Elizabeth had just began typing up her essay when her alarm blared, reminding her that she needed to fit some sleep into her busy schedule. She sighed as she jabbed the power button on her computer and flung herself into her unmade bed, positioning the blanket to hide her normal clothes. As if on cue, her door creaked as her grandparents came in to check on her.

            "Just look at our girl, she's clearly exhausted from all that work. If it was my decision, I'd make her quit that silly dance team." 

             "But she loves dancing, and it's not like she's getting behind on all her school work."

              "I guess you're right."

                The couples voices faded as they left the room and went to bed. Only after their careless footsteps were a distant memory did Liz slip out of bed and open back up her work. At the rate she was going, she wouldn't finish her homework until late. But Liz didn't mind, she had never really found a need to get to much rest.

             "102, 103, 104," Liz silently counted the words to herself. Most computer programs did it for you, but after a fiasco in which a sentence of Liz's work had somehow come up to 532 words Liz vowed to do it herself. "114, 115, 116" Liz came to a stop and sighed, her essay needed at least 200 words to count for anything. This was going to be a long night.

~~~~~~

            "Great, looks like it's going to be raining all next week to." As if to emphasize her point, Maggie held up her phone and showed Liz the tiny, rain clouds under each date. "How am I suppose to have a good birthday if I can't even go swimming!"

            "You could always go bowling." Liz flipped through the pages of the novel they were reading in school. Maggie had begged Liz to let her come over and study all through school but Maggie hadn't even bothered to take her book out before ranting about, well, it seemed whatever came to mind.

           "Bowling, in June? Please Liz, school lets out in two weeks no one wants to go bowling."

           "Well then I guess you can swim in the rain." Finally, Maggie seemed lost for words, she grumbled something Liz couldn't understand and fell back on the bed.

         "I'm bored. Think of something to do."

         "You could study?"

          Maggie glared at Liz but gaze in and picked up her book. "This book is deathly boring, why can't we read something fun. Like twilight!"

          "You know how I feel about twilight."

          "Yeah, yeah." Maggie ignored the book and picked up her phone. It wasn't exactly studying, but at least she was quiet. Liz picked up the book and starting paging through it. Maggie was right about one thing, the book was deathly boring. Liz tossed the book of to one side and started on her math homework.

           Suddenly energized, Maggie sat up and stared at Liz with her crystal blue eyes "How about we play hide and go seek!"

           Liz looked back curiously, "Now your crazy, I haven't played that game since I was in kindergarten!"

           "Please! I'll let you be the hider."

           Liz shrugged, it was no use arguing with Maggie anyway. In the end, she always gave in and Maggie got her way. Almost immediately, Maggie laid  her hands over her eyes and started counting. Surprised by this, Liz jumped up and ran out of the room. Liz's house was one of those ancient houses that everyone else thought would be cool to own but really wasn't. Liz laid a hand against the wall and starting thinking of a place to hide.

           "13, 12, 11, 10, 9..." Maggie's voice echoed from the other room just as a large crack tore through the house and Liz's hand ripped through the wall.

           "What the heck?" looking down Liz saw that she hadn't broken a wall, merely opened a long forgotten door. 

          "Ready or not! Here I come." Ignoring her common sense, Liz ducked into the room and closed the rotting door behind her. Feeling around Liz found one of those old pull string lamps and yelped as she pulled back her now cobweb covered hand.

            "No going back now." Liz ventured deeper into the room which was full of mismatched modern and Victorian-age furniture. In the back of the room was the most ominous thing of all, an unknown object hidden under a milky-white sheet.

          Pulling it off, Liz let our a sharp laugh. Hidden under the sheet was an honest to good, eighties era, box computer. She doubted it would work, but Liz tried her luck and pushed the power button. The computer flickered on and cued up to a video.

           Liz stifled a scream, the girl in the computer looked so much like Liz they could've been twins. She had the same frizzy pale blond hair and warm brown eyes, the only difference was that this girl was much, much older. "Greeting Elizabeth," the strange girl spoke, "forgive my boldness, but time is of the essence. For, if you are getting this message I am dead and you are about to be."