Riddle Middle

Chapter 31: Hysteria

Zack (1st person)

I approached Lauren on the way to school. She was walking on the other side of the street than me and my friends. She saw me, and she began walking faster. Eventually, I had to run to keep up with her. I came up to her side. "Why are you running from me?" I asked. "I just need some space," she said. "Oh... You're not mad at me, are you?" I asked. "No..." she said. I guessed that she was mad at me. I went back across the street to my friends. "What's going on?" Phil asked. "I don't know, she's avoiding me and she said she needed space," I said. "Then give her space," Phred said. Lauren continued to avoid me the rest of the day. Today was Friday, and the dance was on Monday the week after next week. I was worried she wouldn't want to go with me anymore. When I got home after school, I went to my room to do homework. I noticed that Lauren's grey coat was laying in the corner. I figured she left it at my house when we wrote the essay. I called her and told her she left it at my house, and I said I could deliver it but I didn't know where she lived. She gave me her address, and I started walking there.

Once I arrived, I rang her doorbell and waited. She answered the door. "Thanks," she said once I gave it to her. "Yeah... Uh, you still want to go to the dance, right?" I said. "Of course! Hey, uh... Sorry about avoiding you earlier, I'm not sure what happened. Do you want to come inside?" She asked. "Alright!" I said, sounding more excited than I wanted to. Her house was nice, and pretty big. I didn't see anyone else in the house. She went upstairs and into her room. "Sorry, my room's a bit of a mess," she said. Her room looked fine to me. "Looks better than mine," I said. She went to her desk and sat. She turned on her computer, then she turned to face me. "Do you play Hysteria?" She asked. "Hysteria? What's that?" I asked. "It's a horror game, I'm sure you'd be good at it," she said. I hate horror games, but I figured I could try.

She showed me the controls, and I asked what the premise was. "Essentially, you're a deer hunter and there's a demon stalking you," she said. "Sounds like that duck season game," I said. "Eh, kind of," she said. The deer hunting part was kind of fun, but it got terrifying pretty fast. It seemed like a cross between duck season and Slenderman. Lauren was wrong, I was not good at it. At all. I screamed quite a few times, and Lauren laughed each time. "Okay, well, this game's impossible," I said. She laughed. "Zack, it's on easy," she said. "Well, I'd like to see you try," I said. "Okay," she said. She put it on hard and began playing. Of course, she was amazing. "Heck," I said. You know what I mean. "It's okay, this was your first time," she said. "Meh," I said. My stomach growled, and for once, I was just hungry. Lauren looked nervous. "I'm just hungry," I said. She looked somewhat relieved. "Oh, okay. Do you want something?" She asked. "Sure, what do you have?" I asked. "You can come see," she said. She led me downstairs and into her kitchen. "Ooh, Cheetos!" I said, grabbing the bag that of hot Cheetos I saw. "Those are mine, but sure..." she said. "Oh, sorry..." I said, putting them down. "It's okay, we can share," she said. We went back to her room and began eating.