Past Events, Present Danger, No Future?

"Fuck Me Dead" by The Forgotten Rebels was heard, as Justin cleaned his room. As he picked up some books to put away, a folder fell to the floor. Justin opened the folder to see newspaper clippings with pictures of him, Jeff and Adam. As he looked at the clippings, he couldn't believe

that it had been eleven years since then. It was that fateful day, that Justin became a millionaire. As he sat on his bed, he remembered back to that day. How him, and his friends at the time Adam and Jeff, watched as a man stole the ninety million dollar diamond from the jewelry store. It wasn't until they found out there was a reward, that they decided to track this guy down. Finding him at an abandoned funhouse, they managed to track him down, knock him out, and

call the police. The ninety million reward was split between them, thirty million each. Being that rich, they soon found out who their real friends were. As the years passed, although they're money piles stayed big, their friendships grew farther apart. Sure they would occasionally talk, but as they got into high school, they got into their own groups of friends. As Justin put the folder down, he walked over to the mirror on his dresser. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, then looked back at the clippings. The years had certainly changed the way he looked. He went from a cute, smooth faced ten year old, to a goatee wearing, bags under the eyes twenty-one year old.

Meanwhile, over at Kingston Penitentiary, they were getting ready to release a prisoner who had served his term.

"Good luck on the outside Rich" a prisoner said, as him and Rich shook hands.

"Thanks Mike!" said Rich

"Ya gonna get those little bastards that put you in here?" asked Mike

"Damn right!" said Rich "Those little fuckers took the money from my hand with that diamond, and put it in theirs."

"Well," said Mike "just be careful not to get caught, we don't wanna be seeing ya back so soon."

"You won't" laughed Rich "you won't!"

***

"Hey Justin" said Jeff, as they crossed paths on the street.

"Oh, hey Jeff" said Justin. As Justin looked at Jeff, he noticed that he didn't really look any different then he did eleven years ago. Sure he was taller, face structure changed a bit, but overall he looked the same.

"Did you hear the news?" asked Jeff

"No," said Justin "what?"

"That Richard guy got out today."

"The guy we put away?!"

"Yeah!"

"Wow!" said Justin "I was just thinking today, it doesn't seem like eleven years has passed."

"Well it has," said Jeff "so that guy's served his term."

"Think he has any resentment towards us?"

"No, of course not." said Jeff "We just made sure his ass was put behind bars for a number of years. I'm sure when he sees us, he's gonna give us a big hug!"

"Alright, Alright!" said Justin "Enough with the sarcasm, I get it."

"Yeah," said Jeff "so ya know, watch yourself."

"You too." smiled Justin, as they parted ways.

***

"Nice!" said Rich, as he stood in front of the abandoned funhouse. "Place is exactly as I left it." As Rich walked inside, he could hear noises coming from the darkness inside. Pulling a gun from the front of his pants, he slowly made his way towards the sounds. As he turned a corner, he saw two teens, about sixteen, half naked. He watched as the boy began caressing the girls breast, before he walked right on front of them.

"Having fun kids?" said Rich, as he held up his handgun.

"Holy shit!" said the male teen. "Buddy, ya wanna put that gun down?"

"I don't think so!" said Rich "Now, what was that you were doing?"

"We...uh.." stumbled the teen "We..we weren't doing anything..we were just..uh.."

"Don't even try to give me that!" said Rich, as he pointed his handgun at the teens head, and fired. A puddle of blood formed around him, as he fell to the ground. Rich watched as the girl screamed, grabbed her shirt, and began to run towards the door. Rich quickly lifted his gun, fired, and listened to the thump of the girls body, as it hit the floor. "Fucking kids today," Rich said to himself "ain't got no decency." He proceeded to put his gun away, as he checked

out the rest of the funhouse.

In Justins room, he sat in front of a word processor, working on a new short story. Except for a few of his friends, no one has really read any of his stories. It was because of this, that he decided to put them on the internet, on a page that showcases peoples stories. As he sat, working on another of his violent stories, he heard the phone ring.

"Hello?" said Justin, as he answered the phone.

"Hey!" came a female voice from the other end, who Justin recognized to be Marys.

"Hey Mary!" said Justin "What's up?"

"Nothing much." said Mary "What are you doing?"

"Just working on a new group story." said Justin

"Cool." said Mary.

"Yeah!" said Justin "I also learned today, that I guy I helped put behind bars is out."

"What are you talking about?" asked Mary

"It's a long story." said Justin "Too long to tell on the phone, wanna meet somewhere?"

