Cassandra noticed her hands tremble against the steering wheel as she turned the corner. Opposite her sat eight - year old Ridley. The little girl looked out the window as they drove past a sea of endless buildings. Silence. A brick wall. She had seemed friendly enough when she’d met her. She couldn’t understand the cold shoulder from her new adopted daughter. Wasn’t she happy to now be going to live in a home?

      “I think you will like the school you will be going to in town.” Cassandra attempted a smile towards the girl, who seemed to be ignoring her.

      “I would hate it,” Ridley said quietly, almost to herself.

      Cassandra admonished, “Now that’s not the way . . .”

      “It will be as it always is with adopted parents,” said Ridley. “They all think I will love the schools in their pathetic little towns!”

      Ridley turned her face towards Cassandra who turned to look at her new daughter as much as she could while driving. “Now Ridley, I hear good things about that.”

Ridley cut her off.  “There will be bad things that happen in that school that you THINK I will love. I see blood. Lots of blood of dead little bodies.”

      The adopted daughter turned her face back towards the window.

      “Ridley,” Cassandra reprimanded. “Don’t talk like that. You scare me.”

      Ridley chuckled and spoke calmly, yet with intensity, “Everything scares you. Taking me in to be the child you could never have. Having an affair with a man twice your age to seduce him into giving you money. When that didn’t work out, you stole from your company to have money to adopt me. A child isn’t going to fix your life. It is already ruined.”

Cassandra’s swerved towards the center of the road. She was able to turn the wheel just in time before colliding with a truck. She knew Ridley's words were sadly true. How could she know these things?

      The eight-year old continued looking towards the driver. “You fear the police are going to catch you.” Ridley smirked a fiendish grin. “Oh, they will catch you, and you will be put in prison soon. Oh, but not for those petty crimes.”

      Cassandra’s heart pounded loudly in her chest. “What! What are you talking about?”

      Ridley leaned towards her. “The truth, you see, I know everything, and not just about you, but about everyone,” she hissed.
      “Why you little devil!”

      “Yes.”

      Distracted, Cassandra looked into the little demon’s eyes, into an orb of endless evil that morphed into different parts of Cassandra’s own sordid past. Terror crawled up her spine like a snake ready to attack. She screamed and let go of the wheel.

      The SUV veered off the road and into a nearby school yard, where several children were playing. Cassandra felt the impact of her car crashing into something. Blood spattered onto her windshield. She later found out two children were crushed to death under the SUV’s tires Several other children were injured. It was the school Ridley was supposed to go to.

      Cassandra was arrested for vehicular homicide and Ridley? Ridley was nowhere in sight.

 

Kyle stared blankly at his computer screen. He rubbed his tired eyes. How long had he been working? No one was in the office now. It was almost midnight. He should have gone home hours ago, but his boss told him if he didn’t finish the program for the presentation tomorrow morning, he’d be fired. It was just like Lu. Lucifer was aptly named, a mean spirited boss. It was his stupid idea for a new game app that led the user on a scavenger hunt, like Pokemon, only sinister. The player would choose their own ending, but every scenario ended badly. “Game Over” was the working title. Kyle hated it.

“Oh, what the hell?” He cursed, hitting the save key. Done. It may not be the ending he was told to write. Or was it? His boss just said, do your worst. The user has to save his own ass and the world or be trapped in some alternate universe. Either way he lost. “Brilliant!” Lu had said. Stupid, but that’s what the client wanted. So, Lu claimed.

“Time to call it a night,” Kyle yawned, running his fingers through his long dark hair. He was about to log off when the screen grew dark and cloudy. It looked like an overcast sky. “Huh?” Kyle looked closer. He could see two huge eyes peering down from the heavens. “What the?” He nearly jumped out of his chair then quickly realized it must be the new screen saver. He ignored it, reaching to shut down the computer.

“STOP!” A booming voice yelled. Only it didn’t come from the speakers. They were off. Kyle freaked, pushing his chair away, wheeling across the small office cubicle. He stood then quickly reached for the mouse. He clicked the shut - down button, but nothing happened.

