[27th December]
TW!: Slight mentions of blood
"Tomorrow is the day,"
"Tomorrow is the day." I nodded at Johnny's words.
Silence fell between us as we let it sink in.
I was surprised and a little bitter. I had expected Lilith to visit and wish me good luck. I haven't seen her in days.
"Let's make the most of our time. Who knows where you'll go after this all ends?" Johnny attempted to make me smile. "Alright, let's go." he chuckled and swung an arm around my shoulders, leading us out of the house.
"You know, the thing about Ethel's death got me pondering a lot." he suddenly uttered as we stepped out of the twins' penthouse. It was surprisingly empty today. "Oh yeah?"
"I tried to think up reasons why Ethel was killed. At first, I had thought he actually 'offed' himself because of me," he shuddered. "But that was deemed impossible since I was his partner. I did consider a cause but you'd called me crazy..." I turned to him. "What is it?" Johnny stuffed his hands into his pockets and glanced down.
"It has something to do with the secret..." my eyes widened. "No way...Dylan?" I was baffled. There's no plausible explanation why Dylan would put an end to his cousin's life.
But honestly speaking, they never got along.
"Well-I don't want to suspect him because he's my best friend and all but...don't you think it makes a little sense?" he stared at me in anticipation. I didn't want to tell him he was being ridiculous and shut down his suggestion immediately.
"Why don't we ask Dylan's mum about Ethel?" I suggested. He sighed. "She'll probably say that he hung himself."
"That weak punk. I bet all my money that he hung himself for attention," Johnny and I exchanged glances as we shifted on the dull blue couch uncomfortably. Come to think of it, every color of this house had a hint of grey.
Dylan's mother was not home at the moment. It was his dad that let us in with an alcoholic beverage clutched in his hand.
"Maybe it was a bad idea to come here," I whispered to Johnny.
"Was Dylan's father always like this?" Johnny shook his head as we walked out of their front yard.
"He wasn't one to touch alcohol even. He's the chief of this town's police department so he likes to keep himself productive and in top condition. He's probably upset about his nephew's sudden death."
Next, we decided to sneak into the abandoned park after contemplating. It would be the last time I'd be in this other world so, what could happen if we get caught?
Johnny tentatively hoisted his feet over the tapes and I waited for my turn, inspecting the area in the process. I caught sight of the old man from before, on the bench and watching us nonchalantly. I raised a finger to my lips and he drunkenly nodded at me.
"Where to next?" Johnny asked after I got myself over the lines. "The carousel."
It was getting dark so we kept our eyes on our feet for most of the time.
"Why do I feel as though someone is watching us?" Johnny gulped audibly. "Many people died here; it might be their ghosts." he shivered, not appreciating my comment one bit. He fetched two sticks from the snow ground before passing me one. "What is this for...?" regardless, I took it. "In case we get caught or if we see a ghost..." Johnny wasn't sure himself. He just needed something defensive in his palms to make him feel guarded. I snorted.
"You're going to hit a ghost? Come on, it's just going to pass through them-AH!!!" I leaped and sped behind Johnny at the rustling sounds from the woods. It was pitch black inside!
"H-hey! Don't hide behind me! I'm scared too, y'know!?" Johnny glanced around in panic. I could feel him trembling. The rustling resumed and we flinched once more. "Who's there!?" Johnny stuttered, holding out his stick towards the forest.
A flash of white zoomed past the area. It looked like a volleyball going a mile an hour in the darkness. We stood frozen in our spots, sweating despite the freezing weather. We gasped when it appeared again. Is it signaling something? "Should we...?" Johnny gulped. "I-I think we should...go-?" just as Johnny was about to turn around, the wind hissed loudly at us. "Goodness!" we exchanged terrified glances. "Come on, let's just go take a look and run back out!" I tugged on his sleeves.
"Fuck-fine!" Johnny tightened his grip on the stick and went forward dubiously. "W-we're going in!" I declared. "But it's so dark...how are we going to see?" by habit, my hands patted around my pants' pockets. Surprisingly, I sensed something in it. "Wait-" I took the item out to reveal a phone. Johnny gasped when I held it up.
"Only about thirty percent left..." "We'll only need the flashlight. I don't think it will consume a lot." I nodded. "If we happen to get home, let's charge it and look through the messages." "Alright." we started walking again, the lit device in my hand.
"Did I tell you that the victims were murdered in the forest then hung?" Johnny immediately jogged back to his original spot.
"Hey!"
"What the fuck!? You didn't tell me shit! I'm not going into the woods full of corpses!!" I ruffled my hair in frustration. "They were hung! Fine, stay out here! I'm going in myself,"
"What!?" the wind howled again and Johnny squirmed uneasily on his feet. "W-wait for me!!" he appeared by my side in record time. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything," I tried to joke with him. "I am deathly frightened of two things. One, the death of anyone in our group and my family, and two, ghosts. They scare the shit out of me." I hummed. I wasn't really listening; I was busy observing our steps for any weaponry and evidence.
