Undead

“Listen, you stay right here and I’ll be back in a second, okay?” Niall insisted, opening the car door of the silver Ferrari. Sarah sat in horror as the blond Irishman slowly started to raise his khaki-clad leg up and out the small door.

“No, stop!” she cried, tugging on his toned arm in an attempt to keep him close to her. “This is how it always happens in the movies, Niall! The car breaks down and the guy goes to check it out and then he ends up getting murdered as soon as the hood falls back down and then the girl gets raped and dies!” she exclaimed, clinging onto his pale arm with her tanned hands for dear life.

“Oh, come on, Sarah. That’s movies, first of all. Secondly, do you really think I’m going to let anything happen to you? Thirdly, we’re not a couple and everyone in the movies are young couples,” he explained, facing her with an exasperated expression on his red cheeks, his ocean-blue eyes turning a shade darker. The petite purple-haired girl refused to let go of his arm, her black nails digging into his sensitive skin. Niall didn’t complain though, Niall never complained when things like this happened. If his friends or family felt they were in danger, the least he could do was let them cling onto him if they felt like it, no matter how much it hurt. He suddenly remembered the time at Carowinds with his mom—they’d been on the Intimidator, the largest roller coaster there, and his mother got scared on the first hill, clinging onto her youngest son as if her life depended on it while she felt herself lift up off of her seat and go straight downhill, her terror too much to even scream, her eyes watering and her throat burning with the metallic taste of fear. His best friend’s huge, green-brown doe eyes brought him back to reality as he noticed how scared and fragile the small girl was right in this very moment. “Look, I promise you everything is going to be—“ As if on cue, a huge clap of thunder roared throughout the dark sky, a strong heat lightning coming a few seconds afterwards. He hurried to close the Ferrari door and was grateful when he looked out and noticed all of the rain crashing down around them on the deserted highway.

“Okay, I’m calling Harry. Maybe he can come get us out of this mess,” Sarah stated, now looking more annoyed than afraid. Niall smiled to himself despite the situation. She was acting herself again and that was the most important thing to Niall right then and there. He’d hardly ever seen his best friend so…so weak and vulnerable.

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“Ugh, where are they?” Imogen groaned, tucking a few loose strands of straight, black hair behind her ears.

“I’m sure they just got caught up, I mean, it is pouring like crazy outside,” Liam reasoned. The tall, muscular, brown-haired teenager had always been referred to as the ‘daddy’ of the strange group of friends, from things ranging from his responsibility to his open-mindedness, but even he wasn’t mature in any way, shape, sort or form suitable for a seventeen-year-old.

“Ah, look, here’s Sarah now!” Harry exclaimed, pressing the green button on his touch screen phone. “Sarah, where are you guys?”

“We are STRANDED on the side of this deserted highway and Niall’s over here trying to get out and check the engine when he knows that’s always how people die in the movies, and it’s pouring rain outside and I am sick and tired of this car!” the exasperated girl yelled through the receiver. The curly-haired boy made a face and took the phone away from his ear to peer at the screen for a second before returning to the call.

“Stranded?” he asked, moving to stand up while sliding his white t-shirt down and gesturing for the others to follow. “Wait, where exactly are you guys?”

“I don’t know, Niall, where are we?” she asked, and he could hear a muffled answer—the voice of his only Irish friend.

“We are on Highway 84, just outside of Carlton. We’re actually right outside the asylum, a few minutes away from the town gate. It’s kind of creepy, how fast can you get here?” his best friend’s voice rang through the phone, his Irish accent making it difficult to understand some of the things he said if he were talking to a complete stranger. Harry was used to it, though, and like you do with baby gibberish, he’d already deciphered every phrase and Irish term he’d ever heard his best blond friend say.

“Outside the asylum? We’re on our way,” Harry said, grabbing his keys and motioning for the other seven teenagers to follow him to the largest car he had in his garage—his mother’s mini-van.

“Hurry—dude—asylum—freaking out—storming.” Harry frowned at his phone as he started up the familiar vehicle. They were breaking signal, and he was only getting bits and pieces of what Niall was saying.

“Look, Niall, we’re breaking up, I’ll see you in a few minutes, okay?” Harry said, waiting for the muffled ‘Goodbye’ before he hung up. Already, he was on the road towards the familiar highway between this town and the next.

