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Chapter 17

Alice had a nice meal as she talked with her parents. They all talked about how their days were. Alice was worried that she'll never be able to get onto the bus again. "I'm sure that you'll soon join your friends back on the bus next week. Besides, people learn from their mistakes sometimes." Her mother explained as she tried to cut a piece out of her enchilada. Alice wasn't sure how she was going to prove that James' supervisor left him buried in the cement at the abandoned construction site. She thought that the only way to get James to rest in peace was to get his supervisor to admit that she had left him in the cement. Alice probably guessed that his supervisor would only lie about the whole thing not happening. She enjoyed savoring every piece of her enchilada dish. From the rice all the way to the beef in the enchilada. Alice was frightened to know that James would not stop causing mayhem at her school.

After supper, Alice completed the last of her homework. She was also sure to find out more about Mrs. Backstrom. Alice went onto the construction company's website again. She went to the webpage where she found the picture of the people that were on the council board. Alice stared at the picture of the lady known as Mrs. Backstrom. She was smiling in the picture along with the other council members. Alice thought that something would happen if she clicked the name of the council member. She had the feeling that she would be sent to a website that would tell her everything about her. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Alice went to type the name of Mrs. Backstrom in the search bar. After she clicked enter, she was led to a webpage that had a picture of Mrs. Backstrom and there was a paragraph of text underneath the picture. The text tells the reader what there is to know about her. Alice thought that this was a good start. She read through each sentence. The paragraph says that she had been doing some supervision at some construction sites. The information also tells the viewer that she also is a mother and is taking care of one girl at home. "Could it be that she is Amelia's mom?" Alice said to herself in her mind. She went to get ready for bed afterwards. The night was peaceful. During the next morning, Alice was woken up by her alarm clock. She got up at the time she usually wakes up. Everything seems normal so far, until she walked up to the mirror. Alice could hear the sound of a finger moving against and also leaving a mark on it. There was the loud of a small squeak while the finger moved on the mirror. Alice turned and saw that there was a message being written out on the mirror. Alice gasped when there was red liquid being used to write on the mirror. The two first letters were M and R. Alice wanted to scream, but only a dry "Please" came out from her throat. The first word in the message was completed. It read "MRS. BACKSTROM". Alice saw somebody on the other side of the mirror. It was James, he was writing on the mirror using his ordinary finger. "Alice? What's going on?" Alice father asked as he heard the sound of the finger being moved on the mirror. Alice still stared at the mirror near the door to her room. It was hanging on the wall opposite to where the light switch was at.

The father opened the door to her room. He was worried when Alice was staring in horror at the mirror. "Dad, there was a word written on my mirror!" She nearly screamed. The father came into the room and closed the door. He wanted to have a good look at the mirror. There were no words written in some red liquid on the mirror. The father had no idea why his daughter would be terrified to be looking into a mirror. There was nothing in the room that made her scared. He thought that there might be a mouse in her bedroom. Even thought there were no mouse problems that the parents had to deal with yet. "What's wrong Alice?" He queried using a quiet tone of voice. "I thought that... That." She answered while turning towards the mirror. Alice was less nervous and surprised that part of the message written on the mirror had disappeared. "Was there a mouse here?" The father questioned. Alice shook her head. She started to calm herself down. "Why don't you come to the table and eat your breakfast. You can tell me and mom what has gotten you so scared." The father went into the hallway. Alice felt that her parents weren't going to believe her. She breathed in and out. Alice didn't want to be anymore scared. She went to the dining room, where her parents were waiting. The father told the mother about what happened. "Alice? What happened?" The mother demanded. She was just as worried as the father was. Alice surmised that her parents would not believe her story about a ghost writing on her mirror. After all, she felt that the parents would not believe her and think that she had an awful nightmare. "Well, you see. I had a pretty bad nightmare. You see, I was sleeping, and I was dreaming that I was in still in my room." Alice started. Her parents listened to her story about her being hunted down by maggots that have taken over the hallways. She even told the parents about how she saw a giant maggot outside on the street. "Oh my, that is a very bad dream." The mother commented as she was ready to eat some cereal that was served for this morning. Alice managed to eat all of her cereal. Her parents told her that there is no rush. "Dad, mom, my friends are going to be there. I can't wait to see them again." Alice said.

It seemed strange to the parents that Alice would instantly become excited for school after having a bad nightmare about maggots. The father looked at the mother and shrugged. Alice had her side of the table cleaned up before she went to get her teeth brushed. She tried to forget about the message that was written on her mirror. The sight of the word being written in red liquid on the mirror made her a little nervous on the inside. Alice tried not to think about anything else but getting herself ready for today. Alice felt that she was going to be having a great Wednesday. Alice went to put on some black pants and a light grey long sleeved shirt. After she got dressed. Alice took her backpack and went to gather her lunch. Before she got into the hallway, there was a shrill squeak coming from the mirror. Alice closed her eyes and dread at the thought that the message was getting longer. Alice slowly turned towards the mirror. The message was indeed completed. The ghost of James made the finishing touched on the last word. The ghost disappeared as Alice saw that whole message. It read "MRS. BACKSTROM WILL PAY". The red liquid used for writing the message on the mirror trickled downwards. Alice wasn't sure if the liquid was blood. She did have a horrid feeling about what is to come next. She blinked. The message was gone from the mirror. Alice thought that she was just seeing things. She tried to shake away the message on the mirror from her mind. Her lunch kit was waiting on the kitchen counter for her. It was full.

Alice had the lunch kit packed into her backpack. She was ready to go to school. Alice waited a small time for her parents to get ready. They had their teeth brushed and had hoped that the day was going to be a normal one. There was some frost that had been on the car. It was a cold morning. Alice had her autumn coat on. She had to help her parents get the ice off the car. Alice got herself a scraper and started to scrape the ice off the front passenger window. It was a little hard to get the thick layer of ice off the window. Alice felt that she had to scrape through two layers of ice so that somebody could look out of the window. When Alice finished clearing the tough ice off one window, she went over to the passenger door that had to be scraped of ice. As she finished taking off the bit ice that was preventing the passenger in the front from seeing out of it, something appeared on the window that made her heart shiver. There was a message written on the window of ice. It was almost as if somebody took a small scraper and made a message on the window. "MRS. BACKSTROM WILL PAY" The message read on the window. Alice hurried to get to ice scraped off the window. The ice on the window felt like taking off two layers of ice. For it was very hard to get most of it off. Alice got the first layer of hard lice off the area where the message was written on the window. Her father was busy to remove the ice off the passenger window of the car door that was opposite from the car door that Alice was helping to clear. Alice hastened as she frantically moved the ice scraper against the car window. One part of the ice on the passenger window of the was gone. A part of the message was erased from the window. Alice had half of the message erased from window. As more of the window became easier to see out of from the passenger door. The father stared out from the whole window that he was clearing from the other side of the car. He smiled he saw Alice's face. "Hey Alice? What's that you've written on the car window?" He asked. Alice felt doomed. She didn't know what she was going to be telling her dad. "That?" Alice blurted as she looked at the few words left etched into the ice. "Wow, I didn't see that before dad!" She exclaimed, trying to sound surprised. "What or who's going to pay?" The father queried as he looked over to the message that was left on the frozen window. Alice looked at the part of the message that was left. "LL PAY" was the message still left on the window. "Wow I didn't see it until just now. It was as if somebody written on the window and the frost has covered the message overnight.".