Final Curtain
by
Ben Church
bchurch@su.edu
Starring:
Rebecca "Becca" Schall
Mahmoud "Mack" Kahn
Kevin Good
Ben Church
Nagesh Tammara
Rebecca "Becky" Schaff
Jami Ras
Julie Tobin
Lindsay Shenk
Matt Siegal
Jason Ras
Mike Hamlin
Joe Hamlin
Ricky Sheih
Pankaj Goel
Ryan Walker
Tim Preston
Danny Belmano
Heather Ebner
Erin Compton
Melissa Naylor
Lisa Datovich
Andrew Brewer
Jason "B.J." Zachariah
Ted Malaska
Kathleen Burke
Katie Powell
Emily Saylor
Scott Fitzgerald
Laura Prince
Mr. Shoemaker
Mrs. "P.C." Porto-Correiro
Mr. Alvarez
Daniel Mugg
Brian Connor
Aisha Bustamante
Alison Siegel
Jeremy Martin
All the people in this story except for Felicia, and
Morgan are real. Any resemblance to fictional characters
is purely coincidental.
Prologue
Felicia waited impatiently while Morgan picked the lock on the
auditorium backstage door.
"O.K. we're in." he whispered.
Felicia felt a thrill as they crept into the dark building.
They found themselves in a hallway with a door straight ahead, and one
on their right.
"Follow me." Felicia said, and went through the door in front of them.
She led Morgan across the stage and into the right wing. From there she led
him up a ladder into a dark storage area.
"Okay." she said. "You light the candle, and I'll perform the ritual."
"You realize of course," Morgan cautioned, "That if we go through with
this, our souls are forfeit."
Felicia grabbed his shirt and yanked him roughly against her.
"Light it," she kissed him hard on the mouth, slipping her free hand
down inside his pants. She pulled away from him and continued, "And you'll
never sleep alone again."
"I'll light the candle." he offered.
Felicia smiled and removed her back pack from her back. She took a
piece of red chalk and a copy of the Necronomicon from it. She drew a
pentagram on the floor between Morgan and herself according to the diagram
in the book. Then she proceeded to perform the ritual as the book dictated.
In closing, she said "We offer a sacrifice oh Lord of Darkness, so that we
may have your blessing." With that, she pulled a rabbit from her backpack
and broke it's neck.
The ritual over, Felicia smiled and shoved Morgan onto his back.
Quickly, she pinned him to the floor, her legs wrapping around him and
trapping his arms. He started to say something so she clamped his mouth
shut with one hand. With her free hand, she started unbuttoning his shirt.
Behind her, the darkness came alive.
Morgan stared in horror. He tried to warn Felicia, but her hand sealed
his lips. He tried to free his arms to point, but her legs were too strong.
"Stop struggling." Felicia complained. "I thought you liked it kinky."
Then, she took a closer look at his face.
"What are you looking at?" she asked. She turned her head to look, and
screamed in pain as her head kept turning in a complete 360 degree turn.
Morgan winced at the sound of cracking bone. When her head was again
facing front, he was horrified to a see a seductive smile on her face.
Blood trickled from her mouth as her smile widened. He tried again to free
himself from her grasp but she tightened her grip.
Her legs squeezed him so tight that he couldn't breath, and her fingers
dug painfully into his jawbone. Her hand pressed his skull hard against the
floor, making his head hurt.
Slowly, she opened her mouth and lowered her head. Then, she swiftly
ripped out his throat with her teeth.
Chapter 1
Becca sighed. The rehearsal was going to run late,
again. The cast knew their lines and their blocking, but
they and the crew were getting in each other's way and on
each other's nerves. And Mr. Shoemaker, the tech director,
kept making them repeat scenes.
It was less than a week before the show went up, and
tension's were high. And tempers were short. The cast was
the biggest it had ever been. For this year instead of the
usual comedy, the theater department had decided to put on
a series of one act plays. Becca hadn't had much experience
on the Gaithersburg High stage yet, being a sophomore, but
she could tell that this was one experiment that would not
be repeated.
B.J. stalked offstage muttering. "We knew our
blocking till that ass hole started fucking it up." he said.
B.J., short for Benjamin Jason, was called so to separate
him from his friends, Ben and Jason. He to was new to the
stage, but he was a junior. He'd tried out for the play
because he thought it would be fun. And because his
girlfriend was trying it as well. But he was currently
reassessing the situation.
