‘It’ not ‘Her’

It’s dark and I can’t see where I’m going. I could smash into practically anything right now, but I have no time to be cautious. I can’t hear or smell it, and I certainly can’t see it, but I know it’s coming for me. I know it’s coming the same way you would know when you’re about to be hit from the behind. The hairs on the back of my arms are standing up in fright. As I run, I wonder how it came to this. My best friend, my partner in crime....the person I trusted most. We went through so much together, and for what? That one of us would end up killing the other? Still, I know I’m the only one to blame for what happened. If I had just been a little less blind and a little more considerate, we would still be laughing and having fun now. Everything would be fine, but it isn’t. I have to live with that now. Well, if I manage to survive this night. 

It all started with an innocent game of truth or dare. This was a around two years ago, when we had just graduated high school. We were at a party, the basic kind of ones you see on TV shows. Alcohol, drugs, dancing, etc. Tiffany, the girl hosting the party, grabbed a few people and dragged them to her room. She wanted to play Truth or Dare. “For old time’s sake!”. I didn’t mind, it may have been a little childish, but what could go wrong? Who knows, it could be interesting. If only I had known the repercussions that night would have. Claire had told me she didn’t want to join them. If I had only listened to my best friend then. 

She was always the shy and quiet type, preferring to stick to the shadows. She absolutely hated attention, but still felt really lonely. She never volunteered for anything, not even in school. She was in the book club but that was the only place she would socialize. Apart from her family and the club members, I was the only one she really trusted. I was a more extroverted person. I loved people and doing spontaneous reckless things. The only spontaneous activity I could convince Claire to do was dye her brown, medium length hair. For me, it went from crimson red to turquoise to galaxy purple. For Claire, she only got a pink streak in her hair. We both had those hairstyles the night we went to the party. 

I was the only reason we were even there at that party. A couple of our other friends were going and I had pressured her to come with us. She never went out normally, so I thought it would be a nice way for her to let loose. 

“Loosen up Claire! It’s only truth or dare! Like in middle school!” I had told her. 

“It’ll all be fine!” Little did I know...

We joined them and took our places in the circle. 

“Okay, who wants to to first?!” asked Tiffany. 

“No one?, Wow you guys are stiff.” 

She grabbed a plastic water bottle from the nightstand next to her and spun the bottle. 

At first, it was kind of nostalgic, but it got boring fast. Everyone in the circle was either too drunk or too bored to care anymore, until the bottle landed on me. Claire was never one for alcohol or drugs, so she was sober. I on the other hand, was a little bit tipsy after doing some shots before we came upstairs. 

“Kyra! Truth or dare?” Tiffany asked me. 

Suddenly everyone seemed interested. Everyone turned to look at me. 

“Um...dare?” 

“Okay, dare. Lemme think....Ooh! I dare you to-“

BANG! I just tripped on a tree branch. I think I twisted my ankle, I just have to hope it doesn’t find me. I’m going to cover myself up with leaves and hide. Hopefully it doesn’t find me. Anyways, back to the story. 

“I dare you to punch the person you care most about in this circle!” 

Everyone else got bored again and zoned out as it was a lame dare, but little did they know. This choice, no matter how stupid it sounds, would turn out to heavily impact someone. 

I wasn’t thinking very clearly, but I didn’t want to punch Claire. She had always been kind of frail. I punched the guy sitting next to me instead. He was another friend and he was built like a rock, so I knew I wouldn’t hurt him. This guy would actually turn out to be my future boyfriend, but that had nothing to do with my decision back then. Still, I was being dumb. I could’ve just punched her extra softly, but I didn’t think of that. I can’t really justify my actions, but I didn’t give it too much thought. 

We went home afterwards and I forgot all about it. My actions had much stronger effect on Claire though. 

We parted ways a few weeks afterwards as we had different interests and were therefore attending different universities. She wanted to pursue a degree in fashion and I wanted a degree in theater. She was organized and cautious and incredibly precise, which really helped her discover her passion for fashion. We once went to a art camp where there was a fashion design course. In that same camp I had realized that theater was what I wanted to do. I moved to LA while she stayed here in Michigan. Nothing much had changed between those last few weeks and the party. We just promised to stay in touch and contact each other frequently before we said our last goodbyes. Before we parted for good, we had a last little coffee morning at our favorite cafe. 

I bumped into Jake, the guy from the truth or dare circle, in the auditions for a musical. We were doing Heathers that year and he was auditioning for JD while I was auditioning for Veronica. We both got the roles and got a lot closer during the preparation for the show. A month later, we started dating. 

