Lights Out

               Chapter 1- Maca's Mad House

   It was a Thursday morning. I was pregnant and only 16 years old. I had gotten drunk at a party and made mistakes I shouldn't have. I was on my way home prepared to tell my overly controlling, abusive, and toxic mother. As I rolled into the driveway, fear turned to dread. I got out of the car and shut the door and walked to the door breathing in and out trying to control my nerves.
   I opened the door and my mother was red-faced, arms folded, furious. "Angelica Rosemary Smith! Where in God's name were you last night!" I always knew I was in the worst of troubles when she called me by my full name. "I- I was at a party.. and I had gotten drunk and I- I'm pregnant..." I stuttered knowing she was going to hit me. "WHAT IN THE HELL GAVE YOU THAT IDEA! WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT WOULD BE OKAY!" I have only ever seen her this mad once in my life when I spilled my orange juice on the new carpets when I was 4.
I kept silent and bottled all my fear up inside of me. "You know what Angelica, I am locking you away in Maca's Mad House!" She didn't even stutter. I was so scared. I am not a physco. I am not crazy.. It was like an endless house full of back rooms and buildings on the inside of it. She had never taken it this far and I was terrified.
"I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean to frighten you. I took it a little too far. I'm gonna go make some tea." That's weird. My mother never apologized to me after going off on me or hitting me? "Uh- sure..?" I said confusedly. About 10 minutes later, my mom came back with the tea. I sipped mine softly and felt the warmth of it go through my body and I swallowed the tea.
"Do you like your tea?" My mother had said. I tried to look up at her but my vision had gone weird and I couldn't really hear her. She had an evil grin swept across her face. "What- did you d- to m-?" I tried to say what did you do to me but the words couldn't come out quite right. Just then my body began to shut down and the last thing I heard was "You'll be okay. It's what's best for an alcoholic drunk daughter who doesn't obey her mother." Just then my vision was out and I was asleep.
I shot awake, catching my breath. Bright lights surrounded me. "Where am I?" I pondered. I sat up and realized I was in my room.. or so I thought. I stepped out of my room to realize I was in Maca's Mad House. "I can't believe it, my mom literally threw me in here.. leaving me for dead.. leaving me with crazy people.. my friends who were sent here never came back out.. and the one friend that did was never the same again." I thought. A million thoughts raced at once. I had to get out of here.
Just then over the intercom I heard an announcement. " Red zone please come to the dining room for dinner to be served. Again that's Red zone please come to the dining room for dinner to be served." I had no idea what it meant. I saw everyone wearing red heading to the dining area. I looked at what I was wearing, I was in yellow.
I began walking towards the dining room, I wanted to see what the dinner was like and see the people within it. The dinner looked like well-cooked turkey, peas, corn, asparagus, stuffing, and cakes of many different types. There was fine wine, water, and sodas. I quickly snook away and to my luck, no one saw me.
Next the intercom called for orange and then yellow. When I went back to the dining room we were served not as amazing food. I guess they ranked us from best to worst. We had fast food. I normally don't eat fast food but it was so good! I chomped down on pizzas, McDonald's, and Subway. I drank sprite and Coke.
After everyone ate and all the zones had eaten, a siren went off and everyone stopped what they were doing and went back to their rooms. I did what they all were doing. When I got to the model of my room back home, I noticed a little girl hiding under my bed. I closed the door and asked her what she was doing in my room. "The Chukachra destroyed my room." She was beginning to cry. "The what?" I said just as the lights went off. I went to open the door to see if everyone else lost power. "NO DON'T PLEASE!" The strange girl begged me to not open the door.
"THE CHUKACHRA WILL HURT YOU!" She began to whine. I just went back to my bed and sat down. "You know, you can come out from under the bed. I don't bite." I sighed. "N-No I am okay here." She stuttered. The next few hours her and I just had some small talk here and there and she agreed to show me the rest of the mad house.
