Kate?
The next morning, I got up to get ready for school and texted Kate, ‘What kind of snacks do you want when we skip Mr. Johnson’s class today?’ I got into my car and drove to the gas station that was around the corner from the school. I waited a couple of minutes, but Kate hadn’t responded yet, so I went inside and bought some hot Cheetos, a couple of mountain dews and a few chocolate bars and went to school. The first two hours of class seemed to drag on and I hadn’t even seen Kate at her locker and she wasn’t answering my texts. I was bound to skip Mr. Johnson’s class anyways even if she wasn’t here. I texted Kate one last time, ‘Kate, why aren’t you answering my messages are we still meeting in the locker room in ten?’ Finally, she answered back with a simple, ‘Yes’. I rolled my eyes at her simplicity and when the bell rang I ran to my locker to get the snacks and headed to the locker room.
“Kate?” I called out into the dimly lighted locker room.
“I’m here,” she said faintly. When I saw Kate, she was pale as a ghost and just looked a mess.
“Kate? What the hell happened to you? I asked her.
“I fell asleep in the locker room for two hours that’s why I didn’t get your messages till a few minutes ago,” she said.
“Are you feeling okay? You don’t look good at all, you should go home and get some sleep,” I told her. Kate started coughing and shook her head.
“I want to hear about your dream,” Kate said. I held out a mountain dew.
“I got your favorite, and some hot Cheetos,” I said. She smiled softly taking a drink of the soda she instantly threw up. “Kate?” I said with tears in my eyes. I was frustrated because Kate was not telling me what was going on with her. She kept shaking and huddling herself like she was cold, but it was June and she was wearing sweats. “Are you cold?” I asked inching towards her holding out my arms. Moving very fragile into them, I hugged her trying to warm her up, but I could feel the coldness like ice on her skin through her thick layered sweatshirt. “Kate, why are you so cold?” I asked her. She did not respond. I warmed her with my heat until she said,
“Tell me about the dream, please.” I nodded my head and began.
“In my dream, I had woken up on your couch and I was doing the same exact thing as I was going to do yesterday which was see Mr. Johnson, but when I went to see him he had told me he had feelings for me. Later into the dream things started to get more demonic. Chris started to show up periodically in my dream but as the bad guy, he had taken you and Mr. Johnson away from me. That’s why I’ve been avoiding him. I don’t want to lose either one of you,” I told her. Kate just stared at me blankly and said,
“You need to tell Mr. Johnson, about this,” she said.
“Huh? What is he going to do about it? He’s just going to think I’m crazy,” I said. Kate must have been getting warmer because she pulled her sleeves up. When I looked at her arms I had to take a second glance and my eyes widened in horror when I saw big black bruises on her arm, one of the bruises even looked like a handprint. “What the hell Kate! You need to tell me what the hell is going on with you now!” I yelled. Kate didn’t even budge.
“It’s none of your concern, I’m fine Macy just leave Chris out of your crazy assumptions, he’s not the bad guy,” she said.
“You need to promise me that he is not hurting you, Kate, because I swear to--” I started.
“Macy, you have my word I promise when was the last time I broke a promise? I’m just feeling a little sick today, please do not get worked up or think too much,” she begged. I nodded but, in my head, I was thinking, I’m going to kill him. Kate had never broken a promise to me, so I tried to believe her when she told me that Chris wasn’t the bad guy. “The bell’s about to ring thank you for the Cheetos and soda, I think I’ll call my mom now to come get me,” Kate said.
“That sounds like a brilliant idea, go get some rest and I’ll come see you tonight,” I told her hugging her fragile-looking body. “I love you so much,” she told me.
“I love you so much more,” I said.
“Not possible,” she smirked.
“Very, now go home,” I said as we exited the locker room the bell rang. I decided to stay in the library and read a book till lunch time and then went to the lunch room. When I sat down with my hot Cheetos and mountain dew I saw Mr. Johnson walk into the cafeteria. I hid behind a pillar until I seen that he was gone and then sat and ate the hot Cheetos. Kate told me not to ignore him and maybe I shouldn’t but I’m just a little too scared to see what he had for me. Last hour of the day, I paid attention the most I could, but I was still worried about Kate and how she got those bruises and why she looked so pale. The last class of the day I had someone from that class on my track team, so I asked her if she could tell Mr. Johnson that I had more school work to do. When the bell rang I got to my locker and seen that it was open. I looked around and saw no one so I carefully approached my locker grabbing my bag when I found a note taped on the inside of the locker door, it said, “She’ll be dead tonight…” The note had a mark that looked like eyes and then crossbones circling the eyes. What does that mean? I asked myself. Who will be dead tonight? I asked again. I sped walked, almost ran to the library. When I got to the library I sat in the back, so nobody could see what I was researching or question me about the note. I searched symbols of death or evil. When I found one that resembled the one in the note I clicked on the article that was attached to it. The article read, “The evil eye is a curse believed to be cast by a malevolent glare, usually given to a person when they are unaware. Many cultures believe that receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury,” I sat in silence once again, analyzing what I had just read when a voice from behind startled me.
