"Who?" Rebecca asked as she walked to answer the door.
"Your worst nightmare!" a vaguely familiar voice hollered.
"What the heck, man?" Though she tried, she really couldn't hide the distaste in her voice.
"Your head's messed up!"
Enraged at the misconduct of this stranger, she looked through the peephole to see who she was talking to, and even I got inquisitive.
And guess what?
"Austin Kennedy?" She asked, surprised.
"Kens?!" I exclaimed, leaping from the sofa in her living room.
"Clay's here? Keep it a buck, or you're dead meat," Austin threatened shamelessly. Who does he think he is?
"Say no, say no!" I whispered from behind me. My heart was pounding as sweat dripped from my forehead, he must be the last person I wanted to see.
"N-no," she stuttered.
Receiving no response, she peered through the spyhole again.
Austin was gone.
What just happened?
~~~ ~~~
With the pillows scattered all over, we continued to attack each other with both fluffy and rough pillows. Beca had invited Charlotte over, though I was reluctant to let her stay for long.
"Charcoal! The mighty King Clayton is gonna squash you with his mighty missile!" I declared as he pointed at my sister with a neck roll pillow.
The doorbell pealed through our shouts, distracting us from our nightly plans.
Beca excused herself and trudged down the stairs, worn out from the crazed happenings.
The bell chimed again.
"Rebecca! Why aren't you opening the door?" I shouted from upstairs.
"Jeez, I'm going!" She hollered back at me. But I felt a bit suspicious.
"Rebecca, are you all right? Why aren't you answering the door?" Charlotte yelled, assuming that she hadn't opened the door yet since there was no noise downstairs.
"I'm fine! Just a little problem over here," she called back.I scowled, and went downstairs to check.
As soon as she opened the door, a woman crashed to the floor her feet.
When she raised her head, Beca definitely had to take a step back. And I gasped.
"Save me, girl! The spirit, the soul, it's killing my son! Help, please!" The woman started shrieking and pleading with a cracked voice, kneeling on her knees with clasped but twitching hands. There was a smudge of blood on her forehead, and her face was streaked with dirt.
I, on the other hand, stood there with a stiff posture and rigid muscles, paralysed with shock and timidity, just like Beca.
Hearing all the commotion, Charlotte ran downstairs.
"What happened—holy guacamole!"
"M-ma'am, where... where are you f-from?" she asked in a shaky voice, incapable of speaking properly.
Without replying, the eldritch woman's hands made their way to her neck and squeezed. I watched helplessly as thick veins nearly burst from her forehead. Her eyes practically bulged out as she gripped on, swiftly becoming bloodshot.
Her last words were choked and hoarse: "Spare me...!"
All I could do was watch the woman kill herself, and my heart leapt into my throat with a touch of disbelief.
I simply stood motionless for the minutes the body lay on the floor, terror-stricken, along with my friends.
Heavy silence filled the air while the three of us exchanged glances.
Suddenly, loud wails broke the silence. The police had arrived.
Simple investigation.
The police asked seriously and we answered honestly.
~~~
I inhaled through my nostrils and exhaled through my mouth, noticing the other two doing the same.
After the police left, we had quietly flumped on the couch. For six whole minutes, we didn't say a word, instead attempting to digest the disturbing events that had played out right in front of our eyes.
Finally, after a while, I opened his mouth to say, "Uh... wanna discuss what happened, or play the 'let bygones be bygones' shit?"
"I guess we play," Charlotte said quietly, and Beca agreed.
But it really budged me. What was actually going on?
"You guys... uh, power up the TV, I'm gonna take a trip to the washroom," Charlotte said jokingly, which made us chuckle.
She left the room. I turned on the TV and began flipping through the channels, presumably to watch a movie I had no real intention of enjoying.
Soon enough, I came across a news channel. The smooth voice of the reporter filled the room.
"Newsflash. Murder on Alfred Street of a family of two, Claire Allen and Lucas Allen.
"As we got to discover, the body of the young boy, around the age of 14, was found in the backyard of Apartment 12. The mother was found on the steps of a neighbouring house with three 13-year-old witnesses, and was pronounced dead on the spot.
