For Nevermore Season 1

incidents at school — and as she walked home. Were there doorways or portals to the other world or was she somehow just doing it?
    And if she could just do it, would she ever learn to control it?

    **

    Jen came home at 7:40, while Tori and Noella were finishing their game of Mario Party on the Wii.
    “Thank you,” Jen said, handing Noella a few folded bills.
    Noella was always tempted to count her money on the spot, but never did, instead slipping it into her pocket and waiting until she got home. Jen was generous, always paying her an extra five or ten dollars more than she owed. Truth was, Noella would’ve probably watched Tori for free, so being paid, and not have to go back to Keefer’s was all bonus.
    As they all said their goodbyes in the doorway, Noella hesitated, again considering whether or not she should warn Jen. She glanced down at Tori who seemed to be reading her mind, giving her a subtle cue and lightly shaking her head no .
    Noella swallowed her impulse, said goodbye, then headed across the street, hoping she wasn’t making a massive mistake. She promised herself that if she dreamed of Tori in similar danger again, she would tell Jen immediately. One dream was probably a freak thing that meant nothing. Besides, when she saw Tori it had been after Noella left the killer’s body, so it wasn’t even really part of the same dream. It was like the dream between dreams she sometimes had, where one part simply fell into the next.
    Noella was about 20 feet from her doorway when she heard the screaming from inside her house.

    * * * *

CHAPTER THREE

    Noella entered her house in the heat of the battle.
    Randy was inches from Josie, face red with rage and spittle flying from his mouth. Drunk. Again. His hands were at his sides, balled into rigid fists, which looked just seconds from unleashing their fury on Josie.
    “You think this is easy?!” he was screaming.
    What he was talking about, Noella couldn’t tell, but she knew she had to break things up and deflect his anger before he boiled over.
    “What’s going on?” Noella said in her calmest voice, like she was some kinda hostage negotiator.
    Randy turned, as if momentarily embarrassed. Josie looked almost hysterical. Something shifted in Randy’s face; and Noella could almost see his memory rising to the surface.
    The Facebook messages!
    Here it comes.
    “You!” he shouted, taking a giant stride toward her, stopping about a foot and a half from the front door where Noella was still standing. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you, missy!”
    “What?” Noella said, playing dumb and hoping he’d not read the messages, though she couldn’t think of anything else he could be so angry at. It wasn’t like she’d seen much of him during the previous week with his hectic work schedule.
    “I saw all the crap you’re posting about me on Facebook.”
    Noella’s stomach twisted into a funnel cake of tiny knots as all the horrible things she’d written ran through her mind.
    Oh yeah, here it comes.
    Josie said, “What are you talking about?”
    “Your little angel , she’s been posting all these nasty things about me to her friends!”
    “I didn’t post them publicly. They were private messages to my friends! And you weren’t supposed to read them!”
    “Wait,” Josie said, “you read her private messages?”
    “Hey! Don’t you turn this around on me! She went and said despicable, evil things! She wished I was dead, Josie. Dead! The ungrateful little . . .”
    Josie turned to her. Noella thought Josie might, in a moment of weakness, allow Randy to persuade her to back down.
    But Josie surprised her.
    “She’s a teenager, Randy! You didn’t ever say stuff like that when you were a kid?!”
    “No!” he said, his face flushed with disgust. “When I was a kid, we respected our elders!”
    “Oh God,” Josie said, “You act like you’re a hundred years old. Kids get mad at their parents all the time! Hell, I wished my own mom dead a dozen times. It doesn’t mean I really wanted her to die! She’s a teenager! Maybe you forgot what it’s like, but being a teenager is rough. And Noella’s had it rougher than most.”
    “Oh, please,” Randy said. “Are we really gonna drag that corpse out onto the lawn again? Her daddy’s been dead a decade already, and she never even knew her momma. Let’s give the ‘Poor Noey’ song and dance a little intermission, eh?”
    Noella stared at him, stunned. She wanted to smack him, punch