Part 2 (of 4): Mystery of the Ring
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Some time later, the dark haze began to lift, and Sean slowly regained consciousness. He sat up, only to have a rail spike of pain shoot through his head.
"Oh, my God!" he groaned as he grabbed his head and lay back down, trying to remember what the hell happened. Slowly it all came back to him as the pain faded; the TV, the well. The girl. Dimly aware that the carpet he was laying on was soaked, he climbed to his feet, and noticed that the door to the rec room was open.
"Okay, assholes," he called out. "Day seven has come and gone and the crazy train stops here! You want to know anything else, watch that damn video for yourselves! You hear me?"
There was no answer. Slowly, he staggered to the door. "Brian? I said enough is…."
Sean froze at the sight in the rec room. The place looked like a twisted morgue.
"…enough," he finished saying. "Oh, shit."
He walked over to Brian's body and felt for a pulse, knowing he wouldn't find one on any of them. He felt no panic, but could make no sense of it, either. Brian, Vanessa, Dave, Jeff; all dead. Bill was missing, but Sean had a feeling he was dead as well. He grabbed the phone to dial for help.
He got as far as 9-1--and then canceled the call. Get real, Lewis, he thought to himself. What the hell are you going to tell the police? Assuming they don't automatically look to you as a suspect?
Unable to panic or call the police, Sean did the only thing he could think of; he sat down to try to understand what had happened. He noticed that the floor was drenched; that was one tip-off.
That girl did this, he thought. I'm sure of that much. Somehow, she did this to them, and tried to do it to me. So how did I get lucky? He studied each of their faces, they seemed to have been screaming as they died. Almost as if they were scared to death.
"That's it," he said aloud. They were scared to death from the same type of thing that he himself had been blasted with, but he couldn't be scared, and so was still alive. Something else nagged at him. Something Brian had said earlier….
"None of us have made it to day seven…day seven…." Brian's voice echoed in Sean's head, and then he realized. They knew what would happen; what day seven would bring. Or, at least they had an idea, but didn't want to risk it. They wanted to know, and used me as the guinea pig, Sean thought to himself, and that realization brought a wave of anger over him. The assholes were going to let me die as an experiment! Only, something had gone horribly wrong in the end, and the girl had gone after them for some reason.
Sean looked at the clock; it was well after five, and starting to rain out. No one else was home. But he wondered if anyone had called for help, it seemed that the others had made quite a commotion before they died. Ultimately, he decided that he didn't care. If they were willing to kill him, then screw them. He just needed to get out unnoticed by anyone. It was good that he didn't take his car; it would let him sneak away quietly, and if he got wet in the rain, then he wouldn't have to explain why he was laying on a wet floor; his clothes were already soaked.
As he went to leave the rec room, he looked back. "Hope you found all the answers you were looking for, Brian," he said quietly. Seconds later, he had slipped out the back door.
-----
When he came home, Janet was already there, watching a movie. She looked up at him, and frowned. "Sean, are you okay?"
"Yeah," he answered wearily, "I had gone out for a walk and got caught in the rain." He hated having to lie to her, but knew that he had to do it.
"I can see that, silly," she said, "but you look terrible. Are you feeling all right?"
Sean caught his reflection in the mirror. He did look like shit. "Oh, just a bad headache." This much was true; his head was still throbbing. "Listen," he said, "do you need anything?"
"No," Janet answered, "I'm all set."
"I'm gonna lie down for a while and try to sleep this off for an hour or so. You get me if you need anything, though. Okay?"
"All right."
Sean took a couple of Advil and flopped down on his bed, but his thoughts were too busy to let him sleep. The police will come calling sooner or later, he thought to himself. Better get a story straight. No use denying I was there, at least last week. As far as being there today, I'd better put on a poker face.
Eventually, the headache passed, but he couldn't help but to keep wondering, who the hell was that girl?
-----
Brian's parents discovered the aftermath about an hour later. His mother wound up in such hysterics that she later had to be sedated; Brian's dad had to make the 911 call. The crime lab did their sweep of the house, and could find no real evidence of foul play, not for that type of death. It was pending the medical examiner's report, of course, but it just looked to be from natural, if freakish causes, wrapped in one hell of a coincidence.