"The witnesses had fearfully stated that it was the woman who choked herself, thus leaving the police in a state of turmoil as it isn't a particularly ordinary case."
The reporter lady faded from the screen and the house of the two victims took her place. The camera soon turned to the garden, where the bloody boy lay lifeless.
"We will let you know if there are any updates on the situation. As for now, we'll take a leave."
More bodies flashed onto the screen. I quickly changed the channel, getting more nauseous by the second.
"This is very serious," Beca drawled, but I could still see the tension behind her eyes.
I nodded slightly. Suddenly, the lights went off. Before we could react, they turned on again but began to flicker horribly.
"R-Rebecca, what's h-happening?" I stuttered, but both of us were too stricken with bewilderment to be of any help. I had always pranked and scared Charlottle like that by doing creepy stuff like that. So maybe it was her avenging all her abashed moments?
We both stood up cautiously, looking around. Beca however, suggested calling our parents as it was getting terrible each second.
First the woman, then the lights. Wasn't it strange enough to get worried?
I slowly bent over to reach the landline phone, but leapt up as soon as a loud shriek met my ears and pierced through my brain. The lights flickered even more and the scream tore through me like a great shard of glass.
I felt my pulse quicken instantly. Beca and I glanced at each other, simultaneously reminded of the fact that Charlotte was still upstairs.
And then I was pounding up the stairs, closely followed by Beca, while my ears tried to gauge the direction of the shouts.
The screams suddenly halted, but I knew it was coming from Beca's room.
I skidded to a stop in front of the closed door, my heart hammering painfully in my chest.
Taking a deep breath, I twisted the knob and peeked through.
The sight was gruesome. Carmine liquid oozed from the waist of a girl laying on the mirror table and pooled on the floor below.
And the girl was none other than Charlotte.
"Holy shit!"
My arms dropped to my side and my jaw became slack. I could only stand there, frozen, despising the sight but unable to look away.
Beca pushed past me and burst into the room.
At first, I was completely mute with horror. Then, my face became ashen.
An involuntary whimper escaped my lips before I ran towards the lifeless body.
I shook her by the shoulders, screaming her name over and over, my voice cracked and thick. Gingerly touching the place where she seemed to be stabbed, my fingers stained deep crimson when I pulled them away. I was almost getting breathless and my heart just stumbled over my ribs.
I could do nothing but sit there, trying to register the truth while my body went completely cold with dread.
I let out a slow breath and felt Beca finally caught up with me, who still could not stop panicking. She threw my arms around me and held me tightly as we nearly became a single, shivering form.
My bottom lip quivered and tears flowed freely down my cheeks, wetting my shirt as I sobbed silently.
Soon enough, a single, solemn tear fell from her eyes. Well, Charlotte was her friend, too.
As we cried over her death, a low tune filled the room, but that didn't seem to affect me.
On the other side Beca carefully pulled away from me and turned around, then noticed an inhuman hand grasping the railing outside my window- as she later mentioned.
From the corner of my eye, I witnessed that the being slowly pulled itself up, revealing a scaly body. Beca only gaped at the appearance of such a creature, with the body of a human boy but covered in lime-coloured scales. The face was completely unearthly, sensing organs in unnatural formations.
As it came into view, she became mute with horror. Instead of screaming her lungs out, she slowly stepped back to where I was and whispered, "C-Clay, th-there's someone i-in here..."
"I don't care!" I cried, not looking up from Charlotte's body. "My sister is dead. What can be more important than that?!"
Her eyes were sure to be fixed on the creature, which was still creeping upwards. Suddenly, it banged a fist on my window. The glass shattered and pieces rained on the ground.
It alarmed me, and I completely looked up. "Oh, now I know. Our little lives matter."
My blood practically froze in my veins, and it was like the pounding of my terrified heart would kill me before the creature could lay a finger on me. I couldn't help but shriek in a high-pitched voice.
"Oh, god, what is that?" I exclaimed.
Suddenly, the creature said in a sickening, sharp hiss, "I shall heave the gorge on thy livings!"
We considered the creature to come from the Shakespearean era for its language; however, we had to fly the coop.
