Fright Night

by Maren Stoffels

  Quin told us this afternoon that the safe word was used seventeen times by last year’s Fright Nighters, an all-time record. He said he hoped the record would be broken this year.

  Loud organ music blasts out of the speakers. Nell and Martin jump back as the room behind the glass slowly lights up. The man is standing between two big candleholders. I see a platform with a purple-lined wooden casket on it.

  And inside that casket lies Quin. His hands are crossed on his chest, and his eyes are closed.

  I feel my blood racing through my body. Is this real? No, it can’t be. And yet…it looks so real, like Quin has actually been laid to rest.

  “Welcome, dearly beloved.” I don’t take in another word of the man’s speech. All my attention is on Quin, lying there motionless in the casket.

  What if he really died? I’d never be able to laugh with him again. He’d never be able to irritate me again with his comments about Sofia. I’d never be woken up by his snoring.

  Maybe Hester and Johan would send me away, because they couldn’t handle it. Then where would I go? I’d probably end up in some kind of institution, most likely in another town. And then I’d lose Sofia too. I feel my panic mounting.

  The man picks up the casket lid, which is leaning against the wall. It slowly dawns on me what’s going to happen. I pound my fists against the glass, as if I can get through it.

  “This has to be a joke,” I hear Martin say.

  The man fastens the lid to the casket with six screws. With each screw, I press my hands harder against the glass. This has to stop!

  “I can’t watch this.” Nell turns her face away.

  Then he opens a metal hatch in the wall. There’s a bright light, which I immediately recognize as fire.

  “No…”

  I glance at Sofia. Her eyes are so wide it seems like they might pop out of their sockets at any moment.

  “He’s going to cremate Quin!”

  KELLY

  “So…Nell.”

  Sandy gives me a sideways look. We walk deeper into the woods, away from our place behind the wall. According to Sandy, the Insect Zone is where we need to be.

  “Doesn’t she have a boyfriend?”

  I shake my head. “No.”

  Sandy sniffs. “Nell is a neighbor.”

  I sigh.

  “Have you been…flirting with her?”

  “A bit.”

  “But you’re too chicken to take it any further, huh?”

  I hate that Sandy knows me so well. When we go to clubs, he’s always the one who goes over and talks to the cool girls, and I usually end up with their boring friends.

  “I’m going to ask her out tomorrow.”

  Sandy grimaces. “Is that such a good idea?”

  “Why?”

  “She’s a neighbor,” Sandy says again. “If she rejects you, you’ll have to see her every day.”

  I know he’s right, but I don’t want to hear it.

  “She won’t reject me,” I say.

  “How can you be so certain?”

  I think about the way Nell bit her lip. She sat so close to me on Monday that I could smell her perfume. She started talking about a wedding ring and she looked at me in the way only she can.

  “I just know.”

  “I give up on you.”

  “Whatever.”

  I don’t want to talk about Nell anymore. Sandy doesn’t get it anyway. He thinks Nell is the same as all the other neighbors, but she’s different with me. She lets me come close. She tells me personal stuff. You don’t do that with just anyone, do you?

  “Hey, why are we going this way?” I look around. “This route is a complete detour!”

  “We’re making a little stop on the way.”

  “What kind of stop?”

  Sandy grins. “A chainsaw stop.”

  I should have known. Even on Fright Night, Sandy is still chasing after girls. “Do we have to do this now?”

  “Sure we do.” Sandy reaches into his pocket. For a moment, I think he’s going to grab the knife again, but then he brings out a cigarette.

  “You can’t smoke here.”

  “Chill a bit. You’re so stressed.” Sandy takes out another cigarette. “Here, you could do with one.”

  “I quit.”

  “Oh yeah. Remind me why.”

  “It’s a pact with Nell.”

  Sandy rolls his eyes. “That girl is messing with your head, Kelly.”

  SOFIA

  The organ music swells as Quin’s casket is pushed into the oven.

  “Quin!” Like Dylan, I bang on the glass, but there’s absolutely no point. All that happens is the music stops and the light behind the glass goes off. The only thing I can see is my own reflection. A pale face with big, anxious eyes.

  Martin laughs. “Calm down. Do you really think they’re going to burn your friend alive?”

  I know he’s right, but I can’t be that rational right now. This is about Quin, not some stranger. Martin would go crazy if Nell was in there too!

  “Now we’ve just got to wait for Quin to come back.” Martin sits on one of the chairs. I feel too jittery to sit down, but at the same time my legs are like lead. If this is just the beginning of Fright Night, what else do they have in store for us?

  “Quin’s okay,” Nell reassures me as she comes to sit beside me. “Or he’d have used the safe word.”

  She’s right. There’s always a way out. If we shout “Ketchup!” the actors have to stop what they’re doing. Quin could have used the word if he was really in danger.

  “It was terrifying to watch, but it wasn’t real.” The comforting tone of Nell’s voice calms me down. Suddenly I feel ashamed for losing it like that. She must think I’m…

  “Sorry,” I say quietly.

  “No problem. It’s not every day you see your friend supposedly die.”

