After Sam and I had cleaned up the as much of the blood as we could- some had seeped into the wood, everyone gathered in the the living room again.
"I still don't understand why Dr. Hill would want to freak us out like this." Isaac muttered.
"It's gotta be an experiment or something." I concluded. "He's trying to see how we react and he's writing it down in that damn notebook."
"So all we have to do is not give him anything to write down." Sam said cheerfully, plopping down on the couch next to me.
"Yeah, cause it's not like we're all nutcases!" Emily scoffed sarcastically.
"It would help if you didn't deliberately piss off any of us nutcases." Josh snapped. It was the first time he had lost his cool all weekend. Chris and Matt came inside, their shirts and jeans splattered with blood.
"Have fun explaining the deer head in the dumpster to your parents." Chris joked darkly. "I'm gonna take a shower." He sprinted up the stairs before Matt could get their first. Matt groaned.
"I'll just go change." He growled and went upstairs to his room. The living room was awkwardly quiet.
"Now what?" Ashley asked.
"We could play poker." Isaac suggested. The group shrugged and Josh began to deal some cards he found in the cupboard.
"Hannah always had the worst poker face." Sam laughed quietly.
"She always pouted when she got a bad hand." Josh mused, a small smile playing at his lips.
"Beth said she hated poker even though she would whoop all our asses every game." Emily joined and pretty soon we were all adding memories to the conversation, completely forgetting the cards in front of us.
"Mike would find a way to turn everything into a drinking game." I started. "And he would always win."
"Remeber when we played stip poker at my 17th birthday party?" Jess chimed, actually looking happy. "Josh made Lex take off her shirt and Mike looked like he was going to break something."
"I remember that!" Josh exclaimed. "I thought he was going to shoot me." Emily winced, but to my surprise, she laughed along with the rest of us.
"When Mia turned 18, she got so drunk, she jumped into a park fountain and convinced herself that she was a mermaid." Isaac snickered. Chris came down the stairs, his wet hair sticking to his forehead. He snuck into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of vodka and shot glasses. After everyone had at least one shot, Emily decided that everyone had to share at least one embarrassing story.
"Better skip Mr. Homemade Parachute over here or we'll get a book." I teased, poking Josh in the side, where I knew he had a scar from that specific experiment.
"Nope," Emily shook her head. "No skips. Everyone has to share." Matt came down the stairs with fresh clothes and damp hair. "Where have you been?" Em questioned.
"I got in the shower after Chris." He replied.
"Well, since you're last one here, you get to share your embarrassing story first." She handed him a shot.
"That's easy." He downed the vodka. "Freshman year, I was the smallest guy on the football team and the others liked to pick on me the most. This idiot," he pointed to Isaac, "thought it would be funny to sneak my clothes into the girl's locker room. I looked all over the gym in a towel until someone tapped me on the shoulder." He poured himself another glass.
"It was Chelsy Forbes, who was, at the time, the hottest senior on the planet. And she was holding my boxers out like they were infected."
"I totally forget you went to our high school." I exclaimed, looking at Isaac.
"Yeah. We just never met because I avoided loser sophomores." He joked and I punched his arm.
"I believe that story deserves a toast." Em raised her shot, the rest of us doing the same. "To Chelsy Forbes and Matt's underwear." We clinked our glasses together and laughed before drinking. "Who's next?"
"How about you Em?" I challenged. "Surely you have something juicy to spill."
"Yeah Em, let's hear it." Josh sloppily poured more liquor in front of her, most of it getting on the table.
"Fine, I'll go." She thought for a moment. "Okay- yeah, I've got one. I was in seventh grade-" everyone snickered. We all remembered middle school Emily well. Huge wire glasses, braces from ear to ear, and greasy hair. "Yeah, yeah I was a dork. Can I continue?" The eight of us quieted down.
"As I was saying, it was seventh grade year and everyone was getting ready for the Valentine dance. You remember; the one where everybody bought roses for each other." We noded. "Well I had finally worked up the courage to ask Marcus Wheeler, who was secretly as dorky as me even though he was the most attractive 13 year-old ever.
"He said yes and my mom bought me a dress and I even put on a little makeup. I arrived at the dance early since I didn't want to make him wait for me. When I got there, I wasn't the only one. There was this group of girls, one of which happened to be Marcus's ex. I don't know how the found out, but they knew I was Marcus's date." I looked at the ground, knowing exactly where this was going.
