Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26876932-20160522015729

May 16, 2014

"Please, quit stalling and just call them already, Jake", Alyssa said on the couch sitting next to Carlos, Julia and my best friend, Karlo while I stuffed my mouth full with potato chips and pickles. "Alright, alright, I'll call, don't make such a big fuss out of it", I said, reaching into the bag for some more potato chips.

My name is Jake Rivera, and I'm 14 years old. When it comes to sticky situations, I'm usually stressed and timid. When everything is calm, I'm calm. I pretty much go with the flow. I do get very nervous though, and have had one panic attack before, which I think I want to forget about.

It was a Friday night, we had all came over to my place to enjoy and celebrate that. We were in the mood for some chicken wings, and they wanted me to call. I didn't feel like calling because we hadn't settled the economic part of that. There really wasn't anything good on TV right now, so we didn't have much to entertain ourselves in the meantime. We all just sat down, bored and hungry.

"It's like 9:26 right now, I hope Jake over here decides to call before all the restaurants close and we starve for the night", Julia added. "Dude, is it that difficult to call a wing place and just get some stuff to eat?", said Carlos. "Guys, look at me. See what I'm doing? Potatoes and pickles. Delicious!", I said. I smiled, but not for long before everyone else looked at me with dirty expressions.

"Jake", Karlo said "I know you don't wan't to have to stress out over who pays and if we can pay, but we are all really hungry right now, so I think it's best if you just call, so will ya?", he said as he smiled. "Alright guys, let's look for a wing place then". "Yes!", yelled Alyssa. I walked over to a drawer next to my TV stand, opened it up, and looked for a phone book as my friends cheered for me. I came across a phone book, and looked for a wing place of some sort.

I could tell that the phone book was very, very old. I looked around, and to my surprise, I found a piece of paper with the phone number to a wing place. The name of the place was called "Ultimate Wing Dive-In". I thought about the name. Ultimate Wing Dive-In? What kind of a wing restaurant name is that? Why "Dive-In"? Why doesn't it have a Dine-In instead of a Dive-in? I ultimately guessed it meant that you would "dive in" to the flavor of the wings. I was skeptical about the restaurant, so I showed it to my friends to inspect it. "Place seems fine to me", Julia said. "I can totally eat from that place", said Carlos. "I'm starving!", said Alyssa. I read the phone number:

(443) 734 - 0166

Having not a single clue how the paper had got there in the first place (who put it there or how long it had been there), I just used my instincts and called the place, without a problem. I dialed the number into my iPhone, and the conversation started:

[Pinging...]

[Pinging...]

[Pinging...]

[Pinging...]

[Call ended]

I was upset, but of course, when things don't go your way, you make them. I tried again, and this time I tried on Julia's iPhone because her phone had more storage, and I thought that would solve the problem:

[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Call ended]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">One last try... Please work...

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Pinging...]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: Who is this?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: Hello, I'd like to place an order.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: May I have your address?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: 5789, *** Rd.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: What'll it be?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: Enough to feed five teenagers.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: ...

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: Hello?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: ...

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: Five orders of wings. [???] or mild?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: Mild.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: Wi [???] fries?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: Yes.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: [???] all orders?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Me: Yes, with all orders.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Voice: We'll bring it to you as soon as we can. Be careful when we come [Growling in the background]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">[Call ended]

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">What was that? I though I heard something. As soon as he finished speaking, I heard the growling of an animal in the background. Who knows if it's an animal or not?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Who knows who or what made that sound...

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">And what I found disturbing was how he said to "Be careful when we come". What's gonna happen when he comes? Is he going to harm us? And he said "we". What happens when he brings more than one person? What if they do something to us? What if that someone else is the thing that made the sound?

