Alice tried to remember who had given her the key. She had fallen hard on her head when she had landed, and now everything was fuzzy. But she picked herself up and turned the key in the lock on the small box. The lock clicked open. Alice tugged on the lid of the box, but since it was rusty and old it took all her might to get it open.

When it finally did open Alice peered inside. Lying on a red velvet cloth was a book. Slightly disappointed but not sure why, she blew off the dust and inspected it. It was black, and on the front was an intricate emblem. The emblem took up the entire front cover with its swirls and spirals. Alice knew one thing for sure. It was old.

She took the red velvet cloth and polished the dust off the emblem. It read, Secrets. Confused and curious, Alice opened the book.

To My Sweet Alice,
Do not read until midnight of your sixteenth birthday. You will understand soon enough. Then the book was nothing but blankness. Page after page was blank. It didn’t make sense. How could a book entitled secrets be so dull? Only a letter that explained nothing about her life in a book that should have explained everything sat on the page. Stupid thing! Alice put the book back into the box and threw it across the room.

“Alice? Where are you Alice?” the voice of her mother floated down into the cellar where Alice currently stood. She knew the cellar was forbidden to her, so she panicked and left the book and the box lying thrown against the wall hidden by piles of junk. She rushed up the stairs and threw open the door.

Once safely on the other side, Alice sighed and leaned up against the door. “I’m here mother.”

“Alice, sweetie, you know I don’t want you near the cellar. Now come to dinner. Your food’s getting cold,” her mother said kindly. She led Alice into the kitchen where they ate. The next year passed just like that. Alice went to school and her mother went to work in the daytime, and at night Alice would sneak into the cellar. Most of the time, she came up in time for dinner. But some nights she would act like she went over to a friend’s house just so she could explore the cellar more.

Until the night of her sixteenth birthday, Alice had completely forgotten about the book. But that night she had been sifting through those piles of junk and had stumbled across the book. The book! It’s still here! Alice glanced at the clock. Quarter to midnight. She grabbed the box and practically flew up the stairs to her bedroom. She locked her bedroom door, just in case her mother would come in and see her with the book from the forbidden cellar. 11:54, drat! Alice cracked the book open. It was still blank besides the note. The minutes ticked slowly by. 11:56, 11:58, 59, midnight!!! Excitedly, Alice peered at the book still open on her lap. Nothing. Disappointed and angry, Alice hurled the book across the room and onto the floor.

Thoughts swirled in her head. What had I expected from the dumb book anyway? Maybe I’m not the right Alice. After all, my grandmother’s name is Alice. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. But what was in the book? After all, its title is secrets….

False hope spurred in Alice and she got up from her bed. She walked to the corner of her room where the book lay, now shut. Staring at the book, she contemplated looking inside one more time. After what seemed like hours to Alice but was only a few moments, Alice hastily grabbed the book. A little hesitantly she opened it.

Words now filled the entire book. They were handwritten in a beautiful cursive style. But they seemed to come across the page as she read them, almost as if they were being written as she read. Amazed, Alice sat and read.

If you are reading this now Alice, you are probably extremely confused. So I will explain. I am your grandmother Alice. We come from a long line of Alice s you see. The first Alice, my grandmother’s mother was in her time considered evil. You see, she came from a long line of poltergeists. You would think that this wouldn’t matter until you were dead. You’d be wrong. Since your great great grandmother was a poltergeist herself, she attracted many spirits, even when she was alive.

The first ghost she saw was a terrifying one; he had been murderer when he was alive and so he was hung. Now he was an angry spirit who showed up when ever she tried to sleep. She screamed and cried all night long, so her parents sent her to a mental institution. She got really close to her roommate Sarah. But one day, they took Sarah away. Said she was healed and cured and ready to go back to her family. Except they didn’t send her back to her family. She wasn’t making the progress they had hoped for, so they killed her and sent a message to her family saying she had committed suicide.

Alice knew what they did this to patients who didn’t make progress, and when they took her away that one day, she got mad. She went on a rampage, throwing things at the doctors and cursing at them. So they shot her. Alice died in the very room she had lived in since she was six. However, since she was a poltergeist, she was forced to stay in our world. So she harassed the patients and doctors in the institution until they abandoned the building and tore it down later on.

Little did they know that she had a child. My grandmother. She wrote in a diary explaining her life for she knew what she was and passed it down to my mother. My mother passed it down to me, and I wrote my story as well. I had planned on passing it down to your mother, but she read it and refused to believe any of the things I had written in there. She hated me for making her what she was.

Your mother changed her name (it was Alice) and ran from her future. So now, I’m passing this diary down to you and hoping that you can handle the responsibilities. Now that you know exactly what you are, ghosts will most likely start appearing to you. Even if they are frightening or threaten to kill you, remember, they cannot hurt you. But you must also know that since you are a poltergeist, you will not be allowed to leave this earth until you fulfill a certain requirement in your lifetime. I recommend doing this when you are living, although most don’t find out their requirement until they are indeed dead.

When you start to write in this diary, all of my stories will cease to exist. Represent our family well and tell all of our stores. Fill it with your story as well. But do me a favor, make it a good one.
With love, your grandmother Alice.

Alice sat. She stared at the book. The book that had just changed her life forever. What would she write? Who would receive the diary after her? Would it be her child? And who is to say that it will be a girl? Would her child take the responsibilities? Or would she run like her mother had? She shook her head. None of that mattered now. She started to write in her big, neat girlish handwriting. Dear Alice….