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I can feel an intense light overhead, I try to open my eyes just to blink but I can’t. Soon I feel droplets sprinkle my forehead and slide down to my chin. I try to move but my limbs do not budge. I try opening my eyes again but nothing, I can tell that there is light above me, I notice the darkness I am observing is tinted to a shade of gray. Soon, the droplets continue to get bigger, there are streams rolling down my face. The rain is more intense, and I realize that I am outside…
“I am pretty sure I was asleep in bed not too long ago, why can’t I move?” I say to myself. Soon I smell the mix of wet leaves and grass around me. A strong copper scent is mixed in. Blood.
I try to shake myself, “Am I okay? Am I bleeding?... I can’t move, did I fall? Where was I”.
I am trying to remember the night before and it comes back. I decided to head out, it was my best friend’s birthday and I had to finish our map; I scouted the woods by his old house, but I came back. I know that I came back. To my house. To my bed.
Soon my senses start returning, the feeling in my face returns and the rain is no longer droplets but globs. The rain had been falling like this the whole time then the realization sinks in. “I’m blind folded”.
I try to reason with myself maybe this is a stupid trick by my older sister. She probably thought this was funny since she had to cover for me with our parents, but I never knew she would try to scare me this bad. I wonder if she got that stupid football player to do this, he has constantly been harassing me about her favorite flowers, colors, and prom proposal ideas. I don’t even think she likes him… but he could carry me out here… I guess. I start to feel static in my left hand, I try to wiggle my finger. I can barely lift it before it falls on the wet dirt again.
My mom’s voice whispers through my mind, “You know, we are worried about you, you haven’t been the same since you spent the night at that boy’s house and now you are sleep walking”.
There was nothing wrong with my best friend, he just… I guess he had bad luck… I never would have thought that he would be stalked… I mean we were what 6 then. We put that behind us, and it was just his 13 birthday and all I could do was show up. I didn’t even give him a gift; I saw all these other goofy looking kids give him great gifts and I… I just had a panic attack and left.
I said I would make it up and here I am. “How did I get here again? Where am I? I still can’t move?” My thoughts continue to echo throughout my mind. I try to move my mouth but no words or sounds release. My thoughts continue, I remember this…
It was two and a half years ago, after my best friend and I had gone to the woods, when we were younger, we wanted to make a whole map of the woods and we would be real explorers. Things just got complicated after he moved and then there was the whole thing with Ms. Maggie. I wonder if she is still alive.
Then Boxes, that was the worst day, I now know that Boxes is dead… now. “I probably shouldn’t be thinking about death so much, this is just a prank, a prank.”. I reason with myself.
Boxes just had to go missing and of course we had to go back to that house. I don’t even know why I went in the house… oh yeah, I was scared about the crawl space… inside the house seemed better and I knew he already had the crawl space covered.
His old house was condemned, he told me that new people moved in, but I knew that was a lie when he moved out with his mom, we were supposed to see each other that day but my parents told me the truth. I’m not sure if he knew though, why he and his mom left so quickly. I still remember turning the knob and being flooded by old memories, the kitchen was almost the same, there was still some old dishes there and the toaster never worked so it made sense why his mom left the thing. The smell is what really got me, it smelled like rotting flesh and soil when I turned to go up the stairs. As I placed my foot on the first stair, a rat jets out from the crack in the board. I jump back and peered in and I saw a puppy’s carcass, maggots had taken over it’s chest cavity. It’s eyes were stabbed out. I step back… right I got to get to his room. I pivot and head down the stretch of hallway
“Hey Josh… earth to Josh… over”. The walkie talkie goes off. I pull the device out of my pocket and press the button on the side.
“Chhhkkkkk breaker… Dude, I promised I wouldn’t touch your barbie collection don’t worry… over” I laugh.
“Okay, I told you, you don’t make the sound of a walkie talkie it already does that asshole… over”. I chuckle as I make my way down the hallway and stop in the bathroom.
“Chhhhkkkk breaker, I just got to the bathroom and found your magazines, you got a thing for dudes butts? What is the report on that? Over”. I start to laugh and exit the bathroom and get to his bedroom. He said there would be boxes of clothes here but I don’t see anything. Being in here really brings back memories, I never realized that they left the bunk beds… I always wanted bunk beds.
“Hey… you said there was boxes of clothes in here, but there is none”. I look but it’s hard to see with my flashlight, I step toward the closet and turn the knob.
“I found your clothes and they are still hanging up and dude, I never knew how full of yourself you were, there are hundreds of polaroid’s in here… and they are all of you”. I crackle. “When did you hire…”. I hear footsteps coming toward the door, I quickly throw myself into the closet and quietly bring the closet door closer to me, just enough so I can peek out.
I hear someone, he bursts through the room, and drops a black bag. My eyes dart down and notice the bag wiggling. Crash! My eyes dart forward, and I can see him. He has a polaroid camera and a knife. Adrenaline starts to kick in, my heart races. “Can he hear me… fuck he is going to hear me”. He drops the knife and moves toward the closet. I look down and grab my walkie talkie and lower the volume, I tweak it the wrong way. Chhhhhkkkkkkkk. Before I can look up, he jolts and grabs the knob.
Right as I look up… FLASH!