“This is school work?” I quickly exited out from the article and spun around.
“Mr. Johnson? You scared me half to death,” I said gasping.
“You know it is almost 4:30,” he said crossing his arms.
“Oh yeah, right I need to go,” I said.
“Let me walk you out,” he said. When I stood up I felt light-headed and fell into Mr. Johnson’s arms. “Are you okay, Macy?” he asked. I knew he was concerned.
“No, I-I-I don’t feel right,” I said.
"Let’s get you some fresh air,” he said. I nodded; Mr. Johnson helped carry myself out to my car, one arm still linked with mine to make sure I didn’t fall. Once we got to my car he stood there and folded his arms. “Seriously, Macy what’s wrong? You skipped my class and had someone tell me you weren’t going to be at practice today? This is not like you?” he asked. I took a deep breath in knowing I couldn’t lie to him anymore, I unlocked my door and said,
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time,” he said.
“Well if you want to ride, I’m running out of time,” I said. Mr. Johnson gave a curious look but got into the front seat of my hummer. “First things first, I’m sorry for skipping your class. I was just scared for other reasons, and second, why did you tell my mom to come see you today?” I asked him.
“Why were you scared? I had asked your mom to come see me because I was worried about you, but she never showed so I just figured I’d come and see if you were still down here to ask you myself,” he said.
“I am because I did not want to see you,” I said.
"Why not?” he asked confused.
“This is where the long part comes in,” I told him. Mr. Johnson nodded his head for me to continue. I breathed in again and continued.
“I had a dream last night and it felt so real.”
“What was it about?” he asked. I breathed again more deeply preparing for what was going to happen next.
“I don’t think I can tell you about that right now,” I said shaking.
“Well what can you tell me?” he asked.
“I’m not sure where to even begin, I feel like an idiot,” I said.
“Why?” he asked.
“I’ve been trying to do some research about the dream I had last night, but nothing is making any sense, I have this note I found in my locker, it scares me,” I replied. My diabetes or nerves were getting the best of me and I started to shake, noticeably.
“Macy are you okay?” he asked grabbing my arm gently to stop the shaking as we reached a red light.
“No, I’m terrified, I have diabetes so that is what causes my shaking, but it has worsened over the last two days and I’m not sure why,” I said almost in tears.
“Do you want me to drive?” he asked.
“I’m not even sure where I’m going,” I said.
“Here, pull into the gas station right here, and let me see that note you were talking about,” he said. I agreed and pulled into the station switching places with Mr. Johnson. I pulled out the note and handed it to him. “She’ll be dead tonight?” he read aloud. “What does this mean?” he asked.
“If I knew we wouldn’t be here trying to figure that out,” I said angrily. I didn’t mean to be angry, but my emotions were getting the best of me.
“Whoa, darling I’m not meaning to upset you, I really just want to know what is going on here,” Mr. Johnson said sincerely.
“I know, I’m sorry I’m just scared,” I stuttered. Mr. Johnson put his hand through my hair trying to calm me down, but it only made me want to cry more. I pointed at the symbol. “I saw this in my dream, it’s the evil eye,” I said.
“Wait I’ve seen this,” he said.
“Where?” I asked curiously.
“Macy, I need to tell you something,” he paused.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know if you’re going to believe me,” he responded.
“Mr. Johnson, I’ll always believe every word that flows from your mouth,” I said. Mr. Johnson smiled, but then he went serious again.
“My wife, she didn’t die in a car accident, she died in a fire,” he finally ended.
“A fire?” I asked.
“It was caused by this being, I saw him, his face was scarred, and he didn’t look human, he took her life and left that same symbol,” Mr. Johnson said whimpering a little. I hugged him tightly, sobbing myself.
“Oh my gosh, Mr. Johnson I believe you, there have been too many crazy things happening in my life not too believe you, I just can’t believe this happened. How did the cops conclude she’s dead though?” I asked
“I took her home, buried her and butchered a pig I had on my farm” he started.
“Why did you butcher a pig?” I asked surprised.