Once it hit the police scanners, the news media was all over it. The local networks immediately broke into their regular programming to report the story, and it even made for a headline on CNN. Sean would later catch the news with his father, and was impassive about the whole thing. Tommy Rusk, who had helped trick Sean into watching the video in the first place and was absent from the scene, ran to the bathroom and gave up his supper. None of the dead were identified, save for Brian as it was his house, but Tommy realized that not only was the urban legend true, but that something had gone sour with the others, and wondered if he would eventually be next, even though he "beat" the curse.
He had no clue that Sean had survived.
-----
The police did come to the Lewis house to ask questions, but it was all generic. Mostly, they wanted to know as much about the kids as possible, to give some clue as to what could have possibly happened. Sean did mention that he was there last week, which was a good thing as his prints were found on the scene, but the admission helped quash any possible suspicions.
A couple of days later, Sean found that he was still bothered by the unanswered questions, but even more so, felt the need to tell someone about what had happened to him. The question was, who to tell. His father was out; Janet, the less she knew, with her nightmares, the better.
Sean did think of someone though. That Sunday, after calling her beforehand, Sean met with Amy at a local ice cream shop that had opened early for the season.
"Can you keep a secret?" Sean asked.
"Why, Sean Lewis," Amy gushed with a smile, "you're confiding in me? I'm so touched!"
"Come on, Amy. I'm serious. It's about what happened at Brian's house."
Amy's smile faded, and Sean proceeded to tell everything. Amy's expression gradually went from shock to amazement.
"You came in contact with someone from the other side!" she exclaimed.
Sean blinked. "The what?"
"The afterlife! She had to be a ghost, or something!"
Sean sipped his milkshake as he mulled that one over. "I can't come up with anything else, but I'm not one who buys into all that crap."
Amy shook her head. "Well, I am, and I'm positive that that's exactly what it was. Question is, why did she attack you and the others?"
Sean put his cup down and leaned forward in his seat. "That's been bugging me ever since it happened, and it's what I'm going to try to find out."
Amy hesitated. "How?"
Sean made sure no one was listening in, and lowered his voice. "Word is that the Davidsons haven't been back to their house ever since it happened, and the police have pretty much done all they need to do. Brian's rec room had a ton of video equipment, computers, the works. All that should be able to give some answers if I can sneak in there."
Amy couldn't believe her ears. "You're crazy!"
Sean nodded. "Yeah, after what I've seen, maybe I am, but I've got to know. I figure tomorrow's Monday, school's out for the week, most of the neighborhood will be at work. I should be able to get it done without too much fuss."
Amy thought for a minute. "Let me come with you."
"What?" Sean shook his head. "Whoa, wait a minute; talk about crazy! I'm not afraid of getting busted, per se, but I know what'll happen if I do. If the two of us--."
Amy cut him off, "The two of us can look faster than just you. Besides, I'm as curious as you right now."
Sean sighed, then nodded. "All right, fine; we're both nuts. Meet me at my house around ten o'clock tomorrow morning and we'll walk over."
"Ten o'clock, check," Amy said, then smiled. "Gee, it's our first date."
Sean couldn't help but smile at that one. "Yeah, it should be one for the books!"
-----
The next morning, Amy showed up right on time. "You're alone?" she asked.
"Yeah," Sean answered, "my dad's at work and Janet's off playing somewhere. Let's get this over with."
Fifteen minutes later they were on Brian's street. "So, what's the plan?" Amy asked.
"We should be able to sneak in the back door; that's how I got out that day," Sean replied. "We'll just have to get in quickly. If it's locked, we'll have to get creative, though."
When they were sure no neighbors were watching, the two approached the back door. Sean tried the doorknob; it was locked.
"Maybe they have a spare key hidden somewhere," Amy said.
They were so busy looking for possible hiding places, they didn't notice someone coming up behind them.
"Sean?" a young voice called out.
Sean and Amy spun around; Amy cried out in surprise. Sean sighed once he saw who it was; Busted.
"Go on home, Janet," he said. "You don't need to be a part of this."
"What's going on?" Janet asked. "Is this about what happened with those kids?"
"Yes, it does," Amy answered, "but we're just looking for information. We're not going to take anything."
"Well, let me stay with you two," Janet said. "I won't be in the way."
"Janet," Sean said, but Janet interrupted him.
"Sean, please! I don't want to be home by myself!"
Sean sighed, then shook his head. "All right. At least with me I can keep an eye on you. Just don't tell a soul about this, okay?"
