1975

Introduction: This collection of short stories was inspired by a horror movie that I saw when I was younger called Trilogy of Terror. The film followed three different stories with three different characters. I thought the movie was good and made me appreciate horror movies even more. My second inspiration for this collection was the Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark book, which is also what I read when I was younger. I enjoyed the fright that the stories brought in very little time. I enjoy horror movies and the horror genre in general, therefore, I was inspired by the genre.

The central plot of this story is that three high school students are being haunted by something that they did in the past. The three have very little in common and the events that happen that night somehow connect them. Another film that inspired this story is Breakfast Club because I think that unexpected friends make the story even more interesting. The stories connect with each other, but it follows each character’s plot and stream of consciousness.

1975

Davis

“This just in, novelist Heather Middleton has died on this tragic day of October 31st, 1982. Sources are saying it was a freak accident while others are speculating it was suicide. Either way, we will all mourn this tragic death. Middleton was known for writing horror novels such as, “In the Dark”, and “Whispers...”That’s all Davis hears before the TV starts to trail off.

The news wakes him from his sleep, he was sitting up in his recliner as the half-empty Whiskey bottle glides out of his hand and onto the floor. The boom of the bottle didn’t even make him lose the attention of the TV, his eyes were glued. BBBRiNnGG! The ring from the phone doesn’t even phase Davis as his gaze and the TV is now becoming intimate.

BBBrINg! The last bell of the day goes off, symbolizing the end of the day.

“Shit, I’m gonna be late for practice,” Davis says out loud as he hurriedly puts his books in his locker.

“Why it’s not like you do much anyway benchwarmer,” a voice says in almost a whisper in Davis’s ear. Davis quickly turns around in hopes of intimidating the owner of the voice, but he sees no one. All Davis sees is students rushing out of the school like wild animals getting ready to start their weekends, “Whatever,” Davis says to himself as he takes his anger out on his locker by slamming it.

“Yo, Dave, are you going to the party tonight still??” A random student asks.

“Yea, sure,” Davis rushes to respond.

As Davis makes his way to the football field, he sees Heather Middleton in the lab room manipulating something in a tube. For a second it was as if Davis saw a white figure appear behind Heather with eyes piercing into his soul. Davis blinks and she suddenly disappears, he nodded it off. “Freak,” Davis says as he continues to sprint to the football field.

“Davis, you’re late again,” Coach Baker says as Davis hurriedly joins him on the sidelines and rushes to get his helmet on.

“I know coach, I know, just tell me what we’re doing and I’ll make up for it,” Davis responds. Coach Baker looks at him with disappointment gleaming in his eyes and arms crossed.

“You said that last time,” Coach says after a minute of silence, “No more making up, instead after practice you’re going to be helping the janitors clean the school,” Baker aggressively says.

“Coach, come one, I got stuff to do this weekend,” Davis pleads.

“Well Davis the “stuff” you got can wait, you need to learn about punctuality…” Coach Baker starts to trail off as he gives the team the next drill, “.. come on, you already have a lot of catching up to do,” Coach Baker yells to Davis as he’s making his way to the field while Davis follows him like a lost puppy.

Nighttime fell quickly on Davis as he was approaching the janitor that he was helping. An older man had miserable glued on his face with a bucket of water and mop in his hands.

“What ya here so late for?” the janitor asked Davis as he put the bucket down and started mopping the stained floor.

“I was late for football practice, guess my coach thought it was the last straw and had me stay late and help you as a punishment,” Davis says nonchalantly as if the facade of being a football player was still on full mode even after hours. The janitor scuffed and gave Davis a roll of paper towels and disinfectant spray.

“Here, wipe down the windows...I guess. I never had help before, this is usually my time away from you crazy kids,” the janitor said wryly while slipping on his headphones, “Punishment. Huh. If being a janitor is considered a punishment, what does that say about me?” The janitor quickly rants. Davis shrugs as if he was actually listening to the janitor and walks away quickly before the janitor vents some more.

Davis starts on the windows upstairs so that he can be as far away from the janitor as possible. Davis starts to wipe the window and sees a bright light in the background, it almost looks like headlights. He wipes the window again and it goes away. He ignores it and gets back to cleaning.

