Rosalind King

“You may be able to kill me but you’ll never stop me. Mark my words, I’ll come back and search for as long as I have to until I find you, and when I do, you’ll wish you never did this to me OR to my family.”

Rosalind King is seen from the streets, dangling from the roof of the building like a picture hanging from a tattered string.

The crowd below stares in fear as they watch her slowly slip, inch by inch until finally Roz lets go, barreling to the ground. There’s a scream. Everything goes black.

Taryn Wheeler practically throws herself out of bed when she is jolted awake, panting and disoriented from the horrible dream she was having.

It was just a dream. She thinks to herself.

Taryn gets up and hops in the shower, itching to wash off the sweat dripping from her brow. When she gets out it’s 7:00am. School starts in an hour and a half.

She runs down the stairs, greeting her little brother, Luke, as she passes him on the staircase.

“Morning, hon.”

“Morning Mom,” Taryn says back, “What’s for breakfast?”

She sits down at the table where a plate of eggs, bacon and toast sits already prepared. She scoffs it down, then grabs her backpack and heads out the door towards Cottage Street to her bus stop.

“Sky!” She calls as Skylar Larkin walks up the road towards their stop.

Skylar runs up to her.

“Hey! Did you get my text last night?” Taryn asks.

“Yes, oh my god! Gage frickin’ Pierce?” Skylar screeches.

“I know, can you believe it? He’s so cute and he wants me, Taryn Wheeler to go to the dance with him! I need to find a dress! Wanna come with me after school?”

“Duh! Can your mom drop us off?” Skylar asks.

“Yeah!”

“Cool! Can’t wait.”

The bus picks them up at 10:10. Once they arrive, they go to their lockers to grab their books for homeroom and each head their separate ways.

They’re both in grade 11 and 16-years-old. They go to Lester B. Pearson Secondary in a town called Foxdale.

Tare-Bear<3: omg he’s totally staring @ me

Queen Skyxoxo: Gage? stop it

Tare-Bear<3: seriously!!! wut do I do?

Queen Skyxoxo: idk? smile?

Tare-Bear<3: he just looked away

Queen Skyxoxo: :(

Five hours later.

Taryn and Skylar have their last period of the day together. They walk into the classroom and sit at their desks, situated directly next to each other.

“Oh my god, class straight up sucks without you!” Taryn exclaims.

“I know, right? Everyone in my first four classes is so lame!”

“If you ladies don’t mind, I might begin my class.” Says Mister Reid, interrupting their conversation.

The girls respond in unison, “Sorry Mister read.”

When class ends, Taryn calls her mom to ask for a ride to the mall.

“She’s on her way.” Taryn says to Skylar.

“Alright.” Skylar responds.

When they get to the mall they head straight for their favourite dress store, Ritchies. Taryn hurries through the store picking up multiple dresses before heading to the changeroom to try them all on.

The girls have to wait at the host table for someone to unlock a changeroom for Taryn to use.

Minutes later, a girl dressed in a black ankle-length dress comes around the corner to answer the ring. She has brown hair and big green eyes. She was only about a foot away from the girls when something visibly changed in Taryn’s demeanor.

Skylar looked at Taryn with worry, “Tare? Tare-Bear? Ar-are you okay?”

Taryn didn’t respond but instead, in the blink of an eye and with no forewarning at all she leapt over the host table and on top of the girl. Taryn’s hands were around the girl’s neck and there was something evil in her eyes. Before Skylar had even realized what was happening Taryn was strangling the stranger.

“Taryn!” Skylar called running towards the girls flailing around on the ground. She grabbed Taryn’s shoulders and tried pulling her off but she couldn’t. This was not Taryn, at least not the one Skylar had accompanied to the mall a mere 20 minutes ago.

“You’ll pay for what you did to my parents. They were crushed when they found out I was gone. I saw it, I felt it.” The sound came from Taryn’s mouth, but it did not come from her. It was distorted and angry and it terrified Skylar.

The stranger’s face was turning purple now and Skylar knew that if she didn’t stop this, this girl would die. She screamed, “TARYN! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HER!”

With one strenuous yank, Skylar had managed to get Taryn off and once she was up, she ran. Skylar followed as Taryn ran outside and down the street until finally, she collapsed on the front lawn of someone’s house. She fell unconscious.

Skylar sat on the lawn until Taryn came to and when she did, she was visibly exhausted. Her brows were furrowed and she was breathing heavily.

“W-What just happened?” She asked.

Skylar was shocked, “Do you really not remember?” She stares at Taryn expectantly. When she doesn’t respond Skylar says, “Taryn, you just strangled a stranger in there. If I hadn’t gotten you off of her, she’d be dead. How could you not remember something like that?”

Taryn goes silent now. She pulls out her phone and texts her mom.

The ride home was silent like the night.

When Taryn got home, she went straight up to her room, threw on her headphones and laid in bed until she fell asleep.

“Have you got my shit?” Asks a young boy.

“Depends. How much have you got?” Roz demands.

The boy looks around carefully before pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket.

“Hundred and fifty.” He says.

