Never Again

Chapter 8

Katie's - POV

I never knew how to feel about Sundays, because on one hand it was the weekend so I had no school but on the other, it was also just the day before school started so I had to do any left over work and go to sleep earlier than either Friday or Saturday.

I had no set time to do my work so I put it off until later.

I hadn't seen Jill, Hugh or Jessica outside of school in a while so I invited them over as I knew they had nothing to do.

"Hey!" Jill exclaimed hugging me. "It feels like we haven't seen eachother outside of school in a while. I'm so glad you called. It was getting boring just sitting in my room all day. Everyone else was staying at Naomi's house and you know I hate that bitch."

I laughed. I always loved how eccentric and vivacious Jill was. She made everything better.

I was suddenly squared into a tight hug.

"Why does Jill get all the attention," Hugh whined. "I'm here too you know?"

I laughed and squeezed him back, then let go and stepped back with a smile.

"Did you bring the thing?" I asked, adding emphasis to 'thing'.

Hugh reached into his massive bag and pulled out four giant gummy Coca-Cola bottles, still in their cardboard packaging.

We'd always talked about getting some massive sweets but we'd never gone through with the idea but for some reason I felt more confident and had actually got Hugh to buy them for all of us with some of the money I was left for food.

"Yes!" I exclaimed excitedly, snatching one of the boxes out of his hands.

I stared at it in awe as Hugh gave one to Jill and Jessica while keeping one for himself.

We sauntered into the front room carrying extra snacks... crisps, Chocolate, the lot.

We sat down and I put on a movie I'd been wanting to watch but hadn't got the chance to until now. Spider-man into the spider-verse. All the reviews I'd seen of it had been extremely good and I was excited about the prospect of not only watching it for the first time, but also having the first time experience with my best friends as well.

I pressed play on the movie and got comfortable while ripping open the packaging that was caging my enormous gummy.

I tucked in and enjoyed the movie.

                                 ~~~~~~~~~

I woke with a start.

Wrappers were strewn all over the table in the middle of the front room and the bowls of crisps were all gone apart from a few flakey bits at the bottom.

I heard a crash, which startled me and I looked around at all my friends.

Jessica, Hugh and Jill were fast asleep.

My heart started to pound and I felt the need to wake one of them up, so I went over to Jessica and tapped her incessantly on the shoulder but no matter how hard I tried, she wouldn't wake up.

Next I tried Hugh and then Jill. Both ended in the same result.

I heard a quiet creek from upstairs and decided that this time I would be stronger and not let the person get away.

Quietly, I went into the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife I could find.
A 10 inch meat knife was what I came out of there with, which definitely made me feel more confident.

Slowly I crept upstairs, making sure to miss all the squeaky parts on the way up.

When moving down the hallway stealthily, I suddenly heard the same sound again. I froze when I heard where it was coming from.

It was coming from my room.

I shook my body and felt myself fill with adrenaline now that I knew someone was definitely here, as the sound being made could only be made by a someone and wouldn't occur on its own!

I also knew that all the people I had invited over were sleeping extremely deeply downstairs; so deeply infact that I couldn't wake any of them up to come with me for this. So it definitely wasn't any of them.

Mum was also not back yet, she was coming back later today.

As I got to the door I listened at it for a few minutes, which felt like hours, but I didn't hear anything.

Feeling myself calm down I berated my mind for playing tricks on me, but something about the situation still didn't feel right to me so I opened the door cautiously.

At first glance I saw nothing inside. It was empty. It was only when I walked into the room and turned on the light that I was able to analyse everything properly.

My room didn't look much different but I could tell someone had been in there.

From the rug being moved slightly to the right, to my door stopper being flung to the other side of the room.

As I continued to look silently from the doorway I heard some movement from outside.

I descended down the stairs at a much faster pace than before, but still trying to make as little noise as possible.

When I got into the living room I saw the Bodyguard book was wide open and my first thought was that I had to close it quickly as all my friends were asleep so none of them could've done this and they weren't the type to pull pranks like this.

Quickly I rushed over to the door, not caring about how much noise I was making now. My heart pounded in my ears as I grabbed the handle of the open door and started to pull it closed when a shadow caught my eye.

Someone was out there.

Watching. Stalking. Waiting.

For what? I could only hope I never found out.

This thought was quickly cut short as I realised that there was someone closer.

I had stopped shutting the door when I saw the first shadowy figure so it was still half open.

Trying to rectify my mistake I pulled as hard as I could on the door, trying to shut it before the person could stop me.

I was too late.

They jammed their hand inside the door before using their other one to forcefully shove it open. They stalked into the room wearing all black with a ski mask on.

I noticed a white rag in their hand, parts of it looking slightly damp. I tried backing away but they lunged and easily grabbed me before I could even move.

The rag was closed around my mouth and nose and I struggled frantically with every ounce of my strength to get it off while holding my breath but that plan was futile.

There was no hope and soon I drifted into the lonely darkness of unconsciousness.