When You Were Young

Veronica dumped Samantha into the crib. Samantha tried to scramble out, but as before couldn't climb out. Veronica leaned over the side with a victorious smile. She reached out to pinch Samantha's cheek. "Anything you need in there? A dowwy? A bwankie? A dipey?"

"What you gonna do with me?" Samantha asked.

"For now I'll keep you in there. Once your boyfriend figures out how to get rid of that fucking algae, then I'm going to bring him back here and stab him through the heart so you can watch him die just like his bitch of a mother." At this, Samantha again tried to claw her way out of the crib, but Veronica pushed her down. "When I finish with him, I'm going to make you into an iddy-biddy widow baby. I think I'll keep you like that for a couple centuries and then maybe-if you're a good little girl-I might let you become a toddler again."

Veronica pinched Samantha's nose before disappearing from the side of the crib. Samantha heard her banging around pots and pans in the kitchen. She looked around the crib for something that might help her escape, but once again saw nothing that could give her the needed boost.

By now the other kids might have already killed Prudence, Wendell, and Molly. If only I can get out of here, she thought. If she could get to the fountain cave and dive in then as Joseph suggested she might be able to go back in time to stop Veronica. Then none of this would have happened. Her friends would all be alive and more grown-up, depending how far back she went.

What if the fountain brought her back to the docks twelve years ago? If she stopped the reverend then, she would stay an adult and while she would be able to keep Veronica from harming anyone, she and Joseph could never be together. With all that had happened to them, she supposed this was for the best. Better if he never knew her, just as it would have been better for Andre to have never known her.

She brought death to everyone who ever loved her. First her parents, then her aunt, then Andre, and soon Joseph would die, his only crime loving her. If she wanted to change history for the better, then she ought to stop herself from being born. Then her parents, aunt, and Andre would all still be alive. And Veronica-

Samantha thought back to that first day of kindergarten. If she had never befriended Veronica, would Veronica have still killed all those people? Perhaps Veronica could have become a normal, well-adjusted woman if she'd never known Samantha. Like a plague, Samantha infected and then destroyed everyone she touched. In the crib she began to cry like a little child with loud wails that turned her face a livid red.