A/N: Hello :) I normally don't do this, but this story isn't quite finished yet. I normally finish it completely before I start to upload, but since this is a Halloween themed story, I figured I could get this started on here and I'm hoping I can finish the rest before the holiday. I only have access to my story at work so we'll see if I can get it done and published before the end of the month, lol.
But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this!
Chapter 1 – The Halloween Massacre
16-year-old Jamie Reagan had never been this stoked before in his life. Well, maybe that wasn't quite true, but he doesn't remember being this stoked before. He was currently on his way to a friend's house, curtesy of his older brother Joe in his Chevelle, to have a small Halloween party and sleepover with his best friends and he couldn't wait. It took him forever to convince his parents to give him permission for him to go, especially when they found out that there wouldn't be any adults there. But he told them that he normally doesn't go to things like this, he'd promise he'd be good, and that he'd call if anything happened. He nearly tripped up the stairs to his room to gather what he needed after they had agreed to let him go, yelling out a bye and thank you before pulling on Joe's arm so he could drive him there. "Man, you're really excited about this, aren't you Jay?" his brother asked him, a smile on his face.
Jamie looked over with a smile mirroring Joe's. "What gave it away?" he asked jokingly. "Justin said we'll order some pizza and watch a ton of scary movies and just hang out. We probably won't even fall asleep and just stay up all night," anticipation evident in his voice.
"All of your favorite things," Joe said as he laughed and shook his head. "Which, who would have thought that the little boy who got scared so easily would end up loving scary movies when he got older?"
"Hey, I was only scared because of Danny…that seemed to be his favorite hobby back then," replied Jamie as he rolled his eyes. The relationship he shared with his eldest brother was…different than Joe's, to say the least. Him and Joe were best friends, always had been ever since their parents brought Jamie home from the hospital. And then their sister Erin practically became a second mother when Jamie was born, so his relationship with her was good; but still nothing like Joe's. His older brother seemed to be the only one who really got him, until he met his friends Tony, Luke, and Dave, who would also all be at the party. They were the only reason why he wanted to go. He liked Justin, but always had some sort of feeling about him; he just didn't know what and why he did. They weren't even that close since he was mostly friends with the other three more than Jamie, which Jamie was fine with.
"Well, you know Danny…that's his way of showing his love," Joe half joked as he looked over at his little brother. "He really does love and care about you Jay, he just has a hard time showing it is all," he continued quietly, getting serious as he focused on the road. He always seemed to be the bridge between his older and younger brothers, fighting their fires and cooling them down, trying to get them to see the other's perspective.
Jamie had been looking at Joe when he said all of that and then looked away, back out his window. "Yeah well, it sometimes doesn't feel like it…" he said almost to himself, but Joe still heard him.
Joe did a quick glance at Jamie before looking back towards the street, nearing the address he was given. "Hey, don't let this conversation ruin your night okay? I know you'll have a good time," he told him as he pulled up in front of the two-story house.
Jamie looked over with a small smile. "Thanks Joe," he said; not just for what he said but also for the ride.
"Anytime Jay. Tell those guys I said hey…and don't get into too much trouble," Joe said with a smile and a laugh, knowing Jamie and trouble just don't mix.
Jamie smiled back and rolled his eyes again, shaking his head as he opened the passenger door with his duffle bag in his hands. He got out and then crouched down to look at his brother. "I'll call sometime in the morning when the party's over," he told him.
"I'll be sure to be here promptly right after you summon, your Highness," joked Joe in a horrible British accent and pretending to bow as best as he could while behind the wheel.
Jamie let out a laugh before giving his brother a look. "Ha ha, very funny," he told him as he shut the door. He watched as Joe leaned his head back in laughter before driving away, Jamie shaking his head as he did. When the car had driven a few houses away, Jamie turned and walked up the path that led to the front porch. It wasn't quite dark yet, but he noticed some families starting their trick or treating early, hoping to beat the rush of the other kids. He knocked when he got to the door, feeling a couple of raindrops hitting his cheek on his way. 'Guess the meteorologist was right for once; it actually may rain tonight,' he thought as the door opened.
