5بخش

Agatha Prenderghast of His Majesty’s province of Massachusetts, on this day you have been arraigned for the horrible crime of witchcraft witnessed by those whose testimonies have been heard.

You have, by this court, been found guilty!

No!

And it is passed on you, according to your grievous crimes, execution!

No!

No!

Do you have anything to say for yourself?

I was only playing.

Aye!

With fire!

You were speaking with the dead!

Wait!

No!

I’ll not risk damnation on these good people.

No, you can’t do this!

I didn’t do anything wrong!

You are to be taken to the place of execution where you will be hanged by the neck until you be dead.

Stop!

Leave me alone or I’ll make you sorry!

I’ll make all of you sorry!

How could you?

She was just a little kid.

She was no different than me.

Keep away from me!

You must stop the curse.

What?

You don’t want to kill me?

You can speak to the dead.

To us.

To her.

We need you to read from the book to send us all back to the grave.

But it didn’t work!

It’s a fairytale!

Just a bedtime story.

That’s it, isn’t it?

A bedtime story, to keep a little girl asleep for another year.

And now you need my help because I’m the only one who can read it to her.

Here’s your book!

Try reading it yourself.

Why did you do it?

We were scared.

Of what?

Of her.

I believed we were doing what was right.

I was wrong.

Now, this is our punishment.

We thought we knew our way in life, but in death, we are lost.

Please help us.

Every year, someone reads the story at her grave.

Before me, it was Mr. Prenderghast, and before him, there were others, but the curse doesn’t ever go away.

Nothing gets better.

It’s not enough.

What will you do?

Something nobody ever did before.

I’ve got to go talk to her.

Guys, guys!

Under here, under here!

Mitch, Mitch, if we die tonight, this may be the last chance I get to tell you how I feel.

Uh, well, no, unless we get brought back as zombies, and then, technically, you’ll have longer.

Norman?

Come on!

This way!

You’ve got to be kidding me.

You stay right where you are!

You may be dead already, but I will still shoot you!

Wait!

Oh, my gosh.

Son!

Step away from the zombies!

No, I won’t.

Perry, calm down!

You’re going to have a heart attack, and then what are you going to do?

I’ll come back and haunt Norman!

Maybe then he’ll start listening to me.

No!

No, you don’t understand what’s happening here.

I spoke to them, and it’s not what you think.

The curse isn’t about the zombies hurting you, it’s about you hurting them.

I figured it out, and I know a way to stop this.

He’s in league with them!

Let’s hang him!

We can’t hang him, stupid!

It’s the 21st century!

Then let’s burn him!

Can you stop being a mob for just one minute?

Listen to me!

Get them before they eat us!

Leave him alone!

Hand, Alvin.

My hand.

Everybody, listen up!

You all need to stop trying to kill my brother!

You’re adults!

You stop it!

I know that this seems crazy.

Believe me, lam with you on that.

But I think he does actually know what he’s talking about.

All night, he’s been trying to save you from the witch’s curse.

Yeah!

Yeah!

And all you want to do is burn and murder stuff, burn and murder stuff.

Just burning and murdering.

Yeah, shame on every single one of you!

How dare you all?

So, they’re not going to hurt us?

No.

Does it look like any of them are trying to hurt you?

They’re just people.

Well, at least they used to be.

Just stupid people who should have known better.

They did something unforgivable because they were scared, and they were cursed for it.

Now it’s happening all over again.

Don’t you get it?

They were just like you.

But now it has to stop.

For good.

Jeez, what is her problem?

Oh, Norman!

So, what do we do now?

I really don’t know.

Yes, you do, Norman.

You’ve got to get to that witch’s grave.

But.

But nothing!

Listen to me, buster.

We didn’t turn away when Daleridge High was slaughtering our volleyball team, did we?

I thought we did.

No, we didn’t.

I have cheered the uncheerable, Norman, and I’m not letting you give up now!

Dad, could I borrow the car?

Excuse me?

Officials are urging people to panic and run.

Whoo, boy.

The traffic tonight, huh?

Norman!

Uh!

He’s on my side of the seat.

She wants you to move over.

Um, I heard that!

Mom, tell the zombie to stop saying stuff about me.

Can you quit using the “Z” word?

So help me, I will stop this car right now if all three of you don’t quit it this instant!

He says, take a left here.

We’ve already been this way!

We’re going around in circles!

Maybe we should pull over and ask someone.

Oh, right!

You think maybe we should stop at a graveyard and dig up some other 18th-century corpses?

It’s not a bad idea.

I wish I understood you.

Please don’t tell me he needs to use the bathroom.

Turn down there!

Oh, my.

Do you think that’s it?

So, why are we here?

Someone has got to talk to her, Dad.

Yeah.

Why is that person you, exactly?

Oh, my goodness.

Look out!

Mom!

Perry!

Do something!

I am trying!

Kick it in the knothole!

Norman?

I’m okay, Mom!

Just wait for me here.

Don’t worry.

Be careful!

Uh.

Hello?

You’re not welcome here.

Go away.

I really need to speak with you.

Who are you?

I’m Norman.

Norman Babcock.

You don’t actually know me, but I know you.

We’re actually kind of the same, you and I.

You’re not dead.

Well, no, apart from that.

And you’re a boy.

Well, yes.

That, too.

You’re not like me at all!

Well, I know how you feel.

No, you don’t.

You don’t know anything about me.

I know your name is Agatha Prenderghast.

What?

And I know you’re probably tired, right?

Because, I mean, it’s really late, and it’s been a long night, and we’re, like, only 11 years old, and.

I don’t want to go to sleep, and you can’t make me.

I burned the book into dust.

Now I don’t have to listen to that stupid story any more!

Leave me alone.

No.

No, I’m not leaving.

Just listen to me.

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a little girl.

What?

A little girl who was different.

Who was different from the other people in her village.

I’m not listening!

She could see and do things that no one could understand, and that made them scared of her.

I don’t like this story!

She turned away from everyone, and became sad and lonely, and had no one to turn to!

Stop it!

But the more she turned away from people, the more scared they were of her, and they did something terrible!

They became so scared that they took her away and they killed her!

No!

But even though she was dead, something in her came back.

Stop!

And this part of her, it wouldn’t go away.

Not for 300 years!

Shut up!

And the longer it stayed, the less there was of the little girl.