Mess of a Party

Saturday, 11:29 PM

The creature released Stephanie and she stumbled away. She glanced down at the guy in the video and back up at the thing standing before her. It was definitely the same height. And Steph was beyond the point of being sceptical, so this would make sense. She just sat there, staring at it for a moment. It was unnerving how it just stood there silently.

"Can...can you, uh...speak?" Stephanie asked, her shaky voice breaking the silence. The creature shook its head.

"But you can understand me?" It nodded.

"So you're this...this, uh, McCarter guy?" It nodded and Stephanie wanted to cry. She knew that it was almost half an hour before midnight and she knew that this thing was going to go berserk then. She had to get everyone out of here before then, but they couldn't get anywhere because they had no gasoline.

The creature moved to reach the lock on the cage. It shaped it's tentacles into a key shape and opened the door. Then it stood off to the side.

"You...want me to leave?" It nodded.

"Well, we can't!" She yelled, the desperation she felt suddenly intensified. "We have no gasoline and our car is our only way out of here." She felt tears welling up again.

We're all going to die, she thought bitterly. But to her surprise, the creature shook its head.

"What?" Steph asked, wishing it was easier to communicate with this monster. The creature turned around and walked over to the door. It held the handle and turned to gesture for Stephanie to follow. She did, cautiously. She still didn't trust this thing. It opened the door and there was a short hallway beyond it.

There was a door on the right to them and the creature went into that door next. It was a small room filled with some crazy machine. It had cords leading into the wall facing the hallway. There was a whiteboard and the creature walked up to it. It picked up a marker and started writing.

"I have gasoline" It wrote.

"What? Where?" Stephanie asked it. The creature pointed to a gas can beside the machine. She ran over to it and checked how full it was.

"Well, it's about half full, but that'll more than enough for us to get home." She picked it up and really hoped that this creature was fine if they took it. She didn't know what she would do if it attacked her. It started writing again.

"Take it and gather your friends. They are hurt and need help. Leave now while you can."

"Wait, who's hurt? Are they going to...to live?" Suddenly the glass cuts in her shoulder didn't seem so bad. Someone needs serious medical attention.

"Leather jacket" The creature wrote.

"Oh my god, Ty!" Steph was about to turn around and run, but then she remembered that she had no idea where she was or where Ty was. She felt so helpless to help them.

"Take the floor door on the left to get to your friends. Be safe. I can't help you anymore."

Stephanie tried to figure out what a "floor door" was, but the creature started walking out of the room. She followed it and once they were in the hall, the creature pointed to the end of the hallway. There was a case of stairs, but not too many.

"You want me to leave?" She asked and the creature nodded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but...thank you." The creature nodded, though Stephanie could swear she saw a line on its face. A line in the shape of a smile. Without thinking about how creepy that was, Steph took off running to the stairs. They had to be out of this place by midnight and time was not on their side.

Saturday, 11:36 PM

Ty felt terrible. His back hurt and he was very worried about Steph. After they were absolutely sure that the deformed freak was gone, they called Skylar and told her what happened. She said that Payton was too freaked out to be left alone, so they're both on their way. While they waited, Claire took Ty's jacket and balled it up, then pushed it onto the cuts to stop the bleeding.

"Ahh!" Ty shouted in pain. He shifted in his spot and grounded his teeth shed to avoid yelling again.

"I know, I know." Claire told him with a soothing tone. "I'm sorry, but you won't get any better if you lose any more blood."

"How do you know so much about this?" Ty asked, trying to get his mind off the pain.

"I studied to become a doctor. Well, am studying." She responded. "But only because my dad is making me."

"Oh, one of those dads hey?" Ty tried to pass it off as nothing, but he couldn't stop thinking about his dad. The man that was supposed to raise him looked at him with disgust and would leave repeatedly because he didn't want to raise a kid like Ty. For some reason, Ty found it harder than usual to keep his emotions in right now. Maybe it was because he was drunk.

"Yeah, my dad is constantly making me take courses for things I don't want to do." Claire had the tiniest bit of regret in her tone. "He'd never let me go to a party like this."

"But he let you tonight?" Ty shut his eyes and tried to control his breathing. It was hard.

"No, I just left on my own tonight. This is going to sound so stupid," Ty could imagine Claire rolling her blue eyes as she said that. "But it's sort of like making a statement. I left to show him he can't control me."

"No, that's not stupid." Ty said, speaking honestly. He thought that was one of the bravest things in the world. It's rough when you have a crappy parent.

"Well, I'll have to go back tonight, so it didn't really work anyway." Ty never really thought about why Claire was so quiet and shy, but now he figured it was because of her father. He didn't know much about what a good father was like, but he was pretty sure that controlling didn't make for a good trait.

"I'm sure that Steph would be fine if you stayed over." Ty told her. "Or Sky. She's usually really cool about me staying over, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind you." Claire smiled behind his back.

"Yeah, of course she's fine with you." She gently pulled the balled up jacket off of the cuts to see if they had stopped bleeding. The bleeding had definitely slowed down, but it wasn't stopping. "How does that feel?"

"It's okay, but I've been better." Ty stretched his back and winced from the pain. How was he going to explain this to his mom? He pushed the thought out of his mind and focussed on something else. "What do you mean of course Sky is fine with me?" He asked. Claire still had to hold the jacket on his back, but Ty could turn a little and look at her.

"Well, come on." She smiled as if she understood the humour in some inside joke that Ty didn't get. "It's obvious that you like her. Or at least you two are best friends. A girl doesn't just let a boy stay over at her house until she really trusts him."

"Why does everyone think that tonight is the best time to voice their opinions on this?" Ty asked and Claire laughed.

"Look, I'm not going to pressure you into saying whether or not you like her, but just know that anyone that looks at you guys can see how close you are." Claire said with a smile.

"Hey, Ty!" Payton's voice called from outside. "Are you guys in there?" Claire called back a "Yes!" and Skylar and Payton walked in. Perfect timing.