until the end of time, my love | luis mendoza³

FOUR: GHOST HUNTERS ON ACID

"LET'S GO VAMPIRE HUNTING!" Em said with excitement as she got out of the car, not realizing that Nate was coming out behind her. He nearly screamed as he dodged the car door hitting his fingers.

"Vampires? Vampires! You wanna do some The Originals shit right now? This crazy bitch has us sleeping in a haunted hotel," Nate said as he exited the car, pulling his bag along with him. Kenzie laughed at him as she nudged his shoulder.

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun," Kenzie said as everyone glared at her. She decided that it would be fun to stay at the Dauphine Orleans Hotel, considering it's rumored to be incredibly haunted.

"How the fuck did you even find this place?" Grayson asked as he slowly walked toward the entrance, gripping the strap of his bag tightly.

"Saw it on Buzzfeed, thought it was cool," Kenzie said with a smile as she grabbed her bag with one hand and Luis' hand with her free one.

"You do know that ghost attach themselves to the sad and lonely, right?" Nate asked Kenzie with wide eyes.

"Well, then you're fucked," Luis said, making everyone but Nate laugh. He rolled his eyes as he walked off, finding his own way into the lobby of the hotel.

Despite having a reputation of being haunted, Nate found himself in awe of the beautiful hotel. There were pools and a bar, people were overflowing from the hotels lobby.

"This is beautiful," Em breathed out, looking all over the lobby. Kenzie gave her that 'I told you so' look before speaking with the lady at the front desk.

***

"Are you fucking crazy?" Grayson asked his twin sister in the alley behind the bar they were just kicked out of, holding a bag in his sister's face. Fake ID's only got them so far. They had only had a few drinks before security realized they were all underage. Kenzie, however, managed accidentally steal an entire bag of acid tabs.

"You bought acid?" Em asked, sharing an exited glance with Nate who was eagerly trying to get a look inside the bag.

"What? No! No, I didn't!" She explained.

"Babe, you literally have an entire bag of tabs," Luis laughed at her.

"But that doesn't mean I bought it!" She said. Yes, the bar was incredibly crowded and really, really fucking big. And yes, she did get split up from the group for just a few minutes. "I was at one of the bars ordering a drink and as soon as I got it, they were looking at me funny so I left. I didn't fucking realize I grabbed someone's entire bag of acid tabs!"

"Isn't someone gonna come looking for this shit?" Nate chimed in, causing everyone to panic.

"Oh, fuck. Are we gonna die?" Em asked, hooking her arm onto Nate's out of fear.

"No! No one's gonna die!" Kenzie said as she looked around at everyone. She took a look around where they were, suddenly getting creeped out. "well, actually. Maybe we will if we keep standing in the middle of a dark alley!"

"Are we really just gonna let them go to waste?" Luis asked, causing Kenzie to stop on her tracks. She turned around, giving Luis a look.

"No one can kill is if we don't psychically have the acid," Nate reasoned as Em nodded in agreement. "and if we see any ghosts, we can blame it on the acid."

"You guys are fucking insane," Kenzie said, shaking her head. "hand me a tab, Gray."

***

Kenzie was laying down in her bed, one she shared with Luis. She was looking up at the ceiling watched as it moved side to side. She squinted her eyes to make it stop moving but it was no use. Instead, cracks ran through the ceiling and out from the cracks came little spiders crawling out. Kenzie jumped up, hitting her back against the wall as she looked up in fear, only to find out there was nothing there.

"Hey, Kenzie!" She heard and she quickly turned around to see Emercyn. She sighed in relief and smiled at her, watching at her hand moved slowly. She watched as Em's face morphed into someone elses. It was like her face was melting off, shedding her skin to become someone new.

Expect, she was becoming someone new. She was becoming someone Kenzie once knew. Her brown hair changed to blonde and her skin turned from his beautiful olive color to a decaying gray. Her jaw hung open as if she was trying to say something to her but couldn't get anything out. She was clutching her chest, where Simon had stabbed her several times. Blood seeped through her fingers as she choked on her own blood. Kenzie started hyperventilating as she turned for the door, turning the knob and swinging it open.

She fell out into the hallway, everything around her spinning. The patterns on the carpeted dancing around, eventually the pattern could be seen on her own hands. It was almost like she was apart of the carpeted, seeping into it forever. She stood up quickly, reaching a hand out to the wall to make the hallway stop spinning. However, when she saw that the crème colored walls were becoming the color of her hands, she started running.

She ran all the way to the stairs, where she gasped and found herself stopping. All at once she felt the rush of people like she did the night of Halloween in New York. She shoved herself against the wall, closing her eyes as she wished it would all be over. When she opened her eyes, the horror was just beginning. At the bottom of the stairs stood a man with brown hair, green eyes, and a playful smile. Matthew Crawford. With a loud gasp she found herself running back down the hallway, running toward the other flight of stairs.

She found herself on the balcony, over looking the pool. Beside the pool stood a man in a clown suit clapping? Kenzie let out a sob when she saw why he was clapping. Next to him on the group was Simon, hovering over Lola as he stabbed her to death. Anthony jumped around and cheered like an actual clown. Beside him stood...Ryan's dad? He was standing beside them like he was observing the situation before his lifeless, cold eyes turned toward Kenzie.

"Are you scared, Kenzie?" She hear someone ask her. She turned quickly, backing up in fear when she saw her ex-boyfriend standing next to her. He had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, blood running down his face and into his mouth. He looked exactly how he did the night he died. Dirty and beat up. His skin was a gray color just like Madi's.  

"You're not real, you're dead." She said, trying to reassure herself that this was all the drugs. He was standing there because she was tripping out.

"Yeah, I am dead. Just like Madi, Lola, Anthony, Simon," He said through gritted teeth. "but everyone you loved survived, Kenzie. Your brother, your best friend, your cousin, your precious boyfriend. Why don't you get to suffer too?"

"I do suffer, you dickhead," She said. "do you know how hard it is to live with what happened. The shit that you and your psychotic friends put us through? You deserved to die, you psychotic mother fucker."

"No. you deserved to die, Mackenzie," He said with an evil smile, running toward her. She found herself on her knees, rocking back and forth while sobbing and covering her ears.

"Hey, Kenz. It's me. It's Nate," She hear someone's faint voice. She looked up and let out a sob as she came face to face with Nate, except he was dead. A bullet hole in the center of his forehead. She looked down at her bloody hands, nearly gagging at the sight. She closed her eyes as she felt Nates hand rest on her shoulders.

She slowly opened them again to find Nate alive with a concerned look on his face. She launched herself into his arms, crying into his neck as he tried to comfort her the best he could.

One life lesson Kenzie learned that night: Don't do acid if you have trauma.