The Strangers
Chapter 5. This is (as you probably know by now) set after the film, The Strangers. Enjoy!
Shelley's head was pounding so hard she could hardly see.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhh…." she groaned. She forced her eyes open, but in the sudden light, everything swam, and she closed them again. She tried again, this time with better results. Blinking, she realised she was alone in the main living room. A huge patch of blood, where Chloe had been killed, was a horrible reminder that everything that had happened really had happened- it wasn't a dream.
Even worse was the fact that the same was probably going to happen to her.
"Shelley?"
"T-Tom?" her mouth was hard to control, but she managed to sound out the word without much slurring. She turned her head, feeling the dried blood on the side of her head crack. She winced at the pain.
"Are you okay?" asked Tom. He had a black eye and his lip was swollen- obviously, he'd put up a fight.
Shelley could see he was tied up to a chair, his hands bound behind the back of it, so he couldn't escape. With a sense of horror, as she began to wriggle and stretch, she realised she was in the same situation.
"Why is this happening?" asked Shelley helplessly.
Whatever Tom was about to say, it was cut short by someone entering the room quietly from behind.
Shelley closed her eyes, waiting for whatever happened next.
"Shelley? Tom? Are you alright?" whispered Kathy from behind.
"Kathy! Quickly, let us out!" hissed Tom. "And thank god you're okay! I thought you were…"
"When I let you out," said Kathy, cutting through the bonds that held Tom to the chair, "Run outside, deep into the woods. There's three of them, two women and a man. We can find civilisation and…"
She cut short on hearing the stairs creak. Someone was coming downstairs…
"Hurry up!" cried Shelley, struggling against the ropes without any avail.
Kathy cut faster- and the bonds holding Tom snapped. He stood up, rubbing his wrists and midriff. But it was too late for Shelley.
There came a woman's gasp from the doorway behind them, and, twisting herself round as far as she could so she could look the woman straight in the eye, all Shelley saw was Tom dive on her, punching her hard in the ribs.
"TOM!" yelled Kathy, but before she could join him in attacking the woman on the floor, the brown haired woman ran in, her mask and clothes splattered with blood. She ran towards Kathy, raising her huge knife.
Kathy was quicker. She lunged in and there was a sudden flash- and then the brown haired woman screamed and dropped the knife, clutching the inside of her elbow. Dark blood spurted, staining the carpet. Then Kathy made the mistake. She dropped the blood covered knife, staring in horror- and the woman on the floor, who Shelley saw had blonde hair exactly like hers, picked it up, and stabbed Tom straight through the shoulder with it.
Tom gasped in pain, grimacing, unable to scream. The woman picked it up and brought it down again, this time at the back of his neck, the base of his spine. It killed Tom instantly, over in a second, but to Shelley it seemed to last a lifetime.
Her best friend Tom was dead. In a split second, a whole life had disappeared, gone.
They'd never laugh together or chat together again, they'd never play badminton in the summer or watch a film together in the winter. Never again.
Shelley stared and stared and stared as the blonde woman pushed Tom's dead body off her and stood up with her back to her. She kicked him so he turned face up, blood still seeping through his T-shirt.
Just as the murderer turned around, the brown haired woman seized the knife out of Tom's body and slit Kathy's knee with it.
The red haired girl sank backwards, right into the TV, smashing it and giving her another injury to her arm as the glass punctured it and the wires electrocuted her badly. Tears rolled down her face.
The man in the mask, his mask a little wonky, stumbled in. The two women turned and stared at him angrily. He glared back, then turned to Shelley, raised his hand, and hit her hard round the wound from the brick. Shelley was already woozy, and even if she hadn't been, it would have been a terrible blow. She sank back, almost gratefully, into unconsciousness.
Consciousness came faster this time. Now Shelley was in another room. She'd been moved. For a minute, she didn't remember anything- then it all came flooding back. Tom, Amelia, Chloe, Matthew… all dead. And Kathy?
"Shelley?"
Kathy was tied next to her, with a pool of blood on the floor below her from her knee and her arm. Shelley's head felt better than before, and now she could think a little better, too. But what did it matter? She knew she was going to die anyway. All she could hope for was that it was quick.
She remembered a long time ago, back when her and her sister and her family and friends were all okay, back a few months ago.
"Where are you going?" Shelley had asked her sister as she applied all her makeup.
"I'm going and meeting a couple of friends," her sister had replied, smearing lipstick on her face.
"Not those lot again," Shelley groaned- her sister had recently started hanging around with a group of people who she didn't like.
"What's wrong with them?" asked her sister, turning round and glaring.
Shelley stared. What was wrong with them? Ever since she'd started hanging around with those two, her and her sister had been growing apart.
"Stop staring at me," growled her sister, applying blusher in the mirror now.
Shelley looked at what she was wearing. A stupidly short skirt and two vest tops, one black, one bright green with an off the shoulder sleeve, and high heels. Shelley was wearing DKNY jeans and a McKenzie top.
At one time they'd have wore the same thing.
Now Shelley wore clothes that her friends wore, and vice versa, the same went for her sister.
And then, a few months after, her sister had gone missing. Never to be seen again…
Kathy was staring at Shelley.
"Kathy, I'm okay."
"No, you're not, and you know it. Neither am I. Shelley, I won't be able to tell you this again…"
"Don't say that!" cried Shelley, but she knew it was true, and Kathy looked at her, making her wish she'd kept quiet.
"You're my best friend, Shell. Really. Better than Chloe and Amelia and Matthew and even Tom."
Shelley kept quiet.
"Same here, Kathy."
They smiled at each other.
And then the killers entered. The man in the mask, the brown haired girl with the pin up mask, and the girl with the doll mask with blonde hair and green eyes exactly like Shelley's.
Exactly like Shelley's.
It was her twin sister.
As much as Shelley didn't want to believe it, and as much as she'd rather be beaten half to death with a brick all over again, it was true, and she knew it.
Shelley whispered her name.
The other two, who she didn't recognise, turned to the blonde killer.
Shelley stared at the clock in the corner, which read 10:42. She'd been unconscious all morning.
Then she turned back to the blonde killer.
She bent her head, and took off her mask.