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I was now worried when I turned around to see all of my friends off of the couch and gone. I panicked, and felt lost and alone. I felt doomed, horrified, and hopeless. When all of my thoughts came together, I assumed they had left the couch when I was on the phone. I felt scared, like I had no one to comfort me when whoever was on the phone came with his other pal to do whatever he had planned to do with us. I ran around, turning the lights on in my bedroom.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">They weren't there.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I checked my bathroom, and it wasn't locked. I assumed that meant no one was in there. Sure enough, I was right: the bathroom was empty. I was panicking, in horror, where the hell could they have gone? As I ran back to the living room, where the couch was, I could hear talking in the kitchen.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Thank god. They were in the kitchen the whole time. "Why did you guys leave?", I asked. "We got bored of being in the living room for two whole hours", said Julia. "Well, don't leave me in there all alone", I said. "Please, don't do that. I really don't like that". "Well, sorry", said Carlos. "But you try spending two hours in the same place", said Alyssa.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">"Okay, I need to talk. The guy on the phone seemed like a creeper. A complete creeper", I said. "Dude, no reason for you to bring up Minecraft out of the blue", said Carlos. "Carlos, I did not refer to the creeper from Minecraft. I'm talking about how that guy on the phone was a weirdo", I said. "He's just old, that's why", said Julia.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We spent the next 24 minutes in the kitchen, telling jokes and not even bothering to use our phones for some reason. I noticed as the time went on, everyone started acting strange. It started when Julia looked at me with a dirty look. She just looked at me in an upset way. I was sure she was just mad that I had kept her and he other there for two hours, but it didn't feel like that was the case. It made me feel worried. She did talk, but with that expression stuck on her face.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Then Carlos. He started to stare at me. Keep in mind, Julia is still with that upset expression, so that makes things worse. Carlos had a smile on his face from when he last was normal, but now, he wouldn't stop looking at me, he had the perfectly same expression. When I tried to talk to him, he just didn't say anything. Then he told me to look behind me. I already was feeling uncomfortable, so I just didn't. But then he laughed, which made me feel comfortable enough to turn around. I saw a cereal box open and had spilled all over the floor. I felt upset.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Keep in mind my parents are already asleep so they probably wouldn't like to see what was happening. Then more stuff happened. I began hearing noises coming from somewhere else in the house. It sounded to me like it was coming from my bedroom, but I wasn't sure. I was confused and scared. Who or what was making those noises? Me, my friends and my parents were the only people in the house, (my younger brother was at Carlos's house having a sleepover with Carlos' brother) and plus my parents were asleep, so I was becoming very worried.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Lastly, Karlo. At this point, Julia and Carlos have stopped making those faces. Alyssa and Karlo have just looked on the floor the whole time. But now Karlo was looking at me with a sad face. A disappointed face. Like I let him down or did something that ruined his life. I looked back with a forgiving face, as forgiving as I could, but Karlo still looked at me with that face. This went on for another five minutes till everyone starts chit-chatting. I had no idea what just happened, and got frightened when I thought about it.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Then we hear this sound coming from outside of the house. It sounds like women's voices at first, but then it sounded like tires screeching. It got louder, and louder, and when it got loudest, we all ran to my bedroom. We saw a van, and on the inside was a man with longer hair, a white jacket and a black shirt fighting with someone or something in the back of the van. The van was going crazy, then we see something fall out of the van. We all ran outside as soon as the van was out of our sight to see what was it that fell out of the van. It was a VHS tape. It read: "Ultimate Wing Dive-In". I assumed that was what the tape was about. We then went back inside.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">"Let's see the tape, Jake!", said Karlo. "Okay, I'm putting it in", I said. I inserted the VHS and it started. It was all black at first, and we could hear static in the background. But then, we began to see something. It looked like a bird. Then we saw that it was a bunch of chicken wings. Only one thing: They were moving. The chicken wings were more like Play-Doh sculptures, but their texture still looked like real chicken, but made of Play-Doh and molded by a preschooler. Carlos began to gag at what we were now seeing.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The chicken wings crawled toward the top-left corner, and then, a hand wearing an aqua glove picked them up. "We see that these wings are not what you think they are. Nothing is what you think it is. Make sure no one discovers or finds this tape. If you do, then we will find who ever finds it. And they will pay". I paused the tape after those words were spoken.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">"Oh my god, Jake, what are we going to do, we took it and now we REALLY have to be careful!", Julia cried. "Relax, guys, all we have to do is hide it", I said. "Uh, no", Julia said, "We need to smash the thing into bits, then we flush it down the toilet, and everyone's okay!", she said. I then unpaused the tape. "So, we at Ultimate Wing Dive-In are promoting our little plan to reduce human population of the world next week. But they won't find out. Because our mastermind will erase our tax history, business history, advertisement history, ect. A week from now, our plan is to reduce the resources being wasted as much as we can. We know it can happen. We will advertise to make it happen. To reduce the population as much as we can, and to make resources last longer”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">"As you can see, in our little yummy wing, we've got congealed pig blood, Methyl Iodide, 1-Chloro-2,4-Dinitrobenzen and chicken skin on top to make it chicken-looking, but not too chicken-looking, some Cyanogen, and some good old, excruciating stonefish to go. Our fries are made with real potatoes, but with some radioactive isotopes like Nobelium No-259 and Astatine At-210, to really make them stand out from your regular fry. This is it for the memo, hope you're glad to see how I'm doing with our little plan".

