It has been a month since Abigail’s death and Kari has been able to manage. She still cries, missing her friend, but she is happy to be in a good relationship. And soon the months stretched out longer. Kari and Jordan walked together to the small grave yard where Abigail lay. It was October 31st; a year after Abigail had died. They brought flowers and placed it on the grave. All of a sudden there was a loud rumbling sound and the ground began to shake. Kari grabbed Jordan’s arm and screamed. And with a loud crack Abigail’s tombstone split down the middle. Kari turned and ran, dragging Jordan behind her.

Once they had exited the graveyard Kari stopped to catch her breath. She looked at Jordan in fear but he gave her a look of bewilderment. “Why did we run?” he asked looking with concern at Kari. “What do you mean? Didn’t you feel the earthquake and see the tombstone split?” Kari asked in disbelief. Jordan had been with her when it had happened why was he acting like he hadn’t seen it happen. But Jordan just looked confused and then took Kari’s hand and started to walk back to the grave. “No,” Kari said with fear. But Jordan said, “I want you to see that the tombstone isn’t cracked.” Kari stopped struggling and followed Jordan back to the grave, and sure enough, the tombstone stood there; whole. Kari stood in disbelief; she had seen the tombstone crack. Jordan then took her hand and walked her out of the graveyard and back to the car.

After Jordan had driven her home, Kari collapsed on her living room couch and thought back to the scene at the graveyard and wondered what had happened to her. But she didn’t think about it too much as she drifted off into sleep. Kari looked around and saw that she was at the graveyard and she was next to Abigail’s grave. Just then there was a flash of light and the ground shook. The ground cracked under Kari’s feet and something reached out to grab her ankle. She fell to the ground and screamed when she saw that a hand a grabbed her. She jerked her ankle away from the hand suddenly another flash of light lit the sky; this time a figure was standing over the grave. Kari screamed as she looked into Abigail’s eyes. Abigail’s once beautiful green eyes where now sunken in to her head and her skin was pulled tightly over her face. Her dress was dirty and matted and bugs were crawling through her hair. She looked at Kari and opened her mouth. Cockroaches came scuttling out of Abigail’s mouth as she tried to speak. But no words came out of her mouth. Abigail’s grey tongue hung out over her mouth. Her teeth were rotting and black. Kari let out another scream.

Kari’s eyes shot open and she looked around her to see that she was still on the living room couch and it was dark. Kari reached over and turned on the light and sat curled up on the couch in fear. She couldn’t believe that dream she just had; it seemed so real, Abigail had seemed so real. Kari decided to turn on the TV to try and get her mind of the dream. She turned on the TV and started flicking through the channels. A news report caught her attention after 5 minutes of channel surfing; it was a report about a fatal accident. A witness says that the car had been hit by something on the side and it had started to flip. It flipped four times until it finally landed belly up. The reporter said the driver was reported dead at the scene. A picture of the accident appeared and Kari let out a gasp. She recognized that car. That car belonged to Jordan.

“No,” Kari said, “It can’t be true.” She knew that it couldn’t be true, Jordan couldn’t be dead. This had to be another nightmare. Kari quickly turned off the TV and hurried to the phone. She looked at the clock first and saw that it was two in the morning but decided to call anyway; she had to know. She dialed Jordan’s house and it rang three times. Kari hoped that Jordan would pick up and she could have a good laugh at the scare she got. But a woman picked up and she sounded like she had been crying. “Hello, this is Kari,” Kari said after the woman said hello. “Oh, Kari, I am sure you have heard the news?” the woman said. “No,” Kari said, “It can’t be true, Jordan can’t be dead,” Kari could feel tears forming in the corner of her eyes. “I am sorry,” replied the woman, “he got into a severe accident and the EMS couldn’t revive him. I know how close you were to him and I am so sorry. This is the second death of a friend for you so this must be especially hard.”

“2n death,” Kari repeated hollowly. Then her eyes widened and she remembered her dream; the rotting body of Abigail looking at her with dead eyes. But the eyes weren’t dead they had a look in them and now that she thought about it Kari realized that they were filled with hatred. “I got to go,” Kari said as she heard the doorbell. She placed the phone down and walked to the door and peeked through the peek-hole. There were two officers standing outside the door, Kari quickly unlocked the door. The first police officer held out a badge and said, “We know that you were friends with Jordan and we would like to ask you a few questions. We hope this isn’t a bad time.”

