Summer of Regrets Chapter 1

Summer of Regrets

Chapter 1

Lilly

“Eighth grade is going to be the best year ever Margie!” I tell my best friend. We are already on the phone, planning what we are going to wear for the first day of school and it’s only the fourth of July. Margie is my very best friend in the whole world. We have done everything together since the first grade when she moved here from Colorado. Margie knows everything there is to know about me, and I know everything there is to know about her. That’s just how we are.

“I know, right!” Margie squeals into the phone receiver.

“Only one more year Margie and I’ll finally be at the high school with Shawn! I can’t wait!” Now I’m the one squealing. Shawn is my boyfriend. He has been my boyfriend since I was in the sixth grade and he was in the eighth. Shawn is going into the tenth grade this year at Central High School and he is going to be on the starting line-up for the football team. Since I am first chair of the Weaver Middle School trumpet section, I get to march with the high school band this marching season! I will get to be at all of Shawn’s games! People tell him he’s crazy for going out with a middle school girl since he’s in high school now, but what Shawn and I have is true love. There is no doubt about that. He’s the first boy I ever kissed on the mouth. I’ve even French kissed him before, although Margie is the only one that knows about that. As strict as my parents are, I’d be grounded for life if they ever found out.

“Give it a rest Lilly! You know it grosses me out when you go on about Shawn. Blah!” Margie doesn’t have a boyfriend so she gets a little put out with me going on about Shawn all the time.

“This could be your year Margie! Just you wait and see! We’ll be traveling with the marching band this year! One of those high school boys is bound to snatch you up then you won’t be so grossed out about me and Shawn!”

“Yeah, whatever.” I can tell by the sound of Margie’s voice that we’re done talking about that subject. “Are you still going over to your step-dad’s parents for that picnic today?”

“Yeah, have to. Family tradition and all. Heaven forbid that I don’t get to see the fireworks from the Country Club for one year.”

John, my step-dad, his parents live near the Country Club in town. Every year for the Fourth of July, we have to go over there and have a cook out with their family and neighbors. It is usually so terribly boring, and there are people there that go to my school that I don’t talk to when we’re at school, so I’m certainly not going to spend my summer time with them.

“Lilly! C’mon! Time to go!” My mom shouts up from the kitchen.

“Coming mom!” I shout back. “Gotta go Margie. Mom’s hollering.”

“Call me when you get home and tell me about all the stuck up snobs you get to ignore tonight.” Margie totally understands how I feel.

“I will! Bye!” I hang up the phone and run down the stairs. My mom and step-dad are waiting for me at the front door. Mom gives me the once over to make sure I am presentable to the Country Club crowd then out the door we go.

When we arrive at John’s parent’s house it looks like the picnic is already in full swing. There are tons of people there. I think I’d rather have bamboo shoots shoved under my fingernails than to go in there, but like always, I put on my best smile and follow my parents. John’s mom sees us coming and meets us at the front door. She is a very nice woman, but I can tell that she is just nice to me for her son’s sake. I don’t think she ever pictured herself as a grandmother. When John married my mom, his mother told me to just call her Mona, so that is all she has ever been to me.

“Hello Lilly dear.” Mona tells me as she pulls me into a quick hug and air kisses to both cheeks. “Don’t you look darling?”

“Hi Mona.” Darling wasn’t exactly the look I was going for when I chose my favorite pink sundress, but, coming from Mona, I’ll take it. “Thanks.”

“Come dear, let me introduce you to some of your cousins that are in town.” Mona grabs my hand and leads me through the house. I glance at mom real quick with my best ‘help me’ look only to have her smile and wave at me. Gee mom, thanks for the help.

Mona and I walk through the house out on to the back patio where the crowd looks even bigger than usual. She leads me over to where a boy and girl are sitting kind of away from everyone. “Lilly, this is John’s nephew Bobby and his sister Melissa.” She gestures toward the pair. I am closer to Melissa so I reach out to shake her hand but she just looks at me like I have some sort of disease.

“Don’t pay her any mind. I don’t.” The boy stands up and sticks his hand out to me. I hadn’t really looked at him good before, but he is drop dead gorgeous. For a split second I almost can’t breathe but I do manage to smile and put my hand in his to shake it. “You must be Lilly.” Gorgeous says with the most brilliant smile.

“Um, yes, that’s me.” I stammer. He still has hold of my hand.

