A Wonderful Trip

It was finally time to go home, school had finally ended. This year Halloween fell on a Friday which meant that the party would last until first period Monday morning. Alice was now a senior which meant her partying days in town were coming to an end and this might be the last White Halloween Party she went to. While a lot of her friends, in fact most if not all, were only interested in parties, Alice had plans for her future. She wanted to go to college and get a degree and move away from her hometown. She did fairly well in school while still being able to keep up with the crazy antics of her group. After all she’d been attending college parties since she was a freshman. This was nothing new to her, nor was it challenging.

It was crisp out, you could hear the crunch of gravel under your feet with every step. The sky was grey and the air was cold and slightly damp, mist hung in the air and you could see your breath. The walk home was short but now and then it was terrifying. The quickest way to get from home to school and vice versa was to take the short cut through the woods. The cross-country trails behind the school ran parallel to Alice’s backyard. It was a straight shot to walk these trails as opposed to walking around the school to the main road and carefully maneuvering a non-existent sidewalk. Alice usually would get a ride with someone to and from school but because of the newest steps to keep teens safe the school had scheduled a car check that afternoon. Because Alice lived so close she offered to be the transporter. She would put everyone’s stash in her backpack and carry it home so they wouldn’t get caught. The only downside Alice now realized was that it got darker quickly and early in October, and she was not prepared for the walk home. All of her friends had dipped to get ready for the party and she was now walking alone past the football field and into the woods.
Dark. Ominous. Terrifying woods.

She was just disappearing into the trees when she heard pounding feet behind her, someone was running towards her. She whipped around so quickly she almost knocked herself over.
“Hey! Sorry to startle you, I saw you walking this way but I’m new and I… My name is Charles.”
Alice just stood there, staring, staring at his extended hand and trying to make sense of it. Who was this person?
“Alice” she said wearily, shaking his hand with a firm grip and unwavering eye contact. If she was scared she damn well wasn’t going to let him on to it.
“I’m sorry, I’m new. My first day was yesterday, Robbie White is my cousin,” he said pulling his hand away and stuffing it into his pocket. He was fidgety and you could tell he was a little awkward.
“So you’re a White then?” Alice asked, adjusting the straps of her backpack.

The White’s were a known family, known for being stupidly wealthy. They had an enormous house and threw elaborate parties. Robbie and Danny White were as handsome as they come and their family was the same. They were smart too, failure was not an option in that family and neither was getting caught red handed. Danny wasn’t really getting into trouble, he was a senior with Alice and he had his sights set on med school. His younger brother Robbie however, that was a different story.
Robbie was a sophomore and already had done more damage than any senior. He had managed to become the top supplier of any party favor you could ever want and had slept with almost every girl in his grade. It wasn’t something to brag about per say, but it was worth noting. His parents had spent a lot of money on keeping him out of jail, a lot of money. Rumor has it that he was the last person to have seen the three late graduates before their unfortunate death. Another rumor has it that he had supplied some new sort of drug to the party there were at just before they left, a drug no one knew anything about.
A dangerous kind of drug.
But these were rumors, and Alice didn’t have time for rumors.
“Uh no, last name is Carroll” Charles answered. Alice nodded and took a step back from him.
“So why were you following me into the woods? It’s not a very good first impression,” Alice asked. She meant it to sound teasing but it came off cold and harsh. She didn’t bother correcting herself.
“I live on Church street” he said, straightening up. He could tell that this encounter was uncomfortable for the both of them. He also started to imagine how creepy is must be to be a girl approached by a strange man this close to the woods.
“I’m sorry to sneak up on you, I would have called your name but I didn’t know it. Really I promise, I just figured it’d be nice to walk with someone else through these creepy woods.” Alice looked at him, he didn’t seem threatening. She wasn’t afraid of him but something made her feel uneasy, but he had a good point. It would be wonderful to have someone else walking through these dead cold woods with her, especially now that it was almost dark.
“Alright, just don’t try anything,” Alice nodded and started back towards the trails.