Joshua Mayberry:
If you need an introduction then that means you're new here. Don't worry, I'll update you.
Hey, I'm Joshua but my friends call me Josh and you can too. I'm fifteen and you might call me a nut job but I can assure you, everything I say is the truth.
My friends and I have spoken to Lady Louisa and were given a chance to choose.
We can either continue on with living nightmares daily or we can end one and make way for a chain of others.
A choice so difficult that we aren't sure what to do.
So, we did what normal kids do.
We went to school.
•••••••
Chapter Title: CIRCLE OF DEATH
(won't bother sharing locations anymore, everyone voted them out asking why we even included them if we won't give you guys co-ordinates or actual street names...yeah. I guess that makes sense.)
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When you make the decision to stay and fight for the rest of your life, your heart should beat with joy. I mean, you're free to follow a path that has already been paved and made clear for you. Plus there's a person guiding you. And also a book with clear detailed instructions written with five different point of views.
That's not how me and the guys felt. We didn't feel like we were destined for anything but sorrows and sleepless nights and darkness.
'I'm sorry guys. But we just can't do that. It's too much. We already feel like crap everyday. To be this way for the rest of our lives? I can't.' Kyle apologised for the trillionth time and we slumped down further.
It felt like there was no way we could undo this. My heart was racing every second because I felt as though we had crossed Lady Louisa and that she'd smite us any hour, minute or second. I wasn't taking any chances.
My green sandwich was soggy enough for me to just believe that she had.
'I can't believe you would just...run away like that ...and leave me.' Jaela sat beside us. While Kyle was constantly riding the "sorry" train, Jaela was bringing in the guilt.
It's true. We ran. We raced out of there like there was a demon on our backs, which technically there was, because what kind of horse is named Nightmare? He ran through the walls! He ate a spot of hair clean off, on the back of Jonathan's hairline.
'Sorry. Little lady.' Dante was trying to be apologetic.
He was actually against our decision. Him of all people. Brave but at this point was dumb.
'Dante, you're not thinking straight. You might be my best friend but you're also a lunatic man.' I ate the sandwich praying that the thing would hold together a little while longer.
Cafeteria food really does make you pray for your life to be all right. If food in school happened to be this harsh then I don't think I want to live the harsh life outside of it.
'Guys! I'm bald alright so just chill.' Jonathan looked a mess and was being teased in his classes. He usually kept shoulder length hair but when his mother saw the patch missing, she clean shaved his head. Said thank God too.
'What are you guys even thinking?' Jaela had joined in our conversation at the start of lunch hour and hasn't even left.
We were eating and arguing when it all happened. The final wave of drama that made us rue our decision.
One minute teenagers were walking past us chatting and laughing and smiling and the next, ladies were walking by. Some were wearing dresses, some were wearing jeans, some skirts and one was even wearing a T-shirt. They were bruised and broken and twisted and sneering and a few bloody. A few looked quite normal. But they all had one main thing in common.
They were all dead.
Grey and blue and purple and green were the hues of their corpses. My sandwich threatened to climb back out of my stomach at the site.
'Guys!' Mark screamed.
Kyle, Dante and Karla's argument ended just as suddenly and they were both staring at the mess.
'What is happening?' Dante looked completely terrified.
'That looks like a girl from my grandma's book.' I pointed at the girl who quickly shifted behind a taller woman.
'Guys!' Mark said a second time but Jaela was crying catching most of their attention that wasn't drawn to our hasty surroundings.
'How do we even get out of here?' Jonathan was freaking out more on the inside than out. His voice trembled but his raised eyebrows were all that showed his fear.
'I'm trying to figure it out.' Kyle said then swallowed, still rubbing Jaela's back as she cried.
'Oh no.' I whimpered. If Kyle didn't even know what to do then we were surely screwed.
'I dreamt this last night!' Mark cried out at last over our commotion.
We paused and looked at him taking our eyes off the moving women for a few seconds. In my side vision I could still see them twirling and walking past each other as though weaving a pattern around our table.
'A vision?' Kyle asked. 'One of your dreams?'
This was hope. Kyle's voice said it.
'Yes.' Mark was still crying.