“Nice to meet you. Mona has told us about you. She forgot to mention that you were so pretty though.” I hear Melissa sigh out loud. Then she rolls her eyes at her brother as she gets up and leaves.

“Well then,” Mona says. “I’ll just leave you two to talk and get to know each other. You are cousins after all.” Mona pats me on the arm then heads out through the mass of people to fuss over someone or something else.

I finally pull my hand out of Bobby’s. I can’t believe that I am just standing here gawking at him like I’m some sort of idiot. He is quite possibly the handsomest boy I’ve ever seen in my life. He is probably about six-feet tall, with dark blonde hair and sea green eyes. He has a smile that could absolutely melt the polar ice caps. Even though I love Shawn with all my heart, I think Bobby is even better looking than Shawn. God forgive me for thinking that way about my boyfriend.

“Don’t mind Melissa. She never has had very good manners.” He tells me. “Come on. Come sit with me over here.” Bobby leads me over to a short stone wall toward the side of the yard. On our way over he picks up two glasses of lemonade. He waits till I sit down on the wall to hand me a glass. “So, Mona tells me you play the trumpet?”

“Um, yeah. I’m first chair of the section this year.” My voice is incredibly shaky as I try to answer him.

“My, my. Beautiful and talented.” He tells me with that sly grin. I am sure my face is beet red by now. Never in my life have I ever had a boy talk to me the way Bobby is, and especially not a boy as beautiful as Bobby. I feel really self-conscious but the way that he is looking at me makes me feel kind of important and interesting too. All I can manage to do is to smile at him.

We sit here like this for biggest part of the evening, him asking questions, me answering them as best I can, and then him complimenting me. I turn red a lot and find myself playing with my hair and being all shy way more than I ever have in my life. I can’t bear to eat more than a few chips all evening because I’m so nervous. Bobby is very attentive and even tries to get me to eat things from his plate which I flat refuse because I don’t think I could handle a bite of it if I tried.

Later in the evening I stand in front of him to watch the fireworks. I think this is the first time in all of these years of coming here that I’ve really enjoyed watching them. Bobby leans down next to my ear and comments on them often during the show. As usual, mom and step-dad are ready to go home as soon as the fireworks are over. I am pretty sure this is the first year that they’ve ever had to come get me.

“It’s time to go Lilly.” My mom says as she comes up to me. When I nod, she smiles at the two of us, then turns and walks toward the car.

“I had a really good time with you tonight. Can I call you tomorrow?” Bobby asks me. “Maybe we can go to the pool or something?”

“Sure.” I smile and quickly turn to follow my mom. I can’t wait to tell Margie about Bobby!!

Curse of Crossing Chapter 7

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 7

Ben

4 years later

I hear the voice coming from the other side, but I know I’m dreaming or hallucinating from lack of oxygen. It’s cold, dark, and feels like the air is being sucked out of my body. I lay down on the cold floor knowing I will be with my parents soon. For some reason I’m not that sad about dying if it means being with them again. I close my eyes and resign myself to the fate of death. It gets harder and harder to breath and now I’m gasping for air. I draw my last breath.

That’s when I feel a warm hand on my face. I’m able to open my eyes a little to see my beautiful Lizzy staring into my eyes. She is lying beside of me and we are face to face. I will miss her. She rubs my face with her hand and leans in to kiss me. Her lips are soft and warm against mine. I feel her sweet kiss and the warmth it sends through out my body. That’s impossible if she’s just my imagination. Lizzy moves her body into mine, moves her hand from my face, and wraps her arm around me. The cold is gone. All I feel now is my sweet, warm, and gorgeous Lizzy. We deepen our kiss. She feels heavenly. I pull back to get another look and when I open my eyes I see her smiling at me. Then I notice there is a pillow under her head. What is going on?

She puts her hand back on my face and whispers, “You were having another nightmare about being in the hidden room. You’re fine my love and safe here with me.” She pulls my face back to hers to kiss me again.

I sigh in relief, “Thank you for rescuing me that day. Have I told you lately that I love you?”

She giggles, “Not in the last few hours, no.”

“Well then that’s a few too many hours. I love you my beautiful, sweet, and loving Lizzy.” I go back to kissing her like I have never kissed her before.

