Price of Evil

03:07 AM

My eyes flew open, only to see a pitch black room. To me, it almost seemed darker than usual. Usually the light from the lamps outside would shine through the curtains on the window a bit, but not tonight. All that existed tonight was darkness. A darkness that made my skin crawl.

I laid there silently, seeing if I could hear if one of the others were awake. After our little performance earlier, I'm surprised that anyone fell asleep to begin with.

Hearing absolutely nothing but the sounds of peoples soft breaths, I sat up. Running a hand through my hair, I tried to adjust to the darkness. My eyes wandered around the room, slowly being able to distinguish the bigger objects that where lining the walls.

When my eyes fixed upon the open door, a unnerving feeling washed over body. It almost looked like a black misty shadow was stood in the doorway. I stayed completely still, waiting to see if it would move, but when it didn't I figured it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

As I sat there, my eyes continued to focus on the door. I just felt like something was out there, watching us. It was a eerie feeling and the thought made me squirm, and shift from my spot on the floor, but I was overcome with a desire to go and see if it was just my imagination.

Deciding against my better judgement, I slowly started to crawl towards the door. With each step that brought me closer, my heart began to beat faster. Soon enough my hands were on the metal frame on the floor. The coldness sent shivers throughout my whole body, making my teeth chatter loudly. Poking my head out of the room, I looked up and down the hallway. Compared to the room we were all sleeping in, the rest of the house seemed even darker, and I could barely see a few feet in front of me.

Just as I was about to turn and quietly go back in, a loud bang echoed from downstairs. I started screaming bloody murder, my dry throat aching as I did so, and I tried to scramble out of the doorway as fast as I could. In the process, I slammed my head against the dresser. Adding yet another injury to my day.

"Jesus Christ!" I heard Brian yell, the straining of his voice made it obvious that he'd only just woken up. "What the fuck was that?"

"Linds, where are you?" Matt asked his voice full of worry. I was too scared right now to answer, but all that did was worry him more. "Seriously, babe, answer me! Dammit, I can't see a thing!"

"Someone turn on the fucking lights!" Brian exclaimed.

Shakily my hand slid up the wall, looking for the switch. Finding the little knob I flipped it up, getting ready to be blinded. But nothing happened. We were still in complete darkness.

"The lights are out!" I groaned. A dull pound in my head starting to form.

"I got it." Midge suddenly grumbled, and soon, a bright light dimly lit the room.

She flashed it around the room making sure everyone was there, just in case this was all some practical joke. Something I wouldn't put past one of the guys, knowing good an well that they could never pass up an opportunity to scare the living hell out of us.

Brian was protectively gripping onto Charlotte. Matt looked lost, his hair all over the place. His hand up, protecting his eyes from the blinding light. Zacky was on the bed, holding onto Midge, also somewhat protectively, but he let go when we all noticed and scowled, pushing her away.

When the light illuminated where Jimmy had fallen asleep, we all burst out laughing. Him and Johnny were gripped onto each other for dear life. Of course as soon as we saw, Johnny shoved Jimmy off of him, trying to act tough.

"Linds, why are you over there?" Charlotte shakily whispered, her voice still fearful.

"I thought I...Ugh, never mind." I shook my head, knowing if I explained what I thought I'd saw, they'd all think I was crazy. Bat shit crazy. And it was two early for my brain to make up a lame excuse.

Giving one last look down the hallway, I shrugged, figuring it wasn't anything. The guys didn't say anything about a huge bang, so I put it down to me being jumpy and paranoid.

"Why the fuck were you screaming then?" Zacky hissed.

"Spider?" I gave them an unconvincing smile, stating my answer like it was a question.

"Whatever. Can we go back to sleep now?" Zacky glared at me, before dropping back down onto the bed.

"Yeah." I mumbled, crawling back over to Matt. Laying back down, I wrapped my arms around him. Trying to hide my head against his broad chest.

"Brian's just being a jerk. Don't worry, we're all a bit jumpy." He soothingly said, making me smile at the sound of his voice.

His lips pressed against my head, and I sighed a bit. Closing my eyes, I tried to go back to sleep. But I couldn't shake the feeling of eyes staring at us. So I just laid in Matt's arms, listening for anything out of the ordinary.

Not too long after, the room fell scarily silent. Until out of nowhere, a louder bang sounded from downstairs, making us all jolt up this time.

"Ok, what is it this time?" Zacky groaned, grabbing the flashlight.

Wriggling from Matt's grip, I stood up, nearly falling over. Luckily, Matt managed to steady my legs from where he was sat up.

