It was a warm day in Huntington Beach, and I walked down my street slowly, praying for any source of entertainment imaginable. School had just let out for summer and everyone was making plans. Who was going on vacation? Where were they going? Yeah this was the talk around town right about now. Me, all I was planning on doing was going to work and going to shows.
"Hey!" came a voice from behind me. It was my best friend Nicole. She moved here in about sixth grade and from the moment we met we instantly bonded. "Where you headed?"
"Nowhere really. Just to my house to get something to eat, and wait for Zacky."
"Cool, Mind if I join you? My parents aren't going to be home until late and I don't want to be by myself." Nicole hated to be by herself. She looked like an outcast with died black hair, a lip ring, and ripped jeans. She dated my other best friend Matt who I had known for years.
"No way. I'd love the company. Zacky is coming over later though. Hey, maybe we can see if Matt wants to come over too."
"That would be awesome. Wait, what time do your parents get home?"
"They won't be home until later next month. They went on vacation and I decided not to go." My parents stopped making me go with them on vacation a few years ago when they realized that I was completely miserable. I don't know, there was something about vacations and me that didn't mix well.
"Cool. Think I could stay a while then?"
"Maybe, we'll call when we get in the house." We walked the rest of the way chatting idly about our lives. We talked about upcoming shows, boyfriends, and even about work. When we got to my house Zacky and Matt were already sitting on the front porch.
"Hey Zacky. Hey Matt." I gave Zacky a hug as I walked to the front door. My key wasn't working though, so I had to fight to get the door unlocked. Zacky was my boyfriend of about one year. He was tall, almost six feet. He also had his lip pierced and a few tattoos.
"Hey I, sorry I'm early. But things were getting really boring at my house. Matt was there too so he came with me." Everyone had this strange way of calling me I. My real name was Irene, but honestly I liked being called I a lot better. "I hope you don't mind."
"It's okay." By this time I had gotten us all in the house and we were sitting in the living room talking. "Nicole is going to be here for a while anyway. She might even spend the night. So yeah, it's okay for Matt to stay a while."
"You sure I, I went over Zacky's to escape my house. My parents are screaming at me again about every little thing." Matt had a really rough time at home. His parents were the type of people who could care less about their son. And when they did care, all they did was scream that he did something wrong. Matt wasn't a bad kid, he was just the type of person that stood up for what he thought was right. And when he stood up for what was right, no one dared to argue with him. Matt wasn't mean, he just looked scary. At his full height he was about six foot two and his muscles were bigger than me and Nicole's put together and doubled.
Together Matt and Zacky were part of this local band, Lips of Deceit. Other members of the group were Bryan, Johnny and Jimmy. We were close with them too. But we went out with Matt and Zacky. Matt was lead vocalist for the band and Zacky played rhythm guitar.
Ok well now that I have described everyone else, I might as well describe myself too. I was tall about five' six. I had black hair with purple streaks going though it. I wore black a lot and my jeans were almost always ripped, just like Nicole's.
"Do you want to stay here tonight Matt? My parents are out of town, but I'm sure they won't mind. You're like the son they never had." I said to Matt as I sat down next to Zacky. My parents loved Matt to death. I had known him since I was about five years old and we were literally best friends. He was like a big brother to me and whenever he had problems at home, he always came to my house first. My parents didn't mind, they knew us well enough to know that we were only really, really good friends.
"Yeah, I might take you up on that offer. My parents are going insane, saying that I did something wrong again."
As you can tell, we were all kids from the wrong side of the tracks. But surprisingly, we stuck together through it all. Matt's parents, Zacky's issues, Nicole's abandonment problems, and my depression. Yeah we could get though anything, as long as we had each other.
All of us spent hours at my house watching TV and listening to music. Matt and me discussed new song ideas, Zacky was thinking of guitar riffs to go along with the songs, and then Matt and Nicole were singing the songs as they were formed. I eventually called my parents and convinced them to let Matt and Nicole stay the night. Zacky would most likely stay too, but I had already asked and they were okay with it as long as everyone else's parents were okay with the plans we made. We eventually decided that the guys would stay downstairs and the girls would stay upstairs. This was honestly normal in my house. Everyone came here to get away from his or her lives at home. My parents trusted all of us. So in the end, everyone was happy.
