Calli and I sat outside on a little memorial bench. I think it was dedicated to some kid from way back. John Something. Not that it really mattered.

  “She’s so weird,” I muttered.

  Calli nodded, “But at least she gave us some answers.”

  “We hope.” I half expected the paper to just say “YOU JUST GOT PRANKED!” And then we’d walk into Ms. Blem’s class tomorrow and she’d laugh at us and say we were the dumbest most gullible students in the whole world.

  Actually though, it looked as if Ms. Blem had written A LOT. Calli scanned the first page and paused. “What in the world?”

  “What?” I asked and Calli handed me the papers. She read over my shoulder with me.

  Ms. Blem’s Letter

  ‘There is something in my brain. I am afraid to be explicit, or I will be killed from the inside.

  Bad things happen to Lost children in this town. They never come back.

  A girl named A.S. went missing in 1987. She was found three days later.

  A boy named C.G. went missing in 1987. He took A.S. away. He never gave her back to the world. He sent a shadow back in her place. Why search for someone who is not lost?

  Bad things happen to Lost children in this town. They die.

  Your sister, H.A., is in a bad place. An other worldly place. It is best not to search that range. Neither you nor the police will ever find her because she is probably already dead. Fallen victim to the devil himself.

  I am ashamed of my cowardice up to this point. I should’ve told you sooner. All the best to you. -A.S. Shadow’

  I dropped the paper onto my lap.

  “What do you think it means?” Calli asked. Her voice was all trembly, like she was taking this seriously.

  I let out a slow breath as I looked at the empty parking lot in front of us. A dried-up leaf scraped slowly across the asphalt. Pine trees swayed in the distance. Everything seemed normal. And of course it did. Because this was real life, not some stupid fantasy like Ms. Blem was claiming. Did she really think I was going to believe this crap? It was a sick joke. Utterly sick. It made me want to throw up thinking there was someone who could even dream of pulling a prank like that.

  “She’s lying.”

  Calli nodded. “This is so cruel.”

  I breathed easier hearing her agree with me. What had Ms. Blem thought she’d get out of writing this crap and giving it to me? It was so stupid and so mean that it made me want to cry.

  I stood up, grabbing the paper so hard that it crumpled in my hand. “We need to go talk to her.”

  “What? But she said we couldn’t go back.”

  “She also said-” I uncrumpled the paper and squinted at it. “That Hannah fell victim to the Devil himself. She’s not exactly a credible source.”

  Calli stood too. “You’re right.”

  Together we walked back into school. It was still open for various after school clubs and tutoring options. A few kids milled about in the halls. Most of them waved at me or tried to talk to me but I couldn’t be bothered with that kind of thing. Calli was talking enough for us both thankfully.

  “Yo Calli!”

  I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. Calli’s man, Austin. I wasn’t exactly in the mood for him right then, but Calli stopped and waited for him, so I did too.

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  He ambled over to us as slow as humanly possible. I don’t think he’d ever hurried for anything in his life. I tapped my foot impatiently. We needed to confront Ms. Blem ASAP. What if she was already leaving? I wanted to rip the letter to shreds in front of her and then maybe knock her teeth out.

  “Where y’all headed?” He asked when he reached us. He nodded at me as ways of hello, his blonde curls bouncing with the movement. I sighed.

  “Oh, just Ms. Blem’s class. We have some questions about... an assignment,” Calli said.

  “Oh word,” Austin flashed his braces. “I’ll come with. I ain’t got nowhere to be.”

  I bet, I thought.

  “I can take that,” Austin gestured at Calli’s backpack. She handed it to him, and he awkwardly situated it on his stomach since his own was on his back already. “Yo Cara, I can hold yours too.”

  “That’s okay. Thanks,” I said. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.

  We began walking to the English side of the building.

  “Austin, I didn’t know you stayed after school,” Calli said.

  “Naw, I usually don’t. But my guidance counselor is making me take after school tutoring.”

  “For what subject?” Calli asked.

  “All of ‘em.” Austin shifted the backpack straps on his shoulders. “I asked Paige to pick me up early though. Said I’d pay her.”