Truth is I never thought I would kiss her again on that fateful day four years ago. When I heard her voice and saw that fireplace door open, I bolted. I crawled out as fast as I could, ran down the steps, and out of the front door. After I got on the porch I took the biggest breath of fresh air I have ever taken, then my stomach revolted. I barely managed to make it to the banister before I leaned over and threw up. The entire day came flooding back through my head; finding my parent’s bodies was too much. After I was finished vomiting, tears flooded my eyes. My legs gave out and I landed on my butt. I pulled my knees into my chest and finally cried for the first time since my parents disappeared a year ago. I felt Lizzy behind me before she even touched me. She put her hand on my shoulder and handed me a tissue. She never spoke a word. She just sat behind me, allowed my body to lay back on hers, and let me cry. Later the police showed up and my parents were removed from the room. Lizzy closed the room back up. All I wanted to do was get out of town, but Lizzy insisted I walk around the property with her before I went back to Ohio. She took me to the back corner of the property. All I saw were trees until she pointed. Then I saw the gravestones. We walked over and that’s when I noticed all of the gravestones of four generations of Crossing men. All of them died an untimely death and all of their wives were buried next to them. Except for one which was the first Benjamin Eugene Crossing and he’s buried next to an Elizabeth Wright. I looked at Lizzy in confusion. That’s when she told me of the curse her great, great, great grandmother had supposedly put on the Crossing men.

The next day I had my parent’s remains buried with all of the other Crossings. Now there are five generations of Crossings buried in the small cemetery behind the Crossing house. I went back to Ohio shortly after their funeral. It was not my intention to return back to Crossings, but I kept feeling the pull. It wasn’t my family that brought me back, it was Lizzy. My heart ached the six months I was in Ohio. She sent me a couple of texts, but I never responded. For those six months I was miserable and had locked myself in my house. Then, I received a text after having just awoken from the horrible nightmare of being trapped in that room at the Crossing house. It was Lizzy asking me what I wanted to do about the house because there was a couple that wanted to buy it. Then there was one last text that got me out of my bed, packed, and back to Crossing. My heart will forever be yours!

I didn’t text back, I just drove. When I got back to Crossing I was going to go straight to her mom’s office, but I something led me to my family home. When I got to the end of that long drive, she was on the front porch waiting for me. I’m not even sure I turned the car off. I jumped out, ran up on the front porch, and pulled Lizzy into my arms. She’s been in my arms ever since.

“What are you thinking about?” Lizzy says as she caresses my face.

“You, always you Elizabeth Josephine Crossing.”

Curse of Crossing Chapter 6

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 6

Elizabeth

“Wow Lizzy! I can’t believe you found all of this documentation about our family in the old Crossings house.” Dad is still pouring over all of the papers that Ben and I found in the secret room in the cellar of his family’s home. “What were you doing up there anyway?”

“Mother is trying to sell that house. Maybe you have heard that there was a strange car found there recently? It belonged to Benjamin and Marilyn Crossing from Ohio. Anyway, their son wanted to come up and see the house where his parent’s car was found to see if there is any information about what happened to his parents. Mother was busy today, so I took Ben up there. We found all of these papers about our family in the cellar.” I decide to leave out the detail about the ghosts Ben and I saw while explaining this all to my dad.

“Did you notice anything strange while you two were there?”

“Strange?” Yeah, if you consider I saw a ghost of myself strange, I think to myself!

“Well, the old stories and rumors that float around this town have always maintained that the Crossing House is haunted.” Dad tries to make his voice sound scary when he says haunted.

“Uh, well, no, not really. I just got this really weird vibe being there. It was probably just a lifetime of hearing all those old ghost stories. Besides, the Johnsons didn’t seem to have any problems all the years that they lived there.” I try to laugh it all off.

“No problems until that car crash that killed them.”

“Dad, you can’t seriously think that living in that house had anything to do with the wreck that killed that couple? Do you?”

