Chapter 5

Thursday. Just three more days until the week was over. Until the curse was lifted and we could all breathe easily again. Just three more days Kay and I had to endure before it would be over for us forever. It was horrifying. Kay became quieter every hour, which was saying something because she’s usually noisier and much more boisterous than me. I couldn’t even speak to her, to comfort her. Hour after hour I waited in dread. Waited for the next premonition.

It never came.

Kay and I could only sigh with relief when school finally ended and everyone trooped out of class. Happy. Safe. Alive. It was a feeling that only lasted for seconds. Because we knew that something was going to happen, whether or not it was in school or out of it. I could feel it in my rapidly beating heart, could feel it moving through my veins throughout my entire body. It was almost like my heart was the cause of all this. How I wished it was that easy to stop it with just one stab.

Kay and I debated whether to go home or to go to Jessel’s, the most popular ice-cream parlor in the suburb. Every kid has been to Jessel’s at least once in their live. Kay finally convinced me to go to Jessel’s by reminding that if something was going to happen, at least it wouldn’t be among anyone in our own homes. A selfish thought, you might think, but we were trying to save lives here. As we were entering the parlor, I stopped. I felt Kay stop too.

It was finally here.

The scene around my eyes dissolved around me as a girl and boy came into view. They were sitting by the window, sharing a sundae and looking thoroughly happy. They were even laughing. And then Kay and I appeared in the picture, telling them something. The girl was laughing. Then a horrifyingly loud sound of glass shattering broke the muffled silence of the scene. A car ploughed through the glass and…

I blinked. It was perfectly normal. I was a normal teenage girl standing in the doorway of the ice cream parlor, causing a short, angry line behind me and my best friend pulling me into the shop. I wish. I knew I wasn’t normal. Not anymore.

“What did you see?” hissed Kay, hauling me into the crowded parlor.

“T-there was a girl… and a boy… they were sitting there, right there,” I pointed. “And we were telling them something, only I think they weren’t listening. T-then a… a c-car… the glass…” I stuttered to a stop. I couldn’t stop shaking and my voice had gone unnaturally high again.

“That’s Chloe Fern and Thomas Jansen…” Kay muttered. She grabbed my arm. “Come on, we have to warn them.” She marched to the booth next to the window. A boy and a girl were sitting there, and I suddenly realized who they were. They were exactly who Kay had said they were, and they were seniors at our school. I held back a bit behind Kay. Chloe could be really mean sometimes. But she looked in a good mood just then.

“Umm.. can you both move please? We.. er… reserved this booth,” said Kay, making up a story on the spot. I nearly slapped my forehead in disbelief. Kay and I and practically everyone knew that parlor’s didn’t reserve booths for people. It was probably the worst lie I’d ever hear in my life. Chloe laughed and tossed her hair behind her back.

“Don’t be silly, junior. Everyone knows that you can’t reserve booths here,” she glanced around the jam-packed ice cream parlor. “Nor any other ice cream parlor in this city. And this booth didn’t even have a reserve sign on it when we came.” She laughed again. Thomas laughed with her. Kay turned around suddenly, her face looking twisted. I could practically hear her brain whirring as she though f some other story. Suddenly, her face changed. It became blank, like she was there, but she wasn’t there. She whirled around, her face white and her eyes open wide.

“Get down!” she yelled, and suddenly pushed me down onto the floor, making me lie on my stomach. Half a second later, there was the most heart-rending scream that I will always remember. One second later, there was that same horrifying sound of shattering glass. I shielded my head as glass rained down on my body. A movement next to me told me that Kay was doing the same. There was silence. It was over. Gingerly, I released my hands from my head and slowly raised my head.

Just inches from my face was the bumper of a car. I screamed and backed away quickly, my hands and sneakers crunching on the glass. I looked at my hands as I stood up, shaking. They were covered in blood. Still warm blood. Chloe and Thomas were crushed underneath the car. Crushed so badly you couldn’t even see them. I turned away and saw myself in the mirror on the other side of the room. I was splattered in blood. It looked like I had been murdered myself.

Chapter 4

2 deaths in 3 days. Will one person die each day? Or worse, even more? Myra had cried buckets when she found out. Her nose wasn't properly healed yet, so for a while she actually couldn't breathe. Eliza was even worse. She wne totally crazy, she was in hysterics. All Kay and I could do was offer her some words of comfort that I don't think she even heard, but at least we tried to do something. After all, Amanda was her best friend. What else could you do when you found out that your best friend was dead? Worse of all, Eliza was probably looking at the person who had killed her. Me.

