PART TWO
Later that day, Monica arrived home from work. Getting the key out from her pocket, she chuckled to herself about what happened that morning. The screams coming from Apartment 19 was one she wouldn't forget in a hurry.
She put the key in the lock, opened the door and walked in. As it was late, the apartment was in darkness so she felt around for the light switch and pressed it. Nothing happened. She tried again. No light filled the room. "R-Rachel?" she asked nervously, feeling around for another switch. She pressed it. Nothing happened.
Then she heard the creaks. Softly at first, but then they got louder. Monica gave a little scream and felt around for the door, wanting to get out of there. The door wouldn't open. Panicking, Monica turned back around and saw little spotlights bouncing off the walls. She screamed louder this time and felt for the door again. This time, it opened and she ran out, slamming the door behind her.
She could hear muffled laughing coming from behind it, and other laughter down the hall. Scowling, she opened the door and saw Chandler collapsed on the floor, howling with laughter. Concealed in one of his hands was a torch.
Feeling sick to her stomach, Monica watched Chandler stop laughing. He looked at her. "Hey Mon, why aren't the lights working in here?" he asked.
"Maybe someone should check the fuse box." Someone added, standing behind Monica.
She turned around to see Joey, trying to keep a straight face. Joey held up a tape recorder. "Creak…creak." He mimicked, letting out a loud laugh.
Ross came down the hallway. "Turned the fuse box back on…some idiot turned it off." He slapped his hand on his forehead. "Oh wait a minute…that was me!"
All three men burst out laughing. "Girls –1, Boys – 1!" Chandler said triumphantly.
"What's going on?" a voice came from down the corridor. It was Rachel, with Phoebe just behind her.
"These idiots just locked me in the apartment with no lights on!" Monica shouted, looking angrily at the still hysterical men.
"What does she mean, 'locked'?" Joey whispered to Ross.
"What?" Phoebe shouted, not hearing Joey's whispers, "How childish can you get?"
Chandler stopped laughing and scowled, "Hey now hold on just a second! What about the shower trick this morning?"
"Yeah!" Joey jumped in, "What the hell were you playing at?"
Monica folded her arms, "we just wanted to prove a point, that is all!"
Chandler mimicked Monica, folding his arms across his chest in the same manner, "…and what point was that? To wake up the entire building with the screams you caused?"
"Hey!" Joey said, looking hurt, "I wasn't that bad."
"Joey, my building could hear you." Ross pointed out.
"We just wanted to show you that men get just as scared as women." Rachel replied, shrugging her shoulders. She frowned. "Besides, the trick we played on you appeared to be nowhere near as bad as the one you just played on Monica!"
"They locked me in!" Monica shouted, "That wasn't funny…that was scary!"
"What are you talking about?" Chandler asked, bouncing beams of light on the walls with his torch. "We didn't hold the door in…all we did was turn the lights off, bounced a few light beams and played a few noises."
"I couldn't get out!" Monica insisted, "I was trapped!"
Chandler glanced guiltily at Monica, "Ok, so we may have gone over the top with some stuff." He admitted, "but I'm telling you, we did not lock you in! That would've been dangerous!"
"This isn't over…not by a long way." Monica announced, looking at Chandler squarely in the eyes.
Chandler nodded slightly, staring back at her, "If that's the way you're going to play it…the scare war goes on!"
"Now…um…don't you think things are getting out of hand now?" Rachel asked nervously. Ross and Phoebe nodded in agreement, noticing the look between Monica and Chandler.
"Yes, can't we just call a truce now?" Joey suggested.
"No way!" Chandler and Monica chorused.
*****
"Here's what we're going to do…"Monica started to whisper to Rachel, "Chandler hates ghosts, so I thought we could drape a few sheets on some helium balloons, paint glow-in-the-dark eyes on them and scare him out of his bedroom!"
It was two days after the last scare, and, at 1a.m, Monica and Rachel were standing outside Chandler's bedroom in his and Joey's apartment. In Rachel's hands were some sheets covering several balloons.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Rachel asked worriedly, "I don't want to scare him TOO much."
"Stop being such a baby and hand me those balloons!" Monica grabbed the 'ghosts' and studied them. In the gloom of the room, the glow-in-the-dark paint made the eyes on the balloons shine brightly.
"It's going to be even darker in there so…" In spite of herself, Rachel couldn't help smiling at what they were about to do.
Monica carefully opened the bedroom door and peeked in…
"AUGHHH!" she screamed, staring into the gazing, red eyes of a very tall, hooded figure standing over her.
"Let's go!" Rachel shrieked, running out of the apartment, with Monica right behind her. The door slammed shut. The pair leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
Inside, the hooded figure took off its cloak, revealing a giggling Ben Geller sitting on Chandler's shoulders.
"Good job Ben!" Chandler said, chuckling.
"Thanks Chandler!" Ben gave a muffled reply, taking his mask off.
"Thanks for lending us your costume," Joey added coming out of his bedroom with Ross.
"This may be getting a little out of hand, but this sure is fun!" Ross exclaimed. "That was a good guess about them planning to scare you tonight!"
Chandler lowered Ben to the floor. "They're so predictable." He pointed out. He gave Joey and Ross a high-five each. "Boys - 2. Girls – 1." They yelled.
*****
"Oh my god I can't believe we fell for that." Monica muttered, hearing the boys' yells from across the hall.
"Well, they made a good job of that figure looking scary." Rachel shuddered, trying not to picture the face behind the hood.
"Yes…how did they make it so tall?" Monica asked, also shuddering.
"Well, I'm guessing that someone sat on Joey or Chandler's shoulders." Rachel frowned, trying to think. "It couldn't have been Ross…he'd be too heavy."
"Ben!" Monica shouted suddenly, "Ross must have brought round Ben! Why else would he be round there at this time of night? And Ben is staying with Ross for a few days so it makes sense."
"Those sneaks." Rachel grumbled. "I can't believe they got Ben out of bed to help them with this."
"Time for a counter-attack I think!"
"Absolutely."
Monica heard a slithering sound near the door and turned around. A piece of paper had been slid underneath the door. She bent down to pick it up. "Rach…look at this," she held it up.
Rachel came over. "Open it." She said.
Monica unfolded the paper and read the words scripted on it: You think you are scared now, but just you wait!
END OF PART TWO