14.

Right away, Judy found it difficult to contain herself. Face to face, in the presence of a fictional character except that fictional character is not so fictional. She is real, as real as anyone Judy has ever been in the presence of. In truth, from the moment Judy first knew of Ellie, it was known that Ellie was real. It is only in the here and now, beyond that corridor, beyond the grey open space that the realization fully hits. Knowing something to be so and being face to face with it can be two different things.

'I have so many questions for you ...'

'I'd say you do; sure we can leave that for another time. Right now, I think we can spend some time as being ... sisters.'

'Sisters? Oh, I like the sound of that. I don't have any siblings.'

'Neither do I, did I, but you already know that though. Now that is something which is about to change.'

'Can't believe it, this is great, Steve though, really?'

'Don't worry about Steve, I wouldn't let him get so close if I thought he was trouble, besides even if he were then that may not be such a bad thing. What about you and Oliver? Since you brought up Steve and all ...'

'How do you know about Oliver? ... Oh right, the connection you and I have. Oliver would not be interested in someone like me.'

'Girl, you need glasses or better yet contact lenses. Anyway, enough talking about boys, you haven't come all this way to talk about boys, it's time to have us some sister time.'

'Sister time ... I so like the sound of that. Never thought I would have anything like that, never thought I would ever have a conversation about boys either. So where are we going to first?'

'Where to? Where to? Where do sisters like to go to the most?'

'I don't know, never had a sister before ... maybe to some kind of a shopping center?'

'Yes, that exactly, time to have us some fun.'

Strange and completely normal this moment is, so much so that it is hardly questioned at all. It is as if Judy and Ellie were always meant to be sisters of sorts. It is as if they always were meant to come together like this. It is also as if Judy belongs in this moment and belongs in this place, as if she had been purposely written into it, somehow written into those books she had been reading, and who is to say she hadn't? Maybe fate has her where she is; to everything there must be a purpose, right?

For strangely enough, in this world Judy has an allowance, she has money to spend, in fact she has so much more than that. She has clothing, belongings and even a place to stay and none of this needs to be explained to her. She feels it, she knows it, and she, for now at least, belongs right where she is.

Together, Judy and Ellie will share a room in a school dorm as if this has always been so. They are free to come and go within reason. There are roll calls and set eating times as well as curfews; neither girl has any problem with this.

Even though Judy has essentially only just arrived, everything is familiar to her, in a way and in some form or other she has been in this world for a more than just a few moments, she has been here since she first picked up that book, a book of course she is now without for she is living within it.

The girls are a part of each other. There is almost nothing about their time together so far that might suggest that they have only just come together. Ellie may be the more confident one, the more outgoing one though she needs this connection every bit as much as Judy does.

In their first outing together and with the fun there are having, there is one thing or one person that they fail to take note of. Sure, how could they take notice? They do not know of this person, and they have no reason to take note of him even with the fact that he is following them, stalking them somewhat.

This person, this boy comes from the same world that Judy does. He has been lost in this other place, lost in many other places, and now belongs to nowhere in particular. Being dark to some degree to begin with, this bully has grown into his own darkness and that will become evident very shortly indeed.

***

Having witnessed movement he knows or believes he knows cannot be or perhaps should not be, Oliver begins to move down that hospital hallway. Slowly he moves being not too sure of what to expect and his fear is compounded by the darkness that follows. The lighting begins to fail up ahead, flickering before going out almost completely.

No one else around appears to take any notice of the darkened portion of hallway and fairly soon Oliver finds himself totally alone and walking into that darkness. There is no regular hospital activity in this moment, no nurses or doctors moving about, no patients or visitors or people accompanying potential patients.

The sound of footsteps running begins to echo making it difficult to determine as to exactly where they are. This is as odd as odd can be and should be somewhat unsettling too though Oliver is not all to unnerved by it. Oliver keeps moving as is. If indeed it could be possible that this Abe person is somewhere close by then Oliver feels at least a little guilty for Abe's disappearance even if it is something that Abe had coming.

'Come out, come out, wherever you are' Oliver nervously sings while considering turning back, feeling a kind of malevolent presence along with a strange need to play with or a need to taunt that presence into showing itself.

He can't do that, however, turn back that is. If there is indeed something dark and unnatural happening here, then he is already within its mix whether he wants to be or not so there is no turning back. It may be Judy's story and she may be lying in a coma, but Oliver definitely has his part to play.

'You had it coming. You do know that ... don't you? You cannot blame me.'

There is no response to Oliver's words, well not verbally anyway. Those echoing footsteps continue to sound out intermittently.

'Don't hold me responsible, I am not responsible, and neither is anyone else I know.'

Oliver comes to a halt and so too do the echoes. Lighting begins to flicker once more before returning to normal as does regular hospital activity. Hospital staff along with patients and so on all return as if they had not gone anywhere at all. Oliver may just have had his first moment within what it is he guards. To make sure all is well or is as well as it can be, Oliver returns to the place he stood moments ago.

Judy still lays unconscious in a hospital bed and her mother still sits with her head in her hands in the chair next to Judy's bed. He may still be able to see her, but Oliver is sure that Judy has gone somewhere else and that is partly down to his involvement.

***
It definitely feels as if they have always had this sister like friendship as Judy and Ellie's first excursion comes to an end. They did not and could not know of the follower they had on this excursion as they too could not know that he has followed them to the school dorm. He doesn't go so far as to follow them all the way inside though there is something of interest on the outside not so far away from that dormitory.

That something of interest is a someone, a someone unknown to him. Whether or not he knows this person is irrelevant. This someone is one of Queen Bee's cheer-leading sidekicks and she is completely unaware that a threat is looming. She has no idea of what is about to happen until it is too late.

A haunting darkness, a black cloud sweeps in on her like an animal without physical limitations, a predator sweeping in, about to pounce upon its prey and pounce as such he does. She turns and hardly has enough time to scream let alone react in a way to attempt protecting herself. He has struck and a bully has just evolved if you can call it an evolution, an evolution into something else. He has truly succumbed to darkness. It is more than that. He has become darkness itself.