She cleared the screen, opened the file, and stared at the words she’d written earlier. They seemed unfamiliar, as if someone else had written them. She put her chin on her hand, leaned forward, and tried to concentrate on reading through the story, hoping for some miraculous inspiration to help her tie the words together…but nothing came to her. She leaned back in the chair, closed her eyes, tried to picture the setting, the characters, hoping for a glimpse of what she should be writing.

She opened her eyes and felt her heart trip-hammer against her ribs. The words of the story were gone, replaced by the single phrase “bring me back” repeated over and over again. A bang at the window added to her jitters and she jumped out of the chair, knocking it over. The bang repeated itself and she looked fearfully at the window, only to see an enormous black bird perched on the sill. She felt the anger rise in her, and she stalked over to the window and tried to shoo the bird away. It wasn’t intimidated, simply sat there blinking its beady eyes at her. “Not a fucking word out of you,” she yelled.

“Great!” she sputtered, turned on her heel and went back to the computer. “I’m stuck in an Edgar Allen Poe story.”

She cleared the screen again, called up the story, and began to write … stream of consciousness…just words…just anything to keep the ghost in the machine from commandeering her computer screen again. The moment she stopped, a new phrase appeared: “I want to live”

“Who the fuck are you!” she yelled, wondering if someone had gotten their hands on her computer, inserted a virus…it was the only logical explanation.

“You know!”

“Fuck you!” Jenny yelled. “I’m not playing these bullshit games.”

“IT’S NO GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the computer ‘yelled’ back. “You killed me! Now bring me back!”

Jenny’s breath hitched in her lungs. “Sarah?” she whispered hoarsely.

“YES!”

This isn’t possible, Jenny thought. This isn’t a Stephen King novel!

“You had no right!”

“Sarah,” Jenny cleared her throat, “you’re not real. You’re a character. Imaginary. I made you up.”

“YOU MADE ME REAL!”