I Survived A Horror Story *unedited version*

Chapter 9

"We are going to split up."

Oh the dreaded words. Could he be anymore  stupid? "We are not splitting up." I said, glaring at Mallark. I plopped down onto the bed. We had ended up back upstairs.

"Why not?"

"Don't you watch horror movies with Senea all the time? Obviously nothing sticks. People ALWAYS die when they split up... EVEN IN SCOOBY DOO."

"Your point?"

I threw my hands up in the air. "I can't do this. My IQ is decreasing steadily each time you even utter a word."

"Excuse you  Saryl. Since when were you such a savage?"

"I can't even. Okay? I can't even. You guys can split up but all four of us girls aren't separating." I glanced out of the corner of my eye at Seica, and found her looking right back at me. She shrugged.

"I'm with Saryl."

"See? Seica understands." I tried to shrug off the nagging doubts in my mind. If she really was possessed I can't let her know I'm suspicious. 

"Why can't the three of us  look for Rocky downstairs and the four of them look here? There really is no point of splitting up into groups smaller than that. Pairs are pointless." Alen said.

"Finally! A voice of reason." I said. "Thank you." 

"Okay, we're going down then." Alen said.

I sighed, picking at one of the pillows on the bed. It was just like those games of hide and seek where the seeker searched forever and never found the hider because they had went home when no one had noticed. Wait, what if that was it? What if Rocky had gone home? Likely story Saryl. "Well I guess we better start looking as well." I said, glancing up at them after the guys had gone. Seica was handing Michelle's phone back to her. 

Michelle glanced at the screen and groaned. "My stupid phone just died! Which doesn't even make sense because it was at thirty five percent four minutes ago!"

"Absolutely wonderful." Melissa said. 

"Yeah..." I muttered, trailing off in thought. I flopped back and rolled over face flat. "Can I just go to sleep?"

"We have to look for Rocky, Saryl." Seica said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up.  I'm sorry to say I suck at lying AND acting so of course I flinched and yanked myself away from her. Seica immediately frowned. "Saryl... what's wrong?"

"Uh... nothing?"

"You acted like you saw a ghost." I raised my eyebrow.

"Well obviously she didn't." Michelle said. She shoved her phone into her pocket angrily. "Saryl's just being paranoid."

"I am not!" I huffed. "Let's just look for Rocky, since Seica is so eager to."

"I'm not eager to, I just thought that-"

"Nobody cares what you think." I spat.

"Jesus Saryl, what got into you?" Melissa said.

"Don't bring him into this." I said automatically, quoting my science teacher. "And uh- nothing I just- I don't know. Let me think for a while, okay?"

"About what?" Melissa said. She was watching me curiously. Should I tell her? I decided to wait until I knew for sure. Nothing seemed out of place yet except for the whole cat thing, and I couldn't base everything off of that, could I? 

"Nothing in particular." I said, dismissively. "Let's just go." We walked out as a group to check the other rooms. There were four bedrooms in total, including the one we just came out of, and I was pretty sure the rest were Rocky-free as well. Nevertheless, each time we pushed the door to the room open, I felt a slight thrill run through me. Would this room have Rocky in it? Something else? I really was paranoid, wasn't I? This house and the fears that came with it were eating me alive... And nothing serious that I'm 100% sure isn't all in my head had actually happened yet- except for the disappearance of Rocky. I wanted out of this stupid dare. I bit my lip and looked up, only to see Melissa watching me. Something flashed in her eye, and she turned away quickly. Seica matched my pace and pulled up next to me. 

"Saryl, are you okay? You're acting weird- well, more weirder than usual." 

"Hey!" I said. She laughed.

"But really."

"I'm fine." I said... but now the doubts were festering in my mind and growing. A ghost wouldn't talk to me like that, that was one hundred percent genuine Seica right there. So she wasn't possessed. "Well, there's one thing."

"Hm?"

"Before, in the kitchen... what really happened?"

"What do you mean? I walked in with you but apparently you didn't actually walk in because Alen was there or something... and when I went in all I saw was the cat on the counter, so I walked back out."

"But don't you hate cats?"

"Um, yeah?"

"So..."

"I wouldn't scream though. Probably not. It depends." She said thoughtfully. I felt terrible. I was being all suspicious for no reason. 

"I feel dumb now."

"Why?"

"I thought you were possessed." I watched Seica carefully even now to gauge her reaction. 

"Seriously?"

"Sorry."

"Eh. I don't really care." She shrugged. "Just don't burn me or anything." I laughed, and reached up to swipe my bangs out of my eyes, but my hands froze halfway. Ahead of me was Melissa and Michelle walking, but Melissa's head was slightly turned to face me... and she was watching.