The Ten

One

Fern was staying up late with a bag of cheesy cheetohs on a plate as she watched classic episodes of Sherlock Holmes. She dipped her fingers into the bag, pulled out some cheetohs, ate them, and licked her fingers. It wasn't every day she got to be a couch potato. Sometimes she thought she could sit on the couch and watch Sherlock Holmes forever. But then she remembered there was always an important mystery to solve and that she couldn't watch her favorite detective forever. Still, she loved to watch him for hours on end once in a while. She loved mysteries. And her parents were out for the night. So she could watch whatever mysteries she wanted to, even the violent ones her parents forbade her to watch.

The episode finished with the conclusion of the murderer and Fern got up and went to the TV and pooped out the DVD of the episodes. She put it back in its case and started searching for a movie her parents wouldn't let her watch. She liked to create scary stories like The Thing, but she wanted to see scary stuff other people made, too. She went through the DVDs one by one until she found the perfect movie. Scream starring Drew Bunnymore, Neve Ratbell, and Courtney Fox. She popped it in and waited for the fun to begin. What she saw filled her with horror.

She watched the whole thing in a state of shock. The violence and profanity nearly overwhelmed her. All the characters were horrible people, even Sidney Presrat, the girl you were supposed to be rooting for. She didn't like horror stories anymore, and she shut the TV off. She was glad it was only a movie when the phone rang. She slowly picked it up.

"Hello?" said Fern.

"Fern honey, you're going to have to walk to school tomorrow by yourself. Your Dad and I won't be coming back till the afternoon. Remember to eat a good breakfast!" Fern was relieved it was only her mother.

"Okay, I will Mom. Bye." Fern put down the phone. Suddenly she felt very alone. Once she had hung up the house seemed vast and empty, yet not quite empty. She felt a strange presence lurking around every corner, like someone was going to jump out at her. She shrugged the feeling off. Then the phone rang again.

"Hey, Mom."

"Number one."

"Hello?"

"I'll be coming soon," said the mysterious voice. Then it hung up.

Fern was really freaked out. Her friends definitely would not play a prank on her like that. She wondered just who would do that. The phone rang again.

"Fern. Call the police while you can. I'm walking up your driveway Fern. Never mind what I said about the cops. It won't save you. Bye." The caller hung up. Fern dashed out of the living room, tipping the bag of cheetohs. She screamed and ran up the stairs. She raced down the hallway and entered her room. She closed the door and hid under her bed and waited to see what would happen. She heard a knock on front door.

"Fern," said the voice. "Coming Fern." Fern waited in sheer terror as she heard things crashing downstairs, whoever it was was obviously looking for her. Maybe, she thought, she could open the door silently and make a run for it. Or maybe she could open her bedroom window, jump out, and make a run for it. But she knew that was a bad idea. Her fall would make a noise, and she would hurt herself falling, making her slower. So she decided on the first idea. Slowly, without making a noise, she crawled out from under the bed. She stood up. The floor creaked loudly. There was a pause, and then she heard footsteps making their way to the staircase and footsteps slowly climbing the stairs. Fern knew her only chance now was the window. She ran to the window and pulled it open. She jumped out just as the door started to creak open.

She landed with a loud thud. Surprisingly, she had hurt nothing in the long fall. She started to run to her backyard. She heard another thud just as she turned the corner to her backyard. She hid behind some large green bushes and waited. Then the stalker walked into view. In the dark she couldn't see the person's face, but she could just make out the outline. The person wasn't that tall, about as tall as her, so she figured it was someone her age. Apparently the person hadn't got hurt either, because they moved swiftly around the backyard in a circle, checking the hedges. When they were opposite Fern's hedge, she made a dash for it. She ran around the corner of the backyard. She heard footsteps right behind her. She reached her front door or the front entrance now. The door had been taken down. She ran in and hid behind the couch in her living room. She waited again.

The person walked into the front entrance. They walked directly into the living room and looked around.

"I know you're here Fern. I saw you from the window." Fern was practically trapped. If she could just zoom past the killer while they were looking the other way. Or cause a distraction. She slinked away from the couch without the person seeing. She went to the table and grabbed a bowl. She threw it towards the red couch. It landed with a crash. While the person ran towards the bowl thinking it was her, Fern ran to the kitchen and hid under the kitchen table. She sat there silently, praying that the person would look in any room but the kitchen after they found out they had been tricked. Unfortunately, they did look in the kitchen. The person walked in and sat down looking directly at Fern. Fern screamed. There was nowhere to go now. She was trapped. She couldn't do anything now but fight back. In a last attempt to save her life, she lunged at the attacker. The attacker was too quick, they grabbed Fern's wrist. They pulled out a knife and stabbed her. Fern screamed again, and realized she was bleeding. She slumped down on the ground. Life began to ebb away from her. The person turned on the kitchen light, turned to Fern and smiled. Fern couldn't believe who the person was. She died of not only blood loss but shock.

Meanwhile, in other homes in Elwood City, the children Fern had known were sleeping in their beds. They were completely unaware of Fern's gruesome fate. They were off in dreamland, dreaming strange bizarre dreams, partly due to the fact that somewhere, seep down inside of their soul, they knew something terrible happened. But nobody awoke or told their parents something was troubling them. They slept on while Fern died, and into the morning, when Fern had been dead for hours. They awoke with a funny feeling but shook it off. How could they have known something that terrible had happened, how could they have learned they had just lost a dear friend. And of course none of them knew they were targets in a deadly game that would take all their smarts, courage and more to live through. No, they were completely unaware to what exactly was happening around them.