“I’ll be going now,” I said quickly. It was late, and if my parents – or worse, Eli – found me here, they would jump to a conclusion, and completely kill me.
Nate grabbed onto my hand, pulling me back.
“Don’t go,” he said, pouting. My ice-cold heart immediately melted. It turns out that guy’s pouts are my absolute kryptonite. I couldn’t say no when Nate did that. “I don’t want to be alone again. My parents are away, after all.”
“But…I…”
He gave me another look, and I stopped resisting and gave up.
“Fine,” I sighed. “What do you want to do?”
“How about…” He held the torch underneath his jaw, and pulled a face. “…scary stories?”
I sat awkwardly down on his bed. He didn’t seem embarrassed that he had a girl in his room – but then again, Nate was so experienced he probably never was. I sighed, and waved a hand in the air, signalling my consent.
“Okay…And so it goes like this…” he whispered, putting on his best scary voice. I stared at him, not amused. He had made such a rapid change in the space of about three seconds – from scared little boy, to his normal annoying self, it was kind of hard to believe he’d been scared in the first place. I would’ve thought he’d been pretending except…
You can’t fake the emotion I saw.
“A long time ago, a good friend of mine heard a story…” he said, still trying to be mystical. I stopped him, there.
“Wait, wait, wait. A few questions, please. Firstly, is it your actual friend or a metaphorical friend? Secondly, how long was a long time ago? Pre-cellphone or after? And thirdly…this sounds like it’s going to be a really bad story.”
He sighed, looking at me crossly. “Firstly, yes, it is a metaphorical friend I am making up for the purposes of this story. Post-cellphone. And your third question wasn’t really a question. Please shut up, Ade, you’re ruining it.”
“Carry on, then.”
“Well, he heard a rumor of a shop…a shop that sold the best pies in the world…”
I opened my mouth, and he put his hand over it, shutting me up.
“No, Ade,” he cautioned. “This is listening time. Anyway, the shop sold awesome pies, but they said that the pies were made of…” He paused, for dramatic effect. “…Human flesh.”
I simply raised my eyebrows. My mouth was covered.
“But my friend wasn’t an idiot,” he said, shaking his head as he stared at me with wide eyes. “He realized this was probably just a stupid legend. And so he went to the shop, and bought nine pies. He had them given to him, in a box.”
I rolled my eyes. God, this story was going to be awful.
“And so…” Nate continued, leaning in to emphasize his words. “He walked on home.”
He was leant in way too much now. I leant back, to compensate.
“As he rounded a dark street corner, he suddenly felt cold. And it wasn’t because it was a cold day. He got a chill, down his spine. Looking around, he saw no one, but he got a sudden urge to open the box of pies. And there…was only eight in the box.”
He gaped, pretending to look shocked.
“What was going on? What happened to the other pie? Well…he decided that the shopkeeper had counted wrong, in the first place. He’d only been given eight pies. And so he walked on home, whistling and skipping.”
Nate widened his eyes. Mine remained unresponsive.
“Then, he felt another chill…and, suddenly, he wanted to open the box again. He opened it, and…”
He did a sort of half-dramatic, half-eccentric movement.
“There were only six left! Two had gone at once! He clutched the box to his chest, his heart pumping, his fingers shaking, terrified. Which evil force was doing this? Who was stealing his pies?”
Nate tilted his head, shoving the torch closer to his chin.
“He had to open the box, one last time…” Nate said, slowly, drawing out the tension. “And he saw…all of them gone. There was not a pie left in the box.”
I guessed this was meant to be the climax of this story, but it didn’t feel very climax-y.
“Slamming the box closed again, he let out a howl of terror that echoed in the street… Finally, he opened the box again, and do you know what he saw?”
Nate stared at me, waiting. I said nothing.
“He saw all nine pies, stuck to the lid.”
He took his hand from my hand, bursting into peals of laughter. I stared at him, rolling on the bed, clutching his stomach as he almost cried. He was clearly feeling better, now. My job here was done. I stood up, patting his head as I walked by.
“Bye, Nate.”
***
Author's Note: My friend told me that story...My life is so cool.
Anyway, I am going to Germany soooon!! So uploads will have to wait :(
P.S. VOMMENT!!!
(Chapter 13)
Start from the beginning