Behind them, the cast and crew were desperately trying
to keep occupied. All except one. Danny Belmano was
packing up to leave.
"Hey Danny!" Mack called. "Where are you going?"
"Home." Danny said. "I don't feel like hanging around
here anymore."
"Fucking prick." Mack muttered. It was a well known
fact that Mack did not like Danny. In fact, no one liked
Danny. The only one who even seemed to be able to tolerate
him was Ben. And even he admitted that Danny was hard to
take. Danny was the kind of person who thought he could get
away with anything, and so he constantly missed rehearsals,
or left before they were over.
Mack on the other hand was easy to get along with. He
was another newbie to the Gaithersburg High stage, and was
from Bangladesh. But he was doing the plays behind his
parents' backs, telling them he was in Key club.
"Yes! Magnificent!" Mrs. P.C.'s voice sounded through
the auditorium. Ms. Porto-Correiro was the director. And
you always knew when she liked something. She was Spanish,
and very exuberant. An interesting contrast to her more
reserved boyfriend, and head of the stage crew Mr. Alvarez.
"Finally." Lisa said as she, Kevin and Andrew left the
stage. "I thought we'd never get through that play." The
play that Lisa, a senior was referring to was "Present
Tense", starring her, B.J., Kevin Good, a senior with little
stage experience, but was a great actor any way, and Andrew,
another senior with no prior experience. The point of the
experiment was to get more people involved.
B.J., Ben, Becky and Ricky went onto the stage to start
their scene. Their's was the first scene in the next One
Act play that the drama club would be performing in less
than a week, called, "The Addict".
Ben was a junior like B.J., but unlike his friend, he
had extensive experience in the G.H.S. drama department,
having been involved since he was a freshman.
Becky and Ricky were sophomores who, like many others,
were new to the stage. Becky had slightly more experience
however, since she had been in the previous year's musical,
"Bye Bye Birdie".
"Hey Enrique." Danny said, returning from the hallway.
"My name is not Enrique." Nagesh snapped. He had been
given that nickname against his will due to his resemblance
to the character on My So Called Life. Nagesh was a tall
Indian boy, yet another newbie.
"Yeah whatever." Danny replied. "Who locked the door?"
"What are you talking about?" Nagesh asked. His nerves
were already wearing thin from the tension on the set and
Danny's presence was not helping.
"The door's locked."
"Which door?"
"The one that goes outside." Danny answered testily.
"How the hell should I know?" Nagesh retorted.
Meanwhile, Lindsay studied her lines with Tim and Ryan.
All three were also new, however Tim, a junior had been on
crew before, and his brother had been in other plays. Ryan
was a sophomore as well as Lindsay. Many people had
remarked that Ryan looked like Curt Kobain.
"We are studying lines we already know by heart
because?" Ryan asked.
"Because we have nothing else to do." Tim answered. He
poked Lindsay. "Hey Lindsay wake up."
"Why?"
"Uh, good point never mind."
Katie, B.J.'s girlfriend, was extremely bored. "Do you
think they'll ever get to our scene?" she asked Ryan.
"Who knows?" Ryan answered. "Who even cares at this
point?"
Mack and Pankaj sat near the back doing their homework.
Pankaj was still another newbie, and was also Indian. Ted
walked over to them.
Ted was an Italian junior who'd been drawn into the
theater by the one acts. His real talent however was as an
artist. He, Mack, Ryan and Ben had tried to make a comic
book, but it didn't look like it was ever going to happen.
"Can I borrow some paper?" he asked.
"You doin' homework?" Mack asked.
"Nah, I thought I'd draw something."
Danny tried another door, this one leading to the
dressing rooms, and was elated when it opened.
"If anybody needs me, I'll be in the bathroom." he
said.
"Jerking off." Ted added.
"Did he just say what I think he said?" Matt whispered
to Laura. Matt Siegal was on crew, he'd gotten involved
because his sister, Alison was a big theater person.
Laura was the Stage manager. "Yes Matt. He did." she
said tiredly.
Heather rested her broken leg on a chair and rehearsed
her lines with Erin. Both were new to the stage. Heather
was Laura's best friend and was usually on crew. Erin had
almost decided that this would be her last production.
Nearby, Becca, Julie, Kathleen and Emily also studied
their lines. Melissa was asleep. All were new to the
stage.
"I can't believe they made us do a walk on six times."
Becky complained.
