rather annoying, whenever Leona wanted to spend time with Dustin and Caitlyn would show up and completely ruin it. Although she didn't mind talking to her cousin when it came down to actually having someone to talk to, but it was at these times she resented Caitlyn's presence. And wonder of wonders, she would be coming over today.
Leona decided to pick up the phone and call somebody. She had a grand total of three people she could consider calling but right now that was better than nothing. Caitlyn would want to spend all her time talking about boys and her desires to be popular--conversation that Leona tired of quickly and she was sure she would be hearing plenty of it when she came over for dinner this evening. Seth never really wanted to talk to her about anything other than Caitlyn or his serial killer obsession that sort of disturbed her. So Dustin it was. She dialed his number like so many times before and heard the familiar voice of his mother answering the phone. She was snippy as usual; Mrs. Davis had never cared too much for Leona or her son's friendship with her. She thought that Dustin was too young to want much to do with girls like her from families like hers. With her dozens of black candles, her gothic style, and her dark, cynical personality Mrs. Davis didn't think anyone should have much to do with a no good child such as her.
But she gave Dustin the phone anyway, after reminding her of the trouble she really didn't have to go through in doing so. "Hi Leona," he mumbled. In the background she could hear sounds from what had to have been a TV.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
He didn't respond for a moment and then he said, "Oh, just playing a video game. House of the Dead. I never got this far before." Then he started frantically hitting the controls in order to dismember the zombies. There was no surprise there; Dustin's obsession lied in horror movies or any kind of thriller involving slashing, monsters, or the supernatural. He breathed the stuff. He was gone for a little while as she wrapped the phone cord around her finger and waited for his voice to come back on the line.
Finally she gave up and sighed, "Why don't you just put the game on pause so you can talk to me?"
"What? Oh, there's no point in bothering now-- I just died," he responded. "So what are you doing? This is pretty sucky weather, huh?"
"Yeah, it's a drag that we have to spend the last days of our spring break indoors," Leona sighed.
"Hmm, my mom wouldn't let me go out anyway because of the murders," Dustin said darkly.
"They only found one body," she disputed.
"Yeah but with the missing kids and all there's bound to be more. Seth said so. Anyway, if it wasn't for all that we would be out playing laser tag right now."
Leona rolled her eyes. "Speaking of Seth, he's probably having a field day with all of this."
"He has a few theories," Dustin answered dismissively. "I just wish there was something to do."
"Well if you're that desperate you could always come over if you want to," she offered. "We're having lasagna tonight and my dad always makes a lot."
"Well..." he sounded skeptical, "I don't know if my mom would let me or not."
"She would turn down a free meal?" Leona questioned. "I doubt it, unless she thought that we put some sort of spell on your food. But she's let you eat over here before."
"Well, I did want to see what I could finish on my House of the Dead game too," he informed her.
"Oh come on, there's always time to be disemboweled by zombies," she was starting to feel a little desperate herself here. "Besides, Caitlyn will be here as well."
"Caitlyn's coming?" he asked with interest. Somehow she knew that's what would get him. "Oh I guess so, let me ask."
"Ok, just as long as you reassure your mom that we don't intend to poison you and when my dad's not loaded he's actually a really good cook," she grinned.
"Maybe we should leave out the loaded bit..." Dustin mumbled.
"Yeah, sure whatever it takes for her to say yes," she replied. He put down the phone and she waited for him to come back. When he did he asked her, "What time do you want me over?"
"Six is fine," she answered.
"Great, see you then."
Dustin arrived shortly after Caitlyn did and for the first time in a long time Leona's family sat at the table and ate dinner. For some reason or another her mom felt obligated to treat her sister's kids every now and then so basically she and Dustin were both there for the prospect of a free meal. Dustin sat next to Caitlyn and spent the whole meal stealing glimpses of her and then quickly looking away before she noticed he had been staring and she did the same. It was like watching nine year olds had just discovered there really was a difference in those of the opposite sex and it made the pasta turn in Leona's stomach.
When the meal was over the three headed to Leona's bedroom. Once again she caught Dustin staring at her cousin and she stared too to try to see if there was anything about her that might jump out to reveal exactly what it was that Dustin and Seth both saw in her. She had chestnut brown hair and bright blue eyes with a dusting of freckles on her nose. She wasn't popular, even though she really wanted to be and she cared more about what people thought of her than Leona did.
