When The Lights Go Out

Chapter 8: Wendy

Wendy sat there with her sister in her arms, she wept and wept. She sat there for what seemed to be hours until she heard a scream come from downstairs. She stared at Una's still open eyes, she exhaled heavily and lay Una on the ground. She closed her eyes, gently and kissed her on the forehead. She trudged to the basement door and ran down the stairs, still slightly slow from the bruise on her leg. She went into the room to her left and looked around frantically with her flashlight, she yelled out "Xera! Valeri! Are you ok?!" she looked around before finally coming to the same room where they had met their imminent demise. She shined her flashlight across the room until it fell upon the same corner Xera and Valeri's flashlights had landed. She saw two figures facing the corner, they were holding hands and were dead silent. "Xera, Valeri, that you?" The figures turned around, their faces looked exactly like Valeri's and Xera's but their eyes were glowing like they were predators at night hunting for their prey. They had large, wicked grins that shined across their faces. They took a few steps closer to Wendy and commanded "Join us, Wendy. So you can be happy like us." They slowly trudged to Wendy and the emotion drained from their faces.

Her eyes widened and she ran to the loveseats behind her, they kept holding hands as they held up their other hands to reach out for Wendy. She screamed and ran to the door, she flung the door open slammed it back behind her, the came out from under the door and formed the shape of her former friends. They continued to hold hands as they reached out for her again, she tried to run up the stairs but she fell half of the way, tripping on one of the toys that had been arranged on the stairs. She crawls on her arms up the stairs as Valeri and Xera trudged up the stairs a little bit behind her. Using her last bit of energy, Wendy managed to open the door at the top of the stairs and army crawled out into the hallway.

She stumbled to her feet and trudged to the kitchen, her gray and white cat jumped in front of her and meowed. She gave a sweet awe and picked him up, she told him "Well at least you're safe, Ben." The cat's eyes glowed green, similarly to Valeri's and Xera's had, the cat slowly turned to smoke and Wendy screamed. She threw the cat across the room and onto the stove, she ran over and turned it on. Ben looked up at Wendy and its eyes glistened, she turned up the stove to high and the cat disappeared into the air. She quickly turned the stove off and tried to run away, she tripped on the same nightstand that she had tripped on before but it seemed that she couldn't move for a few moments. She then quickly stumbled to her feet and limped to the fireplace in the living room, she grabbed the fireplace spade. She looked over to the couches and saw her parents with the same glowing eyes that Ben, Xera and Valeri. They gave her a wicked expression and said calmly "Join us Wendy, then we can be a family again." She looked away, fighting back the tears.

She limped to the entrance area and grabbed her shoes on the floor, she tripped once more on the other pairs of shoes on the floor. She looked up and saw her sister, Una standing there with her eyes full of what seemed to be care and hope, but it seemed to just be apathy and bloodlust disguised as something sweet and kind. Wendy had to keep her head down so she didn't burst into tears. Una bent down and said "Join us, sissy, you'll be fine, I pinky promise." Her voice was similar to how she usually sounded but it lacked the heart and sincerity that was usually behind her voice. Wendy closed her eyes as tightly as she could but Una grabbed her head and tilted it back up to face her. Una smiled but it wasn't the same as when she usually smiled, it was too syrupy sweet, too fake and insincere. Still when Wendy saw that face, she couldn't help but burst into tears, she didn't care if it was too fake and too apathetic to truly be her sister, it was her face and mostly her voice. Una leaned forward and kissed her sister on the forehead, just as Wendy had down to her lifeless corpse. Wendy tried to ignore her, still crying, she crawled to the door. She tried to unlock the door but it had been locked from the outside with a key, she clawed at the door helplessly but nothing worked. She slid down to the floor and cried softly, she looked up to see her family and friends surrounding her with their arms out, except for Valeri and Xera who were still holding hands. They all said unanimously "Join us, Wendy." Wendy held her hands over her ears and screamed "Never!" Her mother walked forward out of the group and chuckled "You could've made this much easier." Wendy screamed once more, it drowned out everything else.

