| abstract | - If you can, try and find Queen Elizabeth Elementary School, a place notable for its spacious schoolyard and aged brick building. Go to this school's playground on a Sunday evening, any time between 6:25 PM and 6:45 PM, and optionally, you can only bring one object with you. It can be a bike, your means of getting there perhaps, or a camera, but nothing that could distract you from your surroundings. You will fail to get far if you're not focused on the schoolyard. Go to the swing set and pick the last swing on the right, and swing. Optionally, you could simply sit on it, but the process could take much longer. If everything is going correctly, you should see a child's form walking the perimeter of the grounds, waving a black bat. Do not stare for too long, or he will notice and run out of the yard. At that point, you have an unknown amount of time to get as far away as you can from the school before he comes back. Continue swinging long enough, and you'll hear him call out to you, heading towards you slowly from behind. Only look back at him once or twice at first, but as he gets closer, he will ask your name. Under no circumstances should you ever reveal your name to him, as he'll ask you more and more questions that you'll be forced to answer. He'll remember everything you tell him, and while he is not able to hurt you with this, but he likes to tell his “friends” everything about the people he meets. Instead, just tell him politely that your name, "isn't important." He'll at first ask you from afar if you've ever played baseball. Then, the boy will stop beside the swing set. You'll notice he is approximately seven, with a blonde buzzcut, an oversized camouflage print hoodie, and he's chewing on some sort of stick. You will not have enough time to identify what it is, but it had been described as a coffee stir stick or even a long nail. This is when he'll ask you if you want to play baseball. This is the last chance you'll have to leave. If you must, tell him that you aren't good at baseball, or maybe that you need to go home for dinner. The boy will try to persuade you to stay, and maybe even offer to teach you to play. But turn him down politely, and promise him that other children usually come to the grounds around that time. Leave and head straight to your destination. If you do choose to play baseball with him, he will not seem excited at first, but lead you straight to the baseball diamond on the other end of the yard. He may not say much, but mention that he's been looking for people to play with him for a while. His game of baseball, as it will turn out, involves you throwing a ball to him, and he'll hit it with his bat and then run around the diamond. You'll repeat this over and over again, and it isn't known how long it could take until the boy will be contented. It could be anywhere from ten minutes to three hours. If at any time you try to leave the game prematurely, he will try and persuade you to stay. You’ll notice a different look in his eyes, and looking directly into them will give you a burning feeling in your skull. Giving him an excuse or even staying will have no effect, and at this point, the best thing you could do for yourself is to run onto the adjacent street and throw yourself in front of a car, lest you experience what the boy will do to you. But play baseball with the boy all the way to the end, and he'll come up to you, overjoyed. He'll thank you for your time and give you the baseball. From there he'll take his bat and go home, and you are free to leave too, but exit in the opposite direction and do not turn around at all until you have left the grounds. When you reach a safe place indoors, you will now be able to study the ball. There's nothing about it that appears odd; it's simply a battered old baseball. You can either display it, or even play with it, but try stripping a small piece of the ball off and carrying it around in your pocket. You may experience headaches at first, but you'll notice a change in yourself afterwards. You'll be able to predict any accidents around you, know who's sneaking up behind you, and expect nearly anything out of the ordinary. Carry the piece around with you enough, and the power of it will absorb into you to the point where you won't need it anymore. Your friends will declare you a psychic, but sometimes the weight of the power will give you bodily aches. Most likely, you'll never meet that little boy again. But if you're one of the unlucky ones, and you see him in any form, you must turn right around and run as fast and as far as you can. Because he wants his baseball back.
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