by Tobias Wade
It was a simple prank, but thinking about it more, it was a bit cruel to do that to an innocent animal.
Barry was in a few classes with me, so I actually got to hang out with him in school and after school. He was really nice to my parents when I first introduced him to my mom and dad, and we played some video games in my bedroom. My parents know about the kind of trouble he usually gets in, but Barry told me that he’d never act like himself around anyone related to his friends or family, unless he wanted to. Sometimes. I was introduced to his parents. His parents didn’t care much about how they act in the house. His dad was a man who drank a lot and usually wore a white tank top and shorts that had a few stains on them—I wouldn’t ask what the stains are though, but he’s actually very welcoming once you get to know him, just like Barry. His mom was the kind of parent who was hardworking and tried to keep the house clean, usually drenched in sweat every time you’d see her, but she’s also kind as well. It reminds me of the old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, don't you think?
That’s what Barry and his parents are like, but I’m the opposite. I live in a small, decent house that’s always clean for anyone to come and visit with my mom and dad, and my little sister, Cassandra. You’d pretty much expect what they did for a living; both have great jobs, they have great well-behaved children, and are living a great life. As long as I’m doing well to make my parents happy, I’m happy with the way I am.
I'm out in the school parking lot, standing as I wait to see if Barry would come out and ride our bikes home. Most of the time, he would be in the principal’s office, either about whatever shenanigans he got himself into, or about whatever dropping grade he has in one of his classes. I have a way of finding out if he is in there, by counting down from fifty, because he’s usually one of the first people to come out of the school building. If he doesn’t come out by the time I finish counting, he’s obviously in the principal’s office or in some classroom.
I decide to start counting down from fifty as I looked around for him, which was kind of hard since I'm surrounded by a big crowd.
50... 49... 48...
No Barry so far.
47... 46... 45...
Nope, still isn’t here yet.
44... 43... 42…
He’s still not here, so I keep counting. As soon as I got to zero, the parking lot was less crowded with students and teachers, so I run back into the school without coming across anyone. Getting to the principal’s office, I saw Principal Horrace and you-know-who, slouching into a chair in front of his desk. I stand outside the office, waiting a few minutes for him to come out, which didn’t take long at all. Barry came out with a disappointed look on his face, which is surprising. Usually when he’s out of the principal’s office, he seems to shrug it off as just a warning, but it was rare for him to look at me as if his whole world had turned upside down.
“What’s up?” I asked him, looking down at his hands, which were behind his back as if he had something he didn’t want me to see. Barry tried to avoid eye contact with me, so I tried to get his attention.
“Hey! I’m right here, now tell me, what did he say?” I asked him, snapping my fingers in his face. He finally managed to show me what's in his hands, which is a piece of paper that showed his grades throughout the eighth grade school year, which were bad, of course, but underneath all of that was something that almost made me lose my mind. This has never happened to Barry before, he would usually progress grades every year — but this time, he’s being held back into the eighth grade.
“Yeah, I’m not going to the high school with you this year,” said Barry.
I let out a loud groan and shove the paper into his face, moving it around as if I was smearing a pie into a clown’s face as a joke.
“What have I told you about raising your grades a little? Always get at least—”
“—a passing grade in some of the classes,” Barry and I said at once, him knowing what I said many times before. “I know, but school is just boring. If they made it more fun, then I would participate in learning a lot more. God, you’re like my parents.”
“I just want to be with you throughout the rest of school, then we’re off for good! But then I would have to wait a year for you to graduate, or maybe a lot more if you’re going to keep this up! Come on, let’s get home.” Then Barry and I walk out of the school and towards the bike rack, getting our bikes and heading home.
It was nighttime; I sat and ate some Italian food for dinner with my family, and I was about to stay up and quietly play some video games. My bedroom is dark, but I'm able to see some of my surroundings with the illuminating light from the television screen. I pick up my controller and turn it on, but then I hear a slight buzz come from my phone. Picking it up, I notice that Barry, of course, has sent me a message. He’s the kind of person who would also nonstop text anyone, even if people are busy with something. Barry would still text them, mostly trying to start a conversation. I opened up my phone and checked out what Barry had to say, only to find a short message: “open ur bedroom wndow.”
I slowly got off the bed, quietly walking over to the window and lift it open, only to see Barry with his bike, waving up at me.
“God, dude! What are you doing here? It’s already dark out, my parents are asleep!” I whisper loudly at him.
“Come on, man. It’s summer break, we’re supposed to have fun! Now come and get your bike and let’s head out,” he said, patting his bike seat as if he wanted me to get on with him.
“To where?”
“I don’t know, maybe get a slushy at the gas station and hang out at the park?”
“First of all, I’m not sneaking out with you when it’s so dark outside, and second of all, I don’t have any money.”
“And that’s why I always come prepared.” Barry held up his wallet, showing it to me.