Around what felt like 3 hours had passed and I heard a knock.. only some sort of rhythm. This rhythm happened 3 times. It was like a (knock....knock... knock-knock-knock). "Maybe someone needs help?" I went to the door. "Stop!" She whispered as I had my hand on the lock to my door. I just backed up and looked annoyed at this point. Was I seriously letting a 7 year old tell me what to do? "Tell you what, tell me your name, why you are here alone, and I'll keep the door closed." She sighed and began telling me everything.
Her name was Ellie, she was here with her brother but he ran off and she hasn't been able to find him. The lights were turned back on and I left my room instantly. I told Ellie I would help her find her brother. We began walking around when I began to feel nauseous. I bent over and threw up. She looked at me worried and I quickly cleaned up. "Come on, we gotta keep going." I told her.
I didn't want her staying in my room with me every night. If we found her brother she could go with him. Maybe he had a room that wasn't destroyed. "Hello lady, can I interest you in some drinks!?" A stranger said to us with the craziest eyes and voice I have never heard. I felt a little hand grab mine, Ellie looked up at me scared of this person.
We moved along and people began to chase us. I began running with her when someone pulled her away and went ahead of me. "NO!" I shouted. I kept running until I reached the end of the hall and I ran up a set of stairs when suddenly I tripped and fell to the bottom.
I was in so much pain. "Wait.. if they think I am dead I can go to a hospital and get out of here." I decided to fake being dead. A Person came over to me holding a cloth. They were gonna cover my mouth and nose to see if I was trying to breathe. I took a deep breath when she covered my mouth.
I felt her press in on my left thigh and I flinched in pain. The lady helped me up. We began walking back to the room when the siren went off. The Lady's room was right next to us. She saw a wire on the top of her roof and she helped me up to it so I could hang there for the night. I would be hanging there for 5 hours. She quickly went into her room and shut the door.
Lights out. I was hanging there when I heard this being screaming, the screams were sounds of hell, pain ,misery, destruction, terror, and violence. My arms grew sorer and sorer and before I knew it I let go. The thing was behind me and heard me. I began running and running, trying so desperately to get back to my room.
I saw it in view but the being wasn't far behind me. I reached my room, slamming and locking the door behind me. It began knocking and banging furiously. I backed up only to bump into a tall figure. It covered my mouth and turned me around. It was Ellie and some man.
Ellie mouthed the word "brother" indicating it was her brother. He removed his hand from my mouth and I caught my breath. We all talked for hours. Her brother's name was Jaxon. He was 17. He and Ellie had been sent here when their parents passed away and their caretaker was cruel and her children even worse.
They went on to explain that the caretaker's children would make a mess of the house and blame them. I felt sorry for them. I told them why my mom put me in here and they were shocked. Just then I noticed the doll from my grandma. It had marks on it where I had been hurt. Jaxon picked it up and was observing it. I then went to turn my neck to show the visible pain marks on it to see if the doll had the marks too.
When I arched my neck, the doll turned its head. In fear we looked away just in time to hear the being banging on the door again. Ellie began to cry. She was right next to me and so I pulled her close to me and held my hands over her ears. Her and I came into a hug and we stayed like that until the being was gone.
I stood up and turned to Jaxon. He was just standing there grateful I was comforting and looking out for Ellie. Lights came back on and we all left the room. Jaxon spent time with Ellie and I decided to explore, looking for any exit possible. I came across a building that seemed different from everywhere else.
I entered the room and was confused.. There was blood and bones everywhere. "OH MY GOD! Was this the lair of the weird being! What if it was a shapeshifter?" I stubbed my toe and winced in pain. "Hello! Is anyone there?! Help me!" I heard someone in the room calling out for help. " Where are you?" I asked. "The walls." They spoke. Who on Earth would trap someone in a wall?
I began looking around and came across an ax that was inside the floorboards. I began slashing the wall until I could peel it. Out stepped a starved girl and a guy with her. "Oh my god are you guys okay!?" I was so frightened about their states and worried for their well-being.
"I'll be okay when I get some food. But I am afraid he won't be." The girl said sad. "Please try to help me get him well. He is my boyfriend and I love him very much." She exclaimed. I nodded and I helped him get to some food, water, and meds. They ate and ate and ate. "How long were you both trapped in there?" "Uh about 3 or 4 days?" She exclaimed. "Wow. Well my name is Angelica, how about you guys?" "I am Destiney and this is Charlie."
