“Hang on…”
Ryan said, but he froze at the porch, before unlocking the gate. They all became curious, “What? What is it?”
He looked straight ahead at the front of the house, frowning, “I closed the curtain completely… and turned on the light as well…”
Bryce then shifted his sight from Ryan, toward the house of his. The curtain in the living room, at the left from the door, wasn’t completely covering the window. Below the window, were a baseball bat, a hose connected to a water tap, and a shovel. On the right side, which was dining room, had the window covered, but it was clearly dark inside.
“Maybe it’s your mom?” suggested Terrence.
“She took the medicine — it won’t wake her up until morning…!” refuted Ryan.
The next second, they all looked at each other. With just a look onto each other, they all realized what it meant.
“Hang on… we need to be sure…” warned Aaron, but Ryan immediately grabbed his keys from his pocket.
“What if it’s real…?!”
“Keep your voice down…!”
“What if they're actually here?!” replied Ryan, now in whisper, starting to panic. As he quickly unlocked the fence, Terrence said, “Okay, I'mma call police anyway…”
“Where are you going?! What are you doing?!” whispered Bryce, while looking at the house. As far as he could tell, there didn't seem to be anyone peeking through the window.
The fence was unlocked, and Ryan, as the answer, threw the plastic bag away to the porch, and charged forward to unlock the door. Terrence stood a bit far from them, still on the phone, “Yes, I’m… I think there’s someone breaking into my friend’s house… can you please send…?” Aaron was hesitant, between warning Ryan to not enter and staying still, but Bryce simply followed him. Soon later, he unlocked the door.
“You have a plan? For fighting them?” whispered Bryce.
“Guys, Terrence is calling the police! Just wait here!” shouted Aaron, but suppressed. But Ryan didn't even look back. He simply unlocked the door, and stepped into the house, as silent as he could, along with Bryce.
He didn’t wait and look around; he immediately went upstairs, but still in silence. “Wait!” shouted Bryce in a whisper, he had to grab his legs. Ryan himself almost tripped at the staircase. “We need something to defend ourselves…!”
“A knife…!” answered Ryan, going down again, straight to the kitchen. Bryce just stayed at the staircase, confused and shocked by what Ryan actually meant. It then became clear when he returned to the staircase, carrying three big kitchen knives, and after handing one to Bryce, he advanced upstairs again.
“H-H-Wh-Wa…!” stuttered Bryce. He wanted to catch him by his leg again, but his heart dropped down, because he almost dropped the knife, which almost hit his leg. By the time he held the knife properly and firmly, Ryan was already at the second floor.
“AAAAAAAAARRGH…!” roared Ryan suddenly, loud and strong. Bryce then saw that he ran to left, holding the knives, as if he was Wolverine.
But at the same time, he also heard a voice of someone unfamiliar, saying, “Shit!”
He immediately went up following Ryan. As he reached the second floor, he saw Ryan banging the door at the left side.
“IT’S THEM! THERE’S NO MISTAKING IT!”
“… we do…?”
“THEY’RE IN MY MOM’S ROOM!” shouted Ryan to Bryce. “OPEN THE DOOR!”
“… quiet…!”
“Terrence has called the police!” whispered Bryce. “We just need to make sure they’re not going anywhere…”
Ryan kicked the door, out of frustration. It only budged the door a bit, but didn’t break it at all. “OPEN THE DOOR, DANG IT!”
“Ryan, please… calm down…!”
“I CAN’T CALM DOWN, MY MOM’S INSIDE…!?”
“She’ll be fine, just — just stay put…” attempted Bryce to talk him down. He looked back, wishing for Aaron and Terrence to help him, but instead, he found that both of them didn’t join in at all. “Everything will be fine — trust me — help will come here…!”
“AACK…!”
It was a bit inaudible, but was still caught on both of their ears. The scream came from outside the house, and it was rather familiar.
“HEY, STOP!” this time, it was louder. Only Bryce was concerned too went downstairs and checked on Terrence and Aaron, while Ryan kept kicking the door. It was probably the most confounding moment he had ever had in his life, as he had to choose between staying with and calming Ryan, or checking Aaron and Terrence. He himself started to sweat, and his hands shook with fear, still holding his knife tightly, but even with it, he had no idea on what to do with it, nor any bit of bravery to actually do it.
From inside, he didn’t see anyone on the porch and the street. But when he was out of the door, a silhouette of a big body popped out from his right, and was about to clash with him. He had no time to react any other way, except leaning to left and pointing his knife against the silhouette.
“OH, FU…!” cussed the silhouette loudly. It was a male, probably a teen, wearing a ski mask; his hand was put behind. Bryce himself shifted his eyes toward the knife, and found quite watery liquid dripping from its tip.
“YOU LITTLE BI — !” the teen was about to grab him, so Bryce swung his knife wildly against him. The teen naturally backed down, allowing Bryce to look at what happened.
There were two other people behind him; they seemed to be quarreling with Aaron and Terrence. At first, it was hard to tell which was which, until he saw Terrence’s Homelander costume, and Aaron’s black hoodie and black jeans. While Terrence were using a shovel to hit them as best as he could, Aaron sprayed them with water hose, but it didn’t really stop them. Soon enough, the other guy caught the shovel, and threw it off Terrence’s grasp.
