Are You afraid Yet?

A Story by Amiee Brydges

Jake is an over-tempered, bully type of kid. He is feared by half of the other kids. So, what is this big bad kid's one fear? Rated T for slight violence/gore and a curse word.

A bright orange pumpkin was stamped onto the day marked 31 on the calendar. It was obviously Matt’s doing; seeing as Jake hated Halloween. The dreaded holiday was only two days away and Jake scrunched his features up at the thought.

“Look at my cool costume!” Matt exclaimed standing in the doorway. His face was pale with white makeup that made his maroon hair stand out vibrantly. Matt wore a shirt and a pair of pants with thick faded black stripes and some plastic shackles around his wrists and a ball and chain around his ankle.

Jake stared at his get up with an un-amused look on his face, “You look ridiculous Matt.” Jake stated and rolled his eyes.

“Ah, c’mon Jake,” Said the young maroon haired boy, “Can’t you at least pretend to be interested in Halloween?”

“It’s a pointless holiday and I refuse to take part of it.” He stated bluntly as he crossed his arms. Jake stayed away from Halloween as much as the superiors at the Whammy’s House would let him. Some of the typical things were required, but they were simple things like, carving pumpkins and eating candy corn.

Matt rolled his eyes and went to play some video game. Which, was of course, a tradition with the kid, every Halloween Matt would pull out his secret stash of extreme violence and gore games that he dared not touch until the month of October.

After Matt pulled out a gaming system from the cabinet next to the television set, he turned to Jake. “Oh, I got a new video game, especially for Halloween.” A grin grew from Matt’s face from ear to ear.

Jake knew that if he didn’t play along and watch him play that Matt would get suspicious as to why, and Jake was all out of excuses for the night. He plastered on the same big grin and sat on the couch next to the still costumed up kid.

Matt mashed a few buttons and got the game going, a chill ran down Jake’s spine as slow creepy music began to play and it grew as a warning came across the screen: Warning! This game contains scenes explicit violence and gore. He swallowed hard when the title Dementium: The Ward faded onto the screen. He watched Matt smash a few buttons and started the game.

Immediately, the scares of the game appeared. The first scene takes the gamer/viewer through the hallways in a wheel chair with creepy and hard to make out whispering. The sudden sound the ‘character’ made when it woke up made Jake’s heart skip a beat. Matt made it through the tutorial and left the room, Matt grinned at the blood that was everywhere in the hallway as Jake gulped. Matt took the ‘character’ all the way down a random direction in the hallway and a movie scene flashed before them.

A humongous looking man was faded onto the screen, covered with decaying flesh. The camera zoomed in dramatically towards the axe the fleshy man was dragging against the blood stained floor then dramatically zoomed into his other hand that had a face yelling out of agony. Jake instantly knew it was going to be a long night.

It was around three in the morning when Matt finished his zombie game. Matt wore a giant grin and wide excited eyes as the credits ran across the screen. “That was… awesome!” Matt said as he basked in the delight of beating the game in one sitting.

Jake didn’t speak but instead blinked, he thought the nightmare would never be over. He straightened up his position and tried to shake the fear from his spine, the realization of how dark the room was didn’t help him at all.

“What do you think?” Matt asked the blonde with the grin still plastered on his pale face. The makeup from earlier was wearing off but still was on his face in blotches and his costume was bright against the poor amount of light flashing from the still scrolling end credits.

“It was good.” Jake managed to say the sentence with no sign of fear.

Matt rolled his eyes and stated, “You just don’t appreciate good gore.”

“Hah.” Jake managed to let out. He felt the fear rise up to his throat and was afraid to let any of it out. He stood up from the couch, and stumbled over the arm as he felt around to the wall to turn on the light switch.

Jake let out a small sigh of relief as the bright light made the room fully visible. Matt closed his eyes with a groan against the bright light.

“Off to bed?” Matt asked as he put the game away.

“Yes.” Jake said as he quietly made his way to his room.

Jake turned on every light on his way to his room and even to his bed. When he threw off the light switch he quickly made it to his bed and laid there with his eyes bolted open. He flinched at the sound of a door closing and pulled the blankets close. A total of one hour passed and Jake kept waking up at the slightest of sounds. He threw his pillow against the window and jumped at the sound the shades made as they crashed into the pane.

Matt was still awake and watching television, also still in his prisoner costume. The blotchiness of Matt’s face when he turned to him made Jake’s face twist in terror. It didn’t take long for Matt to notice.

“What’s your problem?” Matt asked sort of offended and incredibly confused.

“Nothing.” Jake managed to get out in such a normal voice that he almost convinced himself that it was true.

Matt was un-amused and showed it, “Don’t be a jerk.”

Jake broke eye contact with the maroon haired boy in an intense feeling of awkward.

Matt spoke again facing the glow of the television, “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Ye-ah.” His voice cracked slightly and he coughed to cover it up as he sat down on the couch. Matt was watching a late night horror film, the type that was in black and white, really cheesy, and poor effects. The kid could never get enough of scary things.

After the old movie was over, which turned out to be a classic about Dracula, Matt stood and stretched his arms in the air and raised an eyebrow when his friend didn’t do the same and turned to face him. Jake sat in a lifeless position with his eyes wide open facing the screen.

Matt waved his hand in front of Jake’s eyes, which in return, made him jump as he returned to reality. “You’re afraid aren’t you?” Matt grinned, once again, from ear to ear. “Big bad Jake is afraid of some little Halloween spooks.”

Jake burrowed his eyebrows and threw the couch pillow violently at his friend. Matt threw the pillow off with his arm and it made a thud against the wood flooring causing Jake to jump practically out of his skin.

“It’s true then.” Matt stated triumphantly

Jake rolled his eyes, “Don’t need to be an a*s about it.”

Matt’s grin faded into a light smile, “It’s just nice to know that underneath all that ‘hardcore anger’ and crap, there lays an actual person.”