Naughty Games

Naughty Games

 Haven’t you ever wondered what would happen if you were to die? Where would you go? Who would you see? I’m pretty sure you’re wondering why I’m asking you this, but it’s just out of curiosity. You see; I’ve died before. Now I’m really sure you’re wondering why I’m asking you all of these questions, and wondering how I died and why am I still here. I’m not a ghost, or a zombie, or even an angel. I’m just me. I’m not even sure if I would be able to explain it properly. Maybe you should just step in my shoes, and then you’ll understand.  

 Let’s pretend you’re me, and you get this nauseous feeling in the your stomach the moment you see it, the note that says the simple words ‘Naughty Games’ on it. You don’t know what it means; who made it, or even if it was meant for you. It was just sitting on the ground, waiting for someone to pick it up. The Sun blazing on the concrete makes the note hot enough to surprise your fingers when you scoop it up. The individual letters are made out of cut out magazine and newspaper. Thinking to yourself, it’s probably nothing you shove it in the back pocket of your shorts.  The door you’re standing in front of opens, not even waiting for a knock. The boyfriend that’s been getting into arguments with you recently smiles and you give him a raised eyebrow.

‘Oh, he’s in a good mood now,’ you think

 He looks at you, confused, “What?”

 “Really, Aaron, going back to nice fellow?” you say.

 “Really, Cristina, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he counters and walks back into the central aired house.

 Annoyed by his sudden amnesia of what happened yesterday, you think about your relationship once more. Aaron and you have been dating since the beginning of senior year and now off to college, things were going to change. It’s not like you haven’t thought about your relationship with Aaron before. He was a jock, you were the art nerd, and it just didn’t mix. But somehow you made it work, until now. You think to yourself that maybe enough is really enough.

 Your concentration breaks when you feel a pair of chocolate color arms wrap around you. Their skin tone almost matches yours perfectly.

 “Hey, Cristina! Glad you came despite all that madness yesterday,” Demetrius says. 

 “Yeah, madness. Why is your friend acting like he doesn’t remember last night?” you ask.

 He scrunches his thick dark eyebrows together, “that’s the second time he did that this week.”

 “What?”

 “I don’t know, but hey, bygones huh?” He starts making his way to the kitchen, and you follow him, only to be greeted by more friends of your boyfriends and their girlfriends. Demetrius and his love Julie, Adam his girlfriend, Lana, and then it would typically be you and Aaron. The six of you would always hang out; you would always have each other’s backs.

*                       *                       *

It gets fairly dark a couple of hours later, and the downpour is so loud that it nearly drowns out the conversation your having with the girls. Lana and Julie aren’t the best people in the world, but you still love them. They’re entertaining, with Lana’s constant playful ‘evil ginger’ comments to Julie; and Julie’s ‘because you’re Asian’ comments to Lana anytime she does something stereotypical. Demetrius and Adam are busy playing video games, but Aaron is nowhere to be found, he has been up in his room for a half hour already. When you ask the boys about it, that moment Aaron comes down. His black hair looks wet, reaching his light brown eyes, as if he just came in from outside. But his clothes were nice and dry.

 “Still here?” Aaron says to you.

 “Why wouldn’t I be?” you answer, your body tenses up. He has the look on his face that says he wants to start another argument.

 “Up in arms again? Typical,” He rolls his eyes.

 It becomes official, you’re done with his attitude, and you’re done with him.

 Demetrius sees it on your face, and speaks to Aaron, “Seriously Aaron, stop it, can we all just chill?”

 “We need to talk,” you say to your soon to be ex.

 The room goes silent, and Aaron shrugs his shoulder as a sign that he compiles to your request, “Let’s go outside,”

 “It’s pouring out there, no,” your able to see the confuse looks on your other friends.

 “It’s letting up, what, too afraid to get your precious hair wet?”

 His tone gets to you, and you follow him outside to the backyard. Aaron is right about the rain letting up, but it’s too dark for comfort in the backyard and the woods past his backyard is eerie. After getting to the back you thought he would stop, but he continues to walk into the woods. You want him to stop and you call out to him.

He doesn’t listen, and you yell at him, “Just stop walking, Damn it Aaron!”

 He finally stops, and a sudden pain spreads across your face, he hit you. He actually hits you. You’re not the type of person to be violent, but this is beyond insane. You’ve never dealt with anything like this before in your life, and when he goes in for the second hit, you fight back. It’s nothing but adrenaline pumping through your veins when your fists swing. Your feet start moving in the opposite direction when you catch him off guard, but your head is thrown back and a knife is in sight. Your heart is basically pumping through your ears, up to the point where when you let out a scream, you don’t hear it. You think to yourself, ‘What did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve this?’

 Aaron takes his first stab, and it’s a pain you won’t be able to explain, after the tenth, then fifteenth, then twentieth stab your body officially goes numb. After the murder that was once your boyfriend is done with his work, he let’s your body go. You drop with a thump, and the body you once possessed starts to cool off. There is no more breathing, or heartbeat; no more rushing blood through your veins. The woods are dead silent, even Aaron seems oddly quiet as he stands over your body admiring his work. It seems like the world has a moment of silence just for your death. You expect everything to slowly go black, but it never happens, the scenery actually becomes clearer. And then you realize, you’re not dying, not tonight.