  The way it comes out is so dry that all four of us burst out laughing.

  Nell sighs and leans back. “What a night. And it’s only just started.”

  I nod and look at my watch. How long will it be before Quin comes back?

  Nell twists the ring on her index finger. I notice she has one on every finger, except for her actual ring finger.

  “Are you saving that one for your wedding ring?”

  Nell smiles. “Exactly.”

  I take a quick look at Martin. Are the two of them a couple? I think they kind of go together.

  “Maybe,” says Nell when she sees me looking. She whispers, “Martin’s a pretty good candidate.”

  Then she looks at Dylan. “And what about you?”

  I rub the beads on my wrist. “Just good friends,” I say quietly.

  “You never know. Things can turn out strangely. Where I work, things go differently from I expect every day.”

  Martin looks up. “Is this about that Kelvin guy?”

  “You know very well that’s not what he goes by,” says Nell.

  Martin sniffs. “I don’t get why you hang out with that lunatic.”

  “It’s my job to spend time with him.”

  “Not like you do. You need to keep a bit of distance. You can’t trust those guys.”

  Nell clenches her jaw and doesn’t reply. What is this about?

  “What kind of work do you do?” I ask curiously.

  Nell’s angry expression disappears. “I’m a student, but I do volunteer work too. I’m what they call a neighbor. It means I live by a special housing complex where young people without a safe home environment get the chance to learn to live independently.”

  “That sounds cool.”

  “It is. What about you? Hey, who are you anyway?”

  I burst out laughing. She’s right—we haven’t had much time to get to know eac
h other at all. Before we’d even introduced ourselves properly, Fright Night had already started.

  “I’m still in high school. We moved here at the beginning of this year, and I ended up in Dylan and Quin’s class.”

  When he hears his name, Dylan looks up.

  “What about you?” Nell asks.

  Dylan fidgets on his chair. “What do you want to know?”

  Nell smiles. “Whatever you want to tell me.”

  I remember what Gerda said. Dylan had spent weeks in bed, but what was wrong with him? Was he being treated for something?

  “You got some kind of injury?” I hear Nell ask. She’s pointing at Dylan’s right leg, which he’s resting on the coffee table.

  “No. It’s been like that for ages. A broken bone that never really healed.”

  “Ouch. How did it happened?”

  Dylan shrugs. “A hockey stick whacked my shinbone in elementary school.”

  “Nasty.”

  It takes a second to sink in, but then my gaze shoots to Dylan. A hockey stick? He told me he fell off his bike! I can remember the moment well. We were at the pool and I asked him about it. So why is he giving a completely different answer now?

  At that moment, the door swings open. My body instantly leaps back into Fright Night mode. But then I see that it’s Quin. He’s grinning from ear to ear, and he looks far from dead.

  “So, who missed me?”

  DYLAN

  We walk back outside, Martin leading the way with the flashlight.

  “I don’t get you,” Sofia says to Quin. “That went way too far.”

  “Too far? What do you mean?”

  “You were burned alive! Or…we thought you were!”

  “I know.” Quin grins. “It got really hot inside that casket. I think they must have used a heater.”

  “It’s sick,” says Sofia. She’s not wrong. Even if you know it’s fake, it’s horrible to see your best friend laid out inside a casket like that. And to watch it burn.

  I touch the arms of my glasses. I push them down a bit, so they bite deeper into the skin behind my ears.

  “They’re on straight,” I hear Sofia say. She’s come to walk beside me. Quin’s gone to join Martin, who’s as enthusiastic about his death as Quin is himself.

  “Your glasses,” says Sofia. “They’re on straight. They’re always on straight.”

  I feel my cheeks getting warm. She’s been watching me.

  “Sorry, it’s a tic.”

  “I know. I have one too. With my bracelet.” She turns my gift around her wrist. “I touch the beads to calm myself down.”

  “And does it help?”

  Sofia smiles. “Maybe not tonight.”

  “We’ll survive,” I say with a grin.

  Sofia points at my glasses. “How strong are the lenses?”

  My cheeks flush again. I’m glad Sofia doesn’t have the flashlight in her hands because then she’d be sure to notice.

  “I’m just about blind without them,” I say. If she knew why I first started wearing them…

  * * *

  —

  Mom looks at me from behind the steering wheel. “Why didn’t you say you’re having trouble with your eyes?”

  I squeeze my eyes shut to block out the bright sunshine. “It’s just the light.”

  “You see! I knew it.” Mom sits up straighter. “I’ve read about this. It all confirms it.”

  “Confirms what, Mom?”

  “Multiple sclerosis.”

  They are difficult words. I try to repeat them, but I can’t. I just stumble over the syllables.

  “Multiple sclerosis,” Mom says again. “It’s just as well your mom pays such close attention, because it can be fatal.”

  Fatal? What is Mom saying?

  Mom turns the car into the hospital parking lot. “When we see Dr. Savory, you have to tell her you’re having problems with your eyes.”

  * * *

  —

  I’m still walking next to Sofia. Whenever actors jump out of the darkness, she automatically grabs my arm. Her fingers must be leaving bruises, but I don’t care. I like doing this with her. It feels like we’re a team within our group, just the two of us.