"Sure, where?" asked Mary.

"Tim Hortons?" suggested Justin.

"Sure," said Mary "I'll see ya there."

"Okay, see ya then." said Justin, as he hung up the phone.

As Justin sat inside Tim Hortons waiting for Mary, his mind began to wander. As he looked outside, he saw a strange man walk by. The man appeared to be staring at him, as he walked away. All of a sudden, Justin felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to see Mary standing in front of him. Justin made a hand gesture for Mary to sit, he watched her as she sat down. Mary was an attractive girl, she looked at least Justins height of 5' 4", if not taller. She had

long orange coloured hair. Justin could never understand why they called people with orange hair redheads, but decided not to question it, based on the stupidity of that thought. Justin remembered how back in high school he had a crush on Mary. As the years passed, so did those feelings, but they still remained friends.

"So," said Mary "what was that you were mentioning earlier, about someone getting out of jail?"

"Well," said Justin "you better sit down, it's a long story."

"Uh, Justin?" said Mary "I AM sitting down!"

"Oh," said Justin "I guess you are!" Justin proceeded to tell Mary the whole story. The diamond theft, the reward, finding the guy, and getting him arrested.

"Wow!" said Mary "That's a hell of a story. You should do something like that for your next story."

"It's not a story," said Justin "it really happened!"

"Sure Justin," said Mary, with a smile on her face. "Whatever you say."

"Don't believe me?" said Justin "Ask Jeff or Adam."

"I don't know them." said Mary "Why don't you call them?"

"Jeff's probably at work" said Justin.

"Why don't you call Adam?" suggested Mary.

"I would," said Justin "but neither of us have heard from Adam for years."

***

"Shit!" said Adam, that evening as he put the newspaper down. "I guess eventually that day was gonna come." Adam walked around his house, until he decided to go outside. As he stepped out the front door, he took a deep breath of the evening air. As he looked across the street, he saw a shadowy looking figure in the darkness looking at his house. "HEY!" Adam yelled across the street "GOT A STARING PROBLEM ASSHOLE?" He then proceeded to laugh at his own comment. As he looked across the street again, he saw the figure coming towards his house. Adam placed his hand inside the door, and picked up a conveniently placed baseball bat. Adam held the bat in front of him, and held it up in a menacing fashion. As the guy got closer, Adam noticed him pulling something out that gleamed in the street lights. The man stood a few feet away from Adam, and held up the object. It was at this point that Adam noticed that it was gun. As he looked at the mans face, he recognized it to be that of Rich."

"You!" said Adam. As Rich began firing, the shots causing Adams body to convulse, as his blood flew onto the front door. As the clip dropped out of Rich's gun to the ground, so did Adams body. Rich walked up to, and stopped in front of Adams body.

"One down," Rich said to himself "two to go!"

***

Justin woke up early the next morning, to hear the telephone ringing.

"Christ!" Justin said to himself "Who the hell calls this early in the morning?" As Justin picked up the receiver, he noticed the time was 6:30 a.m. "Hello?" Justin said into the receiver.

"Justin!" came the panicked voice of Jeff, "you dressed?"

"No," said Justin "I just fucking got up! What's wrong?"

"I just got a call," said Jeff "...Adams dead!"

"Shit!" said Justin, as he stood up. "When?"

"Last night," said Jeff. "Someone shot him in front of his house."

"Christ!"

"Think it was that Rich guy?"

"Couldn't be," said Justin "that was eleven years ago, no way he could recognize us now!"

"Well easy enough to say," said Jeff "but as I just told you, someone killed Adam."

"Well," said Justin "meet me at our old elementary school in about half an hour."

"Okay," said Jeff "I'll see ya then!"

"Alright, see ya then." said Justin, as he hung up the phone. He then picked it up, and began dialing. "If this doesn't convince her," Justin said to himself "nothing will."

Jeff looked down at his watch, as he stood in front of Martha Cullimore. Martha Cullimore was the elementary school Jeff, Justin and Adam all went to. They were all in the same fourth grade class, when they caught Rich. As Jeff looked around the outside of the school, it didn't seem to have changed after all these years.

"Damnit Justin!" Jeff said to himself, as he looked at his watch. "You said half an hour, it's already been forty-five minutes." As he looked out at the street, he saw a few cars drive by. He noticed one of the cars seemed to be driving by very slowly. As he looked away, he heard the sound of screeching tires. He looked back at the road, to see that car very quickly turn around. Jeff watched as the window rolled down, and a hand holding a handgun came out. The gun began firing, as the car quickly drove by.