At around eleven, things had started to settle down. It had been decided that everyone would stay here tonight. We called everyone's parents and it was okay with everyone. A storm was rolling in, so we started to get ready for our normal stormy night ritual.
Our ritual was simple; we had done it ever since we had all gotten together. We opened all of the blinds, and gotten pillows and covers to lie down on the back porch to watch the storm. The porch had a kind of awning over it that was see-through. We turned on the newest Lips of Deceit demo, and settled down to watch the flashes of lighting dance across the midnight sky. This happened every time a storm came through town and it was a way for us all to spend time with each other doing something we loved.
This went on for about an hour when suddenly the music cut off. "Whoa, what happened to the music," came from Nicole who had been lying with Matt, falling asleep.
"I'm thinking the power went out. We should have some flashlights and batteries in the kitchen. I'll go look and check." Once in the kitchen, I checked every place I could think of for flashlights. I found batteries in a drawer but I just couldn't find a single flashlight. I eventually found a few candles and a lighter in another drawer and decided that those would work to provide us with a little light.
I began to wonder what was going on in the living room. I knew that everyone had come in when the power cut off, but things were a little to quiet for my well-being. I turned around to grab the candles and lighter when I saw a shadow standing in the doorway to the kitchen. I started to scream when the shadow started to come closer.
"Baby, baby! What's wrong? Stop screaming! It's okay." It was only Zacky who had come in to make sure I was alright.
"Oh. My. Goddess. Zachary Johnathan Baker! Don't you ever scare me like that again!" I was shaking from head to toe in fright. He had really scared me.
"I'm sorry baby, I just came to make sure you were alright and to tell you that Matt said he needs to tell you something." He sounded so sincere so I decided to believe him. He was known to intentionally scare people, but this time I felt that he hadn't meant to scare me.
"Okay, well then I'm not mad. But babe, can you do me a favor next time?"
"Sure, what?"
"Tell me you're coming into the kitchen? Like saying my name or something, so I know its you and not some maniac coming to kill me."
"Okay I can do that. I love you baby, I'm sorry"
"It's okay. I love you too." I walked back out into the living room, holding the candles in one hand and the lighter in the other. "Hey Matt, what did you want to tell me?"
"This is kind of weird, but you're the only house on the whole street that the power is cut off in."
"Really? That can't be right." But sure enough when I looked outside, every other house on the block had power. "Hmm. Maybe we blew a fuse. Anyone want to volunteer to go into the basement to check?"
"I'll go. I know where it is so I can find it easy and fix it." So it was settled. Zacky would go check the fuse and the rest of us would stay upstairs and hang out.
Eventually Zacky came back from upstairs. The power had come back on so I assumed that we had just blown a fuse.
"Well I fixed that. Now who wants to watch a movie?" said Zacky as we began to hear a strange noise coming from outside.
"Whoa, what in the world was that?" said Nicole and Matt at the same time.
"I have no clue. Probably a tree scratching one of the windows, you know?" I said calmly though honestly it had scared me too. I curled up closer next to Zacky as we all waited for the noise to occur again. "Well I'm starting to think I was right since we haven't heard anything else."
"Yeah I think so too. Man things are starting to get creepy," said Matt as he pulled Nicole closer to him.
"Maybe it's our imagination. Just our heads making up weird things because we're tired." Zacky was usually the one who was always right so we all got up and started to get ready to go to bed.
"Alright guys, everyone ready for bed? Personally I just want a nice comfy bed and a good night's sleep to cure me of this ridiculous stuff we're imagining." I started to walk up the stairs with Nicole following close behind. Matt and Zacky followed us up the stairs and made sure we were tucked in bed and the windows and everything were locked.
"We'll come up and check on you guys in a little bit. We're going to stay up and talk for about another hour, then we're going to bed too." Zacky always made sure everyone was taken care of before himself. One time when I was sick he came over and made sure I was ok. And when he left, he called every few hours to make sure I was okay still. Matt did the same for Nicole. Yeah, the guys looked scary, but deep down inside they were just big teddy bears.