  “Sorry,” says Sofia, grabbing my arm yet again.

  “It’s okay.” I rub the spot she just squeezed, which is starting to feel kind of tender. “I’m more attached to my left arm anyway.”

  Sofia laughs. “Hey, what’s the story with your leg? You told me you’d fallen off your bike, but just now you said to Nell it was a hockey stick.”

  She says it so casually that it takes me a couple of seconds to grasp exactly what she’s saying.

  “Did I?” My mouth suddenly feels dry. This conversation just went 180 degrees. I really need to be careful now.

  “At the pool,” Sofia reminds me. “When I asked you about it.”

  I forgot about that. How can I have been so dumb? Quin knows only half the story, but I completely lied to Sofia. Why, though? Was I scared she’d see through me if I told her just half of the truth?

  Suddenly there’s a weird roaring sound beside us. Someone jumps out from behind a tree holding a huge chainsaw. The noise is deafening. The look in the actress’s eyes is dark and sinister.

  * * *

  —

  “You need to keep looking!”

  Eliza shakes her head. “We have looked, Mrs. Dumont. Your son is—”

  “But I think he has MS! He has all the symptoms, from muscle weakness to dizziness. He’s not sleeping well, and now his eyes are giving him trouble.”

  Eliza looks at me. “Is that right, Dylan?”

  Mom’s eyes speak a language I understand better than anyone.

  “Maybe he just needs glasses,” Eliza says to Mom. “Did you think of that?”

  * * *

  —

  “Run!” I hear someone yell.

  The flashing teeth of the chainsaw come closer and closer.

  “Dylan!”

  Why won’t my legs work?

  * * *

  —

  “That woman acts like I’m crazy!” Mom’s driving way too fast through the traffic.

  “Maybe Eliza’s right, Mom. I don’t feel sick.”

  Suddenly Mom brakes. She pulls halfway off the road, onto the shoulder. A car tears past, its horn beeping.

  Mom lashes out. The palm of her hand meets my cheek, and her voice crackles like fireworks.

  “Do. Not. Lie!”

  * * *

  —

  The teeth of the chainsaw are only a few inches away now. The actress yells something at me, but it doesn’t sink in.

  “Dylan!”

  I feel a hand around my wrist and almost stumble over my own feet as I’m dragged away from the chainsaw and away from those dark eyes. Then there’s a hard punch on my shoulder, which brings me straight back to Fright Night.

  “You idiot! Why did you just stand there?” Quin glares at me furiously. “You almost got that chainsaw in your face!”

  It feels like my head is full of cotton balls. What exactly did I do wrong?

  “You are totally Mr. Fright.” Quin swears and shakes his head. “If Sofia hadn’t dragged you away, we really would need a casket right now.”

  I look back, but the actress with the chainsaw is nowhere to be seen. What happened to me? Why couldn’t I run away, like anyone else would? It was almost like it was Mom looking at me.

  Am I going crazy? I can feel the whole group staring at me. This isn’t smart. The last thing I want to do is draw attention to myself.

  “I was just startled,” I say quickly. “It won’t happen again.”

  KELLY

  “And a very good evening to you.”

  The girl with t
he chainsaw turns around. As soon as she sees us, she lowers the saw.

  “What are you guys doing here?”

  Sandy shrugs. “Thought we’d come by and say hi. How’s it going?”

  “You just missed the weirdest thing. I went after this guy with my saw—and he just stood there!”

  “Maybe he wanted to die,” says Sandy solemnly.

  “Seemed more like he was in shock or something.”

  Sandy holds out his hand to shake hers. “I’m Sandy and this is Kelly.”

  “Melody.”

  Sandy doesn’t let go of her hand. “Melody…Nice name.”

  I sigh audibly.

  “Ignore him. Kelly’s just in a bad mood.” Sandy puts his arm around me. “Maybe you have a nice friend who could cheer him up?”

  I shake off Sandy’s arm. What’s he up to now?

  “A friend? What do you mean?”

  “Like a double date. You and me, and Kelly and your friend.”

  “Hey, there’s no need,” I say quickly. Hasn’t Sandy been paying attention? There’s only one girl I want to date, and I’m going to ask her tomorrow morning.

  “Yes, there is.” Sandy leans over to Melody and says, just loud enough for me to hear: “He has a broken heart.”

  I clench my jaw. What I really want to do is kick Sandy but then, to add insult to injury, Melody nods.

  “I’m sure it’ll work out.”

  “Nice.” Sandy gives her a wink. “Tomorrow?”

  “Cool.” Melody raises her chainsaw. “I have to get back to work.”

  “Us too,” says Sandy. “Do you know the quickest route to the Insect Zone?”

  * * *

  ■ ■ ■

  “What do you think you’re doing?!” I shout as soon as we’re out of earshot. We’re walking straight through the woods.

  “Looking for a better spot, like I said.”

  “I mean with Melody!” My voice rises. “I don’t have a broken heart!”

  “Not yet.”

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?”