Beca looked around to see if there was anything she could use to protect herself and discerned nothing except her floor lamp, which was situated a few centimetres away. In a flash, she grabbed it.
Seeing her defence position, the creature seemed to sneer. Steps ahead, it was ready to attack just as she brought the lamp down on its head with her eyes shut tight.
In retrospect, that was a really dumb idea.
She felt a slimy rope curl around her ankles and pull, making her fall backwards before the lamp could do any damage and knocking the breath out of her chest.
In the corner of her eye, she saw me run out of the room. I had to, because there wasn't anything useful to fight that monster. I once again glanced at her.
Scanning the whole room, I couldn't find anything except those huge furniture. But only one thing caught my attention. Beca's old violin.
Without any further ado, I stepped up and stood outside her bedroom door as it seemed like someone was already saving us.
At first, she tried to stand up but the natural rope rendered her helpless.
Just as the creature lifted a fist to strike her, its neck went round repulsively and it whipped its head to the side as if staring at something. But there was nothing to be seen.
She took that chance to wiggle out of the rope and stand back up, grasping the lamp and shuddering from the experience.
The creature was still preoccupied with its invisible opponent. It kicked into the air, and it seemed like someone got hit because I heard a boy grunting. The creature then got whacked with an invisible hand.
Both the fighters, the lime-coloured creature with leaves sticking to his body and the invisible one, clashed.
"W-what about you?" I heard Beca sputter, as if she was talking to someone-maybe that invisible savior?
A power ray shot into the air and she abruptly stopped talking. She probably decided to go get help, but ran into me at the top of the staircase before she could do so.
"Clayton?" she yelped in surprise. "I-I thought you'd left!"
"Well, yeah, but only to get a tool to hit that beleaguer." I grinned, brandishing said "tool."
"And you thought a violin would be enough?" she grimaced, looking at the old instrument and bow in my hands.
"Just wait. You'll see." I smiled and, for a chic attempt to swirl the violin just like they do with guns for show, I hit my own face. Good start to impress the friend, i scolded myself.
"Well, the hero show certainly had a fine beginning." she snickered.
We made our way back to the scene of conflict, with her still uncertain about the violin's capabilities. Our eyes widened in sync when we saw the mess, miscellaneous things thrown everywhere and furniture upturned. The creature turned to us and she turned to me, supposedly hoping that whatever I did would work.
All of a sudden, I then began to aggressively drag the bow against the violin strings, and trust me, it was damn ear-piercing and first-class exasperating.
Beca slapped my hands to my ears to stop them from bleeding and witnessed the creature do the same. Surprisingly, it was not long before the creature's body literally exploded, making both of us fall back. Scales and pieces of flesh littered the floor and slid down the walls.
There was a tense moment of complete silence.
Then...
"We did it!" I exclaimed.
None of us couldn't believe our eyes. Quiet contentment filled my heart; her crappy old violin was useful, after all.
"I must say, Clayton, marvellous brainwork this time," Beca complimented.
"Well, I'm still shivering, but thank you. W-we should report this to the cops, ASAP."
"That'd probably be best."
Still tense, we just began towards the front door when Beca stopped. I glanced at her but she didn't seem to be in this world anymore. I snapped my fingers in front of her face and she cringed.
"Well?"
"Let's not tell this to the outside world, okay?" she mumbled. Shock hit me.
"What do you mean? Why won't we?"
"Cause...cause I said Clay. Trust me on this."
"What if we get ambushed again? Who will protect us? And these-" Before I could proceed with my words, she cupped my cheeks which held some sort of a comforting enchantment, "Trust me. We will get protected. An-and I don't know how to debate on this, but if you really consider me as your friend, then trust me. We-we won't get attacked again and even if we get...I-" She got loss at words, lowering her gaze but began again with a small smile, "We'll fight it. But let's not tell this to anyone okay?"
Somehow or the other, her words held emotions, which flooded me with a comfort and the mere trust which gently ordered me to do what she said. And in that moment, I believed I could trust her. So we both focused on the pretence for this incident to never happen- except my sister's death, which of course couldn't keep me out of anxiety and utter horror.