“Pig blood is actually quite similar to human blood. I knew that both my wife and the pig have the same blood type so I took a wild chance, making sure there was no trace of her and left the pigs blood” he said.
“Why couldn’t you just tell the cops what you saw?” I asked not actually thinking beforehand.
“Really Macy, you think cops would believe me if I saw my wife get killed by a demon,” he asked.
“You’re right I didn’t think that through, I guess,” I said.
“I don’t know Macy, I think you need to tell me about this dream a little bit in order for me to try to understand what we’re doing and where we are going,” he said. He had a point, I didn’t know how to explain it to him, because it was confusing as hell. “But you don’t have to tell me right now, we can go investigate the place where my wife was killed, the old firehouse,” he said. I let out a sigh of relief and we started to drive.
“Did your wife know him?” I asked. I saw Mr. Johnson’s hands tighten on the steering wheel and he muttered out an,
“Yes, she told me he was the only guy she had ever trusted,”
“Um, that’s not cool,” I said.
“Yeah, we never had a strong relationship,” he said.
“I’m sorry, did you ever meet him?” I asked.
“No, I never wanted too, would you have?” he asked.
“No, I don’t blame you,” I said. I felt bad for him. I’m starting to realize my feelings for him and he’s telling me how his wife was murdered by the guy she was basically having an affair with. If only I could tell him, how I was feeling about him, I thought to myself. We continued driving and Mr. Johnson looked over at me a couple of times.
“Macy, I really wish you would have come to me when I had asked you. We could have found a way to stop this, you are a very bright girl, what made that deathly afraid to see me?” he asked.
“I,” I started to say. This man was hard to hide emotions from, especially when I was falling for him. I suddenly reminded myself of Kate. “I need to check on a friend to make sure she’s okay,” I said. Mr. Johnson nodded. I called her cell phone, it rang once and then twice. “Please, please pick up,” I said.
“Kate! Are you okay?” I asked loudly into the phone.
“Shh,” Kate said and then her voice went below a whisper and I heard, “He knows you are coming.” She was crying. Without thinking I immediately grabbed Mr. Johnson’s hand and started to cry myself.
“Kate!” Mr. Johnson yelled into the phone. “What is his name?” he asked.
“C—” BANG! There was a sound of metal on the ground and the phone went into a hysterical beeping noise.
“Kate!” he yelled again. There was no answer but the buzzing from the static of the phone.
“We have to hurry,” I said. “Is she going to be okay?” I asked.
“God, I hope so,” Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Johnson interlocked his fingers with mine and his grip was tight. I looked at him for a second, I was completely in love. He was holding my hand, probably out of pity because of Kate, but honestly, I didn’t even care. I noticed that he was just as scared for Kate as I was.
“Kate and I both skipped your class because I wanted to tell her about the dream, but when I saw her she looked like a ghost. I can’t lose my best friend,” I said looking at Mr. Johnson.
“I’m going to do everything in my power that I can do to prevent that from happening,” he replied to me. Soon we turned on a road that had a lot of bumps and potholes. The view was terrible, there were abandoned buildings surrounded by caution tapes and the walls were covered in inappropriate words. Then we turned into what looked like a parking lot behind an old building.
“Inside this building is where my wife was killed and where Kate might be,” Mr. Johnson said.
“I’m going with you,” I said.
“No, you’re not it is way too dangerous,” he said.
“I don’t care, I can’t lose you,” I said.
“Macy, stay here, now,” his voice grew.
“No, I’m not—”
“Macy, just stay here!” he yelled. I started to cry when he took me into his arms. “I can’t lose you, Macy, that’s why you have to stay here,” he said. Mr. Johnson took the cross off his neck and put it on mine. “Take this hold it close to your heart, think of me and we will be safe,” he said. I nodded tears falling from my eyes. Mr. Johnson took my face in his hands and just stared for a few minutes,
“Mr. Johnson,” I started
“It’s Dean,” He replied. He stared at me for a little, but I couldn’t speak. He kissed my forehead and ran inside.
“I love you,” I said sobbing to myself huddling into his jacket. “I love you so much,” I whispered. I took out my phone and called the police
“911, what is your emergency?” a lady asked.
“Yes, I need someone to come out on Oceana Drive at the old firehouse. My best friend was kidnapped and I called her, she said she was here. There is a murderer in there going to kill my friend and my other friend went in to save her, please hurry,” I said shaking into the phone.
“We are on our way,” the woman said. As she hung up I struggled to put the phone down. I could smell Dean from his coat, and it made me feel safer suddenly.