I could hear the roaring of music from a block away. Cars lined the block. Neighbors were standing on their porches, annoyed. I could see people in the distance hanging out on Amy’s porch. They were drinking out of solo cups. The only lights in the entire neighborhood were street lights and the lights coming from her house.
It was one of those neighborhoods where everyone was rich and had an in-ground pool, and no one had to worry about crime because there were neighborhood watches to keep people safe. I steadily approached by way of sidewalk, under the cover of darkness that was created by the trees along the yards. The weather was finally starting to warm up, so the night air was pleasantly neutral in temperature. My friends were in front of me. The only one that knew what was about to happen was Danny. I clutched the arm of my backpack hard.
I’d never actually been to Amy’s house. Mar had, so she led the way. Amy and Mar apparently used to be best friends back in third grade. She’d come over every day and they’d do whatever girls do. Then junior high started, Amy got popular, and Mar joined drama. They grew apart. I was wearing a long sleeve white shirt, jeans that were a little big on me, and my comfortable slip on shoes. Mar had on black shorts and a Nirvana smiley face t-shirt.
Her hair had grown a little in the past few weeks, so her bangs bounced around in her face as she practically skipped down the sidewalk. Emily was holding her arms crossed. Her hair was loose and partially covering her glasses. She was wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved white shirt. Danny had his hair done up nicely and parted to the side. He was wearing jeans and a nondescript black t-shirt. He was wearing running shoes, I noticed.
“We’re just gonna stop by, say hi, then leave.” Danny said as we approached the brightly lit two story house. A large group was gathered on the porch and they watched us as we walked. I could hear music blaring and the sounds of people splashing around in a pool in the backyard.
“Oh, come on. That’s no fun!” Mar complained. “I brought a swimsuit and everything!”
Danny looked back at me. Mar noticed and she looked back at me too, which prompted Emily to glance back at me as well. I flashed them a smile.
“Is there something you guys aren’t telling me?” Mar asked, while still looking at me.
“I was wondering that too.” Emily muttered, looking away at the houses across the street.
“I think you know me well enough to know that I’m terrible at keeping secrets.” Danny said with confidence. We had come to a full stop a few feet away from the front porch of Amy’s house. Mar was looking between the both of us with an increasing amount of worry on her face.
“Yeah, but he’s a bad influence.” Mar said while pointing at me.
She’s got me there.
“Why are you so worried? What could possibly go wrong.” I said.
I confidently walked past all of them and up the front steps. I didn’t stop for a second to look at all the people gathered around the porch. As I entered the building I immediately regretted it. I contemplated just running back out. It wasn’t just the nervousness building up inside of me. But also the killer headache.
All that aside, I’d still want to leave because the music was so loud I couldn’t hear myself think, the hallway leading into the living room was so full of people that I had to physically make contact with them in order to go by, and I really just hate parties. Danny followed quickly behind me. He grabbed my shoulder to reassure me and I jumped at the contact. I looked back to see Mar coming through the door, Emily following behind with crossed arms.
“How’s this going to work?” Danny asked.
I barely heard him, the music being as loud as it was. He was trying to shuffle past the horde to stand beside me. Smells Like Teen Spirit blared over the speaker. Mar had a smile on her face as she bobbed her head to the music.
“Not sure.” I mumbled. We’d brainstormed ad nauseum over the past week about how I was going to handle this. The gist of our plan was that he’d try and get her outside while I changed into my costume somewhere in the cover of darkness. Then I’d fight her in the street, safely away from civilians. But first he needed to find her, and I needed to stay away from prying eyes.
“I’m surprised the music here isn’t trash.” Mar said as she caught up with us.
“I’ve never understood your taste in music.” Danny said with his first smile of the night. We’d momentarily stopped to let Emily catch up to us.
“And you never will, choir boy.” Mar said with a smirk.
“Jacob!” A girl’s voice screamed from directly behind me.
I jumped straight up in the air. It had caught me completely off guard. I spun around to see that the voice had come from the couch in the living room. My jump had elicited laughter from Danny behind me. The living room had a lot less people in it, thankfully. Most of them were gathered around watching one of the football players playing a vintage arcade game that was set up in the corner. He was winning from the sound of their cheers. Everyone else was spread out in little groups of three, around the room.
