Rocket's Ghost Stories

Chapter 1: Rocket Theater

The theater. Built in 1993 by Walter Rocket, and it's still the most popular theater in town 10 years later. It'll probably be part of history someday.

The chatter of two friends comes from the break room. "Vanessa, I'm serious. There's no way I'm straight. I kissed a chick once and I'll never do it again," Lance sighed. "Just because I don't like getting all up on my boyfriend doesn't mean I'm straight."

"Oh, come on! There's no way you're gay, either!" Vanessa rolls her eyes. "You're only dating Felix so you don't have to admit you like Shelly."

"I would rather die than date Shelly."

They keep chatting for the rest of their shift. About school, about dating, anything they couldn't talk about when the customers were around. Welcome to the night shift. Lance and Vanessa are college students. They're close friends who met each other when Vanessa started dating Antonio, Lance's best friend since childhood. Antonio got distant from Lance about three years ago, making Vanessa their only line of contact.

Lance cleans up the arcade, floors, and seats, while Vanessa cleans the snack stands and dusts the projector rooms. "Nessa, I'll cover whatever's left. You can leave early," Lance yelled from down the hall. The empty theater carried the sound farther than expected. Vanessa hears the echo and happily walks out of the theater.

By 1:00 AM, his shift was over, and Lance walked out into the rainy night. He'd planned to get back to his dorm, grab Jayden's birthday gift, and take the bus home to his moms' house. But that plan was forgotten the moment his vision went black. A sharp pain radiated from his back. He couldn't breathe. Blood forced its way up his throat as he struggled to stay alive. Two, three, four in total before he was gone. Antonio's laughter was the only thing he could hear.

"I knew you were lying. Pathetic little lying fag. You've been sleeping with that vampire, haven't you? I knew Van was cheating on me, but you thought you could betray me, too?" Antonio snickered, "Sorry, I forgot you couldn't hear me since you're dead. I'll just go back to drinking myself to death so I can forget that stupid face you're making." His tears mixed with the rain as he walked away. Lance was left to bleed out on that crosswalk.

Both bodies were found later that morning. Lance was unidentified until a DNA test confirmed his identity. It was then broadcast on the news. A typical tragedy that'd be seen once and forgotten in a month or two. Only it wasn't. The case brought back up several lawsuits connected to the theater over the years, and Lance's death was originally pinned to that.

By day 2, security footage was reviewed that showed Antonio committing the crime. They were able to connect the face of Lance's attacker to the body of the suicide victim from that night. The murder case was solved, but it didn't close up the other cases, and Walter was still in legal trouble for the foreseeable future.