Chapter 3:
She let her long blonde hair flow down, running her fingers through it, shaking it out a bit. "Hi." She greeted with a peppy tone and a wide smile. As if she were welcoming a group of campers to the first day of camp. "Ok, so welcome to the rest of your lives. Well his anyway, you'll only be around for few more minutes. But then again it all depends on him." She said pointing her knife to Nick. Nick threw a confused look to her and then one to Catherine. "You don't remember me do you?" She said with an eerie tone.
"You're Alison, Greg's girlfriend." He forced out.
Alison rolled her eyes. "God that guy pissed me off. Music this, video games that. But you know what pissed me off the most?" The two shook their heads. "Nick and Lindsay are so perfect. I hope one day I can have love like that." She said in a whiney high pitched voice. Then she stuck out her tongue and pointed to her mouth, pretending to vomit. "Gag." She said throwing her head to the side like a valley girl would. "There's only one person meant for you Nicky, and it's not her." She said. "She was the worst to kill though." She said in thought. "She refused to cry, scream, she didn't even beg for her life. No fun for me." She pouted.
"What does this have to do with us?" Catherine spoke up.
"I didn't ask you to speak." She snapped. "First thing is first." She reached into the pocket of her hoodie and pulled out a pair of hand cuffs. "Up." She told Catherine and she obeyed. "Over there." She said pointing to the empty closet. "Cuff yourself to the bar." Catherine did as she was told, thinking that she could get out of here and run to her daughter. Alison tightened the cuffs. "Bring you back to your old days?" She snickered. "Now as for you." She plopped down next to Nick and put an arm around him. "You have a decision to make." She said giving his chin a pinch with her empty hand. "But that comes later. Right now you're going to answer some questions, you get them right, Catherine moves to the next round." She stood up and moved back over to Catherine. "But if you get them wrong." She sang. "She loose's a little blood. And if you get the last question wrong, I slit her throat." She said moving behind her and putting the blade to her throat. "Ok." She said again in her peppy tone with her wide smile. "You still have yet to find out who I am. So try again."
Nick tried to think, but between the pain in his head and fear for Catherine he couldn't. 'I just met her. Greg said her name was Alison.' He thought.
"You know what. Since you're just so darn cute, I'm going to give you a hint. Think way back to Texas A&M." She said.
'Texas A&M?' Nick quickly scanned through all the people he knew but came up empty. He could tell she was beginning to get pissed and he feared what she might do.
"Brown hair, thick glasses, chunky." As she said each word she took a step closer to him. "Oh hell I was full blown fat." She said. He still didn't know her. "And this proves my point." She turned to Catherine. "I sat behind him in almost every class our last year there. And he didn't notice me once." She told Catherine. She turned to Nick. "The whole time." She yelled. "No, you were to busy with the jocks, and the brainless blondes. I was the nerdy fat girl, who you only talked to if you needed notes." Each word getting louder.
Nick thought hard, and then it hit him. "Blair, Blair Narrows." He said.
"You never noticed me Nicky." She said back in her calm tone. "But I've changed, all for you." She said. "I look good don't you think?" She said making a little turn.
"Yeah." He said nervously.
She looked over at Catherine. "You know technically you didn't get that one right." She said mater of factly. "And we know what that means." She said as if she were telling the winner about the car they just won.
"Wait." Nick called out.
"Yes dear?" She said facing Nick.
"Give me another try." He persuaded.
She put the tip of her knife to her cheek in thought. "On one condition." She said in a low voice, inching closer. She was now face to face with him and Nick tried to keep his straight face. "You give us a little kiss." She said.
He wanted to save the one friend he had left, so he reluctantly closed his eyes and puckered his lips. When he felt hers press against his he imagined the last kiss he and Lindsay shared. She moved back and he opened his eyes.
"I guess I can let her skip this one." She said licking her lips.
"Why wait all this time?" Nick asked. "Why didn't you just come up to me sooner." As soon as he saw the look in her eye he wished he could take it back.
"Sooner? Sooner?" She yelled. "Sooner, as in when I asked you to the big senior dance, or do you mean sooner than right now?"
Nicks breath was shaky. "I meant sooner than right now." He stammered out.
It scared them both how quickly she could go from psychotic to bubbly. "Surgery takes some time Nicky. I have to say though, LA really does have the best doctors. I had to get rid of one hundred and fifty pounds of fat. That doesn't happen over night. Not to mention I fixed the bump on my nose and got a new rack." She looked down at her breasts. "God I hated those A cups. Anyway lets move on shall we? This will be your last question before the final round." She pushed Nick back on the bed as she climbed on top of him and straddled him. "Why did you let them do that to me?" She asked in a sweet and innocent tone.
"What are you talking about?"
"You were there. I even called out to you and you turned away." She looked up. "Come to think of it, you didn't laugh," She looked back to him. "But you didn't help me either." She said.
Nick knew exactly what she was talking about. He thought back to one of the last parties the frat house threw. Half way through the party, with half the kegs gone, the people around him got a little drunk. She chose that time to show up and the people there began to taunt her. He guiltily watched as they doused her with beer, called her names, and made her feel like she was so small. He knew it wasn't right and he knew that he could have stopped them but he just watched. Finally he chose to walk up stairs with his then girlfriend, Ashley.
