Spring-Heeled Jack Read Online Free Page A

why I have it,
but as long as I can remember, the Queen
of Spades has always allowed me to fix
broken things.”
    Brock was silent. He stared at the
newly reconstructed note in awe, and Atticus was afraid he’d made a
terrible mistake. He’d just shown his best friend this strange
supernatural power that not even he understood. He was afraid he’d
just scared away the only other person he had.
    But he was wrong. A wide smile brimmed
across Brock’s face as he let out a hearty laugh. “That’s amazing!
You have a super power!”
    Atticus felt so relieved. He was
afraid Brock might think he was some sort of crazy mutant or
wizard, but instead he was just his regular old self about
it.
    “ So,” Brock said, “what’s
the note say?”
    Atticus picked up the note and began
to read:
     
    “ I’ve begun to fear this
ghost might be real. I normally wouldn’t believe in this, but I
just can’t shake the feeling that someone is always watching me.
I’ve been hearing its voice calling me and I think my mother might
have been right about the locket. I can’t leave my room or else
it’ll get me, but I have to risk it. I need to give Atticus my
locket.”
     
    Atticus couldn’t believe what he’d
read. He reached into his pocket and gripped his locket tightly.
The cool metal helped calm him down. It gave him strength and
reminded him to be brave.
    “ What locket,” Brock
asked.
    Atticus pulled his from his pocket and
held it in front of him.
    “ This locket,” he said.
“Mike needed to give me his.”
    Brock looked confused, so Atticus
tried to explain as best he could. He tried to tell him about his
parents and the symbol of the entwined gears, but Brock just
continued to look confused.
    “ I need to get Mike’s
locket. I don’t know why, but he needed me to have both of
them.”
    “ But, why?”
    Atticus shrugged. He didn’t have an
idea, but that’s what he needed to find out.
    He looked down at the Queen of Spades as it
slowly began to fade from his hand. He didn’t know what was going
on, but he had to do something. Anything would be better than just
sitting around. His emotions were getting the better of him and his
thoughts were running a million miles an hour, but he had to
focus.
    Atticus felt a fire burn deep down
inside of him. He was determined to do whatever he could to find
this ghost, and nothing was going to stand in his way.

Chapter 3
     
    The next morning, Brock woke up to the
seven o’clock bell. He groggily rolled out of bed and tried to slap
the sleepiness out of his system. He jumped to his feet and began
to slowly trudge his way to the bathroom. As he walked, he noticed
Atticus had already up and left for the day. Brock could never
understand how Atticus, or anybody else for that matter, could wake
up and get moving so early. Bed was such a cozy and warm sanctuary.
Why would anyone ever want to leave that, he thought.
    After he’d finished his daily cleaning
regimen, Brock got himself dressed in his Fortuna Prep uniform,
picked up his school bag and started to make way for class. But, he
felt like something was all wrong. He made one last check around
the room and saw that Atticus’ school bag was still sitting on his
bed. It wasn’t like him to forget that.
    Brock wasn’t the best student in the
psychology department, but he recognized abnormal behavior. It
didn’t take a genius to see how badly Atticus was hurting. Brock
decided the best thing to do would be to get Atticus to talk. Even
if it was just something small, anything would help him.
    He picked up the bag and made his way
out. Brock knew Atticus well enough to know he didn’t forget his
bag on accident.
     
    Atticus sat silently on a bench at the
campus’ western park staring at Mike’s tree. As other students
walked by, he overheard them talking about the supposed suicide.
News spread like wildfire that it was all self-inflicted and that
there were no outside forces at work. They said he most likely had
too much