After Davis was done with the cleaning he scurried out of the school to the party. As Davis was running, Janice Smith clashes with him, making both falls swiftly to the ground. “Shit, I’m sorry Jenny, “Davis says as he picks himself back up.

“It’s Janice,” she responds with an eye roll, “What are you doing here so late?” She questions as Davis gives up his hand to help her.

“I was late one too many times, why are you here so late?” Davis asks Janice as he pulls her up forcing Janice to face him.

“That’s none of your business,” Janice replies. The lights then started flickering and for an instance, Davis swore he saw someone behind Janice.

“What was that?” Davis asks as he softly pushes Janice out of the way.

“Calm down it was just the lights, this place is like thousands of years old,” Janice says with an attitude, “I’m shocked you aren’t at the party right now,” she continues.

“I was actually on the way, you want a ride,” Davis shakes off what he just saw and his attention goes back to Janice. Janice glances back to the hallway that she just ventured from questioning what her next move should be.

“Sure,” she finally answers, and both start for Davis’s car. It was a crisp October night, the perfect Halloween night. Davis somewhat enjoyed riding in a car with a cheerleader. Even though Davis is a football player, he gets no attention. Not on the field or off it. Davis quickly approached Dalton’s bridge.

“What are you doing, we can’t go on this bridge. It’s abandoned, remember. We can get in trouble for trespassing,” Janice says as the fear interrupts the comfort of the ride.

“Yea. Sure. Whatever. Look it will only take us about 10 seconds and we’ll be off it. This is just a shortcut to the party. We’re already late,” Davis says trying to reason with Janice. Janice stands down and agrees to let Davis does what he needs to do.

As the pair were enjoying the silent ride the loudest thumps go under the car and the wheel. The silence is still present. Janice and Davis both step out of the car.

“What do we do?” Janice asks as her attention to the dead body is locked with tears dancing in her eyes. A figure appears at the end of the road staring them down. “Shit who is that?!” Janice panics which makes Davis’s eyes jolt from the body to the figure.

“Hey, Hey,” Davis yells at the figure as he walks towards it, “Leave you didn’t see anything,” he continues but there was no response, just silence, “Hey, did you hear-” just then the figure swiftly leaves. “Freak” Davis says and then it was as if a light bulb went off in his brain, “Janice, I think we have an alibi.”

“The freak accident was carbon monoxide poisoning, Ms. Middleton was believed to have locked herself in a car with the pipe...,” the woman's voice starts to trail off as he suddenly becomes lost in his thoughts. Davis starts rubbing his hand through his blonde clump of hair and starts pacing like a maniac. “You know this is your fault benchwarmer,” This startles Davis and sends him into panic mode, he begins investigating and looking for the face that made that sound. Just then Davis looks at the TV and sees the newswoman staring at him with those piercing eyes, they were red and cat-like. “This your fault, this is your vault..” she continues to say as her voice gets lower and lower, closer and closer. Davis closes his eyes, “Stop!” is all he could manage. Just then, the TV went off, and Davis walks towards the remote clicking multiple buttons.

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT,” The woman appears behind Davis floating with the deepest voice he ever heard and her eyes redder than he ever sees. Davis jumps back and screams and at that moment Davis’s wife enters with their son with a bag full of candy. The figure exits.

“Daddy, you should’ve come trick or treating with me and mommy it was fun” Davis’s son enthusiastically runs to his father. Davis had shock written on his face with a hint of fear as he tried to make eye contact with his wife.

“What?” she asks. Davis gestures towards the TV and she sees the headline of the story plastered on the TV scene and soon mimics her husband’s expression.

“What do we do,” a moment of silence fills the room, “Janice… what do we do?”

Janice

Janice looks at her husband's piercing eyes and sees fright gleaming out of them, she even sees a sprinkle of drunk in the redness of them.

“I..um..I…” Janice starts to panic and fidget. Janice has never been in this type of situation before, she usually has a plan. A plan of attack. A cover-up. An alibi

SCREECH. Davis drives away quickly hoping that no one drives down that path and sees what he has done.