“I couldn’t say for sure one way or the other Lizzy, but it is very consistent to the fate of all who have ever lived in the Crossing House.” I just roll my eyes at him. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I remember the stories that my grandmother used to tell about the Crossings. She told of unexplained disappearances, mysterious deaths, and worse than bad luck to all the Crossings. She even believed that there was a connection between the Crossings and the Wrights. She said that when she married Grandfather Richard, that his mother, Josephine told her of the family’s curse. She said that Josephine was told that your Great-Great-Great Grandmother Elizabeth, who you are named after of course, was desperately in love with Benjamin Eugene Crossing, and he was equally in love with her. The two had planned their wedding and on the night before they were to marry, Benjamin’s mother and father abruptly called off the wedding. They refused to let Benjamin marry Elizabeth. It seems that they had secretly arranged a marriage for their eldest son to a young lady from New York whose family had considerably more money than the Wrights. It is believed that Elizabeth was so distraught and overcome with grief over the loss of the relationship that she supposedly cursed Benjamin and all of the Crossing men. The curse was said to happen to all Crossing men when they were of marrying age, who either lived in or came to Crossing, they would suffer a most gruesome death. This curse is supposed to last until such a time that a Crossing man is truly loved by and also saved by a Wright woman.”

Holy cow! A curse? Really? I grab my phone and quickly dial Ben. “I’m calling Ben. He is at that house alone.” I don’t really believe in this story that my dad has just told me, but I have a bad feeling about Ben all the same. It just sends me straight to voicemail. “It goes straight to voicemail.” I hit end on my cell and look up at my dad in frustration. “I have to go back out there and make sure Ben is okay. I’ll call you later.” I start toward the door before I finish telling him where I’m going.

“Wait! Lizzy, you can’t go out there by yourself.” Dad gets up from the table and comes after me.

“I will be alright dad. I have to make sure Ben is okay. I’ll call you soon, I promise.” I run out of the front door and quickly get in the car. As I start the engine I look up to see dad watching from the front door. I wave at him and speed out of the driveway.

“Please let Ben be okay.” I keep saying out loud over and over as I make the five minute ride to the Crossing House. If anything has happened to him I will never forgive myself. It is just starting to get dark as I pull down the lane. The gate is unlocked and Ben’s car is still in the driveway. I feel it as soon as I get out of the car. There is a heavy, weighted feel to the air around the house. Something is very, very wrong here. My own fear and panic threaten to keep me from moving but I fight through it and run into the house.

“Ben! Ben where are you?” I shout as I run through the sitting room, looking around frantically for Ben. I run back down the hallway toward the cellar door that Ben and I went through earlier and pull it open. “Ben! Ben are you down here?” Oh please tell me he didn’t go back down here! My keys are still in my hand so I turn on my keychain light and start down the stairs. It does not feel as cold down here as it did when Ben and I were here earlier. I go over to the square in the floor that Ben lifted earlier. Oh goodness! I can’t believe I’m really going to stick my hand in this dark hole! I get a grip on my panic again and pull the latch in the floor. The doorway to the secret room starts to open. “Ben!” I shine my light around the room. He is not here. I don’t waste any time turning and running as fast as I can back up the stairs and back to the sitting room.

I know he has to be here. His car is still here, so he has to be here somewhere. “Ben! Ben where are you?” I shout once again. When there is still no answer, I start to pace around the sitting room. Where could he be? He’s not in the cellar or the secret room. He said he wanted to check out all of the rooms in the house. If he were in rooms on this level, surely he would have heard me shouting or running. He must be upstairs somewhere.

As I approach the stairs it is now completely dark outside and inside. The only light is coming from the tiny light in my hand. I shine my little light up the stairs and even though it isn’t terribly bright, it still shows footprints in the dust leading up the stairs. I gather up my faltering courage and quickly make my way up the steps. “Ben! Are you up here?” I shout when I get to the landing at the top of the stairs. There are several rooms up here, so which one do I start in? I shine my light around the floor to see if I can still see any footprints. Just as I notice that the footprints lead off to a room to my left I see something move. “Ben?” My voice is starting to get shaky now and the temperature has dropped about twenty degrees in the last couple of seconds. When I look up, I see me. Well my ghost twin. She is looking right at me with a look of concern on her face. We stand there and stare at each other for a moment. Then she turns and glides into the room that the footprints go into. I follow.

When I go in the room, I shine my light around and see a large four poster bed and a huge fireplace. My ghost twin glides over toward the end of the bed and points at something. Then she turns and disappears through the fireplace. Okay, the last time she did that she led me to the papers in the cellar, so I am guessing that I am supposed to follow her again. I take a few steps toward the bed and see something lying on top of the duvet. I reach down and grab the roll of parchment. I unroll it, flatten it out on the bed, and shine my light on it to see better. It looks to be a drawing of some type, like a floor plan layout of the house. I see these kind of drawings at my mother’s office all of the time. I find the stairs on the drawing and follow them until I find the room that I am in right now. Something looks strange about this room on the drawing though. The drawing shows that the room takes up the whole width of the house, but the fireplace is not on the back wall of the house, it is actually several feet away from the back wall. There is a room behind that fireplace. There were no other doors on that side when I was out in the hallway, so there has to be a secret panel somewhere.

