# Read the first page of Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon Read the opening of Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon free, no signup. A nurse returns to Vermont as a murder echoes her childhood. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/promise-not-to-tell-jennifer-mcmahon - Genre: Horror - Year: 2009 - ISBN: 9780061143311 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9780061827488&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9780061143311 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9780061143311 ## The opening WHEN THE POTATO GIRL WAS MURDERED the killer cut out her heart. He buried it, but the next day, she rose again—from that exact same spot.” Ryan poked the campfire with a stick for emphasis, sending a shower of sparks up into the night. Opal inched closer to Ryan. He was fifteen, kind of cute in that farm-boy way. Tori said Ryan had a huge crush on Opal. Tori was the one who’d set the whole thing up, said it would be fun to go into the woods and make out with the older boys. Opal was twelve and had never kissed a boy before but it wasn’t like she was going to admit that to anyone, even her best friend. “What, like a zombie?” Tori asked. Opal was quiet—she hated the Potato Girl stories. “Yeah, back from the dead like a zombie. It’s like a potato: you cut it up into pieces, bury any one of those pieces—even a little bit of peel if it has eyes—and another plant grows.” Ryan snapped a stick as if he were breaking a bone and tossed it into the fire. Opal shivered. She thought of the visit she’d had just that afternoon. But no, she mustn’t think of these things. And she knew better than to tell the others. They’d think she was lying or crazy or maybe a little of both. “And she roams these woods now,” added Sam. “You know how you can tell when she’s coming? By the smell. That rotten potato reek. You can smell her a hundred feet off.” “Oh, puh-leeaase!” Tori rolled her eyes. Sam was her sort-of boyfriend. “Let me get this straight—you don’t believe the Potato Girl is real?” Ryan was incredulous. “I believe she existed once. I know she did. My mom went to school with her. She was just some poor kid who was murdered. All this ghost shit? It’s...whaddaya call it. An urban legend.” “Jesus, Tori, are you forgetting that Dan and Chris saw her right here just last week?” Opal said. “And what about Becky Sheridan’s little sister, Janey? She says the Potato Girl met her down in the Griswolds’ old field and locked her in the root cellar.” And what about me? Opal thought. “God, would you guys grow up? Dan and Chris were wasted, as usual. Janey was just screwing around and got stuck.” Tori spread her hands in a tah-dah gesture. “Right,” said Opal. “The door was latched from the outside, brainiac. How do you figure she pulled that one off?” “All I’m saying is, shit can be explained.” “And all I’m saying is, there’s some shit that can’t,” Opal said. Opal knew Tori was still mad at her about the jacket. Earlier that afternoon, before meeting the boys, Tori had found out about Opal’s borrowing her cross-country jacket—without asking. That was bad enough, but Opal happened to wear it while fixing the chain on her bike, and Tori was furious about the grease stain on the left sleeve. Opal had to promise to have it dry-cleaned, paying for it with her own money. And in the meantime, Tori could borrow her jacket. Only it wasn’t exactly her jacket. It was her mother’s oldest and most favorite jacket, which Opal had borrowed on many occasions without asking and now was forbidden to so much as touch. It was fawn-colored suede with fringe on the sleeves and front. A cowgirl, rock-star jacket that Opal had to admit looked better on Tori, who was a little older and actually had a figure. The two girls had the same haircut (both done by Shirley at Hair Today on the edge of town) and both were blond, but the resemblances stopped there. Opal knew Tori was the pretty one, the one the boys looked at; the truth was, most days she couldn’t care less. She had bigger things to worry about than boys. Opal knew her borrowing annoyed people, and that one day she might get in real trouble for it, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop. Half the time, she wasn’t even aware she was doing it. Like the night she took Tori’s cross-country jacket, she was most of the way home before she even realized she was wearing it. Some people smoked. Some chewed their nails. Opal borrowed. It wasn’t stealing exactly. She took things only from people she knew, people she liked and felt close to. And she did her best to return the things unharmed before anyone even noticed they were missing. It gave her a thrill. A sense that she was so much more than her twelve-year-old self when she carried pieces of other people around with her. They were like good luck charms—talismans—imbued somehow with little bits of other people’s souls. IT WAS A COLD NIGHT. The four kids sat close to the fire, while the boys swapped more Potato Girl stories. Tori mostly kept silent, smoking the Camel Lights she’d pilfered from her dad, occasionally fluffing her hair, snorting and shaking her head at the most outlandish tales. There were plenty of stories to go around without her input. Every kid in New Canaan had grown up hearing about how the Potato Girl walked the woods where she was killed, searching for her murderer, taking her vengeance on anyone who crossed her path. “I bet the reason she hasn’t left is that the killer’s still here. She knows who it is and won’t rest until he’s dead,” Ryan said. “But it’s not just him she’s pissed at—it’s the whole fucking town. She’s cursed the whole town,” Sam said. “Curse or no curse, I have to pee. I’ll be right back.” Tori rose, pulling the suede jacket tight around her. “Take the flashlight,” said Sam. “Moon’s out. I’ll find my way,” replied Tori as she headed off, out of the circle of firelight. “Be careful! I smell rotten potatoes!” shouted Sam after her. “Asshole!” she called back. They listened to her footsteps, crunching over dead leaves and twigs, moving farther away, then disappearing altogether. They heard her curse quietly once—probably got her foot tangled in the undergrowth. The fire crackled. They told more stories. After five minutes, Opal said Sam should go look for her. The guys brushed it off, said girls took forever pissing, had a good laugh about just what it was girls did that could take so long. When ten minutes had gone by, they called to her, but there was no response. The guys said Tori must be fucking with them. Trying to give them a good scare. “Fine,” Opal said finally. “You two macho men stay here. I’m gonna go find her.” She snatched the flashlight from Ryan and marched out into the darkness. RYAN AND SAM STAYED by the fire laughing at how hysterical girls could be. Wasn’t that what they were doing there to begin with? Hadn’t they come to the haunted woods, as countless other boys had done, hoping the girls would get a little scared, need a little comforting? Wasn’t all the ghost-watching shit just an excuse to get out in the woods and fool around? Weren’t the woods behind the Griswolds’ old place littered with bottles and condoms, specters of couples who had come before, with not one sign of some tormented little girl ghost? Opal’s scream interrupted them. They ran away from the warm glow of the fire, toward the shrill cry in the dark and tangled woods. They saw the flashlight bobbing in the trees and heard Opal sob as they drew near. ## Books with a similar feel - [The Fireman by Joe Hill](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-fireman-joe-hill.md) - [How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix](https://uncovered.ink/read/how-to-sell-a-haunted-house-grady-hendrix.md) - [Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman](https://uncovered.ink/read/spin-a-black-yarn-josh-malerman.md) - [Whisper Down the Lane by Clay Chapman](https://uncovered.ink/read/whisper-down-the-lane-clay-chapman.md) - [Echoes by Ellen Datlow](https://uncovered.ink/read/echoes-ellen-datlow.md) - [Nothing Untoward by Clay McLeod Chapman](https://uncovered.ink/read/nothing-untoward-clay-mcleod-chapman.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.