The continuation of my 7th grade novella, Shadows of the Night.

“NO!” I screamed again. “Don’t hurt her!” They both turned towards me. I think Miss Ramsel had forgotten I wouldn’t freeze like the two men because she seemed a little surprized.
“Listen,” I pleaded. “It’s me you want, not Cathy, so leave her alone. I’m not saying you can have me, but I know all about what’s happening. I have these powers, too, you know, so it looks like you’re out numbered. Besides, you wouldn’t want this to get out in school would you?” I layed down and started time again. “I hear footsteps. It must be Laurie and the twins,” I said as I felt the man’s hand on my wrist come back to life.
Miss Ramsel stormed out of the cottage as my friends came in.
“What’s with her?” I heard Casey ask.
“Oh, look what I’ve done!” Cathy exclaimed. “I must have dropped it on her foot.” She sighed. “Oh well, I guess that’s the end of that plate.” I could tell my friends still thought that was no reason to storm out of the house.
“She seems to be fine,” the man said to anyone who felt like listening. “Do you feel well enough to walk back to the camp grounds?” he asked me.
“I could walk for miles,” I told him.
“That’s good because it’s about half a mile, if we don’t get lost.”

Later that same day after I finally convinced the doctor I was okay, I was able to go home. Cathy had told me if I had any trouble, just call for her and she’d find me. She also told me that I had to visit heaven soon.
When I walked in the front door of my house, all my brothers and sisters jumped on me. Even my two-year-old baby sister hobbled over to me and held my hand.
“I heard you had quite an adventure,” my older sister Tara said.
“Did you really run around, screaming someone was chasing you?” I have triplet, younger brothers (they’re faternal, though), and they like to exaggerate a little. The one who said that was Brian.
“No, Bri,” I laughed. “Where’d you hear that?” He shrugged and seemed a little disappointed.
“That’s just what Scotty and Mark said,” he replied. (They’re the rest of the triplets.)
“Whaa!” My little sister started to cry.
“Shhh, what’s the matter, Karen?”
“Karen miss Mia,” she sniffled. I gave her a hug.
“Aw, it’s all right. See, I’m back again!”
“Humph.” That was Tara.
“Can Karen do two things for Maria?” I asked her.
“What Karen do for Mia?”
“Well, first, stop crying. And second, go give Tara a big hug.” She gave me a big smile, ran over to Tara, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Tara laughed and smiled at me.
All of us kids are adopted, but those two look almost exactly alike with their dark brown hair and blue eyes. I took my camera out of my bag from camp and took a picture of them.
Just then my parents came downstairs. I took a picture of them.
“Well,” my dad laughed, “what was that for?”
“What was what for?” Scotty said as he and his brothers came in the room. I took a picture of them.
“That!” I said. Mark grabbed the camera from me and took a picture. Soon we were all laughing.
“You know what?” my mom said. “Why don’t we all pose together and set the camera to take a picture?”
While we were doing that, I couldn’t help but think I didn’t belong here. I’m dead, I mean, not anymore, but I really didn’t belong here.

