Run

I wake up with a start in the

passenger seat of the silver BMW that Malory is driving as I don’t have my

license yet. My best friend, Malory laughs and jumps out of the car, blonde

curls swinging in a high ponytail.

“Come on sleepy! This will be

fun.” She calls to me as she goes around to the trunk of the car and leans against

it, slurping from an old coca-cola can. I grunt and mutter about how I’m still

tired and the house can wait for a little longer as I get out of the car half

asleep.

We’ve been driving for 3

hours to get to this stupid haunted house thing. I hate people trying to scare

me. I don’t believe in ghosts, zombies, monsters, or anything that has been

proved to be fake by science. As Malory’s best friend I have to do stupid

things that make her happy. It was a messy divorce with custody battles over Malory

and her two little brothers, Jacob and Liam. Her mother was caught having an

affair with Malory’s uncle, but her father likes a drink, won’t

be able to look after the children.

We walk up to the door, scan

our tickets under the barcode scanner, and walk in. The door slams behind us.

Malory jumps but I just roll my eyes.

“Where should we go first?” I

ask facing Malory, who’s smiling at me, teal braces shining at me.

“Thanks for coming O. I know

you hate these places, but it means a lot to me. Hashtag tough times” Malory smirks

but I can see the pain searing through her eyes. Humour is her coping

mechanism.

“No, bother but pick a room

already so that we can get out of here and go and get Ices.” We walk into the

room to the left, but we’ve greeted another hall. The door slams closed again

but it's very loud this time, an echoing noise filling my ears.

Then…

“Olivia! Help! Help!” a

scream jars my ears.

I spin around to face where

Malory was, but she’s gone. Her footprints still in the dust. What the hell?!

“Mal?” I shout looking around

slowly.

Then lights go out.

“MALORY!” I shout frantically

now. I don’t like dark particularly. I hate the dark.

I sit in the dark for what

feels like hours a long time, waiting for the lights to go on.

Then, lights flicker on and

off. They snatch at my eyes.  I look around for my best friend or a trace

of her.

“MALORY! WHERE ARE YOU?!” I stand up and scream until my throat feels raw and my tough is sandpaper.

 Nothing.

I take a step and then hear paper

scraping along the ground in none existent wind. I look at the ground and

there’s a little piece of paper, so I pick it up and unfold it.

It only said one word.

RUN

What a vague word! Which way

do I run?

 Left? right? Turn

around and go back the way I came? Forward?

In movies, everyone runs forward,

but they know what danger is coming their way. I could be running towards my

danger.

I decide.

I turn to the door the

farthest away from me, to the right. I then see it.

Diamonds.

Beautiful, sparkling in all their glory.

That’s not what I need. I need a way out.

I need Malory

I spin round, out the door,

and run through the door opposite the one I was just in.

Skulls.

Grey, crumbling skulls.

         Littering the ground like old Halloween decorations on November 1^st.

But there was this one skull.

Sitting at the front.

White and not crumbling at

all. Fresh.

But on the teeth of this

white, new skull.

Teal braces.

         “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” I repeat over and over as tears stream down my face.

A scream echo through the halls and I jump up from the hard, cold floor where I crumpled down onto.

“I’M COMING!” I yell as I sprint down the corridor, towards the scream.

Towards the monster.

 Lights still flickering more quickly now.

I come to a huge concrete door. I take a couple of steps back and then run at it.

It swings open

This is too easy I don’t stop to think.

         I run into the car park and find Malory’s car.

A huge, deep scar is set into the driver’s side.

         The tires are slashed

I grab my phone out of the glove compartment and dial 911.

         “911, what is your emergency?”

“Someone has just killed my friend! Help me, help me.” I splutter down the phone.

“Ok calm down a moment,” The responder panics down the phone “Where are you?”

“Old Manon’s Haunted House.” I read off the ticket that was stuffed in my back pocket of my now ripped dirty jeans.

“That haunted house hasn’t been open in 4 years. What you are doing there?”

“Get the bloody cops here and I’ll tell ya.” I half growl half scream down the phone.

“They’ll be there as soon as possible. Stay where you are!”

I throw the phone out of the car window and lock the doors.

         I tuck my legs up in the chair and count how long it takes cops to get here.

789 seconds.

An officer knocks against the car window as another on stands behind him. I turn and see four men stalk into the house “Miss? Please step out of the vehicle so we can help”

I burst out crying again, unlock the doors, and step out.

The police go to help me but freeze.

“What?” I ask

“What is your name ma’am”

“Olivia Duncan. My friend Malory Kent is in that building.” I point accusing the building.

The officers look at each other as if I was crazy.

The second cop clears his throat and lays his hand on my shoulder. “Sit down here.”

         He sits me down on an ambulance that came too.

 I’ve stopped crying

A paramedic starts fussing around me but I fan her off and ask the officers what’s wrong.

         “Olivia Duncan died in this Haunted house 4 years ago. That’s why it's closed. A drugged gang leader shot her as she walked in on his questioning a suspect.”

         I slip off the ambulance, onto my knees.

Immediately, the two officers and paramedic drop down beside me.

         “I’m Olivia Duncan. I'm not dead.”

“Not miss. You’re Malory Kent. She went missing 10 years ago.” The cop looks at his partner.

         “No, I'm not. I'm OLIVIA!” I scream, slapping the cop’s arm.

“You look exactly as how the sketch artist predicted you to look four years later. You have to be Malory.”

I shake my head but then jump up quickly.

“Jacob and Liam?!” I shout ask.

“They are living with Olivia’s mother. Your mother left the country without them and your father is in prison for public intoxication.”

“I'm not Malory.”

“Well then where is she?”

I couldn’t answer but I looked up as the officers who had walked into the house came out with nothing.

No skulls

No diamonds

         Am I crazy?

Yes

Or is everyone else?

The End