"Mr. Shoemaker just wanted to see you in that outfit"
Ben said. She was wearing a skintight, low-cut tank top,
and a short, tight skirt. Becky smiled.
"Hey Ben," Ricky asked, "How're you getting home?"
Ricky was forever asking Ben for rides home. Ben had
decided that the next time Ricky did so, he would respond
with; "I was gonna bum a ride off you." Before Ben could
answer however, the room went dark.
"What the hell?" Mr. Alvarez asked, and flipped on his
flash light.
"Scott!" Mr. Shoemaker called. "What happened to the
lights?"
"Wish I knew!" A faint glow emanated from the control
booth. "I'm lucky I have a flashlight." Scott said to
himself. Scott Fitzgerald was the lighting tech wiz. He
like many others was a junior.
"Hey where's Danny?" Laura asked. Several minutes had
passed since the lights had gone out, and he had not
returned.
"He went to the bathroom." Pankaj said.
"He's probably lost in the dark. I'll get him." Ben
volunteered. "If someone will lend me a flashlight." he
added. Mr. Alvarez handed him his flashlight, and Laura
went to the tool room to get more.
Ben went into the hallway, lighting his way with the
flashlight. The almost total darkness, and complete silence
unnerved him. Quietly, he began to hum to calm his nerves.
Before long, he reached the men's dressing room and
pushed open the door.
"Danny?" he called. There was no answer but the sound
of his own voice. And a dripping sound, as if someone had
left the faucet on just enough to let it drip.
"Danny...anny...anny? Hello...ello...lo?
Echo...echo...cho! Deeeo...eo...eo! Mi say
deeeo...eeeo...eo! Daylight come and me wanna go
home...ome." Ben laughed, no longer nervous.
He opened the door to the bathroom. There was Danny,
staring blankly towards the door.
"There you are." Ben said testily. "What the hell have
you...been..." Ben's voice faltered as he registered what
he was seeing. Danny's head hung by the hair from a string
attached to the ceiling. The rest of his body was gone.
The dripping sound was Danny's blood slowly draining from
his neck.
The relative calm in the auditorium was split by the
sound of a blood curdling terror-filled scream.
"Holy shit! What's that?" Kathleen asked. She, Mack
and Ryan ran blindly to the dressing room, following the
scream. Mack hit the wall once. Since he was in the lead,
Ryan and Kathleen managed to avoid doing so.
In the dressing room, they found Ben pointing his
flashlight at the closed bathroom door, screaming.
Kathleen grabbed Ben's shoulders.
"Ben!" she shouted. "Snap out of it!" When she had
calmed him down, she told Ryan to open the door. Mack took
the flashlight.
They stared in horror at the sight. Ben looked about
to scream, so Kathleen clapped her hand over his mouth.
Ryan let the door swing shut, and followed Mack as he ran
from the room. Kathleen grabbed Ben's arm pulled him
along with them.
Mr. Shoemaker's voice echoed form the catwalks. "I
can't find anything wrong Scott! I'm coming down!"
Suddenly, Mr. Shoemaker heard a soft clanging
noise from somewhere behind him.
"Hang on a minute!" he called to Scott. He shined his
light in the direction of the sound.
On the stage, Ben shakily told, with Mack's help, what
he had seen.
Emily interrupted. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.
Above them, a light descended from the ceiling almost in
slow motion. Mr. Alvarez walked to where it had landed, and
picked it up. It was Mr. Shoemaker's flashlight.
"What the hell?"
"Nagesh, Andrew, Kevin, get up there." Mrs. P.C.
ordered. "Scott!" she called. "Check on Mr. Shoemaker!"
Scott climbed the ladder into the catwalks. "Mr.
Shoemaker?" he called. He panned his flashlight around the
dark walkways, seeing nothing. He was intensely aware of
the darkness and the silence. He crept further into the
dark. Then, he found him, far back on one of the catwalks,
his body mutilated. Scott forced his lunch back down, and
scrabbled backwards banging his head on a roof beam. He
practically fell down the ladder. Kevin helped him up.
"What's wrong?" he asked, noting Scott's pale face.
"Mr. Shoemaker's dead." Scott replied.
Suddenly a blur shot through the air and struck Nagesh
in the chest. They recognized the wooden spear from the
prop room. Then, impaled, Nagesh fell backwards from the
window of the booth.
The lights came back on then, allowing the entire cast
to witness the grisly scene.
Melissa paled, Julie screamed. Behind him, Tim could
hear Ben repeating softly, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my
god..."
