Haunted

A Story by Cole H.

What goes around comes around.

HAUNTED

Downtown’s are very dangerous, especially at night. Any sane human being knows that. There’s gangs, thugs, low-lives, vengeful homeless, and serial killers. Which is why, on the same subject, most normal people actually want to go there. As many people have a sense of adventure, the dangers of the inner city are like an addiction for them; they can’t stay away.
Jason Phillips and Rebecca Morley are two of these people. They love adventure and danger. It’s addicting to them. It’s impossible to stay away.
Jason is over 6 feet tall. He’s big and muscular, like a football player. He’s got long blonde hair, about down to his forehead. His girlfriend, Rebecca, is tall as well, but not quite as tall as him. While Jason is the strong one, she’s the fast one; the fastest runner in cross country. She has long dirty blonde hair, and a friendly yet dangerous face line.
One night, these two were walking through downtown Dallas. They were on their way home from their friend’s party, and they had to walk a few blocks to Jason’s car. They were talking and joking, like they always do. The sun was setting, and there was a nice breeze. Everything seemed so perfect. So… normal.
That was the night everything changed.

There are a lot of alleys in any downtown, and Dallas was no exception. Dark, ominous, dangerous alleys. Inviting for criminals, huge warning signs for civilians. Just as the sun was setting, they heard something.
“Psst! Hey kids! C’mere, I need your help…”
Jason stepped in front of Rebecca and pulled his pocket knife, automatically assuming it was a trap. “Help with what?”
“Just come here!” The man whispered. His voice was gravely and bone-chilling; Jason had every right to be worried.
Rebecca stepped forward. “Not until we know what we’re helping with.” She was brave and fearless. Nothing scared her. But it was that which can usually lead to danger. And they both knew of this first hand.
Because suddenly, they were both on the ground, out cold.

When they woke up, they were in a gray room. They weren’t tied up, like they thought they’d be. Surrounding them were 12 buff, mean-looking guys. They were unnaturally ripped and covered with tattoos. One of them, obviously the leader, came forward.
“Morning, sleepy heads. You’ve been out for quite some time.” From his voice, Jason knew this was the man from the alley. He was gigantic, taller than even Jason. He was African-American, obviously stronger than the rest, and wore huge gold chains. When he smiled, his teeth were rotten.
Jason was full of fury. He wanted to get up and take the man down, along with everyone in the room. But he didn’t; strapped to each of their waists were sinister-looking and probably illegal handguns. He’d be dead before he even stood up all the way. “What do you want? Why are we here?”
“We just want your help. It’s no big deal. Just help us, and you’ll be on your way.”
“Help you with what?” This was Rebecca. Her voice was unshaken and strong, but it was a cover up. Deep down, she was terrified. She slowly moved her hands toward Jason’s without letting the gangsters see and squeezed tight.
The man knelled down in front of them, smiling sourly. “Ok, here’s the deal. I’m not gunna give you a bunch of crap about ‘They stole it from us, and we’re just taking it back!’. No. Long story short, we want you to steal something for us. No one will expect two kids.”
“What?” Yelled Jason, astonished. “We’re not stealing anything for you! We’re not criminals!”
“Well, from what I see, you don’t have much choice, now do you?”
He was right. The other 11 men drew their illegal guns and loaded them. They weren’t aiming, but he could tell they could raise and fire before he breathed a word.
Jason was almost convinced by this, but he had one more question. “How do I know you’ll let us go?”
The man smiled. “You don’t. You just have to trust us.”
Jason immediately saw the irony in this.

About 1 hour later, Jason and Rebecca were outside of a jewelry store. They were in complete back, with black skull caps covering their hair. They also had Desert Eagles strapped to their waists. They felt so out of place, and so scared.
“Jason… we can’t do this! I can’t go to jail!” Rebecca quietly cried.
Jason looked at his girlfriend and smiled. “I’m not happy about this either. But they’re watching us. If we bail, we’re dead.” Rebecca wasn’t convinced by this. He grabbed her hand and held it tight. “Look, I’ll keep us safe. If anything happens, I’ll give my life to protect you.”
That seemed to do it for Rebecca. Although they knew they’d both regret it, it had to be done.
Jason kicked down the door. “Put your hands up!”