“Where are we going and why are you driving so fast!” Janice says as she is gripping on to the handle above her head for dear life, “what is this alibi you were talking about?” Adrenaline is pouring through Janice as if she has just nailed a somersault.

“Heather Middleton, you know where she lives?” Davis asks Janice while keeping his eyes on the road his knuckles are red from gripping the steering wheel so tight.

“Why would I know where that freak lives?” Janice says as she starts to ease off a little. “10:37” Janice hears a whisper and quickly glances over her shoulder at the back seat..nothing was there. “10:37,” she hears this again, this time coming in front of them. Janice looks at Davis to see if he is reacting the same way, but only sees his wide eyes on the road. “10:37’. The radio that’s where the voice is coming from and Janice fixes her gaze upon it. “10:37! 10:37! 10:37!” The voice gets loud and Janice jumps out of fear.

“Turn it off!!!” She screams as she covers her ears and breaks Davis out of his focus, “Turn it off!” the voice continues to linger in Janice’s ears

“Turn what off,” Davis says with a concerned tone.

“The radio. Turn off the radio,” Janice says this time with tears streaming down her eyes, ruining her face makeup for the party.

“Janice, the radio isn’t even on,” Davis responds, which makes Janice remove her hands from her face and stare at the radio as if it was going somewhere. Janice glances at the clock on the radio and the time 9:45 p.m is staring back at her, ‘Is that real-time?” she asks and Davis responds with a nod. Davis sees the fear and pulls over for Janice’s sake.

“Janice… why were you after school so late ?” Davis asked, concerned, changing the topic.

Janice huffs afraid of what Davis might think of her if she answers this question truthfully.

“Huh.. it’s..I was,” Janice stumbles then composes herself. “I was in charge of the Halloween prank this year,” this makes Davis scuff and turn his head to look out the window and look like the full moon dances in the black night where the stars glisten. The Halloween prank happens every year and one poor victim always gets the back end of the prank. The tradition stopped before Janice and Davis started high school because of the death of a student. “I had to Davis, I am the only girl on the team that hasn’t had the best stunts, I've never been a flyer, and I’ve never dated a jock. I’m always overshadowed by Rebecca, this was the only way to get something out of my senior year,” Janice pleads for Davis’s sympathy, but cannot get the reaction she wants making her pleas go into anger, “Screw you, I thought that out of all people you would understand,” Davis squints his eyes in confusion, “C’mon Davis, I’m out on the field practicing my cheers and I always see you on the bench. During practice they barely even let you look at the plays,” Janice says and this gets under Davis’s skin, “you know I can tell the cops right now that you hit someone and drove away,” Janice continues, “I can-”

“And I can tell them the reason why you were at school so late,” Davis interrupts and a look of concern swipes across Janice’s face. “You know that prank is banned, so, you know the consequences,” Davis says as Janice’s silence grows louder. “Now it looks like we both need each other,” Davis said sinfully. Janice diminishes and for the first time in her life, she realizes how truly weak she was. She was weak when she didn’t fight hard enough for the captain position, she was weak when she let Rebecca date the boy she likes, and she was weak when she let her dad continuously hit her mom. Davis retracts his slyness and asks Janice a big question, “Who was the sorry victim this year?” Davis asks as the key starts the car.

Janice looks at him as if he already knew the answer to that question, hoping that he gets the hint so that she doesn’t have to say it out loud.

“Based on our autopsy reports, it seems as if Ms. Middleton died at approximately 10:37 p.m” The lady on the TV continues to clarify. Janice wishes she would shut up and go away, she wishes everyone would just shut up and go away.

“What do we do?” Davis asks while he paces back and forth as if the pacing is the answer. Davis continues when he realizes that his wife was not responding, “Well do you think this was on purpose or do you think it was.. You know.. That thing,” Davis stops pacing when he says this but continues after a short while. This gets his wife’s attention.