Leona had black hair that she braided into pigtails on either side of her head. She had emerald green eyes that she was told were the same as her teenage sister, Audrey's. To be honest Leona really wanted nothing to do with Audrey in the least of any way. She wore a lot of black including black nail polish and gothic jewelry. People often thought of her as a freak and so far there weren't any boys who had been interested in her yet, probably because she figured that it was because Caitlyn was a lot more girly than she and that was ok if guys were into that sort of thing but she could pass. Girly was not her style.
"This is boring," Caitlyn sighed, "There's gotta be something around here to do." Dustin grinned and Leona knew right off the bat what he was thinking. At the same time it had hit him she thought of it too. She and Dustin had a game they often played when there was nothing to do. It consisted of listing every possible thing that there was to do in the world that they could do, from dancing on cars to running away to Mexico and register as midgets so they could drink and open up a souvenir stand for American tourists. Somehow with Caitlyn's presence the game didn't seem as inviting though.
"I know what we can do," Leona stated.
"Steal the pink flamingos from Mrs. McCormick's yard and hold them hostage until she sees to our demands?" Dustin suggested.
Caitlyn wrinkled her nose. "Why would we do that? What demands could the Flamingo Lady possibly see to of our?"
Leona knew it wouldn't be as much fun with Caitlyn along. "Actually, I was thinking we could go upstairs in my attic and see what we can find in there. There's bound to be something interesting up there."
"You would suggest something like that," Caitlyn sighed. "What could be scarier than hanging around in a creepy old attic on a stormy day such as this?"
"Well, I guess it's something to do," Dustin shrugged. "And if we do see a ghost at least we would have done something and we could tell all our friends about it."
Caitlyn frowned. "A ghost?" The prospect of this really didn't seem to please her at all.
"Don't worry," Leona said, "the spirits of the dead cannot hurt the living."
"Not according to `The Shining'", Dustin said stubbornly.
"Well in any case I don't want to meet one," Caitlyn said timidly.
"You worry too much," said Leona, "I seriously doubt there is anything in my attic other than a bunch of old junk that's about a thousand years old."
So Caitlyn resigned and the three of them climbed up into the attic and started looking around. It was very dark and dusty with cobwebs everywhere and the sound of the rain hitting the roof made it a bit spooky. Caitlyn grabbed a box and looked inside. She screamed and the other two jumped at the shrill sound.
"What is it?" Leona demanded.
Caitlyn was bone white and not moving. She had a look of absolute horror on her face. A fat brown spider was crawling across the back of her hand and she shivered as it walked off.
"It's just a spider," Leona chided. "Come here sweetie," she cooed and picked it up. Caitlyn turned about three shades of green as she watched it walk freely across Leona's palm.
"I cannot believe I'm related to you," she moaned.
"It's an attic, there are lots of spiders up here," Leona replied as she put it down.
"Hey what's that?" Dustin demanded as his attention was directed to the box Caitlyn had found the spider in.
"What, where?" Leona looked towards where he was pointing. "Oh wow," she breathed, "I think I know what that is." She pulled it out and held it up proudly. "It's a Ouija board!"
"Well of course it's a Ouija board," said Caitlyn snidely.
"What's wrong?" Leona inquired, "Are you afraid of this too?"
"I'm not afraid of that," she replied, "I just think that stuff's all a crock."
"Well what do you think Mr. Horror Master?" Leona turned to Dustin.
"Well, `Witch Board' really was a classic, but I'm gonna have to agree on crock."
Leona shrugged. "It's the store bought ones that are really crocked. If you want it to work you need a homemade board. And this looks pretty homemade to me. I think it belonged to my great grandmother; she was really into the same stuff that I am. Maybe we could try it out tonight, hold a s‚ance or something."
"A s‚ance? Here?" Caitlyn looked around the attic uneasily.
"Nah," Leona answered, "I have a lot of candles and stuff in my room. We can do it there."
