Strangers Of The Night

Zurial

Monday started just like any other day. Everyone got up and ready for school. They had a very strange weekend. So, everyone was just keeping to themselves. It was too quiet. Mom had gone into her room to change. While all the kids were eating breakfast, when out of nowhere, the pots fell onto the floor and coffee mugs flew across the kitchen. Nearly missing Max's head by a few millimeters. Everyone screamed and ran to the Livingroom. Mom came rushing down the stairs yelling, "What happened? Is everyone okay?" Brisa said, "Yeah, something is going on. This house is weird, I don't like it here." Mom shouted, "Oh just stop, everything is fine." Arianna yelled, "No mom, everything is not fine, the coffee mugs almost hit Max." Nicolas added, "Yeah mom, nobody touched anything!" Noelia added," Yeah mom, the pots and pans fell from the hooks too." Mom moved over toward Max and asked if he was okay. "Yeah I'm fine. I just want to get to school!" Max shouted. "Okay, well get going then." said Mom. Everyone got up and rushed out the door. We all planned on taking the bus this morning, well except Emilio. He planned on riding with Brisa. They got into her car and Emilio told her he wanted to go to the library, to find out what's going on and what happened in their house. He told her something about a cemetery behind the house. They both thought they would ask around the school to see if anyone knew the "Garcia's". The day was going by fast. Emilio was in the library during reading block, when he noticed a girl in the far corner of the library, over by the window and the shelf of mystery books. She was just staring at him while writing something in a notebook. He was just a little creeped out. She was white with long black hair. Her makeup was on point, she looked like Elvira dressed in all black. He decided to be brave and introduce himself, maybe she didn't have any friends. He got up from the table and headed toward her, she closed her notebook and looked down into a book trying to avoid contact with anyone. Emilio got to her table and pulled out a chair, "Hello, do you mind if I sit here?" The girl said, "Go ahead." Emilio told the girl his name, she replied, "I know who you are..." Emilio looked puzzled, he has never seen her in his life, yet she knew him somehow. He decided to go with it, he was already frightened from the weekend, what's a little more? "Oh, I wasn't aware that I introduced myself," Emilio said. "No, its just been around the school that your family just moved into the old Garcia's place up on Cemetery," the girl said. "Yes, we did, my dad bought the house," said Emilio. "Well that was a mistake," the girl snapped. "What is your name?" Emilio asked. The girl said, "Just call me, Zuriel." Emilio said, "Okay, Zuriel. Nice to meet you..." Zuriel said, "Likewise, I guess." Emilio asked, "Okay, so what's the story about "The Garcia's place"? I hear a lot about it." Zuriel answered, "Well what do you want to know?" He replied, "Whatever you can tell me. Can you keep a secret?" She said, "Yeah, I probably could..." He said, "We've been here two and a half weeks, and some really strange things have been happening... I think I'm losing it. My little brother is having nightmares too." She quickly stated, "It's that house." He asked, "What do you mean, the house?" She said, "Do you even know what happened to the Garcia's?" He said, "No, I don't. My brothers' friends Azrael and Jasper were acting peculiar when they spent the night on Friday. Who is Xavier? I take it he was a friend of them?" She yelled, "WAIT, JASPER GARCIA WAS AT THE HOUSE?!?! HE SLEPT THERE, AND AZRAEL WAS WITH HIM?!?!? Xavier wasn't Jasper's friend, he was his cousin, and Azrael was his best friend." He said, "Okay..." She said, "Everyone knows that SHE took Xavier." He was confused, "Who took him?" Zuriel answered, "His girlfriend." He said, "What girlfriend, where? Were you friends with Xavier?" She said, "I lived kitty-corner from his house las year when it all went down. After everything did down, my parents moved a few blocks away. We crossed paths a few times when he was going through depression." He replied, "Wow. I didn't realize..." Zuriel replied, "Yeah, he was cool. Just starting to go through that stage- you know; girlfriends, peer pressure, drugs, drinking, sexual activity. People said that he was talking to someone on social media for a few months, they never even met. They messaged and called all the time. A lot of exchanging pictures. She was from Colombia and said she was sixteen. It all got back to his parents. They were furious with him. They took away his computer, tablet, and phone. Said he couldn't date anyone. One day, he took four hundred and fifty dollars, so he could get a ticket to fly to Colombia to be with "Adriana". He would tell some of the neighbor kids how he was going to run away, so he could be with his girlfriend. How he didn't care about school. He changed. It was almost like Adriana was trying to lure him to Colombia and feeding him stories. Things got heavy. His parents went to the school to talk a counselor. Soon they talked to Xavier. I heard that the mom called the police and found out the Adriana wasn't in Colombia, she was in Milwaukee, and she was twenty-six years old. The police said that she didn't break any laws, so they couldn't do anything about it." Emilio said, "What the hell? That's bizarre! So where is his family now?" She replied, "Yeah, he had twin sisters and the parents were found dead in the cemetery behind the house." He asked, "Who killed them?" Before she could answer, the bell rang. Emilio shouted, "Wait, here's my number in case you want to hangout sometime." She said, "Okay, as long as it's far away from your house."

