Day 7

PROLOGUE

They messed with the wrong person.

Marcus had been sitting in the school cafeteria. Eating his turkey sandwich on one of those circular tables. There were eight seats, but the only one that was occupied was the one he was in. He had no real friends. Most people wouldn’t like that, but he was fine with it. He didn’t like people. He had read a one-paged PDF online called “Chaos, Control, Contract,” and he agreed. The PDF had said that people were monsters, and the only thing keeping them from killing each other was a social contract. A sort of a truce.

So he was alone, which is exactly what he wanted. He was happy with this. But then 6 people came up to him. Suzan, Loren, Collin, David, Brian, and Ellie. They were all good friends, and they were always spending their time together. They were the biggest assholes.

They came up to him, joking and laughing. Shit. They all sat down. What’s up, Marcus?” Collin said. He was the worst. He did the talking most of the time.

“Go away,” Marcus answered.

“What? Why?”

“I want to be ALONE”

“How come, bud? I thought we were friends”

“I’m no one's friend.”

The 5 others laughed.

“OH REALLY? Well, here’s how it works: if you're not my friend, you’re my enemy. So, again, I thought we were friends”

“Well, guess you made another enemy,” Marcuz said coolly, finishing his sandwich.

He stood up to go to Ms. Carson’s room (she was the only person he trusted), and Collin stood up, too. ANDDDD… Punched him. Knocked him out.

People say that when you get knocked out, everything cuts to blackness. No. It wasn’t like that. It was more like falling asleep. You don’t realize you’re out until you wake up.

When he woke up, he didn’t know he had been knocked out until he noticed his surroundings. He was in the nurse’s office.

He didn’t understand why he was there at first, but then the memories came back. Slowly. He remembered Collin’s comment about being friends, and him rejecting Collin, and getting punched. He was angry. NOBODY crosses him like that. NOBODY.

So HOW was he going to get back at them? There were seven. He couldn’t just beat them all up, seven was too many. So WHAT?

He thought about it all day. And finally, it came to him.

Day 1: Collin

Collin poured himself a glass of milk, set it on the table, and went to his room to change his shirt. He chose a plain navy blue shirt, short-sleeved. Then he went back to the kitchen to drink his milk. He sat down and picked up his cup. Hold on. He needed his phone. He went back to his room and got it. He walked back to the kitchen slowly, checking his notifications. His girlfriend had messaged him. Jazmin and Collin had been going out for about a year and a half. They were going to hang out tomorrow at her house. And they both knew what that meant. They were going to hook u

He sat down and picked up his milk. And FINALLY, he took a drink. It tasted weird. Different. He looked at the milk. He took another drink, a bigger one, thinking maybe it was just his taste buds acting up. No, there was DEFINITELY something wrong with this milk. He was still trying to figure it out, when he fell to the ground, lost to the world.

Day 2: Lore

She hated going into the basement. It terrified her. She would never admit it though. So when her mom told her to go down to the basement and grab the box under the table, she sucked it up and went down there.

She opened the door. Started walking down the stairs. They creaked loudly, and it FREAKED her out. She started walking quicker. She just wanted to get the box and get this over with.

At the bottom of the stairs, she looked around. There was a table. But no box.

She walked over to the table. Her mom was so sure there was a box there. But there was none. She sighed and was about to head upstairs when she heard the noise.

Click.

What even WAS that?!?! Loren started running up the stairs, and back into the house, but the door slammed shut. She banged on it and screamed, but nobody came.

Then she heard the noise again. Click.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and slowly turned around. And lost it.

When her mom heard the screams, she ran down to the basement to see what was happening. But there was nobody down there, and no evidence that there had been. The only thing that seemed out of place was a little camera laying on the stairs. She picked it up with shaking hands and immediately dropped it, terrified. There was a picture of Loren, trying to get the door open.

Day 3: Brian

When Brian had heard that Collin died of poisoning, and Loren went missing the next day, Brian was heartbroken. Collin was an amazing friend and Loren… Well, Brian cared about Loren a lot. She meant so much to him.

He sighed, stood up, and wiped the tears from his eyes. He was home alone so nobody would have seen him crying, but he was still embarrassed by it.

He wanted to check in on the others. Yeah, sure, most people saw them as a bunch of annoying kids who liked harassing the outcasts, and yeah, that’s what they were, but…

There was more to them than that. They cared. About each other and others. They just… weren’t too great at expressing it.

Ellie struggled with depression and had attempted suicide 3 times this year. Brian was scared for her. He worried about her a lot. He decided to check on her before sending a message to the group chat:

Brian - Yo. You okay after everything with Loren and Collin?

