Melody

Chapter Two: Nightmares

    “Worst movie ever” Katie repeated for the 3rd time since the movie ended. We were leaving the theater after watching a “scary” thriller. Katie and I were on the school paper and it was her turn to review a movie – and since we’ve seen all the others, she chose this one. Obviously, her two best friends would tag along.

Obviously, her two best friends got annoyed since she wouldn’t be quiet for more than 10 seconds in the theater. 

I really couldn’t blame her for talking. The movie was one of the worst of the year. I think the reason Kate chose it was because of the hot guys on the poster.

Kate continued, “The actors portrayed anything BUT their characters, we could see the camera shadow in all the scenes, and the storyline-”

    “Was sooo predictable!” Jeremy finished for her in a high-pitched voice.

I laughed as Kate smacked him on the arm. 

    “Hey” I said, feeling the need to somehow defend the movie. I mean, people probably worked hard on it, “at least they chose hot guys.”

Immediately, Katie covered her ears and started screaming, “WORST MOVIE EVER. WORST MOVIE EVER.”

I looked over and Jeremy and he shared the same look of confusion as me.

Katie, after seeing our expressions, stopped covering her ears and explained. “I don’t want to subconsciously make the review better just ‘cause the guys were to DIE for. So I need to remind myself. In an annoying way.”

I cracked a grin. Man, my best friend is irreplaceable.

As Jeremy and Kate started bickering over the quality of our editor, I walked behind them.

Crack.

I whipped my head to the right. Because we lived in Chicago there were quite a lot of alleyways, most of which were very dark and scary-looking at night. Right now, on my left side was the main road, and my right was an alley.

And the sound I heard was probably coming from the alley.

I stopped walking and hesitantly made my way closer to the alleyway. There was definitely something there that made the noise.

Before I could go very far, I heard Kate and Jeremy call out for me.

    “Sam! Where are you going?” Jeremy’s worried tone pulled me out of whatever I was doing and caused me to turn and walk back over to them.

Kate asked “What were you doing?” and pulled me in between them. Both my friends wrapped an arm around my shoulders. They probably wanted to calm me down because I looked out of it.

Or they don’t want you to escape.

I shook my head after that thought. I never thought about something like that towards my friends. They are way too… nice. 

I still didn’t answer Kate’s question. “I thought I heard something in the alley.”

Jeremy muttered something unintelligible and then replied with “Sam that could have been anything, or anyone. It wasn’t safe”

I let my head fall. Jeremy wasn’t as thoughtless as I was. My friends often had to reel me back in. Usually, I wouldn’t listen as much as I should, but I let them scold me now. What I did was seriously stupid the more I thought about it. It could have been a thief, or a rape-dude, or worse: a rabid badger. 

Katie, noticing my obvious guilt and discomfort, changed the topic.

    “So, did you guys see the new guy?” Katie asked us.