Castle High's After School Horror

Bob inhales shakily. He can feel the blood trickling down his neck. Mikey leans down to Bob’s ear. The next words he speaks make the hair on the back of Bob’s neck stand on end.

“I’m gonna slice you in half.”

“Chelsea, snap out of it!” Bob yells desperately. Chelsea doesn’t so much as blink. Mikey laughs.

“She’s not gonna—”

That’s when Bob takes his chance to tackle Mikey to the ground.

Taken by surprise, Mikey drops the knife. Bob silently prays that Chelsea won’t pull the trigger just yet. His knee hurts and his shoulder hurts but he ignores both. He starts punching Mikey, in the face and in the chest, taking out all his anger and sadness with his aggression. Just like he’d always done with Mikey.

“Son of a bitch!” he yells. “Fucking ass hole! Psycho! Murderer!”

Bob stops, breathing hard. He’s in so much pain. He swallows and makes to wipe tears from his eyes when he notices the blood on his knuckles. And then the blood on Mikey’s face. His skin is bruised and broken by Bob’s punches but he is still recognizable. His glasses are broken and cutting into his skin.

“You ever…thought…” Mikey started. He moaned painfully. “That the way you treated me is the way your father treats you?”

Bob’s eyes grow wide. “That’s totally different.”

Mikey picks up the knife again and stabs it into Bob’s side. Bob gasps. Mikey pushes him off and Bob falls to the ground. He holds onto his side, groaning from the pain.

“Even if you survive this, you’ll just go back to living with someone who hates you!” Mikey
screams into Bob’s face. He makes a small cut in Bob’s t-shirt and tears apart the fabric, revealing Bob’s bruised torso. Mikey slowly cuts into one of the more recent bruises, making Bob scream. He leans down licks the blood from Bob’s throat.

“What the fuck?” Bob breathes, not sure if he is more grossed out or frightened.

Mikey kisses Bob’s cheek. “You’ll see your mother again,” he whispers. He places the knife in the center of Bob’s chest.

“Or you can kill yourself and go burn in hell with your faggot boyfriend,” Bob spits.

Mikey leans away. He looks deeply saddened by Bob’s comment.

“He’s not in hell,” Mikey says. “He was a good person.”

“He was a fag.”

“That has nothing to do with it!”

“You know it’s your fault he’s dead.”

“No!”

Tears streak Mikey’s cheeks. Bob feels dizzy and worn out. Everything seems to be going in slow motion and on mute. Mikey crashes his fist into Bob’s nose. Bob groans. Mikey places the knife into Bob’s mouth and slices his tongue. Bob lets out a muffled scream, eyes widening as he looks into Mikey’s eyes. Mikey’s bottom lip is trembling. He blinks a few times and Bob can see Mikey making a quick decision. Instead of going through with his threat of slicing Bob in half, Mikey raises the knife above his head. Bob imagines it falling, plunging straight into his heart. Ending his life. Ending the pain.

Maybe he would see his mother again...

But he isn’t ready to die.

“Chelsea…” Bob barely utters, in too much pain to do much else.

Bob hears the sound of a gunshot right before passing out.

Bob’s voice speaking her name again seems to finally have snapped her out of the ghostly trance. She momentarily had a great sense of sight, which had been sharpened by Mikey’s control on her. She pulled the trigger just before falling to her knees from the left over pain in her head. Mikey screams.

“Bitch!” he yells.”How did you…?”

Mikey moans painfully. Chelsea comes up to her feet, shakily, and walks over to him. He’s doubled over, looking at his bloody hand.

“It’s like I’m Jesus,” Mikey mutters, looking at the hole in the middle of his right hand with fascination.

Chelsea angrily grabs him by his collar and pulls him away from the unconscious Bob. She throws Mikey to the ground, shaking with tears and nerves. She is relieved to see the rising and falling of Bob’s chest. But she is angry. Angry at herself for picking on Beth, angry at Bob for picking on Mikey, angry at Mikey for using her vulnerability to control her. For weakening her with the things he said. For everything that had happened that afternoon. He deserves to die.

“You wouldn’t have the guts to kill me,” says Mikey. “Besides, that gun is out of bullets.”

Chelsea takes in a deep breath, pulls the trigger. Click. Nothing happens. Out of frustration, she throws the gun and it hits Mikey’s forehead causing another cut on his already broken face. Chelsea reaches for the knife he’d dropped and points it at him menacingly.

“I’m gonna kill you,” she threatens, although they both know that it’s a threat with very little backbone.

“I don’t wanna hurt you, Chelsea,” Mikey says softly. He stands, holding his wounded hand to his chest. He adjusts his broken glasses with the other hand. “Didn’t you get that? I got Bob to tell you to leave, to run. I didn’t want to hurt you. Never intended to. That was all Beth.”

Chelsea isn’t sure what to think. She takes a step back as he takes a step forward. She can feel her head aching as he penetrates her mind.

“She killed Ray because she knew it’d upset you,” Mikey teases, smiling.

