The party everyone remembers

University is nothing like in the movies or at least not for me. I stay confined in my dorm room if I’m not in class and the library is my escape from reality. My friends or let’s be realistic, my friend Cindy is the complete opposite. She is the life of the party at every party. She has so much life in her that I figured she could party on behalf of the both of us.

As I sat in my dorm room working on my first assignment for the semester, I could hear voices of young girls giggling and I can smell the odor of our future NFL players a mile away, I swear you never get use to that smell at all. “Let me guess, you are busy on the assignment we got today?’ Cindy walks in and says teasing me. “You know I like to be a head of things.” I say with a smile and turn in my chair to face her. “You are such a nerd. Don’t you want to be my plus one for a party tonight?” Cindy says before throwing her body onto my bed. “You know I don’t do parties. Plus, I’m sure there are a million other people who would love to go with you.” I say while turning my body back to face my desk. “I’m sure there are but I want you to come with me. It’s the first party of our senior year, I want to be there with my best friend. Please Amy?” she says while going down on her knees to beg me. I turn my chair around again only to stare into the most adorable emerald green puppy dog eyes. “Fine. I’ll go with you but this is the last time.” I say with a smile but in a stern voice as to not give away the obvious fact that her puppy dog eyes convinced me. “You said that last time.” She says laughing. “Great! I’ll come get you around 7. I can’t wait! See you later.” She says while storming out of my room with excitement. What did I just get myself into?

Its already passed 7 and Cindy isn’t here yet. I kept calling her but her phone goes straight to voice mail. And just when I was about to give up and put on my pajama’s she swings open my door and shouted out loud, “I’m here!”. “I thought you said 7? It’s already half pass 7.” I say half annoyed at her. “relax it’s only been 30mins, plus it’s a tradition to be fashionably late to a party.” She says cheerfully while cuffing my hand with her hand and leading the way.

On our way to the party the street was filled with enthusiastic party goers. The further down the road we walked the louder the music and the cluster of voices in the distance became. We arrived at a house decorated with a variety of faces and accompanied by all sorts of activities. As we walked in a guy, I’ve only seen once in my history class, grabbed Cindy and they disappeared into the wave of cups held in the air by the intoxicated youth. I was left to fend for myself in the middle of this mindless war of who can drink the most without passing out. Walking passed all these unfamiliar faces I cross a beer pong table where it seems to be a sudden death between April, the varsity cheerleader and Matt the popular football player. Sometimes I wish that my personality would allow me to participate in these pointless games but I am smart enough and experienced enough to know that the hangover the next day is not worth it.

I was done with my self-organized and executed house tour downstairs and made my way upstairs. I went into what looked like the main bedroom. I don’t think that I am suppose to be in here. But it seems to be one of the quietest rooms in the house and I feel like it should be a reward to my soul for stepping out of my comfort zone and coming to this party in the first place. I walk towards the bookshelf of the room and scan through the selection of books. The owner of this room must be a poet. Their book shelf consists mainly from poetry compilations from poets such as Shakespeare, John Keats, William Blake and even Maya Angelou. But there was one peculiar book on the shelf that didn’t have a title or the name of the author on it. My curiosity could not ignore this and compulsion took over. I tried to take the book from the shelf but it seemed to be stuck. I pulled harder until it finally budged. But then suddenly the entire book shelf started to move. Stunned, I dragged my feet backwards to make room for the book shelf to open so that I could see more clearly what is behind it.

Waiting for some mysterious tunnel to appear I was rather confused to see that it was just a locked steal door. I stared at the door for a moment before realizing that someone or something was scratching on the other side. I leaned in a little closer to hear and the scratching got even louder. The closer I got the more it sounded like the scratching was accompanied by what seemed like weeping sounds. It sounded like a girl was on the other side of that door. Rattled by this I build up the courage to ask who it was. “Hello? Is there anyone there? Hello?” it was quiet for a few seconds until someone answered, “Hallo? Help me. Please help me?” said a very faint voice from the other side of the door. “hold on. I’m going to go get help. Just hold on.” I say in a panic but just before I could leave the voice from the other side stopped me. “No! please! Just let me out. Don’t leave.” The voice started to speak louder. “uhmmm, It’s locked. Where do I find the key?” I say while looking around the table for a key. “I don’t know.” The person says with an unsteady voice and starts to cry softly. “Okay okay, I’ll look for it. It should be around here somewhere.” I say while looking around the book shelf and between the books. I then went back to the table and looked under it but I didn’t find anything. I then moved my hand around the edge of the table till I felt something stuck to the right-side corner of the table. It was the key. “I found it!” I announce loudly. I turned back facing the steal door and tried to open it but my hands were shaking too much. “What do you think you’re doing?’ I was interrupted before I could unlock the door. I turned around to see that it was Matt, drunk Matt. He walks in and closes the door behind him. He can barely stand up straight yet alone walk straight. “There is someone behind this door. She needs our help. We have to let her out.” I say anxiously. “What are you talking about?” Matt says dragging his tongue and walking towards me. He comes to stand in front of me and slowly lifts his hand to tuck away a few stray strands of my hair behind my ear. “You know, you really shouldn’t be snooping around in other people’s houses like that Amy.” He says still dragging his tongue but with a more intimidating voice. I take a step back but he sees it as an opportunity to pull me back in and kiss me. “Get off of me!” I say while trying to push him away. How can someone this drunk be so strong? His grip becomes even tighter and he pushes me on to the table. “Matt, I said get off of me, you’re hurting me.” I say while trying to push him off. As his hands start to dwell up my thighs, I got a hold of a stapler and hit him over the head with it. He must be really drunk because he still didn’t let go of me. He just looked up and stared at me. It was complete silence for a split second, I was confused by his reaction. He then suddenly gets off of me and grabs me violently by my arm and dragged me towards the locked steal door. I held on to the table but he was too strong. “Why did you have to be so nosy and snoop around Amy?” he says while unlocking the door with another key he had in his pocket. “Just know that whatever happens next, you brought it on yourself.” He says while looking at me before pushing me into the darkness that consumed the other side of the door.