Chapter 2
There was a sudden, panicked rush for the exit.
"This is no time to panic!" Mrs. P.C. yelled.
"This is the perfect time to panic!" someone replied.
Most tried to get out through the doors which, as Danny
had said earlier, refused to budge. However some, like Ben
and Mack, attempted to hurl themselves through the window.
Unfortunately, the windows were as unyielding as brick
walls. Ben and the others fell to the floor like sacks of
potatoes.
"Ouchie." Ben said.
"You okay?" Becca asked.
"Aside from the fact that I've been scarred for life?
Yeah I'm peachy keen."
Ten minutes later, the remaining cast members sat
silently on the stage. Scott had tried to get the phone
working, to no avail. Finally, B.J. stood.
"This is stupid." he said. "I'm going to find a phone
and call the police."
"I don't think it would be a good idea to separate."
Ben said quietly.
"He's right B.J." Katie said. "I'll go with you."
"Sure, she'll go with him." Joe Hamlin muttered. "And
they'll probably end up making out or something."
"Maybe." answered Mike Hamlin. "But you know B.J. as
well as I do. He'll still get the job done." Mike and Joe
Hamlin may as well have been twins, but one was a year ahead
of the other.
"That's a good idea." Mr. Alvarez said, not having
heard Mike and Joe's quiet conversation. "I'll take Ben and
Melissa and go to the office. Fred will have to be
notified."
"How'd we get roped into this?" Melissa grumbled to
Ben.
The doors leading to the rest of the school opened
easily. Only the ones to the outside would not open. Mr.
Alvarez left Jason and Katie at the pay phones and went to
the main office.
B.J. slammed the receiver down angrily.
"Dammit!" he swore. "That one's dead too. Let's got
to the office." He took Katie's hand and went into the next
hallway. As they ascended up the ramp, B.J. and Katie
peered suspiciously around in the darkness, both on their
last nerve. Then, behind them, one of the many shadows
rushed at Katie.
Katie's hand was ripped from B.J.'s grasp as she was
flung the length of the hallway. Her back impacted with the
doorway with a sickening crack. She slumped to the floor,
unmoving. B.J. ran to her side, knelt, and felt for a
pulse. There was none. Suddenly, the edge of her hand
struck his nose. Bone fragments flew into B.J.'s brain. He
was dead before he hit the ground.
The sight that greeted them in the office shocked them.
The two secretaries lay on the floor, their throats cut.
"Stay here." Mr. Alvarez told them. He left Ben and
Melissa in the lobby and went into Mr. Evans' office.
"Of course," Melissa said. "We'll stay here, in the
dark alone."
"Thank you Melissa I wasn't scared enough." Ben said
wryly.
Mr. Evans was slumped over his desk. Mr. Alvarez
turned him over revealing a broken broom handle protruding
from his chest.
Mr. Evans' eyes opened. Before Mr. Alvarez could
defend himself, Mr. Evans stabbed a pen through Mr.
Alvarez's temple and into his brain. He collapsed without a
sound.
Slowly, one of the secretaries moved. She dragged
herself to her feet and grasped a letter opener from a desk.
Neither Ben nor Melissa saw the events transpiring behind
them. Melissa peered into the hallway, searching for any
sign of the killer. Ben, on the other side of the room,
looked out the window, searching for any sign of a rescue.
The secretary threw the blade with tremendous force into
Melissa's back, severing her spinal cord. Immediately
thereafter, the secretary collapsed once more.
Ben heard a short, sharp cry from Melissa and whirled
around, panic rising in his throat. Melissa was swaying on
her feet, but there was no sign of anyone else. Relaxing
slightly, Ben went to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.
Without warning, she turned and wrapped her hands
tightly around his throat. As his air supply was cut off,
he suffered another moment of panic. Then he remembered the
martial arts lessons he'd taken a few years back. He freed
himself and delivered a roundhouse kick to her stomach. She
staggered back, then came for him again. Ben picked up a
chair and swung it at her with all his might. It connected
with her skull. Sending her crashing through a window that
looked out into the hall. Ben leaped through the window and
ran back to the auditorium as fast as he could. So great
was his terror, that he barely noticed B.J. and Katie's
bodies. As he ran past, Katie's hand closed around his
ankle, tripping him. He braced with his hands and
somersaulted, wrenching his foot from her grasp. He came up
running and reached the auditorium without further incident.
"What happened?" Mrs. P.C. asked.
