We walked forward into the tall grass. It seemed sort of scary to me. What was out there that the journal wanted us to see? It had said it wanted to show us what it could do. What did that mean? I imagined dead bodies lying in the grass ahead of us. Or no, maybe there would be a giant snake or something. I had snakes on my mind because of the tall grass that seemed to only be getting denser as we walked.

  “Tombstone,” Ava said in a dead voice.

  I looked up from my shoes, which I’d been watching as we walked. In front of us, a tombstone jutted up from the ground where it hadn’t been before.

  We stood rooted to the spot. Should we go investigate? Everything about it felt wrong.

  Ava walked up so she was right by the tombstone. I shared a look with the guys and then we followed her.

  “What’s it say?” Jake whispered.

  “Samantha Gibbs,” Ava read. “Does anyone know who that is?”

  We didn’t.

  “Look,” Tyler pointed to the top corner of the grave. In shimmery green ink it read ‘Mom’.

  “Same ink from the notebook,” I said quietly.

  I wasn’t sure if they even heard me but Ava seemed to because she said “What if this is the journal’s owner’s mom?”

  Tyler looked disturbed and he took a few steps back from the tomb and stuck his hands into his pockets.

  “What are we supposed to do?” Ava asked the group at large.

  “We wait,” Jake said. He sat down again, right in the grass. “The journal said it wanted to show us what it could do, and there it is. It kills people’s parents. Not even out of character for a creepy old journal. So now we just wait for it to magic us out like it magicked us in.”

  “So basically, you’re just giving up?” Ava asked.

  Jake shrugged and pulled his baseball cap over his eyes. Tyler sighed but sat down next to him.

  My legs were starting to ache, but I couldn’t bring myself to sit with them. (And not just because I was imagining all the bugs that were hiding under the grass.) We couldn’t just wait for something to happen.

  “We can’t just quit,” I said meekly. I thought of my family. It had been what, a couple hours by now. They must be beginning to worry about me. But I was sure they wouldn’t be able to figure out where I’d gone or much less how to get me back. So, that meant it was up to us to get out of here.

  “There’s no we,” Jake said. “If you wanna walk off and look for clues or something, be my guest Sherlock.”

  I was shocked at the anger that flared inside me at that moment. I quickly squashed it.

  Ava came to my rescue. “Shut up Jake! You’re being a jerk.”

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  Jake looked like he was about to kill her. His hands were clenched into fists and his jaw was all tensed up. But then he took a deep breath and relaxed his hands. “Sorry. I shouldn’t’ve said that.”

  I gawped like a fish for a moment. “It’s alright.”

  Ava and I sat down next to them then.

  Jake still had his cap pulled low over his face and he was leaning up against the tomb, which I thought was a little disrespectful but I didn’t say anything.

  “I think I know why I’m here,” Jake said. He pulled a necklace out from his shirt. A small silver cross pendant dangled from it. “It’s okay if you don’t agree,” he said quickly. “But I think maybe I’m being punished by God.”

  Tyler shifted on the ground. “Punished for what?”

  “Being a jerk,” Jake said. He let the necklace go and it fell to his chest.

  “You’re not any worse than most people,” Ava said.

  Jake shrugged, and stared at the ground. “I dunno.”

  “Well, when we get out, you’ll get a second chance,” Ava said.

  Jake pushed the brim of his hat up. He was smiling but just with his eyes.

  “Right, let’s ask the journal more questions,” I said. “Maybe it’ll tell us something useful.”

  Ava pulled the journal out and set it out on the ground by us. It felt good to have a goal again.

  “What should we ask it?” She asked.

  “How about, where can we get some food? If we don’t eat, we’ll die before we get out of here.”

  “You’ve got fat kid mentality,” Tyler said.

  Jake shrugged. “So what? Do you guys want to eat grass or do you want to take a chance and ask the magic journal for some real food?”

  “What’s it gonna do?” Ava asked. “Magically make us cheeseburgers?”

  “We’re not going to know until we ask,” Jake said.

  I shrugged and wrote down Jake’s question.

  The green words appeared in answer again. I’d known they’d be coming but it was still unsettling. They said: ‘Ask and you shall receive!’

  “Okay, now ask ‘Can we have some food?’,” Jake said.

  This time the journal didn’t respond with words. Instead, a small shimmering shape appeared on the page.

  “Is that supposed to be the food?” Jake glared.

  “Maybe it’s like, fried shrimp?” Ava suggested, tilting her head to try and see the shape from a different angle.

  “Are we supposed to lick it or something?” I yanked the journal away from Jake before he could try it.

  “It looks like an old-timey pipe,” Tyler said.

  “Oh my God, do you think it knows I vape?”

  I tuned them out. What was the journal trying to tell us? What did it mean by ‘Ask and you shall receive’?

  “Guys, it’s a genie lamp.”

  They examined it more closely.

  “You’re right!” Tyler said in awe.

  “Wait wait wait. So, we have to rub on it three times, right?” Ava asked.

  I thought back to my first encounter with the journal. We’d needed answers and I’d gripped the notebook hoping for a clue and then BOOM! A clue appeared.

  I closed the journal to see the strange symbol on the cover. “Maybe we rub this part.”

  “Sure, try it,” Jake urged.

  “Wait,” Tyler said. “If that really does represent a genie lamp... Can’t we just wish to get out of here?”

  Genius. Incredible. Nobel Prize Award winning.

  I rubbed my finger against the cover and said: “Get us out of here.”

  The journal grew hot in my hand. It was burning me! I dropped it to the ground.

  ...

  Needless to say, it didn’t work. We sat there, stupidly staring at the notebook. Finally, I reached over and flipped open the pages. And nearly screamed.

  In bl-, no in red ink it said: ‘You can’t leave. Don’t ask again. We’re trying to be nice.’ The words oozed down the page, threatening and silent. I felt paralyzed.

  The feeling did not pass entirely, but the general shock faded away.

  “I guess, that wasn’t the right play,” Jake said shakily.

  “Now what?” Ava asked.

  “Maybe we should just play it safe and ask for food this time,” Tyler said.

  “I don’t want to talk to it again,” Ava said,

  I felt the same way. The journal had threatened us. It was evil, I was sure of it now.

  But then I felt my stomach grumble. Had I really not eaten since breakfast? It felt like forever since I’d sat at the kitchen table.

  I sighed and picked the journal back up. ‘Food.” I thought.

  I was staring at the journal waiting for something bad to happen when Ava shouted, “There’s a little boy over there!”