“No, not at all,” Kari replied, stepped aside as the two officers walked in. The first that had spoken was a tall black man with a thick accent. The other was a younger woman who had her hair in a tight bun at the base of her neck. As she stepped inside she sent Kari a gaze full of venom; causing Kari to take a slight step back. Kari quickly ushered the two officers into the living room and offered them a drink. Both officers shook their heads and Kari slowly sat down at the edge of the couch. The first officer spoke again, “We want you to tell us when the last time you had seen Jordan was.” Kari took a deep breath and said, “We had gone to the cemetery because one of our friends had died a year ago. After that he drove me home and that was the last I saw of him.”

“Was he wearing a necklace at the time?” the male officer asked. Kari thought back trying to remember, “No, I don’t think he was,” she said after a slight pause. The male officer continued, “I am sure you know that the car he was driving flipped four times?” Kari nodded “Well, we don’t think that was what actually killed him.”

“What was it?” Kari asked

“Do you recognize this?” the female asked. As she said this she pulled out a small plastic bag. Kari recognized it instantly; inside the bag was an opal necklace; the opal being the size of a quarter. “Yes,” Kari said, “That was the necklace I gave my friend Abigail on her 15th birthday. That was her birthstone.”

The female officer sighed, “When the EMS took him to the hospital they found this necklace lodged in his throat which is what we think killed him.”

Kari stood there in fear; this new realization to the death of her late boyfriend frightened her. “How could a necklace that my friend was buried with be found in Jordan’s throat?” she asked. “We aren’t sure; there isn’t much that we are sure of at the moment. The male officer then put his hand on Kari’s shoulder and looked at her for a minute then said, “I’m sorry.” He walked to the door followed by the female. Just as the female officer reached the door she turned around and her eyes seemed to flash white. Then she turned and left. Kari sat on the couch looking with fear at the door. The male officer was nice but the female officer didn’t seem to like her at all; and what was with those eyes?

The next day Kari went to school; the rest of the school sending her weird glances. She knew that they wanted to say something to her but didn’t know what to say. She understood why; what doyou say to a girl whose best friend died and then her boyfriend died? She walked to her first class and looked to her left, an empty seat, then she looked to her right, another empty seat. Both used to be inhabited by her dead friends. She couldn’t help it; bursting into tears she ran from the room and hurried to the bathroom. She collapsed on the tile floor and buried her face in her arms and cried hard. She heard a voice above her and she looked up to see a girl she had never seen before. “Why are you crying?” the other girl asked. Kari wiped her eyes and sniffed, “I am just going through a rough time, my friend died a year ago and then my boyfriend just died.” The other girl stared at Kari and then shouted, “How dare you! Your friend was dating Jordan and then when she suddenly dies the first thing you do is go out with her boyfriend. What kind of friend is that?” Kari stared at the girl and then asked, “How did you know all of that?” The girl’s eyes glowed and she began to transform. Kari screamed as the girl turned into the rotting form of Abigail.

“NO! This is not happening! This must be another nightmare,” Kari screamed and backed away from the rotting form. “This is no dream! The first one was, that was just a warning. Then I killed Jordan so you couldn’t have him anymore; he is mine now. And then I came as the female officer to tell you the truth about Jordan’s death. And now you are going to die,” Abigail said and leapt at Kari. Kari screamed and ducked away. “Why are you doing this to me?” Kari asked. “Because you lived on that night! You left me to die; you let me go and saved yourself!” Abigail screamed. Kari had to dodge another swipe from Abigail’s rotting hands and dove to the door and landed in the hallway. Kari looked back at the restroom door and waited, hoping that no one would come out. But then the door swung open and Abigail walked out, “You are going to die Kari; I am going to make sure that you die for leaving me.” Jumping up Kari ran to the front door and into the parking lot. She screamed as a car flew at her. She tried to get out of the way but the car was going too fast and slammed into her.

As Kari went over the top of the car she saw that no one was driving it and she let out a scream. She rolled over the top of the car and landed in the middle of the parking lot. She lay there gasping for air. Every time she tried to take in a breath her lungs felt like they were on fire. She started to sit up but fiery pain shot up her side. She slowly lowered herself to the ground again and looked to her left and to her right. At first Kari thought that the red liquid around her was paint but then she slowly realized that it wasn’t. She screamed as she realized that her blood was pooling around her but then stopped as her lungs burned in her chest. Stars appeared in front of her eyes and she blinked trying to clear her vision. There was a dark shape coming up beside her and Kari managed to breath out the word, “help.” Above her Kari heard a laugh and knew that Abigail was standing over her. “Good-bye dear friend,” came Abigail’s voice as Kari breathed her last breath.