The Influencer

Seth finished his third beer and continued to lie on the couch. He hadn’t paid any attention to what was on the large flat-panel TV for quite some time. His mind was too preoccupied to focus on anything but the mounting coincidences that all had one common denominator. Kylie Kaminski. Seth looked blearily around the messy room. He knew that the sooner he pulled himself together, the sooner he could investigate the Kaminski woman. Although there was no way she could be directly responsible for the deaths of Judge Mackey, his beloved Cassandra, or the Holmes guy, there had to be some connection somewhere. If Kaminski wasn’t responsible, then someone she knew had to be—though even that didn’t make much sense. Two witnesses at the grocery store had seen Cassie slip on the coffee beans. Kaminski couldn’t have “hired” anyone to cause the judge to choke on his dinner, and it seemed unlikely that anyone other than Holmes himself had been the one to hang him. He pulled himself up and trudged into the spare bedroom where the computer was. After waiting for it to boot up, he did a search using various keywords from Cassie’s notes. It wasn’t long before he found the old news article. Once he finished reading it, he knew he had to go out to the Sobek farm as soon as possible. He knew Kaminski was living there. Word traveled fast in a small town. And he knew the Sobeks, too. Not well, but well enough. Seth printed out the article, then showered, brushed his teeth, and used mouthwash to erase the smell of beer. A few minutes later, he was pulling out of his driveway into the cool early evening air. He arrived at the farm just minutes later and rang the bell at the front door. Randy Sobek opened the door a moment later. “Hiya, Randy. How goes it?” asked Seth. The tall, lanky guy seemed bewildered at first. Then recognition set in. “Oh, hi! Hi, Seth. Delvina, Seth Addleson is here!” he called over his shoulder. “Come on in.” Seth stepped through the now-open door and into a large yet cozy living room. The inviting aroma of cooked food overwhelmed him. “I hope I haven’t disrupted your dinner.” “Oh, no, not at all. We’re just finishing up. How’s it going?” Randy asked, aware of Seth’s recent loss. “It’s been rough, but I’m hanging in there.” Randy’s wife, Delvina, entered the living room and greeted Seth warmly. “Long time no see. We miss you working around the farm, even though it’s been so long.” “Yeah, it’s been a while,” Seth said with a smile. “So what brings you out this way?” Randy asked. Before Seth could answer, none other than Kylie Kaminski herself hobbled into the room on crutches. He recognized Liz, still as lovely as ever, following close behind. Randy and Delvina sensed his hesitation, and then Randy said, “Let’s let the girls get comfy here in the living room and get started on tonight’s DVD movie without us, and we’ll go into the kitchen and enjoy some of the leftover dessert. Sound good, Seth?” “Sure. That’d be great.” After he exchanged hellos with Liz and cast a brief nod toward the Kaminski girl, who seemed a bit wary of him, he followed Randy and his wife into the kitchen. Randy and Seth sat at the table while Delvina fixed Seth a plate of apple pie. After he had a chance to take a bite and give his generous approval and thanks, Randy said, “So what’s up, Seth? I know you didn’t come just for the wonderful pie.” Seth put down his fork and pulled the piece of paper from a pocket inside his jacket. He unfolded it and placed it before Randy. “I’m afraid I found some rather interesting information on the newest addition to your household.” “Huh?” asked Delvina, who now sat at the table as well, nursing a cup of hot cocoa. She looked confused, almost as if she’d forgotten who that newest addition was. “Is this about Kylie?” Randy asked in a hushed tone, glancing down at the article. “I’m afraid so,” said Seth, keeping his voice low and glancing warily toward the kitchen doorway. “As you’ll see in the article, she not only witnessed many violent exchanges between her parents as a child, but her own mother tried to kill her.” “What!” exclaimed Delvina. “Shhh,” said Randy. “It says that a neighbor went over to visit the parents’ home down in Arizona and found Kylie’s mother in the process of trying to strangle her when she let herself into the kitchen in the back.” Delvina gasped in horror. “The reason this happened, from what it says here,” Randy continued, “is because the mother was convinced her daughter was a witch with deadly powers.” “What!” Delvina exclaimed again. “That’s insane!” “Keep it down,” Randy warned again. He, too, glanced warily at the doorway before interpreting more of the article. “The mother insisted that many people who had wronged her daughter throughout the years, or someone she was close to, had fallen ill, injured themselves, or even died.” Delvina’s expression was turning from shock to one of concern. “Prior to the neighbor discovering the mother trying to strangle Kylie, Kylie had been acquitted of manslaughter charges that had been brought