There's something in the Air-Besides Love

Be cool

Steve and Brandon were hoisting him up. I could see him now, his white shirt was covered in scum. Once he was out of the hole he scrambled away from it.

I stood up and peered over the dark canal, "Where's your board, Franky?"

"Get away from there, Mickey!" Franky screamed.

"I think we should get out of here," Steve said, walking away nervously.

Brandon came over to me and pulled me by my hand and we followed them to Steve's house.

The four of us were scared out of our mind. I couldn't help but think about all the people that were still down there, why didn't they come out?

I bugged them all with my over thinking as we sat in Steve's living room drinking root beers.

"Was that supposed to be some type of joke?" Brandon got up and paced the room using his hands to convey all that he couldn't say, "What the hell was that about?"

Franky sat speechless shaking his head slowly, in that "traumatized victim" type of way.

Steve, upset, rested his head on the back of the couch, still trying to catch his breath.

I looked down at my shoes for the first time since our frantic escape. They were covered in a gross film. yuck.

"Okay okay," Brandon said abruptly,"Maybe we should all just calm down, just forget it ever happened."

Steve chuckled, "Yeah right, man. Come out of that fairytale head of yours. We're all scared as shit," he glanced at Franky, "Look at the Franks, he's petrified."

Franky shook his head slowly again, staring blankly into space. "I saw them. They're not people."

"Theyre not people?" Steve said in disbelief, "Of course they're people, they were just wearing masks. This one needs a nap."

"Oh shut up Steve, Franky what'd you see?" I said.

He didn't reply.

I rose to my feet, "Fine, well maybe we should go back," I could see the sun was beginning to set, "We've got time before its dark, we could get a better loo"-

"No way. Seriously, Mickie, are you insane?" Steve said, twisting the top of another root beer.

"Oh c'mon, don't be chicken, don't make me go out by myself."

Brandon rose to his feet slowly, "I'll go with," he paused. " I mean, somebody's gotta bring the body back," he smiled.

"Oh, how considerate."

Franky was walking from one of the back rooms, and I hadn't even realized he'd gotten up. He tossed two rubber masks at us. "You might wanna hurry up," he said walking us to the door.

Brandon and I stepped onto the porch.

"You coming with us, Franks?"

"Like hell," he said. The door slammed shut.

I held the girl cow mask in my hands, Brandon had a pig mask. The air was purple.

...

"So, what d'we do when we get there?"

"I don't know, honestly. I can't believe I'm doing this," I said.

We were walking back to the park, boards in hand. There were lesser cars on the street. And now I realized that I wouldn't be back in time to miss Trisha's "be back in the house at 7" lecture. She'd probably be really worried, and I was full of regret.

"Oh come on, now you're unsure?"

"Look I don't know what I saw, okay?"

Our feet marched on the smooth pavement.

"But now your friend's all crazy, and this whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like, what we saw earlier wasn't normal."

"I agree," Brandon said in a soft tone. "We've only been there twice before, and we were sent there by some pipsqueaks."

Our attention was stolen by a group of rowdy kids who looked like they'd just come from a halloween party. By the look of their shoes, it was quite obvious they were skaters.

..."Yeah man that place's awesome, I don't know what the hell that was earlier"... "I finally learned how to land my nollie!"... "That was so weird they came out of nowhere!"... "Hey!"

"Hey!"

They were talking to us. Running to confront us. They smelled like, the human body when its put to work.

"Were you guys there earlier?" one of them asked. Easy to assume they noticed the masks we were half wearing.

I looked at Brandon. He made a "I dunno what to do" face.

"Er, yeah we were there." I replied quickly, trying to get as much information as I could since this was an opportunity, "What was that? was that normal?"

The guy pulled of his mask,"Well I don't know man but it was badass," He was a red head, his face was covered in sweat soaked freckles.

"I just saw one of my buddies, Connor, running and so I ran, plus he's been going to that place and I guess its a ritual or something," His eyes lit up like a little kid.

The girl in the group pulled off her mask, she had drawn on orange eyebrows and her hair was a dirty blonde, "Are you two headed to the after party?"

Brandon nodded going along with it.

"Far out! Im going, but I'm coming back later cause I'm filthy. We're going back home to get cleaned up, maybe we'll see you there."

"See you there!" Brandon said with false excitement, pulling me along.

"You must really like touching me Brandon, I've been getting touchy feely vibes from you all day."