The Bubble

Part 3: The Air Is Filled With Monsters

That night, the bus to Kitty Hawk contained four people: Limb, Wax, Freddie and a bus driver named Phil. It was always Phil that would be driving that particular bus route whenever Limb wanted to take a trip to the drive-in's. Limb even started sitting in the seat nearest the driver just to pick his brain the entire ride. He was an old, plump war vet with rugous skin and long white hair, who loved telling scary stories. 

As Limb led the way to the front seats on the bus, the boys followed him and sat in the seats across from him. They only spoke within breaks in the conversation between their friend and the bus driver. Earlier that afternoon, straight from school, Limb made the two watch the news with him, in desperate hope to find some sort of update. They sat on the dusty, creme carpet while he watched in apprehension for two hours. The only news he learned was that  Mrs. Green's pet turtle had been found alive and well-joy! 

The three decided to take a small trip down to the drive-in theater to see "The Bride of Frankenstein." They knew it was an old, unpopular selection compared to the other movies playing and that it would probably be shown on the smallest screen in the lot but the boys were desperate for something, anything to do on a Friday night that wasn't sitting around a table trying to figure out why everyone around them has been reported missing. Despite the effort, the three inevitably found something to argue about.

"So you just gonna sit there and tell me that Freddy Kruegar is scarier than Michael Myers?" Wax protested with his arms folded over one another.

"Yes!" Both Freddie and Limb exclaimed in sync. Limb continued, "I-It's a perfect metaphor for fears. You see he, he can haunt your dreams and still create the same effect outside of them. If something is terrifying you in your sleep, it'll show when you're awake as well.. It stays with you," he took a deep breath in, leaning back into the seat. "It's pure genius."

"I think the part our buddy here missed was," Freddie sarcastically patted Limb on the shoulder. "That guy can fucking kill you from your dreams I mean, shit! Of course he's scarier than some dude walking around with a fucking lame ski mask on"

"Th-that's Jason," Limb quietly corrected Freddie. 

"Oh, then who the fuck are we talking about then?" Freddie's knowledge of horror was purely based off of what Limb told him about or made him watch. Yet another reason why Mrs. Gray wanted her son far away from him. If Freddie got caught even thinking about a horror film, his mother would have him locked in solitary confinement for life. 

Wax chimed back in, "Man your argument so weak you don't even know who we're talking about," He ended his sentence with a gentle laugh that matched  Phil, the driver's quiet chuckle  as a result of listening in on the conversation.

They saw the lights of the city fluoresce brighter and brighter before their eyes. In North Carolina, more specifically on that side of it, if you wanted to do something, anything at all, the place to go was Kitty Hawk. They had three movie theaters, two shopping malls and one amusement park. The closest thing Wombourne had to a mall was a store called "Shop Stop", where you could buy a burrito and a pair of underwear in the same place.

They hopped off the bus with the excitement of a little adventure crawling inside them, except Limb of course. Limb snuck into the drive-in's so much, it was no different for him than turning on the TV at home to watch a movie.  The walk to the drive-in theater was a short one, one they spent continuing the debate they had on the bus. They walked passed the row of cars lined up, waiting to enter the lot and skipped under the wired fence letting them in. Not to their surprise, their movie was shown on the dingy screen furthest from the others.

Before the movie started, Limb was tuning his radio to just the right capacity for the movie to be heard while Freddie and Wax were occupied by the mushed bag of candy corn Freddie squeezed out of his back pocket.