against her for shooting her father.” Delvina’s expression switched back to shock as she gasped yet again. “It was determined that Kylie shot the man to keep him from killing her mother. He was apparently waving a machete at her. This is what she said, anyway, even though the only machete in the house was in the other room.” Randy studied a picture of a younger Kylie and recognized her instantly. “That’s Kylie, all right.” He slid the sheet of paper over to his wife, who stared at it in shocked disbelief, concern written all over her face. “I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of the deaths up here as well,” Seth said quietly. The three of them were silent for a moment, and then Delvina shook her head and said, “Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. So what do we have here? Someone who can just wish someone ill luck and have it happen, too?” “That’s what the mother was insisting quite adamantly—even to this day as she sits locked up in a psychiatric ward.” Randy sat eying the paper dubiously. “Folks, I don’t think any so-called friend who was passing by dropped her off here,” Seth continued. “I think she came up on her own, either by bus or maybe by hitching rides along the way, since she doesn’t appear to drive.” “But why Klamath Falls, Oregon, of all places?” asked Randy. “I don’t know,” Seth said with a shrug. “She doesn’t seem to know anyone here, so maybe she thought that being in a small town would be a nice change from the big-city life she had been living up until then. She probably also figured that no one would know who she was.” Delvina looked desperately at her husband. “What are we going to do, Randy?” Randy looked stumped, taking a moment or two to think before he finally said, “I don’t know. I just don’t know yet.” “This is pretty wild,” Delvina said. “Sure is,” Randy agreed. “Especially if you believe in this sort of psychic stuff.” “I never bought into it much before,” Delvina admitted, “but there’s no denying that this is a bit freaky. How can all those people dying be a coincidence? Just the people up here alone would be enough to make even the biggest skeptic wonder. The judge who hits her and paralyzes her for life, the reporter whom she doesn’t want to talk to, the guy who rudely knocks her down in the store, and cries racism. My God, what if she gets upset with one of us?” The group sat in another moment of tense silence as each one thought about the situation before them. “I don’t know,” said Randy. “I mean, I just don’t get how she could be responsible just by being upset with these people. If people could do that, we’d all be dying left and right, so why aren’t we?” “Because we don’t all have that power,” Delvina pointed out. “Besides, do we really want someone under our roof who shot their own father, whether or not it was to defend their mother, then didn’t say a word about it to us?” “That I can understand,” said Randy. “I’d be embarrassed and maybe even too traumatized to discuss something like that. What I can’t understand is how anyone can have the power to make someone sick or hurt or even die just by being pissed off at them. She wasn’t too happy when Liz insisted she walk alongside the street to get over her fear of traffic passing by her, yet Liz is just fine.” They suddenly sensed a presence nearby and turned to face the doorway. Liz stared back at them, brows drawn with confusion and concern. “What’s going on?” Delvina looked past Liz. “Where’s Kylie?” “In the living room. I was going to get ready to help her with her bath. Why?” “Well, do that, then come and see us as soon as she’s settled in the tub and you can leave her alone for a few minutes.” Liz left to get Kylie into the tub and then hurried to the kitchen, telling Kylie that she wanted to see how Seth was doing since the loss of his girlfriend. “Remember that reporter who came to the hospital and then slipped and died after hitting her head?” Kylie nodded. “Well, we didn’t know this at the time, but it turns out that she was Seth’s girlfriend.” “Oh, my gosh!” exclaimed Kylie. “Really?” Now it was Liz’s turn to nod. “That’s too bad.” “Yes, it is. Okay, are you all set for now?” “Yeah, I’m fine. You can go now.” Liz smiled, leaned over the edge of the tub, and gave Kylie a quick kiss. “Back in a few.” Liz was out the door in a flash, leaving Kylie to wonder why she felt as paranoid as she did. Reporters usually dated other reporters, so was there trouble amiss? Had the boyfriend figured out who she was, and was he busy exposing her right now to the only real family she’d ever had? She noticed the way he had looked at her earlier. It wasn’t just his look, however, but what she’d sensed as well. And she sensed that there was trouble ahead. Down the hall, Liz entered the kitchen and took the seat closest to the doorway between her mother and Seth. After she read the article, she felt like screaming with feelings of shock, anger, and betrayal. Even so, she felt compelled to defend Kylie. “Okay, so she should have told us about this, but to basically call