'Okay. So. What happened?' Dante asked getting his bag onto his shoulder.
'You... don't want to know.' Mark sobbed.
'I take it, that we die or some crap like that.'
'Dante! Would you shut up!' Jonny was near the edge.
'Okay, so don't tell us what happened. Just tell us how to get out of here.' Kyle was trying to calm him enough to speak. All the while I just sat there. Fully aware that one of the ladies had her eyes on me. The same one from my grandmother's journal. The same one that was scaring the daylights out of me.
'We...we can't. Not once they surround us.' Mark breathed his words out in whispers.
'Well, they're still walking around the place. Let's up now.' Dante stood and out of nowhere, an arm flew at his head, fingers pointing forward. He dropped back down getting the top centre of his afro cut through in the process.
'This just got worst.' Dante felt his head. 'Black people run away. Why is it that I can't run and they're attacking my afro?'
'Dante, just shut up for a second!' Jonathan yelled again.
'Stop yelling at Dante!' I yelled too. It's not like anyone was helping.
'Both of you, shut up! Mark, pull it together! How do we get out of here?' Kyle looked about ready to slap all of us.
'We have to follow the girl in the green dress. She's the only one who will keep us safe.' Mark hiccuped with tears still falling down his face.
'Okay, so just find the girl in the green dress.' Kyle sat up. Jaela still kept her face hidden in his T-shirt which was fine with us. One less hysterical person. Us boys were enough.
'That, would be a problem.'
'Yeah. Dante's right.' Jonny sniffled and I knew this wasn't a hard game.
'Josh knows the one.' Mark nodded my way.
There were at least twenty ladies in green dresses but the one girl who was keeping her eyes on me was also in a green dress. Her mad hungry eyes said too much.
'I don't think we'll be getting out of here.' I announced.
'Why not?' Dante clung to his bag.
'What is going on? It's your dream, why is it that Josh knows?' Kyle was mad angry. Something wasn't right about all this and he may have been taking it all in as his fault.
'Guys, she's the worst in the bunch. I can see how she died.' They weren't even paying attention to me now. But the images and scenery playing in my head of young girls in blood and coffins and a cliff were enough to lock me into a psych ward.
Then the worst had come. They had all stopped moving back and forth and were now forming a circle as they made their way to us.
'This can't be happening.' Kyle and Dante were in clear disbelief.
'We're going to die aren't we? We're going to die!' Jonathon was in tears now.
I was shaking. At the centre of the crowd moving in on us, just a step ahead of the rest, was her. The Lady, ours, was nowhere in the gathering. This girl in the green dress was looking right at me with her blood shot eyes and chapped black lips.
'Mark.' Kyle swallowed hard hope fading for good.
'There's no way out.' Mark was wailing now. Jaela too.
'Josh.' Kyle dragged my name a bit, his lips quivering.
'She'll kill me, Kyle, I can't.'
'Mark, just tell us how this ends. Please.' Kyle was not keeping his cool any longer and though I was not crying, my insides felt like they were twisting over, leaving a pit. It seemed to be the same for the rest of the guys.
'They... they'll reach us. Joshua first.' Mark broke down and the rest of them turned their eyes on me.
Just two metres away they were, I could see flashes in my head. Flashes of what she wanted me to see.
'Guys. I can see what she's going to do, in my thoughts.' I was scared. My voice said it, my eyes said it and my body said it.
'Guys! Dorian is the worst sister on earth. Why isn't this happening to her?' Dante laughed almost like a maniac.
My head was spinning, I could see the woods. I could see a lake. A house. This very girl. Running. I could tell she wasn't one of my grandmother's friends. This girl was a spirit. That I was sure of.
'What can we do?' Kyle asked one more time. We were guys but no one is prepared for this type of thing. Tears were flowing from nearly everyone's face.
And then, we were surrounded. Closed off within the circle of ghosts.
.......
Hi Guys! So this book is nearly done. Just One or two more chapters to go.
I know...So much tears and crying drama when the main characters are guys, well...It gets better. They man up in the next chapter. This is their first ever spirit haunting so you get the raw emotions.
I mean, seriously though, if you guys saw a ghost or anything like this ever happens to you, how would you react?
Let me know what you think.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
~Sam