It was around midnight when I walked up to the bus stop. I had just finished a incredibly long shift at the local hospital and was overly tired. I stood there counting my change for the third time just to make sure I had enough money for the bus fare. I noted how it was foggy outside and my only light came from the lamppost by the bus stop. Off in the distance I heard light footsteps, the steps were so quiet that it sounded like someone was trying not to be to clamorous. I bit my pale lip as the soft steps got closer.
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
I nervously looked around, about thirty feet away from me on the left was a tall hooded figure walking in my direction. I watched the figure walk closer to me. I began to step backwards preparing to run, then the figure spoke to me.
"Is this stop 207?" the figure asked
"Y-Yes" I let out a frail word
It's question seemed mortal to me, the figure stepped into the street light and I could see his face better. To my surprise this was no monster but a young man. He was tall and slightly muscular, he wore mostly black clothing he had short brown hair, I also noticed he was marred because he had a black lip ring on the left side. The man spoke again making me lose my train of thought.
"Hi, my name is Noah" he put out his hand for me to shake
"Audrey" I replied shaking his hand
During our introduction, the bus pulled up. We both got on the bus and took a seat. The first few minutes of the ride were quiet and peaceful, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Noah spoke again.
"So why are you out this late?" he asked me kindly
" I am a doctor at the local hospital, what about you?"
"I am a barista at 'The CoffeePot' yielding coffee all day is what I live for!" Noah replied jokingly
We talked about all sorts of things as the bus went from stop to stop. It was about two in the morning when the bus began to reach the final stops. We reached the third to last stop when four large men got on the bus, they were deathly pale and wore mostly red. Three of the men wore red hoodies, black jeans, and black combat boots. The fourth man wore a regular black and white suit, they all seemed to range in height and ages. They didn't seem to notice us since we were in the very back of the bus. The men took their seats in front facing away from us. While I was examining these men I heard Noah speak.
"Uh oh" he said under his breath
A few moments after that, Noah very quietly says to me so that no one else can hear
"When the bus stops do not get off"
I wanted to ask why but before I could the bus reached the second to last stop. Noah and I held our breaths as we waited for the men to get off. One by one the men with hoodies got off. I could tell they were fiends. As the man with the suit got off, he flashed a knife in a brandish way and scoffed at us in abhor. I immediately knew that they knew we were there the whole time. I was so scared of what he might do that I didn't even realize I was clutched onto Noah's arm shaking like a chihuahua. The man gave us a malevolent smile and then got off the bus. Before the bus could pull away the men popped all of the bus tires. We watched the men slowly walk towards the front of the bus; I let out a small cry and Noah put his hand over my mouth to tell me to be quiet. Before I could think, Noah grabbed my hand and we jumped out at the back of the bus. At that same moment I heard gunshots behind me. Noah and I ran until we could see my house. I frantically unlocked the door, almost dropping the keys, we stormed inside, and I locked the door behind us. We stood there for a few minutes catching our breath. Suddenly, there was a banging on the door and Noah looked at me with a finger to his lip. The banging went on for a few minutes or two then a flat object was passed under the door. We waited until the footsteps disappeared. Then Noah picked up the object and it was a bus ticket for 207 that read:
"Game On"
Noah dropped the ticket on the floor and paced back and forth for a few moments.
"Okay we've got about an hour before those guys come back." Noah spoke to himself silently.
I didn't know what to make of his words, Noah continued to pace around the room, I could feel my chest getting heavy, my hands began to shake, and the room began to spin and darken. I ran into the bathroom almost tripping over furniture. I immediately locked the door, I slid down the door until I was sitting on cool hardwood floor. I took a moment to breathe and assess what was going on. After a few minutes I attempted to stand up and splash some water on my face, but I was too dizzy. I tried to relax and calm down, I was startled by the sound of furniture scraping the floor as if someone was dragging it around, I could also hear the glass bottles being placed, these sounds confused me enough to make me curious. I wanted to know what these sounds were so I tried to move, however, I just ended up falling over on the floor, once I landed on the ground I let out a scream, I could feel a intense burning sensation on my elbow, I couldn't see the injury that well but I could feel the cool iron blood dripping down my arm. This must have freaked out Noah because within seconds he was knocking on the bathroom door.
"Audrey, are you alright in there?" Noah asked me jiggling the door handle
"Y-Yeah I'm alright" I lied.
I forced myself to get up and clean off my elbow, as I was cleaning off my elbow I looked in the mirror, my skin was unhealthy pale, my long and choppy black hair was disheveled, and my blue eyes had bags under them, I sighed to myself knowing that I look liked someone had just beat me with a baseball bat. Once I finished cleaning my elbow, I unlocked the door and tried to walk pass Noah as casually as possible. I moved toward the living room and was shocked to see that some of my furniture was moved in front of the door. It was impressive how the furniture was arranged. My walnut brown coffee table was placed so that it was blocking the front door and a few flower pots were placed slightly askew on top of the table. As my eyes were gazing the room I saw that my glass perfume bottles were placed over the window sills. Everything was placed in a way that it looked like a movie. I got distracted by the sound of chairs scraping the floor behind me. I turned around to see two of my dining room chairs, they were side by side but each one faced the opposite direction. Noah held out his hands, in his right hand was a gun and in his left was a knife, as if the situation couldn't get any stranger.
"Pick one" Noah said
"What?!" I practically screamed
"Whoa! Easy, just calm down, pick one, have a seat, and I'll explain as much as I can." Noah replied
After hesitating for a minute I finally decided, I picked the knife, mainly because I didn't want to have to shoot anyone and I could tell that the knife was from my kitchen so for some odd reason it was more comforting. I took a seat in the chair that faced the widows, Noah sat in the chair that faced the front door. Out of the corner of my eye could see Noah checking his watch, I also noticed a burn mark on his arm with the letters 'CGBS.' Before I got the chance to ask what the burn mark was from, Noah began his story.