The man was pleased as he admired the bag of jewels. “Perfect! This is perfect! Good job, you too. You really helped us out.” He started t walk away, counting the treasures.
“Uhh, ‘scuse me,” said Jason, “Aren’t you gonna show us the exit?” He became suspicious.
The man stopped and turned around. “Oh yeah, almost forgot. This way.” He led them to a door the same color as the wall. It was opened from the other side, and the two were shoved in.
The other 11 men were standing there, all of them holding guns.
Rebecca started to panic, but before they could say anything, they were shoved on the flood. They were bound so they couldn’t move.
The boss came over, smiling. “Thank you for helping up. But, I’m afraid, we can’t let you leave. You know where our hideout is. You know who we are. You know what we do. We can’t risk having you telling the cops, know can we?”
Jason felt fury boiling up. “You lied to us.”
The man shrugged. “Eh. That’s life.” He smiled wickedly. “Oops. Didn’t mean to make a bad pun.”
That was the second-to-last thing Jason Phillips ever heard.
The last was 12 gunshots.
“NO! JASON!!” Rebecca moved to the body of Jason. Blood was slowly pouring out of his body. He was still alive, but just barely. “Jason…”
“Rebecca…” Jason coughed up blood. He didn’t look scared, he look sad. Disappointed. “I’m sorry… I didn’t protect… you…”
He sighed and closed his eyes.
“No…” Tears began to well up in her eyes. She looked up at the men, their guns smoking.
The only reply she got was 12 more bullets fired, straight into her heart. As she fell, she though how ironic it was to have a heart broken, then ripped to shreds.

For Richard Black, life was interesting. It wasn’t necessarily good or bad. Just… different. For one thing, most people weren’t in a gang, and most of the people that were don’t enjoy it. They just do what has to be done.
Black wasn’t sure if he enjoyed it or hated it. On the plus side, he got payed a lot. But he didn’t exactly like having to shoot people after each mission.
Especially teenagers.
He still didn’t understand why Shays made them do that. It was pointless. They were two teens who had so much to live for. Besides, what would they have done to the biggest mob in the southwest?
At least he got payed.
These thoughts were interrupted when he heard something drop in an alley. Most people would’ve thought nothing of it, but you don’t survive in a gang by ignoring sounds.
Especially sounds from dark alleys.
He pulled out his handgun and carefully walked in. He turned the corner to try to find the perp.
It was a dead end.
He turned around to go back, only to find another brick wall.
There was no way out.
All the sounds of the city have stopped. It was dead quiet. That was when the whispers started.
He couldn’t make out anything, but he could tell there were 2 of them: a guy and a girl. They also sounded angry.
A ghostly fog came in from nowhere. They filled the whole space, and seemed to start to take a shape.
The shapes became clearer and clearer. They started to look like people. Again, a guy and a girl. It looked like they were dancing together. Happy. In love.
They continually morphed into different scenes. Watching a movie, sitting in the park, having their first kiss…
The words started to slowly become clear. Only a few could be made out, however.
“Destroyed… dead… forever… angry… revenge… you…”
He could only hear those, not the words that connected them. But they were chilling enough. He started to freak out on the inside.
As the two figures morphed again, the whispers grew clearer.. They took one final shape. They weren’t in love, not in this scene. They were standing side by side, angry at something in front of them. They were two teenagers, a boy and a girl. They were becoming clearer. By now, the whispers were practically screaming. Their mouths started moving with the whispers.
“You destroyed this… you and your friends.”
“Does this make you happy?”
“We may be dead, but we won’t be held back. Death can’t stop us.”
“We’re unstoppable.”
“All of you have hell to pay.”
And then they stopped.
The whispers, the ghosts, everything. Gone. For a minute, Black thought it was over.
“And we plan on collecting.”
The voice came out of nowhere. No one was here but him, but it sounded like it was right next to him. He then felt a sharp pain in his temple, like he’d just been punched.
He fell to the ground, winded, surprised, and scared out of his mind. Something grabbed his collar and pulled him up.
It was one of the ghosts, the guy. He immediately recognized him: Jason Phillips. The kid he’d shot two days ago. Except this time, he was transparent.
And furious.
He smiled evilly. “Surprised? Something you should know about us, we don’t get stopped easily.” A girl appeared at his side: Rebecca Morley.
“You’re not getting off so easily.” Said the ghost of Rebecca. “Before we do anything, though, let’s show him something, Jason…”
Jason smiled again. “Let’s.”
The ghost turned Black around and slammed him hard into the wall. Instead of hitting it, he went through it. He was back in the room where so many people had died.
Including the people right in front of him.
The two ghosts pulled guns identical to the ones everyone in the gang had. “This is how we felt in the last seconds of our lives,” said Jason.
Two gunshots.
He screamed in agony, but he wasn’t dead. The bullets ripped though him; through his soul. He was transported to another room. At least he thought it was. It was pitch black, he couldn’t see anything. Nor could he breathe. He felt wood surrounding him. He was suffocating, but this was different. It was agony every breathe he tried to take.
“This is how we felt afterwards.”
He was then transported to the park. Except it was empty. “And now, this is how you will feel, in the last seconds of your life.” The voice was there again, cold and mocking. He turned to see the two ghosts coming up to him. Their faces slowly distorted into something hideous. They grew long, sharp teeth, and began to growl like demons. They had long, pointy tongues. They snickered, then roared as they jumped towards Black, mouths wide open and hungry.
He was transported again, but not to somewhere in the city. He was surrounded by fire and lava. He could see small landforms int he distance, with lave pouring down into the seemingly infinite pool. He was in agony; not just physical, but mentally and spiritually as well. His soul was being tortured. He realized that this must be Hell. He was surrounded by countless angry spirits, all with the same demonic face the other two had. He recognized all of them; everyone he had killed since he joined the gang. The number was too big to count. They all jumped on him, feeding on his body. He felt the teeth tearing in, but it was his soul that was in most pain. Each bite severely severed it. He screamed his final breathe, feeling his soul dying. He knew what happened when a body died, but had no idea what happened when a soul died. He was given a taste; it would be as if he never existed. No one would remember him; his soul would never be in heaven or hell. It would just be gone, never to be found. The thought terrified him, as he realized that was about to happen to him…
Black shot awake in a cold sweat. He was on the ground, at the entrance to the alley. The early morning sun was beginning to rise. He tried to stand up, thinking about his crazy dream, when he gasped in pain and fell back down.
He looked at his body. It was badly scratched, bruised, and bloody, like he’d been thrown hard into something multiple times.
Like a brick wall.
There was another vision, made from the same ghostly fog. The gang was shown, being tortured by an unseen force, begging for mercy. As he watched his friends dying before his eyes, he heard the whispers again. “Tell them what happened. Tell them their time will come. Soon.”
The fog dissipated. He was alone.

