Senior Slaughter

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Molly, as she was walking away from her car, caught a glimpse of the flickering flame just out of the corner of her eye. She stopped, mid-step, on the gravel between the forgotten cabin and her classmate’s raging bonfire, and stared back at the cabin. She waited, though not entirely sure for what. After what seemed like an eternity, Molly exhaled. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath that entire time. She turned her back to the cabin, starting to walk towards the party, but stopped and turned back to the forsaken cabin for just a second. Staring at the structure, she couldn't ignore the feeling that something deadly was lurking just behind its walls. She pushed her worries to the back of her mind as she made her way towards the bonfire.

The entire senior class was here. Couples were huddled around the blazing fire, leaned into one other. The jocks were a few feet away, standing next to a keg, shotgunning beer after beer. Molly recognized a few classmates from her AP Literature and Calculus classes playing what sounded like a heated game of beer pong in a small clearing between two, large trees. Molly squinted, scanning the crowd for the one person she came here to see. Then, she saw her.

Morgan was standing next to a few classmates that Molly knew only by face, laughing and drinking something out of a Red Solo cup. Molly couldn’t help but smile as she stood there watching Morgan. She had a sort of light about her that brought nothing but joy to the people around her. Morgan made people want to be the absolute best versions of themselves when she was around. She deserved nothing less. Morgan's energy was magnetic and her smile. That smile. It was what Molly loved most about Morgan.

Molly pulled back a few braids that had fallen in front of her face and tucked them behind her ears. She started to walk across the crowd of students and make her way towards Morgan, all the while rehearsing in her mind what she would say once she made it to her. She would definitely thank Morgan for inviting her to this party and maybe she’d finally ask her on a date. She had thought about asking her out a few times before, but Molly could never quite get up the nerve to say those words to her. Molly knew there was no way that a girl like Morgan would ever go out with a girl like her, and the all too likely embarassement and rejection that was sure to follow those nerve-wrecking words were enough to keep Molly from ever saying them out loud.

Morgan caught a glimpse of Molly walking towards her and before Molly could even register what was happening, Morgan had already wrapped her arms around her hips, pulled Molly's body into her, and pressed her lips to Molly’s. Molly immediately recoiled. She was completely frozen in shock at not only Morgan's brazeness, but at the fact that this girl, the girl of Molly's dreams, had just kissed her. Morgan smiled, reaching out and intertwining Molly’s copper-colored fingers into her olive-colored ones.

“It wasn’t like you were going to do it.”

The pair laughed together, easing into this moment they had both been waiting for all year. The couple walked over to the jocks and Morgan grabbed Molly a beer. Molly opened the beer and took a sip, almost immediately spitting it out of her mouth.

“Do people actually enjoy drinking this?”

“After you have a couple, you won't really mind the taste. Is this your first time having a beer?”

“My first and my last. I guess I wasn’t really missing out on anything by not getting invited to parties.”

“Just this,” Morgan said as she pulled Molly in for another kiss.

Molly couldn’t stop herself from blushing. And neither could Morgan. The two headed towards the fire and sat in two empty chairs next to each other, all the while still holding each other's hands.

"Did you not pick up on all those hints I kept dropping?"

"I just figured you were being nice. I didn't think you actually liked me like this. But it's pretty clear now, Morgan,"

"I wanted to make it crystal clear just how I feel about you."

"For the record, I feel the same way about you."

Morgan smiled wider than Molly had ever seen and Molly smiled just as big. This time, Molly pulled Morgan into her and initiated the kiss.

“Listen up, Titans,” the student body president shouted over the music, forcing the girls to part, “we’re going to play hide and seek!”

The senior class erupted in cheers.

“Alright, alright, listen up. Here are the perimeters. The dirt road just a few feet from the cabin, to this bonfire, all the way to that house about 50 yards away is fair game. Everyone got it?”

He waited for everyone to nod.

“Okay. I'm counting to 30. Go! Hide!”

Everyone dropped their cans and cups and took off in all different directions. Some took off towards the quaint cabin, others towards the rows of parked cars lining the dirt path, but most of them took off into the trees. Molly and Morgan ran together, refusing to let go of the other.

“There!”

Molly turned to the right and dove behind a bush, bringing Morgan with her. The two curled up together, trying to make themselves as small as possible to fit underneath the bush's lush, green leaves. The sounds of sticks breaking under running feet began to dwindle, so they knew Johnny must be getting close to 30. Molly squeezed Morgan’s hand and she squeezed back.