Leona set the board in the center of her room and put a circle of candles around it. Then she, Dustin and Caitlyn sat in a circle around the board and joined hands. Together they placed their hands on the triangle and set it in the center of the board between the letters and the numbers. "I can feel it," Dustin said exuberantly and rolled his eyes to the back of his head, "it's. it's telling me to. to kill my friends with an axe! Here's Johnny!!" He jumped on Caitlyn as he said this and she let out a short scream.
"Stop it!" Leona scolded, "You'll offend the spirits!"
"Before or after they disembowel us?" Dustin asked obnoxiously.
"I told you," Leona sighed, "the spirits of the dead cannot harm the living. We're supposed to ask questions so we can communicate with them."
"What are you wearing?" Dustin howled in a low, would-be spooky voice.
Leona narrowed her eyes. "Leave the questions to me. She took a deep breath and in a solid voice she asked bravely, "Hello? Is anyone there?" The triangle began to move.
"You're moving it," Dustin whispered.
"No way, I'm not moving it," Caitlyn objected, "I'm barely touching it!"
"Hush!" Leona hissed. The triangle stopped on *YES*.
A thick silence covered the room. "What should I say next?" Leona whispered.
"Ask them if their evil," Caitlyn requested.
"Nice question," Dustin muttered.
Leona glared at him and asked the board, "Are you evil?"
Once again the triangle slid across the board, this time resting on *NO*. The three of them breathed a short sigh of relief, which sort of surprised them all. "What's your name?" Leona asked. The triangle moved across the board from letter to letter and they spoke each out loud as it would briefly make a stop.
"G-E-O-R-G-E."
"George?" Leona asked numbly.
"That's a nice name," Caitlyn mused.
"How old were you when you died?" Leona continued the "interrogation". The triangle stopped on the number 6.
"Six?" Dustin demanded, "We're talking to a six-year-old? This is just a little creepy."
Leona swallowed hard and asked it, "How did you die?"
Once again the triangle moved across the letters. "C-L-O-W-N."
"I hate clowns," Dustin muttered.
"D-R-A-I-N."
"A clown in a drain?" Caitlyn asked. "Now that is what I like to call creepy."
"They found the dead girl in a drain," Dustin said gravely. "Maybe their connected."
"Can you help us?" Leona questioned. "Can you tell us who is behind the killing?"
"Killings," Dustin muttered. This time as the cursor moved across the board it rested on two letters alone, "I" and "T".
"It."
"Dustin, your mom's on the phone, she wants you to come home immediately," Leona's mother called up the stairs. The three of them jumped at the sound of her voice. "Caitlyn, I better take you home too, it's getting late."
"Ok," the kids said in unison. They moved the cursor to *GOODBYE*, signifying the conversation was over.
"That was pretty amazing, huh?" Leona breathed.
"Well, I still think somebody had to have been moving it," Dustin remarked. "It seems like a major crock to me."
"Yeah," Caitlyn agreed, "clowns in drains? Get real."
"You know you were scared," Leona narrowed her eyes.
"See you later, Lee," Dustin called as he and Caitlyn both went with Leona's mother for rides home. She sighed and wondered if she was the only one in the world who still believed in this stuff anymore.
It stormed that night, really hard. A thunder clap woke Leona and out of curiosity, she decided to take out the Ouija board and play with it once again. She lit a few of her candles and gently placed her fingers on the triangle. It moved freely and easily. In surprise she asked who she was talking to. It responded, the dead girl from the drain. The clown got me too. It will get you and claw out your eyes, rip you apart and eat your skin. It happened to all of us, and it will happen to you because everyone floats down here.
She screamed and through the board across the room. But the triangle held fast and to her amazement continued moving across the board, all on its own. In a mix of horror and astonishment she leaned in to read what it was spelling out.
YOU WILL DIE IF YOU TRY. DIE IF YOU TRY.
She grabbed the triangle and moved it quickly to *GOODBYE*. She then stuffed the board in her sock drawer and climbed into bed. She buried her face in the covers, trembling slightly in fear, but somewhere in the morning's early hours she was able to find sleep and she dreamed of circuses and storm drains.
