8 o’ clock in the morning was a more sufficient time to wake up. Becca was surprised she had fallen back to sleep. Not wanting to throw up or collapse every few minutes was something she had been wishing for, for a long time, and it felt nice.
“Carry on the writing where you left off. Corpus needs your help, remember?”
“No!” She kicked the book off of the coffee table. “I have more important things to do now.”
Sam was halfway downstairs, and this time, wasn’t stopped. He looked at the book on the floor. “You found it?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It was…in the garden.”
“Great! Shame, because it’s a great day today.”
Becca smiled at the blue sky outside the window. It was a long time since she had seen summery weather, but it was good to know it had returned. “You can wash your car. It looks terrible. I’ll help.”
“Thought you were gonna write in your book, but ok.” He shrugged and walked out into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Becca ran to fetch a fleece and stepped outside, pacing around the front garden in circles, the top of her hood sheltering her from the beaming sun.
“Quinn?” She immediately recognised the boy walking up to the front gate. He stopped at the end of the garden, just waiting.
Eventually, she walked over to him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You haven’t started writing again.” he tried to sit on the fence, but nearly fell off.
“Why should you care about communicating with some dead person? You haven’t lost your powers, so it doesn’t matter!”
“You need to start writing again.” He turned, and walked off again.
As soon as she got back inside, Becca picked up the book, and threw it into the recycling bin, wiping her hands afterwards.
Finally. She gave a sigh of relief, and walked back into the house to call Sam.
She stopped walking as soon as she was back in the living room, her eyes focused on the carpet. The book had managed to appear again, exactly where it was before, exactly how it was before.
Whatever Sam had said as he walked past, was just a blur of noise behind her. She had to get rid of that book now. The second attempt to throw it in the bin failed. The book did exactly the same thing.
“Fine.” Becca ran into the kitchen to fetch a match, and then knelt by the fireplace. There was already some newspaper in the remains of the fire from last night, but she threw in some more to make sure. She threw in the lit match, and picked up the book, ready to throw it in, but the book dropped out of her hands. She tried to pick it up again, but the book was blisteringly hot. It was impossible to even touch it, never mind pick it up.
“Quinn…?”
At the mention of his name, a smiling figure sharply swung down from the window, hanging like upside down, like a bat.
***
“Quinn, what the hell…?” Becca looked down at the book, which had now returned to its normal temperature.
Quinn pointed to the book, and it lifted up. It stopped above the fireplace for a second, and then fell into the flames.
Becca instantly felt a burning sensation at her feet. It quickly spread around her until the pain became unbearable. She flinched, about to scream, but as soon as she was about to, the pain fled back down to her feet until she couldn’t feel anything at all. Her eyes opened again, and the first thing she noticed was the book, which was sitting back on the carpet.
“That book is important. You destroy the book, it destroys you.” Quinn slipped through the open window. “Understood?”
She frowned. “Yeah, but that is a bit harsh.”
“When you finish it, I’ll let go of the curse, ok?”
Becca stood up and walked past Quinn, and outside to meet her brother. Sam threw her a sponge. “You’re late.”
“Yeah sorry.”
He was expecting a reason, but gave up and continued scrubbing the tyres. Eventually, she gave up and blurted. “Sam, there’s a stranger inside our house.”
“What?”
“There’s a stranger in the living room.”
He dropped the sponge and walked inside the house. Only a few minutes later, he walked back out again. “No there isn’t.”
Becca dropped the sponge and walked back inside. Quinn was sitting on the sofa, about to open a Twix.
“You didn’t trick my brother again, did you?”
He shook his head. “Nope. He didn’t see me.”
“Whoa! You’re invisible now?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, why not go and be invisible outside?”
“Better get writing.” He called as walked past her.