  I’m not exactly sure how Calli and Austin work as a couple. She calls me every other day to complain about him and he never really seems to care about things. Like school. I think he could be smart if he tried but I don’t think he’s ever tried at anything in his life.

  Thanks to Austin, the walk to Ms. Blem’s room was slow. Austin took the time to admire the half-assed Halloween decorations on like every single door. “Sweet, look at that lil black blob thing! Creepy huh,” “Those are bats,” “Oh, word”. Then he had to retie his shoes and then he wanted to stop and change his playlist and then he asked if we could wait for him while he went to the bathroom.

  Really, Benjamin Middle isn’t a big school by any means, but it took us ten minutes to get from the front of the building to Ms. Blem’s door. I was worried that by the time we got there, my anger would be all gone and I’d just bust out crying in front of Ms. Blem, which would’ve been totally unacceptable. If I’d had my way, I would’ve left Austin while he was peeing and sprinted to Ms. Blem but nooo Calli said that’d be rude. Ugh.

  When we finally did get to our destination, we instructed Austin to wait outside the door while we went in.

  “That’s chill. I don’t wanna talk to Ms. Blem anyway. She’s weird.”

  Fair enough. Calli gave me a look, and I nodded then she opened the door, and we slipped inside the monster’s den.

  “Hey, Ms. Blem I’m-. Ms. Blem?” I ran over to her desk.

  “Oh my God!”

  “Nononono.” There was a power cord tied around Ms. Blem’s neck. Tight. She wasn’t moving.

  “What do we do?” I whispered.

  “I’m calling 9-1-1.”

  I barely heard her. I fell against Ms. Blem’s desk. How could this happen? Ms. Blem, the one time I actually wanted to talk to you. I dropped my chin to my chest and started crying. I was crying over Ms. Blem. Unbelievable.

  “Yo! Y’all was taking too long, and my shoulders were getting tired. Hey Ms. Blem. Ms. Blem?!?” Austin screamed at the top of his lungs, voice cracks and all. “Holy shit, is she dead?”

  The cops came. Us three were ushered out of the room. Our parents came, well not Austin’s. But his big sister Paige was there. And Calli tried saying something to me, but I couldn’t think straight. And my parents tried to talk to me on the ride home, but nothing made sense. All I felt was tired. Tired to the bone. I wanted to crash into bed and thankfully my parents let.

  But I couldn’t go to sleep. I couldn’t stop seeing Ms. Blem even with my eyes closed. Her neck, bulging around the cord. Her eyes popping out her head. Her skin, a little purple. It was straight up revolting.

  I got up and stumbled into the bathroom. And I leaned over the toilet, like mom used to make me do when I was sick with a tummy ache. But nothing came up. I felt like crying just to cry but I was spent. All my tears were used up.

  Mom came up. Dad followed. The awkwardness from that morning had vanished. Mom sat on the edge of my bed and held my hand, and Dad paced and talked to me about death. I heard him say something about suicide but that wasn’t quite right was it.

  Murder.

  What had the letter said? Something about being killed from the inside. Spies inside her brain? The devil himself? I wanted to pull the letter out and decipher it. I hadn’t showed it to the police; I wasn’t sure what they would’ve done with it. And also, I could hardly wrap my head around it.

  Supposedly, Ms. Blem wasn’t supposed to tell whatever she told us, or else she’d be killed. Sure enough, she’d died. Did that mean I was somehow responsible for her death? The question hit me like a sledgehammer to the stomach. I tried to push the thought away with logic, but I’ve never been a logistical person. My actions had led directly to her dying. My fault it was all my fault. Not truly. Not logically. But in all the other ways that really mattered, it was.

  I didn’t dare voice such thoughts to my parents. I said all the right things and nodded at all the right moments and finally they left my room. Our daughter’s so mature. She’s handling this so well. She’s so strong.

  They were wrong.

  I could feel the restlessness bubbling up inside of me. What was there to do now?

  But it was obvious, wasn’t it?