"She invited me to that party." She said bringing him back. "Ashley. You wanna know what she told me?" Nick nodded. "She told me to show up at that exact time. She figured you would be getting bored of the party and would be looking for someone to talk to." She flicked the knife in the air. "She knows this because she's been to parties with you." She said mimicking a valley girl again. She climbed off him and she stood between Catherine and Nick. He somehow managed to sit up using his hands behind him to push him up. "She said you two had broken up that morning and that you were all sad and lonely. So here I was thinking I could finally get you to notice me, so naturally I jumped at the chance. I took a bus to the mall and picked out the best outfit I could fit in. And then I went home, did my hair, put make up on, got myself all dolled up for you. And then I show up and they humiliated me." She said becoming angry again. "Your friends made me feel like I was nothing, but hey they were just stating the truth right? I was nothing right?" She came towards him pointing the knife at him. "I called your name. I saw you standing there watching. The next thing I know, that tramp," she accented the word tramp by slashing the knife in front of her. "That tramp is pulling you up stairs with her." She stood up straight, brushed her hair behind her and composed herself. "So I ask you again, why didn't you stop them?"
"I couldn't. It's not like they would have listened to me." He tried.
"Wrong answer Nicky." She yelled in a psychotic tone. She walked a fast pace to Catherine. Nick felt a tugging on his wrists and turned.
"Shhh." Greg held up a finger. He sliced through the ropes with his pocket knife.
"What?" Blair turned around looking at Nick.
"I said, Shhhit. Don't hurt her, she didn't do anything." He covered. He kept his wrists behind him so she wouldn't be suspicious. She kept her eyes on Nick as she swiped the blade across Catherine's leg, causing her to wince in pain. "No." Nick cried out.
"No? She gets a little cut to the leg and you're ready to dive in and save her. Yet you couldn't face a little beer bath to save me?" She said. "That's not very nice." She said.
"Why kill everyone else?" He asked.
"Mostly because they were irritating me. But also because all I heard tonight was how great she was, how great they were together, how great the wedding is going to be. I wanted to vomit. Besides it's not like they meant anything to me." She said walking back over to him. "You're all I need, and I'm all you need." She said kissing him again. "Now your final question." She walked over to Catherine. Then turned quickly to Nick pointing the knife to him. "First you tell me you untied you." She said with an angry glare.
"No one." He said.
"It's not nice to lie." She said coming at him with the knife.
"I did." Greg said standing up from his position between the bed and the wall.
Alison wasn't surprised, more like she was mildly inconvenienced. "I knew I was to lucky when you fell. I should have made sure you were dead." She ran around the bed lead by the knife. Greg jumped over the bed and dashed out in the hall.
"Greg!" Nick yelled starting to go after him.
"He knows what he's doing." Came a second voice from where Greg had been hiding. Lindsay stood up. The lower left corner of her shirt was covered in blood.
"Lin?" Nick said not believing it. He ran over to her hugging her.
"Thank you, but don't." She said. One, she was hurt, and two, he smelled like that bitch.
She walked around the bed and pulled a set of keys from the night stand drawer. "For being so smart, she sure does some dumb things." Lindsay said. She couldn't reach Catherine's hands with the gash in her side so Nick undid the cuffs.
"But how?" He said looking at her wound.
"She missed. She went in, but she didn't catch anything. It's just a flesh wound." She said.
"Shit." Greg said running into the room and locking the door behind him.
"Did you get it?" Lindsay asked.
He handed a kitchen knife to her just as the knob on the door shook. "I'm going to get you anyway Greg." She said calmly. "So open the fucking door!" She yelled.
Lindsay moved to the closet. "I'm not leaving you alone." Nick argued.
"Not technically." She said as she went into the closet and closed the door.
No sooner had she closed the door that the main door flew open. "I'm gonna kill all of you." She said in a rage.
Nick pushed Greg and Catherine onto the bed. "Me first." He said.
"Fine."She said not caring anymore. She lunged at him but he blocked her earning him a slice on the arm. She came at him again and he grabbed both her wrists struggling with her. Lindsay came out of the closet and lunged her knife into her back. Blair dropped the knife from her hand and turned around to see Lindsay.
"I told you before bitch. You can have him over my dead body." She glared, relating to her words just before Blair had thought she killed her. She fell to the floor and Lindsay scowled at her as her body became lifeless.
Nick leaned down and carefully felt for a pulse. "Nothing." He said.
"Are you sure she had one to begin with?" Lindsay said still glaring. She grabbed the keys out of her hoodie pouch and followed the other three out. She closed the door behind her and locked it, just to be on the safe side. Greg helped Catherine down the stairs as Nick helped Lindsay. She painfully grabbed her side with each painful step.
"How do we get out?" Catherine asked. "She locked all the doors."
Lindsay held up the keys she took. "If one of them doesn't work, I'll take her dead body and bash it through a window until it cracks." She said. They got to the kitchen and Lindsay unlocked the door. The group stepped outside and took a breath of fresh air, savoring it. They each took one last look and remembered their friends, realizing that they would never be with them again.
"C'mon." Nick said, knowing it was no use standing here, and he also knew that Catherine and Lindsay needed medical attention. They walked out to his car in the front and made their way to the hospital, taking one last look at the dreadful house.