"Dead." he gasped. "Melissa, B.J., Katie, they're all
dead."
"What?" Matt asked, close to panic himself. "How?"
"I don't know," Ben replied, trying to catch his
breath. "I never even saw the guy, he got Melissa and left.
The secretaries in the office are dead too."
"What about Fred and Mr. Alvarez?" Julie asked.
"I don't know." Ben admitted. "Just ran."
Ben didn't tell them how Melissa had tried to kill him
or how Katie's dead body had attempted to impede his
progress. In the back of his mind, Ben was formulating a
hypothesis. But he hoped to God he was wrong.
Tim grabbed Ben's arm and whispered in his ear;
"There's more to the story isn't there Ben." Jamie, Jason's
sister, Pankaj and anyone else within gathered close to hear
the rest.
"What makes you say that?" Ben asked shakily.
"C'mon Ben," Tim said. "I'm more perceptive than
people give me credit for. I can see it in your eyes."
"All right," Ben said. "You wanna hear the rest?
Fine. But you'll be sorry once you hear it." Ben told
them. He was right. They were sorry.
Chapter 3
Kevin and Andrew had gone immediately to the tool room
to gather anything that they could use as a weapon after
hearing what had happened in the office. Becky, Matt, and
Mack went up the ladder in the right wing for the same
purpose.
"I don't know about you guys," Jamie whispered. "But
from the rest of Ben's story, I don't think weapons are
gonna help."
"Yeah," Pankaj agreed. "How do you fight an evil
spirit?"
"Shut up." Tim muttered. "There's no such things as
evil spirits." But the look in his eyes told them that he
had the exact same worries.
"Pankaj, tell Kevin and Andrew to get flashlights."
Mrs. P.C. told him.
Pankaj went into the tool room and started. Kevin and
Andrew had been garroted by an extension cord. He gasped,
the spirit was here, or had been not long ago. It had to
have been a spirit, no human could have snuck into the tool
room, killed them and gotten out in such short a time. He
was backing out of the room, when the door slammed shut,
crushing his neck.
Julie heard the sound of a door slamming, and fearfully
went to investigate. She saw Pankaj disappear into the
storage space above the left wing.
"Pankaj?" she called to him. There was no answer.
Tentatively, she followed him up the ladder. Reaching the
top of the ladder she looked around. She could not see much
else than numerous flats due to the intense darkness.
Suddenly, Pankaj leaped at her and knocked her to the
ground. She tried to crawl to the ladder, but he caught
her. He clamped one hand over her mouth. With his other
hand, he pinched her nose shut, smothering her.
Becky shined her flashlight around the room.
"The coast is clear guys!" she called. Matt and Mack
climbed up the rest of the ladder, but did not enter the
storage area.
A flash of red caught Becky's eye. Illuminated in the
light of her flashlight, she saw the pentagram drawn in red
on the floor. She also saw a small black book. She picked
it up and read the title. The Necronomicon. She
gasped, remembering Ben's account of what had happened in
the office. She backed into a water pipe.
Then it happened. The pipe burst, the sudden explosion
of water throwing her off her feet and knocking the book
from her hand. The book skittered across the floor and fell
out the door just before it slammed shut. Becky frantically
tried to open it as the room began to fill up with water.
A small black object fell past Matt and Mack, but
neither of them paid it any mind. The door slammed shut,
trapping Becky in. Mack and Matt desperatly tried to open the
door, as Becky screamed for help.
"Let me out! The water's rising!"
His hand trembling, Ben picked up the black object lying
on the floor before him. The Necronomicon. He'd seen the Evil Dead
movies, he knew this was the source of the Nightmare he'd found himself
in. And he also knew it was the key to stopping it. He opened the
book to the table of contents. "God bless the modern
book publisher." he thought.
The two chapters he needed were consecutive. "How
convenient." he thought. They were; Seeing the Demon, and
Killing a Demon. He skipped to the seeing the Demon chapter
and softly began to speak the spell that would allow him to
see the monster that was killing his friends.
Several minutes later, Becky's screams stopped. Matt
and Mack redoubled their efforts. As they stopped to rest,
the door was ripped of it's hinges. The torrent of water
threw Mack off the ladder. But Matt was pulled up into the
room by Becky. Mack barely had time to scream before his
skull was split like a ripe melon on the concrete floor
below.
Becky threw Matt to the floor. He landed with a
splash in the rapidly receding water. She knelt on his
chest and grabbed his lower jaw with both hands.
