Grace VII

The boba shop is devoid of any customers except for us two but for good reason. The rain is coming down pretty harshly today. It’s no surprise that there’s hardly anyone driving right now. Darkwood is oddly creepy when no one is outside. It’s almost like a ghost town.

Felix has already finished his drink before I can even get mine halfway. “So what are you going to do?” he asks. “Seems to me that you just need a new start.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I reply. Felix is the only person who seems to understand what I’m going through. I’ve had this mask on for so long that I’ve forgotten what it means to be a kid. I wanted to grow up so fast that I didn’t stop and ask myself who I really was. Felix gets this. I can trust him.

“Seems to me this all started with Elizabeth.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, you were invited to that party by her best friend, right? You thought high school was going to start out strong, you were excited. You went there knowing no one, had a little bit of fun, and then bam, Ellie killed herself in front of you. That’s when everything started.”

A quick flashback of the memory runs through my mind. It’s been so long that I’ve almost forgotten about it. I was bullied so hard because of it. I felt so weak. Even though I made friends through it all, that stigma never went away. It’s why I tried so hard to be popular. I didn’t want to feel that weak ever again. “Yeah, uh, you’re right.”

“Want to go there?”

“Huh?”

“To that abandoned house. Why not go back where it all began to start all over again?”

I laugh a bit, “What good will that do?”

Felix leans back on his chair and crosses his arms. “Sometimes you need to face the things you’re hiding from to start anew.”

The abandoned house? I haven’t been there ever since I met Felix. Everyone likes to throw parties there because it’s so remote. Nobody ever seems to remember what happened there. It’s the only place I ever refused to go. But now I guess it is as good of a time as any. I put on my jacket and stand up. “What are we going to do there anyway?”

“You’ll see,” Felix chuckles as I follow him to my car.

“Yeah, like that isn’t ominous,” I laugh.

It’s hard to drive so I take it slow. No one’s on the roads like I thought but it’s better to be safe than sorry. I turn the right to get to the dirt road that leads into a dead end where the house rests. Four years later and it still looks as creepy as I always found it. It’s a miracle that there’s no legend about it being haunted.

Felix is the first one to enter. There are some portable lamps and LED lights that are kept here for when anyone throws a party. “Wow, it’s more run down than I thought.” There’s randomly scattered throughout the living room. The walls look like they’re falling apart and there’s dust everywhere. Beer cans and red plastic cups litter the floor. Besides the rain, it’s silent and eerie.

“Well duh,” I giggle. “What are we doing here?”

“Have I ever talked to you about my parents?” Felix asks, taking a seat in one of the randomly placed chairs around. There’s a metal baseball bat under it.

I lean back on one of the walls. “No.”

“My father was a politician in this state. A senator to be exact. All I can remember about him is that he was really strict with me. He wasn’t a bad dad, just not, affectionate I guess. I admired him, wanted to be just like him; a leader who wasn’t afraid to take risks. He died when I was six. Murdered I guess.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Felix shakes his head, “It’s alright. They told us it was suicide but as I grew older the more suspect that story felt. Dad was admirable but he had some shady stuff going on. I remember one day he took me to one of his meetings. I expected all men in suits like my dad but everyone was much younger than him. There was this guy there who befriended me and talked to me about how great my dad was. I only remember because he had the clearest and most crystal blue eyes I’ve ever seen. I was too young to understand anything they were talking about. A week later, my dad was found dead at a beach in Bellevue.”

“Was that group who killed him?”

Felix nods, “I think so. After that, my mom moved us to Colorado to live with my grandparents because the pain was too much for her. Mom was pretty kind before that. After that, I don’t know,” he sighs. “She would call my sister and me worthless and hurt us sometimes. She treated us like shit.”

“Oh, uh-”

“My sister and I kind of hate our mom now. There was this one, particularly bad night. She beat me so hard that I actually ran away,” he chuckles. There’s pain behind it. “I was so broken and just wanted to die already. Imagine being 10 years old and homeless in the streets of Denver.”

“Then what happened?”

“That comes later, Grace,” He chuckles again. “Do you know what happened to the house my mom left back home? The mortgage was paid for already and my mom just decided to abandon it.”

Wait he doesn't mean- “It’s this one, isn’t it?”

Felix nods.

“Is this why we’re here?”

“Yeah,” he sighs. “When I heard that Elizabeth died just a few minutes from here, I just had to come back. It’s why I was there when we first met.”

