Jess, a beautiful teenage girl, finds herself in inexplicable troubles. She sleepwalks to the woods. When she's alone the world around her changes. Darkness reaches out to her.
And she's not the only one in trouble. All around her town peculiar thi...
Steve lied wide awake on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He was feeling sick. Restless.
It's weird, if you think like that. He remembered saying it to Ellie, and her friend Jess. But since he had thought like that once, he couldn't stop thinking about it. It was like a photo, hidden in a pattern. Once you saw it, you just can't unsee it.
I should call Ellie, he thought, then decided against it. He doesn't want to burden anyone else with the weight of his thoughts. But what if it's true, his mind asked him. But what can she or anyone do about it? Do I even know that it's the truth? He replied to his mind.
He jumped up and went to his window.
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In the middle of the street, he saw a few cats running downhill. Then, he saw Jamie's garden, and that squeezed his heart painfully. It hurt, but not a lot. He had witnessed enough deaths that its horror somehow feels bearable now. Or so he thinks.
His Dad died when he was eight. His big brother Adam died when he was twelve. One year after Adam's death, his grandfather died.
Last week, his grandma died.
It's weird, if you think like that, he thought again. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop his mind.
There was a pattern. There was a picture. He just couldn't yet see it.
Eighteen people died in the first week of this month. Then last week, four old people died on the same night, and all of them passed in their sleep. Then last night, those kids...
And today...Anthony.
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While crying on her pillow, Jess slipped into sleep, and therefore...into the darkness.
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In the nursing station, Anthony lied still on the bed. His mother was asleep on a chair by the bed. The doctor had said he just unconscious, there's nothing to worry about. But nothing can comfort her heart until her boy opens his eyes, all good and fine.
The doctor wasn'tsure how he drifted into such unconsciousness, but what the doctor was sure ofwas that if didn't awaken in a day...then he's in coma.