Janet smiled and saluted. "Yes, sir!"
Sean kept looking, then noticed an odd looking rock laying in the bushes nearby.
"Well, hello there," he said, picking up the rock. He turned it around in his hands, then slid the hidden compartment open, letting the key fall into his hand.
He opened the door, let the two girls inside before him, returned the key to its hiding spot and locked the door behind him. "Downstairs," he said, leading them to a staircase. "It's all downstairs."
No one was home, as Sean suspected. When they got downstairs, Sean saw that the carpet in the living room was still damp. He pointed to the couch. "Janet, why don't you have a seat there, that way you'll be out of the way. We'll be in the next room; just give a yell if you need us."
Janet nodded and sat down as the Sean and Amy went into the rec room. There was very little trace of what happened, save for a wet floor. There was the computer, and a stack of files; papers, photos, and such.
Sean motioned to the computer. "We've got to disturb as little as possible. Why don't you check that out, I'll peruse through the files."
"What are you looking for?" Amy said as she sat down.
"Whatever I don't know already," Sean answered. "That girl's name would be a nice start."
Amy browsed through the computer while Sean started combing through the stack. After a while, he spoke up. "Brian was telling the truth about one thing; they were experiencing stuff after watching the video."
"Anything interesting?" Amy asked as she went through the computer's files.
"Well, some of them had different things than me. Jeff had a millipede or something come out of a power outlet in his house; there was a bug like that in the video. Same with the maggots; that was Dave's. Looks like I was the only one with the crazy horses, whatever that means. Although, all of them had some type of vision with the girl. She's the one common denominator."
"Not hard to believe, given what happened. Sean, check this out!"
Sean went over to the computer. Amy had a bunch of digital photos open; people with blurred faces. "That's them," he said. "I'm pretty sure of it, anyway."
"Looks like someone loaded them into Photoshop and went crazy," Amy remarked.
Sean pulled a bunch of polaroids from the stack of files. "Not quite," he said. "It's the same with these. Now that think of it; their faces after they died, they looked a lot like these."
He then pulled out a newspaper clipping. "Amy, look."
Amy glanced over. It was the news article the day after the incident with the horses. Sean's picture was circled; his face was normal. Next to the circle was a red question mark.
Neither one said anything. Amy then opened up a web page and called Sean over. It was a web blog from Brian. They scanned through it, but found nothing about the girl's identity. It was mostly about the group passing the video around. Out of curiosity, Sean went to the last entry of the blog, done that Friday morning.
"Didn't get much sleep," Brian had written. "Too wound up; after months of wondering, we're finally going to see a Day Seven! The rest of the gang seems as jacked as I am, except for Vanessa; she's too worried about what will happen to Sean if the myth is true. I could care less about that right now; I'll worry about it later. Getting rid of the body, if there winds up being one, could be a concern, but the fact that we'll finally crack the mystery of that tape makes it all worth it.
"Sean said he's fearless; it'll be interesting to see what good that does him if the rumors are true."
As they read, Amy found herself taking Sean's hand in hers. "They were just going to let you die to get what they wanted," she almost whispered, horrified at the idea.
Sean gave her hand a squeeze. "Yeah," he said, his voice even, "but I guess karma came back to bite them on their collective asses."
At that moment, the phone rang.
Amy checked her watch. "Eleven o'clock," she said. "Wonder who's calling?"
"Don't know," Sean replied, "but don't answer it. Janet, don't answer the phone! It has to seem like no one's home."
"Okay," Janet called back from the next room.
After a minute, the ringing stopped; either the caller had hung up, or it went to an automated voice mail.
Sean put all the papers away. "I don't think there's anything else to find anyways…wait a minute."
Sean noticed the video camera pointed at the wall and, thinking it was an odd spot for a video camera, went over to take a look. He saw the small hole in the wall going into the next room. "What the hell?" he wondered, and went into the living room, where he saw that the hole came through that wall.
"What is it?" Janet asked, still sitting on the couch.
"Hang on, just have to check something," Sean answered.
He went back into the rec room, turned on the video camera and the TV that it was attached to, and found himself watching Janet.
"They were recording you?" Amy asked.
Sean studied the broadcast, and then he realized what had gone wrong. "Yeah," he answered Amy, "and that's where they screwed up. See the mirror on the wall behind Janet? See the reflection of the TV? They were watching me while I was watching the tape…."