her a witch over a series of bizarre coincidences is insane!” “Coincidences?” said her mother. “Oh, come on, Liz! How can you call them coincidences?” Randy simply sat and listened as Seth said, “Liz, honey, we don’t know who suffered what down in Arizona, but her own mother said the same thing and…” “Her mother was an obvious loony!” Liz interrupted, although she couldn’t help but remember the time Kylie had assured her that she would kill Judge Mackey. Delvina tried again to get her daughter to see the painful truth. “Liz, honey, three people are dead, all of whom really pissed Kylie off badly. Do you really think that’s just happenstance? Maybe her mother was a little crazy, and maybe her father was, too. But regardless of that, there’s no denying the obvious here. I know it hurts, but it’s there. And no matter how many excuses you make for her, it doesn’t change the facts. What about all the stuff she wins? That alone should make you wonder.” “Maybe she’s just lucky.” Delvina snorted. “There’s no such thing as luck, sweetie, and I think you know that.” “Then why hasn’t she won millions?” “Because being more influential than most doesn’t necessarily make you God, but maybe she will someday. Either way, the facts are still the facts.” “And I’m afraid that’s not all,” said Seth. “Oh, God,” groaned Liz. “You mean there’s more?” “’Fraid so. Once again, it’s one of those eerie coincidences, but there’s an awful lot of those where Kylie’s concerned.” “So what’s next?” asked Randy. “Kylie had an identical twin sister, Arlie.” “A twin?” asked Liz. Seth nodded. “But she disappeared right before Kylie left Arizona and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.” “And let me guess,” said Liz, “everyone thinks Kylie killed her or something.” No one agreed out loud with Liz, but they didn’t disagree either. “It’s just hearsay, of course,” said Seth, “but judging from what friends and neighbors had to say about Kylie in other articles I found online, Kylie and Arlie weren’t like ordinary twins. They may’ve looked alike, but they didn’t act alike.” “And?” Liz prompted. “And Kylie wasn’t always very nice to Arlie. She was extremely jealous of her and often bullied her around because others seemed to favor Arlie over her in light of her friendlier demeanor.” A somber silence overcame the otherwise cheerfully cozy kitchen. “I never had any siblings, but everyone I know who has them has been jealous at one point and has done some bullying. That’s just normal sibling rivalry,” said Liz. “Not when one of them disappears,” Delvina pointed out. “I know you love Kylie, Liz, but…” “But what? Do we throw her on the streets so she won’t use her powers on us and kill us if she gets mad at us?” “We don’t throw her out,” said Delvina. “We’ll just let her know what we’ve learned and see what she has to say about it.” “Then what? Ask if she’d ever considered killing us if we pissed her off?” Silence. “Insist she can only stay with us if she won’t use her powers on us? And just what kind of so-called powers is she supposed to have anyway?” “Some people believe the mind itself can be a powerful thing,” began Delvina, “and that in some cases our emotions and our attitude can affect the outcome of things. With some, it’s more extreme.” “Sort of like a positive attitude having a positive outcome and a negative one having a negative one?” Delvina and Seth nodded. “Oh, come on! This is nuts! Listen to yourselves. Do you hear how crazy this sounds?” “If it’s so crazy, then why do so many people believe in it?” “A positive attitude may help you get the job you want, and a negative one might keep you from getting a date, but how can you end up choking or falling just because someone may get mad at you?” Delvina shrugged and said, “No one knows for sure what makes a person psychic, but we do have some pretty unnerving facts here that we can’t ignore or deny or change in any way. We may never understand it, but we know what the facts are.” More silence passed, then Liz said, “I’ve got to go help Kylie out of the tub. By now, she’s probably wondering what’s keeping me. Then at some point, I’ll mention this and see what she says. We all get mad at each other every now and then. If her anger can really somehow magically affect us in a bad way, then I guess there’s nothing we can do but let her go.” “It might not be that easy,” said Seth. “What do you mean?” “Just the anger she'll feel for being thrown out may be enough to put you in danger.” “Jesus!” Liz said with a roll of her eyes. “So we just keep her and try our best never to upset her then, right?” “Let’s just start with letting her know what we’ve learned and take it from there,” Delvina suggested. “Don’t make any definite plans yet.” “God knows I’d hate to do that,” Liz said, rising from her chair. “It might get me killed.” Kylie lay in bed beside Liz well into the night, mind churning from the conversation they’d had earlier. She was no longer a secret. This bothered her greatly, for now she had to worry that her anger at that damn reporter would influence