Catching Temptation (In Darkness She Fades (Book 1) by Sarah Erber Page A

parents in the audience to cheer me on makes me want to
cry. I cannot survive it. It is my fault they are gone.“Thank you, Mrs.
Peters. I didn’t mean to lie, but I don’t really want to draw attention to
myself that way. At my other school the girls were a little...cruel.”
    “You mean, jealous?” Mrs. Peters
smiles at the awkward grin on my face. “I understand, but if you ever change
your mind, I’ll always have a spot open for you in the choir. You could sure
give Victoria Blare a run for her money! But I don’t believe I’ve ever heard
that song.”
    “I wrote it, Alice Demented ,
after my parents died.”
    “Well, I think it’s lovely dear.
A mournful, but beautiful tune. Here,” Mrs. Peters extends a withering hand out
to me, “what did you need to see me about at–” the clock tolls at the top of
the staircase, “–ten in the evening?”
    “Oh.” I forgot to invent a reason
for my presence and the truth is totally out of the question. “I wanted to tell
you I loved the book you let me borrow. It’s one of the most unique fairytales
I’ve ever read.”
    “You mean you finished it
already! My goodness you weren’t joking when you said you’re a fast reader.
Yes, it’s a one-of-a-kind fairytale, because it’s based on a true story.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Mrs. Peters retrieves another box
of fireworks out of an audience seat and cradles it. “The story is based off an
old folktale right here in Rosewood. Supposedly, all these eccentric events
happened when this very theater house was built over a century and a half ago.
The theater is what attracted people to move to Rosewood in the first place.
But after a few years, the townspeople started to notice something wasn’t right
with some of the folks in Rosewood. People started turning up dead with animal
bite marks on their body. After the children started disappearing, the
townspeople decided to take action. Do you remember me telling you earlier
today about the theater house?”
    “Yeah.” I cross my arms and try
to rub the Goosebumps away.
    “Well, the townspeople hired two
exorcists to get rid of the strange king and his dark creatures. It worked, but
since then the theater house has never been reopened – except for the annual
Halloween Masked Ball.”
    “If the theater contains such a
horrible history, why do they reopen it? I mean Halloween makes it even more…”
I struggle to think of a better word than “stupid.”
    “Unwise,” Mrs. Peters says. “What
you have to understand first, Temptation, is not many people in Rosewood know
the true folktale, so I don’t think they realize how dangerous it is until it’s
too late.”
    I am twisting the ends of my
hair. “But you own the theater, couldn’t you tell them no or have it knocked
down?”
    “I would if I owned it, but the
fact of the matter is it belongs to the Jenkins family.”
    I stop my working hands.
    “Yes, the Jenkins family is very
powerful in this town. They insist the theater be reopened every Halloween,
because no more children disappeared since the king vanished, and, like I told
you before, they wanted to keep up with tradition.”
    I take the opportunity to avert
the topic from the Jenkins family. “So did the king really steal children?”
    “Oh, yes. If I’m remembering
correctly, there were a couple teen girls too.” Mrs. Peters sits down the box
on the stairs and rubs her arm’s muscles.
    I try to imagine myself as one of
the children. The idea scares the curiousness out of me. “What does he do with
them anyway?”
    “It is still a bit of a mystery.
Some of the parents of the missing children claimed to see their children
playing in the monster’s forest. They said their children’s faces had sharper
features closely resembling the creatures. But you mustn’t worry yourself,
Dearie,” Mrs. Peters says, noticing my tense gaze. “It’s only a folktale.”
    Whirling over the night’s events
in my head, I conclude that the town