“I’ll be back,” I mumbled alter that night and slipped out the back door.
I walked though the pitch-black night until I reached the woods at the end of my neiborhood and sat on my favorite rock. The warm Californian air blew around me and reminded me of the night before. It had been dreadfully cold that night. What had happened last night probably had something to do with it. Then I realized it wasn’t temperature I had felt, but a feeling. A cold, sinister feeling.
Last night seemed like years away. What had happened? Cathy said they were going to take me, but why did they make me hallucinate and get lost in the woods? Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. Last night was over and done with.
I wondered how Laurie was. She seemed a little mad at me for some reason when we left camp. I started to get up to go call her, but then remembered I didn’t have to. I could just take a look in her house from where I was. Besides, if she were mad at me, she wouldn’t tell me why over the phone. When she’s mad at me, for some strange reason, she never tells me why.
I closed my eyes and reached out for Laurie. I saw an image scruched up on the floor. It was Laurie, but she was sobbing!
“Laurie!” I cried. She looked up suddenly and I realized she had heard me. I heard someone yelling and swearing that made me cringe inside. I went to where the noise was coming from.
“I don’t give a damn if you’ve got the best lawyer in the world! I want you out of my house and away from my children!” Laurie’s mother?! Laurie had one of the best family’s I know. I must be dreaming!
“Your house! Your children! I’m the one with the damn job that pays for this house and gives the children what they want!”
“Oh, don’t you give me this crap about money! We’ve got plenty of it. You just never give any love!”
“Funny you should mention love. Hate is what you’ve—”
“Shut up, just shut up! All you two ever do is fight like you’re five years old! Why don’t you grow up!” They turned to see Laurie in their doorway.
“Watch your mouth, young lady! That’s no way—”
“Stay out of this Laurisa!” her father bellowed, cutting off her mother. “Get out of this room this instant!”
“See what I mean…” Laurie’s mom was saying as Laurie ran out of the room.
She went in her room only to find her ten-year-old brother and seven-year-old sister huddled together on her bed.
“Why do Mommy and Daddy fight so much?” her sister asked.
“I wish I knew,” Laurie replied.
I slowly opened my eyes and thought about what I had just seen. Laurie had been my best friend since grade school, but she still couldn’t come to me when she needed help or advice. That made me feel pretty bad. I mean, that’s what best friends are for, right? Laurie was a lot of fun, liked the same things I did, and sometimes we thought we even experienced telepathic messages. Laurie was almost the other half of me.
Suddenly a bright light blinded me. Out of the shadows of the night came a bright, flowing figure. “Don’t be afraid,” it told me and I realized it was an angel. “I am bringing you a warning. Satan has changed his plans and may try to steal you before your birthday. You may want to choose someone that’s close to you and around you most of the day, and give them powers to protect you if it’s needed. It would have to be someone you trust very much. Satan would not expect this to happen, so it might be a good idea.”
“Thanks,” I wispered. I’m not usually afraid of the dark, but now I was keely aware that I was all alone in the darkness with a powerful, evil force after me. Just to be safe, I made myself vanish and walked back to my house.
I thought about what the angel said and wondered if I should tell Laurie and choose her to protect me. She was the one who was around me most of the day, but she couldn’t even come to me with her problems.
I made myself visable again as a police car wizzed by me. I better be more careful next time, I thought. Though I doubt they saw me because their siren was blaring as it raced by me. I wondered what was going on. This was usually a peaceful neighborhood.
As I rounded the corner of my block, I saw an ambulance and a few police cars in front of my house! I started running as fast as I could.
“What’s going on?” I yelled to my mom. She turned around and I could tell she was crying.
“Maria! Oh, thank God!” she cried. “We were so worried when we couldn’t find you! But your sister…” She started crying so hard she couldn’t finish.
“Mom! What’s wrong?” A hand touched my shoulder and I turned around.
“Are you the daughter Maria” a policeman with a clipboard in his hand asked.
“Yes, I’m Maria,” I replied, “but can you please tell me what happened?”
“Well, I’m very sorry, but your sister Karen has been hit by a car.” I stood where I was in shock. Hit by a car? Karen? At eight o’clock at night?
“Well, how is she?” I yelled. He was takeing his own sweet time here, that was for sure. I didn’t wait for an answer. I ran up to the man at the ambulance.
“How is she? How is my sister?!”
“Calm down miss! I…” he paused. “Oh, it’s you again. Remember this morning?” Oh, yeah. It was the guy whose hand was frozen to my wrist. How could I forget?
“Oh, yeah, I do, but how is my sister?”
He sighed. “I’m afraid not to well. She may be in a coma for several days, but at her age we’re not sure if…” he let the rest of the sentence hang on Karen’s life.
How could this be happening to me? My life had been fine before I went to camp. I had a great family, a trusted best friend, I thought I had been normal, and Karen was fine…Karen had been fine. Could it be that this wasn’t an accedent? This could have been just to show me they could do anything.
Just then I was Tara sitting on the curb off to the side of the scene. I went over to her.
“Tara,” I whispered.
“Oh, Maria.” She stood up and hugged me. “I was with her when she was hit. I was showing her the constellations. A car skidded around the corner and Karen took off, straight for the road. I didn’t know what possessed her, until I met the driver. He said ‘Tell your sister Maria we don’t easily back out of things’. He vanished right before my eyes.” Tara gave me a look that said she wished she knew what was going on. I was dying to tell someone and she already knew the guy disappeared, unless she was hallucinating.
I managed to get though all the hugs and the tears cryed on my shoulder and led Tara to my room. I didn’t feel anything that meant someone on the other team was in my room right now, so I poured out the whole story to her. The only thing I left out was choosing someone to guard me.
“I feel crazy saying this, but I believe you,” she said. “And I want you to know I’m with you for whatever you have to do. For Karen’s sake, for your sake, for the sake of the world.” She narrowed her eyes. “This guy can’t control us.”