his death as well, putting her at risk of losing Liz. Of course, she had denied any such ability, and Liz had seemed eager to believe it. That was what was most important to her. But her ability wasn’t always easy to control, and she knew it. In fact, she had no control over it at all. It was something her parents, and even her teachers, had noticed at a young age. As the word spread that bad things happened to those who crossed her, the fewer friends she had. Even her own family didn’t want her around as much. Her mother had even considered leaving her at an old friend’s house for a while. She’d overheard her discussing it with her father one night after she was supposed to be asleep. But sound carried through the thin walls of the tiny house very easily. Her father had liked the idea very much, since, as he put it, she would never be like Arlie. Arlie. Dear old precious Arlie, who never could do any wrong—not even if she tried. But Kylie didn’t have to try to be evil. She was just naturally that way, or so her mother had said. While Liz had accepted her story of not telling her because her memory was shaky and she was too ashamed to mention it, she was worried about how she and her parents would perceive her now. And God only knew how many people that nosy reporter was talking to. No! She couldn’t let herself get angry at him. Kylie felt as if she hadn’t even slept ten minutes when Liz was gently prodding her awake. She squinted at the bright sunlight that now flooded the room. “Hey, sweetie,” Liz said. “Before I head into work, I wanted to let you know that Nolee will be stopping by to borrow some DVDs. I left them on the coffee table in the living room. Think you could manage to give them to her?” “Sure,” Kylie said with a yawn as she pulled herself upright. “Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?” Kylie nodded. “Mom and dad are out tending the farm, but they’ll stop in periodically as always.” “Okay,” Kylie said with another yawn. They hugged each other, and then Liz was gone. Kylie reached for her crutches and began her morning routine of using the toilet and brushing her teeth. Then she hopped into the kitchen for the coffee she knew would be on the warmer and poured herself a cup to go with her cranberry muffin. Next, she returned to the bedroom to fire up her laptop in the corner of the room and proceeded to check her email. When that was done, she went on to enter the day’s sweepstakes while she waited for Nolee. Nolee showed up a few hours later, and when she finally got to the door to let her in, she sensed trouble right away but tried not to let it show. “Hi,” she said in a cheery voice. “Sorry it took me so long.” “That’s okay,” Nolee said, entering the living room and looking around as if she’d never seen the room before. “Her parents out in the field?” “Yes,” said Kylie, wishing she could shake the hateful sensations Nolee was giving her. She’d always sensed that Nolee didn’t like her, but now she had a reason to dislike her if she’d heard about her sorry past. And news traveled fast in a tiny town. If it weren’t for Liz, she’d be sorry she didn’t go to a big city instead. She’d only come here because the laid-back little town had seemed so appealing and such a change from what she was used to. She felt she needed something as different as possible and to change her life as much as possible, too. Nolee spotted the small stack of DVDs lying on the table and picked them up. Then she faced Kylie hesitantly. Yup, something was definitely amiss. “Anything else? Something you want me to tell Liz, perhaps?” “No,” Nolee began, “I actually had something I wanted to tell you.” “Sure,” Kylie said, faking her best smile. “Well, I – uh – I heard about what happened down in Arizona and what they’re speculating up here.” “Yeah, news travels fast, doesn’t it?” “Oh yeah, especially around here it does. Ain’t no doubt about that.” “Well, I’m sorry you had to hear a bunch of superstitious nonsense.” Nolee looked confused. “Your mother didn’t really try to…” “Oh, she tried to kill me, all right,” Kylie said with a bitter laugh. “But I never killed anyone myself just by pure wishful thinking.” Nolee studied Kylie intensely for a moment, then said, “Well, I don’t know for sure what happened and all that. I wasn’t there.” No, you weren’t,thought Kylie. So get the fuck out of here already! “But I’ve been known to sense things, you know?” No, Kylie didn’t know. And she didn’t want to. “I’m no psychic myself, mind you, but I know things without really knowing them. Know what I mean?” “Not quite,” Kylie said. Nolee stepped right up to Kylie and bore her ebony eyes into her green ones. “It means I think you’re using Liz. I’m sorry you had it rough in Arizona, and I’m sorry you can’t walk, but if you screw her over, you’ll be having to deal with me. You got it?” “And just how am I going to have to deal with you?” Kylie asked bravely and defiantly, despite the fact that Nolee was bigger and able to walk. “Hopefully for your sake, you won’t ever have to find out.” “Good, because