Letter To The Editor

  Robin Daily News

  October 27th, 1998

  "Disturbances"

  To the Editor:

  I find what is happening at Robin State College right now deeply disturbing. In just one week, a student has been murdered on campus in their own dorm room. What was once a quiet little state college is now a murder scene, and we the people of Robin have received few to no answers about this very shocking murder from our government officials or college leadership. Simply put, this is unacceptable.

  As many in this town know, the suspected murderer has no history of violence whatsoever and has no history of aggression towards other students on campus. If that is true, then why are so many in our community jumping to conclusions? I hope my friends and neighbors will join me in calling the Office of Governor Jeanne Shaheen and asking her to ensure that this matter is fully investigated. For all we know, this murderer could still be on the loose. Our community is at risk and I ask that our leaders take this matter more seriously.

  – Jim Johnson, Swampton, NH

  Chapter 1 - The Stone Is Missing

  Dr. Brighton sits on the edge of her desk nervously with both of her hands across her chest. Her long flowing skirt waves in the breeze – she loves to keep the windows open during lecture and the fall air fills the room. She has her black hair tied up in a bun, pushed behind her ears. It is her morning American History class and the professor is shocked to find that her most prized possession, The Stone of One Thousand Souls, is nowhere to be found.

  "I just don't know why someone would do something so awful," Dr. Brighton says as a tear falls down her rosy freckled cheek.

  At the front of the classroom sits Lucy Lemon. A bright eyed, red headed freshman from Nottingham, New Hampshire. She bites her bottom lip as she wonders how someone could do something so awful to someone so kind. Dr. Brighton is Lucy's favorite professor. In fact, most of the students in her American History class feel this way too.

  Dr. Brighton, though a bit odd, is the most caring and kind teacher that Lucy has ever had.

  "Are the police going to do anything about it?" someone asks from the back of the classroom.

  Dr. Brighton shrugs her shoulders. "They don't think that they found any fingerprints but they are on the case. It's just sad. We have such a wonderful community here at the college. Everyone is so kind and so caring, it's just sad to think that someone would do something so awful. That stone is one of a kind. You can't find it anywhere else in the world. It's a very important part of history and who knows what someone is going to do with it."

  The class nods in agreement.

  "We are going to offer a reward though, for anyone who has information that could lead to us finding the stone or making an arrest. Because the person who is found to have done this will be arrested. I am sorry if it was one of your friends, but this stone is very important to me and this is quite a serious matter."

  "How much is the reward?" asks a young boy in the front of the class.

  "The reward is one thousand dollars."

  Lucy Lemon's green eyes light up. She raises her hand quickly as her heart flutters.

  "Yes, Lucy."

  "So, we get to get paid if we find out who did it?"

  Lucy can't believe it – what a great opportunity. She can help her favorite professor and get paid for it? It sounds too good to be true.

  Dr. Brighton nods. "Yes, but don't get yourself into any more trouble than you need to. I appreciate you all asking your friends and roommates and working to find who could have done such a horrible thing. The stone is priceless. So if you know anyone who could have done this, please come to me immediately."

  Lucy Lemon stays after class that day and walks up to Dr. Brighton as she sits at her desk.

  "I want to help you!" Lucy says. While Lucy has just arrived on the campus of Robin State College, she is underwhelmed by what the town has to offer. Not that Nottingham is anything too exciting – but Lucy is already bored with Robin only a few weeks into the semester. There are a few shops and restaurants, a bookstore, and a few Dunkin Donuts – but Lucy has thought that college would be an adventure! That she and her new friends would go on wild and fantastic trips every day and learn new things about the world around her.

  So far, all Lucy has to show for her college experience is her best friend Otto, an ornery Black gay boy with thick rimmed glasses who shares her love of ornithology, and a first semester that appears to be filled with straight As. Lucy Lemon is smart and she knows that – so it isn't anything new or exciting, after all.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "I appreciate you being so willing to help, Lucy," Dr. Brighton says smiling.

  "I am going to get my friend Otto and we are going to get to the bottom of what happened. If I could be honest, I bet it was Chucky. He has always been eyeing that stone in the back of the room," Lucy says. Chucky is the goth boy who sits in the back of the class and doesn't speak. Lucy always thought he was up to no good.

  Dr. Brighton shakes her head. "No, Chucky wouldn't do that. He understands how important the stone is to me and while Chucky may be a bit quiet in class, it's only because he has social anxiety. He's actually a very sweet boy. We shouldn't judge a book by its cover."

  Lucy's cheeks turn flush. She doesn't mean to insult Chucky like that.