“I-I didn’t know,”

Felix laughs, “Nobody does, but back to the story. I was found and saved by the most generous man I’ve ever met. My mom always liked to talk about fate and destiny and I never believed her until that moment. The man had the same clear crystal blue eyes as the guy I met years before. It was the same guy. His name was Azul Amadeus.”

Azul Amadeus? I heard that name before but I can’t put my finger on it. I let Felix finish before I ask anything.

“He taught me how to be strong. Just like how I’ll teach you.”

“How?” I can’t let go of that name he just dropped. Azul Amadeus. That’s someone I learned about in school.

Felix stands up and stretches for a bit. “Not only did he help me, but he also gave me a new identity to live by. I removed my past and became anew.”

“Who?”

“Felix Mendelssohn.”

“Felix isn’t your real name?” Azul Amadeus. I’m pretty sure that was the leader of that Golden Hearts gang that was killed ten years ago.

He laughs and then gets a smirk on his face. Felix grabs the metal bat under him. “No. It’s Lyle Farrigan.” All I see is Felix charging at me before everything becomes dark.

-

I wake up with a throbbing headache that’s almost a migraine. Everything is blurry but it doesn’t take me long to realize that I’m tied against the wall. What’s going on? I can’t even speak. It’s like there’s duct tape around my mouth. My vision becomes stable and I only see Felix standing above me. No, that’s not Felix. He was supposed to be my friend. I trusted him. He knows all my secrets and yet…

Lyle. He’s been Lyle this entire time. I’m such a fucking idiot. The guy who’s been haunting my friends has been in our backyard this entire time. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

“Hey now,” he chuckles, “Don’t cry. I know you feel pretty betrayed right now, but, that’s just how the world works, Gracie.”

I scream at him but nothing comes out. This is how I die. Holy shit I’m going to die.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, Grace. Well, not anymore. I told you, you’re going to be reborn here. You’ll be reborn just like I was. I just want you to understand what’s going to happen tonight, that it’s not personal,” he says with a smirk. “I’m just fulfilling what destiny has told me to do.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I can’t believe I trusted him. Sara knows who Felix is. Why didn’t I ever bother to show her who he is? Fuck. Fuck. I’m so fucking stupid. I feel my tears running down the tape and I taste the combination of salt and the nasty plastic. I yell at him again but nothing comes out.

Lyle takes out my phone and texts someone. “You should have better passcodes. 7676? Shouldn’t have told me your favorite number, less make it your code,” he laughs. “And now we wait.”

Lyle knees down and slowly remove the tape from my mouth. “Please, let me go!” It is the only thing I can say.

“Pretty soon, Sara will be coming over. Cody too. Now I expect them to not be alone. Andrew should be coming too, no? Hell, maybe even Chris, let's get the whole gang together. I’ll finally finish what I should’ve done three years ago.”

“Why are you doing this?!” I cry.

“Didn’t you hear me? I’m giving you a new life. I can’t do that without breaking you first, though. Tonight, all your friends die. It’s not personal, well, my grudge against them is so I guess I’m lying,” he smirks.

“Please!”

“You’re going to be thanking me when the sun rises.”

This isn’t what I want. I was just supposed to be hanging out with my friend. I don’t understand what's happening. Why is this happening to me? It was supposed to be a good day today.

The only sound now is the heavy rain outside. I can’t even hear myself cry anymore. Lyle doesn’t say a word to me. He just stares outside the window for someone to come. It’s so dark out that there isn’t any hope of some random bystander noticing that we’re here. We’re in the middle of nowhere.

He walks towards me. Lyle towers over me as he owns me. Maybe he does. “Don’t blame yourself, Grace,” he says to me. “See, this entire night is predestined by the gods of fate herself. When we first met I thought nothing of you. Yet later that day I was told that a scared little girl would fall into my lap and I would raise her into something she hates. Once we ran into each other at the park, I knew what the future held. So don’t blame yourself, you had no say in this.”

I just want to go home.

“You hate yourself, don’t you? I told you that you shouldn’t feel weak, that you can take control of your own popularity. I made you strong, well-liked, and charming. In the end, what did that get you? Just a self-conscious little girl afraid of the future she tried so hard to reach.”

Just stop it. Just stop it. I don’t want to hear his words. He kneels down and I close my eyes.

“You’re scared. You’re weak, you never felt more alone. All this pain you’re going to experience in the coming moments, it’ll break you. It’ll haunt you, it will eat you alive. But let me tell you something Grace. That pain is yours. It is yours to own and use to make you strong, stronger than you ever felt.” I open my eyes only for him to stand back up and pace back and forth. He approaches me once more, “You will take what’s rightfully yours. You’ll be a force of nature, a wildfire that consumes all that tries to hurt her. The world will be yours.”