“That’ll get you a gram of pot, only.”

“I was hoping for more than just pot.” He says.

“Not my problem, this shit ain’t free. Take it or leave it.”

Reluctantly, the boy hands Roz the cash.

“Now fuck off.” Roz says, shoeing him away with her hands.

Taryn springs up in her bed as the sound of her alarm scares her back to consciousness.

7:00am. Time to get up. She checks her phone for any texts from Skylar. There’s none. She sighs. On her way down the stairs this morning she doesn’t greet Luke as he runs up the stairs past her. He puts his hand up for a high-five, Taryn ignores it.

“Morning, hon.” Her mom says joyfully.

“Hi Mom.” Taryn pushes the words out as if it takes all of what little energy she has left.

“You look down, sweetheart. Are you feeling okay?”

“Not really; I slept awful.” Taryn says.

“Did you have another dream?”

“Yeah, but this one wasn’t scary. Just weird.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No thanks.” Taryn takes one bite of her toast before standing up and leaving the house for her bus stop.

“I hope your day gets better, baby!” Her Mom calls after her while she’s heading down the street.

Taryn is standing at the bus stop with her arms folded when she sees Skylar heading towards her. She doesn’t call for her this time. She tilts her head down as if to hide from her best friend, afraid of what she’ll say. She grows more and more nervous the closer Skylar gets, but to Taryn’s surprise, Skylar greets her happily.

“Hey, girl!” She says.

“Hey…” Taryn responds carefully.

“How are you feeling today, Tare-Bear?”

“Uhm, alright, I guess. Sorry about yesterday.” Taryn says slowly, chewing on each word before she spits them out. How bizarre? She thinks to herself. As if apologizing for almost strangling a stranger to death at the mall is something that happens as frequently as bumping into someone while walking through a busy hallway.

There’s a moment of silence. The bus pulls up. The girls sit next to each other at the back and Taryn pulls out her phone. She’s expecting this car ride to be as silent as the last one the two had together.

“It’s okay.” Skylar says. “I’m not sure what happened yesterday, but I know it wasn’t you. You seemed really messed up about it. Maybe you should see a doctor.”

“What, and admit to trying to strangle someone? I’ll go to jail, Sky.”

“Juvie, actually. You’d go to juvie.” Skylar teases, smiling shyly afterwards, testing the turbulent waters.

Taryn giggles.

“I get it if you don’t wanna see a doctor, but at least consider it. Something could be wrong.”

“I think something is wrong.” Taryn pauses, “Don’t tell anyone this, but I’ve been having these dreams.”

“What dreams?” Skylar prods.

“Well, dreams about a girl; around our age. Her name is Roz, I think. At least that’s what people keep calling her in my dreams. It started yesterday morning. She was hanging from Town Hall and she threatened this girl standing above her but like, to the side, not directly above her. And then she falls. I woke up just before she hit the ground but I was seeing everything from like, her perspective, I guess? So, it felt like I was falling.”

“Did the girl push her?” Skylar asks.

“No, it was someone else, a man. And then last night, I dreamt about Roz again. She was selling drugs, I think, to a boy around our age as well.”

“16 and buying and selling drugs?” Skylar asks doubtfully.

“I know it sounds crazy but yes. And then Roz brought the money home to her parents and everybody got a cut. It was almost as if her parents told her to sell them, or at least knew she was doing it and were like, okay with it…” Taryn trailed off, her eyes shifted and Skylar could see she was zoning out. She snaps her fingers in front of Taryn’s face.

“Taryn?” She asks.

Taryn shakes her head as she re-focusses. “Hmm? Oh, sorry.”

The bus arrives at their school and the girls head to class.

Queen Skyxoxo: SOS. meet me in the stairwell by Corado’s class NOW.

“Can I go to the bathroom?” Taryn asks her teacher.

Tare-Bear<3: omw

“Look at this.” Skylar holds out her phone. It’s an article and the title reads:

16-YEAR-OLD FALLS TO DEATH FROM FOXDALE’S TOWN HALL; CITY-WIDE MAN-HUNT FOR CULPRIT UNDERWAY

What does this mean? She asks herself.

“Where did you find this?” Taryn demands.

“I was curious about your dreams so I searched “roz pushed from top of building foxdale” on Google and this article was the first thing that came up.”

“So, I’ve been dreaming about a real person who was really murdered?” Taryn asks in shock.

“Seems that way.”

“Well, what does this mean? Why is it happening to me?”

Skylar doesn’t answer, she appears to be consumed in her phone.

“Sky?” Taryn asks again.

“Oh my god. Look.” Skylar holds up her phone once more, but this time there is a picture of two girls. Taryn recognizes the first as Roz. The second girl has brown hair and big green eyes.

“Is this Roz?” Skylar asks.

“Yeah, and that’s the girl from Ritchies. The one I…”

“Holy shit.” Says Skylar.

Taryn gulps.

“Wait a second, at the store when you were on top of that girl, you said something. Well, you didn’t really say it —”

“What do you mean?” Taryn interrupts.

“Well, like, they weren’t words exactly, they were more like sounds, it didn’t sound like you. It didn’t sound like a human.”