  "Well," Lucy says with a shaky voice. "If you don't mind me asking, why is the stone so important to you? I only know what it says on the plaque."

  Dr. Brighton smiles a big white grin. "Well, Lucy, do you mind humoring me for a minute?"

  Lucy shrugs.

  "Have you ever considered that what the plaque said might be real?"

  Lucy frowns. Real? Like demons getting trapped in a stone? Before the stone was stolen it sat in the back of Dr. Brighton’s classroom propped up on a small stand in the middle of the glass box next to a sign that read: “The Stone of One Thousand Souls.”

  The description read as follows:

  The Stone of One Thousand Souls was given to Queen Mary II after the Glorious Revolution by a demonologist by the name of Braxton Heritage. Heritage claimed that the stone had absorbed every demonic entity that caused the strife in England for the prior 50 years.

  "Real? What do you mean by that?"

  "What I mean is… what if… what if the stone really did suck up one thousand souls?"

  Lucy is open minded but she is also quite practical. Demons? Soul sucking? It is all a bit too fantastic.

  "Do you know what the inside is made of, Lucy?"

  Lucy shakes her head.

  "Pure 100% gold."

  Lucy can't remember exactly what the stone looks like but she does remember that it looks like a big, black dusty potato. Simply put – it is ugly. "How? When the outside is so hideous?"

  "The outside is just a layer. The inside is the heart of the stone and it's completely 100% pure gold."

  Lucy nods slowly. "Wow. So that's why you need it back? Because it must cost a lot of money."

  Dr. Brighton nods. "And do you know what is attracted to pure gold?"

  Lucy laughs. "Women?"

  Dr. Brighton shakes her head. "Demons."

  Lucy's stomach drops. "Are demons even real?"

  Dr. Brighton shrugs her shoulders and looks down at her hands. "I know it's a bit controversial, but I think so. What do you think, Lucy?"

  ~

  Dr. Beatrix Brighton prides herself in being a patient and compassionate teacher, but Lucy's rapid-fire questions about the Stone of One Thousand Souls feel like an interrogation.

  "Unfortunately, Lucy, I actually have a meeting that I have to head to," Beatrix says, rushing Lucy out of her classroom. Where did you get the stone? How much was it? How did you find it? Why did you keep it here? These are all questions that Beatrix has no intention of answering, rooted in one of the most terrifying chapters of her life.

  To be honest, Beatrix didn't think about the stone often until it vanished. It sat in the back of her classroom like a souvenir, occasionally mentioned in lectures. But she preferred to ignore it. It is evil Pure evil. From the first time she held it, she could feel the energy pulsing off of it, filling her with dread.

  One time, Beatrix even felt a little jolt of electricity when she held it. And another time, she accidentally inhaled some of the black flaky dust that encrusted the rock. Beatrix fell ill and was in the hospital with severe pneumonia for two weeks when she was only a young and spry twenty-nine years old.

  The stone is evil.

  When she noticed it missing that morning, it felt like someone had ripped her heart out. You see, the stone isn't a cherished memento – it is a vessel. Whether or not it truly holds one thousand souls she doesn't care but every serious demonologist she's ever met warns her about its power.

  Beatrix acquired the Stone in Rome at an auction ten years ago. She didn’t want it – in fact, she begged her colleagues to find someone else to purchase the wretched artifact. But no one would. A small group of experts in her field gathered around a table in Dr. Winston Mercer's London home to decide its fate. None of them wanted the stone, but they couldn’t risk it falling into the wrong hands. Like highly distinguished professors of the macabre so rightfully would, they drew straws to determine who will keep the cursed object.

  Beatrix picked the shortest straw. She felt like she was stabbed with a knife when she looked around the room and saw that all of her peers pulled longer ones.

  "I anticipate the stone going for something around 1.3 million pounds," Dr. Mercer explained. "You must purchase it, keep it safe, and ensure no one nefarious ever gets their hands on this artifact."

  Now, looking at the broken glass in her classroom, she chastises herself. Why keep it here? She should have kept it safely at home – but she couldn't. Something is wrong with it. Living alone in that big Victorian house, Beatrix couldn’t sleep with the stone present. Her classroom seemed like the safest alternative.

  Beatrix's colleagues in demonology warned her about the stone's dark history – how it drove its owners to madness, how it whispered in the night. But their small group of scholars swore to protect it from those who truly want it: the collectors of cursed artifacts, the practitioners of black magic, the desperate souls who'd sacrifice anything for its power.

  Now, as Beatrix stares at the broken glass in her classroom, she remembers those warnings. Somewhere out there, someone has that stone. And the worst part is, that person probably has no idea what it might unleash.