Yup, you might have guessed correctly, I went to sneak out into the night with my best friend, who kept pressuring me to go out. I had to grab my bike out of the garage without my parents waking up to see what’s happening. Out in the cold night, the moon is shining bright, and the silence being broken by Barry’s loud howling as we're pedalling down the empty streets on our bikes. I try to get him to quiet down, but he just ignored me as he had all the fun in the world, while I had to be dragged along when I would’ve enjoy a good video game and stay out of trouble.Don’t get me wrong, Barry is a really great guy when he’s not wild and crazy, but he can be a pain in the ass sometimes.
It only took us a few minutes to get to a gas station downtown, which is still open with the lights on inside. The parking lot is empty, pretty much expected, except for a motorcycle that’s parked on the side of the building, possibly belonging to the worker at the register. We walk in after we park our bikes next to the motorcycle, an even colder breeze hitting me like a brick.
“Hey,” the worker at the register said in a casual tone. Barry gave a greeting nod at him, I doing the same as we both walk closer to the slushy machine on the other side. I got myself a blue raspberry flavored one, while he got cherry cola.
As we got to the register to buy our slushies, the worker, an older teen named Ray according to his name tag, smiled at us as he started scanning the cups.
“Starting your summer break fun, huh?” Ray asked us, handing us our slushies. Barry and I nodded.
“Hell yeah, we are!” Barry said, giving Ray a fist bump, followed by a mimicking sound of an explosion from the both of them.
“Man, I remember being able to sneak out and start doing whatever I want the moment I got out of high school, that was awesome. All right guys, have a great night,” Ray said, chuckling. We went to head out of the gas station, but he stopped us before I pushed open the glass doors.
“Just don’t do anything too crazy, okay?”
“Sure, yeah,” I said, then we both walk out and head to the park.
The national park is closed for the night hours, but B
arry pressured me into sneaking in. I went to drink my slushy as I sit on a swing while Barry went down a slide with his, some of it splashing out of his plastic cup. He is making as much commotion as he can, acting like a little kid on Christmas when waking up to find presents. Once he tired himself out, which was when I was halfway finished with my slushy, he walked over to sit next to me in another empty swing.
“Come on, why aren’t you having fun?” Barry asked me, noticing how down I was. I didn’t answer him for a few seconds, but then I say something.
“It’s just that we’re not going to be in the same grade together.”
“I’ll be in the high school with you, eventually. Come on, cheer up.” He start poking me with his finger in my ticklish spots, trying to get me to smile. With each poke, he kept saying “huh” in the weirdest voice he could. I eventually let out a laugh, feeling a bit better.
“Yeah, you’re probably right—”
I stop talking as I heard a noise coming from somewhere around us. I couldn’t make out what it was, but I could tell Barry heard it too. He is looking into the forest that was by the park, focusing on looking deep through the dark trees.
“I heard it from those woods, let’s say we check it out!” He drops his cup and runs off into the woods, leaving me alone in the park.
“Barry! Wait—” I got off the swing and ran off to go look for him. It's almost pitch dark out; I could only see outlines of trees. I stop running every now and then to see if I could hear any sort of noise, at least a twig or leaf crunch.
“Barry?” I didn’t hear anything. I continue running, but then I see someone standing still, a few meters away from me. I try to be quiet, walking closer to inspect who or what it is, finally able to see that it's Barry, his back turned to face me.
“There you are! What in the hell were you doing?” I ask him, trying to get his attention, but he didn’t even bother to face me or say anything.
“What are you looking at—” I stop to look at what appears to be some sort of an elevator, out in the middle of the woods. I walk up to touch it, expecting it to be a hallucination, but I actually feel cold metal once I place my hand on the doors. This really is an elevator, the kind you would see in any building, a nice one that would have the buttons you would press to go up or down any floor, but except taken out and placed randomly in this spot.
“What’s this doing here?” I ask, both surprised and confused at the same time.
“Should we go in it? You know, to see if it works?” Barry asks, finally speaking. He runs up to the elevator and presses a down button on the side. A few seconds later, a loud ding rings out as the elevator doors slide open, revealing a nice interior. The elevator had a red carpet, white wallpaper, and a brass handrail, just an average looking elevator. What’s not so average however is why it's here in the middle of the woods, out in a clearing.
“Yeah, it works,” I say before the both of us go in. It feels a bit warm inside, but not enough for me to start sweating right away. Barry presses the down button, the others being the up button instead of 1st, then a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor button. The doors close and the elevator starts going down.
“What do you think those other floors would lead to?” Barry jokes at me, chuckling.
“I don’t know, man. What if it just leads underground in the dirt or something? What if this elevator is just abandoned here for no reason?” I ask him.
“Would it not work if it were to be abandoned? Besides, it’s too weird to have something like this in the woods. It’s obviously going to lead to somewhere.”
It takes us a few seconds for the elevator to stop moving and the doors to open, only to leave us... where we first began? It seems like the elevator has taken us back to the woods, because the only thing we could see were trees, but there’s no way it would take us back outside. It would be impossible to do so, since Barry had pressed the down button to take us to a lower floor.
“Yup, garbage. Let’s get out of here,” Barry said, walking out of the elevator.
