For Nevermore Season 1

talking cat game.”
    A high-pitched recording echoed Tori’s voice, “Nobody, Mommy. I was playing the talking cat game.”
    Tori giggled. So did the animated cat.
    “OK,” Jen said, “I’ve got a few calls to make. When I’m finished, we’ll start your homework, okay?”
    “OK,” Tori said, a bit too chirpy. “OK,” the animated cat repeated its sped-up recording of Tori’s voice. Noella was afraid Jen would pick up on Tori’s nervous insincerity, but she laughed, then left the room.
    As Noella waited for Tori to send her the “all clear,” she had a sudden flashback to their first game of hide-n-seek, the first time she crossed over into Dante’s OtherWorld. She hoped it wouldn’t happen again. Though Noella had a million questions, even more now that she knew this wasn’t in her head, she didn’t want to see him. The look in his eyes, the cruelty in his voice, the distance he kept her at, it was too much. Noella felt bad enough already, she didn’t need to feel like a nuisance. The real Dante wasn’t anything like the kind, sweet Dante of her dreams.
    “OK,” Tori said, opening the closet. “She’s gone. She went in her office and closed the door. That means she’ll be in there for at least 15 minutes. And that’s if she doesn’t check Facebook. You should sneak out now.”
    “Cool,” Noella said, stepping from the closet. “Thank you. You won’t tell your mom about any of this, right?”
    “Of course not! Not like she’d believe me if I did!” Tori said laughing.
    Noella hugged Tori again. “OK, tomorrow’s your mom’s first day at work, right? Are you taking the bus home or is she picking you up?”
    “Her boss is letting her take a late lunch to pick me up, then we’ll see you here, okay?”
    “OK,” Noella said, giving her a final hug. “See you tomorrow.”
    “Yeah, unless you pop up here again!” Tori said laughing.
    Noella didn’t laugh.

    **

    Josie was still at work when Noella got home. Noella wanted to see her, but was thrilled to find Randy absent. She hadn’t seen him since finding out he’d signed into her Facebook account, and she couldn’t stand the thought of meeting his eyes if he had, in fact, read all the crap she’d written about him.
    Noella still had no idea why Randy had signed into her Facebook, or what the jerk had done while he was inside. But it was a safe bet he was just nosy and paranoid enough to have read all her past messages back to her first one, and had seen every one of the horrible things she said about him.
    Noella wasn’t sure how horrible she’d actually been. It was hard to remember since Randy was a jerk-face so often. Judging by all the stuff she thought, which was usually way worse than what she’d actually write, Noella was pretty sure she’d said that Josie was too good for Randy a hundred times, called him a monster at least a few, and wished him dead with a few keystrokes at least once.
    She imagined Randy reading through her archives, his face getting red and hot, and the top of his head beading with sweat like it always did when his rage went to a tea kettle whistle.
    It wasn’t that she felt bad for writing the things. He’d been a jerk, and while she might’ve exaggerated her hate for him, it wasn’t that far from the truth. And that was just the problem. She’d never been brave enough to tell him how she really felt. She had no idea how he’d react. Would this be the straw that broke the camel’s back, that finally caused his verbal abuse to turn physical?
    The thought that she might have made things worse for her and Josie sickened her. She wished she’d never written the messages.
    Noella looked at the fridge, but there was no note from Randy saying when he’d be home to start ruining her life again. Josie’s note said she’d be home around 6 p.m. and they could have mac ‘n’ cheese if Noella wanted to cook it.
    Blech. Even mac ‘n’ cheese sounded disgusting when you were thrown across the universe and the man of your dreams screamed at you to go back and stay away.
    She preferred it had Dante stayed just a figment of her dream world. She didn’t like this version. He was cold and mean to her.
    Noella opened the fridge and placed her face in the frost, trying to decide whether she wanted another crappy Diet Shasta or some generic fruit punch.
    The more she thought about Randy busting into her Facebook account, the madder it made her. She wanted to know what pages he’d broken into, and