Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Rue Patchton stared aimlessly at the clock, as the second-hand moved its way past four, wondering when Mrs. Domire would stop talking about the ‘importance’ of subjective dimensions in literature and some other overly complicated things. She brushed strands of her long, blond hair out of her blue-gray eye as she picked at the pale skin on her face. She glanced over to see Mei Katsuno, discreetly watching a video on the hunting tecquniqe's of the Manitoba wolf. They both sat in class boredly and waited for the hands of the clock to read 2:30, the sign of freedom meaning that they could finally go visit Theodore's Brookfield's lake house in upstate New York.
Meanwhile, down the hall and two doors to the left, Xavier Clarke and Theodore were tapping messages with their pencils in morse code. Four short, one short, long, short, long, long, etc.
‘Hey, is the car ready?’
‘Yeah.’
‘When are we going?’
‘2:30, 2:45 the latest’
‘Awesome.’
Before the they could double-check the rest of their plans, the bell rang.
*******************
Xavier opened the car door to his lime green 2011 Moab Easter Jeep Safari, and strapped his seatbelt in while he composed a mental checklist of the things he was planning to do while on vacation. He adjusted his seat, making more rooms for his long legs, and altered the rearview mirror’s position, observing his smooth dark skin and jet black hair. After a while, Theo was the first one to arrive while hauling his suitcase into the trunk and making his way to the passenger's seat. He looked at the school with a smile, glad that he wouldn’t have to see that place again for another two and a half weeks. In the distance he spotted Mei and Rue walking towards the car. Theo chuckled to himself, as he compared Rue’s figure, to Mei’s. While Rue, was an average height at 5’7, she towered over a petite Mei who was barely 5’1. Theo caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window and noticed a piece of wood in his dirty brown hair, swatted it away and thought for the third time today how much he disliked Mr. Duncan’s woodshop class. Mei and Rue packed their bagges into the car, and prepared themselves for what would be a two hour road trip. As everyone fastened their seatbelts, Xavier turned the key in the ignition and commenced on their journey to Theo’s cabin.
“I’m gonna love yaaa, until you haaate me ” Sang Theo, from the passenger seat, in a somewhat, off-pitched tune.
“Oh, here comes my solo...This twisted cat and mouse game always starts the same” Spat X.
“Can you turn that garbage off. Ugh, you two, and your...'music.”' grumbled Rue from the back seat.
“Awe, you're just grumpy because we wouldn’t play your death metal. ” Taunted Xavier.
“Ahh! Ohhhhh!” Shrieked Theodore.
“Two things. One, it’s not death metal it’s called alternative rock. And two, focus on your driving for a bit. I don’t want to get into an accident aga..-” uttered Rue before she was interrupted by the radio.
“ Breaking news! There’s a massive hurricane coming from the north eastern side of Canada, southeast bound. Everyone in the danger zones, should stay indoors, if not already, clear all roads immediately.”
“Omg, did you guys hear that? We should turn back and hope we can outrun the storm,” Advised Mei.
“Uhm.. I don’t know, we planned this trip for a while, and why turn back now? We can probably make it to the cabin before the storm hits” Countered Theo
“Yeah, we can definitely make it, but could you turn that down it's making me nervous” Stated Rue.
X and Theo both reached to turn down the volume, and a static shock zapped Theo.
“Ow” Exclaimed Theo, as he rubbed his index finger and gave Xavier a fiery stare, and Xavier responded with an apologetic, yet nonchalant shrug.
In the back seat Mei giggled, as she read a message her boyfriend had sent her. Rue looked up from her book and snatched Mei’s phone, clean out of her hands.
Mei screeched at Rue, as she clawed at Rue trying futilely to retrieve her phone back from it’s taker.
Rue oohed and awed in a mocking tone as she scrolled through Mei and Yuki, her boyfriend’s, text messages.
“I don’t know why you’re ‘Oooh-ing’ you can’t even read what it says, it’s in Japanese.” Stated, an annoyed Mei, as she finally plucked her phone from Rue’s hands.
Rue replied with a taunting “ I could just sense the romance, from the messages”
The two boys, and Rue began to laugh, as Mei’s face turned red, and she rolled her eyes which only made Rue laugh harder.
Xavier continued to drive as, the weather gradually became worse as they got closer and closer, until they finally reached their destination, barely before the storm had. They got out of the car one by one, running to make it into the cabin, covering their heads with their bags to avoid getting wet by the rain. As they entered into what was planned to be their home for the next week, they each stomped their feet and shook the rain off of themselves at the doormat, and began to settle into their respective rooms. Theodore was changing into his Panda PJ’s, Mei sinking into a seat in the corner and began texting her boyfriend, and Rue was just about set her three alarms to wake her up in the morning when they heard a booming Xavier
“HAS ANYONE SEEN MY RED BAG? I CAN’T FIND IT.”
“Yeah, it’s right over here” Mei muttered as her eyes flickered back to her phone and she continued to message her boyfriend.
Outside, the weather’s condition lessened, so Theo suggested that they should go collect some firewood , for the week to come, before the rain started up again. They went outside and spread out to different locations to search for kindling, that they could use for the furnace. It started to drizzle, and the teens took that as their cue to regroup and head back inside. As the rain started to come down harder, the Rue increased his pace while the others did the same behind him. Lightning streaked across the sky followed by two massive BANGS! Theo looked behind them, searching for the source of the second noise and caught a glimpse of a green fog that was trailing behind them.
“Run!” He exclaimed as the other three broke out into a sprint, desperately racing towards the cabin.
As they continued to run, Mei looked back to see the ominous fog gaining on behind them and tripped over an unseen tree root, landing flat on her hands and knees with a grunt. Theo noticed her fall and offered her his hand lifting her up. Xavier reached the cabin first and opened the door, rushing everyone inside then slamming the door behind them. Mei was the one to ask what was on everybody’s mind.
“What the heck is that?!”
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good” Xavier replied, as they slowly crept away from the walls, and closer together.
Rue noticed the fog entering the cabin’s living room through an ajar window that was facing them. Everyone stared, speechless as they watched Rue race to the window.
“DON’T!” screamed Theo as he realized that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the windows in time, but his warning was too late.
The fog rushed in through the window and directly through Rue. The force pushed her back, directly onto her head, knocking her out. The fog permeated the rest of the room and one by one it reached each of their lungs, rendering them all unconscious.