your assumptions are false. I love Liz.” “You may be in lust with her, but I don’t think there’s any love felt on your part. What is here is a convenient place to hide. There’s food here and a roof over your head. There are people to drive you wherever you need to go…” “Hey, look. Why don’t you just stop right there because you don’t even know me!” “What’s going on here?” Kylie and Nolee turned to find that Delvina had entered the living room. “Oh, nothing, Mom,” said Kylie. “Mom,” Nolee mocked with a snort. “Nolee here seems to think I’m just using you folks to hide behind because she thinks I don’t love Liz.” Delvina glanced at Nolee, back to Kylie, then back to Nolee. “Just putting in my two cents,” said Nolee. “Yeah, well, maybe you better not bother,” Delvina told her. “Why, because she might get pissed at me and make me choke or fall and break my neck?” “Because she hasn’t done anything wrong to us, and whatever feelings she and Liz may have for each other are between them and no one else,” said Delvina. “Most of what you’ve heard is simply hearsay.” “Well, we’ll find out soon,” said Nolee, heading for the door. “If she can jinx me just by being pissed at me, I guess I’m dead now, aren’t I? Goodbye, Mrs. Sobek.” Nolee left, and Delvina sighed loudly. “Good God, what a morning so far!” Then she looked at Kylie as if she really did blame her somehow, and left the room. Kylie simply stood there for a few minutes, inhaling and exhaling deeply and slowly, trying to calm herself down. But it wouldn’t do Nolee any good. Delvina left the witch she’d almost come to love just as much as her own daughter to comfort her daughter as she sat slumped over the kitchen table crying, and then went to join her husband in bed. “Everything okay?” Randy asked softly as his wife made her way through the darkness and slid into bed next to him. “Well, it’s as okay as can be given the circumstances.” “You’re right about Kylie,” Randy admitted. “We gotta do something.” “I know.” “But the question is what? Asking her to leave simply won’t cut it.” “No, it won’t,” Delvina agreed. “And that leaves one other horrible option, but I don’t see any other way around it.” “Me neither,” said Randy, fully aware of where his wife was going. “But if it came down to our lives or hers, I’m all for sparing ours.” And so they made their plans to be carried out a few days later while Liz was at work. The witch was entering sweeps when Delvina entered the room, determined to do the best acting job ever. “Kylie, sweetie,” she said urgently. Kylie turned to face her. “Yeah?” “A friend of ours who’s getting up there in age has an emergency at her house. It’s about a half-hour drive from here and we were wondering if you’d like to accompany us. The fresh mountain air may do you good.” Delvina was worried at first that Kylie would either sense something was amiss or decline to go with them, but she agreed to it. Not much more than a half-hour later, they were winding through dirt roads that were heavily flanked with pines, aspens, and junipers. “Wow, your friend really lives in seclusion,” said Kylie. “Yes, she does,” said Delvina. “Mind my asking what the emergency is?” “Her furnace is acting up,” said Randy, “and so it’s important to get it squared away as cold as it gets here.” No one said anything as they pulled up to an old cabin with its windows boarded up. Then Kylie said, “It looks deserted.” Randy stopped the car and said, “Yeah, but that’s just because she’s a nut.” Randy and Delvina got out and helped a rather confused Kylie out of the car. “Why does she keep the windows boarded up?” asked Kylie. “She has a phobia about letting any light inside the house. In fact, she’s so superstitious that she thinks anyone who enters through the front door will bring a curse on her, so let’s go around to the back.” Randy and Delvina stood on each side of Kylie as they patiently guided the disabled girl around to the back of the house. Delvina almost felt a twinge of guilt, but then she remembered those who had died on account of this seemingly cute and harmless girl, and her guilt died faster than it could build. Some of the people who were killed may’ve been assholes, but that wasn’t the point anymore. It was knowing what she could do to her or to Randy—or worse—to her daughter, should she get mad enough at them for God knew what. That was the point. Remember why you’re doing this, she told herself as her husband picked up a shovel, snuck up behind Kylie, and slammed it down as hard as he could onto her head. The girl slumped to the ground instantly, twitched, then went still. Randy knelt down and checked for a pulse. Then he looked at Delvina and shook his head. They spent the morning and afternoon burying Kylie’s body, her crutches, and washing away as much evidence as possible. They were backing out of the weed-choked drive when Delvina asked, “Think we should sell this place?” “Nah, let’s just let it sit here a while. It’s all paid for, and still makes for a nice retreat for other family members and friends who will