abstract
| - Nadine Cross was an orphan adopted at the age of four and a half months. Her adoptive parents and their biological son were killed in a car accident when she was six, whereupon she went to live with their relatives. At no point did Nadine ever feel wanted by either family that adopted her: her "parents" had always favored their natural son. And her aunt and uncle, both middle-aged, resented being saddled with the responsibility of a child so late in life. As Nadine reached sexual maturity, she made a couple of tentative attempts to have normal relationships with boys, but some strange, outside force had always thwarted those efforts. She came to believe that her virginity had some darkly sacred purpose: that she was intended for someone special, and that she was meant to wait for that person, like an "unbroken vessel". Eventually Nadine went to college to pursue a teaching degree. One night her dorm-mates were playing with a Ouija board, and they pressured her to join in; however, unlike the playful prank messages that had resulted up until then, the planchette actually seemed to become possessed, spelling out terrifying occult messages directed straight at Nadine.
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