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.