"And the tape was reflected back at them," Amy finished. "Poetic irony, at it's finest."
"Speaking of the tape," Sean said as he looked around the rec room, then walked back to the living room, and knelt in front of the VCR, hitting the eject button. A tape with no label on it popped out.
"Is that it?" Amy asked.
Sean examined it for a minute, then looked at her. "Let's just assume that it is," he said as he ripped the tape from the casing, destroying it. "We'd better get going. We've pushed our luck far enough, I think."
A moment later, after making sure the house was back to how it was before they came in, they left through the back door.
"I can't believe we got away with that!" Amy remarked. "Sorry you didn't get your answers, Sean."
Sean shrugged. "Easy come, easy go. I guess it's for the…Janet, you okay?"
Janet had turned pale, and was starting to sweat. "I don't feel so good," she answered. "I feel cold."
Sean felt her forehead; she did feel cool to the touch, and the temperature outside was in the 70s. "I'd better get her home," he told Amy, putting an arm around Janet.
"Okay. I'll catch you later?" Amy asked.
"Sure thing," Sean said, leading Janet home.
-----
Janet did feel better later that day, but early Thursday morning, Sean was woken up by someone calling out. Groggily noticing that it was about two in the morning, Sean soon recognized the voice; it was Janet.
He went into her bedroom to see her tossing about in her sleep, obviously in the throes of another nightmare. He went to try and wake her up, when she suddenly cried out, "Sean! Help me, please!"
Realizing that this dream must be a whopper of a nightmare, Sean sat down in her bean bag chair, closed his eyes, and concentrated. He found the slipstream, and dove in. He found himself standing in a huge barn, empty of any animals. Sean frowned; he'd never been in a barn like this, and was sure that Janet hadn't either.
From the loft above, Sean heard Janet screaming, "Sean, someone, help me!"
There was a ladder leading up to the loft. Sean scrambled up it--and stopped in his tracks when he reached the top.
Janet was crouched in a corner, crying hysterically. Slowly approaching her was the girl from the video, arms outstretched, ready to grab Janet.
Sean couldn't believe his eyes. He had told Janet very little about what had happened to him, and certainly hadn't given her a description of the girl, yet there she was. As he wondered how this was happening, the only possible answer hit him like a shot in the dark.
No, he thought. Oh, Jesus, no. No!
Angrier than he'd ever been in his life, he climbed into the loft and stormed over to the girl, his footfalls echoing loudly in the barn. She turned to look at him, but he grabbed her by the throat before she could do anything, and pinned her up against the wall, off of the floor.
She said made no sound, but grabbed at Sean's arm, trying to break his grip. Sean held fast, with no fear of her at all. "I don't know who the hell you are," he told her, "but you leave my sister alone. Do you hear me, damn you? You leave her alone!"
Then he leaned in close; his face was inches from hers. "We two, you and I, have unfinished business," he whispered.
She stopped struggling at that. Sean then shifted his grip and threw her over the edge of the loft to the floor below. The girl made no sound, but Sean didn't hear her hit the floor, either. He held his hand out; Janet ran over to him and hugged him tightly. Sean hugged her back, closed his eyes--
BLINK!
--and they both woke up in Janet's bedroom.
Janet buried her face in her hands, sobbing. Sean walked over and sat on the bed, putting an arm around her. After a minute, he asked the question that he didn't want to know the answer to but knew anyway:
"Did you watch the video?"
Janet could only nod, then tried to find her voice. "While you were in the other room, I got bored and put the TV on. I saw the video sticking out of the VCR, got curious, and played it. It was creepy; I didn't know what to make of it."
Sean remembered when the phone rang; it must have been the girl calling with her warning. That was at eleven o'clock; he remembered Amy looking at her watch.
Janet had until eleven o'clock Monday morning to live. Unless they found a way to beat the curse.
Janet looked up at her brother. "What's going to happen to me, Sean?" she whispered.
Sean wiped her tears away. "Nothing," he answered. "Not a damn thing, all right? I'll go through hell if I have to, but you're going to be okay."
Sean gave her a hug, then tucked her back into bed. "Try to get some sleep," he said. "I've got some thinking to do."
As Janet closed her eyes, Sean went back to his room and sat at his desk. He realized bitterly, for the first time, that not only could he not be afraid of anyone, he couldn't be afraid for anyone, either. He should have been scared for Janet, and the fate that loomed over her, but he wasn't. It felt unnatural to him.
