A Collection of Scary Stories

When and How

Four friends, Terra, Rebekka, Natalie, and Angela, wanted to go to a town called Lilydale after hearing a story told by Natalie's mom. She had told them that her friend's cousin had gone there one night for something to do. He had sat down with the psychic who told him that he would die within the next hour. Her friend's cousin just laughed and left the place. When he was crossing the street to get to his car, he was hit with an oncoming truck and died. The girls had found this story interesting and wanted to see if any predictions would come true for them. So they all piled into Rebekka's car and took the two hour trip to Lilydale.

"This place looks promising," said Terra, pointing to the second building they passed. It was a one room cabin entirely made of wood. It was painted a dark orange color. There was also a sign in front that had a picture of a "seeing eye." The girls shrugged and went to knock on the door. A short, dark skinned man answered the door.

"Come in" he said gruffly, and led the girls to a small room which had five magenta pillows on the floor, along with a short teal colored table. Along the walls there was different colored scarves and beads. The girls were about to sit down when the psychic stopped them and held out his hand.

"Fifty dollars per session" he said shortly, and looked at them with earnest.

"No way! That's too expensive!" exclaimed Angela. They walked back out to their car with the short man looking at them angrily. The girls continued driving up the road, not wanting to waste a four hour round trip, but all they saw were places even more expensive than the first psychic's. Eventually they came to the end of the road and were about to turn around when they saw a woman beckoning to them. They thought they should try her because she was the first woman they had seen that night, and it might result in something different. They got out of the car and approached the woman that was standing on the grass in front of her psychic building.

"Hello children," she said with an eerie accent "I will make a deal forrrr you. Fifty dollars, and I will answer a question from each of you. She grinned, knowing that the girls would accept the offer, and led them inside. The inside was dark except for a dim glow from the center of the room. They all sat down on the pillows and the psychic's gaze turned to Terra.

"My dearrrr," she said, rolling her r's "What would you like to know?" Terra hesitated as everyone looked at her eagerly.

"Well, will Jared McHenson ever ask me out?" she asked shyly. The psychic gazed into her crystal ball, from which the glow came from, and then her eyes snapped back up to Terra.

"No," she told her "In fact, you will not even marry." Terra gasped in surprise and then muttered something about being out in the car. Rebekka's turn came next. She asked if she would be accepted to Harvard. The psychic said she would, but she would not attend Harvard.

"I'll just wait in the car with Terra" said Rebekka and went out the door. After she left, the psychic's attention turned toward Natalie.

"I want to know when my parents will get me the new car they promised" Natalie said eagerly. The psychic simply said that they had already bought it, but she wouldn't be receiving it. Natalie left for the car in a huff, leaving only Angela alone with the psychic.

"And what would you like to know?" she asked.

"How and when will I die?" I said without hesitation. The psychic's mouth turned into a frown of concentration as she looked deep into her crystal ball.

"You will die four months short of your seventy-fourth birthday, on a plane headed from Rochester, New York to Buffalo. The plane's engine will fail at exactly 9:41 and you will die in the crash." The psychic smiled and waved to Angela. Angela nervously waved back and headed outside to join her friends. Once she got in the car, she told them about her prediction.

"Just avoid all planes when you're seventy-three" said Natalie.

"Yeah, and who would take a plane from Rochester to Buffalo? It's only like a one hour drive" added Terra. We all tossed our heads back in laughter, but when we brought them back down it was too late to see the truck that was hurtling toward us...

Fifty-six years later

Four months short of Angela's seventy-fourth birthday, the staff at Riverdale Hospital were discussing what to do with the old woman, Angela Seader was her name, who had been in a coma ever since the car accident that had killed her three friends. As far as they could tell, she had no family, or at least no one had come to visit in the two decades the most senior of them had been working there.

For some reason the Riverdale Hospital in Rochester was overcrowded, while their sister facility had several empty beds. Since no one ever came to look in or her, and since she didn't know where she was, everyone agreed there could be no harm in sending her by air ambulance to Buffalo.

A nice, short, safe trip...