Isa called Aaron to ask if she could spend the weekend at Campbell’s and he agreed immediately.
“This house will be free from cooties for a while,” Aaron said on the phone. She rolled her eyes and ended the call, so after school, the friends went out for ice cream at a popular place called ‘Icy cools’.
Entering the ice cream shop, Isa took in the place with wide eyes and a surprised smile. The place was big enough to house about fifty students.
The ceilings were high and pink with small vintage chandeliers and a few ice cream sundae decorations hanging. The floors were tiled in purple, and white polka dots tiles. Beside the door was a big cut out of icy cools mascot that said ‘ icy cools ice cream is too cool ‘.
There were few red and green chairs and round tables draped in yellow table covers, with small vases of carnations in the middle. There were several long brown couches that faced each other in twos with wooden coffee tables separating them, and steel banisters demarcating them from each group.
There was an elevated part at the centre end that looked like a stage, with steel banisters separating it from the rest of the place.
A disco ball hung from the ceiling and a few stage lights as well. Placed at the two ends of the stage were medium sized speakers.
The entire wall was painted in white and purple stripes with stickers of ice cream, musical instruments, glasses, and other stuff pasted on it.
The counter top was made in shiny pink marble and the stand in purple and pink tiles. There were several movable bar stools stationed in front of the long length of the counter.
Bustling about behind the counter were the workers in green tops, black skirts or tops and white and red striped caps. Behind them hung an enormous shelf with various types of toppings you could think of; sprinkles, chocolate syrup, nuts and much more.
Below the shelf were several ice cream machines with varieties of flavours ranging from rocky road to milky celery.
For students that were dismissed not so long ago, the place was filled up with kids of all ranks and types.
The very popular students like the jocks, seniors; occupied a few of the soft couches.
The music lovers patronised the stage while they lazily strung guitars and discussed.
The highly intelligent, but called nerds, joined three to four tables as they stayed in large groups, and discussed important matters.
Then the regular kids who didn’t care about the student hierarchy, occupied the remaining couches, tables, and bar stools.
“This place is just… wow” Isa gasped with wide eyes. She moved her head around, trying to take in every detail of the place.
“This place is too cool,” Isa commented enthusiastically.
“That’s icy cools for you” replied Campbell, proud of the elated look on Isa’s face.
“Hey Ciara” shouted a guy from the intelligent table.
“Hello Hiromi. How’s the research?” Ciara shouted back and waved.
“Very enlightening” he replied and waved back.
Settling in a table they made their orders; Dylan: rocky road, Campbell: strawberry, Cole: banana splits, Isa: chocolate, and Ciara: plain yoghurt.
After the waiter left, Isa leaned on the table and asked quietly “you know, I never got the chance to ask. How did Bailey get the teacher to believe it was Heather that made me trip?”
Cole chuckled and answered coolly “she told the teacher that Heather said that she would cause a scene so that Mrs Beverly would get into the water and they’ll all see what a… phony she is and how… hairy her arms were”
“She said that?” Isa asked incredulously.
“Yeah” replied Cole.
“And the teacher believed Bailey so easily?” She asked further.
“Who wouldn’t? Heather’s a rude and cruddy girl; she’s capable of saying anything. Besides, Bailey is a truthful person and everyone would believe her even if she tried to tell a lie. That’s just Bailey” Dylan explained calmly.
“Heather’s probably having a terrible time in detention,” Campbell said with glee.
“And when she gets out, she’ll be more than furious and eager to make your stay in his school a hell on earth” Ciara stated unceremoniously. She looked away from her friends and said “seems like her puppets are already hatching a plan”.
Everyone turned around to see three girls whispering furiously and giving them the stink eye. Heather was in detention, and without her they were powerless.
They turned back to their table and Dylan said “they can’t do anything without Heather and still can’t do anything if she were here or else they’ll get themselves thrown out”
Isa relaxed after hearing from Dylan. She could relax and enjoy herself.
Their desserts arrived and they dug in and enjoyed their ice cream as they chatted on. They talked about life and school.
Just then, beeping sounds came up from everyone’s phone. Students quickly took out their phone and pasted their faces to it. They had their heads down reading whatever had come up… except Isa.
Isa awkwardly brought out her phone and looked at the screen.
Nothing.
She looked up to find her friends engulfed in what they were reading.
Glancing at her phone she scratched her head.
Is this thing working?
Suddenly, everyone began to whisper loudly and the whole place was buzzing with discussion.
Campbell squealed “this is going to be awesome. Isa you simply have to come. Confused, Isa shook her head “what?”
“The carnival of course. You’re attending this one. The theme is a world of mystery. Aren’t you excited”
Isa’s face went as she stammered “I… I didn’t know about the uh, theme… thing”
Campbell blinked, looked at Isa’s phone and realization dawned on her. She face palmed her forehead and apologised “sorry, sorry, sorry. I completely forgot to tell you to subscribe to the school’s news channel. Here let me do it”
She took Isa’s phone and subscribed.
“Good. Now you can get all the school’s current news and juicy gossip from Redwood High Vortex” Campbell said and handed Isa back her phone.
“When’s the date?” Isa asked, going through the news feed. “They didn’t mention it,” Dylan replied.
Campbell turned to the rest of the group and asked “so we’re all in for the carnival?”
“Yeah, I’m not missing this”
“Yeah, of course”
“Yup, definitely”
“No”
Campbell looked at Ciara with sad eyes and puckered lips.
“Why not?” She whined.
“You know why!” Ciara answered sharply.
“Please…”
“No”
“Please”
“No”
“Please”
“No”
“C’mon Ciara”
“No”
“It’ll be Isa’s first carnival,” she complained.
