NEVE was very tempted to ignore the knocks at the front door and not go to the movies with Becca and Claire, but as the knocks got stronger, she heaved herself off of the bed and headed downstairs.

“About time,” was what Becca greeted her with when she opened the door.

Claire only gave a tight smile and stalked toward her car.

Neve sighed and followed after her, hoping they could hurry up and get this whole ordeal over with.

Becca was the only one who bought something after they paid for their tickets, and she held two bags of large popcorn. Neve had the feeling Becca’d be the only one eating any of that.

It was only when they stepped into the theater that Neve actually saw the name of the movie - and the genre: Slenderman, a horror for sure.

Oh, this was bound to be fun.

She scowled at herself, shaking her head. She'd been making some bad choices lately, and this had to be one of the worst ones. On the rare occasions that she did get a good night's sleep after a horror movie, it was when she watched it in her room with the lights on. In this dark theater… she could imagine herself running out to calm herself.

Sitting in her seat next to Becca - oh, the horror - Neve struggled to get comfortable. She stared at the screen, barely even paying attention to the movie trailers. Her hands gripped the seat arms.

Then the movie started. She found herself nodding off until the girls in the movie were sat in their basement and about to watch the slenderman video. Neve cringed away from the scene but found herself too intrigued to turn away.

Only a second after it started did she realize that it was basically a knock-off of the scene from Rings.

After that, she barely even looked at the screen, staring off at nothing in particular and trying not to fall asleep. Halfway through the movie, she was hit with a sensation not unlike the one The Obscurity had forced on her earlier that night. Her eyes widened. Why now?

I knew this movie was a bad idea. Why did I go? To make friends? With Claire? Why am I such an—

A throb of pain interrupted her thoughts. She gritted her teeth against the pulsing in her head. She had to get out of here.

Hunching her shoulders in anticipation of the stares she would get, she stood. Before she could take a step though, black spots rapidly appeared in her vision. She sat back down, knowing she wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. Her head swam, sight getting more blurry by the minute. Loud sounds that emanated from the movie screen made her head pains worse. Staring out at the crowd disoriented her more, so she looked at her lap, trying to clear her vision.

It didn’t work.

She wiped her clammy hands on her jeans, taking deep breaths. But she just couldn’t calm down. With her sight almost gone, there was no way for her to leave the theater without someone else’s help. When she thought of asking Claire though, pain pierced her head.

She pressed a hand to her chest, breathing heavily. Then a hand touched her shoulder, and she flinched. “What’s wrong?” she heard Claire say. “You’re acting really weird.”

“I… I, um…” Neve’s tongue felt like a foreign object in her mouth. “I can’t…”

She could barely gasp as everything went black. She could hear Claire’s muffled voice and the stifled sound of the movie, and she could feel the arm rests beneath her fingers, but she couldn’t see anything. Then a figure came into sight. It was easy to miss, the darkness confusing her eyes, but as it came closer, she made out the shape.

It was humanoid, but not very human. It was naked, stalking across the ground on its four limbs. Long claws dragged across the ground as it opened its mouth to reveal acute teeth that stretched outward. Black flecks fell off of it as it lumbered, and Neve soon realized that those were part of its skin. What was she seeing right now? This wasn’t part of the horror movie, right? What if this was The Obscurity’s doing? Just then, the creature’s eyes opened—she hadn’t known it had those until it opened them—round and bulging. Its mouth stretched in a terrifying smile of teeth. But it wasn’t a smile. It was more like it was gritting its teeth against some sort of pain.

Then it screamed, fully black eyes glistening with tears as its claws ripped into the dead ground.

Neve gasped as she came back to the movie. Claire was shaking her, eyes wide as she whispered Neve’s name harshly. When she noticed that she wasn’t whatever she’d been like before, she stopped.

“What the hell, Neve? What’s wrong with you?”

Neve averted her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You were just staring at the screen, not moving. What the hell is going on with you?” Claire said, eyes flashing.

In the darkness of the theater, Neve couldn’t tell if Claire was crying, but she knew she was upset. “I don’t—”

“Oh, forget it!” the blonde girl nearly shouted. “I’m out! Follow me or not, but I’m not waiting for you.”

People in the crowd glared at them, but Neve paid them no heed, hurt by the way Claire was acting. It was such a contrast to her attitude earlier that night. She must’ve been really shaken at Neve’s behavior.

Becca took off after Claire, and Neve followed, stomach flip-flopping. What was that thing before, and why had it been in her head?

The night gave room for more unanswered questions and nightmares to follow. That brought on a bit of confirmation—the creature from before had definitely not been some nightmare she’d thought up in her head. The nightmares disappeared in her brain, but the creature stayed sharp and bright. It was something she had for sure seen, not some quickly fading dream.

And that was more terrifying than anything else.

The Obscurity failed to address any of her questions, and it didn’t answer when she called for it, which more than spooked her. What if this became an ongoing occurrence?

What if it already had?

Out of the blue, The Obscurity had messed with her body and her brain with no problem.

It had to stop.

She was stuck on these thoughts even as she came to her locker at the end of the next school day, biting her lip as she stared at the lock. She turned the dial in directions she was almost sure were wrong, wanting to bang her head against the locker. Thinking so hard was messing with her head.

Just as she got the combination right, opening the locker, she heard a familiar voice.

“Neve.” The detached voice instantly reminded her of her mother, and she turned to glare at who it was.

Angelica. But she wasn’t alone.

Alice stood beside her, lips raised in a faint smile. “We missed you at lunch Neve—what happened?”

Neve turned back to her open locker. “I was checking out some books.” Not a complete lie, but she’d really just wanted to avoid Claire after the night before.

“And that took a whole half hour?” Angelica said.

Neve raised an eyebrow as she shoved a textbook into her bag, though she knew they couldn’t see her. What was with that accusatory tone? Was she mad or something? “I guess so.” She swiveled back around. “Do you guys need something, or…”

She trailed off as Angelica stepped closer. “Nothing much…” Then she pressed her hands to Neve’s cheeks.

Neve shook her head to get her hands off and shoved her away. “What are you doing?”

Angelica grabbed her cheeks once again. “Alice, hold her.”

Neve shrieked as Alice gripped her hair and shoved one of her hands to the lockers. “Just stay still, and it’ll all be over soon.”

Neve, run!

So now it decided to speak!

Neve fidgeted in their hold but to no avail. Her head pulsated with pain as Angelica’s fingers pressed against her forehead, a strange feeling coming over her body. She opened her mouth to scream, but Angelica stopped her.

“If you scream, I’ll kill you. I’m not joking.” Angelica’s voice was calm and indifferent as she spoke the words, causing Neve’s body to still.

Ohmygodwhataretheygoingtodotomewhatdoi—

She lost her train of thought as another burst of pain spiked in her head.

“That’s interesting,” Angelica whispered, eyes unfocused. She then stared Neve dead in the eye. “I guess I’ll have to kill you anyway.”

It was at this moment that Neve’s right fingers went numb. Then her arms. She heard Alice shriek and let go of her arm, and turned to look at her. Her eyes widened more as she beheld what was left of her right arm. Black flecks drifted off her arm and disappeared rapidly.

Angelica sprang off of her. “What the hell even are you?!”

That was what Neve was wondering too.

Suddenly, Angelica’s eyes hardened, and she pressed her palm against Neve’s forehead again as Neve’s right eye lost vision. “C’mon, Alice!”

Neve couldn’t even see Alice at this point. “W-what?”

Angelica didn’t say anything else, and it sounded like she grabbed Alice’s hand.

And that was when everything disappeared.