Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-30425461-20161107012851

 Hi my name is Samantha but most of my friends call me Sam. I’m going to tell a story of the one time in my life I will never get back. It all began about a year ago when  I was just graduating from River Lane High School and I was about 18 years old which meant I wasn’t doing so well academically but at least I graduated. I couldn’t find a college that would accept me because of the GPA I had graduated with which in fact was a 2.9. My parents were proud of me at that point because although my grades weren’t what they wanted to see, they were still glad to see I made it passed that point of my life. Now like I had said I couldn’t find a college that would accept me so until then I would have to work. I ended up working at a burger joint, making about minimum wage which kind of upset me. After I made about $1000 I started going to community college and I only had to pay $500 a semester which was very cheap.

I had been attending college for about two months when my friend Catherine had called me. I decided to pick it up since I was the only one in my dorm. “Hey Catherine.” I said tiredly. I had been studying since 12 a.m. and it was currently 3 a.m. She asked “Hey Samantha, I know you’re busy and all but I was wondering if you wanted to come to this party down at Michelle’s house?” I replied with “I am very busy and I have a lot of catching up to do but if there is another one, I promise to attend.” “Can you please come to this party?, it just doesn’t feel right without you here.” She asked. I answered with “Ok but don’t ask me to attend any afterwards.” “Ok see ya when you get here.” She replied cheerfully. I exited out of my dorm and towards the school parking lot. I got in my Subaru, which I had recently bought for a cheap price. But back to the story, on my way to this party, I saw a figure standing in the middle of the road. I drove slowly towards it and as I got closer, I began to see it more clearly. It looked disfigured, as if it had recently been through some shit. It looked towards my direction, pacing towards me faster and faster until it reached my car. It began to look as if it was withering away like a dead flower. This had scared the living hell out of me and I screamed and closed my eyes, when I opened them it was gone, as if it was a ghost or something. Later, down the street I disregarded it as my eyes messing with me and called Catherine “I’m almost there, Cathy.” I said tiredly. “You don’t sound so excited to party, Sam.” Catherine replied. “Well, Catherine it is about 3:30 a.m. and I was trying to get as much study in before next week’s test but it is completely fine because I know I’ll ace it.” I said sarcastically. “Really Sam, you know what you can be a real asshole sometimes.” She replied angrily. “Look, just know I’ll be there soon ok so chill out.” I said. “OK, see ya when you get here.” She said with an attitude.

About 20 minutes later, I reached Michelle’s house and I saw Catherine sitting on the steps to the front door. I got out my car and yelled “Hey Catherine!” She looked up with a smile and ran towards me. “Hey, sorry about earlier, I was just very tired and still kind of am so disregard my attitude.”  I said to Catherine. “It’s Okay, let’s just go to the back of the house.” She said cheerfully. We walked together, holding hands to the back of Michelle’s house. Back there, I saw Michelle, Derrick, Kevin and my ex-boyfriend Mike. Along with Jules and Sydney. “Hey party people!” I yelled. Everyone just looked towards my direction with a straight face. I thought I had just embarrassed myself but I didn’t. Michelle and everyone else yelled “Hey Sam!!” and ran toward me. Michelle said “It’s been so long since I last saw you, Sam.” Mike said “It really has!” I knew he was being sarcastic as that was one of the reasons I broke up with him. Derrick replied with “Shut the fuck up!” He came up to me and whispered “Don’t mind him, he still is kind of a dick.” “I know right.” I said. Me, Catherine and the crew chatted for about a good two hours until everyone but me and Derrick fell asleep. Now, I know this is cliche but I really liked Derrick, he was a pretty chill, laid-back kind of guy. “Hey, you’re pretty cute, Samantha.” Derrick said lowly. “What you say?” I questioned. “I said I think you’re cute.” He said back. “Oh, really?” I said blushing. “Yes, I really do.” Derrick said. “So how about we take this somewhere a little more private” I said. I got up and grabbed Derrick’s hand and we headed upstairs towards Michelle’s room. We opened the door and immediately Derrick pushed me on Michelle’s bed. Now I’m not going to say what happened afterwards but you get the idea.

