Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

had heard the night before. This time there were actual footsteps

directly above her instead of just amorphous whispers coming

from all sides. Helen didn?t know what would be worse?going up

there and finding a gang of intruding monsters or finding nothing

at all. For a moment Helen wondered if she was starting to crack

up. She decided not to go up to check. She?d seen enough ghosts

already that day.

The next morning, Helen went to see Dr. Cunningham. After a few

minutes of flashing a penlight in her eyes and thumping her on the

chest, Dr. Cunningham told her father that there didn?t seem to be

any permanent damage done. Then he yelled at Helen and told her

she was far too fair to be walking around without a hat on. She

didn?t know how it had happened, but after one trip to the doctor

her meltdown had been brushed off as nothing more than the carelessness

of not keeping her head covered. At least the checkup got

her out of school for the day.

When she got home, Helen opened her computer and spent a few

frustrating hours online trying to find some information on the

three women who were plaguing her. Every search she did overwhelmed

her with so many possibilities that her task seemed hopeless,

and she couldn?t narrow it down because she didn?t have any

real context for what it was she had seen. Were they ghosts? Demons?

Or just her own personal manifestations of crazy? It was entirely

possible that she had hallucinated the whole thing, and now

that she didn?t feel so enraged she was almost starting to think

maybe she had had heatstroke. Almost.

Claire came over in the afternoon to deliver some bad news. ?The

whole school thinks you?re on your way to an institution as we

speak,? she said as soon as they sat down in the family room. ?You

should?ve come in today.?