Olivia whined in reply as she leaned back and cursed herself under her breath for being a lightweight while the third girl carefully sat down at the end of the recliner, mindful of her suffering friend, Laurely, now asking about the game currently reaching new heights in both difficulty and cheers from the side, ignored both of their suffering with a huff.
"Truth or dare with prize money I'm pretty sure is now in the 2.000$ range, why, want to join in?" She asks, her voice only as loud as it needs to be in order to be heard above the loud shouting, chanting and screaming from the crowd as she uses both hands to steady herself and leans back, looking at the clear night sky and hoping for their friend to free herself sooner rather than later as it was getting late on top of two out of four feeling sick enough to stumble while walking.
They are far away from the city now, the nearest house a few hundred yards away and behind the garden was only a large forest leading to nowhere.
This, the high end area of the city, is filled with villas and mansions of enormous sizes, as such they need space, and while this might be called a street, it is in truth just a collection of private properties of rich people that are somewhat close to each other, the sky out here is clear and the stars are bright as the moon hangs in the sky in all of its silver glory.
"I would." The other said starting to go forward before the brunette spoke again, hoping to stop her, now louder than before, "The game already started, hardly doubt you can join in this late." The other stopped and turned to her, a disguised anger on her face as she did so, "Why not?" She asks snidely, "The rules say so."
She nods to the boy on the springboard as she says this to avoid a misunderstanding.
Her friend cooled down somewhat and nodded, "Alright then." She sighs in annoyance as she strides over to the two queen bees not too far away instead of joining the game, both chatting happily with the other before both look up as Laurely coughed to catch their attention, they looked up, Sydney beckoning her to sit down where the Brunett used to sit and reaching the last skewer over to her.
The ravenett takes the skewer with a smile and the other girl sits the plate down behind her before trying to return to her former conversation, but was interrupted by the newcomer.
Leyla greeted the other girl with a smile and a wave as she asks her something which gets a snort and a nod in return as Laurely reaches into her skirt pocket to retrieve a ring that, upon seeing it, sets the queen bee asking for the tribute off into loud, unrestrained laughter.
The brunette humms as she sees the ring, taking her phone out of her pocket and records the exchange with a frown, rumours had it that someone, a boy from the football team, stole this ring from the party queen, although she now had a feeling that the poor sod was framed by Leyla and Laurely.
Sydney seemed to be out of the loop as she looked very confused during the exchange, her eyes darting back and forth between the two with surprise written on her face followed by betrayal and soon smoothed into indifference as she looks at the two girls silently.
"Is that what I think it is, or am I just that drunk." Her companion in pain speaks upon seeing the ongoing scene, Leyla and Laurely laugh merrily as the latter pats herself on the chest in a form of, "I got it done, just trust me."
"I'd like you to be that drunk, but I am not nearly drunk enough to be imagining that as well." She doesn't know how to feel about this, but holding hope in her friend, she makes a guess that perhaps, the sod who ended up getting expelled, had harmed her friend and the other girl, the two had then teamed up to get revenge on the guy later on.
"Chances aren't good for either of them to do this out of revenge." Her other friend spoke up, dashing her hopes, "Yeah, I know." She throws over her shoulder softly, "I wish I didn't." She adds after a second thought.
Olivia lets out a hollow laugh behind her, "That explains it." She barks out another, shorter, laugh followed by a hiss of pain.
They look each other in the eyes and sigh, Olivia shaking her head, "Can you get my bag? I left it near the snackbar... I think."
"Yeah, you still got the painkillers in there?" She stands up with a small wobble and a hiss between clenched teeth as her gut starts acting up again.
"I do, take what you need." The honeyblond leans back in the recliner, closing her eyes and covering them with her right arm, the girl often got bad migraines that could take her out of commission for a few hours, and was prescribed strong painkillers that she always carried with her.
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She took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air that was mixed with the scent of alcohol and smoke before trudging back into the house, she enters through the backdoor leading out to the patio and backyard, crosses the kitchen and arrives at the snackbar soon after.
The black red purse of her friend is sitting innocently next to the punchbowl filled with pink liquid, she grabs it and opens the silver latch without trouble before rummaging through with one hand while the other holds it.
A purse, pads, pens, a notebook, a jacket and a small makeup kit greet her before she reaches the bottom and pulls out a small pill bottle that she takes out, she humms in thought as she notices that the knot in her gut had loosened considerably, but opens and swiftly knocks back two pills, she closes the container and throws it back into the purse before grabbing her own messenger bag that she left hanging on the kitchen clotherack and swings it over her shoulder in one smooth motion, she looks at the front door, an old, heavy dark oak wood door with golden handles, groans in dismay and turns back toward the kitchen.
She pauses mid step towards the door and takes a glass of water that she empties in the sink, gives a quick rinse and fills up again to take a sip of.
She refills it after quenching her thirst and steps back out into the open before jogging back to the pool again before she stops halfway as she nearly topples over at the intense wave of dread that washes over her, her stomach turning violently and her gut feeling as if it was filled with boiling lava instead of blood.
She grips her upper thig tightly and feels the pain from the action, she takes a deep breath and hopes to get out of there as soon as she can as she accelerates her pace.
She had a feeling before, but she now knew that the source of her discomfort was something at the pool and she pales a bit before she trudges on, fighting against the urge to turn tail and run as far as her legs can carry her.
She reaches Olivia first, hands her the glass and says, "We need to leave, my gut is screaming at me everytime I go back here."
Olivia, who was drinking the water with relish on her face nearly spits it back out as she looks at her, all drowsiness from before pushed to the side, "Are you sure?" She asks, long having learned that her gut feeling was right, no matter when and where, she nods curtly before going over to her other two friends.