"Hey Jamie, come in," greeted his somewhat friend Justin Wilson, who was 17.
"Hey Justin, thanks." Jamie walked inside the house and noticed stairs that led to the upstairs not far from the front door. To the left of them was an entryway that led to what Jamie assumed was the rest of the downstairs.
"Everyone else is in the living room, just through there," Justin told him, pointing to the aforementioned doorway. Jamie followed as Justin led the way, leading him to the room where David Acree, 16, Anthony Russo, 16, and Luke Hatchett, 17, all sat on the couch, watching the latter play a video game.
"Hey Jamie!" they said as they barely looked away from the TV as Luke was trying to fight a zombie. "Kill him, Luke!" yelled out Dave.
"What do you think I've been trying to do?!" Luke yelled back.
Jamie smiled, laughing at his friends' antics. "Hey guys," he said as he put his duffle with the others that were laying against a wall.
"The place isn't very big," Justin told him. "The kitchen is through there," he said as he pointed through another archway on the other side of the living room. Jamie could see some chairs and a table in the direction Justin pointed. "And then the bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs, which you saw where those were," he continued, receiving a nod from his last arriving guest. "Once Luke kills that zombie or dies trying, we can get started with some movies. I pretty much got every scary movie that the video store had," he told the group, receiving cheers.
Jamie sat on the couch next to Tony, now engrossed himself with the game being played in front of him. They all let out a yell when Luke was finally able to stab the zombie through the heart, winning the long-fought battle. "Alright, Dave, why don't you pick the first movie and I'll go make some popcorn," Justin said as he walked into the kitchen.
Dave got up from where he was sitting and walked over to the tall stack next to the TV, pulling out IT. "Of course, you're gonna go for that one!" complained Tony.
"What? It's a classic dude! It's not my fault you're scared of clowns," kidded Dave as he put the movie in.
"I am not scared of clowns," scoffed Tony. "I've just…seen that a dozen times," he continued, trying to sound convincing.
The rest of the boys rolled their eyes and teased him in good fun until Justin returned with a bowl full of popcorn. "Let's get this started," he told them as they dived for the bowl, each taking a fist full of the salty and buttery snack.
BB-BB-BB-BB-BB
A few hours and movies later, it was now completely dark outside. The trick or treaters had long all gone home once the rain started picking up. Now it was turning into a full-on thunderstorm, lightening lighting up the living room every so often. More than once the loud BOOM of thunder had made at least one of the boys jump while watching the movies, getting popcorn and bits of pizza crust thrown at him and teasing from his friends. During their latest watch, Scream, Luke had excused himself to use the bathroom upstairs. While he was still gone, the power suddenly went out, surrounding the boys in complete darkness. Of course, it happened right at one of the best scary parts, making all of the boys jump a little. "Wh—what happened?" Tony asked.
"Damn it," muttered Justin. "It must have been the storm," he said as he got up and carefully walked to the kitchen to grab the flashlight. When he came back out, he had the torch in his hand. "I'm gonna check it out, you guys just wait here," he told them as he walked through the archway and towards the front door.
"Justin is that even—" Jamie started to say, but trailed off when he realized Justin didn't hear him or stop.
It wasn't too long before the host came back, now nearly soaked. "Damn, even with the porch covering, I still got wet," he said as he shook himself off. "The storm is crazy tonight…it caused a power outage down the whole block," he told the three that were still on the couches and chairs.
"Now what? There goes our TV for the scary movies," Dave said, disappointment in his voice.
Before anyone could answer, Jamie had pipped up. "What a minute, is Luke still upstairs? He's been gone for a while," he told them, realizing that he had never returned from the bathroom.
Everyone looked around, the flashlight and lightening being their only source of light at the moment. "Oh yeah," Tony said, furrowing his brows.
"I'll go find him," said Justin as he walked back out of the room. "Hey, come on out Luke! If you scare me, I swear to God I'll punch you!"
