The Curse by Micol Ostow

Author:Micol Ostow [Ostow, Micol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781534470767
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2020-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Daisy wasn’t one to use a “911” lightly. Another light fixture could have full-on exploded, and I wouldn’t have stopped to take the stairs fewer than two by two. I think nothing short of nuclear fallout would have kept me from scrambling into the newspaper room, so that by the time I burst into the space, heart hammering, I was so out of breath that it took me a beat longer than normal to figure out what I was looking at.

When the image did resolve, though, it was a killer.

“What the hell?” I stammered, brushing my hair out of my eyes to step back and fully take in the scene. “What is this? Who did it? ”

The classroom was absolutely trashed. Desks and chairs overturned, angry spray paint dripping down walls, trash bins emptied over the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. Someone had egged the whiteboard, bright, greasy yolks still running in clumpy streaks down the wall in places where they hadn’t quite dried yet.

“What does that … say?” It was Lena, who’d sidled up beside me while I was still gaping, trying to process the chaotic scene.

I turned to see where she was pointing—the back wall of the room. The bulletin board that hung there had been stripped in angry, jagged slashes, ribbons of colorful paper now strewn across the floor. Over the now-blank canvas were words, bright red—the official color of this Naming Day curse, or so it was starting to seem.

LAST WARNING.

The bird.

Daisy’s locker.

The message on my windshield.

Now this.

“What the hell does it mean?” I said, almost as much to myself as anyone else. Nothing good, that much I was sure of.

Daisy looked at us, helpless tears welling in her eyes. “I don’t know who did this. Or why. It was … it was like this when I came by. I just … I had to pick something up… .” She trailed off, wordless, still in shock.

“You don’t need to tell us why you were in here,” I said gruffly. “Obviously, we trust you. But—something very, very messed up is happening here, Daisy. Someone is clearly targeting you. We can’t just pretend these incidents are random or unconnected.”

“Even if they were, each one on their own would be seriously bad news,” Lena added.

“Well, yes,” I agreed. “But there’s no way we still think we can take them on their own … is there?” I glanced at both of my friends cautiously. I knew Daisy had been clinging to hope, long past a rational person’s point of no return. But this was … something new. Un-ignorable. This told me just how borderline irresponsible I’d been in giving her the little bit of latitude that I already had.

I hesitated. I ignored my gut.

“Now my friends may be in danger.” I didn’t even realize I’d spoken out loud until I looked up to see both Lena and Daisy, closer now, real fear on both of their faces, a tear running down Daisy’s cheek.

“You agree, right? You’re on the same page with me?” I looked at Daisy, hesitant.

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