"I'm sorry Leyla, but we need to leave, I just got a call from the hospital, my mother got into a car accident and I need a driver, pronto." She speaks quickly and both Sydney and Laurely look at her in shock before jumping up.
It was their code for when her gut acted up and they needed to leave as soon as possible, she, in fact, hated her mother and had had a falling out with her around a year ago, if she received news of her mother passing, she'd likely jump around in joy, considering her mother had a restraining order when it came to her, one could see just how bad things were between them.
That was how this the code came to be, most people would want to go to their sick family and as she was a private person, only her closest friends knew that she hated her mother, so it was a good, semi-polite, excuse to leave as quickly as they could.
Hayleen silently cursed herself for not leaving earlier, she'd thought that it was just a fight that would soon break out, the cops getting called, a drunken bitch fight between two party guests or something of that kind, but she was wrong, so, so wrong.
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"You're all leaving? What a shame, I wish your mother a safe recovery." Leyla said, looking unhappy but understanding.
Laurely steadies Olivia as they pack up their stuff and leave as Laurely takes a look at the clock via a quick glance at her phone, "Nearly midnight, traffics gonna be good." She says and the brunette takes another look at the sky with the full moon looming in the night.
Her expression changes from discomfort to pure surprise mixed with shock, "Was today supposed to be a Bloodmoons rising?" She asks, fishing her phone out of her pocket and holding it up to the sky, recording the red moon hanging in the sky, whether it be the screen or real life, the picture stayed the same, no matter how often she looked, much to her dismay.
"No, what do you even mean, "Bloodmoons rising"?" Sydney asks, likely questioning if her friends may have had too much to drink and was now having a fever dream or alcohol induced mirage, but her friend only gestures towards the sky, "Oh god! The moon is red!? When did this happen?"
She shouts in surprise as she looks up into the sky, soon followed by a surprising half hiss, half gasp as Olivia cranes her neck upwards faster than she should have, Laurely, following her lead, looks up and nearly misses a step as she stops dead in her tracks, doing a full doubletake as she takes in the now red sky, the clouds dyed a red-grey as the two colours mix.
"The moon wasn't that red five minutes ago!? What the hell?!" She curses and their commotion attracts attention as others look into the sky to check the credibility of the claim made by one of the schools beauties, and even the critics are forced to notice the sudden change as the light begins to dye the ground and their surroundings in a sinister red glow.
Soon people shout in surprise or wonder, their faces filled with shock, wonder and disbelieve as they take their phones out to record the unexplainable scenario playing out before their very eyes.
The terms illusion, mirage and imagination are thrown around but swiftly shot down with the solid argument of, "Then we'd all have to be imagining the same thing at the same time!" and a "I'm drunk, but not that drunk!"
A few of the non drinkers are soon chiming in that they didn't drink anything all night, and they too, were all seeing the same thing as everybody else seemed to.
A chuckle from within the pool catches their attention as a voice speaks up, the tone low and dangerous enough to make all of them shut up and listen attentively, several heads snapping towards the voice in a way that it was surprising that no one pulled a muscle, or at least didn't shout in pain afterwards.
"My, my how perceptive of you to notice the moon in the sky." The male says, sarcasm coating his voice and the brunett has to take a staggering step back as her insides twist and turn, her gut feeling that had shouted at her to get away now full on out blaring, roaring, screaming that there was danger, she grits her teeth and swallows a mix of salvia and stomachacid that jumped up her throat as she hugs her stomach tightly, swallowing back bile as she fights to stay upright.
"Now, the night is coming to an end and I want to play one last game of truth or dare, all of you should play, so, what is it going to be, truth... or dare?" He says softly, his voice still seeming to boom in the dead quiet, he smirked, black hair shining with a bloody hue as the scarlet moonlight hits his figure, a pair of amber eyes scanning over the crowd with the relish of a hunter that had found his nights prey.
His eyes glimmering with malice and no small amount of bloodlust, his grin stretching wider than should be possible, as he begins to speak.
"Unless, you're too cowardly to take me up on this harmless little game?" He raises a single eyebrow as he taunts the drunk audience, it seems the shock of his presence was quickly forgotten as some drunkenly curse him and dare him to challenge them, a burly teen with a shaved head and tattoos on his face shouting loudly, "I dare you, to dare us, as if some stick like you could come up with anything even remotely challenging for us!" He taunts back, his speech a bit slurred from the alcohol coursing through his veins.
He includes all of them in his speech and he gets a very positive reply as others join in to defend their slighted honor.
"Oh? You all agree to a dare then? Without even hearing what it is I want of you?" He asks and the scattered denials are drowned out by jeering voices challenging him to make the dare while throwing curses at him and his perceived arrogance.
He laughs, loud and long, as if he had just heard the most hilarious thing in all of existence.
"Don't regret it later." He laughs again, his white, sharp teeth glinting like the jaw of a shark that had smelled blood as he snaps his fingers.
The brunett suddenly finds it impossible to breathe as a wave of pressure hits her dead on, and she feels like an ant before a lion, so insignificant and weak before him, black spots dance across her vision as she loses the fight to stand and falls to the ground, the wet grass staining her knees as they hit the lawn with a thud.
"My dare for you is to survive the night.~" He says in a sing-song tone of voice as he walks around the drained pool bottom, looking around the nightmarish scene his presence had caused.
She is not the only one to collapse, but she seems to be one of the few to remain conscious, although that soon changes as he throws a glance her way, a taunting smirk is the last thing she sees as her body gives out under his might, like a sheep for slaughter.
The last thing she remembers, that she's not even sure is real, is his chilling laughter echoing in the distance.
"A dare indeed." He seems to croon.