Cary looked through her living room window in horror as she watched police cars with blaring sirens and flashing red lights that surrounded the house next door. Helicopter beams flooded the grounds where SWAT teams swarmed like ants. Everybody on the block stood outside looking on as the police brought two black body bags outside. They watched with bulging eyes as the men dragged the sacks down the sidewalk.

Cary, a petite, dark-haired eighteen year old anxiously pushed her way through the crowd. She screamed and cried as she tried to find out what had happened.

I was around seventeen when my old friend Will Bagley approached me with a special invitation. "Hey Rob," he said with his usual exuberance, "You know that old forest up the road, right? Black...Black..."

Now Will knew full well how interested I was in the forest, and there was no way he had forgotten the name of the place.Regardless, I decided to humor him.

"You mean Blackmoon?" I said.

"Yeah! That place!" Will said, snapping his fingers as he was supposedly reminded of the name, "Well, we all know that our parents don't want us going near that place, they say it's cursed. But since we're in the rebellious stage of our lives, what better way to rebel than to partake in that which Mommy and Daddy don't want us to do?" he said smiling, "if you catch my drift."

To: MaryAnn
In Honor of your 10th WDC Birthday/Anniversary
The WDC Power Reviewers
Writing.com, U.S.A.

Dear Mary Ann,

I just received a visitor at my front door, and there seems to be a dreadful mistake. It appears that I have received your anniversary present. Before you panic, I live near Washington, D.C., and it won't take more than an hour to reach you. However, your gift includes a personal delivery boy dressed as a zombie, holding a gift box, bearing a poem.

"I'm supposed to be at work.." Francis's first thought. "Not where am I?" or screaming for help. He lifted his forehead from against the cold iron wall of the drainage pipe and craned back to look up. Twenty feet above a series of grey bars of night sky. Rainwater splashed his face and ran into the water around his knees.

Jack had a lot on his mind these days; it seemed he was always preoccupied with something. The Lab was busy and stressful as they were always way too close to having their budget cut. Archeology doesn't garner the same respect and patience as it used to. Jack's team had just brought back some pottery fragments and an odd stone cube from a recent dig in New Guinea and they were excited to start cataloging them.

The drive to work was a normal one; traffic and rain, never a good combination. He listened to Nirvana on the radio as he pulled into the museum parking lot. The Museum of Natural History was a huge series of buildings, most impressive were the underground labs and storage facilities. Jack grabbed his satchel and coffee cup and walked from his car to the employee entrance of the main building.

It is two in the morning and a blur of lights pierce the dark of the night. They seem to be miles away, beacons of distress, but in reality, I know they are close. They meld into fuzzy shapes as I stand and watch. As I stare, the lights scream closer, gaining on me. I feel nothing as they bear down. The hulk of dark metal that follows a crashing mammoth of death. I know I should feel terror, fear for my life, but instead I feel nothing. The alcohol I have consumed dulls my senses. Obliterates them, in fact.

A brief thought of my night flashes through my mind. Enjoying drinks out in town with the guys. Having a laugh. The shots bought for me. A lads night out.

October 1997

"I always wanted you to be with a "good man". I just wanted the best for you. The neighbor is looking for a roommate. Please just go with him, so you are living nearby and I know you are safe. Please Leila, I can't go rescue you out of anymore foreign countries."

"He is rich too," my step-father added.

It had taken me an hour to drive from the county Tax Assessors office. I had planned on saying hello and going out of state to work, as the property I intended to buy at the tax assessors office had just sold prior to my arrival. I had no idea that this decision would effect the rest of my life.

Celeste opened her eyes and turned to look at him. When had she ever felt this for anyone? As if on cue John smiled and sighed, softly rustling the blankets as he turned in his sleep. His black hair stood out in stark contrast against the golden sheets, his pale skin a glow in the moonlight. She couldn't help but stare at the lovely addition to her left hand. Encased with a silver band was a princess-cut solitaire. The stone was her birthstone, garnet. She never found diamonds appealing. They were just so plain. Her gaze wandered to the Baroque inspired paintings and décor in the room. Father always spoiled her too much. He knew it was her favorite period in art and made it a point to collect things for her over the years.

Sara suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder, which if you did not know already, is a severe form of psychopathology. I did not notice the symptoms until recently. Only leading up to her suicide I guess... The strange thing is, she did not show any typical symptoms of being suicidal. No changes in appetite or sleep pattern, no talk about dying or giving belongings away. She did it on an impulse. Before she committed suicide, she was somewhat complaining about how our tight group of friends are leaving her out and how she was losing her "social foundation". All she wanted to do was to drink and get their attention. Oftentimes, she would storm out of the room if Terri, one of our friends, was sitting on the same bed as Jordan...The guy she had feelings for.

Kath and Amy heard many ghost stories of the Bell Witch Cave growing up in Brentwood, Tennessee. Now old enough to go there themselves, they packed up Kath's Volkswagen Jetta and took off for a weekend of fun. A few miles down the road, Kath asked Amy.

"Do you think it was fair on why the Bell Witch picked on the John Bell family?"

"Well, she thought Mr. Bell cheated her. Kate,..." Amy paused, trying to remember her last name.

"Batts. Remember the slave purchase from Mr. Bell, then later accusing him of overcharging her. This was just one part of Kate's anger. Can you imagine, before all this, she even dated him!"