A Prank

I just keep looking down at my phone. Her last message still haunts me.

Why are you knocking? Just come in...

I can't believe he got her.

Her and I usually speak every day. She calls in the middle of the night when she can't sleep so we can watch a movie. We have our inside jokes and our secret handshake.

She was under the impression she could tell me anything. And I guess I was under the same. She, for the past week or so, had been telling me about a man. She's never seen his face up close but he was always watching her.

One night in particular when she couldn't sleep she called me for an impromptu movie. Of course, she had an eerie feeling and got up to close her curtains and she swore up and down he was across the street. Only thing is, I also live across the street and I saw no one.

But I didn't want to sound like I thought she was making it all up. It's just hard to protect someone you care about, from things that haven't been seen.

I wanted to get her mind off of things so I decided we should go to the park. She loves the park. She calls it her thinking place. But on this day in particular, which was yesterday, she expressed her growing fears.

She was seeing him everywhere. She was receiving strange calls. She was getting weird letters that were incoherent in writing and mystery packages with dead animal heads in them. And the reason she didn't tell me is because she thought I would think, she was lying.

How could she think that of me? I'm her best friend! Did I sound like I didn't believe her the other night? Is she looking at my face when she tells me?

It's not that I don't believe her. It's just hard to believe. To be honest it sounds like something out of a scary movie. Am I just trying to convince myself that my best friend was actually crazy?

That night, she didn't call. She only wanted to text. So we texted all night. I thought about calling anyway but I just had this feeling that she was going to get weird again. Finally she asked me to come over. She wanted a movie night and again, I was just across the street.

I told her to wait for me and just get everything ready. Our texting went quiet for a while and I assumed she was showering, making the popcorn and picking the movie.

I was still packing a bag because I definitely planned on spending the night. I love her house. Her bed is always so warm and her mom makes THE BEST homemade cookies and cream ice cream. Plus, it's the weekend and I do not wish to be at home.

Not that I hate being at home, but my parents are out of town and my brother is a menace who is having his friends over for video games. Who wants that? Anyway, the last thing I needed to do was grab my charger, my headphones and my phone. When I went to let her know I was on my way, that's when I saw the text.

I ran as fast as I could. The door was still wide open and she was nowhere to be found. I called the cops, I called the neighbors, I called my parents. Strangely enough, I didn't call her parents.

It was weird. The whole day we talked she couldn't stop talking about how excited she was for her mom's ice cream. It was to be the highlight of our weekend. But her parents weren't anywhere to be found. I knew her mom went to the store earlier to get the ingredients, but she came home hours ago.

Her dad got off work about 45 minutes into our conversation about me coming over so that was about 2 hours ago. Where were they?!

I ran up to her room and it was empty as expected. Her parents' room was also empty. No one in the kitchen but the groceries were only half put away. The cold stuff was in the fridge but everything else was just on the counter or on the floor by the pantry door.

Their cars though, were in the garage. I couldn't even think straight to be honest. It was all just so weird. And when I called her phone, all I heard was the silence of an empty house.

"Amber? Are you okay?"

Her voice was more than familiar. It was my best friend's mother. She was standing in the door just as confused as I was standing in her empty kitchen.

"Where's KC?"

Her mother pointed upward. But it wasn't true. I explained myself and my crazy actions and we both ran up to the room. But she was still gone. KC's mom called everyone she knew almost immediately. Her father came in the house with bags in hand full of sleepover food. Asking for assistance.

Upon seeing our distress, he acted and acted quickly. The police were already pulling up and the neighbors were outside with flashlights. They asked me over and over for the timeline of events and all I could do is give them my phone so that they could look for themselves.

The police asked her parents all kinds of questions. Her mother couldn't do anything except cry. Must have been the guilt. Her father was answering all the questions to the best of his abilities.

They asked me more questions but every answer could be found in my phone. All they had to do was read it.

The search dogs came. More police. More neighbors. More questions and more confusion. Stories matched. Timelines didn't. We didn't rehearse this or anything. It wasn't even supposed to come to this.

Discrepancies. Lies. It felt like the story was falling apart and no one could keep it together. Not even me. It was only supposed to be a prank. A little joke. He wasn't supposed to take her for real.

A man came up to us. The man she had described. The man we knew. But he was just now getting there. Traffic.

It was just a prank. It was supposed to be harmless. Scaring her was the point because she bet her parents and I that we couldn't do it. Scaring her was the point.

The only point.