“Don’t say that,” Janice snaps, making her hazel green eyes lock with her husband’s drunken eyes, “You know that that wasn’t our fault and..” Just then as she was talking she saw a figure appear behind her husband’s pacing. Davis went left, she saw it, he went right it disappeared. Left it appears. Right it disappears. Left.Right.Left.right. With each pace, the figure’s face gets revealed anymore, but the eyes continue to look into Janice’s soul. Janice is frozen which makes Davis stop and fix his attention on what caught Janice’s attention. Davis turns around and there is nothing. Janice is still frozen and the only thing that is moving is her eyes which darts to her husband and back to the spot which is a signal for Davis to check out the spot. Davis agrees and makes his way toward the spot, but there was nothing there. Nothing but wet footprints.

Heather

Heather finally takes a break from writing her next novel. Obviously, it’s horror and she liked that. “Horror is just the one genre when everything is unpredictable,” she once said in a TV interview. Heather walks around her house where the Halloween decorations vividly dance in the night. A knock at the door snaps her out of her trans of admiration for the decorations on her favorite holiday. She grabs the bowl of candy and looks down at the assortment of Blowpops and Pop Rocks as she opens the door and sees..nothing. No kids. Nobody. Her eyes become even bigger behind her glasses and she walks away closing the door behind her. A millisecond later the knock happened again this time slower. Knock Knock. Knock. Knock.

Knock. Knock. The knuckles of the school librarian hit the desk which gets Heather’s attention.

“Sweetie, the last bell rings which means-”

“Which means the school library is closed,” Heather interrupts with confidence because she has heard this for the sixth time this week, “Kind of figured. Where has the time gone?: Heather asked the librarian only to get an uninterested shrug. Heather packs up her belongings and starts for the doors. Before leaving the library, she slips on her bulky headphones and takes a deep breath, and starts to embrace the hallway. The headphones are Christmas gifts, Heather never questioned where her parents got the money for them. But, she has a feeling it has something to do with her mom going out at night in skimpy clothes and her father coming home with wads of cash.

Heather's plan before walking in the hallways is to walk as fast as her dirty white Reebok’s can take her. 1.2.3 and she’s off! The hallways weren’t too crowded seeing as if the majority of the animals left the jungle already getting ready for the Halloween party at some jock's house. Heather wasn’t interested in that, in fact, Heather has agreed to stay after school to finish her science project, which is supposed to be a group project, but for the third time, this year has all fallen on her.

Heather quickly makes it to her locker without too many encounters from her bullies, just the casual “loser” “freak” nerd”, nothing too detrimental. Heather gets the locker open and a note falls out. She gets notes all the time, mostly mean, so she didn’t think too much about it. Heather unfolds the piece of paper and sees the words DON’T DO IT in a red creepy letter, the edges of the paper are wet. Her eyes bulge. Just then, Heather’s locker neighbor comes and he’s just as eager to get out of the school as the other wild animals.

“Haha, very funny Jim, “ Heather starts making Jim snap his head to face her, “you know these notes are starting to get old,” Heather accuses Jim.

“Notes?” Jim questioned while putting on his jacket to prepare for the Fall air, “What are you talking about?” Jim says while zipping and putting on his backpack.

“Don’t do it.. How scary” Heather says in a mocking gesture.

“Seriously, what note are you talking about?” Jim says in a borderline agitated one.

“The note in my hand,” Heather says with confidence.

“I don’t see a note,” Jim proclaims. Heather laughs at Jim’s stupidity and looks down at her hand, but, to her surprise, the note was gone. Heather glances at Jim and quickly looks on the floor and in her locker hoping that the note was in those places, no luck.

“Weirdo,” Jim says walking away from Heather who still has a distraught look on her face. As Heather watches Jim leave, she feels something in her hand...it’s the notes. Heather rips up the notes in anger and opens her locker to get her science book just for a sea of similar notes to crash into her. DON’T DO IT! DON’T DO IT! Heather slams into the floor as the notes engulf her leaving her to break out in a scream. Some of Heather’s tormentors watch as she struggles and she faces them only to see smiles and hear snickers. Heather looks up and, just like the first note, there is nothing. The snickers continue which makes Heather quickly grab her book and she practically runs to the science lab.