I heard a whooshing sound before the white round light flew across us again, but it was much farther this time. I glanced at Johnny over my shoulder. "I think we should follow it." he nodded with a gulp. "Oh-!" Johnny suddenly tripped but recollected himself in an instant. "Careful!" "I'm trying!" he grumbled.
He bent down to catch what he had tripped on, motioning for me to angle the flashlight to the ground. "God-!" I almost faltered in my steps when it shone on a realistic mask. It was mudded. "Wait..." I picked it up from the ground.
"God fuck! What is that!?" where have I seen this mask before? It looks oddly familiar. "I feel like I've seen this before somewhere..." I hummed, discouraged that I couldn't put a finger as to what. "Well, it was probably someone's face!" I gave Johnny a look.
"Whatever," I placed it back on the snow-covered ground. "Let's continue."
We resumed our way, glimpsing around the barely lit-up void in anxiety. the flashlight on the phone was relatively weak. I felt Johnny glance back at where we came from. "Don't worry, we won't get lost. Unless we stay until it's night." "Right..."
"Oh!" I had the light pointed towards the ground after that incident. "A white volleyball?" Johnny watched with furrowed brows when I leaned down to get a clearer look. "Johnny..." he squatted to join me. "It has splatters of blood..." it reeked of dirt and rusted metal too.
"Uh," Johnny hit my arm in haste. "What is it?" he pointed opposite the ball on the ground. "Huh..."
I shone the flashlight slightly further across the ball and froze when the fronts of a pair of sneakers came into view. Just by its exterior, you could tell it had been through a lot.
Suddenly, they moved.
My breath fastened and I took a step back, setting an arm in front of Johnny. "R code?" I blurted out. "What the fuck is r code?"
I screeched it too many times yesterday when I was playing a zombie game with Silas and Ethan.
"Run, bitch!" I turned on my heels and speeded to the exit as if my life depended on it. Well, quite literally. Who knew what the person would do?
I heard hurried footsteps behind me and assumed it was Johnny. But when I heard an overlap of footsteps, my eyes widened. Peering over my shoulder, I almost tripped when I saw a dark silhouette running with us. I almost peed my pants. That was terrifying!!
Johnny was already by my side. "Run faster, what the fuck!" I started cursing here and there when I felt the figure come closer. But so was the entrance.
My legs suddenly gave out when we were almost at the exit so I wheeled myself out of the woods. When I placed my hands on the ground to stop myself, my breath caught in my throat and my eyes dared not blink. If I was even a split second slow on stopping myself, my head would've been bashed into the spikes and broken light bulbs on the carousel's turning ground.
"Johnny!?" I yelled as I fumbled to my feet. "I'm here!" he wheezed as he rushed to my side. We turned back to the forest to see the dark figure now under the light. I've not seen him before.
He had a dirt-covered jersey on as he stood unmoving near the entrance. Every inch of his skin was either bruised or caked with dirt. Or both. He was staring at the carousel in dread. . I patted Johnny's arm before approaching the boy with prudence.
"Hey!" I called out to him. He turned to me; his eyes wide like saucers. I glanced at his sports uniform. Though it was mudded, I could make out the letters that decorated it. "Tommy?" his lips quivered as he remained silent. "A-are you lost?" Johnny asked from beside me. He kept quiet as he averted his stare back to the carousel behind us.
"U-uh, we're going to go..." Johnny suddenly stated, pulling on my jacket. "What-" "Let's go!" he hissed in a hurry. I was worried but I let him drag me to the exit. Glancing back at the boy, I was dumbfounded to see that he had vanished. What the hell?
"What? What happened back there?" I asked when we took a seat on the now vacant bench. The old man was nowhere to be found. Johnny took heavy breaths and collected himself. "He-" he brought a hand to the back of his head.
"He had an ax stuck behind his head." I was confused. "He looked alive!" Johnny shook his head before rubbing his face in frustration. "There was no way. It was stuck! Half of the ax was deep inside his fucking brains!" Holy-we saw a ghost.
Silence fell between us. "What if he only started running with us because he thought trouble was nearby?" Johnny stared at me with a deep frown. He sighed and stared at his dirtied palms. "I feel so bad for him."
"Let's head back first. It's not safe here." as if on cue, the old man returned with a couple of policemen. He suddenly pointed to us. "There they are! They trespassed a private property!"
"What the heck!?" we made a run for it immediately. What was he trying to get!? A reward!? Hell!
The policemen didn't even bother going after us as they simply told the elderly man that this would serve as a 'warning' for us. They barely did anything!?
We returned to the penthouse safely, to say the least. "You want to take a quick shower?" I asked when we opened the door. Johnny's was covered in mud from head to toe.
