Moving to Hell

Do you believe me?

Johnny and I decided not to tell our parents about what happened that day. They wouldn't believe us anyways, and they would be upset that Johnny used one of our father's guns without permission. Johnny and I think it must have been just an over-bred alligator from the previous residents, and since they've been away for a long time, he must've been terribly hungry, so he wanted to eat me. I don't quite believe it, and I'm sure Johnny doesn't either, but we don't need a reason to be more scared than we already are. The weekend's over, and I have to go to school again. It's almost like nothing happened, except for the fact that Johnny and I don't completely hate each other anymore. We're actually starting to like one another. Something I never saw for possible. Guess things change when you're almost eaten by a monster while you're playing hide and seek. I don't want to go to school today. I'm still not over the incident, but besides that I don't like the teacher. I'm even a little scared of her. She gives me a really bad feeling, but of course that isn't something I can tell my parents. 'I don't want to go to school today,' I suddenly say to my brother. He looks up to me, a little irritated. 'Yeah? What do you want me to do about it, sis? It's not like I can do something,' he says. I sigh. I know he's right. 'But I really don't want to go, Johnny. I'm- I'm scared.' I've never told him this before. I swallow. I see my brother frown. 'What do you mean? Why are you scared? Don't you like your classmates or something?' I shake my head. 'No, it's none of that... It's just-' I don't seem to get out of my words. 'Well?' Johnny asks. It's taking him too long. I bite my lip. 'Listen, I don't have all day, alright? So or you tell me what's wrong right now or you go away from me and leave me alone so I can do more productive things with my time.' 'There's something odd about my teacher, Johnny. She's acting really weird and scary. I don't trust her. I don't know, I can't really explain it. It's just a feeling I have.' Johnny places his hands on my shoulders and looks me in the eyes. 'Listen to me, sister. You worry to much. I get that the things that happened last weekend were pretty frightening, but you shouldn't be scared about everything know. That doesn't help you. Just go to school and focus on happy things, alright? There must be something happy at school you can think about, right?' Johnny says. I smile vaguely. 'Or someone...' I whisper. I immediately think of Valentino. 'See? There you go. Nothing to be scared of. Now, go downstairs. You don't want to miss breakfast before you go to school.'

Every time I arrive at school it seems to look scarier. I know that isn't possible, but I still got the feeling. The building holds my breath. Every time I approach the building I feel a pressure on my belly and my stomach contracts. There's no possible way I can tell Johnny about this, he'd simply say I worry about it to much. But what if I don't worry about it enough? I've thought about it for a while now and every time it concerns me more. Valentino sees my worried face and asks if I'm okay. What should I say? 'Eh...' That's the only word that comes out of my mouth. It doesn't raise Valentino's mind. In fact, it makes me more worried. 'Is there something I don't know about?' He asks. He sounds so sweet and caring... I know that if I'd tell him what happened to me and my brother, Johnny'd be furious and then you still have the fact that Valentino probably wouldn't believe it, but on the other hand was lying to him the last thing I wanted to do. He deserved better than that. I sigh deeply. 'Yeah, there is...' I softly say. In the mean time Mrs. Benson has discovered we're having a conversation during class, and she's isn't happy about it. Something that sounded closest to a growl escapes from her mouth and she looks murderous at us. Valentino and I swallow and focus on our work. Mrs. Benson doesn't have to say anything to let us do what she wants, everyone's scared of her and everyone listens to her. I don't know what happens if you don't listen, but I'm not willing to figure that out.

After school, I wait with going home. First I'm going to tell Valentino everything, we're friends after all. I take a deep breath and look around. I don't want anyone to overhear our conversation. I'm not sure what'll happen then. 'You seem nervous, Jackie,' Valentino says. I try to force a smile, but it doesn't help. I can better hurry. 'Last weekend something had happened to me... something bad...' I start. Valentino frowns. 'What happened?' He asks immediately. You can hear the concern in his voice. Fastly I tell him all about my adventure with the green, big, slimy monster and how it tried to eat me. I also tell him how lucky I was that Johnny saved me, he also could've let me be eaten, but instead he came to rescue me. 'I don't know why he did it, though,' I confess. 'Did what?' Valentino hasn't said anything about it yet and I don't know what he thinks of it. 'I don't know why Johnny saved me. I mean, I know we're family, but we hated each other! Why does he give his life to save me if he doesn't like me?' Valentino raises his shoulders. 'Stranger things happen in the world.' He sounds blunt. I don't know why he suddenly acts this way. 'What do you mean?' I ask. Valentino clacks his tongue and laughs mockingly. 'You don't really expect me to believe in the witchcraft you just told me, do you? Because that would mean this town may be haunted and that's simply impossible!' He was mad. I was perplexed. 'I'm just telling you what happened,' I say with a soft voice. I sounded less confident than I did before. That's probably because of Valentino's sudden mood swing. Valentino sighs. 'Jackie, I really like you, okay? You're the best friend I've had since I moved to this somewhat creepy town and that's why I really want to believe what you're telling me, but have you heard yourself? It doesn't make any sense! You probably imagined it or at least it wasn't as bad as you told me, because it CAN'T be...' I can't believe my ears. I don't know what to say. I didn't expect this to be his reaction. I feel tears coming up. I try to swallow them away, to ignore them, but they're stronger than me. 'How can you say that?...' I purred, 'you make it sound like I'm crazy...' Tears also shone in Valentino's eye corners. 'Maybe you are.' I couldn't listen anymore, I couldn't take it anymore. I turned around and left. I felt betrayed and terrible. I never expected him to turn his back on me like this and yet it still happened.