A/N- This is my first attempt at writing a horror story so any suggestions are welcome. Enjoy

We All Fall Down

Gabriella frustratedly slammed her fist into the dashboard as the sky darkened. "Please don't rain. Please don't rain. Please don't..." she begged as water began to beat down on her windshield. "Ugh, stupid Mother Nature," she muttered. This was going to make her even later. Her fiancé wasn't going to be happy about this.

She was supposed to meet him in Arizona on the fifth, two days ago. Things hadn't been going well lately; this was supposed to be their break from all the work and arguing. So how was she supposed to explain that her absence the past few days had been because of work? She sighed to herself and glanced at her phone. If she was five minutes late for dinner, he'd send her fifty texts and fill up her voicemail with worried messages. But he hadn't called her once or sent her a single text in the last 48 hours.

She'd really screwed up this time. What if this really was the final straw? What if there weren't any more second chances? What if it was really over this time? Gabriella turned her attention back to the road, or where she assumed the road was, it was really hard to tell, and gripped the steering wheel.

Suddenly, the sound of a keytone remixed Beethoven snapped her attention back to the phone. As soon as her hand made contact with the phone, it stopped ringing. She quickly scanned through missed calls but nothing showed up. It was like the call never occurred. Odd, to say the very least.

Today was turning into a weird day, and not just because of the rain and the phone calls, or lack of calls. Earlier that day, she could have sworn she'd seen a shadow following her. Later, she'd been walking down a hall and heard laughter or rather, a deep, throaty chuckling. But she'd never seen the source of the shadow or the sounds. At the gas station, a pyramid of some sort of heart-attack in pretty silver packaging had toppled over when she'd passed by. And as she'd walked back to her car, she could have sworn she'd seen something hiding by her right bumper.

But whether these things were coincidences, signs, or figments of her paranoid and guilty conscious, Gabriella wasn't sure. Nor did she have time to dwell on the idea very long, because out of her peripheral vision, she saw that she was coming up fast on another car. She slammed on her brakes and tried to hold the wheel straight as the car began to hydroplane.

"Don't panic, don't panic, do not panic Gabriella. Everything's alright. Everything's okay. You're just sliding down the highway about the hit another car. No worries." Suddenly a figure in black stepped out of the still car and started to walk towards her with outstretched arms.

"It's like something out an old horror movie. Lonely girl off to meet fiancé gets caught in storm while driving down abandoned highway. Girl sees lonely hitch-hiker, takes pity on him and picks him up. Then he shoots her and dumps her in a ditch." she thought to herself as the figure tried to wave her down. "Oh no, I'm not fallin' for that one," she remarked as she tried to swerve around him.

But her tires were too wet and the car began to spin. Gabriella fought to maintain control of the car but it just continued to spin. "Ok time to panic." She screamed as the car approached the side the road and the seemingly endless drop of the cliff. Gabriella braced herself to go over the edge when the car came to an unexpected halt. She opened her and slowly untensed her muscles as she looked around. She was alive. ALIVE!! She laughed in relief. She was ok, she was...

The driver's side door flew open and she let out a bloodcurdling scream, it was the figure in black. He backed away at this response and seemed to cover his ears. "I guess that means you're ok then. Can you stop screaming," the voice yelled.

Gabriella stared back at him and mentally slapped herself for being so dramatic. Obviously he was just some guy car trouble. "Is everything ok?" she said trying to yell over the sound of the rain.

"I'm just a little wet, but my sister..." his voice cracked slightly. "I don't know. She got bit by something." The rain started pouring down even harder and hearing him became a strain. "...it... poisonous... allergic... I don't...to do...car swerved...tried...won't run now...were... stranded...saw you and... have to help me...pain in the neck...twin sister...fight all the time...love her... I can't let her die," he sobbed.

"Where is she?" she shouted as she shrugged on her coat and jumped out of the car. The man quickly led her back to the car and threw open the back seat. And lying there, wrapped in a red sleeping bag, was a young girl. Sweat trickled down her face and matted her hair to her burning forehead.

"How long has she been out for?" Gabriella yelled.

"About an hour," he said quickly. "Is that bad?"

"Did you give her anything for the fever?"

"I don't have anything to give her," he whimpered. "And it keeps going up."

Gabriella stared at the man in front of her. His face was twisted in pain, a deep, excruciating pain that sent a jab into her heart. She had to help them. "I have ibuprofen in my car. If we can get her over there..."

The man didn't even hesitate, instead he just reached inside and quickly pulled and girl out. He turned her so that her face was covered and quickly began to walk towards her car. Gabriella slammed the door shut and ran after them. She reached the car right before they did and held the back door open to him. He climbed in and laid the girl across the seat but kept her head on his lap. Gabriella quickly climbed into the driver's seat and threw back a few tiny orange pills before turning the car on and speeding away.

"Any idea where the hospital is?" she asked.

"No clue. We're not from around here. All I know is we're right outside Albuquerque."

That was when she realized that she had no idea who these people were, the thought must have came to him too because he quickly said, "My name is Ryan Evans, this is my sister Sharpay Evans. We're visiting from New York. Our parents built a resort down here."

"Gabriella Montez, Phoenix. I was heading to Corpus Christi to see my fiancé," she sighed. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do now..."

They drove in silence for a while, listening to nothing but the rains rhythmically hitting the car. It was only a light shower compared to before, and for that, Gabriella was extremely grateful. "Have you seen any signs?"

"No, but there's a house over there," Ryan said pointing to the left.

Gabriella looked and saw stone mansion up the road. "Do you know who lives there?"

"No, but I'm sure they could call us some help. My phone died a ways back, no reception out her."

