Time seemed to move slower as I inched towards the door at
the end of the hallway. I know what’s behind the door. I know what I’m about to
see. What I’m unsure of is what I’m going to do when our eyes lock and he sees
directly through me, I’m defenseless and weak. Before I can open the door I
vomit over the side of the staircase.
Two hours prior I was sitting on a couch, it was a Friday
night in late October. My friend had invited me to her party, and I accepted
the invite and even brought a plus one. My guest happened to be my boyfriend, Jason,
whom is substantially smaller and weaker than me. We’re at a house party and
I’m not enjoying myself. Large parties are not an endeavor of mine, but we
ended up showing up to the party just because my friend who invited me really
wanted me to meet some new guy she’s having a fling with. When I walk through
the front door there is a stair case about 7 ft. from the entrance to the house
that then divides into two stair cases, each leading up to an adjacent side of
the house. The stair case has intricately carved wood up the banister and sides
of the flight. The stairs themselves are a grey sort of marble, just like the
platform that I’m standing on directly in front of the door. To my left there
is a step down and then a den or sitting room which then turns into an actual
living room with couches and a ginormous TV. Just behind the living room is the
dining area then the kitchen. Eventually the kitchen connects to a formal
dining room, which is on your immediate right upon entering the house. However
when I walk in the beautiful architecture is not the first thing I notice. My
friend comes to Jason and me, and hugs us, slurring about how exhilarated she
is that we made it to the party, we continue on through the den and into the
actual living room where the majority of the people are at. To my surprise I am
acquaintances with over half of the party goers and am able to strike up
arousing conversations quite easily. As I talk to my first acquaintance I
notice a black silhouette in the corner of the room, sitting on the couch. He’s
got long greasy black hair that sits perfectly on his head. His teeth, I
notice, are almost an orange color, probably from lack of brushing. The first
time we make eye contact I feel like my insides are melting inside of me, or
like on the Superman ride at Six Flags, almost as if I’m free falling. I step
back, attempting to get away from this crowd of people, and I make my way to
the kitchen, where my best friend, Lena, whom invited me to the party, and
Jason are making drinks. They ask me if I’d like a drink of something called
Fireball and I say no, because it doesn’t sound pleasant, and then proceed to
ask Lena who the boy in the corner is. She says that’s the guy she’s been
wanting me to meet and then starts ranting about how wonderful and polite he is.
Frantically, I try to improvise some decent reason as to why I don’t want to go
meet this shadow of a man. I say that I’m not feeling well and would like to go
outside to get some fresh air, Jason doesn’t complain and follows suit. Lena
says that the meeting can wait until I’m feeling better, so we head outside to
the back patio.
Surprisingly, there’s no one else out here so Jason and I sit
down in nice rolling patio chairs. There’s a large glass table in the center of
the patio which is surrounded by screen and has a metal roof. The floors are
wooden and there are several potted plants along the outside walls, hugging the
screens. Jason asks if I’m okay, and while lighting a cigarette I reply, “Yes,
I’m fine. I just needed fresh air.” My reply satisfies him and he drops the
subject. We finish our cigarettes and just as we’re about to go back inside
Lena and her mystery man open the back door and enter the patio. They sit in
the chairs opposite of us, and as Lena keeps babbling about something like
clothes or nails, I feel like I’m shriveling up into a small amount of
nothingness. She introduces us to Richard, and I start to feel dizzy almost. I
tell Lena that we were just planning on going back inside, and she says that it’s
too hot in there and she likes the intimacy of smaller groups, thus persuading
Jason and me to stay outside. After a few minutes of mindless conversation Lena
asks me if I’d like a drink now, and I finally agree. She asks Jason and
Richard if they’d like one and they both say no, so Lena drags me into the
kitchen with her. Upon the first moment we can get out of sight from the boys
she asks me what’s the matter, all I can say is, “Parties aren’t really my
thing.” How could I explain the way he is making me feel? We make some girly
drinks, and head for the back door. As we enter the patio, I expect to see
Jason and Richard, but instead there is no one out there, anywhere. On the
table I see our shared pack of cigarettes, and there’s one stray cigarette on
the ground, laying there as if it was intended to be smoked but was never lit. After
going back inside and skimming around all the faces trying to find Jason I see
Richard, he’s standing now, against the opposite wall of where I am. Lena runs
to him and asks, “Where did you and-“, but before she can finish I interrupt
bluntly with, “Where’s Jason?” Richard, directing his speaking towards me, but
looking at Lena says, “We went out front to look at my car. He went into his
car and said he’ll be right back.” I tell Lena to stay here with Richard while I go find Jason.
