T⃨u⃨r⃨n⃨ O⃨n⃨ T⃨h⃨e⃨ N⃨i⃨g⃨h⃨t⃨ | The Lost Boys

C⃨H⃨A⃨P⃨T⃨E⃨R⃨ E⃨I⃨G⃨H⃨T⃨

A/N: I will usually write more than 2 chapters at weekends and 2 or 3 during the week.

⚠️Warnings: Horror elements⚠️

The night ended earlier than I expected.

The boys had walked me back to the van after their moment of revelry. There was a new layer of triumph in their attitudes and I supposed that was the reason for my return, maybe a brief moment of mercy before the true trial began. It had certainly seemed that they weren't keen on letting me leave, purposeful touches and enticing grins taunting me the entire way back.

But they had let me escape, if only for the night.

My hand hovered over the door handle, visions of wild boys and deadly grins tempting me to go back.

It felt wrong somehow to be here without them, after spending the majority of the night together. They scared me and I worried what the consequences of their exposure would eventually entail, but there was a potent layer of craving that kept my wanting more. That craving was a wicked, insidious thing, tempting me when I least expected it.

It snuck in softly, making me realize I'd rather be with them than alone in here.

But those were dangerous thoughts. So instead, I focused on the heat of Laddie's head against my chest, forcing me waning attention to fixate back on the present.

It was three a.m, too late for me to still be awake. I was safely tucked back into the sturdy recesses of my truck, the barest hint of moonlight shining through the thick clouds. Laddie was curled up beside me, having twisted his head toward the left as his tiny snores echoed through the interior. It hadn't taken him long to fall asleep— exhausted from the events of the evening.

I wished I could join him, but there was a crawling awareness that kept my nerves afire.

The screams of that boy in the arcade were haunting me. I could see in perfect clarity the moment his eyes had shot wide, the pain puckering his brow before his mind even registered it. Then the scream would repeat again and again in my head, the shouts of his friends occasionally pitching in to the cacophony lurking in my head.

That wasn't the part that disturbed me though.

No, the reason for my growing insomnia was crueler, more intuitive. I had sat awake in my tiny van corridor, listening to that boy's screams in my head, and never once did I feel a shred of regret. I dug into my psyche and pleaded, trying to force some semblance of pity for my actions. Yet the emotion remained out of reach.

It was as if my consciousness had ceased to exist.

I wondered what that meant— what the lack of morality suggested about myself.

"Can't be anything good,"I sighed, twisting my head out of the passenger window to look about the area.

My gaze trailed lackadaisically over the area before a flash of movement caught my attention. Across the parking lot, a layer of shrubs dotted the transition from sand to cement. The space around them was dark, lacking light from any nearby streetlamps. A bush on the far end stirred and I straightened, narrowing my eyes in an attempt at vigilance.

A shadow emerged over the back, easily six feet tall. I grabbed the door handle and froze. Rationally, I was  aware of the large homeless population in Santa Carla and if the stranger hadn't caused such a fright, I'd  have ignored the event entirely. That is until the figure turned, and I caught sight of their face.

Hell-fire eyes watched me, gleaming in the sheen of the low moonlight.

I gagged as the scenery shifted, "Oh god—"

Three more pairs appeared behind the figure; the entirety of their attention trained on my location.

My body was entrapped in a cold sweat, the sight of those eyes awakening a primal fear I'd never known to possess. Terror I didn't know I could feel ate away at my composure, sweat slickening my palms and I struggled to get up. I needed to leave, I had to run, I had to get away.

My breathing had just begun to stutter when the world went dark.

"Enjoy your dreams, Madeline," a familiar voice taunted as my conscious faded.

The very last thing I remembered was a pair of phantom lips trailing over my own and the smell of cigarette smoke.

A/N: next chapter will make up for how short and uneventful it is <3