Suzie never did much of anything to draw attention to herself. She never spoke during class unless called on and she always sat to the side during recess. Her classmates saw her as rather odd and quiet, but otherwise unremarkable.

In fact, the only unusual thing about her at all was that she tended to spend all of her free time writing in a small red notebook. No one knew exactly what she wrote about, but everyone always adjusted to wondering. Even the teachers allowed her to scribble away during lessons. They said it was a fair trade as long as she always completed her work and did well on tests. She always did.

There was, of course, a small group that took exception to the way she was treated. The leader of this group was a boy called David.

David was quite mediocre in all the ways that Suzie was not. He had average intelligence and a fair bit of cleverness. It wasn't as though he were below average, but he longed to be more. He wanted to be more, but he could never be. This infuriated him, and that anger bloomed into a massive mean streak as her grew. Suzie was a perfect student in ways he simply couldn't be, and he hated her for it.

Toward the beginning of the year, David's hatred for Suzie had burned hot. He could hardly stand the sight of her. How dare she constantly sit and write what she pleased during class while everyone else was forced to sit and pay attention? How dare she accept such obvious unfair treatment? She was an outrage. It was as though she had never once thought of another student. He felt as though her very existence was an insult to him.

Thankfully, Davids small bit of cleverness was enough for him to know that immediate action would not be to his advantage. He chose instead to hold his fury down deep inside of him. After months of suppression, the fierce burn became a steady smolder. Then, and only then, did he begin to formulate a plan.

David's plan wasn't particularly genius or elaborate, but it suited his purposes well. Then execution of it required even more waiting, but he was willing to frustrate himself for the sake of his eventual success. He waited for a day when Suzie was just a little too perfect. She would write just a little too intently. She would have the perfect answer to one question too many. She would receive one too many friendly smiles from the teacher, and his hatred would reignite. When that day came, he implemented his plan.

During recess on the fateful day, David hired a couple of younger kids he knew to go and cause a ruckus. They were to fight, throw a fit, pretend to be hurt, or do whatever else would keep the monitors distracted.

Once that was underway, the boy and his friends approached Suzie. She was, as always, leaning against the wall at the edge of the schoolyard. She aimed frequent glances up from her notebook as the boys approached, but there was no trace of concern on her face.

As soon as the girl was surrounded, David nodded to a boy called Michael. The largest in the group, he snatched away Suzie's notebook with ease. He then cleared his throat to recite what she had been writing, or try to at any rate. His tries were very much in vain.

You see, David's plan had one fundamental flaw in it. He and the others had all assumed that Suzie's notebook was a diary of some sort. They couldn't have been more wrong.

When the boy's eyes hit the writing on the page, they nearly bulged out from his head. He fell and dropped the book to the ground, hands clamped over his mouth in a wordless expression of unspeakable terror.

Suzie stood, unperturbed, and retrieved what was rightfully hers without acknowledging the boys. She then flipped through the pages and began to read. Her words were an alien din the surrounded the boys from all sides. She spoke to them both out loud and through their minds. They heard both Suzie's voice and the voice of something unknown and sinister. It whispered to them inside their souls, speaking words long lost. They were words of dark lovecraftian horror, the voice of things unknowable. The sound filled David with revulsion. Every bone in his body was screaming at him to flee, but he found himself unable to move from the ground on which he stood.

One by one his companions broke from their paralysis. They collapsed to their knees and cradled their heads in anguish. Then, finally, it was David's turn. All at once the din of sound around him dropped away. He could still hear Suzie's voice, but she was speaking in simple English from one direction. And yet, somehow, the darkness the words brought forth had intensified. Now that the boy could understand his enemy's words, he longed for the luxury of ignorance. He would have given anything to return to his previous horror.

Using the same calm and unaffected voice that she would use to answer a question in class, Suzie began to recite the story of David's life. She read to David every possible fact and observation about himself. She read about his deepest secrets and his darkest fears. She read about the deep parts of his subconscious personality that no one else had ever observed. She read about his family and the secrets they kept from him. She read about which of their classmates were secretly in love with him and which of his friends secretly hated him. She read until David was filled with a deep and painful awareness of each and every aspect of himself and his existence. This, many say, is the worst knowledge of all. No man can see the whole truth of his existence and remain sane, and so David fell.

Suzie observed him, taking the moment to tweak her already detailed notes. She then walked over and alerted a nearby monitor that something had happened to David and his friends. The monitor rushed over to them, and within a minute a large commotion had gathered around the boys.

Unaffected by the chaos, Suzie found a spot to sit along a new stretch of wall. She brushed off her skirt and leaned back against the red brick building. After a few moments of glancing around the playground, her eyes settled on a new student. She flipped to a mostly blank page, smiled, and resumed writing in her little red notebook.