Over the next few days, 5 of the 12 gang members had experiences similar to Black’s. Except this time, they never told anyone.
It’s hard to talk when you’re dead.
There were just 4 people left. Black and two others had fled in fear. All three were found dead the next day. On their bodies was a note reading “We can’t have anyone finding out, now can we?” Each of their bodies were covered with burn and hideous bite marks, a look of pure horror forever engraved on their face.
Shays called a meeting of the remaining 4.
“Ok men. Obviously something weird-“
“Weird? WEIRD?! I don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but there are ghosts running around here! They’ve killed over half of us! WE’RE ALL GUNNA DIE!!!” This man was pale faced, as if he hadn’t eaten or slept in days.
Shays sighed in exasperation. As if he didn’t already know this. “Are you done, Mike?”
Mike sat down, breathing heavily. “Yeah… sorry…”
“Like I was saying, we need a plan. Something to make these ghosts go away.”
“Look, whatevers goin’ on, these ghosts ain’t goin away.” Spoke another member, big built with short-cut black hair. “We killed them, and now they’re hell-bent on revenge. We might as well just accept it.”
“So you’re just giving up Jones?”
“What do you want me to do? We’re not getting out of here. Not alive. Are we gonna beg them not to kill us? Promise not to kill anyone else? That may give some society credits, but nothings gunna make these ghosts stop.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” A familiar voice. A cold voice.
Everyone turned to look at the new voice. It was the ghost of Jason.
They didn’t waste any time staring. They freaked out.
“GUYS! SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!!”
Everyone stopped screaming, but they didn’t sit down. They couldn’t.
Jason smiled. He had been looking forward to this.“Ok, we’ve been thinking. We’ve decided we’re not going to kill you, like we did with the rest of them.” The group started to sigh in relief, but Jason stopped them. “We’ve got something worse.”
They all stared in disbelief. Like anything could be worse.
“You may remember the story Black told you, right before his… tragic end.”
They all nodded. That story kept them up all night.
“Well, I’m gonna cut you a deal. You won’t like, I can guarantee that.” He smiled wickedly. “Then again, we didn’t like being killed.”
The ghost of Rebecca appeared by his side, holding his transparent hand, as they all started freaking out again. “What are you gonna do?”
Rebecca smiled. “You’ll see. Sadly though, you won’t remember…”

Shay woke up in a bed. He was in a hospital. There were doctors all over him, looking at medical records. Probably his.
One of the doctors saw him wake up. “Good morning, sir. We found you unconscious on the street, burned and bitten, along with 3 others. They’re all alright, but…umm, we have a small problem… Neither you or your friends don’t have any records to your name. We can’t even find your name. Can you give us your name please?”
He started to speak, but stopped. He didn’t know his name. He didn’t remember anything. All he could remember was a fiendish smile given by two teenagers, and literally going through hell. That thought, in his weakened state, made him black out again. He remembered something else before he passed out. He remembered having everything, but then lost it all. He didn’t remember when or how he lost it. He just knew he did. And that he deserved it.