It did nothing to dampen his resolve, however, that nothing was going to happen to Janet. That girl would have to literally go through him to get to her. But there had to be a way to beat it. Brian's group had managed to avoid the seventh day repeatedly, so it could be done. The question was, how?
After a few minutes, a plan formed in his head. It wasn't a bad plan, but he was going to need help. And it couldn't wait until morning.
He went downstairs, and came back to his room with the phone.
-----
One minute, she was asleep, and the next, Amy had a Green Day ringtone buzzing on her headboard. She fumbled for her cell phone, and frowned at the number on her phone's Caller ID; she didn't recognize it, but found herself answering anyway. "Hello?" she said, still half asleep.
"Amy? It's Sean."
"Sean?" Now she remembered, she had given him her phone number so they could go over notes for their history test. "What is it?"
"Amy, Janet watched the video."
That cleared the last of the cobwebs as Amy sat straight up in bed. "What?"
Sean told her about what Janet had told him, and the dream she had. Amy could only shake her head. "Oh, Christ, Sean. What are you going to do?"
"There's got to be a way out of it, and I know who to ask, but I doubt it'll be as simple as a phone call. I need your help."
"Of course. Anything."
She could almost hear a small smile in Sean's voice over the phone. "How good of an actress are you?"
-----
At around noontime, the phone rang at Tommy Rusk's house. Tommy was the only one home, but was nervous about answering it. Ever since the disaster at Brian's, he had become more nervous everyday. Either he would be afraid of someone finding out his involvement--he did get Sean to watch the tape, after all, and that was what led to everything else--or he was afraid that he had never truly beaten the curse, that it was only a matter of time.
Finally, after the seventh ring, he answered it. "Hello?"
"Tommy?" a female voice asked. "Is this Tommy Rusk?"
"Yeah, this is Tommy."
"Hi, this is Amy Adams, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm in your biology class?"
Tommy thought for a minute. "Oh, yeah. I remember you, now. Hi."
"Are you alone?"
Tommy hesitated. "Uh, yeah, why? What do you want?"
"Well," Amy said, "to be honest, you."
Tommy was stunned into silence. Did he hear that right?
"Tommy? Are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here…." He wasn't sure what else to say.
"Look, I have to make a confession," Amy went on. "I've been watching you for a while now. I've been wondering what it would be like to be with you, and I have to find out."
"Oh, man," Tommy couldn't help but say.
Amy dropped her voice to a husky whisper. "I've got an itch that I can't scratch. Can you scratch it for me?"
Tommy's mouth went dry and he almost dropped the phone. "S-sure," he finally said. "Where and when?"
"Meet me at the old Rooney house on Sherman street around 3:30. The place is abandoned and no one goes in there in the daytime. We can be alone for a while."
Tommy cleared his throat, unable to believe what was happening. Here was a hot chick, wanting to do it with him. He couldn't believe his luck, and rapidly forgot what he was nervous about. "I'll be there!" he said, and hung up.
-----
Back at her house, Amy hung up her phone, and sighed.
"Men are so easy," she said with a small smile.
-----
The Rooney house on Sherman street was an old 19th century Victorian house that had been abandoned years ago when the Rooneys just up and left town. Now boarded up, the place was popular among teenagers for a nighttime make-out spot that somehow managed to escape the police's notice. No one went in during the day, so Amy thought it was perfect for what she wanted.
She saw Tommy coming up nervously, and smiled. Taking his hand, she led him inside. "Come on," she whispered.
They walked into what had been the dining room, where someone had laid an old, but usable mattress on the floor.
Amy backed away from Tommy. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought a friend," she said.
"Really?" Tommy said, smiling. This was getting better and better!
Amy smiled back and nodded. "He just wants to ask you a few things before we do anything."
Tommy's smile faltered. He? "Wait, what are you talking about?"
From behind him, he heard a door slam, and heard a voice that he never expected to hear again:
"I'm what she's talking about, shithead," Sean growled.
Tommy spun around, and his jaw dropped in shock as all his fears came flooding back. "Oh, my God," he whispered, and tried to run out of the room. Sean caught up to him easily, and threw him against the wall.
"You son of a bitch!" Sean shouted. "What the hell did you try to pull on me?"
"I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry!" Tommy yelled.
"'An experience you won't soon forget.' Isn't that what you told me? You dumb mother--!"