This was the sort of thing Seth was into. Seth Florin was Leona's classmate and he was one of the few people she actually talked to at her school. He wasn't really her friend though, he was Dustin's friend and he only gave her the time of day when Dustin or Caitlyn were around. Dustin Davis was Leona's best friend and Caitlyn Sellers was her cousin. Seth and Dustin had been joined by the hip since the days of fat crayons and safety scissors, and they were both in love with Caitlyn. It was rather annoying, whenever Leona wanted to spend time with Dustin and Caitlyn would show up and completely ruin it. Although she didn't mind talking to her cousin when it came down to actually having someone to talk to, but it was at these times she resented Caitlyn's presence. And wonder of wonders, she would be coming over today.
Leona decided to pick up the phone and call somebody. She had a grand total of three people she could consider calling but right now that was better than nothing. Caitlyn would want to spend all her time talking about boys and her desires to be popular--conversation that Leona tired of quickly and she was sure she would be hearing plenty of it when she came over for dinner this evening. Seth never really wanted to talk to her about anything other than Caitlyn or his serial killer obsession that sort of disturbed her. So Dustin it was. She dialed his number like so many times before and heard the familiar voice of his mother answering the phone. She was snippy as usual; Mrs. Davis had never cared too much for Leona or her son's friendship with her. She thought that Dustin was too young to want much to do with girls like her from families like hers. With her dozens of black candles, her gothic style, and her dark, cynical personality Mrs. Davis didn't think anyone should have much to do with a no good child such as her.
But she gave Dustin the phone anyway, after reminding her of the trouble she really didn't have to go through in doing so. "Hi Leona," he mumbled. In the background she could hear sounds from what had to have been a TV.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
He didn't respond for a moment and then he said, "Oh, just playing a video game. House of the Dead. I never got this far before." Then he started frantically hitting the controls in order to dismember the zombies. There was no surprise there; Dustin's obsession lied in horror movies or any kind of thriller involving slashing, monsters, or the supernatural. He breathed the stuff. He was gone for a little while as she wrapped the phone cord around her finger and waited for his voice to come back on the line.
Finally she gave up and sighed, "Why don't you just put the game on pause so you can talk to me?"
"What? Oh, there's no point in bothering now-- I just died," he responded. "So what are you doing? This is pretty sucky weather, huh?"
"Yeah, it's a drag that we have to spend the last days of our spring break indoors," Leona sighed.
"Hmm, my mom wouldn't let me go out anyway because of the murders," Dustin said darkly.
"They only found one body," she disputed.
"Yeah but with the missing kids and all there's bound to be more. Seth said so. Anyway, if it wasn't for all that we would be out playing laser tag right now."
Leona rolled her eyes. "Speaking of Seth, he's probably having a field day with all of this."
"He has a few theories," Dustin answered dismissively. "I just wish there was something to do."
"Well if you're that desperate you could always come over if you want to," she offered. "We're having lasagna tonight and my dad always makes a lot."
"Well..." he sounded skeptical, "I don't know if my mom would let me or not."
"She would turn down a free meal?" Leona questioned. "I doubt it, unless she thought that we put some sort of spell on your food. But she's let you eat over here before."
"Well, I did want to see what I could finish on my House of the Dead game too," he informed her.
"Oh come on, there's always time to be disemboweled by zombies," she was starting to feel a little desperate herself here. "Besides, Caitlyn will be here as well."
"Caitlyn's coming?" he asked with interest. Somehow she knew that's what would get him. "Oh I guess so, let me ask."
"Ok, just as long as you reassure your mom that we don't intend to poison you and when my dad's not loaded he's actually a really good cook," she grinned.
"Maybe we should leave out the loaded bit..." Dustin mumbled.
"Yeah, sure whatever it takes for her to say yes," she replied. He put down the phone and she waited for him to come back. When he did he asked her, "What time do you want me over?"
"Six is fine," she answered.
"Great, see you then."
Dustin arrived shortly after Caitlyn did and for the first time in a long time Leona's family sat at the table and ate dinner. For some reason or another her mom felt obligated to treat her sister's kids every now and then so basically she and Dustin were both there for the prospect of a free meal. Dustin sat next to Caitlyn and spent the whole meal stealing glimpses of her and then quickly looking away before she noticed he had been staring and she did the same. It was like watching nine year olds had just discovered there really was a difference in those of the opposite sex and it made the pasta turn in Leona's stomach.
