Game Night

“ If you’re seeing this Sean, I love you! I wish I could have come back but the storm canceled my plane, sorry baby but I got to go...it’s game night!”

I stared out the window, my right leg resting on top of my left. I was supposed to be on a plane going back home to my husband. But my flight back home was canceled because there was supposed to be a big storm coming. Sighing I looked over at my grandparents who were in the kitchen preparing dinner for me, my sister, and a couple of other people I had to meet a week ago along with my grandparents. Before my mom died she made me promise to come here, and get to know them. 

Why haven’t I met them before? Although I don’t know the whole story, I was told that something bad had happened between her and my grandparents that made her runaway. Since then she didn’t want to take neither me nor my sister to meet them. 

My sister sat in a rocking chair a couple of inches away from me. I smile slightly at how much she looked like our mom. Her sky blue eyes shined brightly as she laughed at something our cousin must have said, her thin dirty blonde hair that usually fell past her shoulders was pulled into a messy ponytail. Unlike me, I looked more like my father. I had thick dark brown hair that fell past my shoulders, and a bright smile as my mother would say. The only thing I had of my mother was her sky blue eyes which I’m happy about. 

“ Vee...everyone dinners ready,” My grandmother Julia said brightly. 

Everyone got up from their seats walking into the kitchen, my sister and I following behind them. Sitting down at the dinner table Julia, and my grandfather Corey sat up the table passing around the food as we sat it on our plates. Julia nodded as we joined hands lowering our heads. I joined hands with my sister Skylar as she joined hands with Julia then Corey then Josie, and two others named Cody and Ace. 

“ Lord we thank you for this food today and thank you for another day of life. Please give these others luck for our game night,” Our hands pulled away as we looked up to see Julia smiling. 

“ Game night?” Skylar asks. 

“ Yeah, since there’s going to be a storm, me and Corey have decided to plan a game night,” Julia answers. 

“ That’s a great idea,” Josie says brightly. 

“ Well after dinner we will get the game set up so we can play,” Corey said, taking a bite of his food. 

Everyone nodded beginning to eat their food. I sighed quietly, taking a small bite of the food. I missed Sean, I hated the fact that the storm had to be the day we were leaving. By the time I’m done thinking my food is gone. Pushing away from my seat I grab my plate sitting it in the sink. 

“ Would you like dessert buttercup?” Julia asks. 

“I’m fine grandma,” I answer. “ I’m just going to get ready for game night.” 

She nods as I walk out of the kitchen, and upstairs. Checking the time on my watch it reads 7:45 P.M. Walking into me, and Skylar’s shared room I changed into a pair of black sweatpants, a white tank-top, and a black hoodie. Walking downstairs everyone was already around the living room table. 

“Tonight,” Julia announces jokingly.  “ We will be playing a series of games, the loser, and or a rule breaker will be punished.” 

Everyone laughs as I sit on the floor in front of the table. Skylar sits beside me wrapping her hand in mine. 

“What are we playing first?” Ace asks.  

“Twister,” Corey says. 

Cody laughs, shaking his head. 

“That’s a kids game,” Cody laughs. 

“ What’s wrong with that?” Skylar asks. 

“I’m not playing a dumb kids game,” Cody states. 

“Trust me Cody, you want to play,” Corey says, sounding more like a warning than a statement. 

“I’m good,” Cody says, laying his hands on the table standing up. 

“You’re playing the game!” Julia yells slamming down a knife into Cody’s right hand. 

Cody’s eyes widen as he screams in pain. Me and the others back away from the table heading towards the door. Skylar reaches for the doorknob slamming her side into it, me and Josie doing the same but nothing happens. 

“ Trust me sweethearts you're not going to get through that door,” Corey says. 

I look back at Cody who now lays beside us Ace kneeling down beside him. 

“What do you want from us?” Josie asks. 

“Well to play a game of course,” Julia answers for him. 

“ What if we don’t want to play,” I ask. 

“Well that knife in Cody’s hand was just a warning if you don’t want to play you die...your choice,” Julia says. 

“ You guys are sick,” Skylar says in disgust. 

“  Watch your mouth,” Corey warns. 

“ Fuck you,” Skylar says. 

Corey jolts forward, grabbing Skylar’s neck as he slams her into the wall. 

“ Get off her!” I yell grabbing Corey’s arm trying to pull him off her. 

Even though he’s old he was shockingly strong. Corey uses his other hand pushing me onto the floor. 

“ Play the game or it will be worse than choking,” Corey states.  

“ Okay,” I nod slowly standing up. “ Will play the game.”

