“Silently Waiting”
Sable McPherson

“PROLOGUE”

She flipped the cell phone closed, adrenaline pulsing through her veins. Something wasn’t right. Nothing was right. Not only was she afraid, she was confused. What was going on? And why her?

She had just turned nineteen, had graduated from Fairview High School only recently. Amazingly, she had also just been accepted into a good college, one that she had always wanted to go to. It was supposed to be the greatest day of her life.

Until now. All because of one phone call.

“Think life is fun and games? A time to laugh with friends and forget everything else?” A low chuckle. “This time I’ll get the last laugh. You r friends here in the Fairview High gymnasium have something to show you.”

That was it. Nothing left to go on. Why would that cause her to be afraid? Besides the creepy voice, it was all normal. Nothing to get worked up about.

Right?

Except that her two friends—her only friends—knew how much she hated being left in the dark. They had only kept something from her once, and that was on her birthday two years ago. A few months after she had met them.

Jonah and Nica LaRue.

Nica had always been high-spirited, though there were times when she was calm enough to tell her some small yet important secrets. They had become friends the first day they met and were an odd pair; an extremely loud extrovert with a secretive shy girl.

Jonah was Nica’s twin brother, younger by only a few minutes. He was friendly, yes, but also on the shy side. There were very few people who were able to draw him out of his shell.

She and Nica were only two of those few.

She tried to keep her hands from shaking as she tossed her phone onto the passenger seat and grasped the wheel of her car, a 2004 Dodge Mazda 6. It would take her approximately five minutes to get from here to the school. Two if she sped and there weren’t any cops and/or red lights.

Who was she kidding? She couldn’t care less if there were any cops! But the red lights?

She floored it anyway.

Quickly, she scanned through her mental calendar. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... Today was Saturday. Glancing at her digital clock, she saw that it was 12:46 p.m.

Grand. Getting a phone call from a freaky dude without getting any lunch.

Oh, well. She’ll skip it. Think of it as cramming for exit exams, she thought to herself.

She almost laughed at that, but she was reminded of the phone call yet again. Taking a deep breath, she silently prayed. God, whatever happens, let Jonah and Nica be all right. Send Your angels to protect them from harm. Then came five words that sealed all three of their fates. Let Your will be done.

When she focused on the real world again, she saw that she was in her usual parking spot at the school. Without hesitation she climbed out of the somewhat-gold car, nearly ran to the building that was not even five feet away. She tested the door to the gymnasium, noticed it was unlocked, and forcefully pulled it open.

Was faced with total darkness.

“H-hello?” she tentatively called. She cleared her throat and tried again, louder this time. “Hello? Anyone here?”

The lights automatically flickered on. She gasped, looked around, but then she saw that her best friends were running towards her. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Jonah.

“Get out of here!” Nica shouted, grabbing her by her jacket sleeves. “You weren’t supposed to come here!” She panted for breath, fear laced in her eyes. “Tehre’s no telling what he’s gonna do now... You have to get out of here, before he sees you here!”

“Nica’s right,” Jonah calmly said, even though she knew he was afraid as well.

“What do you mean?” she gave a nervous smile. “What could possibly go wrong? Nobody would do anything at a school built in the Stoned Age.” But somehow she knew she was wrong. She could sense it.

Suddenly all around her, she saw what looked like a dark purple smoke completely filling the room. Looking at Jonah and Nica, she saw that they had white flames around them, only she knew they weren’t burning.

This had happened once before, but it still scared her almost to death. What did this mean? What was happening?

Everything faded from her mind except for those weird images. She knew Nica was saying something, then Jonah...but nothing came out of their mouths. That didn’t matter anymore, though. She had to find out where all of this was coming from.

There was a loud clump, clump, clump coming slowly towards them. Neither Nica nor Jonah acted like they heard it, just kept frantically talking.

A cha-chink came then.

She tried to shout, but the words were lodged in her throat. She was paralyzed with fear.

All she could do was watch as she saw a man dressed in all black, wearing a black ski mask, held a shotgun aimed at Nica’s back. There was a fire that surrounded him, one that was blacker than she had ever seen.

The man smirked. “You’re just gonna watch as your friends are killed?” he asked, though his mouth wasn’t moving.

Her eyes widened.

Boom!

She heard Nica’s high-pitched scream as she fell to the ground. She began shaking, her eyes looking from the dark red pool spilling from her best friend’s body back to the man. Fear and rage filled her at once. Move! MOVE!

The man readied his gun again.

Boom!

This time she did move.

Only...as Jonah fell to the ground, so did she.

Her mind went about a mile a minute as she toppled backwards.

Why, God?

A pause. Then... You said it yourself. Let Your will be done.

Everything went black.

A/N: Okay...so I re-did the entire prologue and soon chapter one. I was stuck on it all, so I finally went with advice from one of my reviewers: make it more realistic. I don't know if I did it the right way, though. But I don't care; I'm not going back over it again because this was somewhat too much work. Seriously, I spent half the night going over it.

I'll be working on Chapter One and have it posted someday. I'll be expecting someone to keep bugging me about it; yes, D.C. Cunning, I mean you.

Well, that's all for now!

-Sable McPherson