I screamed and banged against the door, hoping he would let me out. I then heard a screeching noise on the outside. He is closing the bookshelf. “No! No! you can’t leave me in here. Matt!” I scream at the top of my lungs. I could feel the tears collecting at the surface of my eyes. After spending a few more minutes on my hopeless attempts to get out I finally decided to rather see where I was. I turned away from the door and all I could see was darkness and way down in the distance a dim light flickering. But before I could start walking towards it, I was knocked unconscious and I fell to the ground.

As I started to regain consciousness, I couldn’t ignore the throbbing pain at the back of my head. I tried to move my hands but I was tied up and my feet were tied up to the chair I was sitting in. I tried to call out for help but my mouth was covered. I felt the cold wind blow up the dress I had on. These aren’t my clothes, I thought to myself. I was wearing a short pink dress that I am pretty sure I wasn’t wearing before. It looked like I was in a playroom. But not the all-colorful playroom you would like to be in. this room is dirty. There is one worn out bed in the left corner of the room, a torn down old doll house in the middle and a long table with shackles on them in the right. There are a few pictures on the wall, they are a little faded but I can almost make out what it is. It looks like a family photo. And it looks like Matt is in most of them. But these pictures don’t look like normal family photos. In most of them is this little girl but her face is scratched out.

I fumbled around with my hands to try and loosen up the rope but it was tightly nodded. While trying to loosen up the rope I suddenly heard someone walk in behind me. “Are you trying to leave already?” a fragile voice says but I can’t yet see who it is. The person walks around me before coming to a complete stop in front of me. It was a little girl or at least I thought it was. She had the same dress on as I did and her face was covered with a brown pillow case. “They always want to leave. It makes me really angry that you would try to leave without playing a game with me first.” The girls said in a terrifying voice while walking towards the table and picking up a syringe. I immediately go into a panic mode as she walks closer to me with the syringe. “Before we play, let me tell you a story.” She said with a little giggle that sent chills down my spine. “There was once a young woman who lived in a beautiful house with her husband and their three sons. The woman was happy and felt blessed to have such a wonderful family but at the same time she felt like she was missing something. After many nights of debating, she and her husband finally decided that the missing piece was a baby girl. But the mother, who was afraid of having a boy again convinced her husband to let her go for a surgery, that wasn’t legal yet, to make sure they have a girl. The surgery went smoothly but the day of the baby’s birth everything went wrong and the mother lost her life during birth. In tears, her husband held their daughter in his hands only to realize that she was not normal. She was disfigured. Ashamed, he ordered the nanny to take the child and raise her in the basement. The poor nanny didn’t know that she would never see daylight again.” The girl says while she stands behind me and moved my hair to the side so that my neck is exposed. “You see that baby girl was me,” She says aggressively before piercing the needle of the syringe through my neck. She then walks towards the bed and says, “And as for the nanny, she didn’t make it.” She says while lifting up the covers and suddenly a dead body was exposed. “This is my nanny, or I guess I should say my mother.” She said while stroking the grey hair of the corpse. I try to scream but my muscles suddenly begin to feel numb. I can feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness. “Don’t worry, you will feel much better when you wake up.” The girl says to me while still stroking the hair of her dead nanny.

When I finally woke up, I was on the table and I was tied up to the shackles attached to the table. I tried to move but my body was still too weak. The girl appears hanging over my head and says, “My nanny is gone but that’s why Matt brought me you. We are going to have so much fun.” She giggled. I tried to scream but she immediately covered my mouth and whispers, “I don’t like loud noises.” And she then reaches out and grabs a needle and thread. “If I take my hand away from your mouth and you try to scream again, I’m going to have to make sure that you never make a sound ever again.” She says in a threatening voice while holding up the needle. She then slowly removed my hand and I didn’t make a sound. She then injects me with the same syringe as before and I can feel the numbness travel all through my body. The only thought in my head was that I was never going to get out of here and a few seconds later I finally fell asleep.

“Have you seen Amy?” Cindy asks Matt in class. “No, why?” Matt says with a guilty look on his face. “I haven’t seen her since the party last night and she is not in her room.” Cindy says with concern. “Maybe she is somewhere hungover.” Matt says in a shaky voice. “Now be quiet, I’m trying to pay attention here.” He says while gesturing at the professor in front of the class and turns his body away from Cindy.

The next day Cindy would be plastering posters of me everywhere on campus. ‘Missing since Tuesday night.’ Was all everyone would talk about for a while until I became just another missing girl. The police questioned everyone at the party including Matt. For the next few weeks Matt didn’t take the continuous interrogating so well and the headline for next months paper would be ‘Star football player dies in house fire. Suspected suicide.’

I burned down with that house believing that Matt probably wasn’t a bad person. And that it only took one drunken tempered mistake that made him lock me up in here. It was just meant to be a night we would never forget. The party of the year.

I guess this will be a party everyone will remember. A Matt Young party gone horribly wrong.

The end

By Patricia Coetzee