Ellie - I guess. It just doesn’t make sense, you know? Why them?

Brian - Yeah, I know. It’s gonna suck without them.

Ellie - I don’t mean that.

Brian - ...Harsh

Ellie - No I don’t mean it like that either. It DOES suck that they’re gone, and I’m going to miss them. But don’t you think it’s weird that they both died of unnatural causes, one right after the other? I think there’s something else going on here.

Brian sighed. Of COURSE she thought that. She was always so paranoid.

Brian - Listen, nothing else is happening. It’s just coincidence. Don’t spend your time worrying about that. It’s not what they would want.

Ellie - ...you’re right. I’ll ttyl

Brian shut his phone off and rubbed his eyes. Just talking for 3 minutes was exhausting. He decided to take a nap before checking in on everybody else.

Brian’s little brother, Stevie, opened the door. His dad told him to go wake Brian up for dinner. But when he looked up and saw brian, stuck on the wall by knives, blood pouring out of numerous stab wounds on his body, Stevie screamed and screamed and dropped his stuffed animal. It fell into a puddle of blood, one of many that were all over, in random spots on the floor.

Day 4: Elli

Something was going on. There is no way in hell that 2 of her friends were murdered and the other gone missing, and it is just pure coincidence. Ellie knew something was up.

Of course, it would be better for her to kill herself than for a crazy lunatic to poison HER drink. At least that’s what she told herself as she typed her last message to her friends:

Ellie - I luv u guys <3 yall were the best friends anybody could have had. Thx for evrything :)

Immediately after, the group chat blew up with messages. Ellie refused to read them for the fear that they would convince her to stay and be murdered in a far more painful and cruel way.

She opened her closet and searched through all of the clothes on the floor until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a long rope that had a noose at the end. She had kept this hidden in her closet for a few years, never knowing when she might need it.

She didn’t realize how much she was loved, though. See, Marcus meant to spare her. He didn’t care for her, exactly, but she was the nicest out of the 6 and he thought that if they were gone, she would have a chance at becoming a better person. But how was she supposed to know that?

So when he peeked through the window to see if she was doing okay, and saw her hanging by a rope, he felt pretty bad. But not bad enough to call it off. ELLIE didn’t deserve to die, but the rest, they do.

Day 5: Susan

Okay, this was getting annoying. First Collin’s drink was poisoned, then Loren went missing (most likely kidnapped), then Brian, who was stabbed to death, then Ellie killed herself. This was just fucking crazy. And Susan’s mom was so scared for her, so scared that she was going to kill herself too. It was pissing Susan off.

Susan really didn’t care that they were all gone, that she would never see them again. She was used to death, and it didn’t phase her. But it was annoying as hell, having people hit up her phone 24/7, making sure she’s okay. She didn’t give a shit that they were dead.

She was just tired of all the fake ass sympathy, so she decided to run away. It was the perfect way to get away from all this. She would only have to worry about herself. And if she got caught and came back, everyone would assume it was because of her 4 friends and she wouldn’t get in trouble with the law, or even be grounded.

Her phone chimed, and she picked it up. There was a text from an unknown number:

Hey, is this Kylie? I got the coke. Just meet me in the alley tomorrow night like we discussed. Bring the money.

Susan - Um… Wrong number?

Oh fuck. Fuck i’m so sorry. I’ll do whatever the fuck you want, just please don’t say anything.

...Well, maybe she could use this guy. He could get her out tonight, if he really didn’t want to get caught.

Susan - ...if you can give me a ride out of state tonight, I won’t say a word.

Well that was quick. Sure, as long as nobody finds out.

Susan - Alright, meet me at my place tonight at midnight.

She texted him her address and put her phone down. That was easier than she thought it would be. She continued packing her stuff.

At midnight, she heard a car honk. That was probably him, whoever he was. She picked up her bag and walked to the front door, thinking to herself how crazy this was that she was about to get into a dude’s car who she didn’t know. Well, she’d done it before, but for hookups. She’d never really considered running away, or dragging some drug dealer she’s never met before into it. This was just crazy.

Whatever.

She opened the front door, and there was the black toyota camry he’d sent her a picture of half an hour ago. She smiled and came out of her house, closing the door quietly behind her as she walked away. Her parents wouldn’t miss her. Her mom was an alcoholic and her dad was too busy with his job to realize she existed. She opened the passenger car door and got in, putting the bag at her feet. She looked over at her driver. He had a black hoodie on. Of course. She closed the car door and said, laughing lightly “Well if we’re going to be in a car together for a few hours, you should at least show me your face.