Amanda was covered in blood when we found it safe enough to run to the middle of the road to get her. Her grey eyes, which appeared to be silver when she was alive, were just an ordinary dull grey. They was no life left in them, totally devoid of sparkle. Her mouth was frozen in that last scream, and blood trickled from it. There was lots of blood. By then I'd goten so used to it I didn't care. I cuddled Amanda's lifeless body to close while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. In 5 minutes even I was covered in blood and I couldn't speak. There was a humunguos lump in my throat that wouldn't go away no matter how many times I swallowed.

Kay and I went into the ambulance with Amanda's body, even though we knew that there was nothing that could be done to save her. Kay had her arm around me, and the paramedics gave us blankets, but I was still shaking uncontrollably with the thought that I was the one who had actually killed Amanda. When we finally got to the hospital and Amanda was wheeled away, I couldn't contain it any longer and burst into tears. Kay eventually broke down too. Nurses comforted us (though they didn't have much effect on me) and sent us home.

School was subdued. We had a moment of silence for Lisa and Amanda, and for once everyone was silent, which would be pretty hard on a normal day. Eliza and what was left of her gang were inconsolable, and even the boys weren't their usual boisterous, annoying selves. 2 people were already dead. Would they be next? One of them, Ivan Lee, tried to cheer up Kay and I. On usual days it would just annoy us, but today we just couldn't bring ourselves to tell him to bugger off. Kay and I were doomed, and there was nothing to stop it. And I knew because when I read that book again yesterday, I found a chapter titled "Catastrophe Week".

I scanned the years in that chapter until I came to 2007. And there it was. The week after the first day of April. That was the week when all this started happening. I seriously want to know what kind of book was this. When did all this even begin? I started flipping through the pages, looking for the very first date in the book. I flipped backwards for about 20 pages before finally finding the beginning of it. 1239. 768 years ago. And that was when I knew.

It was book alright. A book of the dead.

Remembering back to our history class in the beginning of the year, the year 1239 sounded very, very familiar. But there was nothing that hit me so hard as the line burned in my head from my history textbook. Witchcraft, the most infamous form of heretics in America. Nobody knows when witchcraft first came about, but sources have pointed to the Institution being formed in 1239 to hunt down these supposed "witches."

It seemed that only Kay and I could see this book, because we had witnessed Lisa dying during the week. That was why Ms Stone couldn't see it. And in one of the chapters it said "Whoever reads this book suring the Catastrophe Week will be bestowed one of the gifts listed in this book."

I was given the gift of premonition. It wasn't a gift. It was a curse.

Chapter 3

I won't mention what was exactly in the book, but it was definitely intriguing. The moment you opened it, the moment you set eyes on the first page, it sucked you in. You couldn't get out of it. You were stuck to the story, your whole mind focusing on it until you forgot everything that was going on around you.

'Excuse me girls, but the library is about to close, and I'm definitely not leaving you two in here alone!' a sharp voice screeched in my ear. I jumped and looked up. Ms Stone, the batty old librarian, was bending over me, her grey hair pulled back into a severe bun, her old reading glasses dangling precariously off her sharp nose, an annoyed expression on her face.

'Sorry. Uh... we'd like to borrow some books,' said Kay, gesturing vaguely. She got up slowly and Ms Stone clicked her tongue impatiently. Mad old bag. Kay gathered up the encyclos and books and Ms Stone headed off to the counter.

'Should we take it?' I whispered, picking up the leather bound book. Kay thought for a moment, then nodded. I stacked it on top of the stack of other books and we made our way after Ms Stone. She seperated all the books and stamped them like she was trying to stamp the life out of them. She re-stacked all the books and placed them in front of us, but she'd seemed to miss out the leather-bound one.

'Uh, Ms Stone, you forgot a book,' I said, pointing to it. Her eyes followed my finger and she frowned.

'Don't be silly, there's nothing there. I'm not in the mood for your foolish young pranks. Now, do you have anymore books or not?' she answered crossly.

I threw a curious look at Kay. She shrugged. We shook our heads and picked up all the heavy books, including the leather bound one. As we walked out into the sunlight, I fished it out of the pile, nearly causing a mini-book earthquake.

