0 March Secret Agent #46

TITLE: The Curse of Jenny Greenteeth
GENRE: YA Thriller

In the wispy dark of a foggy night, the children come. The children die.

Jenny Greenteeth croons to them, her keening call they cannot deny.

October:

Gram was dying and it couldn't happen soon enough. Not that I didn't love her and wish she could be with us for all the rest of my own years. But each breath that her frail lungs fought to take was laboured, and it took her whole body to pull it in. Not even the oxygen that was being forced into her through the mask over her nose and mouth offered her any relief. No one wanted to watch their beloved Gram die that way.

Sam's sobs drifted through the closed door. Dad said he was too young to sit with us and no matter loud he howled, Dad refused to budge. So Sam's cries and Gram's tortured breaths were the only sounds we had. The machines had all been turned off by the hospice nurse.

Mom had long ago stopped her own crying. I think she was numb. She sat in a chair beside the bed and stared at the blankets covering Gram's small frame. I wondered if, like me, she wanted this to be over. For Gram to have some peace.

"She'll finally be at rest," said Dad. The scratch in his voice belied the stern set to his face.

Gram was a constant in all our lives. She'd lived with us longer than I had.