We were in there until like 7 a.m. but then I left out with Derrick by my side,  woke everyone up and left. “Holy Shit!!!, I’m gonna be late for class!” I yelled. I got to my car and unlocked the doors. Derrick got in with me and I asked “What are you doing?” He replied with “I can’t join you on your way to school?” “I guess” I told Derrick. I said in my head “I like this boy so I see no reason as to why he can’t take a car ride with me.” He told me where to drop him off and I did. I gave him a kiss goodbye and hurried off to school as fast as I could. As, I was driving down the road, I saw that same figure from last night, all disfigured and jumbled up. Once again the withering person saw and ran towards me again. This time instead of stopping and waiting, I drove as fast as I could towards it. As I was about to hit it, the person disappeared as if it was a figment of my imagination. I knew it wasn’t my eyes playing tricks with me this time and I had to find out what this “thing” was.

 I arrived at school and it was a quarter till 8 am. I grabbed my backpack and my books and hurried to get to my class. As soon as I made it through the door, The bell rung. I shouted “YES!” in excitement and everyone began looking at me. I stopped smiling and went to an open seat. Now I’m not going to talk about my classes because they are not a crucial part to my story. As I went through all my classes, what I couldn’t get off my mind was the “person” I saw last night. The figure looked remotely similar to me as we had the same hair and kind of the same face. It had me wondering who this person was, It kept pestering me all through the day. I went to my dorm room to pulled out my books to study. My phone began to ring and I looked to see who it was. It just so happened to be Derrick so I picked up the phone. “Hey, Sam!” Derrick said “Hey, Derrick, what’s up?” “Well, Sam I was wondering if you wanted to hang out, I know a cool place we could go to” Derrick replied. “Ok, I’ll come pick you up and you can show where to go.” I left out my dorm and went into the campus parking lot to get in my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same person who I had seen 2 times previously. I yelled “Who the hell are you!?” The person responded with “I’m your…”  She never finished because she disappeared. I wondered who she was. All I got from her was “I’m your…”, This made me think about who she was. I decided to put it off for now and went to go pick up Derrick. I picked up Derrick from his place and I decided it was best that he would drive that way we could get to the place faster. We drove for like 2 hours and then we reached the place Derrick told me about. It was beautiful, there was a picnic table by the lake and I guessed we were gonna have lunch as Derrick did bring a picnic basket. We pulled a table cloth and placed it on the table. What Derrick pulled out from the basket was some chicken, mashed potatoes, and okra with some gravy to put on the mashed potatoes. We ate and afterwards, we chilled for a good 3 hours. It was when it got late that things took a turn. I had a feeling me and Derrick were being watched. It was that same feeling I felt when around that person who is related to me in some way, you know, the disfigured person. I looked around then chuckled, “Ah it’s nothing.” I said to myself. I heard movement in the bushes, “Do you hear that?” I asked Derrick. “Yea but it’s most likely an animal or something.” Derrick replied. “Yea, you’re right.” I still had that same feeling we were being watched. I looked around once more and this time I saw the figure. “Do you see that, Derrick?” I asked as I pointed towards where the figure was standing. “See what, Sam?” Derrick said back. I couldn’t believe he couldn’t see it. The figure ran towards Derrick and dragged him into the water. “Derrick!!!” I screamed as I ran to save Derrick. “Samantha, help me!!” Derrick screamed. I grabbed on to Derrick as he was being pulled by the withering girl. She let go of Derrick and then punched me. I fell over and she dragged Derrick even further out into the water. “Derrick!!” I yelled whilst crying. Finally the figure dropped Derrick in the water and I sat there watching him drown to death. I tried to save him but I couldn’t because the water was getting too deep. The water stopped moving where Derrick was and I knew he was dead. I swam back to shore and sat and cried. I fell asleep eventually in my car and woke up in the morning.

I called Catherine and told her what had happened. After that my life had turned for the worse. I had dropped out of college and went back to living with my parents. I eventually had to start taking therapy to cope with the loss of my beloved Derrick. When therapy didn’t work, I resorted to drugs such as weed, cocaine, and heroine. My life plunged even deeper and now I sit here on my death bed, not knowing who the mysterious figure is. I come to find out that I wasn’t an only child. I had a sister who was born with cancer. My parents never told me because they wanted me to strive to be the best. She never survived the cancer and so she grew up as a soul to haunt me forever and kill off all the things I care about dearly. First, It’s Catherine and then it’s me. I have no life worth living anymore.   