“But did you understand it?” Taryn begs.

“Yeah, you said something about her doing something to your parents. And something about how you were “gone”.” Skylar air-quoted the word “gone”.

“My parents? What does this have to do with them?” Taryn asks.

“Not your parents, Taryn. Rosalind’s parents.” Skylar says.

“What does all this mean?” Taryn asks.

“I think we’d better go find that girl from Ritchies.” Skylar says.

The girls decide to leave school, skipping the rest of the day. They head to Ritchies to see if they can find the girl from Taryn’s dream. When they get there, they don’t see her, but she must not have told anyone about what happened because nobody stopped the girls from going in. They went up to the clerk and described the girl from Taryn’s dream. They had to lie and tell the clerk that they were related to the girl just to get her phone number. But it worked.

2895550199: Hi, this is gonna sound crazy but I need ur help. My name is Taryn, and I tried to hurt u at Ritchies yesterday. I’m sorry about that but u need to understand that it wasn’t me. It has something to do with Rosalind King. Call me. Thx.

The girls waited. Minutes later, Taryn’s phone rang.

“It’s her.” Taryn says.

She answers the phone, “He-hello?”

“Is this Taryn?” Answers a female voice on the other line.

“Yes. What’s your name?”

“It’s Jayda. Can you come over?”

“What’s your address?” Taryn asks. “And I’m bringing my friend, the one who was with me at Ritchies.”

“Okay. It’s 12 The Boulevard, Foxdale. See you soon.”

The girls catch the bus to The Boulevard and walk to Jayda’s house from the stop. When they get there, Jayda answers the door. She invites the girls inside.

Jayda and Skylar sit on the couch and Taryn sits on a chair to the side. Jayda looks to be the same age but if she lives with her parents, they’re not home.

Jayda doesn’t waste a second. She turns to Taryn and asks, “What do you know about Roz King?”

Taryn begins to explain the dreams she was having and how ever since attacking Jayda at Ritchies she hasn’t been feeling like herself.

“Wait a second. Are you trying to tell me that you’re like, possessed or something?” Jayda asks in a frustrated voice.

“Well, how else do you explain this? I’m just trying to figure out why, if not because I’m possessed, am I having dreams about Roz and attacking people I’ve never met before while simultaneously giving you shit for “what you did”,” Taryn does air quotes, “to my parents?”

Jayda stares off somewhere for a minute. Taryn and Skylar look at each other while she thinks.

“Jayda, can you please tell us how you knew Rosalind?” Skylar asks.

“Well, I met her in grade nine. We instantly became best friends. We did everything together. But one day, I heard about an incident, I guess you could call it, at school where Roz had apparently been selling drugs to kids and splitting the profit with her parents. It was so messed up. I tried telling her what she was doing was wrong, but she wouldn’t listen. It seemed like that lifestyle was sort of sucking her in, and I didn’t want to be a part of it, so I told my parents. But then they called the cops, and like a day later CPS came and took Roz away, sent her parents to prison. Roz was crushed, but more, she was angry at me for telling on her.”

“What happened to her then?” Skylar asks.

“I don’t know, foster care, I think. She stopped showing up to school. But sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of scratching on my window, but when I’d get up to see what it was, nothing was there.”

Skylar listened intently; Taryn didn’t say anything.

“One day, we ran into each other on the sidewalk outside of Town Hall, she was in a hurry. I tried talking to her but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just ran inside the building and up the stairs until she got to the roof. I followed her. The whole way up I heard fast footsteps behind me, like someone was chasing after us, or maybe Roz. When I got to the roof I flung open the door and jumped behind a wall to wait and see if someone came after me. I didn’t see Roz. A man came through the door. I watched him walk out onto the roof and approach the side of the building. He started talking to someone, and it wasn’t until then that I realized Roz had tried hiding from the man by hanging from the roof. I guess she thought he would leave when he couldn’t see her so she could pull herself back up. It didn’t happen that way.”

Skylar was hanging by a string now, “What happened?” She asks.

“The man stepped on her fingers until Roz let go of the building, and she fell. I heard everybody below screaming and crying, yelling for 911, and then the man turned around and ran back down the stairs. They never found him.”

As Jayda finished her story she teared up, Skylar felt her pain, but when she turned to look at Taryn, her sadness changed to fear.

Skylar watched as her best friend contorted into something supernatural. Her clothes tore, her face darkened, she grew two feet and her shoulder blades poked so far out of her back that it looked like Taryn’s skin would rip. Skylar covered her ears as Taryn opened her mouth and the cry of a banshee rang out so loud it was deafening.

Skylar fled, but the couch they were sitting on flipped from the force of Skylar’s flee to the front door. Jayda got stuck underneath it.

Taryn lunged for Jayda, sinking sharp, yellow nails into the skin atop her shoulders. Jayda screamed and Skylar broke for the door. She covered her ears once again as the sound of a predator ripping through the live body of its prey filled the room, followed by the smell of decay which came so immediately that Skylar knew whatever was happening behind her as she raced for the door, was something she would never forget.