“Fuck you,” Chelsea spits. She’s on the verge of breaking down and they both know it. Mikey’s grin grows.

“I could kill you though. You want to die, don’t you? Be with Ray again?”

Chelsea takes another step back as he moves forward. She shakes her head, a mixture of fear and anger and sadness burning her insides. He was right but she won’t admit it. Not out loud.

“Bob was right,” Chelsea sobs. “It’s your fault, all of this. You’ve lost your mind.”

Mikey bolts forward without warning and grabs Chelsea’s arm with his left hand. He twists her around and pushes her against the lockers. Chelsea tenses, body aching from her crash with the lockers. Mikey screams from the pain in his right hand.

“You fucking bitch,” he says, elbowing her in the back. She groans.

Moaning painfully, Mikey brings his right arm around her neck and forces her head back. He easily snatches the knife from her hand. He points the tip of the knife into her chest.

“Filthy slut,” Mikey hisses. “You fucking flaunt your stuff because you know anyone would want you but you’re just a little bitch lying at the bottom of the food chain. No one cares how hot you are. No one cares about you at all.”

Chelsea is too scared to move. Her fists are clenched as she waits for something to happen. She tries not to be weakened or angered by his words. She tries not to let herself be taken by resignation. But she’s frozen by fear.

“The worst part is that his family won’t be able to see a body,” he whispers. “He’s completely gone.”

Chelsea scratches at Mikey’s arm. Mikey groans and pushes into her, forcing her into the vents in the lockers. She screams. She furiously elbows Mikey in the gut. Mikey doubles over. Chelsea turns around to face him. He raises his hand and cuts her face. She groans.

“I told you I didn’t want to hurt you!” Mikey says, pushing his forearm into her neck.

“You already did,” Chelsea says. Mikey’s cutting off her breathing, making it hard for her to speak. “When you killed Ray.”

Mikey forces his forearm deeper into Chelsea’s throat. Chelsea feels the pressure building up and she can’t breathe, she can’t. She brings her shaky hands to Mikey’s waist and lifts her knee.

Right in the groin!

Mikey doubles over, groaning. Chelsea takes a few breaths. She sees the knife in his hand and snatches it from his weakened grasp quickly. Mikey raises his elbow and makes to hit her. Fearfully, and angrily, Chelsea raises the knife and aims for his neck, stabbing him just as his elbow lands on her chest. All of his weight falls on her. He lets out a moan. She pushes him away, rubbing her chest.

Mikey stumbles backward and hits the lockers on the other side of the hall. Anger clutching her chest, Chelsea reaches for the knife and snatches it from his neck. She drops the knife and starts shaking nervously. The physical pain she is feeling doesn’t come close to her despair at seeing the state she’d forced Mikey into. There’s a gash on his neck spewing blood like a waterfall, across his collarbone and down his chest and finally to the floor. His hands are shaking as he wheezes. His eyes are wide and fearful. He brings one of his shaking hands to his neck. Now, the blood on his clothes is also his own.

“You…” Mikey croaks. A tear escapes his eye. He lets out a pained groan and starts coughing. He falls to his knees and convulses uncontrollably, spewing blood all over the floor.

Chelsea shakes her head, in disbelief. She hears the sound of sirens in the distance. Police sirens? Had someone slipped from Mikey’s control long enough to call the cops after that last gunshot?

She blinks, tearing her eyes from Mikey. She runs over to Bob and falls to her knees next to him.

“Chel…”

Chelsea flinches at the strained sound of Mikey’s voice. She places a hand on Bob’s neck. She can still feel a pulse, though it is slight. She looks back at Mikey. He’s on all fours, crawling slowly across his own pool of blood. He becomes too weak and falls over completely. His head rests on his arm as he reaches his hand out to Chelsea. She pulls her leg back as far as possible but his bloody hand lands on her ankle. She shudders. She is only consoled by the beating of Bob’s heart.

“I don’t think Frank’s going to hell,” Chelsea says, her whole body aching. The sirens have stopped moving and sound to be just outside.

Mikey’s face seems to brighten slightly. Under all the pain is a shine of hope. His breathing is still incredibly strained and his blood continues to pour onto the floor. He is holding onto her leg desperately, shakily. He is moaning, shaking, bleeding to death. But there is still hope in his eyes.

He must’ve really loved Frank.

“But that’s definitely where you’re going,” says Chelsea, shaking off Mikey’s hand.

And just like that, the hope in Mikey’s eyes disappears. He reaches out for her again. Desperate, seeking a connection of some kind. His fingers graze her leg. The sound of boots running across the ground distracts Chelsea and she looks up to find two policemen running down the hall, pointing guns and flashlights in her direction. They look horrified. Chelsea flinches at the boom of thunder coming from outside. Her heart shakes and she sobs, looking down at Mikey. He’d grown completely limp and unmoving. His eyes are wide open, filled with so much sadness that it takes Chelsea a moment to realize that he had died.