Anna and the Dark Place

Anna cannot escape death. It follows her everywhere. First with her aunt, then her father, and now her best friend Katie has died after a long battle with cancer.

Samantha followed me out of class and down the hall. I turned to her, trying not to reveal the venom I felt for her.

She’d better not be lying to me. She’d better not be lying to me. She’d better not be lying to me.

My eyes ping-ponged between Samantha and Katie. I hoped that Samantha didn’t notice, but her eyes went wide, and I could see that she noticed me looking at Katie.

The butcher turned away from his meat slicer toward the counter. He had a hair net holding his long beard like a bib, and thick glasses that made his eyes beady and dark.

The instructions Hilda gave us said that we needed thistle, barley, chicken broth, eggs, and newt eyes.

It was well after dawn by the time I returned back home. I parked Samantha’s car around the block and walked to my house.

Mom’s car was not in the driveway when I got home, which meant she wasn’t home from work yet. I left the car just how I’d found it in the driveway then snuck back into the house.

The old woman’s house was smaller on the inside than it had been on the outside, which I didn’t think was possible.

The woman smiled at Katie, revealing her sharp teeth once again.

I gave Mom one more long hug then walked across the bleachers to where Samantha was talking to her mother.