I must have looked at the message for 20 straight minutes.
Did I see him? I sure as hell did. But I decided to play dumb for the time being, just to see how Shawn would react.
“Did I see who? I certainly didn’t see you there.”
In any case, his next message caught me off guard.
“You know what I’m talking about. I want you to answer me seriously.”
I waited for a bit before responding. This was getting… interesting. But not in a good way. This is how the rest of our conversation went:
Me: Who is he?
Shawn: So you did see him.
Me: Ok, sure. I did. So who the hell is he?
Shawn: You still don’t remember. That’s what I was expecting.
Me. Remember what? What the hell’s going on?
Shawn: Are you going to believe what I have to say?
Me: Depends on what you’re going to say.
Shawn: Meet me in the forest parking lot tomorrow at 6 PM. I know that you don’t remember, but I’ll help you do so. This isn’t something we can run away from.
That entire conversation had only created more questions than it answered. I mean, what the hell was I not remembering? And why was Shawn acting so fucking weird?
And most importantly… who the hell was the guy in our tree-house?
Shawn used to be my best friend, sure. But I wasn’t just gonna trust him like this. I decided to call June – a mutual friend of ours, in order to dig up some information. Unlike Shawn, I actually kept in contact with her. Here’s how that conversation went:
June: David? What’s up?
Me: June, do you remember Shawn? From junior high.
She went silent for a few moments.
June: David… what? This better not be some kind of sick joke.
Me: Joke? How would it be a joke? Listen, I just want to know if you’ve talked to him lately. If you know what he’s been up to.
June: Dd you see him?
Me: Yeah, I did. And he was acting real fucking weird.
June: David, you can’t go back.
Me: Go back where?
I thought June would act as a voice of sanity here, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. The only explanation that made sense to me was that this was all just one elaborate prank that they were both in on. Ridiculous, I know. But so are the circumstances.
In the middle of our call, I got another text from Shawn:
“Don’t tell anybody about this. Especially June. Please don’t get her involved.”
I was starting to get fed-up with this whole mystery bullshit. I was ready to give Shawn a piece of my mind. I was going to ask, no - demand that he tell me exactly what was going on and what he wanted from me. But something caught my eye before I could send the message.
Somebody was standing in my backyard.
My heart nearly dropped when I saw it. My porch light was on, but they were standing in the farthest corner, so I could hardly make out any explicit details. It seemed to be a tall man with broad shoulders, but that was about all I could discern. I looked down at my phone and dialed 911, but when I looked back up, the person had disappeared.
Or so I thought.
I turned my head slightly and realized they were actually standing on my porch. I couldn’t stop myself from screaming this time. Now fully illuminated, I could see that this person was wearing a black tracksuit, and one of those white plastic theater masks with a grinning mouth. It was almost too small for his face.
The sudden sight of him petrified me to the point where I couldn’t move a muscle for the longest time. Eventually, the man lurched forward and smashed his head into my glass door, cracking his mask in the process. And then he did it again. And again. After the 4th time, it shattered. That’s when I started running. I could hear his heavy footsteps reverberating through my empty house as I barreled out my front door.
I wasn’t quite sure where to go, so I just ran into a nearby convenience store before dialing the police. My hands shook as I told them what had happened, and they said that they’d send somebody right over.
After calming myself down, I decided to call Shawn as well. Obviously, I was still kind of pissed at him, but I needed answers. And I needed them soon.
He picked up after the first ring.
“Shawn, can you guess what the fuck just happened to me?”
“…What?”
“Some asshole just broke into my house.”
“Was he wearing a mask?”
“What? I mean… yes. How the fuck did you know-“
“Did you call the police?”
“Obviously. No shit.”
I could hear him sigh over the phone, which pissed me off even more.
“Look, you want to stop playing this weird fucking game with me? I haven’t seen you in forever, and then you come back into my life with this kind of bullshit?”
He chuckled.
“They really did us dirty, didn’t they?”
“Say one more line of cryptic nonsense and I’ll report you to the police myself.”
“You can’t go back to your house now. They’ll be waiting for you. And don’t ask me who they are. I’ll tell you in person. You remember that diner we’d go to during our first year of college? It’s been open for a few weeks now. Meet me there ASAP.”
“Why there?”
“Cause I need beer and coffee. Also… I think they’ve figured out where I’m living as well. In the meantime, don’t trust the cops.”
He hung up afterwards. I stood there for the longest time, trying not to let the disbelief wash over me. About a minute later, I got another call. This time, it was the police.
“Mr. (my last name)? We’ve taken care of him. For now, we need you come back to your house and answer some questions. Come back.”
I told them that I’d be on my way, which was really the only response that I could give them. I thought about Shawn’s warning. If I trusted him and he really had gone psycho over the years, then I was in big trouble. But at the same time… there was something in the police officer’s tone that I didn’t quite like. Shawn sounded more genuine. I suppose he always had been.
After another few minutes of consideration, I decided to go to the diner. At least it was a public place. He wouldn’t kill me there, right? I left the store and began making my way over. I’d been standing in the chip aisle for a while and the cashier looked about ready to call the cops himself. Since I’d left my car back at the house, I was forced to take public transit, which I really didn’t want to do. Now I had the virus to worry about on top of everything else. The bus was empty when I got on, so I decided to close my eyes for a minute. It’d been a long day, and I thought I deserved some rest.
When I opened them back up a few stops later, four more people had gotten on.
They were all wearing those theater masks, all of which had varying expressions.
And they were staring right at me.
---
Credits
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