• Chapter Two:
    A nightmare to remember

    The sky is black, pitch black. No one is in sight at all. I look all around me. Coldness calls to me. “Come, come into the dark. Let yourself leave, and I’ll take care of the rest.” It whispers, deathly and quiet to me. I shake my head as hard as I can, screaming. “NO! NO! I DON’T WANT TO!” Then suddenly, a skinny, long, frail, and gray hand comes out from the dark, and grabs my neck. It strangles me, and I fight to get it off. I scream more, and then a face comes out of the darkness. It’s not the face of evil, but it’s not the face of good either. It’s….. Alice?
    “Wake UP! Susanna, wake UP!”
    I sit up, looking around me. It’s morning, and I’m at Alice’s house. Alice is shaking me, trying to get me up. Then she realizes I’m awake, and stops.
    “My god, what happened?” she asked.
    I try to speak, and then realize I can’t. I panic, and touch my neck. I remember that I can speak to her in my mind, and talk to her hurriedly.
    Oh, god. Oh, god! I can’t talk! Alice, help me. HELP! I scream in my head.
    “What? Are you serious?” then, her face got blank. She pulled down the blanket gently, and gasped.
    “Susanna! SUSANNA!” she yelled, scared.
    What? What’s going on?!
    “Your neck! Someone cut it! Blood’s coming out!” she yelled.
    I stood up and looked in her full body mirror that was on her door. I couldn’t speak, but I could make a weird screaming sound at least. She was right. Some one had cut my neck jaggedly, and blood was trickling down.
    We both didn’t know what to do, because it was 7am and no one was up. But we both had a feeling that this should stay a secret between us only. So, we rinsed some of it out and put gauze around it. Then, to hide it from our parents/grandma, we wrapped a scarf around my head that hid it perfectly.
    “What HAPPENED? Okay, Susanna, try talking.” Alice asked.
    I tried, but all I could get out was a soft “ello” which was part of “Hello”.
    “Uh, good enough. Just keep trying.” She said.
    We both then had a little bit of breakfast, trying to swallow down my cut neck.
    “Wasn’t movin’ during the night, was I?” I asked, quietly because it was still hard to speak.
    “No, you weren’t.” she answered simply.
    We just sat there for a while, and then decided to go outside to get some air. I brought my laptop out, and sat on the steps while Alice hung out with some other girls and boys.
    I booted it up, and my laptop immediately got an IM from my Yahoo account.
    I stared at it – the user wasn’t anybody I knew. I decided to read the message. It read:

    Death: Hello, Susanna.

    Death? Who the heck chooses a username like “Death”? I thought about answering, and then knew my username would hide my name. Then it hit me – did he say, “Susanna”?
    I responded.

    Violinist: How do you know my name?
    Death: I know all names.

    Now, I was a little afraid. But I still needed to get him out of my face, so I would have to respond or he would keep bugging me.

    Death: I see you got my little surprise on your neck.
    Violinist: What? That was you?
    Death: Of course – who could you have thought it was?
    Violinist: What do you want from me?
    Death: That little “plain” wooden horse in your grandfather’s attic. He wouldn’t give it to me, ignorant child. That’s why I killed him.
    Violinist: Yeah, right! How could you kill him? I didn’t see anybody kill him when that happened. Anyway, what’s so special about it?
    Death: IGNORANT CHILD, I repeat. That little wooden horse holds pure black magic and it’s perfect power for me. Now, you better get that wooden horse, or your grandfather’s life span will be no more. You have 20 minutes.

    After that, “Death” had signed out. Black magic, I heard about it in school I think but I never took the time to really pay attention to it. But now was a good as time as ever. I typed in www.google.com for the address and typed in Black Magic: Definition. After that, a few listings came up. I clicked on the listing from Answers.com and it read:

    black magic n. Magic practiced for evil purposes or in league with supposed evil spirits

    Now, this was serious. Maybe it was one of those bad people who practiced witchcraft and voodoo stuff that had spoken to me on the internet! That would also explain the “Death” for a username. So, what did he say again? Luckily, I hadn’t closed the IM he sent me, so I read the last message. Ignorant child, blah blah. Oh! I have 20 minutes to get the little wooden horse, or Grandpa’s life span would be no more. What?! Does that mean that Grandpa’s not dead yet? But whoever this “Death” person is will kill him! I shut down my laptop, and walked, well not really walked but scurried over to Alice, who was talking to some boys. I told her in my mind everything that happened, and her eyes widened at the perfect time. I liked that we both knew each other so well.
    “So, you want backup?” she asked as we walked away from the group of boys who were doing something with Coca Cola and Mentos. That would be pretty messy.
    “Exactly. But I think I can go in the attic alone. Just remember – if you hear a scream or whatever, come up to the attic.” I replied. We were running over to Grandma’s house right now. I knocked on the door, and the creepiest thing happened. It opened by itself without me touching it! Alice and I looked at each other, and shivered. This might be something that I’ll regret.