When the meal was over the three headed to Leona's bedroom. Once again she caught Dustin staring at her cousin and she stared too to try to see if there was anything about her that might jump out to reveal exactly what it was that Dustin and Seth both saw in her. She had chestnut brown hair and bright blue eyes with a dusting of freckles on her nose. She wasn't popular, even though she really wanted to be and she cared more about what people thought of her than Leona did.
Leona had black hair that she braided into pigtails on either side of her head. She had emerald green eyes that she was told were the same as her teenage sister, Audrey's. To be honest Leona really wanted nothing to do with Audrey in the least of any way. She wore a lot of black including black nail polish and gothic jewelry. People often thought of her as a freak and so far there weren't any boys who had been interested in her yet, probably because she figured that it was because Caitlyn was a lot more girly than she and that was ok if guys were into that sort of thing but she could pass. Girly was not her style.
"This is boring," Caitlyn sighed, "There's gotta be something around here to do." Dustin grinned and Leona knew right off the bat what he was thinking. At the same time it had hit him she thought of it too. She and Dustin had a game they often played when there was nothing to do. It consisted of listing every possible thing that there was to do in the world that they could do, from dancing on cars to running away to Mexico and register as midgets so they could drink and open up a souvenir stand for American tourists. Somehow with Caitlyn's presence the game didn't seem as inviting though.
"I know what we can do," Leona stated.
"Steal the pink flamingos from Mrs. McCormick's yard and hold them hostage until she sees to our demands?" Dustin suggested.
Caitlyn wrinkled her nose. "Why would we do that? What demands could the Flamingo Lady possibly see to of our?"
Leona knew it wouldn't be as much fun with Caitlyn along. "Actually, I was thinking we could go upstairs in my attic and see what we can find in there. There's bound to be something interesting up there."
"You would suggest something like that," Caitlyn sighed. "What could be scarier than hanging around in a creepy old attic on a stormy day such as this?"
"Well, I guess it's something to do," Dustin shrugged. "And if we do see a ghost at least we would have done something and we could tell all our friends about it."
Caitlyn frowned. "A ghost?" The prospect of this really didn't seem to please her at all.
"Don't worry," Leona said, "the spirits of the dead cannot hurt the living."
"Not according to `The Shining'", Dustin said stubbornly.
"Well in any case I don't want to meet one," Caitlyn said timidly.
"You worry too much," said Leona, "I seriously doubt there is anything in my attic other than a bunch of old junk that's about a thousand years old."
So Caitlyn resigned and the three of them climbed up into the attic and started looking around. It was very dark and dusty with cobwebs everywhere and the sound of the rain hitting the roof made it a bit spooky. Caitlyn grabbed a box and looked inside. She screamed and the other two jumped at the shrill sound.
"What is it?" Leona demanded.
Caitlyn was bone white and not moving. She had a look of absolute horror on her face. A fat brown spider was crawling across the back of her hand and she shivered as it walked off.
"It's just a spider," Leona chided. "Come here sweetie," she cooed and picked it up. Caitlyn turned about three shades of green as she watched it walk freely across Leona's palm.
"I cannot believe I'm related to you," she moaned.
"It's an attic, there are lots of spiders up here," Leona replied as she put it down.
"Hey what's that?" Dustin demanded as his attention was directed to the box Caitlyn had found the spider in.
"What, where?" Leona looked towards where he was pointing. "Oh wow," she breathed, "I think I know what that is." She pulled it out and held it up proudly. "It's a Ouija board!"
"Well of course it's a Ouija board," said Caitlyn snidely.
"What's wrong?" Leona inquired, "Are you afraid of this too?"
"I'm not afraid of that," she replied, "I just think that stuff's all a crock."
"Well what do you think Mr. Horror Master?" Leona turned to Dustin.
"Well, `Witch Board' really was a classic, but I'm gonna have to agree on crock."
Leona shrugged. "It's the store bought ones that are really crocked. If you want it to work you need a homemade board. And this looks pretty homemade to me. I think it belonged to my great grandmother; she was really into the same stuff that I am. Maybe we could try it out tonight, hold a s‚ance or something."
"A s‚ance? Here?" Caitlyn looked around the attic uneasily.
