“Sophi!”
The long brunette haired male turned to the group that called him over. He smiled and joined them, a red solo cup with a mysterious and almost toxic looking drink in hand. They broke into giggles and he grinned having no idea what was happening, one of the males grasped his shoulder and his smile turned down.
“Listen man, I have a genuine question. How are you so perfect?”
Sophi raised an eyebrow as he ran his fingers through dark permed hair, his bangs becoming frizzy.
“I don't understand what you mean, i'm far from perfect” he laughed, the male smirked.
“That's not what the ladies said” he laughed, Sophi rolled his eyes and went to push away from the group. The male grasped him and he made eye contact with a shorter female from across the room who was laughing and dancing with a friend.
“Have you met the newbie? Her name is Cassandra.” the male said gesturing to the girl, Sophi scoffed and leaned back to say something to the man.
“Let me go.”
His grasp loosened and fell away, and Sophi walked away finding his friends and tapping their shoulders so they would follow him out the party. It was 1995 and Halloween night in Dunsbury, Maine! Why should they be stuffed up inside a clumsy party when they could be out and about roaming the town and scaring trick or treaters.
As they left they were enveloped in conversation, the sounds of their costumed feet against the leaves muffling the laughter and shoving. Kids screamed when Sophi jumped out at them fully dressed in a Ralphie gone wrong get up from Christmas story, holding an air rifle.
The kids screamed and ran off and Sophi laughed, the others joining in on the terror before they pushed through diner doors and slid into a booth. The vinyl red seats barely clashed with everyone's costumes, from cheesy lost boy vampires to sexy angels.
“Alright so, whose house are we TPing this year?” Loren, Sophi’s best mate asked from across the booth table. Sophi didn’t respond, just waited for a waiter to serve them as they contemplated mischief.
“What about Ms. Drizzles?” Danielle suggested, everyone looked to her.
“Danielle you’re a genius!”
They all broke into laughter and then ordered food, meanwhile Sophi was distracted by the frequent flickering of diner lights. He blamed it on the lights in general before a shadow slipped by and vanished, the stench of something rotten catching him off guard.
What in the world…
Loren nudged him and he broke from his stupor looking directly at the waitress, “oh, sorry. Just a basket of fries please” he ordered politely, the waitress smiled and scribbled onto her notepad before disappearing. The faint shouting of the order in the back kept Sophi in reality.
The lights flickered again and he scowled.
He couldn’t help but feel like something was off. Something dead and negative, something worrying.
Soon enough he joined the conversation once more and they laughed and chatted, the waitress returned with a platter of food, setting them down onto the table.
They mumbled thank you’s and she nodded walking away, the platter tucked under her arm.
Sophi eyed the outside world as he ate his fries. Either it was just the eerie aspect of Halloween night or something was truly wrong, something weird and uncalled for.
Loren laughed loudly and Grant, another one of his friends, joined in before throwing a fry at Loren, hitting Sophi instead.
Sophi was jarred back to reality and he shot Grant a look before grinning and throwing a pickle at him. They all laughed and the girls avoided the food fight laughing and tossing certain foods at them to get their attention.
Sophi chuckled and ate a fry as the others calmed down and regrouped.
When they parted ways, Sophi couldn’t help but feel lonely and out of it. He beeped his car and got in, The engine roaring to life when he turned the key.
It was silent except for the music playing on the radio as he drove down the empty streets, only some headlights passed but rarely.
Sounds of the Doors and last year's Nirvana rock filled the car, he bobbed his head to the music of the car making an unsettling sound. He turned the radio off and pulled the car off to the side before the gasket blew. Smoke rose from the engine and he collapsed against the wheel, groaning.
Seriously.
He got out of the car and popped the hood to check it out, waving smoke from his face. He gripped his hair and squinted before staring in shock. What the hell.
The engine had ivy and plants and mold growing inside, multiple parts were eroding and old and flaking. He sighed and rubbed his face, how was this even possible?
He rounded the car after closing the hood and opened the trunk to grab a flashlight. He looked around the dark road shining the light on anything he could before locking the car and making his journey home a walk full of paranoia. The only plus to this situation was the fact that his house was just down the road.
When he unlocked the door and another wave of stench hit him, all of a sudden it seemed like everything was over years and years old. He could practically smell the black mold and trash, it smelled like a rotting corpse.
Did a racoon die in the cellar or something?
He rushed to lock the back door after noticing a shadow on the wall opposite of him.
“Mom!” he called, no response. “Dad!” he yelled hoping for some sort of answer but not getting what he desired, he sighed and looked around. The house was almost old, paint was peeling and mold could be seen almost everywhere. Rats and bugs skittered about, sure enough a dead animal was in the kitchen under the sink. Maybe this was all a prank?
He slinked up the winding stairs and into his room, feeling just a bit safer. Sophi pulled off his shirt and pulled on a tank top before sitting down at his desk and glancing at his mound of school work, he’d been homeschooled most his life but knew almost everyone at the public schools. He covered his nose to try and overrule the stench that wafted through the house, the smell was too horrid to be the dead animal.
Long slender, dark pointed nailed fingers curled over his shoulders and his eyes widened in terror. His attention snapped to his reflection, the sight startling him out of his chair.
His face was rotting, he could see his own bones and skull. He held his hand up to look and his breathing quickened. He shuffled backwards against the peeling wall in horror and stood slowly.
His friends. They were probably hiding somewhere, this had to be some kind of sick prank.
“GUYS THIS ISN’T FUNNY!” he exclaimed looking around the room. “What the…” there was nothing there, absolutely no one. The house was silent and his friends were not, he’d be able to hear them.
Papers flew off his desk and he pressed himself against the wall.
“What do you want from me?” he asked almost to himself, rather than whatever was in that house.
The window next to him let him in a crisp breeze and the hairs on his arms stood on end.
“Return to us” something whispered, almost like a thousand whispers at once. He froze in place.
Wait…
It almost seemed like he was remembering the memories he’d chosen to lock away or what had fallen into the absent void.
“W-what…”
He looked at his reflection again seeing two figures like his best mates standing behind him with smirks and rotting bodies, each with their own wounds.
Grant looked to have been shot, Loren bludgeoned.
“I- I’m alive…I'm not dead, this is all a dream. You just drank too much and passed out…” he mumbled to himself, Grant leaned in closer to Sophi’s ear.
“You were.” he said in a bone chilling voice.
Something in the level below the, clattered to the floor and Sophi’s breath hitched. The feeling of splitting pain filled his body before vanishing entirely, he looked down at his stomach where a knife was sticking out. The knife turned to dust and blood pooled around his abdomen.
He reached to touch the back of his head, a splitting headache coming on. That's when it kicked in. the memories.
The sound of a weapon cocking and tapping the back of his head, the filtered accusations of cops and swat. Cuffs clicking around his wrists, his parents screaming mixed with the old cries and screams of pain he heard from his fellow friends weeks before.
It was a month before Halloween during 1982 that year. His friends were killed by a deranged student, himself.
Sophi looked at his reflection.
No wonder everything was so old and abandoned…no wonder the car broke down and the kids ran from him and people avoided him, no wonder he knew everyone at public school even though he was privately schooled.
This solved everything, and answered all his questions.
This was all because of his down-bringing. Because he killed his friends who were here now, smirking like they knew this secret for years on end. Which they did.
He looked down at his hands again, the boney fingers and old skin falling off a peeling like a snake molting.
He was the exact definition of a Living Dead boy.
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La Fin.
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