Sshh, Be Quiet

The group slowly started waking up Friday morning after a surprisingly restful night of sleep. Matt, Brian, and Zack were the first ones awake, then Lisa woke up as she saw the guys go into the kitchen. She tried to sit up, but sleeping while wounded, her body was stiff and sore. She was able to slowly sit up, but by the time she was nearly able to stand, Stephanie and Jenna woke up.

“What are you doing?” Stephanie sleepily asked her friend.

“They went into the kitchen, and I wanted to see what they were talking about.” Lisa continued to balance herself using the furniture as she made her way towards the kitchen.

“Probably not a good idea, considering another one of their best friends killed himself last night.”

“I just wanted to know if Matt was going to say something else about what happened last night. Especially since he’s been with two of the four that died.”

“Something else did happen,” Jenna said, coming back from the corner by the kitchen entrance.

“Huh?” Stephanie and Lisa both looked at her, not even remembering seeing her get up and walk towards the kitchen.

“Matt said something about how he got another message before and never said anything about it.”

Lisa became a little upset. “Damnit. This isn’t the place for him to be hiding shit from us.” She got up and limped towards the kitchen.

“Lisa, don’t,” Stephanie said.

“I want to figure out what’s going on here, and to do so, I need to know everything that’s happening.” She turned away from Stephanie and Jenna. “Matt! I need to talk to you, now!” she shouted, entering the kitchen and leaning against the door frame. Brian was quick to jump up and help her walk to a chair.

“What?”

“Not to be mean, but you can’t be hiding shit from us. What did the message say that you got?”

“Which one?” He was trying to play confused but Lisa was smarter than that.

“Don’t fucking act confused. I’m not stupid. You got a message before and didn’t tell anyone until a few minutes ago when you told them. What did it say?”

“Okay, first of all, don’t swear at me.” He gave her an angry glare.

Lisa glared right back. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, and I can’t if you’re hiding shit from us. What did it say?”

Both Brian and Zack exchanged surprised glances at how fearless she was to be talking to Matt in the matter that she was. Even when they were angry at him, they would never talk to him like she was. Either way, it was working on him, because he was breaking.

Matt sighed and pulled out his phone. “I got it two days ago, before Emily died.” He held out his phone towards Lisa and she read the message. They took for granted your soul, and it’s ours now to steal.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Lisa asked, setting the phone back onto the table.

“Well I was going to, then that shit in the attic happened and I kind of forgot about it. That, and I wasn’t about to freak anybody out, because I didn’t think anyone else was going to die.”

Lisa became deep in her thoughts. Her theory was coming together piece by piece. The questions to her were: explain her theory and get laughed at? Explain it and freak everybody out? Or explain and not have them believe her? It was Friday, which meant if the stories were right, they would be free to leave in just two days.

“Lisa? What are you thinking about?” Brian asked.

“It’s going to sound crazy.”

“So now you want to hide shit?” Matt asked in a sarcastic tone.

Lisa glared at him. “Well you are included in my theory.”

“What is it then?”

“You’re possessed, or going to be possessed. If it’s true what Emily said about this place and the girls that were murdered. A ghost, or a spirit of one of them has, or is going to possess you. Possibly out of revenge for the things that happened here. Reading the signs through the messages, something has gotten in your head to pull those song lyrics. And when you said the comment about lyrics you’ve written but haven’t been recorded yet, that’s how it can be explained. Matt, something has gotten into your head while you’ve been here.”

“I feel fine though. I haven’t felt any different, besides being upset and angry about what’s happening here.”

“That’s what they want. I’ve done research on this stuff before out of sheer boredom. They pick a person and do things to make their mind weak. Once the mind is weak enough, that’s when they take over. No offense, but you were in the same room as Emily and Johnny when they both died-”

“Are you saying I killed them?” he interrupted. “That's just saying that you could've killed Korynn since you were there when she died.”

“Brian was there too, we both can vouch for each other. We both saw what happened to her. She was possessed. For all we know, Johnny and Jimmy could've also been possessed, or it could've gotten Stephanie that night when Jimmy died. I don’t know. I didn’t witness their deaths. Stephanie can only say she turned on a light and saw him dead. You can only say you saw Emily's body, or Johnny's body.”

“I did see Johnny shoot himself. He didn't say anything though. I tried to get the gun away from him, but he pushed me away and shot himself.”

“But when we went downstairs, you were standing there in a trance holding the gun,” Brian piped in. “It took us like five minutes to get you to snap out of it and back to reality.”

“So am I possessed already then?” Matt asked.

“I don’t know. You don’t seem different, except a little more irritable. There’s explanations for that outside of being possessed though.”

“Well I don’t feel any different.”

“Does my theory make sense at least?”

“It does I guess. But how can we prevent anyone else from dying?”

“I don’t know. There really isn’t a way to know for sure. We can just hope.”

“Okay, we have the theory. Lisa, you need to get back to the couch and lay down,” Brian said.

“I would like to shower.”

“We don’t have any extra bandages though, so those can’t get wet.”

“I am not sitting here feeling nasty for two more days.”

“Well, we’ll figure something out.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. After everyone did shower, they stayed in the living room talking. Talking about anything to keep their minds at ease and off the situation. While there was nothing going on, they just wanted to forget about it. Make time go by faster, hoping for Sunday, and hoping for escape. Doing anything from playing cards to telling life stories. A surprisingly uneventful Friday passed by and soon, everyone was ready to go to sleep, feeling a bit more relieved, yet still uneasy at the fact that nothing had happened throughout the day. The six laid down, one by one falling asleep.

Notes