"I had to, man!" Tommy cried in desperation. "Brian was so hell-bent on seeing day seven, and he was going to have me go through it! I had to get out of it and the only way was picking someone else! It was nothing personal! I figured you were still new, you didn't have any friends who'd miss you…what the hell!"
"Guess again, dipshit," Amy said coldly.
"How are you still alive, anyway?" Tommy asked.
"I told you. I can't get scared," Sean answered. "That girl came out of the TV, hit me with her best shot, and all it did was give me a bitch of a migraine."
"Oh, man," Tommy almost sobbed. "It's all true then. What about the others? How did it happen to them?"
Sean chuckled, a sound that chilled Tommy's blood. "Oh, that's the part that makes this funny as hell. You had a video camera on me, remember? You were all watching me like a lab rat. Brian had everything planned, except the mirror behind the couch. It caught the reflection of the tape and bounced it right back to them."
"I didn't watch," Tommy said in a small voice.
"Lucky you," said Amy.
Sean backed away from Tommy, and paced around the room. "How do you beat it?"
"What?" Tommy said.
"The curse. How do you beat it?"
"What do you mean?" asked Tommy, not understanding.
Sean tried desperately to keep his cool. He waved his finger in a circle. "I mean, you all passed the video around amongst yourselves, and always managed to avoid a day seven, for a while, anyway. How do you do it?"
Tommy frowned. "What does it matter to you? You beat it already."
Sean ran at Tommy and grabbed him by the collar, pinning him to the wall. "I mean my sister watched the goddamn thing!" he screamed. "How the fuck do you beat it??"
"You have to make a copy!" Tommy cried.
"What?" Sean's voice dropped to almost a whisper.
"You have to make a copy and get someone else to watch it before your seven days is up," Tommy explained. "Then it's like; tag, you're it. I was on day six when you watched it."
All the emotion drained from Sean's face as he backed away. Amy put a hand on his arm. "Sean…," she said softly.
"A copy," Sean repeated numbly. Oh, Jesus. Janet, I'm sorry. I am so sorry.
"What?" Tommy asked, puzzled.
Sean's voice was devoid of emotion. "I destroyed the tape at Brian's house so no one else could watch it. But my sister had already watched the tape without me knowing."
"Sucks to be her," Tommy said quietly.
That broke any restraint that Sean had left. His right fist flew out; Tommy dropped like a lead weight.
Amy grabbed Sean by the shoulders. "Sean! Sean, no!" she yelled, trying to restrain him. "It's not worth it." As Sean's whole body seemed to shake in anger, she stepped in front of him. "There's got to be another way. We just haven't looked hard enough, yet."
It worked. Sean started to relax as Amy took his hand. "Come on," she said. "Let's get some work done."
Sean started to follow, then pulled away and leaned over Tommy, whose face was a bloody mess.
"It's not over between us, you bastard," he said quietly. Tommy could only shut his eyes and whimper.
By the time he opened his eyes again, they had gone. But the fears remained, along with the knowledge that one more person, Sean's sister, was going to die.
The weight of blame, both justified and not, that he placed on himself was massive. For a while, Tommy could only just lie on the floor and weep.
-----
They got in Sean's car; Sean folded his arms over the steering wheel and buried his head, trying to hold back the tears.
Amy patted his shoulder, trying to comfort him. "You couldn't have known about making the copy," she said quietly.
"It's more than that," Sean said wearily. "I shouldn't have let her out of my sight. I shouldn't have let her in the house with us. Hell, I shouldn't have even been there myself; I should have quit while I was ahead. If she dies, it's on my head."
"Don't talk like that," Amy said. "Besides, there's still time. Maybe someone else knows more than Tommy does."
Sean sat up and wiped his eyes. "Yeah, you're right." As he started the car, he looked at her. "You have anyplace else you need to be?"
"Uh-uh," she shook her head. "I'm with you in this until the end."
"Thanks," he said, and put the car in gear.
"Where are we going?" Amy asked.
"The computer lab at the library," Sean answered. "We've got some research to do and I don't have an internet hook-up at home yet."
"Yeah, right!" Amy said. "It's school vacation, all the little boys and girls are out and about; you really think you're going to get on a computer without waiting a few hours? We don't have that kind of time. Just come to my house; I've got a DSL hookup in my bedroom."
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TO BE CONTINUED….