A majority of the party participants were out in the back in the pool, on the porch or adjacent to it, or from the look of the number of people going upstairs, on the second floor. Sitting on the couch that was set up across from the living room’s flat screen tv were three girls. I didn’t recognize the rightmost one. Her bleach blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail.
The girl to the left of the center of the couch was Courtney, Amy’s junior friend. She was all dressed up. In the middle of the couch was the girl that had called my name. She was wrapped up in a towel and her red hair was soaking wet. Water droplets still ran down Sarah’s freckles. I could just barely see beneath the towel that she was wearing a bright pink one piece swimsuit. All three girls looked completely at ease lazing about on the couch. Sarah looked more than a little excited. She patted the seat next to her beckoningly.
“Come sit over here Jacob!” She hollered once I was looking at her. When I hesitated, she added: “I promise I don’t bite!” The people in the corner started to notice.
I decided to play it cool and sit down next to her. Courtney was in a daze next to me. Sarah smiled at me. She smelled like chlorine. I looked over at my friends. Danny seemed nervous. Emily looked uncomfortable. Mar had her eyes closed, head moving to the music.
“Did you just get out of the pool?” I asked. The answer was obvious but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Yeah.” She said with a smile. My headache was starting to get worse. “You should go in too. I’ll come with, if you do.” She suggested cheerily.
“I’d rather not” I said.
“But first, the birthday girl wanted to talk to you.” She ignored my reply. “She told me to send you up once you walked through the door. She’s upstairs in her room. I can take you if you want, but she said she just wanted you up there.” Sarah told me.
“Did she say why?” Mar had just tuned in to the conversation. She had a threatening look in her eyes. She was ready to protect me if anything was happening, I suspected.
“Nope.” Sarah shrugged.
“Neato. Show me.” I stood up.
My grip on my backpack tightened. Sarah bounced up. She threw the towel off and revealed her pink one piece. She smiled at me, then lead the way. As I was led past my friends I grabbed Danny by the shoulders and whispered in his ear.
“Make sure to get the girls out of here before anything happens.” I walked past before he responded.
“What do you think of the party?” Sarah asked as we made our way back to the hallway I just came through.
“It’s pretty okay, I guess.” I mumbled.
“What was that? Music’s a little loud.” She said while happily looking back at me.
“I said it was alright.” I repeated.
We squeezed through the crowd leading to the stairwell by the front door. The music was muffled at the top of the stairwell. The hallway on the second floor was more massive than it had any right to be.
“Yeah. This is her room.” She pointed to the door. She looked genuinely distraught. I let my head fall against the door. It made a thud when it landed. I relaxed my shoulders.
My long hair fell over my eyes, it touched my nose slightly. For a second I let every bit of emotion in my body wash away. My face reverted to apathy. Its natural state. Like an empty mask. I loosened my grip on my backpack, and let out a deep sigh.
After this it would be over. No more villains. I could go home and go to sleep. I could put the costume away and pretend like none of it ever happened. I could try to live out a normal life. All I had to do was convince this psycho to not kill me. I gripped the door handle, hard enough to feel sweat on my palms. I could hear noise on the other side.
Sounds like clicks on a computer. I could hear breathing. I let go of the door knob and gripped my backpack hard. I thought about running to the bathroom and changing into my costume. I built up the courage to quickly grab the door knob and twist it. I opened it in the same motion because I knew if I didn’t I’d have to wait to build up the nerve and I’d be back at square one.
The door opened and I was greeted to the sight of a wheelchair bound Amelia. She was sitting in the center of her very neat and clean bedroom. Her face was relaxed with a smug smirk on it. I could see that her legs were very clearly in the same horrifying twisted metal contraption that they’d been encased in during the fight.
I met her eyes and I was sure that for the first time I was seeing the true Amelia. She was showing me who she was behind the mask. So I let my mask drop too. The smirk that was on my face left completely. I looked up at her with darkness in my eyes. My hair just barely covered parts of my face.
“Okay. Let’s talk.” I said looking right in her eyes.
