Read Dangerous Designs for Free Online

done it herself. Whatever had opened the door – had closed the door. That's why she couldn't get in anymore. The damned door was closed.
    Reaching into the backpack, she grabbed up her pencil and tried to make the door in her sketch look open. The pencil wouldn't touch the paper. She flipped to a new page, and tried to copy the sketch onto the fresh paper, only this time with the door open. Except the pencil had a mind of its own and drew the door closed.
    Storey sat back.
    What was going on here?
    Magic?
    Satanism?
    Surely not. Her mother dabbled in Wiccanism...could she have done something dangerous? Not likely. The religion was all about good not evil – no matter what people thought. The sunlight shone through her bedroom window, brightening the room, making it hard to think on dark and supernatural factors in the face of so much light. She glanced back down at her book. The light shone on the picture, giving it an odd look. Twisting the sketchbook around, she flicked it up and down in the sunbeam. Nothing changed. Her pencil flashed.
    She held it up in the weird light. Though it was old and kind of ratty, the kinship she'd felt with it had only strengthened with time. It flashed again. What was that? She bent closer, trying to see what was inscribed on the side. She hadn't even noticed it before. She twisted it slowly in the light. There.
    It was some kind of script.
    Storey tried to read it. She twisted it around and around. The writing faded when not in the sunlight. In the light, the writing etched itself in as if by some unseen hand.
    "So cool," she murmured. "What does it mean?"
    And how could she find out? Grabbing a different pencil, she tried to copy the script down on a piece of scrap paper. It took several tries at holding it in the light to get it just right. The inscribed lines didn't appear to be words, per say, or at least not in any language she'd seen before. Numbers? Dates? She didn't know. Taking the scrap of paper downstairs to her mom's computer, she scanned it in, then dragged the image to her flash drive. Back upstairs, she searched the Internet for ancient fonts and languages.
    By late afternoon, she'd found nothing. Damn it. For the millionth time, she glanced at her floor and wondered if she should try again. She decided against it. The time had disappeared on her and she didn't want to spend the night in that mine. Still...maybe she should. It wasn't that late. She hopped off her computer chair and walked closer.
    "Storey? Dinner time."
    So much for a quick trip into a tunnel, at least for the moment. "Coming." She put away her stuff and tucked the scrap of paper with the copied script under her keyboard. She couldn't explain why she felt the need to hide it. For the same reason, she'd renamed the scan as Chemistry Paper. That should keep people in the dark. Not that anyone would see it. Still...
    She headed downstairs to dinner and dishes. That was another thing that sucked about being an only child – no one to share the chores with.
    It took another hour before she could return to her room, telling her mom and her mom's arriving Wiccan friends that she had a lot of homework to do. She rolled her eyes at that lame excuse. When did she ever do homework?
    Closing her bedroom door behind her, her gaze caught and held on her sketchbook. Should she try again? The phone rang. Storey ignored it. It was never for her. She had a cell phone like everyone else.
    "Storey, answer the phone, please. It's for you."
    Storey stilled. Who'd be calling her? On the house phone?
    "Storey, did you hear me?"
    "Yes. Thanks." She walked to the little stand in the middle of the hallway and picked up the cordless phone, then headed back to her room. "Hello?"
    "Storey?"
    "Yes." Her frown deepened. She didn't recognize the voice. "Who is this?"
    "Eric."
    "Eric." She winced. Was that breathy squeaky voice hers? Yikes. "Why are you calling? And why this number?"
    He laughed. A deep sound that sent the butterflies in her