You Belong To Me

It was the end of the day and everyone was pretty much gone from El Camino College. I and Philip, my boyfriend, were sticking around for studying. As we started leaving, our friend Evan came over to us.

"What's up, you plebs! Are you guys leaving? You should join me. I'm supposed to meet up with Nora and Vincent at Red Rose Forest." Evan said.

"Sounds cool," I replied, looking at Philip.

"Alright, sure. Let's go."

We arrived there shortly. It was a huge forest that looked beautiful and bright in the day but dark and cold at night. As we walked in from the main gate, we saw Nora and Vincent already there, waiting for us.

"Heya, guys! You waited long?" Evan called to them.

"No, you came just on time," Nora responded.

"Hey, Lee. And Philip, and Evan." Vincent smiled when he saw me but it dropped when he saw Philip and Evan.

"Hi, jerk." Philip scowled. 

"Y'know, it's a miracle you can still walk on those chicken legs."

"It's a miracle you can even read."

"Guys, we came here to hang out, not fight." I stepped in.

"Oh...sorry," Phillip took hold of my hand.

After all of that, we quickly walked to the middle of the forest where there was a lake. Everything was fine and good for a while as we talked walking there. Once at the lake, Evan immediately took off his shirt, hat, vest and jumped into it.

"Come on in, you plebs!"

"Uh... I'm gonna refrain from going in there, especially since we have no idea what could be in that water." I denied.

"Whatever, I'm staying' in." Evan shrugged my words off. Dingus.

We stayed at that lake for an hour or two, splashing each other now and then, and just having a lot of fun. Vincent convinced me and Philip to stay longer and it was getting dark so Vincent went to get some wood for a fire pit. It had been about 10 minutes since he had left.

"Hey, where do you think Vincent is? You think he got lost?" I asked.

"Nah, Vince is always coming to this forest, I'm sure he's fine," Evan replied.

"But it's been a while, something could have happened. We should go find him."

"I'm sure he's not going through anything dreadful anyway, it's Vincent. But, if you're that worried for that jerk then I'll go with you to get him." Philip stood up, taking my hand.

"Evan, Nora, you guys need to help too. We'll meet back here once we find him, use your cell." I stood up and took two flashlights out of my bag. 

"Do you always carry flashlights on you?" Nora questioned.

"Just in case. Plus my little cousin sells these and I took pity on him." I handed Evan one of the flashlights and gave the other to Philip.

We then split up and I and Philip were walking east together. Philip was shining the flashlight in front of us as our footsteps made loud crunches beneath us. It was dead quiet until I started yelling out for Vincent.

"Vincent! We need to go!" Nothing. It was so quiet, it was almost eerie. The most you could hear was a cricket chirping.

It was also very dark. You could only see just a few inches in front of your feet without a flashlight.

"You sure this is a good idea? Maybe he ditched us or is playing a stupid prank." Philip frowned.

"He would never take a prank this far. I don't have a good feeling about this but we need to find him." I looked at Philip with a stern face.

We continued walking for nearly 15 minutes.

"Man, he definitely left us. Lee, Vincent's a total d-" Philip was interrupted by a swift slashing noise against a tree, along with some footsteps.

"Vincent?" Again, silence.

"Lee, I think we should go," Philip whispered shakily.

"No! I'm not leaving until I know Vincent's okay." I snatched the flashlight from his hand and continued walking with Philip slowly coming up behind me.

It had now been another 15 minutes and I heaved my feet deep into the forest. There was a small abandoned shack there. We walked in and the floorboards creaked slightly. The walls had chipped paint and looked like they could collapse at any moment. I pointed the flashlight everywhere and to my mortification, there was a freshly used, bloody axe.

"I-is that...real blood?" My whole body shook as I held on to Philip's arm.

"Oh my god...let's get out of here before anything happens-" A body then roughly fell from the ceiling, hitting the ground with a loud CRACK through the floorboards. I shrieked, running over to the body and realizing it was...

Oh God, it was Evan.

His head had been bashed in, blood oozing everywhere; looking almost inhuman.

"Evan...! No...," I cried.

"Evan! Ugh..." Philip covered his mouth with his hand, tears forming in his eyes.

I couldn't cry. I think Evan would have thought his death was in vain if I cried.

There was another slashing sound. I and Philip immediately hid behind some boxes in the corner of the shack with stealth. Someone very tall and in a bright red leather jacket with a terrifying bloody mask on his face walked into the shack, dragging Nora's dismantled corpse.

His mask was dirty yellow and covered with metal wires which seemed to be holding the whole thing together. Carved into it was a large smile. Blood was splattered all over it and covered the identity of the person wearing it.

He dropped Nora's body on the ground like a ragdoll. He looked around the shack, turning his head slowly and walking around heavily, making the whole shack shake and creak.

"Lee? I know you're here~" The voice coming from the mask sounded somewhat distorted. Like a machine.

The man suddenly took off his mask, revealing it to be...Vincent. He then ran over to the boxes, dropping them and grabbing my wrist. Vincent pulled me away from Philip and stabbed him in the head with a nearby spike.

Vincent turned to me and said in an exhilarated tone, "Finally, he's gone...I...love you, Lee. You belong to me."