"I don't know what it is, but I think we should check it out." I shrugged, my heart beating a million miles a minute. I sounded way more confident than I was feeling, that was for sure.

"You aren't going anywhere." Matt sternly said. He reached his arms out and quickly grabbed my waist, pulling me back down.

"Yeah, Johnny, you go." Charlotte and Midge mumbled simultaneously.

"What? Why me?" Johnny gasped, his mouth dropping open.

"Because you're short, maybe if it's a serial killer, they'll spare you." Charlotte whispered, fear now even more evident in her voice.

"How many times do I have to point out the fact that Midge is shorter than me?" Johnny continued to exclaim loudly, glaring at me.

"Yeah, Midge is also a girl, Johnny. In case you failed to notice." Jimmy said. "Are you trying to tell us that you'd happily put a girl that tiny and defenseless, in danger?"

"No..." Johnny mumbled guiltily. "Sorry, M."

"Hey, I'm not defenseless!" Midge argued, sounding pretty offended.

"Quit fighting!" Brian yelled, standing up. "Girls, you stay here while me and the guys go check it out." As he let go of Charles, she looked like she was going to protest, but all the guys stood up, following Brian's lead

"Matt be careful." I said quietly, as I climbed up onto my bed with Midge.

"Would you three calm down? It's probably something that just fell over." Zacky muttered, grabbing another flashlight and looking absolutely enthused about going downstairs to check the mysterious noise.

We huddled together on the bed, watching the guys walk down the stairs. Sitting there, we were all silent, listening to the guys' footsteps on the wooden floor below us.

"See, nothing's down there. They would've shouted by no-" Midge started. But she was cut off by a louder crash from downstairs.

We threw the blanket over our heads, in a futile hope to keep us safe from whatever was down there.

Then we heard what sounded like a stampede of elephants coming back up the stairs. Pulling the blanket off of us, I waited to see who was coming. The guys rounded the corner and came running into the bedroom.

Matt was the last one in, and he slammed the door shut. Pressing his body against it.

"Linds what ever game you're playing with us, it isn't fucking funny!" Zacky yelled, angrily stepping towards us.

"What are you talking about Zack? I didn't do anything!" I shouted, cowering away from him. Oh, this is such a great time to argue. There could be a serial killer or a fucking evil ghost in the house, and here we are arguing over nothing! Just ripe for the picking, given the fact we were all distracted.

"You fucking rigged the house to scare the living shit out of us, didn't you? While you three laugh at us from up here!" He glared, his fist clenching as he tried to control his temper.

"Quiet! All of you idiots!" Matt yelled from the door. We all turned to look at him, shocked that he even yelled. "I doubt that any of the girls did this Zack. Look at them." He pointed at us. "They look just as fucking scared as we do. And I was here all day with Linds, and she didn't have time to rig the house. Not that she would have to begin with."

Zack just shook his head and sat down on the bed with us. Charles went running back to Brian, who enveloped her with his tattooed arms.

Just as everyone started to calm down, a larger crash echoed from down stairs. Causing us all to jump, in fear once again.

"Jimmy this is your fault." I whisper yelled as I scrambled off the bed and into Matt's arms.

"What?" He raised a brow at me, like I was completely nuts.

"What ever you brought into this house, I want it gone." I said into the material of Matt's shirt. My body trembling with fear. His hand coming up and rubbing my back, trying to soothe me the best he could.

"Oh come on." Zacky rolled his eyes. "There's no such thing as ghost Linds. I think Matt's let you watch to many horror films." At his words I felt Matt's body tense. But I wrapped my arms around him tighter, preventing him from attacking Zacky.

"Then prove it." Midge snapped, still on the bed under the covers.

"Prove it? How do you prove you have ghosts?" He scrunched his noise, and shook his head. Unsure of what Midge was getting at.

A silence fell on us, as we all thought to ourselves. My thoughts being an instant no go on the proving we had ghost idea. But it would be the only way we could actually get some sleep. If we knew there was nothing, then everything would be better, right?

"We could do a ghost hunt?" Jimmy finally offered. "We have cameras, and should prove we don't have ghosts."

Everyone seemed hesitant at first but then their gazes fell on me. Asking my permission silently. Swallowing the growing lump in my throat I peeked up at Matt, who was intently staring down at me.

"Fine." I muttered. "If there's a fucking ghost, its all your fault Jimmy." I used my finger to point at him, and he raised his hands in defense.

"I'm telling you it's nothing." He confidently stated. "My grandma did this hundreds of times and nothing happen."

Nothing until right now.