The lab is cold which is the way that Heather likes it because it reminds her of the solace that she likes. She grabs the tubes and chemicals that are needed to finish the project and she starts to get to work. As Heather is working she can feel the stare from the guy at the door’s window, she doesn’t care. As far as Heather can tell, she’s graduating in a few months and she never has to see these people again, so why should she care what they think of her at this point. She dealt with the stares and snickers for three years, what's another couple of months.

“Freak”, Heather hears as the guy in the window walks away. It was definitely Davis, Heather thinks as she continues to work on her project. She recognized his voice the most because of the number of times she heard that word come from his mouth, but why was he looking at her for so long? Davis never looked at her for that long. Heather sharply turns around, but all she saw was water dripping from the sink and she got back to her project. She begins tapping her knuckles on the desk, making a beat, she often does this to calm her anxiety. Knock, Knock, Knock, it’s so soothing to Heather

Knock! Knock! Knock! The knocks are starting to imitate more of a boom sound. Heather drops the candy to the floor and backs further away from the door. Out of panic, she goes for the landline, click click click, she reaches an operator.

“Operator how may I help you?” The voice replies in a robotic manner.

“Yes, my name is Heather Middleton, I need the police, there is someone--” Heather hears a click which stops her pleas immediately. A plea is now heard on the other line, a plea that Heather is familiar with.

“Help me, someone help me, I can’t swim,” Heather hears making a tear roll down her face. The knocks stop and the lights go off and the source of those pleas is now face-to-face with Heather when the lights flicker back on.

October 31st, 1975

Heather is shocked when Janice and Davis are at her front door, it’s a good thing both of her parents were at “work” or else they would’ve hounded her. Of course, the hounding would be for show because any other day they could care less about Heather. She glances at the Chevrolet Impala that has a dent in it then back at her unexpected guests.

“Can I help you? You’re blocking our door for trick or treaters” Heather says, shaking the bowl of candy so that Davis and Janice can get the hint. They look at each other hoping that one of them will muster up the courage to talk to the girl that they torment the most.

“We need your help,” Davis says fiddling with his sleeves, “Can we come in?” Davis asks, feeling as if he already knows the answer.

“Well one, why should I help you? And two, if it has something to do with that dent in that car it’s a no for me,” Heather responds, she never spoke up for herself before and the adrenaline was coursing through her body. To add the finish touches Heather was about to close the door right on their faces.

“Wait,” Janice catches the door mid slam making Heather’s adrenaline die off, “We can make it stop Heather,” Heather looks at them with confusion, “The bullying, the torment, we can make it stop,” Janice finishes, hoping that Heather will take the offer. Heather thinks for a second, it would be nice to finish her senior year in peace.

“How? You’re a benchwarmer and I barely even see you when the cheer team performs, what kind of power do you two have ?,” Heather says. Heather realizes that that was blunt and mean, but that was how they talked to her so she felt good giving them a taste of their own medicine. Heather wanted it to sting and she was even more confident since she was at the front steps of her own house. Janice and Davis look at each other knowing that what Heather said was a good point.

“Easy,” Davis begins, “Me and Janice are good friends of the ‘alphas’ at school, so we can just talk to them and tell them that maybe we should stop tormenting you,” Davis finishes hoping that Heather will believe him while Janice looks at Davis impressed. Heather doesn’t believe him fully, but there is a 50/50 chance that that can happen and she had to take those odds because this offer will probably never happen again. Heather opens the door widely and lets them both in.

Heather’s house was nothing special, just quite ordinary. Of course, there were family pictures that reminded her of how fake the world was. She leads Heather and Davis to her room which was riddled with Stephen King’s book posters. Heather gestured for them to sit and she pulls up a chair herself.

“Start talking, I’m listening,” Heather says making her feel good that she has the power now. Janice looks at Davis and signals him to talk causing Davis to furrow his brows.

“Well, you’re the one who did it,” Janice says justifying herself.

“Okay, Well Janice and I stayed after school late and you know the big Halloween party is tonight,” Davis says, “and we were already so late so I just went speeding on Dalton bridge,” this makes Heather look up.