And I believe him.

I close my eyes and ignore everything else he says. I can’t fall for his words. Not anymore. I was turned into something I never wanted.

Sometime later, the headlights of a car approach. “Looks like your sister’s here first.”

Lyle stands in front of the front door and pulls out a gun from under his jeans and points it directly at the door.

No! I can’t let this happen! I yell and yell but the only thing that comes out is muffling. Oh my god, please don’t shoot Sara. I close my eyes just because I don’t want to see it. There’s nothing I can do. This is all my fault.

It’s all my fault.

I hear the door open, “Nice of you to join us,” Lyle says.

“You! What are you doing here!” Sara yells.

“Oh, you know me, doing what I do best.”

“Sara, what's going on?!” I hear Freyja say. Freyja’s with her too? I open my eyes and see my sister and Freyja completely terrified.

“Do me a favor? Tie your friend up on that chair over there, Sara,” Lyle says pointing to one of the chairs. “Ropes right there. Unless you want to get shot of course.”

Sara complies before noticing me. “Grace!” She runs towards me but Lyle stops her.

“Do what I say.”

She has no choice. “Sorry, I should’ve let you stay at home,” she says to Freyja. After Sara finishes tying up Fey, Lyle makes her sit down on the chair next to her. “What are you doing?”

Lyle gets the rope and ties Sara’s hands and feet to the chair. He tightens the rope on Freyja’s as well. “It’s nothing personal with you and the girl, I just have business to do.”

“Andrew knows where I am! You’re not going to get away with this!”

Lyle shuts her up by duct taping her mouth. “Let us go!” Fey pleads but Lyle does the same to her.

He sighs, “You all just don’t get it.”

More time passes. Lyle stands outside with the front door open and just waits.

I just stare at Sara. She’s looking back at me. She’s not scared. She’s not angry at me. All she’s doing is telling me that everything is going to be okay just with her eyes. I know it’s not. Still, it’s comforting that she’s trying to keep me calm.

I still don’t understand why this is happening.

“He’s here,” Lyle says, stepping away and closing the door. He picks up the baseball bat and hides away in the other room.

A few minutes later, Cody opens the door with a gun pointing towards me. We all try to tell him to getaway. He observes the room just like he always does. Someone yells behind him. “Emily, leave right now! it’s not saf-”

Lyle emerges from the other room and whacks him with the bat. Cody wilts and drops the gun. He picks it up and points it at Emily who just arrives. “Shit, you’re alive?”

“You!”

“Pick a chair and sit.”

Emily looks around and sees all of us trying to break free. The fear in her eyes disappears and she listens. Emily calmly sits down on the chair closest to me. Lyle ties her up just like Sara. “So this is how I die?”

“Glad you can follow orders. And you will, sadly, just not yet. I’m more surprised you’re still alive but I guess there was enough time to save you,” Lyle chuckles. He picks up Cody’s body and sits him down on one of the free chairs. He ties him up as well just as Cody starts to wake up. “You thought you had something, huh?!” Lyle laughs at Cody once he regains full consciousness.

“You bastard!”

Lyle just laughs. “To think you had Matt’s gun the entire time,” he says observing the gun Cody had. “I killed the poor bastard because he lost it.”

I can feel the rage behind Cody’s eyes. “You’re going to die today, you son of a bitch.”

“Pretty sure that’s my line, boy,” Lyle says before duct-taping him. “I’m surprised this is going so well. I would have thought I would have to kill one of you by now, but I guess Andrew’s the loose cannon, no?”

-

More time passes.

“Lyle, come out you cunt!” I heard Andrew yell outside. Even he’s here. I’m glad, but, what good will that do? I’m just getting all my friends killed.

Lyle scoffs, “The main event is here,” he says picking up his own gun and opening the door as he aims. “You should have played this smarter, Andrew! Oh? You didn’t even bring a weapon? Are you stupid?!”

“Not stupid, mate!” I heard Andrew yell. “I don’t know what you’re doing here. I don’t know why you have everyone in there but this is between you and me, no?”

“Nah, It’s you, Chris and Cody. After I’m done here, Chris is next.”

“Just stop this shit, yeah?! Nobody has to die!”

Someone sneaks in through the kitchen. She moves slowly and silently. It’s Jerrica with a knife. Even she’s here?! Lyle doesn’t even notice her.

This is our chance.