“Barry, wait!” I went to catch up with him, noticing a disappointed look in his face. “You know there was no way it would take us somewhere, right? There’s just no way something like this would be out here in the middle of the woods!”
“I know! But hey, at least it worked, right? Besides, I’m done having my fun, I just want to get back home.”
We head out of the woods and out of the park, riding our bikes back home. I check my phone as I arrive, and it's almost midnight. We’ve been gone for about two hours. I'm glad to be back home so I can relax, but at the same time, I feel as if something isn’t right. I look around, and at Barry, who is looking back at me.
“What? We’re back to your house. Is this not it?” he asks me, groaning impatiently.
“I guess so, yeah.” I set my bike on the side of the house and head inside, only to notice something really isn’t right at all.
I check every room in the house, but my family is gone. Everything is here in the house, untouched and where it should be, but my parents aren’t in the house. I'm alone. I run outside, noticing their car is in the driveway. They definitely didn’t go anywhere.
“What’s up?” Barry asked, starting to worry as he notices how terrified I was.
“My family is gone!”
“No way!”
“Yes way!”
"Not a joke?"
"Not a joke, I swear! Where have they gone?"
“I’m sure they’re fine, even if they headed off somewhere.”
I get out my phone and try to call them, but I have no service, so I can’t get a connection. I tell Barry that we should go to his place and see if his parents know where my family went, and he thought it's a good idea, so we head off. As we get to his house, we notice that his parents are gone too. In fact, we went to look around town and noticed nobody here but the two of us.
“What is going on? Where did everyone go?” Barry starts hyperventilating, both of his hands on his head as he freaks out. “This is just too weird for words!”
“Calm down, man!” I slap him across the face to snap him out of it. “Okay, so all of this happened when we got into that elevator, right?”
“Right.”
“So, if we get back into that elevator and head back up, that probably would get everyone back!”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea!”
The two of us get on our bikes and are about to head off, but we stop as we hear a noise. Maybe it’s just our imagination, I thought, probably a trick from the elevator, perhaps, if it has the ability to do things like that. We decide to ignore it, so we continue to ride down the hill to the park. Barry rode his bike to the gas station first. Wondering what he was up to, I follow him. By the time I get in there, he's already picking up a few items, a gallon of gasoline and a matchbox. He looks up at me as I stand at the entrance with the doors open.
“What are you going to do with those?” I ask him.
“I might use it for some sort of an emergency,” he replied.
“Like what?”
“I’m thinking about burning the elevator once we’re out of here.”
“But you know it’s surrounded by large amounts of trees, right? You want to cause a forest fire? But at least the fire could stop the elevator from working properly somehow."
“Eh, you do have a good point, but I'm still gonna take these."
The worker, Ray, is gone too, we both noticed. Getting out of the gas station and to the park, we pedal fast to the point where our legs are burning and we're sweating a lot. A few minutes later, we finally get to the park, and are about to go into the woods, but then I hear the same noise from earlier again. This time, it was a bit more audible, as if the source of the noise is coming closer to us.
“You hear that?” I ask Barry, who is holding the gasoline gallon up to him like a shield, looking around. He only nodded, trying to stay quiet in case the noise would appear again, the
sound of what I could make out is footsteps. The footsteps are getting louder, but we can’t see anything in the dark. I keep looking around, and stop to see a dark figure standing far away from us. Barry noticed what I was looking at too, and took a step back. The outline of the figure moved a bit, getting a bit bigger as it got closer. Each time we step back, it would make the same movement as we did.
I thought we’re alone? I thought. Feeling terrified, Barry and I start running away, the sound of footsteps now becoming rapid and loud. With every single piece of energy I have in my body, I keep running, dodging trees that were in my way. Eventually, I stop to see if we outran whatever was chasing after us, but I notice that Barry is gone. My heart starting to pound in my chest, I look around in the darkness, staying where I am.
“Barry?” I whisper out loud. Nothing happened, everything is quiet except for my heavy breathing from running so much.
“Barry!” I yell this time. At that moment, I feel something push me to the ground, knocking me over into the grass. I try to punch and kick whatever is on top of me, but I stop to see Barry, a few scratches and light bruises all over his face.
“We need to get out of here, now!” he said, pulling me up as we start to run further into the woods.
We eventually find the elevator. I immediately press the up button and wait for the elevator door to open. Then the same sound of footsteps, mixed in with the crunching of leaves and twigs on the ground, comes closer to us from behind.
“Come on! Come on!” I shout as I bang on the elevator doors, waiting for them to open. I turn around to see Barry, opening the gallon and pouring the flammable gasoline around us, then threw the empty container on the ground as he finished. He turned to look at me as if he wanted me to finish the task, and I knew what to do. I opened the matchbox and got out a matchstick, igniting it as the flame on the match head appears. I threw it on the ground, a circle of fire instantly surrounding us. It starts spreading fast, and yet the elevator door still didn’t open. From over the fire, we see the light of the fire shine onto a blood-covered Barry, another Barry was coming closer to us. Two Barry’s? Why is there two of them? And was that what was following us?