Drive-in Movie Night

All small towns have their urban legends. Some have a murderer that roams the area around a specific holiday, while others claim that aliens or ghosts appear after midnight. The list could go on forever. I remember when Scary Movie 3 came out and my friends and I saw it for the first time. The random, mysterious "seven days" phone calls never seemed that scary to us. We always found a way to break down a movie and strip the fear away. We would even look up real urban legends to see if anything similar had ever actually happened. Whenever we found something promising, though, it usually ended up debunked, or we'd find a news report noting that the police had caught a human culprit.

Today was my twenty-fourth birthday. My friends decided to rent out a screen at the drive-in movie theater so we could have a private horror movie marathon. Everyone brought their partner, so they were all sitting coupled up in their own vehicles. All together we had about five cars. Somehow, four of those cars held double dates, and I ended up painfully alone in mine.

“Birthday hangout… more like an excuse for a massive double date night,” I sighed loudly to the empty cabin. I took a sip of my soda and turned on the radio.

Most drive-ins required you to tune into a specific FM frequency to hear the movie audio. When I finally landed on the channel, I started hearing music. It was faint—a slow, eerie lo-fi beat. It sounded like those Halloween lo-fi streams people post on YouTube, but incredibly quiet. I turned the volume knob up, assuming it was just the idle audio the theater looped before the film started, but the music didn't get any louder. I looked over at my friends' cars, but everyone seemed unbothered. They were all laughing and talking, completely oblivious.

Then, a burst of static cut through.

“....”

An inaudible murmur came from the speakers. I leaned closer to the dashboard, straining to listen.

“...ha…ha.. ha.”

A deep, unsettling laugh rumbled through the car. My eyes immediately darted to the massive outdoor screen to see if the movie had finally started.

“You… should never… believe… those scary stories,” the voice rasped, cutting through the low beat. “They can always be debunked… right? We’ve been watching you… Erin… now we want to play…”

My body went entirely rigid. It had called me by my name. The deep laughter bubbled up again, and my survival instinct slammed into overdrive. I threw my door open and bolted out of the car. Standing on the gravel, I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to force air back into my lungs.

Suddenly, a wave of very different laughter erupted around me. My friends were cheering from their rolled-down windows.

“Happy Birthday, AirBear!” they shouted in unison.

I stared at them, bewildered. “You did that just now?” I asked, pointing a trembling finger at Jackson, who was the first one to walk over to me.

“Well, mostly it was Hayden’s idea. You know how she is,” Jackson chuckled, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug. He paused when he felt how stiff I was. “Rin? Did we really get you that good? It was just music. I told Hayden you’d get a kick out of a little birthday scare.” He rubbed my back gently, looking down at me with concern.

“Who was talking, though?” My voice was barely a whisper as I pulled away from his embrace. My brain desperately tried to rationalize the terror. “Did Hayden hire someone to do a voiceover?”

“Uh… what voice? I don’t know anything about a voice,” Hannah said, walking over to join us. She was holding a phone, likely texting the theater staff to start the actual movie. “Hayden said she was only setting up a custom audio track. Are you sure the music didn’t just have creepy vocals, AirBear?”

Hayden had never been a huge fan of mine. Personally, I didn't think she liked how close our core group was; Jackson, Hannah, and I had been best friends since the fourth grade. But Jackson and I always tried our best to get along with her for Hannah's sake.

Jackson leaned down, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Hayden added a creepy voice just to mess with you.” He straightened back up, looking over at Hannah. “Yeah, Erin loves horror, but that doesn't mean a customized prank won't catch her off guard. But enough of this. We came for a movie marathon, right? Let’s get this party started.”

Hannah stepped forward and gave me a quick hug, whispering a soft apology for Hayden's intensity before heading back to her car. Jackson lingered, his arm still wrapped around me.

“You know… I can always sit in your car with you if you're lonely…” he paused, leaning down. “I wouldn't mind holding you the next time a spooky voice comes through the radio,” Jackson smirked, flashing me a quick wink. I groaned loudly at the blatant attempt to flirt. 

“Jack.”

“What?”

“Your girlfriend is waiting for you in your car.”

“I know.”

“You're flirting with me. We talked about this.”

“I know.”

“She’s going to be upset again.”

“Probably.”

I shot him a glare. This exchange was all too familiar for us. 

“I’ve been telling you I love you since middle school.” 

“And I’ve been calling you an idiot since middle school.” He laughed, causing me to look away from him. Jackson had been doing this for years. Dropping little comments, stealing hugs that lasted a second too long, telling me that one day I'd finally realize he was the man for me. I always treated it like a joke. Because it had to be a joke. He had Lisa. And I had never wanted to be the reason they weren’t together. That girl had been attached to him since 6th grade. 

“Go back to your girlfriend, Jack.” I watched as his smile faded slightly.

“Someday, Rin. Someday.”

I sighed, pulling my car door open and sliding back into the driver's seat without looking back at him. As the heavy door swung shut, I caught the faint sound of his muffled voice through the glass: “I'm playing the long game.”

I rolled my eyes, smiling softly. I locked the doors and smirked at Jackson before glaring at the radio display. The screen flickered, and the slight static remained, but the creepy lo-fi music was completely gone. It really was just Hayden’s prank, I reassured myself, leaning back into the headrest as the drive-in screen finally roared to life. I think the first movie on our list was Scream.

Suddenly, a sharp, metallic chime ripped through the momentary silence of my cabin.