never know just what happened here.” “That’s true,” Delvina said with a nod of her head. “I mean it, Del. No one else can ever know about this, no matter how bad we may feel about it at times. We saved our lives, and most importantly, we saved our daughter.” “That we did, and so no, no one will ever know. We take this secret to the grave with us.” “Good. Now let’s hurry back and get her shit out of our house before Liz gets home, and we have to tell her that her twin resurfaced and came to pick her up and bring her back to Arizona.” “Thank God she doesn’t have much to get rid of.” Back at the farm, they burned Kylie’s belongings and hid her laptop under some loose rafters in the barn. They would eventually dump it in another town where no one knew them. The days passed and turned into weeks, which then turned into months. Spring was in the air, and Delvina slept just fine at night. She thought it would be hard at first. She thought she’d be plagued with guilt, but because they had done what they’d done to literally save their lives, she found that life had gone on easier than expected. So that’s why she was totally caught off guard when she got the phone call that evening, just when she was starting to wonder what in the world was taking Randy so long to return from the market. “Relax,” Liz told her. “Dad no doubt got to talking to someone like he usually does.” Yet just moments after saying that, Liz was screaming right along with her mother when the police showed up at their door and they learned that he had apparently lost control of his truck and ran off the road and into a ditch, dying instantly. “Oh my God, she’s alive! Oh my God!” Delvina muttered. “Mom, what are you saying? You’re not making any sense,” said Liz, shaking her mother gently by the shoulders. “Kylie.” “Kylie ran off, so of course she’s alive. What’s she got to do with Dad anyway?” Realizing her slip-up, Delvina said, “I mean, her powers are alive. Even from a distance.” “No, Mom,” Liz said through her tears. “Something happened with the brakes if Dad didn’t have a heart attack or something. We’ll find out soon and…” “No!” screamed Delvina in a way that Liz had never heard before. “It’s her! She’s responsible. She’s the one who did this!” Delvina ran into the kitchen. “Mom, where are you going?” asked Liz, who was getting scared as she chased her mother into the kitchen. “It’s her, it’s her, it’s her!” “Mom!” Delvina grabbed the knife and spun around to face her daughter. “Mom!” screamed Liz, now horrified. “What are you doing?” The doorbell rang. “Put the knife down!” “It’s her!” The doorbell rang again. “It’s open!” Liz shouted just as her mother charged her with the knife. Footsteps sounded in the living room and down the hall as Liz battled her mother for the knife. “It’s her, it’s her, it’s fucking her!” Delvina continued to scream as she swung the knife toward her daughter. The police who had come to inform Delvina about Randy’s confirmed heart attack entered the kitchen just as the knife sank into Liz’s chest, entering her heart and killing her instantly. “It’s her, it’s her, it’s her…” Delvina continued to whimper over and over again as she rocked back and forth on the edge of her hospital bed in the state’s mental health facility, days later. “Any change?” asked a blond-haired nurse as she approached another redheaded nurse who had been at the door, peering through the small square window. “Not at all,” said the redhead. “Still insists someone named Kylie killed her husband and that she made her kill her daughter, too.” Blondie snickered. “That’s convenient, huh?” “That’s not all,” said the redhead. “Supposedly, this Kylie ghost is with her right now, taunting and teasing her for killing her at some remote cabin in the woods.” “Oh, my God!” said a third nurse. Blondie and the redhead turned to face the Hispanic nurse who had come up behind them. “What is it?” asked the redhead. “I just learned that they found the body of a young girl buried by some old cabin in the woods, which this patient owned with her husband.” The other two nurses gasped. “And they discovered the girl’s laptop hidden in their barn too, which they hid in order to try to cover up her existence and make it look like she’d taken off and gone back to her home state. At least that’s what they tried to tell people anyway. Yet on the laptop, they found a journal in which she mentioned being threatened by the family.” “Wow! No kidding?” The nurse shook her head and went on. “She wrote in her journal that they threatened to bury her at this cabin after they killed her, but that she wasn’t sure if they were just joking or what.” The patient in room 44 started screaming. The three nurses peered through the tiny window. The patient was grabbing at her neck. “She–she’s trying to strangle m–me!” The nurses unlocked the door and entered the padded room just as the patient collapsed on the floor. Blondie bent down and checked for a pulse. “My God!” she exclaimed. “She’s dead.” A burst of strong wind rushed past the nurses and out into the corridor.