text: After Joan and Phil Carr and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Diane, finished eating dinner, everybody cleaned up. Then, Joan and Phil went into the living room to watch television, and Diane went upstairs to take a shower. After her shower, she went to her room to study. When she sat down at her desk, she opened her book, and, after a moment, she jumped up and put her hands to her head. “My God, what’s happening? There are voices in my head. Stop. Stop. Leave me alone,” she yelled and took her hands away slowly acted as though she were expecting to hear the voices. “They’re gone. The voices are gone. That was frightening. Am I suddenly mentally ill? The voices didn’t tell me to kill anyone. What they said was absurd. They said I will be one of them. I’ll be one of who? Jeez, what’s going on? Who was talking to me? It wasn’t my imagination. I heard voices.” Hearing a noise behind her, she turned quickly and gasped. Walking toward her were two figures; They were about three-feet tall, and had long, black hair that covered every inch of their body. The creatures stopped a few feet away from her. Diane, paralyzed from fear, couldn’t move. She didn’t hear them speak, but she heard their voices in her head and she put her hands to her ears to stop the voices. “We have come a long way to get you. You must come with us.” “Get out of my head,” she yelled, grabbed a book and threw it at them, but they disappeared and the book hit a wall. Then they reappeared. “Go away,” she yelled and hurried out of the room. As she left the room, she looked back. “They’re gone.” Then, as she turned toward the stairs, they appeared in front of her. “You can’t get away. You will come to us. You will be one of us.” “The hell I will,” she yelled and ran down the stairs. “Dad, Mom, help,” she yelled and ran to them. “They’re coming down the stairs. They’re coming after me. Look, they’re coming after me.” “Diane, what are you talking about? What’s coming after you?” her mother asked, putting her arm around Diane’s shoulder. “Don’t you see them? They’re right there in front of you?” she yelled. “Come with us to the other side where you will find happiness.” “Ma, Dad, can you hear them?” “Hear what, Diane?” they asked in unison. “Oh, God, they don’t see them and they don’t hear them,” she said, going to the visitors. “Whatever you are, get out of my head. Get out of my life,” Diane screamed. “Diane, who are you talking to?” her father asked, going to her and putting his arm around her. “I’m talking to them, Dad. Why don’t you see them?” “I’m sorry, Diane. I don’t see anybody.” “No one here can help you. You must come with us. You were born to be one of us. We are your destiny. Come, you don’t belong on this side.” “No,” Diane yelled, and her father held her close to him. “You will come,” a creature threatened, and the creatures grabbed her and all disappeared. Shaking, Phil looked at his wife. “She’s ...she’s gone. Disappeared. Where did she go? Who was she talking to? Where did she go?” Phil and Joan held each other and sobbed while Diane passed to the other side, to her new life. “I don’t understand it. How could such a thing have happened? What are we going to do? Should we call the police?” “They’re not going to believe us,” Phil asserted. “Would you believe us?” “Phil, I don’t know how we’re going to get over this.” “You don’t have to get over it, Ma, Dad,” Diane said. Startled, they looked at one of the creatures. Diane had become one of them. “It’s me Ma, Dad.” They stared bewildered at the figure. “Diane, is...is that you?” her mother asked shakily. Diane, what...how...why? “Yes, Ma, it’s me. They let me come back from the other side to get you and Dad?” “Diane, what are you talking about? What's the other side?” Joan asked and turned to her husband. “Phil, this...this is a nightmare. Isn’t it? She chuckled nervously. “In a minute we’ll wake up and everything will be back to normal. Right?” “Joan, it’s not a nightmare. That thing is our daughter. I don’t know why or how, but that’s Diane.” “Yes Ma, Dad, I’m real, and I’ve come to take you to the other side. It’s another dimension, where others like me live. I don’t have much time. Will you come with me so we can be together? I miss you.” “Diane, we’re not giving up our lives for I don’t know what,” her father asserted. “Dad, you and Ma have to come with me to the other side. Families have to be kept together. Please come with me. I can’t let you stay here. They want you. If you don’t come willingly, I will have to take you.” “The way they took you even though you didn’t want to go?” her mother whined. “Yes, but once I got to the other side, I was glad that they took me. It’s a better world. A better life. Now, come. Give me your hands. If you don ‘t come willingly, I will have to take you. Please don’t make me take you.” “Diane, no. We won’t go and you can’t make us go,” her father said angrily. Diane touched her parents and they disappeared. A week later, a letter carrier went to the police. “There’s a week’s worth of mail piled up at the Carr’s house. I wasn’t notified that they weren’t going to be home. I think something’s wrong.” “Two officers were sent to the house. The front door was unlocked, so they went in. “Well, it doesn’t look like anyone broke in. Harry, you check up stairs, and I’ll go through the downstairs.” After going through the house, Jack and Harry met in the living room. “I don’t know what to think, Jack. C’mon, we’ll go to headquarters and report this,” Harry said and they went to the door. Harry stopped and looked back. “Did you hear that?” “Hear what?” “Sounded like a man and a woman calling to me to go to them.” “I didn’t hear anything, Harry.” “Well, I heard them saying they want me. The voices came from the wall by the staircase,” he said and he went to the wall by the staircase. “Hello, can you hear me?” “Harry, you’re hearing things.” “I heard them calling to me. Listen. There they are. The voices. Jack, how come you can’t hear them?” “I can’t hear the voices because there aren’t any voices. Maybe the voices are in your head. Are you feeling alright?” “Damn it, Jack. I’m telling you they want me to go to them.” “Harry, let me take you home. I’ll call your doctor and...” “No, Jack. They want me to go to them,” he said and disappeared. “My God. Harry, what happened? Where did you go?” Harry went to the other side. Jack didn’t hear voices calling for him...not yet.