Gabriella groaned. How could she be so stupid? She had a cell phone, she could call for help. She reached down to grab it but only grasped air.

"What's wrong?" Ryan asked nervously.

"My cell phone... it's gone," she said feeling around between seats for the tiny device.

"Wouldn't matter. Didn't you hear me? There's no reception out here."

"But I got a call right before I saw you," she protested.

"You were talking to someone on the phone and driving, in this weather? No wonder you almost crashed," he said unbelieving.

"No I wasn't talking to anyone, it stopped after one ring."

"So it died too?"

"No," she snapped, "it didn't die. It just stopped ringing." She knew it sounded like she was being difficult, but that was what had happened. And something in his tone really bothered him. She didn't want him to be right. He wasn't right. And she could prove it if she could only find that phone.

"Gabriella!" Ryan shrieked. Gabriella stopped shifting through her papers and glanced back at the twins. The girl's chest was heaving and she was making a weird gurgling sound. That wasn't right. "Something's wrong. I don't think she can breathe. We have to get her to a doctor. NOW!!" his desperation dissolved her anger and she turned into the driveway and sped towards the mysterious mansion.

She didn't touch the brake until they were about to hit the porch and then she pushed the pedal all the way down and they spun to a stop. She was going to need new tires by the end of the day.

"Hurry, let's get her out of the car and into the fresh air."

Ryan quickly carried her outside and laid her on the ground as Gabriella ran up and rang the doorbell. But the door swung open before she touched the bell. "Ryan," she yelled wearily. But he didn't hear the tension in her voice, instead he ran into the house, his sister in his arms. Gabriella followed behind.

The door shut behind them with a slam and lights flickered on throughout the room. They started by the door, went around the room's perimeter and then proceeded down a hallway straight ahead of them.

"Hello," Gabriella yelled. The lights all turned out and then flickered on again, starting at the door, around the room, and then went down the hall, as though to lead them down the hall. Ryan took the hint and began to walk towards the hall.

"Wait," she yelled, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back. "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like, I'm following the lights," he stopped when his words registered and smirked. "Okay that sounded crazy but what other choice do we have?"

"We just have to find a phone."

"Do you see a phone?" he challenged.

Gabriella looked around. No, she didn't see a phone. "Well..."

"Exactly, so I'm going to follow the lights, which probably didn't just turn on. Someone heard us come in, and turned the lights on, the lead of to him, or her."

It made sense, complete sense, too much sense. There had been too many coincidences today for her liking. The whole atmosphere gave her chills. And Ryan's utter obliviousness was really getting to her. Didn't he see the signs?

"Ryan, don't be stupid. Something's wrong here. I can feel it. Let's just go, we'll find somewhere else that will help your sister. She seems to be doing better now that she's had some fresh air." It was true; the air seemed to really help her. The color had come back to her cheeks, her breathing was normal, and the strange gulping had stopped.

Ryan paused and seemed to consider this. "Well... her fever has gone down. But..."

"Come on Ry. I'll help you," she said tugging at the door. Nothing happened. She pulled again. The door didn't even budge. "It's stuck."

Ryan seemed alarmed and set Sharpay down before coming to help open the door. He pulled. Nothing. "Gabriella, it's not stuck," he started.

"What do you mean? Of course it is. It's not opening. Therefore..."

He held up his hand to silence her. "It's not stuck," he repeated. "It's locked."

Chills shot up her spine. "Locked?'

Ryan nodded and then paled, "Sharpay?"

Gabriella whirled around and saw a red sleeping bag crumpled on the ground, but no Sharpay.

"Sharpy!" he yelled. Once again the lights flickered on and directed them down the hall. Ryan took off in a sprint and took a sharp turn left.

"Ryan," she screamed. He had to catch him. She took off running and followed suit by turning left. The lights ended at the end of the hall where a lone door stood ajar. "No," she whispered and ran into the room.

It was dark, lit only by candles. Her eyes took a moment to adjust but when they did, she saw they weren't alone. They were in an old study, and in the middle of the room sat a round table. There were ten chairs around the table, and nine people. Gabriella gulped.

"Ring around the rosiiieee," a raspy voice sang.

Gabriella turned about, searching for the voice; it seemed to come from everywhere.

"Pocket full of posiiiiieees."

A gust of wind blew petals into her face and the door closed behind her. "Welcome my dear. We've been waiting for you. Now that you're here we can finally start our game. Take your seat." A light flashed on spotlighting the empty seat.

With leaden legs, Gabriella walked towards the table and sat next to Ryan or the shell of Ryan. His sister was slumped over in the seat next to him.

"Now then, why don't we tell the newcomers about our game now shall we? Who wants to talk? Anyone? Any volunteers? No? Alright then, I'll tell them. You are the scum of the earth. We are here for one reason and one reason only. To cure you of your scuminess. This is my world, and in my world, life is a fairytale. Life is a song. Life is a rhyme. And you have challenged my world, threatened it, tried to destroy it, because you couldn't understand it. So I'm helping you understand. But that could get messy, and would be... uncomfortable. So we are going to play a game. A game about understanding. Understood?" he laughed at his joke. "Now then, I chose nine people because three is my lucky number. And I need more than three to play my game. And three times three equals nine. It's perfect."

"But there are ten of us," someone whispered.

"What's that? There are too many people. Oh no worries, that's easily dealt with."

Suddenly, someone's chair fell backward and the girl across from Gabriella screamed. "Jason!" she cried. "No, no, no. Wake up. No, no, no, no," she sobbed. Everyone stood up and gasped at the horrific sight. He'd been shot right between the eyes. Gabriella quickly looked away and fell back into her seat. But she knew she'd never be able to get that image out of her head.

"Ashes, ashes. We all fall down."