His Cold Hands

His Cold Hands By Sarah Tothe

I screamed in horror as he came closer and closer. I was the only one he took. It was frightening. What would my parents think when they came to pick me up the next day? I had to try to escape.
My name is Brooke Williams and I am in Grade 10. I missed a grade because of the horrifying experience I encountered. The Friday that it happened, I thought, was just a regular day, but I was sadly mistaken.
Mitchie Young, my best friend, whom I have known since I was 6 years old, asked me a few days before if I wanted to come to her birthday party, which was a sleepover. I had finally agreed to come, after her begging me for 3 days. At that time, I didn't realize that it would turn upside down so quickly. I knew that Mitchie had invited a few other friends, like Ashley, Rian, and Dani.
I never really understood why Mitchie was so nice to Dani, or why Dani wanted Mitchie's friendship so bad, but now I do. Mitchie is nice to everyone, no matter how much it annoys me. Dani just wanted to get close to Mitchie because she wanted to get rid of me and to annoy me.
At lunch that day, I was wandering around in the hallways, trying to find someone to hang out with, seeing that Mitchie was home, sick, and everyone else was hanging out with other people. Then, I saw Dani. I started to walk up to her when I heard her talking to someone on the phone. I know it isn't very nice to eavesdrop on people's conversation, but I sort of wanted to know who she was talking to.
"So," said Dani, looking around to see if anyone was coming near her. I had to blend in with the crowd that was coming towards her, "my friend is having a sleepover birthday party on Friday night, and I was wondering if you wanted to come and help us with a surprise I'm planning!" I suddenly got scared. What was she thinking of doing? It could be anything, something good or something bad.
The person on the other side of this conversation sounded like they were a guy. He mumbled something. All I could get out of it was him saying he would help Dani with her plan. That's all I heard before some girl came up beside me with headphones in and her music blaring loudly. Then the bell rang. I had to run to my locker as fast as I could to grab my books. If that wasn't enough, my locker shelves collapsed and everything was a mess. I grumbled with frustration, as the second bell rang. I bolted to class. Luckily, the teacher wasn't there yet.
After school, I phoned Mitchie to tell her about Dani and her plan. Sadly, Mrs. Young picked up and explained to me that Mitchie had lost her voice and couldn't speak, then asked to know what I wanted. I had to lie and tell her that I wanted to know how she was feeling, which I did care about, but mostly wanted to tell her about the plan.
The next day, Mitchie was at school, and sort of had her voice, loud enough so that the teacher could hear her from the back of the class. She and I were walking down the hallway at lunch, when we saw Dani running up to us, yelling, "Hey, Mitchie! Wait up!" I guess I'm invisible!
"Hi," Dani panted, "I am so happy you are feeling better! If you weren't, you might have cancelled the party."
"Yeah," chirped Mitchie, as she held her throat, "my mom said if I didn't feel well enough today, she would phone everyone that I had invited and tell them it was cancelled. I didn't..."
Dani interrupted. "So," she started, speaking with a guilty look on her face, "my cousin is in town this weekend and I told him, I mean, her all about you and your party, and they, um, wanted me to ask you if they could come."
"Depends," Mitchie questioned, "are they going to sneak up and scare us?" She laughed. Dani joined in, obviously.
" Oh, of course not," Dani assured Mitchie, while they were both still laughing, "Reese is the sweetest person you will ever meet."
"Is Reese a boy or a girl?" I chimed in.
"I wasn't talking to you, Brooke," Dani snapped fiercely, "so, back off." She grabbed Mitchie's arm and pulled it, so they were walking away from me. Mitchie looked back at me as if to say, "Help me. I don't want to be with her."
Dani realized this and started to walk faster. She glared at me, as they turned the corner. Her face told me that she was thinking, "She's mine now, so back off!"