“But Dalton bridge that’s-” Heather starts

“Yea, I know it’s supposedly abandoned or whatever,” Davis interrupts, “ so we get to the middle of the bridge...and..we..sort of.. Hit someone” Davis finishes nervously. Heather was afraid that he was gonna say that.

“He hit someone,” Janice says, “He hit someone but somehow we both need an alibi,” Janice says.

“Alibi?” Heather questions

“Yea, it’s just that we came here hoping that you can say that we were with you the whole night working on a project or something,” Janice pleas helplessly, “We can’t get in trouble, especially not in our senior year we have so much-” Just then Heather has a realization

“Why were you after school so late,” Heather looks at Davis signaling him to answer the question first.

“I was late for practice today and the coach thought it would be a good idea for me to chill with the janitors,” Davis says Heather believes him because she saw him running late to practice earlier today. Then she looks at Janice to answer the question, Janice freezes and there is silence.

“I..well….I,” Janice starts and Heather impatience grows, “I was in charge of the Halloween prank this year,” Janice finally confesses. Heather knew the Halloween prank was banned years ago after the death of a student her name was Michelle.

Some jocks and cheerleaders put a note in Michelle’s locker inviting her to the Halloween party, that year it was in a lake house. Michelle went to the lakehouse happy that she was finally accepted by her peers. She found another note on the doc telling her that in order to get to the house on the other side she needs to skinny dip and swim there, so, ignoring the fact that these people used to torment Michelle, she does as the note says. When she reaches the middle of the lake she sees people taking her clothes and running off. She started to swim towards them and started yelling, “Stop”, “Stop those are my clothes.” Michelle wasn’t the strongest swimmer, so her turning around made her lose her strength and she panicked. “Help!” “Help” “Help I can’t-” “Help I can’t swim!” “I can’t swim!” All that she sees before going under are the headlights slowly leaving with the people who took her clothes. Her death was ruled as drowning and none of the kids got in trouble.

“Janice, who was the prank for this year ?,” Heather asks knowing the answer. Janice looks at her then turns away, “Janice!” Heather screams

“You!” Janice exclaims out of fear, “You were,” Janice admits even more causing Heather to lower her head as tears well up. Davis lowers his head too even though he already knew the answer to that question. “But, I can stop it, you can just help us out with this and I promise I will call it off,” Janice says, making Heather hear the sincerity in her voice. That’s the type of sincerity that Heather’s father has after apologizing to her mother for the fifth time that week and her mother always takes him back. I guess the women in her family have a soft spot for that type of sincerity.

“Okay, what do you need?” Heather asks, making Janice and Heather look at each other in shock that Heather agreed.

“The car, I can’t take that car back home looking like that. My parents will flp and-” Davis says in a rush.

“ I got that covered,” Heather quickly says, snapping Davis out of his stress.

“What are you a mechanic?” Davis says jokingly

“My uncle is a mechanic, I can get him over in like 20 minutes until then we need to push the car into my garage and hide it,” Heather says while walking towards the door and putting her hair in a tight ponytail as if she has done this before.

“What if your parents come home,” Janice asks

“They’re not gonna be here for a while,” Heather says, hoping that her two guests don’t question why and are relieved when they don’t and follow her out of the door.

“The car is so busted,” Heather says, making an obvious statement as all three stare at it as if it is their first time seeing it like this.

“Okay, open the front doors and start pushing towards the garage, Davis you get the back,” Heather directs, making Janice and Davis her assistants.

“So.. Heather, how's your little science project going,” Davis asks, breaking the silence even though the heavy breathing from the three of them was already doing that.

“How’d you know she is working on a project,” Janice asks through clenched teeth from pushing.

“I saw her in the science room,” Davis responds with cockiness

“Yea, he also called me a freak when he saw me,” Heather says, making Davis cockiness die down, Heather rolls her eyes and answers his question, “It’s going great except you can’t mess up the carbon dioxide mixing,” Heather says changing topics.