"Wendy! Wendy! Wake up!" Valeri yelled into Wendy's ear. Wendy woke up and shook her head "What the?" Valeri shook her again and  said angrily "You slept through the entire movie! You missed the best part in the entire thing!" Wendy looked around, Una was clutching her side with tears pouring from her eyes, Xera was sitting on the bed with her popcorn spilled out in front of her, and Valeri was also sitting on the bed and had her face was red with anger. Xera falls back on the bed and says "Geez that was a good movie, that was the scariest I've ever seen." Valeri turned to face Xera "Meh, it wasn't as scary as 'The Black friday Massacre', but I have to admit that it was ten times better than 'Pretty Pink Pony Island" Xera replied with "Yeah, right, that movie was awful. Remember that part in the movie where it was like 'Why yes princess pretty pony, I will accept the duty of taking care of the merponies, even though I can not swim." Valeri and Xera snickered as Una continued to cry. Valeri replied, still laughing "Oh remember the part where they were like 'But princess pretty pony, how will we ever  find enough time to plan the annual pretty pony party at the pink pretty plaza'" Valeri holds her hand to her forehead and leans backwards, parodying the film about pink pretty ponies. Una takes her head out of Wendy's side and screamed with tears still pouring down her face "That movie wasn't bad! That last movie was stupid and bad! Why did you make watch that?!" Valeri crosses her arms and replies with "Well, you made us watch your awful movie, so why don't we get to watch our bad movie?" Una continues to cry, Wendy holds her head in her hands and her eyes widen. Valeri looks over to Wendy and says "The matter with you?" Una looks up at Wendy and asks "Sissy, can I go play with my Lovely Lacey© doll?" Wendy eyes widen further and she breathes heavily. Una repeats "Sissy can I go play with doll?" Wendy nods and Una grabs the naked doll on the nightstand and shuffles to the large dollhouse.

              Wendy's eyes widen and breathes excessively, Xera hops off the bed and stretches. She looks over to Valeri and Wendy who was currently having a panic attack "Well, anyone wanna go get a midnight snack?" she gets closer to Wendy and asks "Are you alright?" Valeri rolls her eyes and states "She's fine, she's just scared of the movie. Now go get the dang donuts, I'm starving because someone hogged all of the popcorn." Xera nods and runs out the door, slamming the door behind her. Valeri looks over to Wendy and asks "Hey you're not scared of the movie, are you?" Wendy shakes her head frantically, still trembling "N,n,n, no, I'm fine." Valeri inches closer and says "Well then you better hope that something scary doesn't happen." Wendy gives her a terrified look before Xera slams the door open and scares Wendy. Wendy holds her hand to her chest and says "What the heck?" Valeri and Xera burst out laughing and Valeri states "You should've seen you face!" the Xera adds on "It was absolutely priceless!" Wendy keeps her hand to her chest and she continues to panic, Valeri looks over to Wendy and rolls her eyes "Calm down, it was just a prank." Valeri sighs and says "Fine, I'll let you all prank me before the end of the night. Is that fair?" Wendy holds the pillow in her arms and squeezes it tight.

                       Suddenly the lights begin to flicker for a few minutes before going out completely. At this point, Wendy was lying on the floor crying her eyes out. Valeri looks over to Wendy and says "Geez, I didn't expect you to take out your revenge this fast." Wendy violently shakes her head. Valeri looks over to Xera and asks "No, I didn't do any of this, Xera, did you do any of this?" Xera then frets "No, not at all." Valeri goes to a more serious tone and repeats "Xera, if this is a prank you need to stop right now. I'm being serious." Xera walks closer to the bed and replies with "No, I swear, I didn't do this." Wendy inches closer to the bed and whimpers "It's going to happen again." A loud scream echoes from the parents bedroom "What the hell was that?" Valeri yells. Wendy jumps onto the bed and huddles up to Valeri and whispers, crying softly "My mom's dead."