“Maybe that's the digital movie schedule,” I muttered to myself, pulling my phone from my pocket.

My screen lit up with a notification: New Voicemail. But there was no missed call record. None.

Hayden’s prank continues, I guess. I sighed, tapping the screen to play the audio from the unknown number.

“....Did you think.. this was part of the prank?... ha… Oh, Erin…” The voice was identical to the one from the radio, sending a violent shiver down my spine. “I mentioned we’ve been watching… we want to play… We could get back at Hayden… for you… ha.. ha..”

A wave of harsh static drowned out the words for an agonizing second.

“Maybe… Maybe we already did…You’re welcome”

The voicemail cut off abruptly.

Panic seizing my chest, I gripped the steering wheel and stared across the gravel lot toward Hannah’s car. I noticed Hannah sitting alone in the front seat. Then, my eyes drifted toward the small concrete restroom facility just ahead of their parking space.

Hayden stepped out of the bathroom door. She was staggering, her footsteps heavy and uneven. From this distance, I couldn't tell if she was crying, but the glow of the movie screen caught a dark, thick fluid dripping heavily down the side of her face, pooling from the center of her ear and staining her neck. Everything slowed to a terrifying crawl. Hayden was blindly groping in the air, trying to make it back to Hannah's car. My eyes darted to the back of Hannah's head as she finally noticed her girlfriend struggling in the dark.

Before I could reach for my door handle, my car radio violently chittered to life.

“...Stop…”

The voice tore through the speakers. I froze, my eyes locked on Hannah as she threw her car door open.

“...Don’t get out…”

This voice was entirely different from the deep, mocking tone before. It was fractured, agonizing, and wet. It sounded exactly like Hayden.

“Hayden, seriously?! I think you’re taking this a little too far!” Hannah yelled into the dark, stepping out onto the gravel.

“Hannah! Get back in the car!” Jackson yelled the exact words I tried to convey. But no matter how hard I tried, my voice never found me. I needed to see where Jackson was yelling from. Had he heard Hayden on the radio as well? “Hannah! Fuck I swear to god.”

Suddenly, Hayden fell to the ground, on the passenger side of Hannah’s car. I couldn’t see her anymore. 

“...”

Heavy breathing began to play from the radio. And that poor agonizing voice came through again.

“...Hannah…I told you…don’t get out…of the car…” a scream ripped through the car as the voice ended. The all sound had stilled as everyone watched Hannah. She was suddenly on her knees, gravel rustling as something moved toward her, slowly. Hands, clawing against the ground, pulling towards Hannah. Suddenly a hand eventually grabbed onto her. Hayden's face emerged, looking twisted and deranged. 

“..If you want Hannah to live you better listen closely and answer quickly.” The radio voice spoke with amusement as it was suddenly clearer than it's ever been. I was almost positive it was Hayden’s voice. “...We thought that taking a familiar voice would help ease this next part…make it not so…scary for you. Now, Erin…we know how skeptical you are about this stuff…imagine our surprise to see the look on your face now…and you haven't even spared a glance for the man that loves you” the voice laughed as I quickly looked over at Jackson’s car. ‘Not you to. Did you get out of the car as well? Fuck..what the fuck’ I threw my hand over my mouth as watched as the three girls in his car had been trying to grab at him and force him out of the car. “...Now. Don't you think there was a reason you were seated by yourself? Erin, we have given YOU the honor of deciding their fate…who lives…who dies?”

“No!”

...You have seven seconds….” The parking lot seemed to disappear.

Seven.

Hannah was on the ground. Hayden had climbed on top of her, her hands around Hannah's throat. Jackson was trapped in his car, fighting off Lisa and her friends. My friends were screaming. Someone was going to die. And somehow, impossibly, I was supposed to choose.

Six.

My eyes moved to Hannah. She was crying, struggling to breathe. 

“Erin!”

Five.

Jackson looked through his windshield. His eyes found him. . He wasn’t looking at the radio. He wasn’t looking at Hannah. He was looking at me. Did he even know what was going on? Had he heard the radio as well? Even from this distance, I could see the fear on his face

Four.

He mouthed something. I couldn’t hear him and I was too overwhelmed with everything to be reading his lips. 

Three.

The girls grabbed on to him, pulling him hard. Jackson slammed against the window.

Two.

My brain began to understand what they wanted. They weren't asking me to save someone. They were asking me to choose someone to sacrifice. 

One.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Before I could think, before I could decide, before I could even take a breath. My lips moved-

“Jackson!” The words left my mouth. Silence. I opened my eyes. The girls inside Jackson’s car stopped moving. Jackson stared directly at me. Almost as if he heard. His face had gone white. Hannah’s scream brought me to reality.

“No!” My stomach dropped. “What did I just-” The radio crackled following with that laughter that was becoming all too familiar.

“ha..Erin..”My hand flew over my mouth. What did I just do? “ We do thank you for playing our game…” Jackson's eyes never left me. There was something in his expression that I would remember for the rest of my life. It wasn’t anger or even fear. It was astonishment. “Can’t wait to watch you try and debunk this…you’ll hear from us again soon…”

“Oh…Happy Birthday, Airbear.” Hannah's voice played through the radio with a slight distortion to it. Something I could never forget. 

Across the parking lot, Hannah lay on the ground unmoving. Hayden was gone. The girls in Jackson's car had all slumped over. Jackson and I just stared at each other, too scared to move.

What...The…Fuck.