"Nah," Leona answered, "I have a lot of candles and stuff in my room. We can do it there."
Leona set the board in the center of her room and put a circle of candles around it. Then she, Dustin and Caitlyn sat in a circle around the board and joined hands. Together they placed their hands on the triangle and set it in the center of the board between the letters and the numbers. "I can feel it," Dustin said exuberantly and rolled his eyes to the back of his head, "it's. it's telling me to. to kill my friends with an axe! Here's Johnny!!" He jumped on Caitlyn as he said this and she let out a short scream.
"Stop it!" Leona scolded, "You'll offend the spirits!"
"Before or after they disembowel us?" Dustin asked obnoxiously.
"I told you," Leona sighed, "the spirits of the dead cannot harm the living. We're supposed to ask questions so we can communicate with them."
"What are you wearing?" Dustin howled in a low, would-be spooky voice.
Leona narrowed her eyes. "Leave the questions to me. She took a deep breath and in a solid voice she asked bravely, "Hello? Is anyone there?" The triangle began to move.
"You're moving it," Dustin whispered.
"No way, I'm not moving it," Caitlyn objected, "I'm barely touching it!"
"Hush!" Leona hissed. The triangle stopped on *YES*.
A thick silence covered the room. "What should I say next?" Leona whispered.
"Ask them if their evil," Caitlyn requested.
"Nice question," Dustin muttered.
Leona glared at him and asked the board, "Are you evil?"
Once again the triangle slid across the board, this time resting on *NO*. The three of them breathed a short sigh of relief, which sort of surprised them all. "What's your name?" Leona asked. The triangle moved across the board from letter to letter and they spoke each out loud as it would briefly make a stop.
"G-E-O-R-G-E."
"George?" Leona asked numbly.
"That's a nice name," Caitlyn mused.
"How old were you when you died?" Leona continued the "interrogation". The triangle stopped on the number 6.
"Six?" Dustin demanded, "We're talking to a six-year-old? This is just a little creepy."
Leona swallowed hard and asked it, "How did you die?"
Once again the triangle moved across the letters. "C-L-O-W-N."
"I hate clowns," Dustin muttered.
"D-R-A-I-N."
"A clown in a drain?" Caitlyn asked. "Now that is what I like to call creepy."
"They found the dead girl in a drain," Dustin said gravely. "Maybe their connected."
"Can you help us?" Leona questioned. "Can you tell us who is behind the killing?"
"Killings," Dustin muttered. This time as the cursor moved across the board it rested on two letters alone, "I" and "T".
"It."
"Dustin, your mom's on the phone, she wants you to come home immediately," Leona's mother called up the stairs. The three of them jumped at the sound of her voice. "Caitlyn, I better take you home too, it's getting late."
"Ok," the kids said in unison. They moved the cursor to *GOODBYE*, signifying the conversation was over.
"That was pretty amazing, huh?" Leona breathed.
"Well, I still think somebody had to have been moving it," Dustin remarked. "It seems like a major crock to me."
"Yeah," Caitlyn agreed, "clowns in drains? Get real."
"You know you were scared," Leona narrowed her eyes.
"See you later, Lee," Dustin called as he and Caitlyn both went with Leona's mother for rides home. She sighed and wondered if she was the only one in the world who still believed in this stuff anymore.
It stormed that night, really hard. A thunder clap woke Leona and out of curiosity, she decided to take out the Ouija board and play with it once again. She lit a few of her candles and gently placed her fingers on the triangle. It moved freely and easily. In surprise she asked who she was talking to. It responded, the dead girl from the drain. The clown got me too. It will get you and claw out your eyes, rip you apart and eat your skin. It happened to all of us, and it will happen to you because everyone floats down here.
She screamed and through the board across the room. But the triangle held fast and to her amazement continued moving across the board, all on its own. In a mix of horror and astonishment she leaned in to read what it was spelling out.
YOU WILL DIE IF YOU TRY. DIE IF YOU TRY.
She grabbed the triangle and moved it quickly to *GOODBYE*. She then stuffed the board in her sock drawer and climbed into bed. She buried her face in the covers, trembling slightly in fear, but somewhere in the morning's early hours she was able to find sleep and she dreamed of circuses and storm drains.