“Why not?” Davis says

“Cause if there isn’t enough oxygen in the mixture then you can created carbon monoxide,” Heather states

“Yea and that shit can poison and kill you” Janice finishes looking at Heather for approval and Heather gives her it, “you would know that if you weren’t sleeping all the time,” Janice says to Davis making Heather laugh which makes Janice laugh with her.

October 31st, 1982

“I ToOOOlllDddd yOOooo nOtTT tOoOOOo Dooo Ittt '' the haunting figure eerily say to Heather who was still frozen to the phone, “WWhhhYyyY DiiidddDD YoooUuuu HellLppp ThhEeMmm,” . The figure places her hand on the phone and hangs it up for Heather leaving the wet handprints on Heather. Heather snaps out of it and breaks out in a sprint. She grabs her car keys and heads towards the garage while the woman just watches her with no desire to chase her. Heather reaches the garage and a small screen of water is covering the floor, she ignores it and reaches her car and opens the door.

The key goes in the engine and Heather starts to open the garage door, but it isn’t working. She tries again. And again. And again. Heather breaths heavily and before she knows it, the woman is sitting right beside her with a blank face. Heather screams and tries to open her door, but, just like the garage door, there is no luck. The car engine is still going and Heather tries to take the key out, but it won’t budge. Heather looks at the figure that still has a blank face.

“What are you doing?!! You can kill me!! The engine is still on. I can die from..from..” Heather recalls the conversation she had years ago with Janice while pushing the car. At that moment, the figure finally looks at Heather, and big, sharp teeth, smile is written across her face, and water punctures her mouth and she turns back around with a blank face.

Heather starts to feel dizzy and her stomach is doing cartwheels. She looks towards the figure one last time hoping that she will listen.

“Stop it, please..Please..” Her pleas are useless, “Michelle,” the figure turns back around, but this time her face resembles Michelle before death, the Michelle that was tormented for being at the top of her class, the pretty Michelle, the innocent Michelle.

“Don’t worry Heather, I’ll pick up our two guests, they’ll be so happy to join us,” Michelle said in an innocent voice as she watches Heather close her eyes and take her last breath.

“There’s nothing here Janice,” Davis says once again.

“Check upstairs, I swear there was someone right there,” Janice asks again in a panic state.

“Janice it’s in your head okay, it’s just guilt. Okay. We hit a woman remember,” Davis whispers that last part so that their son doesn’t overhear them.

“Yes we hit a woman” Janice repeats with a satanic tone, “We hit a woman and hid the evidence. We hid the evidence. Heather helped us hide the evidence. She helped us and we betrayed her. I still did the prank. I still did the prank and got off the hook. I did the prank and now she’s dead. And now she’s gonna come after us,” Janice says, making her husband confused and worried. “Don’t act like you don’t see her, she’s everywhere. The wet footprints. Look!” Janice gestures to the spot where the wet footprint is available, “You told me that you saw a lady behind Heather when she was in the science room right?” Janice questions her husband.

“Yea, but that was a reflection. It wasn’t real” He responds trying to not scare himself.

“How about the time after school, where we first met,” Janice says bringing up another good point making her husband freeze, “Didn’t you see something behind me?” Just when Davis is about to respond to his wife the lights flick off and when they come back on, Michelle is in the middle of the couple holding Heather’s hand. Janice and Davis scream while the lights go from flicker to strobe.

“No, no, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Janice yells as Heather’s ghostly body slowly starts moving toward her while Michelle starts moving towards Davis.

“Stop, Stop, we have a son, our son-” Davis says but is interrupted when Michelle’s hand gets placed on his shoulder and the four of them disappear. The lights are steady now and small footsteps are heard.

“Mommy, I’m ready for my bedtime story,” Janice and Davis’s son says in his Jestson’s pajamas, “Mommy, daddy,” his searching quickly stops when he steps into a small puddle on the ground.

Davis, Janice, Michelle, and Heather all sit in silence and have a blank faces as Michelle is driving Davis’s Impala that hit that woman that night. All of them look like their younger selves, their 1975 selves. Michelle drives over the Dalton bridge and breaks the silence with an eerie question.

“You guys ready to go for a swim?”, Michelle asks in a preppy tone, making all three nod with a blank look still on their faces.

THE END