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Sarah took in her best friends’ expressions when they all stepped out of Harry’s mother’s mini-van. Zayn, with his perfectly groomed black coif and blue-and-white sports jacket; Hillary, with her soaking wet Strawberry-blond ringlet curls and pajama pants; Liam, with his thin jacket and dark brown, curious eyes; Alana, whom was wearing one of Liam’s t-shirts in which her thick chocolate hair was stuck underneath; Louis, and his messy brown hair and bright red skinny jeans; April, with the long, red braid and the flowy purple shirt; Imogen; with her dark black hair and bottomless eyes; and finally Harry, with his dark, soft curls made of cotton, his angular jawbones, his narrow, blue-green eyes filled with worry, his defined collar bones, his tanned skin, the familiar bulk of his biceps underneath his soaking wet white t-shirt—which, she thought with amusement, you could see his toned abs and two extra nipples through—and his long, endless torso, arms held out as if he was waiting for her to jump into them. She did just that, running towards him at an incredible speed as he wrapped his long arms around her tiny torso and held onto her for dear life as she clung onto his neck, breathing in the smell of him—soap, apples, and rain.

“Guys, finally!” Niall exclaimed, engulfing Imogen in a tight embrace whilst eyeballing the rest of them.

“Well, Niall, I am so very sorry we didn’t know you’d get stranded on the highway,” Zayn shot back, smirking as the witty remark left his perfectly plump lips.

“Zayn,” Hillary warned, pointing a crooked index finger his way.

“Guys, stop fighting like an old married couple and let’s get out of here, I’m freezing!” Louis yelled, leading everyone back to the black mini-van—
Only…there was no mini-van. The spot where Harry had parked his mother’s car was completely empty, only shadows and dark pavement.

“Harry…” Sarah started, looking up to meet his panicked blue-green eyes warily.

“Where’s your mom’s car?!” Liam shouted, rushing to the empty space and looking up as if the car would magically appear out of thin air and crush him on the spot. All of them were spooked, and when Niall turned around to search for something—anything—to explain this bizarre situation, he noticed his car was gone as well.

“Guys! Look!” he called, pointing towards the empty space on the stretch of highway. “My car’s gone too…”

“Okay, this is freaky. Can we just get out of here?” Alana asked, tugging nervously on her arm. Liam automatically wrapped a protective, muscled arm around the small girl’s shoulders and brought her closer.

“We have to find our cars first!” Harry exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“Alana’s right, this is really freaky.” All heads turned towards April, whose bright blue eyes were set with determination.

“Well, what do you suppose we do, huh?” Imogen asked, breaking away from Niall. “How are we going to get back home without any transportation?! We can’t just walk an hour in the freezing rain in the middle of the night!”

“Come on, Imogen, calm down,” Niall cooed, wrapping her into his arms.

“Look, do we have any other choice?” Zayn reasoned, his face distorting into an expression of confusion and frustration.

“Look, is anyone’s phone working? We should probably call the police…” Harry reasoned, taking out his iPhone. “Or not. My phone has water damage…” Everyone else warily checked their cell phones, and they either didn’t have signal, were dead, or broken.

“We are in quite a pickle,” Louis stated, trying to get a laugh out of everyone. Luckily, it worked, and everyone was soon bursting with laughter.

A low rumble of a chuckle erupted through the teenagers, and they all slowly looked up to see a tall man with a very grotesque, overgrown beard and yellow, chipped teeth standing before them. “You kids need some help?”

“Um, actually—“

“Our friend is on his way, he should be here any minute,” Liam cut in, shooting a glare towards Niall’s direction. The blond threw his hands up the universal I did nothing wrong! gesture. The man glanced curiously at the Irishman before turning his head back over towards Liam.

“You don’t control these kids, son. Please, speak.” Niall went even paler than usual and his blue eyes iced over.

“Sir, I was about to say the same thing, actually. He didn’t do anything—“

“Bull!” the man shouted, making everyone jump. “No one’s coming here to get you kids, and you know it. God, idiotic teenagers these days. Not everyone is a serial killer, you know? Let me help you fix up your car over there.” He nodded his head towards the spot where Niall’s car had once been, and they all noticed the silver Ferrari was now back and the engine was steaming. “M’ name’s Arturo, by the way. You kids can call me Art.”

“Doesn’t that mean bear-man?” Louis asked, eyeing him skeptically. Art whipped his head towards the sarcastic teenager, and Louis instantly froze. “Sorry.”

“Kids these days. Look, just let me help you, okay? I have some tools in my truck, I’ll be right back.” Art walked away, leaving the ten teenagers completely baffled.

“What was that?” April asked in disbelief. Alana eyeballed her and snuggled into Liam’s side.

“He’s going to kill us. He’s going to come back with a machete and kill us all!” Hillary shrieked. Zayn calmed her down slightly and they all sat there in astonishment.

Thump, thump, thump. The sound of Art’s massive footfalls made Sarah jump, and she looked up to see him holding a wrench in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. “Wanna pop open the hood for me, Irish boy?”