"Shit!" Jeff said to himself, as he ran and hid behind a wall, which had a door to enter the kindergarten class. Jeff watched as the car sped away down the street.

"You really want me to believe this story, don't you?" Mary asked Justin, as they walked towards Martha Cullimore.

"I'll tell you again," said Justin "it's true, and Jeff will tell ya!" As Justin and Mary came up to the school, Justin noticed the bullet holes in the walls.

"Are those bullet holes?" asked Mary.

"Shit!" said Justin, as he grabbed Marys hand, and they ran into the school area. Frantically, Justin began looking around. "JEFF!" yelled Justin "JEFF, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YA?"

Justin heard a moan, and turned around to see Jeff sitting in front of the kindergarten door.

"Are you okay?" asked Mary, as she helped Jeff up.

"Yeah, thanks!" said Jeff "Uh..who are you?"

"Oh," said Justin "this is Mary, she's a friend of mine. I brought her here, so that you could confirm what happened to us in the fourth grade. From the looks of the bullet holes, guess she'll believe it now!"

"Yeah," said Jeff, with a smile "guess so!"

"What happened here?" asked Mary.

"Not sure," said Jeff "but I'm sure it was Rich. He drove by, trying to shoot me, but appears to have missed."

"Now," said Justin, as he looked over at Mary. "Does it look like I'm lying now?"

"Alright, alright!" said Mary "Jeez Justin, you take things WAY too personally!"

"Well," said Jeff "what are we gonna do?"

"First things first," said Justin "we gotta arm ourselves."

"With what? Guns or something like that?" said Jeff "Justin you have to wait to get that shit, they do like background checks."

"Well," said Justin "Looks like I saved us a step then."

"What are you talking about?" asked Mary.

"Follow me," said Justin "I'll show you!" Mary and Jeff followed Justin, as they walked to his house.

***

As Justin moved his hand under his bed, Mary and Jeff looked around at all the stuff he had in his room. Covering almost half his room, was shelves holding VHS movies. In another corner, there was a good collection of CDs, at least a hundred or more. On all his walls were posters, and magazine ads for various horror movies, comic book series, and anime such as Sailor Moon, CardCaptors, and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

"Wow," Jeff whispered to Mary "Justin's got some weird interests!"

"True," said Mary "but this is Justin we're talking about."

"Here it is!" said Justin, as he stood up, and held a box in his hand. The box was wooden, with a gold trim. Right in the middle of the box, was a skull design similar to that of The Punisher. They watched as Justin opened the box, revealing a handgun, with two clips.

"Justin!" said Mary, a look of shock on her face. "What the fuck are you doing with something like this?"

"Yeah," said Jeff "what? were you planning a school shooting when you were in high school or something?"

"No, nothing like that." said Justin "I just bought it around the time I started working on my more violent stories. I figured when writing, I needed to describe my characters holding and firing guns properly. So I bought it to hold it, and fired a couple times at some pop cans just

to properly describe it in my stories."

"Alright," said Jeff "just be careful with that thing!"

"I will!" said Justin with a smile, as he put the gun back in the box.

"So," said Mary "what's the plan?..Woah, that sounds familiar, eh Justin?" A smile came across Marys face, as she looked over at Justin.

"Well," said Justin "we find out where Rich is hiding out, and we somehow take him down."

"Hate to burst your bubble." said Jeff "This isn't some fucking action movie, we can't just bust in somewhere. In case you forgot about the school and Adam, he has a gun!"

"Yeah," said Justin "so do we!"

"Well, that's just fine and good." said Mary "But the problem remaining is, we don't know where he is."

"True!" said Justin, as pulled at his goatee with his thumb and pointer finger.

"Well where did you find him last time?" asked Mary. She looked over at Jeff and Justin, as they appeared to be thinking. She then watched as their eyes opened wide, and they made eye contact.

"The Funhouse!" said Justin and Jeff simultaneously.

***

The sun had just set a few hours ago, as Justin, Jeff, and Mary came up to the abandoned funhouse.

"Wow!" said Justin "This brings back some memories, eh?"

"Yeah, really!" said Jeff, as his eyes looked over the front of the building.

"Well," said Mary "if you two are done playing with your dicks, let's go inside!"

"Hold on a minute!" said Justin, as he stuck his arm out, preventing Mary from walking forward. He pulled the handgun out, and loaded in a clip. "Okay, let's go, just be careful!" Jeff and Mary followed behind Justin, as they slowly made their way into the funhouse. As they stepped

inside, they found they were surrounded by total darkness. All of a sudden, they heard the sound of a switch being turned on. As power came flowing through the funhouse, they could see Rich on a catwalk. Rich had a handgun in his hand, that he began firing at Justin, Jeff, and Mary. They

all quickly dove out of the way, avoiding the bullets. As they listened, they could hear the sound of Rich running. Justin ran over to Mary and Jeff.