"Okay baby we can deal with that. Right, Nicole?"
"Definitely, but you do know we are sixteen not six right?"
"I know babe, but after everything that's happened tonight, we have the right to check." Matt was always the type of person to make sure you were okay. He'd give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it.
"Okay, okay. Let us get some sleep alright? We'll see you guys in the morning." I pushed them out of the room playfully before walking to the bed to go to sleep.
"Man those two are a bunch of worry warts. They can never get the fact that we can take care of ourselves," I said to Nicole as I crawled into bed. "Think they'll ever learn?"
"No way, it's been two years. If they haven't learned by now they never will," she said jokingly. "I'm tired though so let's get to sleep." It was about one a.m. in the morning so we were bound to be tired.
"Okay. Goodnight Nicole."
"Goodnight I"
We both fell asleep rather quickly. However, after a few hours of sleep, I woke up to hear movement downstairs, almost like someone was fighting. I woke up Nicole and told her what I heard.
"Nicole, listen. Something's going on downstairs." I said urgently.
"Yeah, it sure sounds that way don't it?"
"I'm going down to check it. Come on." Slowly we descended the stairs. On the fifth step, the stair creaked under the weight of my foot. We stopped and listened for more noise, but all we heard was the constant shuffling of feet on the carpet. We continued down the steps slowly.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, we came to a startling conclusion. The ground was wet and sticky. The air had a faint coppery smell to it. We walked farther into the room and realized that the ground was still wet and sticky. I kept walking until I reached the light switch on the wall. When I turned on the light I came to a realization that should not have even been possible. The carpet was soaked in a dark red substance that looked like blood. The worse part was, Zacky and Matt were nowhere to be found.
"Nicole, I think for the first time in my life, I am actually afraid. Where are the guys?"
"I don't know, but honestly I wish I did, I. I wish I did." Nicole was about as nervous as I was at this moment. The guys never just left without a note or something.
We walked into the kitchen. On the counter was a knife that was dripping with the same red substance that was all over the carpet. The air was saturated with a faint coppery smell.
"Nicole, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I don't want to think what you're thinking. But I think I might be. Do you think something happened to Matt and Zacky?"
We walked farther through the house slowly. We were growing more and more afraid with every step. At every noise we jumped and every time we saw a shadow we ran and screamed. We walked back into the pantry to see if we could find anything in there. We had barely walked in when suddenly the door shut behind us.
We started to scream as we were locked inside the small, dark pantry. After we had finally stopped screaming, we started to hear laughing outside the door.
"Nicole are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"If you're thinking that Matt and Zacky just tricked us big time, then yea I am."
We got out of the pantry and started to yell and scream at Matt and Zacky.
"How dare you do that to us? Were you trying to give us a heart attack?" I screamed at them as I hit them playfully.
"Sorry baby," said Zacky, "We couldn't resist. It was Matt's idea."
"Well I say you're both in trouble." Nicole was laughing hysterically as she said this. She had come out of the pantry mad but in the end we all had to laugh at the situation. We finally all decided to sleep in the living room. We had just lain down when we all saw a shadow creep out of the darkness.
"Zacky, Matt, is that you?" I whispered softly into my covers.
"Not me," said Zacky as he pulled me closer to him.
"Definitely not me. I'm laying here with Nicole," said Matt as he held Nicole tighter.
"Than who is it, asked Nicole, with her face buried in Matt's chest.
The shadow crept closer through the darkness. In one swift motion a small silver blade had penetrated Zacky's throat. Before I could even scream, the shadowy figured stabbed me straight in my chest. Two more small blades about the size of nails were thrown straight into the throats of Matt and Nicole.
My breathing began to slow and my heart began to stop beating. Right before my eyes my friends had been killed and I knew I would be next. Suddenly a light went on and I saw the shadowy figure. I had no clue of his name or even if I had ever seen him before. All I knew was that this would be the last face I would ever see. Slowly my killer grabbed the knife that was sticking out of my chest, he turned the knife ever so slowly, causing my heart to slow even more. The last thing I heard before I took my final, shaky breath was the sound of my killer…
Laughing.