“Lori, I know it’s hard, but you have to tell us what else happened.” All that was in my vision was flashing red and blue lights, I could see a coroner van and people pushing a cot with a body on it. My best friend’s body. “Lori?” Officer Martinez said, once again.
I guess I should start at the beginning. It seems that it would make sense, but the last few days have taken a toll on my mental health and I can’t even care enough to brush my hair.
My best friend, Ashton and I have been friends since we were 7 years old. We had been through everything together, his parents divorce, my dad’s death. His first break up. It was the first Saturday of the month, which means we were going to have a sleepover. We used to have sleepovers a lot as kids, but since we started highschool, it got a little more difficult, but we were determined to spend as much time as we could together.
At 2PM that Saturday, I saw his car pull in and I ran outside to greet and hug him. “Help me bring the snacks in!” He said, cheerfully, popping the trunk open. I lifted the trunk to see around 6 grocery bags filled with junk food. “Did you get enough?” I said, looking at him, grinning. “This is all mine, honey.” He said in a sarcastic tone. I rolled my eyes, getting the bags and closing the trunk. “You’re a douche,” I said brushing past his shoulder, once again laughing.
We ran to my room and immediately started gorging on the food and watching as many movies as we could handle. At around 9PM, it started getting dark. “I’m bored,” He said in a whiny voice. “We could watch-” I tried saying but he immediately interrupted me. “We have watched every movie on Netflix. We should go to that abandoned building that’s like, 4 blocks away from here. “I don’t know, Ash, it’s late and it could be dangerous.” I protested, I didn’t want to get out, I was comfortable and quite frankly, that building scared the living shit out of me. “I’ll buy you ice cream!” He pleaded. I sighed, “Fine, but I also get to drive!” He frowned, “Fine!”
As we started getting ready to go urban exploring, a pit in my stomach started growing. “Ashton, are we sure we want to do this? Can we not just go to Walmart or something?” He sighed, looking at me. “Where is your sense of adventure! This is not the Lori I know! Can we not just have fun?” He looked surprised after he said that, and his face turned from anger to sorry in a second. My eyes started burning as I grabbed my shoes, my phone, and the keys. “I’ll be in the car.”
I closed my door quickly as I put my shoes on and went to the car. “Where’s your sense of adventure!” I said in a mocking tone waiting for him. Was it so bad I didn’t want to go to an abandoned school? I saw him come to the car and I unlocked it as he got in. I sighed, “It’s not so bad that I don’t want to go somewhere where there could very well be a psychotic killer who tortures us and takes our kidneys!” I sighed, out of breath and looked at him, seeing his eyes wide and trying not to laugh. We both started laughing incredibly hard, and then we started driving to the abandoned school.
“I’m scared,” I said, for the 10th time.
“I know, you’ll be fine,” he grabbed my hand as we walked in through a broken window.
We turned on our flashlight and we kept walking, we saw a lot of graffiti and broken glass, and my nerves started going away.
“Do you smell that?” Ashton asked, curiously. I sniffed and smelled a strong, lavender and vanilla smell. “It smells like my grandma?” I looked at him, he was staring at me like I was crazy. “No, it smells like cookies! Like the ones my mom used to make for us,” I then looked at him like he was crazy. “No, it doesn’t!” I argued with him. I knew my grandmother’s scent from anywhere, she always wore essential oils like nobody’s business, and I remember her putting vanilla in a baking pan in the oven because she read somewhere that it made her house smell like cookies, I remember being let down every time I went to her house because there was no cookies baking. “Maybe, there’s a chemical in the air and we’re about to die!” I said in a mocking tone, looking at him. He looked terrified, when I got closer to him I looked to the direction he was looking and it felt like my heart dropped out of my body onto the ground.
We saw a figure that was easily 6 or 7 feet tall, it looked like it had branches, and the smell got 10x stronger.
Ashton and I looked at each other, I grabbed his hand and we ran as fast as we ever did before. We could hear it behind us, it walked extremely fast, like no matter how fast we could run it was always behind us. We got to a dead end in the school and we saw it catching up to us. “LEFT, GO LEFT!” I yelled. Ashton yelled, “Lori we should go different ways! It’ll throw it off, I love you, Go to where we came in!” I yelled, “Ashton no! This is how people die in horror movies!” I felt tears stinging my eyes. “Lori, Go! I love you!”
I went against my better judgment and ran. My calves felt like they were on fire. It felt like my chest was going to explode, that the monster or.. Whatever it was would grab me at any time. I ran for Ashton, and I hoped that I would get to see him again, until I heard the loudest, blood curdling scream that filled me with terror.
I knew that it was Ashton, but I didn’t want to accept it. I ran to where I kept hearing the scream and saw blood everywhere. His arm was missing and his leg was spurting blood. I screamed, holding him. “Ashton no … Please,” I held his hand, or.. What was left of it. I tried holding back the tears, I didn’t want him to suffer even more. “Lori, It’s all going to be okay, I’ll be with you every step of the way,” I took my phone out and dialed 911, “No NO no! You do not get to go! The cops will be here anytime,” He tried talking but he just coughed blood up. “Just stay still, Ash!”
“911, What is your emergency?” The young woman spoke. “I need help! We’re at the abandoned school on Pembrooke, my friend was attacked!” “We’ll send an ambulance your way. Are you hurt at all?” I looked and saw a big cut on my calf. “Um, I have a cut on my calf, It’s- It’s bleeding a lot, but I just need the ambulance here, please!”
Ashton grabbed onto me tighter. “Lori,” He managed to get out. I put the phone on speaker and sat it down. “Ma’am what do I do!” I screamed. “Hold pressure, how many cuts are there?” “Um, his right arm is messing and his left leg it’s- The bone is poking out and it’s spurting blood,” The lady gasped and stopped talking.
“A-apply pressure, do you have any cloth you can wrap around the leg?” “I have my t-shirt and my hoodie, which would be better?” I said quickly. “The t-shirt, wrap it above the wound as tight as you possibly can. I ripped the t-shirt and tied it as tight as I could. I saw the ambulance, and somehow we were right by the entrance we came in at. I screamed, “Here! We’re here!”
I sat in the ambulance with a blanket wrapped around myself. The officer asked me questions, trying to get me to answer them. “I just- I remember smelling something, like, my grandmother’s house, he said he smelled his father’s cookies.” I saw them wheel his body on a stretcher, feeling intense numbness. I felt sick to my stomach. I should’ve pushed more for him to listen. I looked up and saw in the distance, near the tree line, a tall creature. I felt empty, as I heard a young officer say, “Does it smell like cookies to anybody else?”