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">"Guys", Alyssa said, "They're going to intoxicate us!". "Yeah, but I doubt we have enough time to get rid of the VHS now that they are more than likely on to us!", said Karlo. "Everyone", I said. "Let's stay calm". "At this point, I doubt you guys are hungry, right?", Carlos made a disgusted face and nodded yes. "Oh man, I just should've thou-"

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Just then, there was a knock on the door. We all panicked, and we all ran to the TV, whoever got the VHS out first would most likely be the one to hide it. I ended up pulling it out first. I was panicking for a place to hide it, and the knocking on the door got harder. I ran into my backyard, and threw it behind my fence, more to my neighbor's, to make it seem less like we had it. Unfortunately, the VHS tape didn't go too far, and it ended up in the middle of the fence between us.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Then I came back and ran to the door to see what they looked like, looking through the peep hole. I saw it wasn't them, I found my neighbor there, not the one who was the owner of the house I tried to throw the VHS tape at. He reminded me about how I hadn't paid him for mowing my lawn. I went back inside, got 6 dollars and gave it to him. He said thank you, and I said your welcome and to take care. We then stayed inside for the rest of the time, on the couch, trying not to make any noise for some reason.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We eventually gained the courage to step outside. I opened the door first, and everyone else somehow just followed me. We stood in the road, waiting for them to come to us. We could not wait to get at them for the horrible things they were planning to do. We stood for what felt like 16 minutes before we saw what looked like the same van pass right in front of us. Then it stopped, but we had trouble seeing who or what was inside…