Then he laughed. He had a deep voice. He slowly took his hood off and looked at her.

The next day, the cops checked the footage. The camera showed her getting into a black Toyota Camry with, unfortunately, tinted windows. The car stayed on the side of the road for 15 minutes, then sped away.

Nobody understood what had happened. Her mother and father were heartbroken.

Day 6 - David

So David was SO confused. His 5 closest friends had died or been kidnapped. Or they ran away, which sucked. Either he had some shitty luck, or something else was going on.

Had they fucked with the wrong person? David remembered Collin punching Marcus in the face. Marcus didn’t seem fully stable, but he wasn't this fucked up, was he?

David’s mothers were out on a date, so he was home alone. He went to their room and sat down on the bed. He never REALLY knew his dad, who had been shot when David was 3. But David remembered a few things, like how his bio mother had always told him to shave off his beard, it was getting too long, but he had refused, saying that he wanted to grow it out and dye it rainbow for his daughter when she finished 5th grade. David's sister was an amazing person. She just got her degree last year in psychology.

David’s mother ended up dating her co-worker, a redhead girl who was an AMAZING cook. He bonded with this girl instantly and was so happy the day his mom proposed.

This redhead (Maya) made his mom happy. And that made David happy.

There was a loud knock on the door, waking him from his thoughts. He sighed and got up, walking to the front door to answer it. But when he got there, he was fucking shocked. The man, who was wearing a fucking Scream mask, had let himself in.

Day 7: THE LAST DAY

David’s head hurt. Like, really bad. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was in darkness. When his eyes adjusted, he saw Loren and Susan. They were tied to a chair, and so was he. The rest of the room was empty. “Wha - What’s going on?”

Susan explained: “You remember Marcus? He fucking did all this. He killed Collin and Brian. Ellie killed herself, which wasn’t part of the plan. He wanted to let her live. But me running away was. He kidnapped Loren and you, too. I assume he’s going to kill us.”

“Wait, so, how do you know all of this?” Brian asked.

“He told us,” Loren explained. “He’s also been feeding us so we won’t die before he can have his fun.”

This conversation seems chill, like they really don’t care that they’re most likely about to die. But in reality, they were terrified. The only thing keeping them from losing it was the fact that if they were loud, he’d come sooner.

Then Loren announced, “we ARE NOT going to die.”

“How the fuck are we gonna manage that, genius?” (that was Susan, obviously).

“I have a pocket knife. I wasn’t going to mention it until we were all here. We can get out of these ropes. We can kill him, or at least wound him, and get out.”

But obviously it couldn’t be that easy. This is how it really went:

Marcus came into the room through a small door, holding a tray. He set it down on the floor and took off a cloth that was covering whatever was there. There were some knives, a container of what looked like water but probably wasn’t, and a few other small things.

Marcus looked up at his little friends. They looked scared, of course, but not as much as he would have hoped. Frustrated, he picked up a knife and walked over to Susan. Without any words, he bent over to be eye level to her. He looked her in the eye. Her face was full of hate. See? People just suck. They don’t understand. Do they even know what he’s going through? Did they ever think to ask?

He took the knife and slowly put it to her neck. He wasn’t going to kill her this fast, of course, he’d let her bleed out. He raised the knife to her face and made a cut on her left cheek. When the knife pierced her skin, she screamed.

Of course, getting cut is never too painful. But that’s when it’s on a sharp object. Marcus hadn’t sharpened this knife. It was dull, so instead of making a clean cut, it tore her skin.

Marcus moved the knife down and cut her arms. He made a bunch of random cuts. He moved to her next arm, then her legs.

He wasn’t paying attention to what was going on behind him, though.

He felt a small pinch on the back of his neck. He looked over and saw David standing there, holding a needle in Marcus’s neck. It was too late, obviously. There was air in the needle he had on the tray. He fell over, dead.

Loren and David went out of whatever building they were in (which turned out to be an abandoned factory), and got help from a young couple. Soon an ambulance came, and took Susan. Sadly, she didn’t make it.

Obviously, Loren and David never got over what happened that day(they didn’t blame Marcus for what had happened, they forgave him, but they never did fully forgive themselves). They both did online school for the rest of the year. They went to counseling and learned to cope with the memories they had been scarred with, but as we all know, scars don’t go away. But they found a way to live with what happened, together. They got married, and David became a teacher, while Loren went to college to become a nurse.

One day they will have to sit their kids down and tell them what happened. But for now, they were just going to keep going on, one day at a time.