Not Your Normal Fangirl

Chapter 4

   "10, 9, 8..." Cassie counted, and I ran around, trying to find out where in the house I was. I passed the library, then knew where to go. I kept going straight, then went up a flight of stairs and turned left. I felt the wall.

   "3, 2..." Cassie was saying as I pulled open the secret door.

   "1" she said as I pulled it closed.

   "Hey." Came a hushed voice behind me.

   "Jeezus!" I whisper yelped.

   Adam and Barney were in the secret room too.

   "Sorry, didn't want to scare you." Barney said.

   "It's fine, I'm just glad you're not her..." I said.

   "Ditto." Adam said.

   "Do you guys want to sleep? I asked, "I can watch."

   "Thanks Ross." Adam said.

   "Yeah, I actually was awake all today. I'm tired." Barney agreed.

   They laid down, and slept for a while. I kept myself entertained by humming and imagining what I'd be doing if I wasn't in this crazy game of Hide n Seek. At nine thirty in the morning, my eyes started drooping.
   No, I thought, I can't fall asleep... I

   I fell asleep. This time, I just went to the inky black void. No dreams, no shadow girl, nothing. Then I woke up to a scream. I bolted up, Cassie had found the room! She was choking Barney to Death against the wall, her hands squeezing his throat.

   "Run!" I cried as Cassie let the corpse crumple to the ground.

  Me and Adam slammed the door open and took off down the hall straight ahead.

    "You guys are no fun." Cassie said.

   "Crapcrapcrapcrap..." Adam was saying.

   Actually he was saying something a lot worse than crap, but I digress. We were running, trying to lose Cassie so we could get to another hiding place. We seemed to have lost her after a while, so we took a break to catch our breaths. I looked at my watch. It was one in the afternoon. We can do this! I thought. Adam and I walked slowly towards the new hiding place, when Cassie seemed to jump out of the wall pinning Adam against the opposite wall with a knife in his chest.

   "Found you." She chuckled.

   She left the body hanging there, and I ran before she could focus on me. I ran for about an hour, then hid in a secret room the size of a broom cupboard. I was terrified. I just watched two more people die in front of me. I heard someone pass my spot, possibly Cassie. I remained Deathly still, afraid to move, or even breath. The person passed, and a let out a breath. I stayed awake, until my watch read midnight and my body relaxed enough to sleep.
   When I woke up, I looked around. I was still in the secret area. Crap! I thought, the others are going to think I'm dead! It was seven in the morning. I quickly headed to the kitchen, where some of the others were.

   "Ross!!" Shelby and Jess screeched, causing me to cover my ears.

   I was tackled by the two, and Jess cried,

   "We thought you were dead!"

   "What?" I asked, my ears still ringing from their screaming.

   "I think you guys made him deaf..." Red said.

   "Oh, don't be so dramatic!" Shelby said.

   "I'm sorry, I fell asleep in one of the secret hiding places." I said.

   "No problem Ross, we're just glad you're ok." Red said.

   "Where are Max and Uni?" I asked.

   "They're exploring upstairs." Jess said.

   "Ok, I'm going to go up and join them." I said.

   "We might as well join you." Jess said.

   "Yeah!" Shelby agreed.

    "Sure, why not." Red said.

   The four of us walked up around three flights of stairs, and saw Max and Uni looking at the ceiling.

   "Hey guys." I said.

   Both their heads swerved in my direction so fast, I was afraid they'd get whiplash.

   "ROSS?!" They cried in unison.

   "Yeah, hi." I said.

   Max slugged me.

   "I swear Ross, if you do that again, I'll kill you." He said.

   "Good to see you alive Ross." Uni said, then to Max, "you're right, that's an attic door."

   I looked up, and saw the outline of a door. Max pulled the attic door open, and a ladder opened up.

   "Creepy attic. Check." Red said.

   "Ladies first?" I asked.

    "Sure, why not?" Jess asked sarcastically as she started to climb.

   I went up next, then Red, then Shelley, Max, and Uni. The attic smelled Musty, and had several old wooden shelves. A dusty window showed what looked like the front of the lawn, complete with a driveway. That all seemed normal, then I saw what was on the shelves. Rag dolls of some sorts. About seventeen. If that wasn't creepy enough, when I got closer, my stomach sank. The dolls all had wounds that would be fatal to a real person. A male doll with dark blue hair and goggles had red lines painted in a large X across his chest. Another male doll with bright green hair had one eye replaced with red paint, and a red mark over his heart. Then I saw five dolls that set the hairs on my neck on end. They looked exactly like Lizzie, Corey, Nick, Adam, and Barney. Jess, Max, Red, Uni, and Shelby had seen them too. Lizzie had red paint that seemed to drip from her forehead.

   "Cassie stabbed Lizzie in the forehead!" Jess said.

   Nick had a red X over his heart. Corey's doll had a red line across his throat. Barney's doll had purple-brown-red bruising around his neck, and Adams doll had a red mark on his chest, where Cassie had stabbed him and left his body to hang there, and slowly bleed out. An even more chilling detail that I noticed, every single doll had their mouths stitched into smiles.

   "Do you like them?" Asked a girls voice.

   All of us jumped. Cassie stood in the doorway.

  "Without their bodies, their souls would disappear! But now, My friends souls stay with me forever!!" Cassie said cheerily, "as long as they stay in this house, we can play whenever we want."

  "That's messed up on so many levels!" Max cried.

   "They can't stay here!" Jess cried.

   She tried to grab the dolls, but Cassie raised her hand, and Jess flew into the air.

  "Don't. Touch. My. Friends." Cassie said in her scary voice.

   "*Eep* Ok! Ok!" Jess cried.

   Cassie set her down.

   "Glad we can understand each other." Cassie said with a wide smile.

   And with that, she left.

   "That girl is seriously two-faced...." Red said.

   "It's like she has two people living inside her..." Uni said, "One is a child, the other one's a scary psychopath."

   "No kidding." Shelby agreed.

   We all didn't stick around long after that. We exited the attic, and closed the door. I prayed that it would stay closed. Then, I went off to get something to eat.