I started to think about this Reese person that Dani was talking about. Maybe this was the person she was talking to on the phone yesterday? Reese could be a boy or a girl. So, either, Dani was telling the truth, about her having a cousin named Reese, who really wanted to come to Mitchie's party, or she was lying.
'What do I do?' I thought as I walked home from school, 'do I phone Mitchie and tell her everything I know? Or will she just laugh at me, and say that I'm just saying that because I do not like Dani? What do I do?' That was the moment I walked past Mitchie's house. I started to walk slower, debating if I should go and tell her how Dani was untrustworthy and everything that came out of her mouth is a lie, but, I didn't want to hurt my friendship with Mitchie, so I walked past, with my head down.
The next day at school, Friday, the day of Mitchie's party, was so chaotic, that I couldn't wrap my head around everything that was happening. It was also the day before a two-week spring break. Everyone was at their lockers, organizing and cleaning them out, which reminded me that I still had to do mine. Every classroom had the chairs all stacked up in a corner and everything off the shelves.
I went to my locker to put my backpack in it and get my books out. It was only a half day, so I only needed two sets of books, my Science and my Math. I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there was Dani, with an angry look on her face.
"Look, you snitch," she grabbed my shirt and pulled me up onto my feet, "if you know my plan,"
I stuttered and pulled away, "I d-don't know an-anything about your p-plan."
"I just don't want Mitchie to know about my surprise," she started to laugh with her evil laugh, "this is her birthday, not yours! So, don't get in my way and don't get Reese's way."
"I won't!" I sprinted to the other side of the school.
After school, in the afternoon, I had to go home and and pack for Mitchie's party.
'I wish Dani would just go away,' I thought with frustration, 'why did she have to be born? Why does she have to be rich? Oh, right! Her parents did that for her! I hate them for that and I hate her!'
Throwing my clothes into my bag, I have angrily zipped it up. I flopped onto my bed and screamed into my pillow. I started to read a book where this girl was perfect and had everything and had a handsome boyfriend. I was so angry, that I took a blue permanent marker, scratched out 'Romeo and Juliet' and wrote 'Reese and Dani'.
I guess I fell asleep, because the next thing I knew, it was 5 o'clock and I had to go to Mitchie's house. So, I got up and moped down the stairs, through the door and down the street. I started to see the top of Mitchie's house, so I stood up straight and put a smile on my face and walked happily up to the door, even though I wasn't happy at all. I was pretending to be so happy, that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and almost fell into a bush. I almost dropped Mitchie's present.
The present I got Mitchie was, a Pandora bracelet, that had 7 charms on it. There was a charm that said "BFF", one that said "MY", which were Mitchie's initials, one said "BW", which were mine, Mitchie's birthstone, the ruby, my birthstone, the aquamarine, one with roses and one with Bulldogs. I hope Mitchie likes it.
Ringing the doorbell about 3 times, Mrs. Young finally answered and let me in. I saw streamers, and cake, and smelt the yummy turkey and potatoes that Mrs. Young was making for dinner. I heard a girl and a boy screaming loudly from a distance away. Probably Mitchie's brother and sister were fighting once again.
"So," I asked Mitchie's mom, curiously looking out the patio door out onto the street, "where's Mitchie?"
"She's downstairs," Mrs. Young pulled the turkey out and put it on the stovetop, "setting up everything."
I rushed down the stairs, and Mitchie met me at the bottom. She squeezed me tightly, then turned around.
"It looks really nice down here," I said, as I put my bag down, "you must have spent a lot of time on it!"
Mitchie flopped down onto the couch. "Ugh! My brother and sister," she groaned, "they kept on coming down here and trying to help me, but totally messed things up! Mom finally took them upstairs and made them go to their room and play."
All of sudden, we heard the doorbell ring, then footsteps on the floor. The basement door opened, and Ashley and Rian came down.
"Where's the party?" they hollered, loudly.
Mitchie and I both ran up to hug them both. Then, another person came through the basement door. Dani.