Scott averted his eyes from the bloody sight before
him. Once again, he struggled to keep the contents of his
stomach down. Matt's screams were suddenly heard from
above, and just as suddenly cut off. Something fell from
the storage room and clattered to the floor below. Matt's
jawbone bounced once, and landed at Scott's feet. Scott
lost the struggle with his stomach.
Ben sympathized with Scott, but now his stomach was
fortified with something, hope. Before the water had burst
from the storage area, he had completed the spell, and
discovered how to kill the demon. He had to wait until
the demon was possessing one of his dead friends, and then
administer a killing blow to the possessed. This would kill
the demon as surely as the blow would kill the possessed
person, had they not been already dead.
Chapter 4
There was a moment of silence. Then, a 2nd mad rush
for the door commenced. This time, even Mrs. P.C. joined
in. In their panic, most forgot that their last attempt had
met with no success. Lindsay hurled herself at the window
to no avail. Then the table in front of the window flew at
her. It struck her in the stomach, and slammed her against
the wall with so much force, that it cut her in two. Then
it stood on it's end, and crushed Heather against the wall.
Ben watched in horror, he saw what everyone else saw,
the table killing Lindsay and Heather, but he also saw the
demon as it threw the table at them. It was translucent,
black and mostly formless, but it had arms and two red
glowing eyes. Rage burned inside him, but he had to wait
until it had possessed someone before he could vent the
righteous anger he felt.
Ryan pulled the table from the wall. Heather's limp
body fell, leaving a bloody imprint behind. Ryan turned and
voided his lunch.
A piece of the metal framework in the ceiling, broke
off and quickly disemboweled Jason. He stared in shock, as
his intestines fell to the floor with a wet "splat". His
eyes glazed over as his life ended.
Before his body could fall, his eyes snapped back into
focus.
"Now's my chance!" Ben thought. He lunged at the metal
shard that had killed his friend, but Jason's possessed body
picked it up before he could reach it. Jason grinned at Ben
and threw him aside. Ben rolled with the fall and rose, but
Jason had already turned on Ricky. Ricky knocked him back
and turned to run, but before he got far Jason came up
behind him and shoved the spike through his head. The spike
exited through Ricky's forehead and dug into the wall.
Ricky's lifeless body hung there silently. The demon left
Jason's body and flew down the hall. Jason fell with a
thump.
Ben once again went for the metal spike. The demon had
left the room for now, he had time. Frantically, he yanked
at the spike. The demon had gone after more people who had
fled the room, he had to be there when it possessed someone.
Kathleen, Emily, Erin and Lisa had quietly left the
room; and began to frantically search for any way to escape
that hadn't been tried. The others quickly outdistanced
Emily as they were taller. She opened her mouth to tell
them to wait, only to have it covered with tape. Someone
behind her grabbed her wrists and taped them together behind
her. Then her nose was taped shut, and her eyes were
covered. Unable to see or breathe, she stumbled and fell.
As she lost consciousness, she faintly heard sneakered feet
continue stealth fully up the hall.
Kathleen ran blindly in panic, and stumbled into the
bathroom. The door opened behind her spilling light into
the room. She turned to find Matt blocking her exit.
Lisa and Erin eventually doubled back to find Kathleen
and Emily. They heard a thump from the girls bathroom and
entered cautiously. Inside they found Kathleen, wrapped
head to toe in toilet paper, with a pillow duct taped over
her face. They started backing out when one of the stall
doors opened and Emily stepped out. The tape had been
removed from her eyes and wrists, but the rest remained.
Behind her they saw Matt's body slumped against the wall.
Erin tackled Emily, while Lisa advanced on Matt. Emily
went limp and Matt suddenly threw himself at Lisa. Lisa
tripped him, and he fell over Kathleen's body. Lisa and
Erin stood ready to defend themselves but there was no
movement from the three bodies lying sprawled on the floor.
The mirrors on the walls shattered. The shards of
glass ripped through Lisa and Erin's' bodies as easily as if
they'd been propelled by a gale force wind.
By the time Ben had removed the spike from the wall and
ran the length of the hallway, he had lost the girls and the
Demon. He sighed in frustration, and then heard the sound
of shattering glass from the girl's bathroom.
Ben rushed in, and found the room empty. He had not
seen the demon leave however so he walked further into the
room. In the shadows ahead of him, something moved. He
crept forward, the metal shaft held ready.
