The Girl Who Waits at the Crossing

Every kid in town knows the rule about the Route 9 crossing: don't bike past it after dark, and if you see the girl standing there, don't look at her straight on. Most people treat it as the kind of story that gets passed down at sleepovers, older kids scaring younger ones, not something anyone actually expects to happen. This time, she's really there — exactly where the story says, exactly as still. And she knows a name nobody ever told her.