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"Stand in the middle of the road. Make sure it's dark. Set the flare ablaze and I will come to you."
Josh receives a strange letter. He doesn't know who it's from or how did it get into his family's correspondence in the first place, and why it is addressed to him. He also doesn't know why it's in a crumpled up envelope with black stains on it or why it came with a box.
As Josh straitened out the envelope, the black stains became smudged and tainted his thumbs. With a sigh, Josh tore it open and took out a piece of paper. He read the words written onto it in messy handwriting and furrowed his eyebrows. Flare? What flare? He turned to the box and set the paper aside, and picked it up. He tore the box open as well and took out the flare. His eyebrows furrowed further, looking at the object in his hand incredulously. There was also a box of matches inside, but when he opened it, there was only one match inside, meaning there were no other chances.
Josh felt like this was some sick joke that some kids are playing. And it really is a sick one. Maybe it was the kids from his neighborhood. The nasty ones from the Richardson and Hennessy households that hated him for no reason, and liked playing pranks as serious as these on him and his siblings. Josh scoffed. Yeah, it was probably those good-for-nothing brats. Well, Josh'll show them that he's not the coward they think he is. He'll play their little game. He's not afraid.
The blue-haired boy placed the flare, the box of matches, and the letter inside the box. He closed it up and took it up to his room, where he set it on his desk. The paper said that he had to do it at midnight. He looked out the window, seeing the sun already falling into place in the horizon. There were only five hours left before midnight. He sat down on his bed with a sigh and began counting the seconds, minutes, and hours that passed.
He shouldn't be taking this so seriously, but he's sick and tired of these stupid little pranks. He's gonna scare them more than they plan to scare him. Smirking at the thought, Josh laid down and waited.
