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It was a yellowed postcard with a photograph ofout of the earth like towers At their base was a dark valley swathed in o there, I thought suddenly I had to go there now The grandfather clock began to chiht No tiet to Breaker Chasm Soon it would be too late

I looked at the hands of the clock They pointed to nine pm I blinked and the hands had rotated backward to one pain The hands spun faster In an instant, I felt tired, the roorew heavier and heavier, until I could no longer y to keep the on a train Afternoon sun streareens coated in soft, fluffy snow The trees sped past theas I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket and unfolded it An address ritten on one side: 15 Knollwood Drive

Over the intercom, the conductor announced that the next stop would be Breaker Chas the base of a h the hillside Suddenly worried, I pressed lass to look at the railroad tracks There was only one set, and they led directly into the tunnel I couldn’t go there; I would die

I stood up and walked briskly down the aisle The train wasn’t very crowded;to music I tried to not to disturb the to be discreet, I pulled the handle, but the door was locked

I glanced out theagain We had almost reached theto the next car and stepped outside The cold December air blew pastmy car to the next The noise of the wheels on the tracks beloas deafening

The train rattled as the front of it entered the tunnel I inched toward the edge of the platfor byin the trees, and just before the car entered the tunnel, I jumped

It was painless I landed in the snow and slid a little ways down the hill until a patch of underbrush broke my fall There, I watched as thebehind a curl of black s through the knee-deep snow as I skirted around the mountain and followed the train tracks until I reached a s behind the peaks of the houses A sign stood on the side of the road Written in friendly cursive were the words: BREAKER CHASM WELCOMES YOU!

It was a quaint town--quiet As I walked down the road, the streetlamps clicked on above as station I approached it Inside, behind a register, sat an overweightout of a Styrofoa on the wall behind hi his food

I ignored his comment "Can you pointto the farot lots of kids co for one of those farerated case, picked out as many bottles of water as I could carry, and put theh e look, but then rung me up and pointed me in the direction of Knollwood Drive

I walked for what seemed like miles, past frozen fields and barns, until I reached a tin mailbox A little ways down the drive was a yellow farn, but on the side of the road I spotted dozens of s of bottled water on the ground Crouching over, I brushed off the mailbox so I could read the number, and then slipped a piece of paper out of my pocket and co the joints in case they squeaked, I opened the door of the le name ritten on it: Cindy Bell

I folded the note into my pocket Before I left, I opened a bottle of water and poured it out on the ground behind me to melt my footprints

I awoke to a loud crash, followed by the sound of things clattering to the floor

Blinking, I openedthe back of randfather’s library Ion the pile of clippings on the desk

Rolling my neck, I sat up and looked at the postcard of Breaker Chasm that had fallen out of the stack I flipped it over to see if anything ritten on it, but it was blank

Cindy Bell That was Eleanor’s mom Why had her nahts were interrupted by a deep thu the postcard into my pocket, I ran out to the hallway

I followed the voices toacross the room from Dustin Both of their faces were red and flustered

"We should have done so that I was standing in the doorway "Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?"

Dustin was about to respond when the floor creaked beneathin my direction, both men went silent

The room was a complete mess A platter of breakfast was strewn across the floor, the eggs, hollandaise sauce, ja silverware and broken dishes

"What happened?" I asked, wincing as I took it all in

On top of all this lay dozens of loose papers, which looked like they had been purposely knocked off the desk They were nowup the syrup and coffee Evento clean it all up, as he norrandfather I had never seen thery