Lavender suddenly tripped on her shoelace, knocking one of the dining chairs over and sending it to the floor with a loud bang. The three of us all froze, stopping dead in our tracks while holding our breaths, petrified that Crissa might find us. My heart pounded in my chest as anxiety flooded my veins. “Don’t move,” I mouthed to them both.
They both stared at me.
A gentle squeak caught our attention and the three of us looked down to see a lone rat. Lavender nearly screamed, crashing into Sybil as they both stumbled into me. My arms raised, barely catching them before the three of us hit the ground.
“Fuck!” Sybil groaned. “What the?—”
Lavender covered her mouth, terrified of the vermin crawling into the arcade. We both stared at her, taken aback by how scared she was. “What’s the deal?” I asked. “It’s just a rat.”
She shook her head, trembling. “No…it’s not.” Sybil and I looked at one another confused before she whispered, “Those rats…they’re—they’re her friends.”
What? Wait…does she mean?—
“They’re Crissa’s friends,” she cried. “I’ve seen them with her…I’ve seen her talking to them.” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “We need to go.Now.”
I looked back at the rat, its beady eyes staring straight at us. It was so calm, sitting still and behaving so unusually. An eerie feeling climbed up my spine and I felt sick to my stomach the longer I looked at it. “Let’s go.” I motioned to Sybil, keeping my eyes locked on the rat.
Her friends?
Lightning struck again and Lavender pointed ahead. “There.” She led the way as Sybil and I followed, the three of us weaving through the many arcade games. We stopped just at the edge of the arcade and tried to catch our breaths. “If we head straight that way, we’ll end up at the entrance that leads right into the mall. You still have the keys, right, Montey?”
My hand patted my pocket. “Yeah—fuck, no!” They both looked at me in horror. “I must’ve dropped them when we fell earlier. Stay here, I’ll go get them.” As I went to turn, Sybil grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“You can’t just leave us!” Even in the dark her eyes still burned a vibrant blue. “Thatfreakis still out there.”
Hearing her call Crissa that name always pissed me off. I hated it. I hated how she’d always treated her like shit and forced her from our friend group. It never made any sense to me or anyone else. And even still, for some fucked up reason, I never stopped her. I didn’t even try…none of us did.
I yanked my arm from her grasp. “I’ll be right back. Just try to keep your mouth shut. And stay hidden.” She raised a brow and gave me a disgusted look just as thunder boomed outside. “I’ll be back.” I turned away from her and went back in the way we came, retracing my steps, searching the floor for the keys.
It didn’t take long for me to end up back where we were, but the keys were nowhere to be found.
Where the hell are they?
A sudden squeak made me spin around to find the single rat. It was just standing there, staring at me. And sitting right next to it were the pizzeria keys. “What the—” The color drained from my face as lightning struck, illuminating a large stuffed clown behind it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The creepy-looking clown stared right at me, its large painted smile and eerie grin giving me chills. “I fucking hate this place.” My eyes fell back down to the rat and keys.
It’s like the rat knew…but…how?
Following another squeak, the rat’s ears twitched before bolting from the keys, past my legs, and running in the opposite direction. “What the hell?” It was as if someone—or something was calling it. I turned back to stare at the stuffed clown.
It’s not real…it’s not fucking real.
My entire body was on edge, tingling from how freaky it was. My heart was pounding erratically in my chest as I began to sweat.
It’s not real. Just grab the keys and get the hell out of here.
I took a deep breath and lunged, snatching the keys up. But just as I did, the stuffed clown fell, tackling me to the ground. My heart nearly gave out from how fucking terrified I was, shouting as I pushed it off of me and crawled back on my hands and knees. My body slammed into one of the arcade games, and I stared right at the mannequin, trying to catch my breath.
It’s not real! It’s not real! It’s not real!
My head began to spin as I stared at the lifeless clown, clutching my chest.
It’s not real!
“Montey?” Sybil’s voice broke my thoughts and I turned to see her and Lavender staring at me with worry. “What happened? Did you get the keys?”
I swallowed and tried to collect myself. “Yeah.” My hands waved, revealing the keys. “I got them.”
Lavender helped me to my feet as Sybil placed her hands along her hips. “Well then what the hell are you doing? Stop fucking with that mannequin and let’s go!”
