A Stomach for Pages

Emily scribbles aggressively, marking up the lined dollar store notepad. The sound of her mortifyingly dry felt tip pen sends shivers down my spine. To retaliate I begin tap, tap, tapping my pen to the most irritating rhythm I could. Not a word comes to mind as Emily speeds away at her cahier practically lighting the pages on fire.

“Emily can you please use another pen,” I say on the edge of losing my temper. Her big manic eyes look up at me as she reaches for her pencil case, dropping it at the sound of a crash.

“That was some loud thunder! Think we’ll get stuck here for the night?”

“You? No way. Me on the other hand, definitely, I haven’t written down a single word,” I reply. 

With another crash of thunder the shape of a tall and slender individual props itself up near the doorway. Jolting from her seat Emily begins scolding the shadow that reappeared in the light of the room as our classmate, Sly Alex. 

“Alex! You’re not part of the group anymore, what are you doing here?” Emily asks.

“Oh you know, just roaming around, hey, you know what a more important question would be?”

“What?” 

“Where those other two friends of yours are, what were their names again?”

“Chris and Steph! They’ve been gone for half an hour! What did you do to them?”

Sly Alex gently moves across the room, floating as Emily continues scolding him meanwhile petrified of him herself, like a small chihuahua who barks louder than it should. Several crashes and bangs have us turn our heads to the glass door. It’s Chris! Covered in coffee grinds and sweat, I get up and let him in quickly. 

“Guys you won’t believe what just happened!” Chris shouts, frantically moving towards his laptop, which like mine, lacks pages.

Rain pelts against the single window in the study room, the grumbling of thunder continues as Chris explains what happened to him.

“I was in the lounge using the kettle, Steph said she needed to use the washroom, and-and about fifteen minutes go by before someone joined me in the lounge. I thought it was Steph but it was some guy, real tall and skinny, kind of like Alex!”

“Oh I knew you did it! I knew you took Steph the moment you came in here!” Emily begins accusing Sly Alex.  

“Woah woah woah there my little golobushka, Chris said he saw the mystery man about 15 minutes after leaving this room. I have been in here for five minutes, collectively Chris and Steph have been gone for half an hour. How do you expect me to be in here entertaining you and also chasing Chris around the hallways?” Sly Alex defends himself. 

“So you just happened to be here?” Chris insinuates.

“Poor Steph, we should go back and find her!” Emily says.

“No can do little golobushka, if we split up we’ll never figure out who the killer is.”

“Killer?” asks Emily.

“C'mon golobushka, keep up! Isn’t it obvious? We’ve got a murder mystery on our hands!” Sly Alex exclaims with excitement. 

“So what do you suggest we do?” I speak up, genuinely believing Sly Alex is onto something. 

Together we agree to go back in search for Steph as well as clues as to who attacked Chris. Thunder grumbles around the building as rain hits the singular window. The lights flicker out, surrounded by darkness I feel the onset digging of Emily’s nails into my soft, tender, skin. With a quick look around, Sly Alex is now the only other person left in the room.

“Chris!” Emily shrieks.

“It’s okay. Let’s just stick to the plan and head over to the lounge,” Alex suggests.

“Are you crazy? Do you want more of us going missing? I’m calling security and going home,” Emily says. 

“I agree with Emily. This time it’s probably better if we just head home,” I say.

“Fine then, I will go investigate and find Steph while you guys abandon your friend,” Alex snarks at us. 

“Oh since when do you care, transfer kid,” Emily snarks back.

Sly Alex disappeared into the dark halls, Emily still shouting at him, yet with every minute that goes by I feel her body step closer to mine with fright. 

“Maybe we should go back?” Emily proposes.

“Why do you say that now? You’ve hated the guy since he switched to majoring in Russian,” I say.

“It’s not that I hate him, it’s just since he’s switched we never get to really see him...and then he comes out here just to play murder mystery with us!” Emily says angrily. 

We turn back for Sly Alex when a loud bang interrupts us. A tall, slender figure appears and before Emily could even let out a scream we found ourselves in the hands of the murderer. The demon pounced out, dragging us through another doorway, this one surrounded by a dim light. Upon opening my eyes I see Emily beside me passed out on the grey carpet and Sly Alex towering above me.

“What the hell are you doing Alex?” I say sitting myself up, turning to see not only Chris, but Steph as well, tied to chairs.

“I solved it!” said Sly Alex.

“Solved what?” I reply.

“The mystery! Why don’t you tell them your little scheme Chris,” Sly Alex says passing on the spotlight onto Chris.

Propped up and tied, Chris explains how he wasn’t getting any new pages, with all the built up frustration he decided to bring back the writing gang on the night of the storm. The plan was to trick everyone into leaving their materials in the room and use whatever he could to submit for his entry in the Reedsy’s writing prompt contest. Emily woke up agreeing to have Alex drive her home and the group and I settled on discussing the incident on a night where the backup generator isn't dimly working in one end of the building. Ironically enough, Chris may have gotten himself kicked out of the group, but his antics got me my submission. So thanks Chris :)