Read Rising Fears for Free Online Page B

same subject, the same basic stick figure with its hand in the wall, but this time the color scheme was a bit darker, the lines a bit sloppier and more hurried, as though the young artist had been gripped by a frenzy of inspiration.
    Or fear.
    And underneath it all, in thick black crayon, were four words, written in childish, almost panicky scrawl:
     
    cRak IN tHe DAm.
     
    Lenore felt a tentacle of unease tickle the base of her spine, toying with her, bringing back not only her fears for Sean Rand, but also the ever-present threat of her memories...of him .
    Thankfully the sheriff turned to the last page, and the dry death rattle of the pages turning was enough to draw her away from that line of thought.
    This page held no picture. The tentacle of fear at the base of Lenore's back was joined by another, and then a third, a full-grown monster that threatened in an instant to take her away from the carefully constructed bulwarks that protected her sanity.
    The last page was four words. Four more words in thick black crayon, four more words drawn in large, panicky strokes:
     
    I wiL be FiRSt.
     
    The words were simple; meaningless. But in spite of that, they were clearly something to fear; something of fear. Something made of that same flat nameless terror that had accompanied humanity as it walked out of the sludge of time and brought with it fear that would follow it through eternity.
    "What do these pages mean?" asked Sheriff Meeks.
    Lenore frowned, rubbing her arms as though she were chilled, which she was, though the day was warm enough. "I don't know, Sheriff," she answered.
    Sheriff Meeks pocketed that last page without asking, and Lenore did not mind. She was grateful to have the strange four words gone from her class, as though their presence would call down doom upon any who might cross the room's threshold.
    Then the sheriff tipped his hat politely - always polite, always gallant was the sheriff - and left without another word.
    Lenore looked at the pictures that the sheriff had left behind. Particularly at the last one, the dark one. It was drawn not as a child's fairy tale version of a beloved story like the others had been, but rather like an attempt to draw something out of nightmare.
    Lenore knew about nightmares.
    She shuddered again.
    cRak IN tHe DAm.
    I wiL be FiRSt.

 
     
     
    ***

FOUR
    ***
    Jason pulled up in front of the Rand house and took a moment to get himself under control. He knew he would have to talk to Lenore at some point in all this - she was Sean's teacher, after all - but the interaction had affected him more than he liked to think of. Indeed, it had shaken him to the core. In his loneliest nights in his house outside of town, he remembered their night together, that lovely night when they had been mutually tricked into something that was as close to a date as Jason had had for over a decade.
    He immediately felt guilty, as he always did, for remembering the night. As though to remember it with anything approaching pleasure would be to dishonor the memory of his wife and child.
    Still, he couldn't help remember it. Lenore had been so sweet, so clearly beautiful beneath the layers of shapeless clothing that she for some reason preferred. So smart, so warm.
    So alive.
    He had hardly been able to speak to her the whole night, so stricken had he been by her beauty, both the visible kind and the kind that she simply carried about within her soul.
    Jason shook himself, trying to physically disengage himself from the memory. There was no way such a woman would ever be interested in someone like him.
    And what if she were? he couldn't help but think. What would you do then?
    The answer was as obvious as it was depressing: nothing. He would do nothing, would feel nothing, because to feel would be to live, and he had stopped living the same day his family had.
    So he put his truck into park and got out.
    He had been at the Rand house before, just as he had been at most of the houses in Rising for