Ace and Josie helped Cody off the floor as we stood around the table watching as Julia sat up the game. I glance over at Cody who holds his injured hand trying to stop it from shaking. Glancing over at Skylar I see that she is breathing heavily, and so am I. I grab her hand wrapping it in mine. 

“I’m going to get us out of here,” I whisper so that she can only hear. 

She doesn’t answer and just stares at the floor. I do the same as Corey and Julia smile brightly. 

“ The game is set up...so who wants to go first?” Corey says. 

Everyone stands there staring at the floor. 

“ Who wants to play!” Julia screams slamming her fist down on the table making everyone jump. 

“ I’ll play,” I say quietly. 

Julia smiles softly grabbing my wrist pulling me away from the others, standing me in front of the game as she spins the spinner. 

“Right-hand blue,” She smiles.  

Taking a deep breath,  I sit my right hand on blue looking down at the floor. I don’t know who’s next till Ace sets his left hand on the yellow dot beside me. His brown eyes stare into mine sternly. 

“ Just don’t fall,” He warns. 

I nod looking back at the floor trying to hold back my tears. Skylar comes next, putting her right foot on a blue dot behind me. 

“Cody right-hand green,” Julia says. 

Cody grips his hand resting it down on a green dot beside Ace. A couple of minutes in I have my left hand on red, my right blue, and my right and left leg are both on green. Ace towers over me trying to keep himself from falling. I try to see where Cody, Skylar, and Josie are but I was afraid if I looked back I would fall. 

“ I can’t do this,” I hear Cody say as something smacks into my side causing me and Ace to fall over.      

“ Awe Cody you lose,” Julia says in a fake pity tone. 

“ It’s not fair my hand w…” Before Cody can say another word, Julia stabs the knife under Cody’s chin making his eyes roll into the back of his head. 

Ace stands there shocked as me and the others scream falling onto the floor, Julia smiles yacking the knife out pushing him to the floor.  

“ Throw him out before he gets blood all over the floor,” Julia says disgustingly. 

“ What is wrong with you?” I cry. 

“ Nothing’s wrong with me,” Julia smiles, shaking her head. 

“ You killed him!” Skylar yelled. 

“ He was weak,” Julia states. 

“ You stabbed him in the hand, that’s not fair,” I state. 

“ I was teaching him a lesson,” She says still smile. 

“ You know what? Shove that fucking smile up your ass,” Skylar says stepping forward. 

Julia’s smile fades as she jolts forward. Grabbing her I pushed her out of the way getting ready for the knife to connect with my skin. But it doesn’t. Ace grabs her wrist using his other hand to grab her neck pushing her into the wall. 

“ Go! Run!” Ace yells. 

Looking around the room I grab a wooden chair laying beside me, slamming it into the window. Nothing happens. Taking a deep breath I slam it into the window again. It cracks but not enough to break. I raise the chair to hit the window but something bumps into my side knocking me to the ground. Corey gets on top of me pinning my arms to the ground. 

“ You never quit do you?” He asks. 

“ Lock her in the basement so she can learn her lesson,” Julia suggests.

Corey grabs the neck of my shirt pulling me off the ground. I try to grab his wrist to push him off, but am unable to. 

“ Leave her alone!” Skylar and Josie yell, grabbing Corey’s shoulders trying to pull him back.  

Julia grabs Skylar’s hair pulling her back as she holds the knife over her neck. Josie backs away stepping back. Sadness washes over her eyes showing she’s sorry that she couldn’t help. 

Corey shoves me into the basement slamming the door in my face.

“ Don’t you hurt them!” I yell slamming my fist into the door. 

I sigh after a couple of minutes looking down at the darkness behind me. Feeling around the wall I find a light switch flipping it up. The light flips on revealing that the floor is covered in blood. I take a deep breath trying to hold back the tears of what is lying in the basement. As I slowly step off the last step I peek my head around the corner to see two people laying up against the wall, blood dripping down from the wounds on their necks. I scream falling to the floor. 

Taking in heavy breathes I calm myself standing up. Taking another look at them I see that they look more like my mother than the people upstairs. My eyes widen as I realize that the people upstairs aren’t our real grandparents. Running over to the selves I try to look for a weapon. Not finding one I turn around seeing a laptop setting on a small table, running over to it I open it. I smile typing in Sean’s email as I press the video recorder. 

“ If you’re seeing this Sean, I love you! I wish I could have come back but the storm canceled my plane,” Trying to hold back the tears I looked away from the camera seeing a bat setting up against the wall. “Sorry baby but I got to go...it’s game night!” I say smiling as I pick up the bat throwing it over my shoulder, turning off the camera sending it to Sean. 

I walk back up the stairs knocking on the door. 

“ Grandma...grandpa, I learned my lesson,” I say. 