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Hey!”, I shouted, “Who do you think you are?!”. “Doing something like this? Killing people just to lower the population?”. I stopped. No one responded. All of a sudden it got quiet. We then just stared at the van. And as we stared, we felt like we were being watched back, but not by someone.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">By something.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Something not human was watching us.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Something was watching us.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We felt it.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We smelled it.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We knew it.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">After a bit of time had passed, the door opened, and a person stepped out. He walked up to us and stared for a bit. He was tall, wore a patterned jacket, beige jeans, all black shoes, had red hair and a red beard.“You all are just kids”, he said, “What’re you doing out here?”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Why?”, I said. “Why did you do this?”, “Why do you want to kill people for the sake of making the life of resources that are going to die anyway? Why?”. “Because”, the man said “YOU ALL TOOK OUR TAPE!”, he screamed. We were all in panic. “NO ONE SHOULD’VE HAD TO KNOWN ABOUT IT!”, “But you made things complicated”. “Now, you will SUFFER!!!”, he screamed. We thought he was going to run toward us, but he ended up running toward his van.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">When he got in, he reached for something. He stepped outside, with a radiation protection suit in his hands. He quickly put the thing on, and went back to the van for a helmet. Once he was fully covered, he pulled the glass down from the helmet, and spoke: “You all are going to learn your lesson”, he said. He went into the car, and grabbed something. It was a box, and we could all hear thumping coming from the box. “Oh, and by the way, here are your wings!”, he shouted as he opened a box with wing-shaped Play-Doh sculptures, with real chicken skin on top, and we noticed something: They were crawling.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Oh my god!”, Julia cried, “Oh my god!”. The man made a smirk on his face. “Eh…YAH!”, he said as he slammed the crawling wings onto Julia’s shirt. “AAAHH!”, she screamed. “How bout’  that, huh?”, the man said “You take every human on earth, and you-”, “SHUT UP!!!”, Julia screamed, “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT IF YOU WANT RESOURCES TO LAST LONGER!”. We were all silent while we listened, not saying a word, with an expression of horror. “YOU ARE A BAD PERSON! WHY DID YOU THROW THAT SHIT ON ME, HUH, ASS?”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Well”, the man said, “I think now you all need to learn your lesson”. He then walked up to his van, and pulled something from behind. He pulled out… a horrifying creature. It was like a human, but all black skin, and bony, and a tail. “Say hello to my little friend, J4-9KX”, he said.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Oh my god…OH MY, WHAT IS THAT THING?”, Alyssa screamed, “It’s a genetically-formed human with some extra genes and some radioactive materials”. We were all about to scream. The creature was shocking. It was horrifying. It was something quite possibly worse than anything we could ever imagine. We all had thought that when we were younger, stories of ghosts, zombies and vampires might have been scary. But this was much, much worse. He got in his van, and opened the window.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Me and him are going to chase you”, he said as he put the van in drive, stepped on the gas and the brakes, and let go of them. The van let a screech as it drove towards us. We all decided to get the hell out of there. We ran through the street, and when I looked back at the van, the guy had thrown the thing out, and it was chasing us, too. We all ran, and ran, and ran, and we exited the neighborhood the other way, where there are woods.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We ran in the darkness from the giant trees. The trees were blocking out moonlight. We ran on a path were cars can go, and the van ended up following us. All of a sudden, Carlos disappeared into a different path, through a bunch of trees. We had lost him. “Carlos?”, Julia called out, but no response came, “CARLOS?”, she screamed, but to no avail. We had lost Carlos.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We had to keep running, they were gaining in on us. We were all in double panic as not only we were being chased, but now, we had lost one of our friends, and had no time to find him. We ran through the path, and we tried to look through the path were Carlos had gone, to see where he went.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Oh, we were panicking, we had barley any time at all whatsoever to look for him. We had just stopped running to look for Carlos. We peeped through the pathway, and thankfully, oh man.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We saw someone lying down there, it looked like a silhouette of someone, it had to be. We approached the path, and went into it.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We had found him.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Guys, let’s go backwards!”, Carlos said, and the van and the thing were already following us (I don’t care if I’m not referring to the thing as J4-9KX, but how much impact would it present?), so of course, we ended up running there anyway. The rest of us had no idea why Carlos was trying to get us to go around in a circle (probably not in a circle) around here, but we just listened and followed. He walked us back into the neighborhood.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The van came about, and we just ran together, and ran, and ran, we ran out of the area where all the neighborhoods are. We ran by all of the stores, and J4-9KX decided to come in the van, which made me wonder… this thing… has intelligence? I tried to get that thought off my mind as we were now running away from the stores like H-E-B, Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s Club and Ashley Furniture, and we were running into more woods.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">As soon as we entered the woods, the man threw J4 out of the van, and back to terrorize us during the run for our lives. We ran for what felt like hours. I think we ended up running so far, we exited the state we lived in, Virginia.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We eventually lost them, once we entered what felt like another state, and we were in deep woods. Like, there was absolutely no civilization around here, at all, whatsoever. No houses. No stores. No trash. No belongings. No sign of a living thing being around here. No nothing for probably miles. Only one thing: A building in the middle of all that, with a sign above it:

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“ULTIMATE WING DIVE-IN”

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">This is the place, it had to be. “We found the place!”, Julia said as she stepped closer, “Let’s get inside and expose their little secrets to the police, and get them shut down!”. We all carefully walked toward the building, looking for an entrance. We found a window near the ground, which was odd. We grabbed a rock, smashed the glass, and smashed the sharp glass around the edges. Once it looked safe enough to crawl inside, I was the first.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">When I got down, I landed on a bumpy surface. It was pitch black on the inside. Julia went down next. She pulled out her iPhone, and got her flashlight app on. We saw that the inside of the building was a regular diner on the inside, with red-and-white-patterned tables, a brick wall, and a black-and-white-tiled-floor. We decided to dive deeper, and found a door. “Let’s find something to prove them guilty”, Karlo said. We opened and discovered it was not locked.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">When we entered, we found an aquarium of horrifying sea creatures. Genetically modified sea creatures. Fishes with two heads, giant stingrays with spider’s legs, jumbo shrimp, creepy deformed “things” we couldn’t identify at all as to what they were.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Oh my god…”, said Carlos, “We have to get a picture of these things, that’s one thing we can use to prove that they are guilty!”, Julia took a picture, and we all felt calmer. We walked around, and we found another door that lead to another room. When we entered the next room, we slammed the door almost immediately as we opened it. In that hall were hundreds, possibly thousands or even more of… spiders and tarantulas in cages.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“OH MY GOD!”, Julia and Alyssa screamed as they shut the door, “There’s no way I’m ever going in there