The other three boys laughed as they heard Justin go up the stairs. Their smiles quickly vanished when they heard a yell. Jamie quickly got up from the couch and dashed through the dark and up the stairs, Dave and Tony right behind him, all of them hoping this was a Halloween prank. "Guys?!" Jamie yelled as he came to the top, nearly being toppled over by his friends when he stopped in his tracks. Through the darkness, he could see some light from the flashlight coming from the bedroom on the right. He ran towards it and then again stopped abruptly right when he came into the room, shock and horror on his face. Dave and Tony suddenly stopped as well right inside the doorframe, all of them with the same look on their face as Jamie. It was quite for a moment before the two of them yelled as Justin had earlier. Dead on the bedroom floor was Luke, stabbed multiple times.
"Oh my God!" yelled Tony. "What the hell happened?!"
"Please tell me this is some sick joke Justin!" Dave yelled out.
Justin looked at the three, mouth agape. "I swear, I just came in here when the bathroom was empty and saw him like this…" he told them as he looked back at the dead body in his room.
Jamie cautiously stepped forward, trying not to disturb the scene. "Let me see that," he told Justin, holding his hand out for the flashlight. Once he had it, he slowly got closer to Luke, hoping that Dave was right and that this actually was a stupid prank. Something told him he was completely wrong though, even before he didn't find a pulse on Luke; his friend was really dead. He quickly took his hand away and stood up, slowly backing towards the others and shaking his head. "He's dead…" he said quietly, not even believing himself as he said it out loud.
"What?" said Dave as his breathing started to quicken. "H—how did that happen? Who did this?!" he asked, not taking his eyes off of his friend on the ground, blood all around the floor.
"I don't know man, you guys were the only ones inside," Justin said as he looked at each of the other three.
"It wasn't us!" Tony nearly yelled out. "We all stayed downstairs!"
"Guys, accusing each other isn't going to help this!" Jamie roared out. "Look, we need to call the police, okay? They can handle this, trust me," he told them, trying to calm them, and himself, down. "Where's the phone at?" he asked Justin.
It took a while before Justin could answer him, his eyes focused on the body before them. "It's uh, it's in the kitchen," came the quiet reply.
"We should try not to be alone until the police get here. Tony, come with me to find the phone," Jamie instructed, handing the flashlight back to its owner.
Tony was reluctant at first, but he eventually agreed and left the room behind Jamie. "Dave and I will search up here, in case anybody broke in somehow," Justin mumbled. "Come on," he said as he closed the bedroom door and lead his friend down the opposite end of the hall, knowing Dave didn't want to do what he was volunteered to do.
Meanwhile, Jamie and Tony had blindly and carefully gone down the stairs and through the two entryways that separated them from the phone in the kitchen, with flashes of light being their only source of sight in the unfamiliar dark house. When they finally made it, Jamie picked up the receiver and became frustrated when all he heard was the disconnected tone. He pushed the switch hook down a couple of times, hoping it would do something, but knowing it wouldn't. "Dang it!" he yelled out as he slammed the receiver back into its cradle.
"The line's down, isn't it? 'Cause of the storm?" Tony asked him nervously.
"More than likely," Jamie replied, raking his hand through his hair. "And the storm is way too bad to go outside…we may have to wait until it passes before we can go for help. But we should all stick together until that happens." He started to head back upstairs when he noticed his friend not following. "Tony, come on," he said as he turned around. "We have to stay together," he repeated.
Before Tony could protest, they heard another, but familiar, scream coming from upstairs. "Holy shit, not again!" he said, backing up towards the counter.
"Tony! We have to go and see what's wrong! We need to stick together!" Jamie yelled out, trying not to show how scared he was to his friend. Receiving a shake of the head, Jamie sighed in frustration and decided to leave Tony behind and try to race up the stairs as best as he could without hurting himself. Finally reaching the top, he nearly collided into Justin who was coming from the far bedroom on the left.
"Jamie! Oh my god, he's dead too! Dave's dead! We split up and I swear it wasn't for very long before I heard something from my dad's room and I went in there and I found him and oh my god!" he nearly rambled on.