"Do they even have water in this world?" he turned on the faucet in one of the bathrooms. "Oh, they do!" he feigned surprise. "That was a dumb question, to begin with," I removed my dirty clothes and made a beeline towards the twins' closet. I roughly remembered where it was from our previous sleepover. After that, I put the phone on charge on the nightstand. I unlocked the device and went through it.
30th December. That was unnerving.
"Ugh, the water is lukewarm!" Johnny waddled into the guest room in just his sweatpants. "Was the heater not working?" "Nope, something is probably stuck in the water tank."
"Watcha' found?" he peered over my shoulder. "Not much, I just turned it on." I went into the messaging app. "Since Ethel was Johnny's boyfriend, I'll check their text history first." Johnny shifted uncomfortably at that. "Oh, it was Johnny's recent too." I scrolled all the way up to the 28th of December, ignoring all the messages Johnny had sent to comfort himself after Ethel's death.
'I just got a call saying they found something with my number on it. They're at the park.' Ethel texted first.
'Hm? Did you go there these few days?' Johnny replied.
'I did pass by to go to the convenience store...maybe it was my skateboard? :p'
"Tch tch, how did you forget something so important?' Johnny had scolded.
'Ehe. I'm going there now!'
'Stay safe <3'
"Ethel liked skateboarding?" I muttered, skimming through the texts once more. Ethel left around ten. "Hm, I wouldn't know," Johnny responded nonchalantly. "What's after that? Did they text again?" "I think so,"
'Johnny, it's been 10 mins...I don't see anyone at the park.' again, Ethel began the conversation but this time, all the texts were from the other end. Johnny didn't respond to any of them, unfortunately.
'I'm going back...getting odd vibes..'
'Oh shit, I think I'm being followed'
'one missed call'
'Johnny, please pick up!'
'two missed calls'
'Shit, I'm actually being followed, Johnny!'
'*Ethel send his location*'
'I'm going to call the police'
'FUCK HELP'
'three missed calls'
The messages were chilling, especially when we knew this was the last we've ever heard of Ethel. "God..." Johnny whispered.
"Why didn't Johnny pick up?"
"I think he was doing his homework." I turned to him. "You think?" Johnny rolled his eyes. "I do my homework on Sundays around nine forty-five. With music on full blast." that made sense. I scrolled further, surprised it wasn't the end. This time, all texts were from this device. From Johnny, an hour later.
'one missed call'
'Ethel what the fuck pick up'
'two missed calls'
'Ethel don't play with me.'
'this isn't funny.'
'three missed calls'
'I'm coming over.'
The remaining messages were from the day after at one in the afternoon. They were texts from Johnny wishing he had taken a break from his homework and apologizing. He was beating himself to it. "Oh shit, he was actually doing his homework." Johnny hummed. "I wonder where the Johnny in this world went." I perked up.
Right, where did he go? He wasn't there too when we were in his house.
"Wait, Ethel's death was ruled as a suicide?" Johnny nodded as he recalled his uncle's words. "If they had gotten hold of his phone, they would've thought otherwise!" I furrowed my brows. Johnny rubbed his chin.
"What if someone took his phone before the cops could?" my mind immediately flew to his cousin and I shook my head in denial. "You thought of him too, didn't you?" I sighed in disbelief. "There is no way." I denied.
"Check Dylan's messages," Johnny suddenly said. "Why?" "Just because." I shrugged, switching to Dylan's chat history.
"They hadn't talked since the 29th." Johnny leaned over. "Well, what did they talk about before that?"
'Dylan is Ethel home yet?????' Johnny asked at eleven, the time he realized Ethel spammed him with texts then disappeared.
'He's always in his room?' Dylan answered in an aloof manner.
'He went out to get his skateboard! Pls check ASAP'
'Okay hold on.'
'His room is empty...' Dylan responded after two minutes.
'Crap. He texted me saying he was followed but I didn't see it quick enough!'
'What!? I'll go get my parents. Do you know his location??'
Johnny forwarded Ethel's location and the conversation ended after that.
"Oh wow," Johnny was speechless beside me. I was about to say something until I heard sharp footsteps approaching us. I quickly rolled myself onto the floor, dragging Johnny with me.
"What? What!?" he was baffled. "Did you not hear footsteps!?" I hissed at him, peeking under the bed for any shift in lighting. Oh my god, I don't want Silas' face staring down at me again! That was an absolute nightmare!!
"N-no!?" confused, he craned his neck to glimpse above the mattress. I immediately pushed his head down. "Dude I'm telling you I didn't hear anything!"
Was I overthinking? "Okay, I think I was paranoid-" I heard footsteps again and ducked back down. "I heard it again!" Johnny furrowed his brows. Did he seriously not hear anything!? Suddenly, it was as though the lightbulb in him lit up as he gasped. "What!?"
"Someone is approaching the guest room in real life."