'Don't you think its' weird that Ms Stone couldn't see this?' I asked Kay while she struggled to gain control of her steadily wobbling pile. After getting it secure, she nodded. Then she shurgged. 'Maybe she needs new glasses,' she suggested, and laughed. We were about to cross the road when I grabbed Kay's arm. She turned to look at me. 'What? You need glasses too?' she asked.

I wasn't listening. Something was happening. The air around me was shivering slightly, like it was unstable. Then I saw it. I saw us, standing right where we were standing and there was a fast approaching car. And then a firl stood across the road. Her features were blurred, but I recognised her hair. Amanda. She saw me and ran. There was screech of tyres and I shut my eyes quickly, hardly daring to scream outright.

"Vick! What's up?' I heard Kay calling me. She sounded so far away. Gingerly, I opened my eyes. There was nothing in front of us. No car. No Amanda. I stared in amazement. Seriously, what had just happened? Kay shook me. 'You're all cold and shaky, Vick. You went all rigid and you were staring into space. What happened?'

'I... I would really like to know myself,' I replied shakily. "I-I saw Amanda... she was right in front of us, I swear. A-and there was a c-car....' my voice became unnturally high. Kay was staring at me like I'd gone mad. Then a look of agony crossed her face and she shut her eyes.

'Remember what we read? When something like this happens...' Kay took a deep breath. 'I think you've had a premonition.' Now it was my turn to stare blankly at her. Premonition. I read it in the book. Premonitions were never good news. They usually had something to do with death. Nobody could escape it once you'd had a premonition. But... why was I suddenly having them?

I saw a patch of black in the corner of my eye. No. It couldn't be. I wish to God that I was just dreaming. But I knew I wasn't. Amanda Jones stood directly across the road from us. 'Vicky!' she yelled happily, and started crossing the road to us. Kay and I dropped all the books and started flapping our hands at her, trying to make her go back. She stopped in the middle of the road, looking confused. She started backing away slowly.

I tried to make her go faster. 'Amanda! Go back! Qui-' My words were drowned by a screech of tyres. Amanda screamed. "Vickyyyyy.....!' I heard. It was the last thing we ever heard from her.

And to this day, I can still hear her voice screaming my name.

Chapter 2

It was Kay who was the first to know that Lisa was dead. She wasn't breathing and she had no pulse. The dark puddle under her head? Blood. It's still there. They've been scrubbing at it for days, but it's not going to be gone anytime soon. It's serving as a reminder of what happened to Lisa. Whenever I look at it I feel sick to my stomach.

Everyone only found out about it on the next day, Tuesday. That was when a police car came to school. We all heard the siren. We all ran to the windows to peek out. Kay and I fought for a place between all the people, just in time to see Brett Mason get arrested and taken by the police. His face was as white as sheet. He looked as pale as Lisa had been when he killed her.

Then the next bad thing happened.

Kay and I were played with Amanda and her gang again because we wanted to try and get Lisa's image out of our heads. We tossed the ball around and for a while I actually managed to forget about seeing Lisa. Eliza Watford caught the ball and threw it to the next person. Too quickly. It hit Myra Simms hard in the face.

There was a sickening crack and Myra fell backwards, holding her hands to her face. It didn't stop the river of blood that was now streaming down her nose, though. Kay and I wasted no time staring and screaming, we ran to her and picked her up and half-carried her to Mr Keene, who was on yard duty. All he had to do was take one look at her before hoisting her up and carrying her to the school nurse.

We didn't see her for days after that. Not in school anyway. Her nose was so badly broken she found it hard to even breath. Now she's got a lump on her nose (obviously) and she's got the worse sinus in the world. She's pretty down because she really liked her nose. But she's alright now. She's had worse things happen to her.

*

It was on Wednesday when we found out what was really going on. What the sick and twisted things really meant. Nothing had gone wrong in school -thank goodness- and Kay and I were so relieved when we finally managed to get through the gates. But when we got to the public library, that was when we got to the bottom of all of it.

We were actually doing research for History and I was browsing the shelves for anything on Romans And How They Lived. And that's when I found it.

