This is also a real story from my life at boarding school-- I take it personally when people steal scream
We will find you eek
Caroline style
I don’t think I had ever run so fast before that warm night in April. It was to the point when my breathing became rough, and my lungs began to burn, that the thought even entered my mind. I searched the scenery I had haphazardly passed, my eyes wandering towards where my two best friends should’ve been standing. I backed up with caution, leaning against a large oak for support. While my breathing evened out, I began to wonder what my next step would be. I let my thoughts drift back to the previous hour…
“Carol!” A girl with rough black dreadlocks ran towards me, her arms waving around her head wildly. I grinned happily, excited the Caroline had decided to show, while my other best friend, Christina, sat next to me, grimacing at the joyful greeting. Both these girls had never liked each other, but I was suspicious it was because they were so much alike. Caroline slid in next to me, her smile turning into a toothy scowl upon meeting Christina’s hostile glare. The covert battle continued until I cleared my throat “So, Caroline, you said you have something special for us to do…?” I hinted, breathing in the musty air. Caroline snapped her head towards me, a child-like gleam in her eyes. “Actually, I wanted to try a new spin on an old game!” She said, speaking through another toothy grin. Christina immediately raised an eyebrow and scowled: honestly I couldn’t blame her—Caroline’s game plans were always wild and had a dangerous x factor that we wouldn’t find out till we were in too deep. “Well?” I asked, frowning a bit. “Hide and go seek, Caroline style.” She said in a spooky voice. I felt my scowl deepen at the prospects of what “Caroline style” could be. Christina, guessing what I had been thinking spoke in her musical voice, “So what exactly would this game be? I don’t like the sound of it, honestly.” It was quiet for a minute, then Caroline spoke; “You don’t have to like it, and I already told you what it is: Hide and go seek.” Christina just stared at her “What about the ‘Caroline style’ part?” I asked quietly. She thought about it, puckering her lips. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Ten minutes later, there I was, at 7 o’clock at night, in a graveyard, utterly and completely alone. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, while I stared nervously at the looming shadows under the headstones. “You know there are people buried here from the 1700’s?” Caroline’s voice echoed in the far recesses of my head. I pushed her words out of my mind, focusing on finding my two friends inside the labyrinth of graves. “CAROL!” a yell sliced through the perfect silence, and I squealed in fright, holding myself perfectly still. No one called my name again, and my body became less tense, though my mind was still on edge. I began slowly walking towards what seemed like an ancient mausoleum when my breath caught in my throat. A pale figure leaned against the magnificent grave unmoving. In the darkness, it almost seemed to glow. A piercing scream shattered the silence, and as the ghostly thing turned it’s eyes onto me, I realized it was my own voice that had disrupted the quiet night. That’s when I began to run.
I shuddered, returning to the present. Scoping the distance, I searched for some sign of my friends, but I saw nothing but foreboding shadows and darkness. I started trying to rationalize what I had seen: Maybe someone visiting a grave..? No, the ‘thing’ did not look mournful: it seemed as if it had been waiting for something- or someone. I shook involuntarily at the thought. After my useless rationalizations began to dwindle, I decided to run around the area (avoiding creepy looking shadows of course) just to make sure there wasn’t anyone out there searching for us. After about five minutes, my ears started ringing, and I had to take a knee. I had probably used most of my energy from my previous adventure, and now, I wished I didn’t have to go back around. Obviously, I needed to go see what had happened to my friends at the frightening cemetery. Then a thought dawned on me: why couldn’t I just jump the fence? I mean, it was a short little thing- no barbed wire, no menacing spikes, no nothing. The cunningness of my thinking made me smile. In about a minute I was at the fence, and a few moments later, in the impending graveyard. That was when I heard voices coming from a large grave… In fact, it was Christina and Caroline speaking in hushed tones, almost rationally! I never thought I’d see the day.
“Get that makeup off your face! Carol is probably worrying about us by now… She’ll be back here soon enough.” I grimaced, watching the pieces of a puzzle slowly fall into place. “Yeah, yeah, I know.. Just watch it, she’s going to be sooo angry when she finds out I was the one at that huge tomb thingy” Caroline replied. I sneaked closer to their hiding place. After a minute of silence Christina began talking again “So you want to tell her? I mean, it was you who sc ared the bageebers out of her…” Deciding it was a good point to send my friends into a state of panic, I popped out from behind the grave, yelling “BOO!”, which made them both scream in terror. To my utmost joy, Caroline fell down flat on her face, getting black dirt stuck in her hair. Christina was more quick to regain her posture, though still looking wild-eyed. “You guys know what you did to me out there?” I scolded angrily. Christina looked sort of ashamed, but still, like she was in on some sort of joke I didn’t know about. Caroline on the other hand, appeared to be crying. Startled, I got down on my knees, and shook her, “It wasn’t all that bad! It was just very believable!” I said, my voice layered with guilt. Then I realized she wasn’t crying- she was laughing. Caroline lifted her face out from the earth, caked with soil. “April Fools!!!”
scream scream scream
