As he hurtled across the front porch and down the stairs, he heard his friends behind him. They leapt from the last step onto the sidewalk, hopped over the curb, and skidded into the middle of the street.

When they turned around, they saw that the only light in the entire town spilled dimly from the windows of The Enigmatic Manuscript. All Eddie could see of the other buildings on Center Street were silent silhouettes against a starless sky.

Inside, the store now seemed empty. Those vague arms Eddie had seen reaching from the shadows were gone. Eddie glanced over his shoulder to the park.

Could she have followed them out of the store? Could she be with them out here in the dark street?

“What’s happening?” said Maggie.

“I heard her talking to me,” said Eddie. “She asked me why I want to hurt her.”

“I thought I heard someone talking in the store too,” she said. “But I figured it was my imagination.”

“The Woman in Black,” said Harris, crossing his arms over his chest. His voice started to rise. “She’s coming for all of us now?”

“We need to stay calm,” said Eddie. “We still have some light left. If we stay quiet, maybe we can sit here and-”

“Are you crazy?” said Harris. “You want to sit in the middle of the cold dark street and keep reading this stupid thing? No way! I want to find someplace nice and bright to hide.”

“That’s it,” said Maggie quietly.

“What do you mean?” said Harris. “What’s it?”

The light from the store gave Maggie’s eyes a fierce glow. “She keeps asking Eddie why he wants to hurt her. But why does she think he’s hurting her? What have we been doing for the past couple days?”

Eddie and Harris glanced at each other. “All we’ve been doing is reading Nathaniel Olmstead’s book,” said Harris.

“Right!” Maggie pointed at the book Harris had tucked under his arm. The Enigmatic Manuscript. “When Eddie was translating the book last night, he only got so far because she interrupted him. Just like we were interrupted right now.” Maggie thought about that. “Maybe she’s afraid of what we’ll learn if we finish reading the book.” She smiled. “That only makes me want to read it more.”

The lights inside the store began to flicker again, this time dimming almost all the way out.

“We won’t be able to read anything if the lights go out,” said Eddie. He huddled closer to his friends.

Harris cried out, pointing toward the apartment above the store. The light turned on in the kitchen window. Frances ’s silhouette appeared. She raised her hands to the glass, as if trying to block the glare to see outside. Then she lifted the pane and leaned over the windowsill. She didn’t seem to notice that the entire town had fallen into darkness. “Are you kids hungry?” she called to them.

“Mom!” shouted Harris. “Watch out!”

Behind Frances, another silhouette loomed. It rose and expanded, filling the bright kitchen window with shadow until the room went dark.

“Mom!” Harris cried again.

Then all the lights went out. Downstairs. Upstairs. Eddie’s body stiffened as Maggie clutched at his arm. He could barely see her face.

“Mom! She’s behind you!” Harris called as he started running toward the side door.

“Harris!” Maggie shouted.

“Don’t go in there!” Eddie called to Harris’s running silhouette. Then, before he could stop himself, he chased after his friend. Maggie followed close behind. He heard the screen door slam. Eddie followed the sound, yanking the door open. Maggie caught it from behind him. She held it open as Eddie stared up into the darkness. He could hear Harris tripping up the steps. He had to turn off his brain so that he would not imagine Harris falling into the cold arms of the looming silhouette.

“Mom! I’m coming!” Harris cried.

Despite being unable to see, Eddie took the stairs two at a time. Using the handrail, he yanked his way to the top and flung himself through the doorway.

But the overhead light in the kitchen blinded him.

Eddie found Harris in the middle of the room hugging Frances. Harris heaved sobs into his mother’s neck, and Frances glanced at Eddie, as if to say, What are you kids up to?

Maggie bumped into Eddie’s back as she came up the stairs, pushing him forward into the kitchen. Eddie caught a glimpse out the window. The town green was lit up as usual, as were all the buildings on Center Street.

The Woman in Black was gone. It was as if she had never even been here.

“Honey, what’s the matter?” said Frances, pushing Harris away so she could see his face. “This is not the Spanish Inquisition. I only asked if you were hungry.”

Harris turned away, wiping at his eyes, embarrassed. “Are we hungry, you guys?” he said. Eddie and Maggie nodded slowly. Turning back toward his mother, Harris said, “Can they stay for dinner? We’re working on a project tonight.” He choked back a sob, finally composing himself. “Hopefully, we’ll be done soon.”

“Of course,” said Frances, looking concerned. She went to the sink and turned on the faucet. Filling a saucepan with water, she glanced over her shoulder. “For goodness’ sake, Harris, I had no idea you took your homework so seriously.”

In Harris’s bedroom, they placed The Enigmatic Manuscript and their translations in the middle of the floor and sat in a triangle around them. They stared at the book in silence for a whole minute before Maggie said, “Whose turn is it?”

“If we keep reading, is she going to come after us again?” said Harris, still shaken. “Is she going to come after my mom again?”

Maggie picked at her fingernail. “She might want us to think she will. But I have a feeling that we should keep reading anyway.”

“Even if she tries to…,” Eddie started. But he couldn’t think of how to end the sentence. “Tries to…”

“Tries to scare us?” Maggie finished. “That’s all she’s been doing so far.”

Eddie flinched. “Wait a second,” he said. “You’re right. All she has been doing is scaring us. Like her bark is worse than her bite?”

“But barking is not all she can do,” said Harris. “You read The Wish of the Woman in Black yourself. She’s evil.”

“No. She’s angry,” said Maggie. “But if she’s so powerful, why hasn’t she turned us into little black piles of goo, like she’s so good at?”

“Maggie!” Eddie said, leaning forward and clutching her arm. “She might be listening.”

“So what?” said Maggie, yanking herself away. “I think if she really could stop us from reading this book, she’d have done it already, instead of performing these little parlor tricks. Flickering lights? I mean… are we really that scared of the dark?”

“Yes!” said Eddie and Harris at the same time.

“This is why I don’t read these kinds of books!” said Maggie. “Being scared makes you act like an idiot.”

“Hey,” said Eddie, “you weren’t the one she spoke to. Maybe if you’d been there last night, you’d understand…”

“I’m here now,” Maggie answered quietly, “and we need to finish reading the book.” She picked it up and handed it to Eddie. She smiled and said, “We can do it. I know we can.”

… that was before the nightmares began.

I would tumble from my bed, screaming into the night. The darkness coaxed me back to bed, but as soon as I placed my head on the pillow, the awful visions returned-children with no faces, cities full of gravestones, hands clawing at me from behind my wallpaper, shadows that tied me to the floor-and all the while, the sound of the Woman’s laughter taunted me.

Finally, I stopped sleeping at all. During the day, I was a zombie. Since putting away the pendant, writing was impossible, so sometimes, I pulled it from the desk drawer in the basement, wondering if I should simply write the Woman’s story. But I had promised myself I wouldn’t. At that point, the thought of another missing child on my conscience was enough to deter me from using the pendant to write.