Jeremy Alderman

“They laughed at us, of course…”

I thought I could almost see the doom around us, like a black aura.

Read Part One Here The sun was just starting to set when Christina and Lucas said their goodbyes. Christina had to go home and shower before starting her shift at The Theater.

“She’s dead. Emily is dead. She is dead. Emily died.”

Jake yelped with fright when his friend first spoke. He thought he was alone when he heard that disembodied voice from the darkness.

“I pride myself on adhering to a few simple rules in my life, and one rule of absolutely boundless importance is this one: I do not go to the park after dark. I do not stay at the park when it gets dark. We will not go to the park this evening, because it. Is. Dark. Bernford? This is My Final Word on the Subject.”

The wrecked truck was still wrapped around the tree, though they found no trace of the woman who crashed it.

What was this bloodthirsty, feral beast Jill saw hunting naked in the moonlight? How could she become a thing like that? Could she still be saved?

Sadie entered that closet with Jeff, and Jeff left the closet without her. For two whole weeks, she was simply gone. No one, Sadie included, knew where she might have been

None of us really thought we were going to find Sadie.

You can pretend something never happened, but the fallout sinks into your bones and never goes away. Some things are just that bad. What happened to Sadie that night in the late summer of 1993 was one of those things.

He wasn’t going to let me go free, I was certain of that.

He said he looked up to where Jason was pointing and babbling, and saw what he could only describe as a U.F.O.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but my past is clearer than it’s ever been.

This agreement, this vow of secrecy Maddie made me take with her, it had ghastly undertones, though the specifics of what we were hiding eluded me. I suppose I had my guesses, but I dared not articulate them.

I recognized it immediately. The House. Our House.

He could feel it. Eyes, watching him, waiting for just the right moment. To strike, to kill maybe. Julian didn’t question his instincts. Julian ran.

“There are doors there the likes of you and me don’t know how to open, not on purpose.”