"Alright," said Justin "Rich could be anywhere. Now this probably ain't a good idea, but it's all we got. We gotta split up, and find him."

"That's idiotic!" said Mary.

"I know," said Justin "but we got no other choice. Just grab something, to use as a weapon to defend yourself."

"Already three steps ahead of you." said Mary, as she pulled out a switchblade.

"Where the hell'd you get that?" asked Justin.

"Bought it awhile ago!" said Mary "Figured I'd need it, if I ever had to take care of anyone stalking me or anything like that."

"Ah, I see!" said Justin "What about you Jeff?"

"Don't worry about me," said Jeff "I'll find something."

"Alright," said Justin "let's go!" Justin watched as Mary and Jeff each walked in different directions.

***

Mary had been searching for sometime now, and had come up with nothing. As she rested up against one of those trick mirrors, she felt an arm wrap itself around her neck. Mary tried to yell, but felt a hand being placed over her mouth.

"Just shut up bitch!" said Rich angrily. "You call for those two, and I'll blow your fucking brains out!" Mary said nothing, as Rich began walking backwards, dragging Mary with him. Mary slowly pulled the switchblade out of her pocket, stabbed it in Rich's leg, and twisted the blade. Rich let out a painful yell, as he let go of Mary, and fell to the ground clutching his bloody leg.

"Noone calls me a bitch and gets away with it!" said Mary, as she stood over Rich with her bloody switchblade. Mary then heard footsteps, she looked behind her to see Justin and Jeff. As she flashed a smile, Rich got up and grabbed her again. Justin and Jeff stopped in front of Rich,

to see him holding a gun to Marys face.

"Alright you little bastards!" Rich said angrily. "You take one step closer, and this girl becomes very ugly!" As Jeff was preparing to take a step, Justin held out his arm.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Justin.

"Because," said Rich "you and those two assholes fucked up a perfect heist for me!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Justin.

"That diamond!" said Rich "I had a buyer ready for that thing. I was gonna sell it the next day, and be ninety million richer. But you and those other two decided to play detective, and landed my ass in jail. When I heard that you three got that reward, that was the last straw. I made a vow then when I got out, I was gonna kill all three of ya. It was working...then somehow, this little bitch got involved!"

All of a sudden, Rich felt Marys foot connect with his crotch.

"I told you before," Mary said angrily "noone calls me a bitch!" As she looked down at Rich, she saw him aim his gun at her. The next thing he knew, he felt the gun being kicked out of his hand. He looked up, to see Jeff standing over him. With an evil grin on Jeffs face, he proceeded to repeatedly kick Rich. As Jeff continued doing this, he saw Mary come up beside him and start doing the same thing.

"Enough!" said Justin, after letting Mary and Jeff kick the crap out of Rich for about ten minutes more. Rich spit up blood, as he looked up to see the barrel of Justins handgun pointed at his face.

"Wait!" said Rich "...wait a minute!"

"No!" said Justin, as he fired from the handgun, hitting Rich point blank in the forehead. He watched as Rich fell to the ground, a puddle of blood forming around him. As Justin looked at what he had just done, he let the gun drop from his hand. As he stood there, he felt Marys hand rest itself on his shoulder.

"So what do we do now?" asked Mary.

"Burn the building." said Justin "Leave no evidence!"

As Jeff looked around, he saw a few canisters of gasoline.

"Well," said Jeff "that's convenient!" Jeff, Justin, and Mary each grabbed a canister, and proceeded to soak the entire building. As they walked out of the funhouse, Justin took out a book of matches. Lighting one, he brought it to the whole book. As he threw the book of matches in, he could see the start of some flames. They all stood there, and watched as the funhouse burned to the ground. It was in the wee hours of the morning, as they walked away from the smoking rubble.

"So," asked Jeff "what do we do now?"

"Nothing left to do," said Justin "it's over!" As they stood there, Justin could hear the sounds of approaching sirens.

"Well," said Mary "we better get out here, don't wanna have to explain this!"

"Good idea!" said Justin, a smile on his face. Justin, Mary, and Jeff walked away from the rubble, and back towards the town. As a cop walked up to the scene, he looked in the distance, to see the silhouettes of three people walking beside each other towards the sunrise.

THE END