I was pulling out one of the big, fat encyclopedias that looks promisingly boring when this small book fell out of the shelf. I hadn't even noticed it before, probably because it was squashed on to a shelf full of huge fat bursting-to-the-seams-with-useless-information books. I picked up the small book and juggled the encyclopedia in my other hand. The book was hard-covered and bound in leather, with a gold spine. It didn't have a title. It had this sort of curly pattern on the front, done in black. I satred at it for a while, then took it with the encyclopedia back to where Kay was sitting.

'What's that?' whispered Kay when I plonked the encyclopedia down on the table and sat down next to her with the book in my hand.
'No idea,' I whispered back. 'I found it on the encyclo shelf. Thought it looked interesting.' I opened it and we started to read.

Chapter 1

It wasn't the best experience to have in the world. In fact, I wish it had never happened at all, had never heard of it ever. But things like this can't be reversed. It's fate, I guess. But this was not the fate that i would have chosen for myself if I had a choice. Re-living it like this isn't exactly the best thing in the world. But I have to let you know. You have to know the horror that really lives on this Earth.

It was a pretty bad day, the day it happened. It all started in school when Kay and I were talking during recess. Talking during recess is definitely not forbidden, and it never should be. But it was pretty bad when a prefect told us off for apparently "talking too loud."

Kay was furious. The playground was so noisy, with kids playing basketball and younger students running around screaming, it was almost impossible for someone to hear just us talking. The playground was practically a zoo! But it was only Kay and I who got told off. I knew why. That prefect was Lisa Young, one of the few loners in our school. Okay, probably the only loner in the entire school. Lisa just moved to Redstone High around last year. And now she's a prefect. She's a real brain, that one.

Anyway, after Kay had sworn and cursed under her breath and Lisa had stalked away, one of the younger girls, Amanda Jones, came up to us to ask if we wanted to play netball with them. 'We're just short of two players. Please Kay! Vicky? Come on,' pleaded Amanda. Kay and I glanced at each other. I'm not great with netball and Kay only loves football but we figured we'd give it a go. Just to be nice. Amanda smiled.

'Great!' she exclaimed, and ran back to the other Year 8's. It was okay, I guess, I was the goal-shooter, seeing as I was the tallest one there. That's me, long and gangly. Kay is a bit shorter and she's got this really nice figure. Me, I'm not even thin. I'm a I twig. Kay knows I hate having no figure so she says I'm just nice as I am. Long and gangly. That's what best friends do.

The bell rang and we all trooped back to class. Except for Kay and I.

Lisa was striding across the playground tos some of the older boys who were still playing football. I think she was telling them to leave because I saw one of the boys start laughing. Then the other boys swarmed around her. One of the boys, Brett Mason, started yelling at the top of voice. Lisa disappeared behind the circle of boys. I saw movement in the gang and I thought I heard someone screaming. I couldn't hear though all the jeering and yells. After a couple of seconds, the boys swaggered off, laughing and spitting. I looked for Lisa but I couldn't see her.

What I did see, however, was a small pale figure lying scrunched up on the ground. Kay and I looked at each other in horror and ran to the middle of the playground.

Lisa's flaming red hair was spread around her like a fiery red mane. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly open. A trickle of blood was slowly dripping from it. Then I realised that there was a dark patch seeping out from under her. I felt sick. Kay was hurriedly feeling Lisa's pulse and opening her eyes.

'Vicky... I need you to get a teacher for me. Any teacher. Just be quick,' said Kay softly, her eys not quite meeting mine. I could see from her terrified gaze that there was something very wrong with Lisa. I got up and sprinted off to the main building.

*

A little later, Kay and I watche Lisa Young's limp body being placed on a stretcher and put into an ambulance. Or maybe she was already dead. I don't know anymore. My head was spinning so bad I felt like I'd just been on a merry-go-round for 20 rounds. I clung to Kay for support.

I had rushed into the building and almost immediatly crashed into Mr Gunther. Thank goodness he's one of the younger, fitter teachers around, or we wouldn't have gotten back to Lisa in time. I don't remember much after that. Maybe I told him what happened and we ran out together. Or maybe I told him what happened and he ran out without me. It's all one big blur now. All I remember is somebody - I can't remember who - putting their arm around me and telling me that everything was going to be alright.

But everything wasn't alright.

People wanted to admit it. But kids had been whispering about it in school for weeks after that. Whispering about Kay and I. And Lisa Young. But she wasn't there to hear all of it.

Lisa young was dead. She was never coming back.