"So when I was seventeen I had this friend named Lucis, I met him in high school, and he liked to do some pretty disturbing things....he liked to eat people...like cannibalism. One night Lucis forced me to go this event at his friend Dice's house. We got to the house and went inside, there were candles everywhere and I still remember the smell of soil, like an earthy smell. We followed a trail of dirt all the way to one of the bedrooms in the house. What happened next scared me for life, as we walked into the bedroom, someone came behind me and put a sack over my head and tied me to a chair. The sack made it difficult to see, but I could hear this nasty squishy sound and the sound of something snapping, it made my stomach turn. I leaned my head down a little bit and shook the sack off of my head. I slowly raised my head and too my horror, on a table in the middle of the room was a dead body, the body was tore apart, all of the intestines and bones were palpable. Standing around the body was Lucius and three other men, all three of them had dark, crimson red blood, on their hands and mouths. They all looked at me with a sinister gaze, I could hear the sound of the shortest man in the group chewing and I almost threw up. As I was pracitaclly gagging, Lucis looked at me and asked "'Hey Noah! Ready for initiation?'" "'Initiation? For what?'" I replied, "'To our society of course, this society has been around for 207 years and we want to make you our newest member'" Lucis stated.
Two of the men walked over and grabbed my arm, Lucis took a hot steel plate and branded my wrist. It was one of the most painful things I had ever experienced. The pain and shock caused me to pass out, I woke up a few days later and I was in my own house. At first I thought it was just a dream or that I was losing my mind, but went the burn mark didn't go away I realized that it was real. That day I moved to this town, bought a gun, and got a job here. The main reason those guys are hunting me down is because they need a new member and I moved towns so they want me back and the body they were eating that night belonged to a ex member of the soci--"
Noah was cut off my the sound of one of the flower pots falling off the coffee table. I've never seen someone stand up so fast in my life. Within a second Noah had the gun pointed at the door and was ready for whatever was going to try to come in. I turned around so that I could see the front door. The door was being pulled back and forth, I thought it was gonna be ripped off the hinges. The coffee table seemed like it was just struggling to keep the door closed. I watched as whoever was on the other side managed to break a small piece of the door off. The person on the other side of the door reached for the lock on the door. Three loud bangs rang through the air, noah fired shots at the person on the other side, they screamed and reatreated their hand. Just as they were pulling their hand back, the window behind me came crashing down. Noah and I whipped our bodies around. The two large men in the red hoodies stood in front of us dusting off a few pieces of glass and began walking closer to us. They were the same men from the bus stop. I saw a faint print on the men's hoodies that read 'Cannibalism and Grave Robbing Society.' I put two and two together and nearly had a heart attack. The taller male of the two gave me this cold grin that sent shivers down my spine.
"Hey Aboa look who brought a knife to a gunfight!" the taller man said to the shorter one, and they both began laughing
I was so terrified that I hid behind Noah, during this time the third man broke through the front door. We were completely surrounded, reality started to hit me again and I began to not be able to breath and my hands started to shake again. The taller man reached his hand out as if he was gonna touch my cheek. Noah fired another bullet but missed and ended up hitting Aboa in the shoulder.
"Gahh!! Dice did you really just let him shoot me?!" Aboa said to Dice
"Oh don't be a baby. Ren, will you go take care of him?" Dice said to Aboa and the man with a bleeding hand
The two men left and Noah still had the gun aimed at Dice's head. Almost immediately after the two men left, the man with a suit on walked in the front door. It was mesmerizing how his movements just seemed to glide. I was standing so close to Noah that I could feel his body tense up when this man walked in. Both men pulled out a gun and pointed it at each of us. The man in the suit looked Noah dead in the eye, he returned the gaze and the two of them stared at each other. They both had this stern look on their face, the silence between the four of us was deafening. My hands shook even worse than before and I felt like I was drowning. I had never been this nervous in my life, I looked over to see Dice approaching me again, I felt trapped, like there was no way out, my adrenaline kicked in and I drove the knife into Dice's thigh. He winced in pain and tried to pull the knife out but it was too deep.
"Dice! Leave or be quiet! I have unfinished business here." The man said to Dice and he stumbled out without saying another word
"Ah, Noah, nice to see you again. As you must already know I've been looking for you because you and I have some unfinished business and since you and this one have managed to injure all of my men, I'll give you a choice, it--"
"I don't want your choice!" Noah cut off the man
"Fine then she joins the society, and I will love making her watch as I rip you apart and eat you for dinner." The man stated pointing the gun directly at me
"Not a chance Lucis." Noah replied
Lucis lunged toward me knocking me to the ground. I screamed as my already sore elbow hit the floor. I struggled to break free as Lucis tried to pin me down. Every time I got loose enough to move Lucis would put more of his weight down on me, my ribs and lungs felt crushed, it was getting harder to breathe and I started to see spots. Noah grabbed Lucis by the shoulder and pulled him off of me, he punched Lucis in the face and the two of them had a all out fight. They were punching and tackling each other. I was still in shock but I had to do something to help Noah, I took a coffee cup that was closest to me, I walked up behind Lucis and smashed it on his head. Most of the porcelain went into Lucis body but Noah and I both accidentally got a shard stuck on our arm. Lucis fell over onto the floor and Noah took this time to scramble to his feet. Noah took his gun and pointed it at Lucis who had this unsettling grin on his face as if this wasn't over yet. Without a second thought Noah fired two shots at Lucis. I screamed as the sound rang through the air and some of the blood hit us both in the face. I looked at Noah and he had the expression that a weight was lifted off his shoulders. Noah took a step forward leaned over the body and said:
"Game Over."