I walk out onto the front lawn, and realize that Lena was
right, it was hot in there, and it feels good to be outside in the brisk
October air. I go to Jason’s car and find no sign of him or anything, and as I’m
shutting his driver side door, I hear a blood curdling scream from inside the
house. Then all of the party goers are frantically stumbling out of the house,
screaming. I try to ask one of them what’s happening, but there all delirious and
drunk so it’s pretty much a lost cause. I look up into the window of an
upstairs room, hypothesizing that maybe there’s a fire and that’s why everyone
evacuated so quickly. When I look up I see Richard, by candle light, smiling
down at me. I run to the front door of the house after all of the people at the
party have left and wiggle the knob but have no luck. The door is locked, they’re
all locked. I call Jason multiple times and on my third call I hear the receiver
pick up but Jason, I know, isn’t on the other end of the line. Crying, I scream
into the phone, “Where is Jason?! Unlock the doors and let me in. I know it’s
you, Richard, and whatever you’re doing is not going to work.” Before the person
on the other end of the line can respond, the front door slams open, but I see
no one behind it to open it. As I walk in it slams behind me on its own as
well. In the house I see a trail of blood leading up to one of the bedrooms. I
take each stair carefully, knowing that if I decided to call the police they
wouldn’t get here in time, and they would bust Lena for having a party. I crawl
up the stairs stealthily. Time seemed to move slower as I inched towards the
door at the end of the hallway. I know what’s behind the door. I know what I’m
about to see. What I’m unsure of is what I’m going to do when our eyes lock and
he sees directly through me, I’m defenseless and weak. Before I can open the
door I vomit over the side of the staircase. Upon opening the door to a quaint
bedroom made for a child I see Jason. He’s strung up by his neck to the light
fixture at the top of the ceiling, he’s choking and squirming, but he’s not
dead yet. I look around the room for something he can stand on and find a
rocking chair. I put it directly underneath him and just as the tips of his
toes are touching the fabric of the chair, the hair on the back of my neck
raises and I whip around to see Richard in the doorway. When Jason sees him, he
starts to go crazy, flailing his arms and legs, screaming behind the cloth
around his mouth. I see that Richard is wounded, he’s bleeding out of his right
rib cage, however his eyes have a passion in them that almost burns to look at.
Stunned by everything that’s happening, I catch myself falling into a fight or
flight situation, and with Jason here and hurting I’m not going to run. In the
blink of an eye, Richard has taken on both Jason and I, tying Jason up to the
rocking chair that was once his savior, and me to a chair opposite Jason. As I
sit there and watch Richard torture Jason with tools, probing him, with sharp
metal utensils, I try not to watch. When he’s done I look up to see Jason. He
doesn’t look like the Jason I know, this one is bloody and his face has been altered
with sharp tools. His cheekbones have been exposed, and his hair shaved off. I
realize that Richard is going to attempt some type of lobotomy on him. Jason
and I take one last moment of eye contact, expressing my love for him with tears
and attempted shouts, and then after perusing Jason’s brain to his liking, Richard
kill’s the love of my life by slitting Jason’s neck open, pouring all of the still
warm blood onto the wooden floor. I close my eyes, and come to terms with the
fact that I’m going to die right here next to the love of my life, and the
comforts me almost. Richard calls Lena, and asks her to come upstairs. Now not
only am I going to have to sit here and watch my love get killed, but also my
best friend. When she opens the door, she’s all smiles. Her smile is almost
radiant enough for me to feel better, like everything is going to be okay,
until she turns to me and without even looking pours some smelly liquid all
over me, the room, and Jason’s body. Before I know it I’m engulfed in smoke and
flames. I inch my way over to Jason and lay down on the ground next to
him. I squeeze my eyes closed, letting
the tears fall now, kiss Jason goodbye, and lay there with him until we both
fall into an eternal sleep.