“I don’t care,” replied Ciara.
“Please”
“No”
“Please”
“No”
“Please with a stack of encyclopedias on top”
“No”
“Please with plain yoghurt?”
“No”
Standing up, Ciara angrily slung her bag over her shoulder and announced “I’m going home”.
Then she left.
Cole groaned and followed her out of the shop.
Dylan chuckled as he watched Cole trying to catch up with his sister.
He stood up and said “she has a habit of breaking up fun gatherings. Don’t worry, she’ll come around. See you later girls”. On his way out he placed a tip on the counter, turned and waved, then left.
Muttering something about wet blankets, Campbell stood up to leave, and Isa followed.
They arrived at Campbell’s place and Martha welcomed Isa to her home.
Their home gave a cozy vibe and Isa felt relaxed.
After dinner and talking with the girls for a while, Martha retired to bed. Campbell suggested they bake a chocolate shoofly pie, then watch a movie later.
“But we had ice cream and dessert during dinner”. Isa narrowed her eyes at Campbell’s grinning face.
“A little chocolate won’t hurt, would it?” replied Campbell, with an innocent look.
Fifty minutes later, Campbell and Isa were seated on a bean bag in Campbell’s room watching a horror movie. They both had blankets draped over their shoulders and a half eaten pie at their feet.
They gasped and clutched their blankets tightly when they watched the scary part.
“Are you scared?” Campbell asked shakily. Isa shook her head nervously and swallowed “no, I’m not”.
She glanced at Campbell and asked in a shaky voice “are you?”
Campbell gave a nervous laugh “of course not”
“Are you sure about that?” Isa asked, clutching her blanket.
Campbell looked at Isa and back at the movie “yeah I’m sure. It’s… it’s not really scary”.
“Oh… okay”
But the movie got so scary that Campbell rushed to turn off the TV.
She looked at Isa and smiled nervously. “I’m feeling very sleepy and would like to go to bed”.
“Yeah me too”.
After tucking in, Campbell turned off the lights and no sooner than that, they were fast asleep.
Isa looked around, scared, trembling, and cold. She couldn’t remember how she had ended up in the streets in the middle of the night.
Shouldn’t she be somewhere right now? And why was she in her PJs in the middle of the street!
She sighed heavily which came out in a foggy mass of cold air. There were no street lights, so it was dark but not enough to restrict her vision.
She was smart enough to not start calling out to anyone. She sensed danger.
She looked around again. A mass of fog was drawing close from both ends of the street; just like her fear.
She hugged herself from the cold and fear. She didn’t want to stay there; it was dark, lonely and cold, and she just wanted to go home.
So she began to walk.
And walk…
And walk.
She had walked for a long time and her legs were sore. She began to think that she hadn’t really walked three steps and was glued to the spot. She looked around again.
There was still darkness, and the fog had grown thicker.
Sighing, she urged her sore legs to move forward. It wasn’t the time to rest but to be on the move. If she wanted to get out of there, she must continue to walk, even if a big part of her kept telling her there’s no escaping.
After a few moments of walking, Isa felt a chilling feeling up her back and the hair on the back of her neck stood. She stopped abruptly. She strained her ears to capture any sound. But the only sounds were the breeze and her breath.
She slowly turned around, and paled.
A few feet behind her was a long and lanky woman with long black hair that covered her face.
No!
Isa broke into a run and so did the woman. Isa ran with everything in her body, tears streaming down her face, terrified out of her mind and body. She didn’t dare look back but she could hear the pounding of the woman’s feet on the floor as she chased her.
Suddenly, Isa’s sore legs betrayed her as she fell to the floor with a scream. She began to scramble to her feet but the woman clad her cold, rough, boney hands around Isa’s ankles.
Isa screamed bloody murder and began to kick at the woman. She cried as her bare feet closed with cold and clammy skin. Her kicks angered the woman as her hair flew up and revealed her black eyes and sewn mouth drawn. The mouth opened as she screamed like a rabid animal.
Isa screamed and struggled harder until she released herself. With superhuman speed, she flew off the ground and ran like her life depended on it.
Her house came into view and she barged in and made for her room.
She banged the door shut and hid behind her bed. With a pillow in her face, she sobbed hysterically.
Is this how my story ends?
Murdered by a demon with no one to help me?
She remembered her parents, and all the love and affection they showered on her. She remembered Aaron and wept louder. How would he react when he finds her body? He’ll be destroyed.
After a while of crying she wiped at her face. She opened her eyes to find the woman right in front of her.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!
Isa bolted up in the bed with a blood curdling scream, and sweat and tears in her eyes. Campbell jolted and fell off the bed. She sat up on the floor and looked around widely. She searched for the bedside lamp and turned it on.
Her eyes landed on Isa and she was immediately by her side.
Isa clinged to her body like it was her last chance at life while Campbell comforted her.
Mrs Huerta opened the door. She stood at the doorway, a baseball bat in her hand and a panicked expression. She was in her nightie and robe and she looked around the room then at the girls on the bed.
“What’s the matter? Who screamed?” She asked, raising her bat. Her eyes closed in on Isa “what happened to her?”
“I think she had a nightmare grandma. We shouldn’t have watched that movie.” Campbell said bitterly, her lashes stained with tears.
“Isa my dear, what happened in your nightmare?”Mrs Huerta asked, concern laced in her voice.
But Isa continued to son and hold Campbell tight. She cried and cried and didn’t care who saw her like that.
“Don’t worry grandma, I’ll take care of it” Campbell assured, even though she was scared out of her mind.
Sighing, Mrs Huerta shut the door and left.