Superstitious

Chapter Six

I let out a sigh as I began to prepare for tomorrow's school day. I really hoped that I wouldn't run into Vince. After what happened on Saturday morning, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"That would be so awkward," I thought as I reached for my phone only to realize that I didn't have it.

"Crap! Where is it?" I mumbled as I began to frantically search through the house.

I groaned when the possibility that I might have left it at the "haunted" house crossed my mind.

"I can just wait till after school tomorrow. Right?" I asked myself. 

Of course I couldn't wait. I needed it for emergencies. That and it was a great way to entertain myself during chemistry. There was no question about it. I had to go back and get it. I glanced at my watch. It was already 11:40 p.m. By the time I got there, it would be midnight. Deciding not to care, I grabbed a flashlight out of the kitchen drawer and headed out through the garage door. When I finally got there, the time was just as I'd predicted, give or take a couple of minutes. I nervously walked up the porch steps. It was a lot creepier entering the house by myself.

"All I need to do is grab the phone and go," I thought.

Yeah. That's right. It's not like I'm spending the night again or anything. I shakily crept up the stairs and down the hall to the master bedroom. I was relieved when I made it. I walked over to where Vince and I had slept, but my phone wasn't there. I searched the entire room, but I couldn't find it. Suddenly, the house shifted and there was a loud creak.

"I'll just come back later," I thought.

I quickly scurried out of the room.

"The sooner I get out of this house, the better," I thought.

I was just passing by the antique mirror when I heard a kind of swishing noise behind me. I froze mid-step.

"Russell. Don't you dare turn around. Just keep going," I told myself.

I tried to keep going, but, for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to move forward. Instead, I felt my hips begin to rotate in the opposite direction.

"Dang it!" I said.

I tried to turn back around, but the reaper's will was too strong. 

"Mustn't... look," I thought. "Don't want to lose my soul."

It was too late. I couldn't resist any longer and I looked at the horrible, chipped mask in front of me. It looked like it was made of a material resembling bone. Except, it looked too white to be bone. The cloaked figure let out a horrible screech before tackling me to the ground.

"Deja vu," I thought.

Suddenly, the most severe pain shot through my entire body. I let out an ear-splitting scream. It felt like my entire body was on fire. RIght then and there I wished that I had never been born.

"You're not the only one," said a voice filling my head.

"What's happening to me?" I thought.

"I'm currently separating your soul from your body," said the voice.

"Are you a reaper?" I thought.

"Yes," it answered.

"Just leave me alone!" I thought.

"I can't. This must be done. However, it would be a lot less painful for you if you would stop resisting me."

"There's no way I'm going to let you take my soul."

The reaper murmured something like, "They always try to resist me in the end."

At this point, I was in so much pain that I was surprised that I hadn't passed out yet. I almost considered giving into the reaper's demands. I mean, I was going to die anyways. That's what I thought until I realized that I had just said reaper. Reaper? What was a reaper? How did I even know anything about a reaper? I wasn't supposed to believe in monsters. Marty was supposed to be crazy. For someone like me to die a supernatural death, that was something that I just wouldn't tolerate!
"I refuse to die like this!" I shouted.

Suddenly, a bright light filled the room and all of my pain melted away. In fact, I felt peaceful, like this was where I was meant to be. Nothing else mattered. Only that I was here. I wished that I could stay, wherever "here" was, forever. I was, however, filled with a deep sadness, because somewhere, deep down, I knew that I couldn't stay. In fact, I wasn't supposed to be here. That was when I thought of my homework. Vince! That jerk still needed to give me back my homework! At the thought of this, I could feel the weight of all my worldly troubles set back down on my shoulders. Then, everything went black.

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Vince stared down at the worksheet in front of him. What the hell was a polynomial?

"How did Russell survive this long?" Vince asked himself.

More importantly, why did Vince decide to do his homework.

"I guess I kind of owe it to him," he thought.

After all, Vince had never planned to keep Russell's homework for as long as he did. He admitted to himself that he had gotten a little carried away, and with a little more thought, Vince realized that Russell wasn't too bad. Now if only he could get at least half of these answers right.