Meanwhile, Max was having his own share of problems. The guys seen him wave but didn't care. He thought he did something wrong to them. At lunch Arianna and Max sat together and Jasper and Azrael sat with a different group of friends. Arianna told Max that some of her friends heard that some crazy stuff happened at the house on Friday and it happened in the room they meant it. He was furious nobody was supposed to know. Max got up from the table, walked over to Jasper and Azrael. He said, "Hey guys, what's up? You all going to act like strangers now? I guess this is what real friends do now a days, huh?" Jasper said, "No, what are you talking about?" They all got up from the table and walked into the hallway by an exit. "Didn't we agree not to bring up what happened at my house to anyone?" Max asked. "Yeah, well that was until someone told us that you had video of what happened with the damn Ouija board on your Facebook..." Azrael snapped. Max replied, "Wait, what are you guys talking about? I never posted anything about the weekend on my Facebook." So, Azrael took out his phone to show Max. Sure enough, it was there, the most recent post on Max's feed. Max said, "Guys, I never posted this, I swear." And they believed him. Max said, "Okay, well some weird things have been happening at my house and I don't know what to think anymore. This morning coffee mugs flew across the kitchen and nearly missed my head!" Emilio texted Max and said that Xavier was Jasper's cousin, and that Xavier had a girlfriend named Adriana. Max just stood there looking at Jasper. Max said, "Guys, when are we going to talk about the band?" Jasper said, "We've been meaning to talk to you about it..." "yeah I just told my pen pal Adriana about me being in a band" stated Max." Nice! Is she cute?" asked Azrael. "I don't really know her like that we've only been talking for a few weeks" he answered. So, Max texted Emilio asking for more information about the girl he was running out of things to say. He didn't want them catching on thinking he was making everything up. Emilio hurried and texted back telling Max shed from Colombia but lives in Milwaukee. And that she really wasn't sixteen. She was twenty-six. Max tried not to look like he was reading straight from a text. He started moving around walking telling the guys that she was Colombian and that she was just a little bit older then him. By two or three years. Jasper looked shocked. "really so where she lives now and that's not to bad." He said. "oh, right now she's in Milwaukee" Said Max. "well if you ask me that's just a bunch of a whole lot of trouble waiting to happen. You shouldn't talk with people you never meant in person and become friends with just because you really don't know how people are these days. Your parents ever teach you about stranger danger when you were in kindergarten Max?" snapped Jasper. "Right but I know what I'm doing it's not like I'm going to runaway with her and sign my life away" Argued Max. "Well I'm just saying as a friend id advise you to just stay clear of people you don't really know. Things bad very horrifying and serious things can happen when no one is watching or paying attention" Jasper yelled as he walked away. He yelled for Jasper to come back "okay I get it I understand Jasper are you okay did something happen to you do you need to talk about it? He Shouted. Looking over at Azrael he shook his head like he was warning Max to not go there. But Max already knew he opened battle scares of some sort. Then Jasper turned around and walked back up to Max and said "no I just knew a girl Adriana some time ago and it was a whole lot of ugly. I time id like to long forget. And it seems like it just keeps haunting me." The bell rang and they all ran through the hallway to get to class. Before they knew it, school was out. Max couldn't wait to get home and find Emilio. It sounded like he had better luck and had some information about Xavier he couldn't wait to hear. He got home marched up the stairs and walked into Emilio's room. But he wasn't home yet. Nobody was yet. So, Max sat at the bottom of his bed he waited for about ten minutes. A big boom came from down stairs. Then loud footsteps on the stairs the shadow in the hallway. And through the door it was Emilio he came in threw his bag down and told Max he had a lot to tell him.