When we last saw Suzy Snowden, the Ghost of Midterms Past stole her and traversed through a portal away from her lecture and into a deep dark abyss. She lied face-to-face with a sinister foe.
Searing red eyes awaited Suzy at the bottom of the portal — those beady eyes she knew all too well. It was the face of her TA from last semester’s history class, Johnathan “Just call me Jon” Johnson. Dressed in a shadowy pair of sweatpants from some prestigious private school, Jon grasped his now satanic Bucky water bottle in one hand and Suzy’s frightened self in the other.
“Suzy!” Johnson beckoned, “You have been tooketh here to be avenged for your pitfalls last semester after the first paper of my class. I knew from the second paper you decided to put my course on cruise control. It was blatantly obvious that despite your great intellect, you slacked off and put minimal effort into your following assignments. Your Wikipedia laden citations haunted my sleep for too long, and now I am here to haunt you.”
Suzy could not believe that Jon was here in this surreal nightmare. Sure, she probably showed up to discussion without doing the readings a couple of times, but she did not believe he could seek vengeance on her like this. Shivering in her sherpa-lined hoodie, she nervously awaited whatever judgment he had planned for her.
Jon carried Suzy off to another chamber in the wretched abyss, passing images of rabid companion animals as they approached the room. A singed blank piece of paper awaited them in the spot. Suzy sat dazed and curious as to what this kooky paper could be.
“Now Suzy,” Jon shrieked, “prepare to meet your doom. This is your chance to show me what you learned last semester. On this paper, I expect to see a full 1500-word essay on the effects of famine on immigration to the United States in the 1900’s by midnight’s time. Yes, you don’t have your notes, which I know were non-existent anyways, and you can’t access your precious Wikipedia. If this task is not completed, you will sit in this darkness and suffer through the stress of midterms for all eternity, never seeing the light of summer ever again. Impress me, though I doubt you will.”
Jon chortled as he floated away back to his laptop laden with 27 hipster stickers.
Suzy wept a silent sob. She didn’t read any of her assigned reading from this course aside from quick skims when Jon posed her a question in discussion.
“I can’t write, I suddenly don’t know how to read,” Suzy wailed, channeling her inner Mariah Carey. She saw a creepy pencil made out of real wood instead of plastic beside the paper and assumed it was the tool meant to prevent her doom. She cautiously picked up the utensil.
“Who are YOU to try and write with me, you selfish student!” the pencil screamed back. Frightened by a talking piece of graphite, Suzy flung the animated pencil across the chamber.
“Who are you and why are you a talking pencil?” Suzy queried.
Sharpening its ends, the pencil began to speak.
What is this spooky pencil? Does it have anger issues? Will Suzy finish her essay and escape from this nightmare? Turn to Spooky story corner next week to find out.