He saw the bodies of Kathleen, Emily, Lisa, and Matt
lying sprawled on the floor. But he did not see Erin.
Behind him, the doors of one of the stalls opened silently.
Erin stepped up behind him. With one hand she grabbed his
left arm, which was holding the spike, and twisted it behind
his back. Her other arm she wrapped tightly around his
throat, cutting off his air supply.
"First Melissa, now this. If I live through this," Ben
thought. "I'm gonna have one sore throat."
Erin held him for second, and then spoke. It was not
her voice, but a deep voice that seemed to emanate straight
up from the pit of hell.
"Gonna save you for last." she said, and slammed his
head against the wall. Ben unconscious body fell to the wall.
Though startled by the sudden calm, Joe wasted no time.
He grabbed a folding chair, and began slamming it against
the window, trying to break it. The chair twisted out of
his grip, and smashed into the top of his head, crushing his
skull.
Scott yanked open the door nearest him to escape. He
stopped short at the sight of Julie running towards him. He
tried to slam the door shut, but she shoved it open. He
threw a punch to her jaw, but she caught his fist. She
grabbed his arm and ripped it off. She threw his arm on the
floor and grabbed his other arm. Mrs. P.C. ran to his aid
as his other arm was ripped off. He was dead when she
reached him. Julie's body fell to the floor.
Joe's body came to life and tore the handle off one of
the doors. He wrapped it around Tim's throat and tightened
it.
Mrs. P.C., Jaime, Ryan, Laura, Becca, Mike and Ted fled
from the room. Ted bumped into somebody in the darkness.
Whoever it was began spraying something on him. His eyes
began to burn as he was sprayed in the face. By now he was
practically soaked. He heard a match being struck. He
couldn't open his eyes for fear of getting more of the
harmful spray in them.
Kevin dropped the now empty can of Lysol and threw the
lighted match onto Ted.
Scott skidded to a stop, as Ted's agonized scream
reached his ears. Then he ran to rejoin the others. He
caught up to them in the green room. Without warning, most
of the set pieces being stored therein exploded, sending
shrapnel through Ryan's Scott's and Laura's body's killing
them instantly. The heaviest pieces, simply collapsed,
crushing the rest.
Ben awoke, his head throbbing. He blinked to clear his
vision, and remembered where he was. His arms were bound
behind his back. "Wants me easy kill." Ben thought. "Even
easier than the others."
Ben planted his back against the wall, and using the
leverage, pushed himself to his feet. One way or the other,
the slaughter would end with him. The world spun, and the
pain in his head increased. He slowly lowered himself
back to the ground. He had a plan.
The auditorium was silent. The demon had killed them
all. All save one. It hovered in the air, as shapeless and
insubstantial as a cloud. The one they called Ben, he was
resourceful. He alone had deduced what was going on and had
had the presence of mind to find out what to do about it.
The demon wanted his death to be special. It began to
float about the auditorium, peering at the bodies of it's
victims, sifting through the memories that it had glimpsed while
inhabiting their cold, lifeless bodies.
Finally it picked one at random, and entered it. The
body rose, obeying the commands of it's new master. The
memories were mostly faded, the soul long since departed.
But there was a certain poetic justice to this choice. And
besides, the body that did the job didn't truly matter. It
was what the body did.
Ben was ready.
The body walked the corridors leading to the
auditorium. It took the time to contemplate just how to
kill the boy, and how quickly to do it. Finally it reached
the lobby. It entered quickly, and headed for where it had
left it's last victim-to-be.
But there were drawbacks to inhabiting a mortal body.
The entity was limited to the mortal's perceptions, if not
strength or speed. And, as it had found out, it could feel
pain while in a body. And it experienced this again, soon
after entering the lobby.
Ben stepped out from his hiding place as soon as
Melissa turned her back on it. "How ironic," Ben thought.
"That it should choose to do me in, with the body that it
failed to kill me with before." Ben's now untied hands
lifted the fire extinguisher and brought it down on
Melissa's back. "Not Melissa," Ben reminded himself,
staving off the pang of remorse at hitting his friend.
"Melissa's dead."
The demon cried out, and fell to the floor. It rolled
with the blow and rose quickly, turning to face it's
attacker. It grinned. "Hello Ben." an eerie parody of
Melissa's voice emanated from it's mouth.
"Hi." Ben said quietly. It was time for the first
phase of his plan. He began to recite the words he'd
memorized from the Necronomicon. One thing that many people
had said about Ben was that he was the first in every cast
to memorize his lines. He'd memorized the words of the
binding spell just as easily.