A month ago, I came back to our town to surprise Claire as we both had holidays at that time. I had booked a hotel nearby and Claire’s address hadn’t changed. I had invited Jake too, as he told me he was planning to visit his parents there before, but he never responded to my text so I had left without him. Claire and I had been talking less and less as time passed. At first things were fine, but when important events like the theater performances and the fashion shows approached, we barely communicated. When we did talk, she seemed distracted and quiet. I had asked her if everything was fine but she always told me nothing was wrong. After I had started dating Jake, I called her less, which was a really awful thing to do on my part. I had told her about Jake a couple times, but she had seemed oddly cold whenever I brung him up. 

When I got to Claire’s apartment, I noticed something was off. Her door was slightly open and there were small dents in her door. I immediately felt worried as Claire would never be so clumsy. I creaked open the door and stepped inside. The second I was in the apartment, a foul rotten stench attacked my nose. My eyes started tearing up as I continued walking. The stench was unbearable. This couldn’t be her apartment! If it was, something horrible must have happened to her. 

Turns out I was right about one of those statements. Something horrible had consumed her. 

I wandered around and found more unsettling elements, such as the broken furniture and the fact that there was no food in the fridge. 

I went into her bedroom and I saw five corpses strewn around her floor. Three girls that were around my age were collapsed near her bed. The corpses of a man and a woman were bursting out from inside her closet. The room itself was relatively unchanged. There was just a lot of blood splattered on her caramel colored walls and her cold wooden floors. A figure wearing a bloody school uniform sat faced towards the wall on the ben in front of me. It slowly turned around to greet me. 

“How nice of you to visit Kyra! But you should know how rude it is to barge in uninvited like this!” 

I say ‘it’ and not ‘she’ because even though that figure used to be Claire, the look in it’s eyes was utterly psychotic. The figure still had all of Claire’s features from her small stature to her long lashes, but she was much thinner than usual and her hair was wild and unkept. 

“Don’t you know it’s rude to stare? If you’re wondering about my new look, it was inspired by you!”

I was taken aback at that statement. “Inspired by me? What are you talking about? And what happened here Claire?!” I was immediately flooded with fear. “Why? Claire would never hurt anything, so why?!” 

“Oh you were always so ignorant and clueless. And as for why, take a good look at these people.” 

I looked closer. I had no clue who the three on the floor were, but I recognized the bodies in her closet. They were her parents. 

“Oh my god. Your parents? Why?! And who are the other three?” 

She then explained everything. The reason she had been so quiet when we talked was because those three girls bullied her mercilessly at her university. When she had tried to report them, the professors never believed her as they acted much nicer around them. Eventually she had enough and begged her parents to let her drop out, but to no avail. The girls kept telling her how worthless she was and how she never mattered to anyone. She told me that she hadn’t done anything reckless as she believed she still had me. That was until I stopped talking to her as much as I used to. The snapping point was when I told her about Jake. Memories of that party night had flooded back to her. 

“You know, the last happy memory I had was when we were at that cafe before college. I thought you cared, that I was important to you. But I was never important to you was I? You picked Jake back then and picked him again now! After you met Jake again you started ignoring me! It wouldn’t have mattered about that night those years ago, but now I know that I was never important to you!” She screamed at me. 

“What? I wasn’t serious back then! I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to make sure you were okay!” 

It then started giggling. The giggles turned into hysterical laughter. “Oh it’s too late now. I took Jake out of the picture too.” 

“What?” Is that why he never responded? No, she couldn’t have killed him. How did she even find him?

“Oh I killed him. Found your school online, stalked him, and then killed him in his apartment. But you don’t have to worry about that now!” 

“You....why? What good did this do for you?! Are you happy now?!” I screamed. Tears of burning hatred were streaming down my face. 

“Oh I’m almost happy. I just have to kill one more person.” 

And then she lunged at me. 

I didn’t wait a second longer. I ran like I’ve never run before. I ran out the door, down the stairs, and dashed into the forest behind her apartment complex. I fumbled with my phone while I tried to catch a breath. It was pitch black. My phone was out of battery. I heard a singsong voice in the near distance behind me. 

“Oh you can’t run now! Come on, lets hang out some more!” 

I turned and ran and didn’t look back. 

That brings me to the present. I failed as a friend and let her turn into something like this. I had no way of knowing her struggles, but surely there must have been something I could have done? My mind just keeps drifting back to that night. The night is what I blame. She said so herself, she could’ve forgiven me if she didn’t believe that I didn’t care about her since then. 

My ankle is throbbing but I know I can’t move. Suddenly, I hear the loud crunches of the leaves. Cold air seems to be hitting my legs and arms. I look up and I see it looking back at me with those empty, psychotic eyes before the world fades away.