"Oh, great!" I mumbled under my breath.
Dani had a blow up bed, makeup, nail polish, and then all her stuff. Everyone gathered around her except me and Mitchie.
"You weren't supposed to bring all that stuff," Mitchie pointed out, amongst all the commotion, "none of that is necessary. We aren't doing any of that stuff."
"Oops," Dani played a little bit dumb, "sorry!"
After everyone got settled, we all went up to the dining room and had dinner. It was scrumptious! At least I thought it was. Mrs. Young mentioned to us that she had to go out for a bit after dinner to go get a few things. After dinner, it was the little ones' job to do the dishes, considering Mrs. Young had to go out, and Mitchie had friends over.
All of us went downstairs and played 'Truth or Dare'. Our style was, everyone got picked at least once, then people got to pick whoever they wanted. The first round, everyone picked 'Truth', then it was my turn. I decided to be fierce and go with 'Dare'.
As soon as I told them that I picked 'Dare', we all heard a smash. We didn't know what it was. Maybe it was Mitchie's siblings accidently dropping a dish and it breaking. We ran up the stairs and stood in the hallway. We couldn't hear anything, like yelling or laughing. All we could hear was slow footsteps coming towards us.
We turned around to go back downstairs, and there he was. We couldn't see what his face looked like, but we knew he was bad. We all screamed and ran away. But I realized one person wasn't howling while they were running, Dani. I knew what I had to do.
"Dani," I yelled at her, both with fear and anger, "why would you do something like this to us? I thought you were better than that. I knew you were planning something, but I didn't think it would be this bad."
"It's not my guy. My guy is a professional makeup and nail design artist." she shouted back at me, angrier than ever. I guess I didn't get it right.
We all ran away. Rian ran home, because she lived only 5 houses away. Ashley ran out of the house, into the front yard. Mitchie locked herself in the upstairs bathroom. Dani was the only one of the girls who had a cellphone, but the service was done. I ran downstairs, but I forgot to lock the door.
I sprinted to lock it, but it was too late. He must have seen my shadow through the blurred glass, because he pulled the door open. It startled me. Sprinting down the stairs, I went to the farthest corner. He started to walk towards me, until he could grab my arm. I screamed in horror, as he grabbed my arm. He started to drag me to the door. When I tried to struggle, he would just pull harder. No one must have heard us, because no one came to help. We got to the door. Everything went black.
The next thing I knew, we were in a back alley somewhere. All I could feel were cold hands, and the rocks on my back. He finally took the bag off my head. I was tied up at the ankles and wrists, and had a piece of duct tape on my mouth, so I couldn't say anything. He did stuff to me. I can't even explain what he did.
I looked around. No one else was there from the party. I guess I was the only one he took. It was weird. Maybe he went back after he took me, but couldn't find anyone.
When he wasn't looking, I tried to escape. I got up and tried to run, but then, fell back down, because my feet and hands were tied. He heard me and turned around. He once again slapped me and hit me.
I finally saw his face. He had brown, almost black, eyes. He had scars all over his face. He had a tattoo on his neck, almost like a dragon, but not quite. I didn't want to be alone with this guy. What else would he do to me? I had to try and escape again. I failed, again. I guess I would let this guy do whatever he wants to me. What else could I do? Struggle again, then fail, then get beaten again?
It went dark again.
When I woke up, I was on a street corner. No one was there except me. No creepy guy. No people walking. I didn't know what day it was. I didn't know how old I was. Where was I?
The street corner said '5th Street' and '12th Avenue'. Wait! I live on '4th Street' and '13th Avenue'. I just had to walk to my house.
When I finally got there, my mom and dad hugged me, and didn't even ask where I was. They said I was gone for one year. I guess I am in Grade 10.
I had to recover from the scrapes and bruises he had given me. That took about 3 months. Now, I am back in school, with all my friends.
I will always be scarred from what he did to me, but most of all, I will alway remember his cold hands!