The Midnight Club

Boredom

Boredom. The root to all evil. It was the small, California town of Murrieta where our story begins. Seemingly a family's dream, with bowling alleys, trampoline parks, and a family fun center for people of all ages to enjoy. But when you live in a town like this your whole life, there comes a time when you've done it all, and the crave for a variety of entertainment takes hold. This is where our story begins, with our protagonist looking out the window of his bedroom, watching the sun set behind the hills that loomed over his highschool down the street, as he faced humanity's greatest problem that has temporary solutions but no permanent ones. He was facing boredom.

He watched the sun slowly go down, and the skies turn from blue, to red, to black. He sighed on occasion; it did not do much for his boredom, but if there were ghosts haunting his house, at least they knew he was bored too. As the skies turned black, for once in his pathetic life, he decided to do something about his boredom. He left his room, went down the stairs to the first floor of his house, and decided to take a walk. Little did he know, he just made the worst decision of his life.

The temperature was colder than usual. He debated to himself going inside and getting a heavier jacket on, but he pressed on. The suburban California streets were lit by the occasional street lamp, and only under them could he see the cracked asphalt of the street, the dirty concrete of the sidewalk, and the matching suburban house that were almost so monotonous, you almost couldn't tell them apart. Sporting tan and plain colors, they all might as well have been grey because in the night skies of Murrieta, they all seemed colorless. Our protagonist began to walk towards his school, the occasional breeze making it colder for him. But he pressed on; because even if he did freeze to death on this night, at least he died doing something.

He walked across the street, passed the walls of his highschool, and into the creek that lurked behind it. The water had long since dried in the many droughts California has had, so he decided to take a walk in it. He wandered down the creek for sometime, enough time for him to lose track of the hour, until he came across something he had never seen before. He saw an old cottage with the light on.

He had never seen anything like this before. It was all walled off by old, broken wood panels. It was double storied, and the windows were either cracked or shattered. But in the glass that let him see into the bottom story, he saw light shining through, and the silhouettes of strangers walking around. Everything in our protagonist told him to turn around and walk home. But he would be faced with the same problem if he went back. Boredom. So, in that moment, he decided that whatever is on the other side of the door to that old cottage, was better than sitting in his room, waiting for nothing. He walked up to the door of the old cottage and walked in.

He couldn't believe his eyes. He found himself in a living room, a dirty old couch was all that remained inside of it. Behind the living room, there was the doorway to a kitchen. There were not any refrigerators or ovens, there was just alcohol in many varieties displayed sloppily on the counter. To the left of the living room, there was another doorway. It leads to a dining room, with a large wooden table, and six ugly wooden chairs circling it. But the strangest thing of all was that there were lots of teenagers occupying the house, and they were all pale as snow, covered in small splatters of blood.

Every instinct in our protagonists body told him to run, but he decided outside of the cottage that this was better than being bored in his room, so he decided to open his mouth, and finally introduce himself.

"Good Evening." said our protagonist. "My name is Dylan. What are you all doing here?"

A teenager who looked about the same age as him approached Dylan. He too, was covered in blood. He pulled a switchblade out from his pocket and held it to Dylan's throat. The mysterious teenager pressed it against Dylan's throat until it drew small drops of blood, and secured his dominance in the confrontation in a raspy, stern voice.

"Who are you! Why did you come here! You don't just show up to the house of the midnight club uninvited!"

Out of the corner of Dylan's eye, he saw that to the right of the living room, there was a staircase that led to the upper floor. He heard slow steps climb down the staircase, until he saw a large figure. Another teenager, but he was larger in size, wearing a nicely trimmed neckbeard, and unlike the others, was not covered in any blood. He looked at the situation happening at the front door, and said politely,

"Now, Tyler. That's no way to treat our new friend, is it? Why don't you put the knife down and welcome him instead?"

Tyler looked at this new mysterious figure standing on the stairs with eyes full of anger, but he put the switchblade back in his pocket, and re-introduced himself.

"Hello, intruder. My name is Tyler. Why are you here?"

Dylan could still sense obvious anger in his voice, but he decided it was better than being held at knifepoint. He was honest with them, and told them why he had really come out all this way.

"I was bored." He said, with anxiety in his voice. "I decided to take a walk in the creek. I found this house and decided to check it out.

Tyler did not seem satisfied with Dylan's answer, but the stranger from the stairs now approached them. "Hello, Dylan." he said with a strangely friendly smile, which creepily contradicted the rest of the figures in the room covered in blood. "My name is Johnathan. But you may call me The Rat King. I am the leader and soul of the group you see before you. This is a club. The Midnight Club. And you walked in the middle of our meeting." Dylan decided to inquire a bit more

"Why are you all covered in blood?" He asked. "They are covered in blood because we have rules. Standards. Unwritten practices. There was a monster in our ranks." His voice became more upset the more he talked about the subject. "Most of us here are highschoolers. Teenagers. He was... older. He wanted to...let's say... romanticize one of the younger members of our little club. We didn't like that. So, The Midnight Clu-"

"We ate him alive!" Tyler interrupted violently. "That's the punishment for pedophilia! You eat the fruits that The Rat King's children bear, you get eaten by the Rat King's children!"

"Tyler!" Jonathan silenced him. He stared hard at Tyler, and Tyler nervously backed away. Jonathan looked back at Dylan and smiled. "Here in The Midnight Club, we have a certain set of rules. The punishment for those rules are harsh, for we don't believe in justice. Justice is a made up term so people don't feel bad about wanting revenge. There are only two truths to human conflict; Evil and Vengeance. In The Midnight Club, we only deal out vengeance."

Dylan was in awe. He couldn't believe what he had stumbled upon tonight. He had walked into the very lair... of a cult.