Jamie just shook his head in shock and disbelief as he took the flashlight from Justin and went down towards the master bedroom. He felt like he was experiencing déjà vu…just like Luke, Dave was on the floor in a pool of blood, stabbed to death. Jamie stood there, his mouth open, breathing quickening. "No, no, no," he said quietly. He couldn't take his eyes off of Dave, his mind remembering what Luke looked like. "Justin, the phone line is down," he said louder, not looking away from the grisly scene before him. "The rest of us need to stick together and wait until the storm passes to get help. We should go back down—" he started to say as he forced himself to look away from his friend's dead body and towards where he last saw Justin…but instead there was nothing. "Justin?!" Jamie yelled out, going further into the hallway. "Tony?!" he called towards the stairs, receiving no answer from either boy. Jamie took a tentative step forward, the beam of the flashlight going from one wall to the other in the small hall. "Come on, this isn't funny!" he screamed, still hoping all of this was a sick joke.
When he wasn't far from the stairs, he heard a noise behind him. He quickly turned around, the flashlight revealing a figure in front of him with the most hideous and scary clown mask Jamie had ever seen, a bloody knife in the guy's hand. "What the hell?" he said quietly, not believing what he was seeing. Before he could do or say anything else, the figure lunged at him, swinging the knife for another kill. Jamie jumped back, dropping the flashlight in the process and receiving a small cut across his chest. He hissed in pain, but recovered quickly, grabbing the wrist that held the knife and forced the attacker against the wall, smashing his hand against it and making him drop the weapon. The clown was also able to recover quickly and used his free hand to send some punches into Jamie's side, making him double over in pain. The figure then sent an uppercut to Jamie's jaw, making him fall on his back. The attacker then calmly picked up the knife and stood over his prey, the knife held above his head, ready to strike, but Jamie refused to give him the chance. He brought his leg up and quickly swept the figure out from under his feet, sending him sprawling on his back, the knife clattering not far away.
Jamie got up as quick as he could and ran down the stairs, not being as careful as earlier. Because of that, he ended up tripping over his own feet and fell down the last few steps, resulting in luckily only a twisted ankle, from what it felt like. He laid on his back for a moment, trying to catch his breath that was knocked out of him when he landed on the hard floor. Unfortunately, he wasn't given a lot of time to do that before the figure started straddling him, his hands squeezing his throat. Jamie's eyes went wide and his hands indistinctively went to the ones that were trying to kill him, doing anything he could do to pry them off. 'This can't be how I die,' Jamie thought. 'Being strangled to death by this creepy ass clown!' In a last ditch effort, Jamie was able to bring his knee up and connect it right to his attacker's groin, making him gasp and groan in pain, letting his hold of Jamie go and falling to his side. Jamie immediately started gasping for breath and coughing, gulping in as much air as possible. He somehow was able to stand back up and limp towards the front door, trying to escape from this hell hole. Just as he thought he was going to make it out, a hand grabbed his shoulder and forced Jamie around, making him face the clown mask again. Suddenly Jamie felt a fire of pain come from his abdomen. When he looked down, he saw the knife slowly coming out of his body, dripping with blood. Jamie looked back up at his attacker who was now taking the mask off, revealing the smiling face of Justin Wilson. "Boo," he said, sending shock and shivers down Jamie's spine. To both of their surprise, Jamie was able to use most of the strength he had left to send a flying punch right to Justin's face, sending him down.
Jamie turned back around and staggered towards the door, to safety (he hoped.) Opening the door, he had to shield his eyes from the pelting rain that was still coming down hard, but he didn't care. Keeping one hand on his stab wound, Jamie quickly hobbled out of the house and down the pathway, gasping in pain with every step he took. He didn't care where he went, he just knew he had to get away. He turned right on the sidewalk, finding somewhere to hide or get help. Thankfully he didn't have to walk for too long before he saw a light on in a house nearby. He didn't dare look behind him; he just knew he had to get to that house. What felt like forever to Jamie, he finally made it to the lawn and limped up to the front door, loudly banging on it. "Please help me!" he screamed out, not realizing he was barely above a whisper from being nearly choked to death. He kept banging on the door, afraid that Justin was going to stab him right in the back at any moment. But then the porch light came on and the door opened, revealing an older couple, maybe a bit older than his parents, confusion and frustration on their faces that was soon replaced with shock and horror. He was able to gasp out "please help me" before everything went black.