We all began walking back to the room. We got in there and Jaxon and Ellie were already waiting for me there. "What happened to them?" Jaxon exclaimed. "They were trapped in what looked like the Chukachra's room." Jaxon paused for a second. "Wait.. you're not suggesting that this being is among us... like a shapeshifter.. right?" He seemed quite frightened and confused. " I am assuming that.. but the problem is that 90% of the people here are physcos and it is gonna be really hard to see who it is." I exclaimed like I was in a Sherlock Holmes film, trying to solve a grand mystery.
Lights went out and Charlie ran to the door to close it and lock it. He didn't speak much or at all. Maybe he was shy or traumatized? Or maybe he couldn't speak in general. Just then Ellie sprung up off the bed and pulled a bag out from under the bed. "Jaxon and I got food for us all. The manifesters only feed us once every 3 days." I was surprised she had planned ahead. We all ate enough to fill us up and had plenty of food left over to hide for more nights ahead.
I handed our blankets and blew up the air mattress that was always under my bed. I was quite surprised the model room had an air mattress with it too. Destiney and Charlie took the air mattress, then Jaxon, Ellie, and I took the bed with Ellie in the middle. When Ellie fell asleep Jaxon and I faced each other and began having a quiet conversation.
We must have talked all night. I remember falling asleep and the lights turned back on. When the lights turned on Jaxon and I were closer and Ellie was gone. We couldn't find Ellie. "No no no no... NO!" Jaxon began to panic. Seeing him panic hurt me. "Let's calm down and try to find her, I am sure she is okay. Maybe she went for a little walk." I tried my best to reassure him.
He let out a large sigh and we began to look around and ask others if they had seen Ellie and we described her looks. We hadn't found her and it was getting close to the red zone's dinner. This signaled we had about 4 hours left to look for her until the light went out and her safety was at risk.
At this point Jaxon got impatient with me and began yelling at me. "It is all your fault! If we hadn't gone to live with you in your room my sister could still be here with me! You're the reason she is lost! Maybe the chakuchra is you! Maybe we shouldn't trust you after all if you are gonna endanger us all!" He was so mad but I knew it was too much worry for his sister.
"Jaxon stop. I know one other place we can look." After saying that he stopped for a second before saying, "You better be right on this. So help me if anything happens to my sister you are dead! Get me!?" He exclaimed, heated yet full of hope. We walked towards the strange room that was believed to be the shapeshifter's house.
When we came upon it I opened the door to see the room restored to its formal look. "I- I don't understand how it changed?.." I stuttered in fear of Jaxon. Just then I noticed a small rotation device on the door knob. Jaxon went off on me but my curiosity blurted it out.
I walked over to the door, shutting it and turned the knob. I could hear him still going off on me but then the floor began lowering. "What is going on! What did you do!?" He began to say in confusion and fear. "You better not be plotting to kill me." He said sarcastically, annoyed. Suddenly we shook and began falling at extreme rates passing numerous areas that looked like rooms, when we came to a stop. | We both fell over.
I awkwardly pushed him off and stood back up. "Woah.." I gasped seeing the area we were in. We walked around in the forest-like room. We came across human corpses, smelling of rotting meat. It was quite a horrific sight. I quivered to the stench and pulled my yellow top over my nose and dragged Jaxon along so we kept moving forward. We began to feel the temperature rise as we came upon the end of the forest.
Staring out of the trees was a lifeless, dark, stormy, lava filled area. We heard screams of hell and began to feel burning on our bodies as the temperature grew. I tried to pull Jaxon away so we could go back to the forest so we didn't burn alive.
"WAIT! I SEE ELLIE!" He screamed. She was burnt to the point she was crawling. I ran at her full speed, picking her up as the world was cracking and crumbling beneath me. I ran back to him just in enough time before I was burnt to the point it was severe.
The door began shutting in front of us and I  picked up the pace and ran faster. The door was closing, time was running out, and I was so tired. I ran and ran before I fell to the ground right as it shut. I was doomed. I knew it for sure. There was no saving me.. not now. Just then, everything went black.