It wasn't long until all Molly could hear was the far off crackle of the bonfire and the gentle rustle of the tree's leaves in the wind. It was beautiful, in an eerie sort of way. There was a kind of fragility to this moment that Molly knew could shatter in an instant.

Like a perfectly timed coincidence, she heard feet pounding against the Earth, their heaviness cutting through the silence. Then she heared screams, quickly followed by the laughter of teenagers being found. Molly and Morgan giggled, as did the others that were hiding near them.

Then, the laughter stopped. But the screams kept coming, They were getting louder and much more frequent. Molly sat up on her knees and peaked over the bush she was hiding under. That's when she saw it. A man wielding a machete, stricking down classmate after classmate. She watched as he sliced Johnny's arm off at his shoulder. As Johnny fell to his knees, the man stepped behind him and cleanly sliced his head off. Molly watched as Johnny's head tumbled to the ground.

The screams were unrelenting. Once they started, they didn't stop.

Molly hurried to get back underneath the bush next to Morgan. Morgan could see the terror in Molly's eyes. She didn't need Molly to tell her what she had seen; Morgan knew that whatever it was, it was horrific.

Morgan, trying to move quietly but quickly, scrambled to find her cell phone. She pulled it out of her back pocket, but before she could dial for help, she realized she didn’t have service. Which meant that none of them did. No one would be able to call for help.

“I think we can make it to the cabin,” Morgan whispered.

“No. We can’t go there. That's where it happened."

"What happened?"

"There's someone out there with a machete. I saw him kill Johnny near the fire. We need to say away from there. We need to make a run for the house.”

“That’s too far away. We will never make it.”

“It's the only chance we have.”

The heaviness of Molly’s words descended on them like a heavy cloud. The screams were getting louder and were sounding closer.

“We have to go. Now.”

Morgan nodded. Molly forced back the tears beginning to pool in her deep, green eyes. They scrambled from underneath the bush and took off running towards the light coming from the second story window of the house in the distance. They could hear their classmates begging for their lives. They were pleading to be let go, spared. But, no one was.

Molly and Morgan ran as fast as they could. They heard feet running behind them, but both knew better than to look back.

They made it about halfway to the large house before taking a break. They leaned against a tall tree and gasped for air. But their moment of recovery was cut short by the high-pitched scream coming from just a few feet away. Morgan shuddered as she watched a man as tall as a bear and the size of an ox drive his machete through Amber's neck. Morgan covered her mouth, trying to force down her screams. Molly saw Morgan’s body convulse, so she leaned forward from the tree to see where Morgan was looking.

Molly didn’t have a chance to see the body Morgan was crying over. Her eyes were locked on the man standing over their dead classmate and his familiar green eyes were locked back on her.

“Morgan, go.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“He's here! Get to your car! Now!”

Morgan hesitated, but hearing the urgency in Molly's vocie, she knew she didn't have a choice. She couldn't stay. But she didn't want to leave. She wanted more time with Molly. They hadn't had enough time. They deserved more time.

But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was trying to survive.

"Go!"

Morgan sprinted towards the row of parked cars as Molly ran in the opposite direction. She wanted to get the man with the machete as far from Morgan as she could. Just like she expected, the man with the machete ran after Molly.

Molly could see the light of the house getting brighter. She was getting closer. There was a chance that she could make it to the house and call for help. But just as she let this thought enter her mind, she felt her body crumble to the ground. She fell face first into the dirt, groaning from the wound that was throbbing on the back of her head. She reached up to feel the already forming lump. She pulled her hand away, recognizing the stickiness on her fingers as blood. The wound was oozing.

Molly rolled onto her back. The man with the machete was standing over her weak body. His white shirt and tattered jeans were covered in a mixture of blood and dirt. The droplets of her classmates’ blood was dripping off of the machete that he was swinging by his side.

“Look at me.”

The familiar bite in the man’s voice shook Molly to her core.

“I said look at me, Molly!”

Molly felt the cold steel of the blade under her chin. He use it to force her face up. To force her to look at him. Molly kept her eyes closed, refusing to let him get his way. She didn't let him make her shrink when she was a child and she wasn’t going to give him this satisfaction now. If he was going to kill her, he would have to do it without seeing the fear evident in her sad eyes.

“I warned you then that if you spread those dirty lies about me, that I’d be back. I would find you. I would make you pay. And as you know, little sister, I always make good on my promises.”

He pulled back his knife, catching the glimmer of the moonlight in its shiny blade, and swung it one last time.