What’s the scariest thing that you can think of?
For me, it probably isn’t my boss going crazy and telling me to quote “GET THE HELL OUT” of his store after telling a customer that buying food that was on sale for 50% of the price was going to taste like a mistery box, speaking from experience. There’s nothing scary about that, but that might be because there aren’t many spooky things in this world. Demons, funny looking alien beings, powerful creatures and random lists of rules that appear seemingly out of nowhere on toilet paper, saying that you’re going to die if you don’t flush 3 times in a row when going to the bathroom between 2:00AM and 6:00AM, none of those are real. If they were, I would likely never go to the toilet again or buy a bidet, although I probably wouldn’t have enough money for that. I’m almost broke. I rented a flat on the outskirts of a small town that for the past 19 years of my life I’ve called home.
My name’s Kevin, and I just lost my job. Don’t feel any kind of sorry for me, I got fired on purpose. There was no particular reason for me to do that, except maybe because I wanted to get rid of that 4’8 nuisance that I used to call my boss. He would always make us stay overtime and do more work without paying us a single buck in return. Even a damn lolipop would have sufficed. I have to admit that no matter how much that human being managed to piss me off, I wouldn’t have given up my job just for that. Truth be told, I’m not a sociable person, I only have a couple close friends whom I hold dear which made it really hard when one of them got into some trouble last month. Don’t worry, he’s not dead and probably not going to be any time soon. He’s a guy that’s never bored, always talking and, for the most part, smart. Most people would consider him a weirdo because of his “obsession” with dark stories and how much he talked about his discoveries. I, for one, loved that about him. Jack, Amber and I were known as an unstoppable trio: a guy that’s always looking for a story to make people unable to sleep for long, undetermined amounts of time, a blonde-haired girl that had no good answer for when the question “what is fear?” came up and a lazy good-for-nothing assistant that showed signs of great pain each and every time he would have to move his body to do anything but blink or breathe.
Years ago, after being moved into a new school, some guys, who were probably 2 years older than me, told me to give them my lunch. A guy from my math class, who was made fun of for not being able to add two numbers up, came over and told them to leave me alone. He got quite a few bruises for doing that and my lunch was taken away to a place far away, someone’s stomach. Him standing up for me didn’t help in any kind of way.
“What were you thinking? Do you want me to call the school nurse?” I asked him while lifting him up a bit so I could sit him on the bench.
“I just wanted to ask if I could get some of the fried rice and I knew I couldn’t if they took it from you.” he responded. That was the dumbest reason I’ve heard for trying to defend someone and well, maybe he was dumb.
“Trust me, it’s not so good you’d die for, or even take punches for that matter.” We then walked to the nurse’s office, where the woman in charge gave him a pack of ice while saying “This should do.”
Next class was about to start, coincidentally, the math one, so we began walking towards it.
“Thank you for trying to defend me and my lunch” I said not knowing how to fill the silence “My name’s Kevin.”
“I’m Jack, we’re in the same math class right? Want to hang out after classes if you have nothing better to do?” I agreed because at that point in my life there was nothing I wanted to do more than get away from my adoptive parents. We talked and laughed a bit before going to class. That 1 hour of math felt short but there was something worth noting, Jack was suddenly better at that subject, by a lot. After it, we exchanged phone numbers and met 2 hours later in front of the school.
“So what are we going to do?” I said half expecting him to have an answer and half worried that he doesn’t have the slightest clue.
“Do you like horror related stuff?” That was a weird question to ask someone you’ve barely met because I wasn’t going to go with a person I’ve just met to an abandoned cemetry or anything like that. But I did like horror.
“Yeah, I read stories from time to time, but things that aren’t real can’t be scary.” I answered as honest as I could. He smirked in a way that showed enthuasiasm.
“What’s the scariest thing you can think of?” Hard question, one that, this time, I had to put actual brain power in to answer.
“Probably that things could turn out to be different from what they seem.” That was the best answer I could give at the time. The thought of something seeming undoubtable but being false is a scary thing. For example what if there were eleven digits instead of ten, what if sleeping more causes you to shorten your lifespan or what if God is not what we think of him.
“That’s a really good answer.” Jack replied “I think the scariest thing is-“ He was interupted by a loud voice that screamed out his name. It was the person I came to know as the girl that shows far too much enthusiasm. “Oh, hi Amber.”
“Hi dumbass.” She turned to me “You must be Kevin, Jack said he’d get you to join us, I’m sorry you had to go through his plan.”
“What plan?” I asked confused.
“Did you not tell him?” Asked Amber visibly pissed.
“I was going to.” said Jack with regret in his voice. “Sorry for lying to you Kevin, I didn’t actually want to eat your rice, I just wanted to see if you’d want to hang out with us since you didn’t look easily approachable.” After he said that, it was like something clicked in my head. He might have pretended to be bad at math so I could be more comfortable around him thinking he’s dumb and maybe for me to recognise him and remember that we’re in the same class and not walk away after getting him to the nurse. I did turn off everyone that tried to talk to me so he found a way around that by, I guess, being beaten by some upperclassmates. I was a bit shocked both at how dumb a person can be but also at how he made a plan that complex just for asking me to hang out.
“Do you want to start a club with us?” said Jack not leaving me more time to think.
“What kind of club?”
“A club that goes and sees, hunts down myths and tells stories. We were told the minimum number of students needed to start a club was three.” Jack said clearly being far too excited.
“I’m in.” I responded, making my new-found friends’ smiles get wider.
That was back in 6th grade and let me tell you, LOTS have happened since then. We’ve seen things that were borderline supernatural, witnessed horrible deaths and somewhat destroyed a cult? That one was crazy and holy mother of devil am I excited to tell you about it. But for now I have to leave, visiting my friend at the hospital has become part of my routine for the past 2 weeks. I hope Jack won’t make me ask the nurses there if there’s any weird list of rules that he has to follow to survive in the hospital. Again. He hasn’t lost his mind, just his legs. Oh, and the name of the club is “Unexpectedly Good Hunters”, horrible I know, not my idea but I didn’t have a better one either. Stay alive, ‘till next time.