“You are now part of my world,” a disembodied voice said. It came from nowhere, yet reverberated throughout the office, deep and menacing. “I have played a trick on the world. The real world. Starting in 12 minutes the entire globe will be stricken with a horrid plague, the likes of which humans have never seen. Or, if you like, tornados will spawn, fires and earthquakes will erupt and consume the entire planet. Not to mention volcanoes. Oh, and possibly the A bomb.” The deep voice chuckled.  

Kyle stared at the screen. The eyes were black, outlined in an eerie red liner that glowed. A demonic glow. “Huh? This can’t be,” Kyle shouted, and attempted to shut off the computer again. Nothing happened.

“You must write a code to save the world,” the voice demanded. “Or the planet will suffer the consequences. You have eleven minutes and six seconds remaining.” Now!” The voice crackled in a mocking nerve splitting tempo that made Kyle’s skin crawl.
He looked at the clock. He had until midnight. “What the. . . Oh, I get it. It’s a Halloween prank,” Kyle laughed, knowing one of his co - workers must have sabotaged his computer. Or Lucifer. It was his boss’s way of working a deadline even with the holiday months away. 

“No joke,” the voice boomed, showing images across the screen of people all over the world coughing from some deadly gas or trying to outrun an earthquake or tsunami. Kyle saw volcanoes erupt and heard sirens going off like in world war ll. People running through war torn streets wearing masks and scrounging for food. It looked like a post - apocalyptic world.
One of the endings Kyle had worked on, but it was too grim, so he’d changed it.  

“How is this happening?” he cried, running his fingers through his hair almost violently. “Shit!” He screamed, tearing his eyes away from the screen.

“You now have six minutes and twenty-three seconds to write a new ending or the game world will collide with the real one.” The evil voice threatened.

Not knowing whether this was a hoax, Kyle got to work with his heart racing.

The next morning Kyle sat with Lucifer and the client, who seemed to like his not so terrible ending. It was a choice after all and Kyle had given the user lots of options. Albeit, most not good. But, if the user thought through each scenario, much the way a chess player would, offensively rather than defensively, there were better outcomes. As for the title, it remained a working one.
The client liked the app and Lucifer walked him out, telling Kyle to “stay put,” with a scowl on his face. Moments later Lu appeared. Despite their success he seemed angry.

“What have you done?” He barked at Kyle.

“I thought it was well received,” Kyle defended. “Didn’t he like it?”

“Yes, but it’s only a sneak preview for Halloween. It has to be darker. There will be another meeting next week. Better get your game on.” Lu barked. “Oh, how did you like my motivation method?”

Kyle knew it had to be Lucifer.

“As a developer you’re still wet behind the ears kid.”

“Is that so?” Kyle mocked. “Well, I left you a little surprise last night on your computer. A mini version of what I was working on. It’ll take four minutes, not twelve,” he chided. “And, you only have two choices, not a dozen. See me when you’re done, and if you still think I’m wet behind the ears, I quit. Deal?”

“You’re on,” Lu said, storming out of the conference room.

Kyle sat down to wait. He could see into Lu’s office across the hall. If Lucifer could figure out the ending, he would indeed be back. If not. . . well. That was his problem.

Kyle counted down the minutes, watching every line on Lu’s face contort, until a “know it all smirk” formed on his ugly face as he hit the final key.

Kyle heard the booming voice announce that Lucifer had indeed chosen the wrong ending. He didn’t think it through. Kyle stood up and watched in horror as Lu’s computer smoked, turning into an evil vortex that sucked the man right out of his chair, dragging him into a dark funnel cloud. A tornadic event with such force the walls shook, alarming the entire staff.

Lucifer screamed Kyle’s name in anger and panic. Kyle walked down the hall, past his curious co workers on his way out.
He grinned. “Maybe I’ll keep the title after all,” he said as he exited the building, which shook violently under his feet.