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Thriller

Jamanda Parker

    This place is cold, I thought as I looked around. The forest was blanketed in fog, the dirt wet with morning dew. I was wearing my favorite dress, the one with gold sequins all over it that shimmered with every move. How did I get here? Taking a step forward, I realized I was barefoot. The earth was soft under my feet, shifting with every step. In the distance I heard a car engine stalling and a male voice shouting in frustration. I knew that voice. What was Caleb doing here? Heading towards the commotion, the forest started to grow and stretch. Panic gripped my body and I began to run. “Caleb!” I screamed, “Caleb, help me!” The branches moved, reaching for me like dead fingers on rotting corpses. Roots began to lift from the ground, grabbing at my ankles as I fought to get to Caleb. Just as I saw the road ahead, I fell, hitting my head on a large rock. Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, I looked up to see Caleb standing over me. “Caleb, help me,” I pleaded. “What’s happening?” He stood motionless, staring back at me with blank, dead eyes. Though his mouth never moved, I heard his voice in my head, “Night creatures call and the dead start to walk in their masquerade. There’s no escaping this time, this is the end of your life.”
    I jolted upright in my bed, breathing heavily. Eyes straining against the morning sunlight, it took me a moment to realize that it was my phone shouting Michael Jacksons “Thriller” at me. I was so changing my ringtone. Because it took me a moment to shake off the the dream, I missed the call. I stared nervously at my phone, already knowing what it displayed. It was 9:00 am sharp, just as it had been yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that. Today marked two weeks straight that I’d been receiving calls from an unknown number. The stranger says only five words before disconnecting, “I know what you did.”
    At first I thought it was a prank. My best friend Megan’s sick idea of a joke. I confronted her in school the next morning. Pulling her into the janitor’s closet before our first class, I told her what had been happening.
    “Kayla, why would I do something so childish and cruel?” she asked.
    “If it wasn’t you, then someone else knows,” I whispered back.
    “We have to do something. I’ll be 18 in two months, Kay, I can’t go to prison. What about law school?” Her voice grew louder with every word. “If even a whisper of that party gets back to daddy he’ll snatch my trust fund, let alone a MURDER CHARGE-”
    “Shh! Lower your voice. Just give me a second to think.” Checking the time, it was just after 8:45 which meant we had 15 minutes until first bell. Pacing the length of the small, damp, cement room, I went over the details of that night. Meg’s parents were away on business. About 50 people were at that party. Pills were being traded like lunches in kindergarten. There wasn’t a non-alcoholic drink in the entire three story house. Only Caleb, Megan, and I were in the garage when he collapsed. Nobody heard us screaming over the thumping music and before we could run for help, he coughed up one final stream of blood and went still. We put Caleb’s body into Megan’s trunk right away. The drugs hadn’t come from us, but it was still our party and neither of us could risk the fallout. We waited until everyone had left to drive far into the woods and bury the body... the woods. I spun to Megan. “Someone saw us in the woods that night. We have to move the body. It’s their only proof against us.”
    Leaving the closet, we were making our way through the sea of students, towards the main doors when my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. Focused on the mission at hand, I answered without a second thought. Those dreaded five words froze me to the ground and Megan ran into me. I turned to tell her what had just happened when I saw that she too had gone still and pale. She was staring across the hall like she’d seen a ghost. Following her line of sight, I knew why. Staring back at me, phone in hand, was Caleb.

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