I leave the parchment lying on the bed and make my way over to the fireplace. My ghost twin went through this thing for a reason, so once again, against my better judgment, I will trust her and follow where she wants me to go. I shine my light around the fireplace’s opening to see if I can find the latch. That’s when I notice a missing brick near the opening. I move the light over more and see the missing brick in the fireplace. I reach down and tug on the brick but it doesn’t budge, so I push on it. The brick sinks in, there is a click and the sound of an air lock opening, as the whole back of the fireplace moves out of the way.

“Ben? Are you in there?”

Curse of Crossing Chapter 5

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 5

Ben

As I drive away and head back to the house there is a part of me that doesn’t want to leave Lizzy. I’ve never had this kind of feeling for a girl before and certainly not for one I just met. I’m sure it’s because we have just been through something really strange, not real feelings. Okay refocus Ben! I came here to find my parents. Hopefully the papers I found at my family’s old house will give me some clues to where they are. Crap! I hit my hand to my head at my stupidity. Just as I get close to the gate I realize I forgot the keys to get back in. So I turn around in the driveway and go back to Lizzy’s mom’s office. I hope she is still there because I have no idea where her father’s house is. Luckily it’s a short drive back to the office where I see Lizzy walking from the office to her car. I pull back into the spot in front of Lizzy’s car.

When I get out of the car she smiles a beautiful smile that makes me glad I forgot the house keys. “Did you miss me already?” She giggles and winks as she goes to the trunk of her car.

“I did and I forgot the keys to the house.” I walk to the back of her car and stand next to her.

She holds her finger up, runs into the office, and runs back out with the keys. “I’m so sorry. My mind is still in the basement of that house.” She hands me the keys and our hands touch. There is a slight shock. “Did you just feel that?” She’s looking at me with wide eyes. Then she shrugs her shoulders, “Hmph, must have been the metal or something.”

“No Lizzy. For the first time in my life I am not going to be the skeptic. There is a connection between us. I don’t know why, but I know when I drove away I really did miss you.” I step closer to Lizzy.

She doesn’t move away. I put my hand up to the side of her face and feel the shock again. I lean down and softly kiss her lips. There is another shock, but one that sends chills down my entire body. I put my other hand on the other side of her face and press harder. Lizzy wraps her arms around my waist and we deepen the kiss. This is getting intense. I break away for a breath. We stare into each others eyes for a moment. Yeah, it’s time to go before I decide to never leave her. I give her a quick kiss and practically sprint for my car. Parents first, exploring this crazy connection with Lizzy later. After I pull out and u-turn, I slow to wave at her before I go back to the Crossing house. She is still standing there looking a little confused. She gives a little wave back, but no smile. Yep, I ruined it by kissing her. It was too forward especially since we just met. I just couldn’t resist anymore. For some reason it was kiss her now or never. Man, I hope she was okay with that kiss. Lizzy didn’t push away. She actually pulled me in. I’ll call her later.

When I pull into the Crossing house driveway, the gate is open. We were so freaked out when we left, we forgot to lock it. I wonder how my parents got in if the gate stays locked all of them time? The old couple must have been alive when my parents were here. Lizzy’s mom said she didn’t know anything about my parents so it couldn’t have been her. Great! That’s another thing to add to my parent’s mysterious disappearance.