"Before most of the chaperones had arrived, the girls thought it would be hilarious to tip over the snack table while I was getting my punch. I got chips in my hair and the punch ruined my dress. Then Marcus showed up, got one look at me, and just laughed and walked off with the girls." Emily finished and her voice held no sadness or anger. While everyone looked at their feet, she shrugged it off like it was just another childhood memory. I rubbed my hands together, vividly remembering that night.
I was one of those girls. Sure I wasn't the one who tipped over the table, but I was there, laughing and sneering with everybody else.
"To punch soaked roses," Sam toasted, glancing around the room, slightly smiling at me, "and mean girls." We held up our glasses then quickly drank the liquor.
Almost everyone had shared their story and we were all thoroughly drunk. It was Jess' turn and the vodka bottle had run empty so Ashley went and grabbed another. She plopped back down on the floor and a drunken grin stretched across her face.
"Okay, okay, let me think." She giggled. "Oh I got it!" Jess had never been very good at holding her liquor. "I was sixteen and me and Em were out shopping. We stopped at a red light and pulled up next to a car filled with these super hot college guys. Em dared me to flash them, and me being me, did. Just as I had rolled down the window and lifted up my shirt when I heard one of the guys in the back say my name." She paused for dramatic effect. "I just saw the look on my brother's face before Em slammed on the gas." We all took a moment to laugh, and for the eighth time, held up our shot glasses.
"To mortified big brothers," Josh started.
"And Jess' boobs." I added with a snicker. As the liquid burned down our throats, there was something different about it. Josh grabbed my hand, eyes wide. He tried to say something, but fell back eyes closed and still. One by one everybody collapsed, silent and unmoving. I tried to scream, but it was as if my body was slowly turning to ice, any sound freezing in my throat.
My mouth felt like there were fifty cotton balls shoved down it. I tried to say something, but all that came out was a breathless gasp. It was so dark, for a moment I still thought my eyes were closed.
"Lex?" A voice whispered, and it sounded like it was coming from across the room. "Lex is that you?"
"Isaac?" I wheezed, my voice barely audible. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so. What the hell is going on?"
"I don't know." I tried to move, but my hands were bound above my head. "Can you move your arms?" I heard his restraints move.
"No… what the hell is going on?" He was starting to panic.
"Calm down Isaac. We're going to get out of-" A bright light turned on suddenly, nearly blinding both of us. Now that I could see, panic set into me as well. There were two thin lines of liquid leading from the other side of the room to separate puddles at our feet. As soon as I could smell it I could tell what it was; gasoline.
That wasn't what scared me the most. I could see the frames of glasses around my eyes and Isaac had been dressed in a pink coat, a long brown wig messily propped on his head.
"Hannah? Beth?" A quiet voice called from across form us. Another light turned.
"Josh!" I yelled, but he just looked at me with clouded eyes.
"How are you two…" he looked around, "What's going on?"
"Look familiar Joshua?" A deep, electronic voice echoed through the room. My stomach dropped, memories of the same voice twisting at my insides. Josh was strapped into a chair, a pair of buttons in front of him. "I must say, your work is very… inspirational." I noticed the stand bags hanging above each gasoline fuse.
"Josh!" I shouted and eh finally looked at me.
"Hannah," his voice cracked.
"No Josh it's me, Al-"
"I assume you remember the rules." The intercom interrupted. "Just pick which sister lives… and which sister dies." Flames erupted from the gasoline lines, quickly racing towards us.
"Josh it's Alexis! I'm not Hannah!" I tried to fight against the chains, but I was still weak. Isaac shook off the wig.
"I'm not your freaking sister!" He screamed, but it seemed Josh couldn't hear either of us.
"Hannah or Beth. Hannah or Beth." He kept repeating until the flames were nearly to us. He closed his eyes and slammed his hand down and the sandbag above my line fell. Just moments after, the flames reached Isaac.
"Isaac!" My cries were buried under his pain filled screams. The smell of burning flesh was overwhelming. It wasn't long before his screams went silent, but the fire roared on.
It has begun. Please don't forget to review! It really helps when I know what you guys think of the story.
