Marjoe moved one of his chubby fingers over the pale lines of the map.
"I think it's great that Susanna is coming over," he said without giving it much thought. His finger followed a river that cut almost the whole continent in half.
"You like her, don't you?" Yuma teased.
Marjoe just shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, sure. She's Ok."
"Yes, but she is pretty too."
"She's just a girl," Marjoe mumbled without much interest.
Danny and Susanna lived at the end of the street with their father, Conrad. Their mother had died many years before during Susanna's birth. Since then, Conrad Norvic took care of his kids on his own.
In the beginning, Danny hadn't been old enough to take care of his little sister while his father was at work. So usually, Joey's mother had taken the two children home with her while Conrad, in turn, helped the family out with food and other necessities.
Because Marjoe and Susanna, as well as Yuma and Danny, were about the same age, they had fast become friends spending a significant amount of time together.
Susanne was about a year older than Marjoe and had, like her brother curly, brown hair, and big, green eyes. Marjoe always thought that she looked a bit like the dolls she liked to play with.
Marjoe didn't really like the dolls. Yuma always said they were girly, and he was probably right. Marjoe preferred to run around in the fields with the other boys anyway. But since Susanna liked the dolls very much and Joey, on the other hand, adored Susanna, he sometimes did her a favor and played with her instead.
The sound of the bells had almost died away when they heard knocking on the front door. Marjoe was about to jump up and run to the door, but Yuma held him back to go by himself.
Pressing his face to the door, he peeked through a small gap between two of the door boards before he finally opened it.
Her mother gently pushed the two terrified looking children into the house before closing the door and barricading it.
"Hey Sanna," Marjoe cried happily and waved at the girl who gave him a shy smile, the fear still prominent in her eyes. The four kids went back to the bedroom and piled onto the two beds.
"What do you guys wanna do now," Marjoe asked, being the only one who was still unfaced by the whole situation.
"I... I could read a story or somethin'," Yuma suggested trying to uphold some sense of normalcy. Everybody agreed, even Danny, who typically preferred to tussle with the older boys.
Yuma grabbed one of the old, tattered books he had stashed under his bed and began to read. It was a strange story about a witch who lived in a hut made of candy in the darkest part of the wood. When one day, two kids found the house after being abandoned by their father, they started eating from it. The witch got mad and tried to devour them instead, but they were able to escape by pushing the old hag into the oven, so she burned alive.
"That's just horrible," Susanna commented after Yuma finished reading.
"No. It just doesn't make any sense," Danny protested. "I mean, why would you build a house out of candy? That's such a waste. And what happens when it rains? The whole thing would just melt away."
"It is made of candy to attract hungry children so the witch can cook and eat them," Susanna explained in a condescending voice.
"She has a house made out of candy! Why would she need to eat children?"
"Maybe she liked the children better," Marjoe chimed in, earning a thankful look from Susanna.
"That's dumb. There is nothing better than candy," Danny growled.
Susanna opened her mouth to respond when suddenly three things happened at ones.
A dark shadow covered the sun like a storm cloud, darkening the sky.
Thick fog coiled through the alleys bringing with it a bone-chilling cold that seeped into every corner of the town and let the four children shiver. It was almost like someone had laid a wet blanket over the whole area, drowning out all light and warmth.
And together with the darkness and cold came the silence. It wasn't a typical silence like one can sometimes experience right before the sun rises over the horizon and the birds begin to chirp. It was an eery silence that seemed to swallow every sound. Not even the gentle buzz of the wind could be heard or the small noises of animals just behind the tree line. Every sound just disappeared until the only thing that was left was the pounding of one's heart.
And even though Marjoe had never before experienced this phenomenon, he immediately knew what it meant.
The Undertaker had arrived.