Revenge
Beware the fury of a patient man. John Dryden

Synopsis:

That night, my ghost came back. Lisa was, as typical of her, in a deep sleep, so I didn’t try to rouse her. Instead, I bravely asked the specter, “Who are you?”

Once again, she moved toward the center of the room. As it moved, I heard a child’s voice say, “Help me.” Then, it disappeared near the center of the room as before. Somehow, I knew that this was a little girl, but I can’t explain how I knew that.

THE WAGER
This is the final part of the story. Will Jen and Sam have to meet their fate? Does Justin get his just deserts? What happens to Mike and Liam?
Is there a happy ending or does disaster strike? Thank you to all who have followed this tale to the end and a special thank you to those who have left comments.
Annie

Author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.

The Wager Part 8
The story starts to near its end. Jen and Sam think that they are making good progress in thwarting Justin's plans. There is reason for some optimism but then the story reaches a dark place. Is it the dark before the dawn?

“We have a ghost.”

Everyone looked up from their breakfast plates. The clinking of utensils on plates ceased. Lisa, of course, was first to comment. “Cool!” I knew she would like it.

“Can’t be. The leasing agent would have said something!”

“Really, Daddy, about a ghost? I don’t think so.”

Raven was on her way to work when she spots a car with the hood up and a young woman with long auburn hair standing in front of it. She pulls up behind the car and gets out and walks towards the young woman.

“Car trouble?” Raven was watching the woman.

Clair knew she should have the water pump taken care of, but she has been too busy at the Library covering people’s shifts. She hasn’t had the time to take the car by a mechanic to get fixed. Now, here she was stuck on the side of the road. She spots a small dark green pickup truck pull behind her car.

Curtain Fall Chapter 22

David made a small groan as he leaned back from what seemed his twentieth examination of the images that they’d captured of what had happened in the ceremonial circle on the Tirielen palace grounds. His eyes itched with fatigue and he gently rubbed them as he thought about what he’d seen.

Author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.

Thursday, March 29th 8:43 PM
The after party was more like an after dance than a gathering of all the contestants being made available for the audience to schmooze with. With how I was feeling about the competition right now that was kind of a relief. I didn't think I had it in me to smile while people told me I should have won or placed. What was I doing here?!

THE WAGER
Tom is slowly disappearing and Jen is becoming more real. The desperate search to find evidence against Justin continues. Tom and Sam are able to spend time out together to reconnect before Tom has to get down to the task of finding a man with whom to meet the terms of the wager. Tom's check up with the doctors ends with his castration and his self image is shattered.

The walk back from the GAT house was nothing short of painful even if it wasn’t that far. Honestly it was like three blocks from the GAT house to the dorm, so I don’t know what I was complaining about. I walked to the elevator, remembered that it was broken and began my long trudge up the stairs. Finally clearing the 4th floor landing, I reached into my pocket to retrieve my dorm key and walked down the exposed balcony deep in thought.

If you look up my old street on a dated picture form Google, you’d see a children’s paradise. I could ride my bicycle the entire miracle mile of my block without worrying about someone striking me with a car; no one tried to steal my ride and no one offered me anything harder than extra-extra-sour sour patch kids candy.

I look at it now and I have to shake my head in disgust.

It went to shit pretty quick.

“You took your sweet time getting here,” Aleah said to me sharply as I walked through the front door of the GAT house. There were about twenty girls sitting in the living room all of them with varying levels of annoyance written on their faces. Why were we here? What was going on?

“I walked as slowly as I could,” I snapped back. She rolled her eyes and pointed to an empty chair across from Tiffany.

“Okay, now that EVERYONE is here,” She said, glaring in my direction. “Let’s get to work on our little problem.”

The last day of school was a Friday, and school was released at noon. We could have waited until Saturday morning, but we had everything ready and we left Friday afternoon in a caravan of two cars … mom in one, and Aunt Katy, Lisa and me in the other. Lisa and I just had to ride together, and my mom said she couldn’t listen to us for two-hundred miles. The three of us chatted as the miles zoomed by, and we arrived in Houston in time for the evening traffic.