For Nevermore Season 1

you’re a grownup, but for girls like us, with a lot of smarts and not a lot of tolerance for stupid, the teenage years can be a little tough.”
    Tori agreed, then asked Noella if she would play a game of Uno. Tori went to get a deck from the game trunk in her play room, while Noella went to the kitchen for a glass of water, and to try to shake the odd feeling of the house. Part of her was swimming through years of stored nostalgia, remembering time spent with Sam in the same rooms where she was now sitting on the floor with Tori. Noella wondered what Sam’s old room was being used for. Maybe it was Tori’s room, or an office for her mother.
    That’s Dante’s room.
    No, Dante’s not real, idiot. Stop it, already. Keep your mind on right here and now.
    Tori returned with the cards and the two of them sat at the kitchen table. Tori shuffled the deck like a pro, then dealt two piles of seven and gave Noella the order to go first. They were only three cards into the game when Tori said, “Hey, why did you think there was a boy living here?”
    The way Tori asked made Noella think that the girl had been holding onto the question for a while.
    “I was just being silly, I guess,” she said. “I saw a guy when you two moved in, though now I realize he was one of your movers. I thought I saw him again later that night, but it was super dark outside and you know how your mind can start playing tricks on you. I looked through my window and the way the branches hang over the upstairs window, it made it look like a guy with messy hair was staring at the window! After you guys told me there was no guy living here, I felt pretty dumb.”
    “Wow,” Tori said. “That sounds creepy.”
    “It was.” Noella kept the Draw Four Wild card that would end the game in her favor and drew from the deck instead.
    Tori won two moves later, as well as the next two games after that. Instead of starting a fourth, Tori suggested that she and Noella play a game of hide-n-seek.
    Noella loved the idea immediately, capturing her chance to slip into Sam’s old room, as if she might find Dante hiding in there. Crazy, perhaps, but being inside the house gave Noella a weird feeling like anything could happen.
    “Want me to count first?” Noella offered.
    “Nah, that’s all right. It’s my house so I already know where all the best hiding spots are. You’re at a handicap, so you should definitely hide first.”
    Noella smiled and said okay, deciding that if she ever told Tori that her house was where her best friend Sam used to live, it would have to be another time.
    Tori went to the front door, which was also home base, then buried her face in her arms and started counting, “20...19….18...17…”
    Noella crept up the stairs, down the hallway, and slipped into Sam’s old room, which was now the playroom Tori had mentioned earlier. Other than its dimensions, nothing about the room was remotely the same.
    “14...13…12...11…”
    The walls had been painted a butter yellow, and the hardwood floors were covered in light blue carpet. A miniature piano sat in the corner, bookcases lined every wall, and a small table centered the room, with an old iMac on one side, with a stack of paper and several boxes of crayons on the other side.
    “6...5...4...3…”
    Noella slipped into the closet, packed with boxes and clothes, but found enough room to hide.
    “Two...One... Ready or not, here I come!”
    Noella slid the door shut, turning the world to black.
    Something was immediately different inside the closet, starting with the smell. Tori’s playroom smelled floral and girly, but the moment Noella climbed inside the closet, she was swallowed by the strong scent of cedar.
    Noella threw her hands around the dark closet, trying to find her way. All the boxes and clothes which had nearly crowded her out were all gone. The only thing she felt was an empty shelf, empty space below, and a naked wooden bar where rows of clothes should have been dangling. And she felt that familiar vertigo that came with the hallucinations.
    It’s happening again.
    Noella pressed her ear to the closet door, but heard nothing. There were no sounds of a happy child running wildly through the house in search of Noella.
    Noella was suddenly terrified, imagining what she might find on the other side of the door, as her memories fell to the darkroom with Jessica. Then she remembered the creatures and couldn’t keep her slight whimper inside.
    Oh God, don’t do