I park beside the house, get out, and go to the front door. When I get up to it and insert the key I feel that chill again. Yeah, I’m a bit freaked out too, but didn’t want to look girly in front of Lizzy. I have to push through this so I open the front door and walk in. All of this may be getting to me, but there is still a feeling of being at home in this big old house. I go straight to the couch and remember that Lizzy took all of the papers with her that we found in the hidden room in the basement. There are more papers down there, but I really don’t want to go down by myself. I sit down on the couch, rub my face with my hands, and contemplate what to do. When I lean back to just relax a minute I hear a crunch. I get up and pull the seat cushion away from the couch. When I do I notice a rolled up parchment. It looks really old so I put it on the small wooden coffee table in front of the couch and carefully roll it out. It’s a sketch of the house. I haven’t been through the entire house yet so I’m not sure what or where all of the rooms are. This will help me to find my way around. I immediately check out the cellar that’s on the sketch. It shows the hidden room. Then on this floor I see the room I’m in, a couple of other rooms like this one, and a kitchen. I follow the staircase upstairs on the sketch and see about six possible bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is one room that is larger than the rest so I’m assuming it’s the master bedroom. Some of the lines have faded a bit so I’m really not sure about its accuracy. As I’m looking closer in the master room I see a fireplace, but there is another room behind the fireplace. That’s odd for the time when this house was built or maybe it wasn’t. I know very little about the time period. If my family was into trading that could have been built to keep some trades hidden. Okay, now I’m just letting my imagination get away from me. I decide it’s time to take a look at that secret room. Carefully, I roll the house sketch back up and decide it might be wise to take it with me.

I’m glad it’s still light out because I have no idea where all of the power switches and lamps are in this place. Guess I better find them soon if I plan to stay here tonight. I get to the stairs and take the first step up and it creeks as all the steps do as I go up. When I get to the top I unroll the parchment again to see where the master bedroom is. It’s to the left of the stairs. When I open the door and walk in, the room is ice cold. That’s really strange since the rest of the house is pretty warm. There is a huge, oak four poster bed in front of the fireplace. I walk over to the fireplace and look for some hidden latch, but don’t find one. So I push on the wall where the hidden room should be, but it doesn’t budge. Well now, where is my twin ghost when you need him! I walk over to the window to look at the sketch again. That’s when I notice the brick fireplace hearth. There’s one brick missing to the right of the fireplace opening. It’s the one right above the hearth. I look at the actual fireplace and the brick is there. I go over and try to pull it out, but it doesn’t budge. So I do the next logical thing and push on it. Yep that worked and now I’m officially creeped out. The fireplace opens up in the back. There is a strange suction sound as it opens, like it was sealed or something. I get on my knees to look in and get a whiff of the most horrible smell I have ever smelled. I’m not sure I want to go in there. It smells like a bunch of dead animals got trapped in there. I stand to really think this over. Maybe I should call Lizzy and let her know what I found. No, she’s busy with her own family papers. I’m about to leave the room when my twin ghost comes floating into the room and goes right through the fireplace into the secret room. Okay then, I guess I’m going in. He led me to the secret room in the cellar where Lizzy and I found this sketch among the other papers. Guess now is the time to start believing in signs, and ghosts for that matter. It’s time to crawl into the dark creepy fireplace into an unknown room. I roll the parchment back up and lay it on the bed so it doesn’t get ruined while I’m trying to crawl in. Then, I get on my hands and knees and crawl through. Ugh, the smell gets worse, but the air from the bedroom is helping to air it out a little. I don’t see any light in the other room. Now is the time I wish I had Lizzy’s handy LED light from her keychain. I’m sure there will be something in the room. When I get through the fireplace I know I can stand because the sketch showed it to be a larger room. I walk two steps and ram my thighs into a table. I feel around and come across what feels like another candelabrum like the one in the cellar. Right beside it is a box of matches. I have to say they did keep things handy in these secret rooms. I light the four candles. It illuminates the whole room. There are no windows. I look to the left and see a bunch of paintings and more old parchments. Well if this is truly my family home I will have some fun going through all of this. Guess I was right about this being a hiding room for some so-called trades. I start to turn around and notice this room was definitely sealed. Everything is very well preserved including the paintings. I do almost a full circle and notice something on the other side of the room. It’s dark on the other side so I grab the candelabrum and start to walk over. Everything illuminates. NO! I shakily drop to my knees. There are two skeletons sitting against the wall. It can’t be! Tears start flowing when I look down at their hands joined together. It’s my mother’s wedding ring. Then I look over to see my father’s wedding band and his cell phone in the same hand. They can’t be dead. No, this is not them. I refuse to believe this! I grab my cell, but see there is no signal in here. It’s time to call Lizzy and get the police out here. I turn to crawl back out. The opening is shutting.

I crawl as fast as I can, look under to the other side, and start screaming, “I’m in here! Don’t close it!”

No one hears me because there is no one on the other side. The opening fully closes, reseals, and the candles go out. I’m in the dark and will soon be just like my parents. My only hope now is Lizzy.