These Lights

Ten: The Man Behind the Mask

So... Katelyn and Luka has other things to do, and as it was a Sunday, we didn't have work.

Neither of us really wanted to go anywhere, not really. So we rented a movie and ordered a pizza, you know, normal roommate things.

Well, I say we rented a movie, and by that I mean he, rented a movie.

Because it was horror.

I am bad at horror.

He didn't know this, and I didn't tell him when I should have, I even encouraged him to rent the movie.

So now I was under a fluffy red blanket on the couch, making myself small because I knew that I would be terrified the entire night.

The movie was going through its beginning advertising before it began and Aaron brought the huge box of pizza into the room along with two huge glasses filled to the brim with carbonated soda.

He turned off the lights and flopped ungraciously onto the couch beside me, staring at the screen for a moment before glancing over at me.

"Are you sure you're gonna be alright? You don't seem the type to do well with horror." He had a genuinely concerned attitude about him, but I just nodded and tried to focus on food.

The movie started, it was some over popular found footage type deal and it started really boring, like, documentary boring.

"Did I get the right movie?" He took a look at the box and shrugged, I let my guard down, if the whole movie was going to be like this then the worst thing that could happen is that I'd fall asleep halfway through.

Oh great Irene, was that a mistake.

About twenty minutes into the movie I jumped a foot in the air and almost crawled into Aaron's lap due to a loud bang followed by a mangled face dangling in front of the camera.

Aaron was taken aback, but I refused to move, I heard him chuckle and drape his arm over my shoulder, this felt cliché, but at the time I needed human companionship to not have night terrors.

"Really Aph? Didn't you tell me you'd be fine?" I didn't answer him, I just glanced over at him to tell him to drop it, he seemed to get the memo.

Then came a particularly tense part of the movie, the protagonists were slowly walking down a flight of stairs in an abandoned building, trying to find their friend that was probably dead.

I buried my face in Aaron's side and by instinct wrapped my arms around him, trying hard to look away, I could feel the tension crawl up my spine.

"Mm? Aph you don't have to watch this with me if it's too much." He didn't pull away, even though I was embarrassed that this was happening in the first place, I just... looked up at him. And by my surprise, he pulled me a bit closer to him, though he didn't make any eyes contact.

Finally another twenty minutes later, the movie ended, I was a wreak, I knew I wouldn't get any sleep.

"You gonna be okay? We can stay up awhile until you calm down." I nodded, still hanging off him like he was my lifeline, I heard him chuckle, but...

It was softer, similar in tone to my dream version of him awhile back, luckily I hadn't had any similar ones since.

"You should've said something, I wouldn't have rented it if I knew it would scare you." He said, his voice sent a chill down my spine, why did he have to have such a rough voice?!