I waited as soon as I thought they wouldn’t come Corey opened the door smiling. 

“ I’m glad you learned your lesson,” Corey says. 

“ Yeah...and you're about to learn yours,” I say as I hit the bat over his head.

Corey stumbles back falling onto the floor. I hit him in the face again as he tries to block it.  

“Where are they?” I ask, still hitting him. 

I stop for a second waiting for him to answer. 

“ Where are they?” I ask again, kicking him in the groin. 

“Upstairs,” He answers. 

I nod running into the kitchen as I grabbed a knife from inside the drawer. Turning around Corey pushes me to the ground knocking the knife out of my hand. Wrapping his arms around my neck he slams my head into the floor. Gripping his wrist with my left hand I use the other feeling around the floor to try and find the knife.

“You should have listened, Vee,” Corey’s voice echoes as I was beginning to lose consciousness. 

My fingers hit something hard as I tighten my grip around it slamming it into the side of Corey’s forehead. My eyes widened as the blade of the knife went into his skull making his eyes roll into the back of his head, blood drips from his head onto my face. Pushing him to the floor I whipped the blood on the knife onto his shirt before hiding it underneath my shirt as I whipped the blood off my face.Before grabbing the keys to the front door shoving them into the pockets of my hoodie. Running into the living room I grabbed the bat throwing it over my shoulder running up the stairs. 

“Julia! Julia, come out, it's time to play a game!” I yelled. 

Opening the door to mine, and Skylar’s room I found it was empty. I smiled as I walked down the hallway dragging the bat against the floor. Opening the door to Corey, and Julia’s room I found Josie and Skylar huddled in the corner. Josie’s head laid in Skylar’s lap as she ran her fingers through her hair. Julia stood in the middle of the room a knife still latched in her hand. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Julia said. 

I laughed. “You didn’t have to kill Ace and Cody...but here we are.” 

“What are going to do...kill me?” She asked. 

“Correct. You win the game!” I said in a host kind of tone. “ But you cheated, and you know what cheaters get.” 

Swinging the bat around in my hand I lunge forward trying to hit Julia. I swing the bat towards Julia’s head. She dodges it, ducking down but I quickly swing the bat lower hitting Julia behind her knee causing her to lose her balance making her fall to the floor. 

“Help!” Julia screams. 

“ Help!” I scream louder. “No one is going to help you, just like no one could help us.” 

I lift the bat over my head getting ready to hit Julia. Julia quickly shots forward stabbing her knife into the outer part of my thigh. I yelp in pain falling to the floor as Julia quickly climbs on top of me. 

“Vee!” Skylar yells. 

“ Stay there help Josie!” I warn as I grip onto Julia’s wrist trying to keep the knife in her hands away from my face. 

Julia yells pushing herself forward leaning all her weight over the knife. I yell pushing harder but not making any progress. Taking a shaking breathe I let go of the knife leaning my head out of the way. As the knife hits the floor I slam my elbow into the side of Julia’s face knocking her off me. 

Rolling over I grab the knife from over my shirt lunging forward as I wrap my arms around Julia’s stomach trying to push her to the ground. Julia catches herself before she falls kicking me in the stomach. 

“ Why are you so strong for an old lady,” I groan. 

“ That’s no way to treat your elder,” She says sternly, kicking me in the stomach again. 

“ Fuck you,” I say as I grip the knife harder pushing it into the center of her back aiming for her spin. She gasps, falling to the floor. I catch myself before I fall, getting on top of her. 

I lift the knife over my head. “ This is for Ace, and Cody.” 

And with that I ram the knife into her heart. Her eyes widen before the life quickly drains from her eyes. Breathing heavily I step back dropping the knife to the floor. 

“Vee,” Skylar cries, pulling me into a hug. 

 I hesitate before pulling her closer burying my head into her shoulder. 

“We need to get Josie to a hospital,” Skylar says, pulling away. 

I look over at Josie who has her hand over her stomach trying to stop the bleeding. I nod quickly as Skylar and I grab Josie throwing her arms over our shoulders. As we get to the bottom of the stairs I let go of Josie unlocking the front door quickly throwing her arm back over my shoulder. 

Running of to Corey’s truck I open the backseat door laying Josie in the backseat as I jump into the drivers as Skylar sets in the back caring for Josie. 

“ What are we going to tell the cops?” Skylar asks. 

Whipping away more of Corey’s blood I start the car. 

“We’ll tell them the truth,” I say. 

“You think they’ll believe us?” Josie asks. 

“ They should,” I say. 

Putting the car in drive I pull out of the yard driving away from the house. That’s probably the last family game night I’ll ever do.