Last night, I went to sleep right after blowing out my candle beside my nightstand. I had a dream. But none like this. I was standing in front of the gymnasium at my school with my family and my best friend by my side. There were people walking past us, some with younger kids. There were screams of joy and happiness, and it was a warm day. My dad nudged me.
“Go in, Naomi.”
I smiled at my friend Vincent who tripped me up. I took him by the wrist and ran. The inside was changed, drastically. There were now booths, a glass wall separating half of the building, green and purple decor with some red, painted smiles. It was really cute. I let go of him and ran to the back of the gym and sat down. My siblings Alice, Ian, and David ran over to me. Vincent raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Y’know, you really are a kid, Naomi.” He playfully exclaimed.
He sat down beside me and ruffled my hair. I poked him in the stomach. My parents, concerned, told us to break it up. The kids had their own booth and my parents sat across from Vincent and I. I looked out the glass, and saw cosplayers. Joker, some T.V. characters, and some clowns. I loved joker as well as Vincent, I told him to look. I tried holding in my excitement, but bounced in my seat a little. A smile was planted on my face as a cosplayer looked over and waved. I waved back excitedly. There was something off, they looked a little glazed in the eyes. Alice and Ian laughed in the background and David did a poor impression of the joker. I leaned over to my parents and Vincent.
“Hey, I don’t know if it’s just me, but did the clown seem out of it?”
“Yeah, I kinda noticed that too. Probably didn’t get sleep.”
The lights shut off. I jumped.
“You guys ok?” Asked my dad.
“Yeah.”
Everyone responded except for David.
“David? David? Answer us.”
Silence answered. A few seconds later there was a distorted voice on the intercom laughing. The voice was cracking and going deep. My heart was pounding and I held onto Vincent. The lights came back on with David’s skull crushed, foam coming from his mouth and his eyes bleeding. My mom threw up. Alice and Ian were now gone.
“DAVID!!! ALICE! IAN!!”
My hands were running through my hair. I broke down. My brother, dead and mangled lay several feet before us. Vincent held me to his shoulder as I mourned over David.
“Where’s Alice and Ian?”
“Probably dead.” My dad muttered.
“NO! My babies!!”
“We have to look for them!”
“WHY?! SO WE CAN END UP LIKE THEM?! OR DAVID?!”
My mom had a disheartened look in her eyes. Her eyes became glossy.
“So, if they’re not dead, you’re just going to leave them? Coward.”
My dad let out a deep breath and crossed his arms.
“Look, what makes you think they’re still alive?! David’s dead! We called out for them! Don’t you think that if they were playing they would gi-”
Vincent interrupted and pointed to something crawling on the glass. It looked like a scorpion and a spider. It jumped onto my dad’s face. He tore at it but it had a good grip. Vincent tried reaching over and try and help fight it off. It was too late, the thing hopped off and my dad fell limp onto the table. Blood, forming a puddle around him.
“DAD!!” I wheezed.
It was getting a little hard for me to breathe. My mom shaking and whimpering, didn’t know what to do. I mean there was nothing she could do. Then something miraculous happened. I was out of my body. It was like a third person view at the time. In the bathroom, there was a close up of Alice whose head has opened up. It looked as if she was bashed against the wall. Her lifeless eyes looked up at the light. The ‘camera’ panned to the sink. Ian was there washing his eyes, until an eye peeked out from a stall and opened up. It was a little boy around the age of ten to eleven. He jumped onto Ian’s back and brought him down. Ian was struggling to fight him back, and the boy stabbed him. Ian stopped breathing with a tear rolling down his cheek.
I was brought back to first person mode while the lights were out.
“NAOMI!!”
“What?”
Vincent gripped me and hugged me. His voice was shaky.
“What were you doing?! You looked like you died!! You scared me! I thought you died.”
“I just saw the kids die. Ian was stabbed. Alice was bashed against the wall. I was out of my body! I SAW THEM DIE VINCENT!!”
He slapped me across the face.
“CALM DOWN!”
My face burned. Calm down? Calm down? Why is he acting less scared?!
“How do you expect me to calm down when everyone’s dying?! It could be one of us next!”
He sniffled.
“I don’t know.”
The lights came back on with my mom’s mouth gaping open, as if something crawled out of her. Now the decor was ripped, bloody handprints all along the wall. Holes everywhere, the glass was cracked. It looked like an abandoned house. Vincent looked in horror as he grabbed me and pushed me and screamed to run.
“I DID IT ALL! I KILLED THEM!” He screamed.
I stopped. I turned around slowly to see him grabbing at his head and buckling down.
“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME!?”
I threw up. I felt weak.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU KILLED THEM?!”
He was crying so much he couldn’t answer me. I wanted explanations.
“Naomi. I-I’m so sorry. Please hug me. I need a hug.”
He really meant it. He was broken, and wailing for a second chance. I took a step towards him.
“V-vincent? Why?”
He had his arms wide open for an embrace. He looked down with his tears falling. He started gasping for air. I walked towards him.
“What are you doing?” I whispered to myself. “Turn around now.”
I hesitated but turned around.
“Vincent, I can’t forgive you. I don’t know why you would do that. But I know something that can make you pay for it. I can break you and make it known that you drove me to do this.”
A tear welled up. I let out a pitiful smile.
“I love you Vincent, but this is probably gonna hurt me more than it will you.”
I placed my hands on my jaw and head and snapped my own neck. I fell down and the last thing that was heard was Vincent screaming to wake up.