The Demon recognized what Ben was doing and tried to
leave the body. But it was too late. "No!" the demon cried
in fury. It launched itself at Ben.
Ben saw it coming and swung the fire extinguisher, too
slow. The demon barreled into him and shoved him to the
ground. It began to pound him with Melissa's fists. "I
think I'll just beat you to death!" the demon screamed at
him.
Each blow sent waves of pain through him, but through
it all, Ben managed to regain his hold on the fire
extinguisher. One handed, he aimed the nozzle at the demon
that was still relentlessly pounding him. The world began
to fade but nevertheless he gripped the trigger.
"Hey," Ben said, stopping the Demon in mid-swing.
"Remember this?" He pulled the trigger on the fire
extinguisher, spraying himself and the demon.
The cold of the spray burned almost as hot as any fire,
but Ben was already too numb from pain to feel it much. But
the Demon screamed and fell off him.
While Ben struggled to his feet, he heard the Demon
come up behind him.
"Why are we fighting Ben?" Melissa's voice asked.
"We're friends. Remember?"
Ben hid the fire extinguisher against his chest.
"You're not my friend."
"Ben how can you say that?" Melissa asked plaintively.
"It's me, Melissa!"
"No." Ben said. "You're not Melissa. Melissa is
dead." He whirled around, fury lending him strength, and
swung the extinguisher by the hose. "They're all dead!"
The red makeshift club connected with the demon's
shoulder. It swayed on it's feet but stayed up. Ben
pressed his attack, driving the demon back. Finally he
backed it up into one of the storage rooms that branched off
of the lobby. He quickly dropped his weapon and slammed the
door.
The Demon detected the faint smell and hiss of escaping
gas. It laughed. "Gas won't kill me quick enough! We both
know this door won't hold me long."
"It doesn't have to." Ben said on the other side of the
heavy wood door, pulling a lighter from his pocket. He'd
gotten the lighter from the pocket of one of his many
friends who smoked. That had been shortly before he'd gone
back to the book to find out how to make sure the demon
didn't escape the body.
"You'd be amazed at how many flammable liquids there
are in this place." he said. He clicked the lighter and lit
the trail of liquid on the floor. The trail of flame
disappeared under the door. A second later, an explosion
ripped apart the Auditorium as the gas in the pipes ignited.
The explosion threw Ben out the window behind him and set
fire to his clothes. The heavy doors and walls protected
him from the brunt of the explosion. He fell the ground and
rolled, managing to put out his clothes before the merciful
blackness of unconsciousness settled onto him.
Epilogue
The students arriving at Gaithersburg High in the
morning, Jeremy Martin, Daniel Mugg, Brian Connor, Aisha
Bustamante, and Alison Siegal were treated to a horrifying
sight. Police and Ambulances, and even a fire truck were
parked in the lawn in front of the Newman Auditorium. The
Firemen were preparing to leave, but, they could tell by the
smell of smoke in the air that they had been busy earlier.
There was already a huge crowd gathered outside the
school, behind the barriers the cops had set up.
"What the hell happened here?" Jeremy asked. Bodies
shrouded in black plastic bags were being carried out to the
Ambulances. The police were taking pictures and collecting
evidence.
"When I find out," Alison said. "You'll be the first
to know."
Brian, and Dan noticed a familiar face among the crowd.
"Hey," Brian said, pointing. "Isn't that, that guy
from Fox Morning News?"
"Yeah," Dan said. "What's his name?"
"I don't know but I bet he knows what's going on."
Brian replied. "Lets go listen in."
"I am here live at the scene of what appears to be a
mass murder and arson at Gaithersburg High School, off of
355." The man said. "Police have yet to issue a statement,
but it appears as though a person or persons broke into the
school late last night and murdered several school
administrators, and in a tragic turn of events, almost the
entire cast and crew of the annual production, who were
rehearsing in the Auditorium, with one possible survivor. A
lone boy was found unconscious, near the site of the
explosion that destroyed much of the Auditorium. He has
been rushed to hospital and is reported to be in stable
condition. Police have not yet released his name."
"I think that's all we need to know." Aisha said
softly. Numbly, they joined the crowd of spectators. The knowledge
that they would most likely get out of school for quite a while was
little consolation.
The End
(
geocities.com/area51/dimension) (
geocities.com/area51)