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We opened the door slowly to find that it was safe to look around in. But then we saw something: Way in the back of the hall behind a ladder leading to somewhere was a giant arachnid. Not just a spider. Not just a tarantula. A huge mix of both. It was a giant, and it had to be genetically modified. It was a true atrocity. We all froze in horror, not even able to move. Not until it started crawling towards us.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Oh my god”, Carlos said, “It’s coming to us…”, Karlo said. Just then, it came to us even faster, and was now speeding towards us. No thinking was required as we slammed the door with all of our might, and locked it. We were already crying. The giant spider/tarantula banged on the door for a while, before we could feel it crawling up the door, and sitting on the door, waiting for its next visitor…

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We were all shocked at how a giant spider could crawl up walls, but since it was obviously genetically modified, we didn’t need to assume anything else. We decided to just go back to the aquarium. We looked around, trying to avoid the creepy sea creatures that we first saw, we looked at something different: An aquarium of stonefish.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Stonefish are an incredibly venomous and dangerous fish and even fatal to humans. They are known to produce extreme pain if contact is made with their rocky surface. “So this is another thing the use in their wings!”, Karlo said, remembering what we saw from the VHS.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“If we don’t take a picture, we won’t have enough evidence!”, Alyssa said. “So let’s take the picture, then!”, Carlos said. Julia took her iPhone and snapped a picture of the stonefish and the genetically modified sea creatures.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Let’s look for more”, Alyssa said. We went into the dining area again, and found another door. We opened it and found a pole with no ledges to hold on to, and it acted as a bridge, the bridge was surrounded in complete darkness. We walked on the pole until... something swung around in our way.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We were all shocked at what we just saw. Some of us didn’t even see it, most of us didn’t know what it was. “What was that?!”, said Carlos, “Was that a pendulum?”, “That was totally a pendulum, Carlos!” I said. “Then that is more evidence to prove them guilty!”, said Julia.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">She took out her iPhone again and took a picture once the pendulum came around. But when it did, it nearly hit us, and would’ve made us fall and get very hurt.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We all went back to the dining room, but as soon as we did, we heard growling and an angry voice that sounded a bit familiar to a little someone we had seen not much of a very long time ago.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The man and J4 had found us.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Who goes there?”, the man said, while J4 was growling ferociously. “IT’S YOU ALL!”, he yelled, “Go get ‘em, J4!”, he said as he let J4 loose, and J4 came lunging at me. At that point in time, all thought was gone. Panic was on, but thinking was disabled. All of a sudden, at that point in time, I thought about what my life was like when I was much younger.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The stories my mother and father told me back then, my first tooth that fell out, my first Christmas and when I would attend pre-school. At the point, everything just froze in my mind, and when it resumed, I dodged J4 coming at me. The creature fell on to the pole-bridge and fell into the darkness, and continued growling, hardest of all now.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We all moved from the door, just in case he decided to kick us into the pit with J4. “You all ain’t getting out of here alive”, he said. He then walked into the aquarium, and opened the door to his spider hall. “AHHH, AHHH!!”, he screamed as his giant arachnid got him. This gave us time to escape. One by one, we pushed and pulled each other out of the building through the small window.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Carlos was the last person in there. We tried our best to get him out in time, but as soon as legs were all that were still in the building, the man got him. “Guys, get me out of here! Help!”, cried Carlos,“Don’t worry, it’s four people vs. one person.”, I said. “SHUT UP!”, the man yelled. We pulled, and pulled, and luckily out of our insane panic, we were able to get him.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Alright guys, let’s run!”, Julia said. “When we get to my home, let’s lock the doors and windows, and close the curtains on the windows”, I said. “Oh no you don’t!”, the man said, “GET OVER HERE NOW! YOU DON’T TELL ANYONE!”, he screamed. We all ran into the dark woods.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We didn’t even know where we were. We then worried at how we would get back to our neighborhood. So we ran, and ran, and then we started to remember how to get out by remembering how we got in. He had a giant pole in his hands, and he wasn’t wearing gloves. But then, the man started to make gunshots. “Holy shit guys, run!”, We ran back into Virginia, and got closer to our neighborhood, but then, Karlo screamed.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">He was shot and killed.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“AHH!”, screamed Karlo. “NOO!”, we cried as we ran up to him. He was bleeding. “G-guys…”, he spoke in a croaky, dead voice, “Th-this may be the l-last you ever hear of m-me…”, “I want you gu-guys to go on w-without m-m-me”, “A-and you, J-Jake”, “Y-you have b-been my best f-friend”. “You’re my best friend too, Karlo”. He smile at me “I w-want you to r-r-remember me”, I a-am always go-gonna b-be with you”. Then he died right before me.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Karlo…” I said… “KARLO!” Everyone began sobbing. “You will always be with me, Karlo”, I said.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“Always”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">We turned our heads to the man. “You…”, I said, “You sick motherfucker”, “You would do something like this?”, we all said, “You all made me-” “SHUT UP!” we all yelled. “We’re calling the cops, bitch!”, Carlos said. “I’m out, losers!”, the man said as he threw the pole onto the road. “FUCK YOU, YOU LITTLE FUCKER!”, we all screamed at the top of our lungs. Julia explained what had happened, gave details, and she said there was evidence.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The police came later.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Of course, when they saw Karlo’s dead body, they knew that this was a very big and bad crime. They investigated, and then we remembered the man threw the pole, and we gave it to the police, to see if they could track down his identity through his fingerprints.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Our parents we around during the whole thing. Of course, I could tell they were super mad at me for causing all of this, but they were more shocked that Karlo was dead. They were shocked that their son’s best friend was gone.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">During the end of investigation, I found out that Ultimate Wing Dive-In was an unknown location located in Maryland, and that no one really knew about it. The name of the man was James Monroe, who had a criminal record, and was in prison for a total of eleven years in his life.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I had also learned that according to many people around the area, there was no sign of anyone working (or living…) in that building for a long time.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">According to the police they said things like:

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“No one seems to work there”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">“I never see anyone around there or parked there”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">My dad is a police officer himself, so that is most likely the reason I was able to get information from the other police that asked us questions. He had to explain that I asked if I could invite my friends over, and they said that it would have to be by the time they were asleep, because they are very loud. Me, Carlos, Julia and Alyssa told our story from each of our point of view, and we all got very emotional and even cried when we told the tragedy of Karlo’s death, and how he said that he would “always be with us”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The man was charged with murder, and Ultimate Wing Dive-In was to close on May 17, 2014, however, it is unknown what date the building was first established. When the police left, they told me to “always be with Karlo”.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Karlo’s parents committed suicide on May 18, 2014 as a result of finding out about the tragedy.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Ever since this day, I have never been the same. My life feels worthless, I become sadder and sadder everyday. My friends have never been the same. They’ve had more anger, more fear, more misery, and more sadness. Nothing about my life feels like what it used to be. May 16, 2014 is a day that has permanently traumatized me and made me feel fear of the outside world.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">This all goes to show that nothing at all is what you think it is.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">He took my best friend’s life. He took the life of someone who was important in my life, someone who made me happy, joyful, and relaxed. Now, I am scared, sad, angry, and hopless. May 16, 2014 is a day of tragedy, a day that is my worst fear, a day I despise to the bottom of my heart.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">To this very day, it still haunts me.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I still have that guy’s phone number.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Go ahead. You know you want to. But beware.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">(443) 734 - 0166

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">The other day, when I got home, I noticed something about my phone. I had gotten 3 different phone calls from three different phone numbers.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">All of which had the numbers 5, 16 and 2014 somewhere in them. <ac_metadata title="May 16, 2014 (Unreviewed)"> </ac_metadata>