Bryce was too panicked, he didn’t realize that the teen in front of him almost to catch his arm. Fortunately, that was when Ryan jumped from beside, and attacked the teen. With two knives and surprise attack, he did scratch the teen’s hands, although he couldn’t tell how deep it was. They all appeared to wear black jackets and black ski masks, which didn’t seem to be costumes at all.
“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” shouted Ryan.
But when he shouted it, he saw one of the two behind him already holding the shovel, and even swinging against Terrence. Even Aaron already lost the hose to another teen as well; he also grabbed the baseball bat under the window.
“You little…” said the teen; Bryce didn’t recognize his sound at all, “You’re crazy…!”
“It’ll get crazier, if you stay here!” provoked Bryce, as loud as possible, but behind Ryan. However, he then realized that the lights of the houses around were off, meaning that they were unlikely going to wake up by his shouting alone. “We have called police! You better be gone!”
“Shit, you-you-you serious…?” stuttered the one holding shovel; panic was clear in his tone. “Man, we should run…”
“It’s going to take some time for them to arrive, especially in Halloween, don’t be a pussy.” said the wounded one. “Let’s give these kids a lesson first…”
Somehow, after that, the teens grew bigger, while they themselves shrunk smaller. Although he was aware that it was just figurative, it felt that they literally grew bigger. The teens walked slowly toward each of their opponents, after the one with water hose gave the bat to the wounded one. The only ones with weapons were Bryce and Ryan, but the wounded one appeared menacing enough with a baseball bat, and they couldn’t get pass through the other two to protect Terrence and Aaron. Ryan was the only one standing still bravely, but it rather seemed that he was too furious to be frightened. Bryce himself was already frightened, he could only stay still behind him; the only thing he was relieved of, fully knowing as stupid as it might be, was that they were wearing ski masks, so that he couldn’t be frightened by their faces any further.
“You’re one pain in the…”
“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?”
All of them, including the teens, turned their heads to where the voice came from. Before Bryce realized who it was, he sighed in relief, because it was a familiar voice, and it took a blink for him to realize that they were actually saved, just by the shouting.
“Sh…” cussed the wounded one. As if it was a sound of gunshot, the teens didn’t say any further, dropped their weapons, and ran away. It was Mrs. Green, carrying a basket full of food and beverages, while pointing a pistol at the teens. She looked a bit scared as well, as she stepped back, but nevertheless holding the gun steadily and pointing at them, as they ran away on the sidewalk, out of Bryce’s sight.
“My God, are you all alright!?” said Mrs. Green, charging toward the fence. She still took a glance and pointed at them.
“Yes… we’re all alright, Mrs. Green…” responded Ryan, lowering his knives. Bryce himself could only fall and sit down, exhausted by his own fright.
“Thank goodness, you’re here…” added Terrence.
“Have you called the police?!”
“We have…” answered Terrence. “They said that police would take some time to arrive here, since it’s Halloween…”
“He’s not wrong…” replied Mrs. Green. “What about your mom…?”
“I need your gun, Mrs. Green! They locked the room from the inside…!” said Ryan.
“No way! I still need to protect you! Don’t you have crowbar?!” cut Mrs. Green.
“Right…!” realized Ryan, and then running into the house. “Bryce, help me…”
So he followed Ryan into the kitchen. He looked for a crowbar in lower shelves, which only took a few seconds. As soon as he found it, they both went upstairs as fast as he could: Bryce himself almost tripped over on the staircase, but Ryan quickly caught and lifted him up. “Careful!”
“Sorry…”
When they reached the locked room, Ryan plugged in the crowbar at the gap between the door and the jamb, near its lock. With both of their powers, they cranked the door open by force; it felt that Ryan was rather the one with power, while Bryce was only pretending.
As Mrs. Green, Terrence, and Aaron caught up with them, that was when the door was busted open. The first thing they saw Ryan’s mother, still sleeping on the bed. However, they immediately turned back and looked away. “NO! NO, NO…!”
“What!? What is it?” asked Terrence.
They couldn’t answer; they could only get out of the room, and stared at them. Meanwhile, Mrs. Green — she was still holding her gun — immediately walked into the room.
“What happened? Is she…!?” said Aaron, now starting to panic. He was about to come in, so Bryce immediately stopped him.
“No, dude, she — ”
“No, kiddo. They were about to do it, but they didn’t get to do it. So it’s alright. Your mom is safe, Ryan.” said Mrs. Green.
They all froze on the hallway. Mrs. Green herself came out of the room, and closed the door gently.
“A-Are you sure…?”
“I am, Ryan. Now calm down.” insisted Mrs. Green.
“What’s going on here?!” asked Aaron.
“It’s better that you don’t know at all, Aaron.” said Mrs. Green, looking sharp at all of them. Bryce saw that he wanted to insist on asking, but then decided to just say nothing. Mrs. Green then continued, “She’s fine, and you’re all fine, too. That’s what matters. Now,” she clapped her hands, “I’m pretty sure they won’t come back here, but just in case, we still need to stay guard. I’ll stay in the room, watching over your mom. You kids should calm yourselves, get some snacks — I brought some food, by the way — and watch around, until the police came.”
Comments (0)
See all