Chapter Fifteen: ...Lemme.Hear.You.Scream

(Christmas Eve, 1999)

    "Hello. You have reached the residence of - Hey, you called us, you should know who we are...But anyway, we aren't here at the moment. As for me, I am away from the house, and I've got Santa. If you ever want to see the jolly fat dude again, leave a pricey vehicle and an attractive young bachelor under our tree for yours truly, and all will be well...Heh, Merry Christmas everyone. Leave a message at the beep."
    "Cute, Sarah," Brian snickered, leaving a message. "I dunno where you girls are, but just wanted to wish y'alls Merry Christmas from all of us for tomorrow. Kev's here, but everyone else is scattered around the country - otherwise, I'd make 'em sing for you, heh...Anyway, have a good one, you guys. And Happy New Year if we don't touch base before then. I'd ramble longer, but my nephew just found the eggnog. G'nite."
    Jenny smiled as she listened to the message. We had just gotten home and I had insisted on making everyone prefect the Christmas decorations that we had thrown up a week or two before hand. It was too late to call back and thank him, but she assumed he'd be too busy anyway. She saved the message for us to hear later, considering we were having a few difficulties at the moment.
    "AH!! THE TREE'S FALLING!!!!!" Hannah screamed.
    "FOR THE LAST TIME, WHO HAS MY FREAKIN' CHAPSTICK?" I yelled.
    "THE DECORATIONS ARE FALLING A PART AND YOU CARE ABOUT THAT?! Cathy screeched.
    Jenny heard our commotion in the family room. She was about to come help us, when the phone rang. She picked it up, hoping Brian called back...
    "If only they had the time, or cared to spend New Year's with you..." the sick voice bellowed, before Jenny heard the dial tone, as usual. She sighed, and left to help us in our distress, trying to forget about the call.

~*~*~*~
(New Year's Eve, 1999)

    "I can't believe we're doing this, Rebecca..."
    "Will you shut up for once, Alice?" Rebecca whispered, as five figures got ready to get out of their van.
    "So what's the plan again?"
    "Christy, you can be so dense," Rebecca sighed, annoyed. "For the billionth time...you guys hide in the bushes, and I knock on the door. Make some noise, so whoever opens it steps outside. I'll slip in, and find a place to hide. When they're back to doing whatever, I'll let Katrina and Leah in. Leah'll find somewhere upstairs to hide, I'll shoot for the garage, and Katrina'll stay in the front room somehow. She'll get the animals, and you two, Alice and Christy, are gonna take them to the van so they'll be out of our way. Then stay put. Leah, Katrina, and I will deal with the girls," she finished.
    "Then what happens?" Alice asked.
    "We'll just have to see," Rebecca said as she fiddled with her bracelet, as a habit, for good luck. She pulled out the phone she was going to use...as well as a knife.
    "What is wrong with you!?" Christy exclaimed as quietly as she could when she saw the knife. "You said we're just going to scare them!"
    "This will scare them," Rebecca replied coolly, before pulling the plastic ghost mask - resembling the one from the movie Scream - over her head. She instructed the other five to do the same with their identical masks. She motioned for them to hide, and then headed towards the front door.

    "We live on popcorn," I commented as Chin plopped down beside me, a bowl, overflowing with the food, in her hands. She bounced a kernel off my head.
    "Just when there are important things on TV," she grinned. We were all settled in the family room, dressed in our pajamas, ready for the new year...and for "Show Me The Meaning" to premiere. We didn't want to bother with the stairs after staying up all night, so we had made a mimic sleepover, having spread ourselves out in blankets, sleeping bags, and pillows around the TV and couches. All the pets were somewhere in the room, if not sleeping under one of the blankets.
    "It's only 10:30 and every single channel on the freaking TV is in Times Square," Cathy groaned, hitting the remote's buttons.
    "I hate that's it's really not live...it's already the year 2000 in New York," Julie stated.
    "Eerie," Hannah laughed. "Those time zones..."
    "Did you see all the stuff they showed, like for Paris, China, and Australia?" Jenny asked.
    "Yeah, it was pretty," Chin smiled. We got into a discussion about millennium madness, when the phone rang. I got up. Chin grabbed my arm.
    "We're screening calls, remember? If they leave a message, we pick it up," she reminded me. We all looked towards the phone and heard the message machine turn on. The person hung up.
    "The freaks," Hannah muttered.
    "Trying to scare us on the eve of the millennium," Jenny continued.
    "Actually, the millennium was about three years ago-" I began.
    "Yes, we know...a monk messed up Jesus' birth by like 2 or 3 years, miss scientist," Julie laughed. I shrugged. There was a knock on the door. We looked at each other, then down the hall. Cathy got up and left to answer it.
    We hadn't left the outside lights on, so the peephole was no help. She turned them on and looked again, but saw nobody. Just to be sure, she opened the door. There was a rustle in the bushes, and stepped further out to see if anyone was there. Without being noticed, Rebecca slipped into our house, and went to hide in the garage. Cathy shook her head, and came back inside.
    "Doorbell ditchers," she muttered, entering the family room again. We dismissed it as nothing more, and continued to watch TV.

    Meanwhile, Rebecca slipped back out of the garage to the inside of the house, and quietly opened the front door. Katrina came in, and Rebecca motioned for her to hide in the living room. Leah headed up the stairs and entered the gameroom without making a sound. Katrina had already started to lure our animals  from the family room with food, without us noticing. We thought we were making too much noise for our pets as usual, and that they'd come back later. She opened the front door quietly for Christy and Alice to retrieve the animals. When they were gone, Katrina returned to her hiding spot in the living room. Rebecca smiled under her mask as she went back into the garage, closed the door to the house behind her, and turned on her phone. This was going to be good.

    "Well, Backseat Driver Nick, do you want to switch places!?" Howie exclaimed, from the driver's seat. Brian swatted Nick.
    "OW! No, I was just saying, if you had taken the turn back we passed instead, and maybe sped up a little, we'd get to the girls' house-"
    "Five minutes earlier?" Kevin finished for Nick.
    "It won't make much of a difference, man...we'll still see them," Lance said. The Boys had gotten him to come for their surprise visit as well.
    "And I have the key this time," AJ smiled.
    "Just don't trust me, or anything," Nick muttered, folding his arms.

    We were in the middle of some random discussion about fireworks when the phone rang again.
    "What if it's the guys?" Jenny asked.
    "They did say they'd call today..." Hannah remembered. "And they haven't yet."
    "But-" Chin began.
    "I'll get it, you babies," Cathy got up and reached for the phone.
    "I guess they're not coming for New Year's, huh?" a muffled voice laughed. Cathy made a face in disgust and was about to turn the phone off. "Too bad they're gonna miss out on some excitement," the voice continued. "Where are your darling pets, by the way?"
    Cathy looked at us oddly, then her eyes searched the room. We wondered why she hadn't hung up already. She motioned for us to follow her down the hall, towards the front of the house.
    "They're not here, are they?" the voice noted. Through Cathy's hand motions, we had understood that the caller was talking about our pets. By the time we had gotten to the stairs, we were huddled together.
    "Where are my kittens?" Chin asked, whispering. We didn't answer...we didn't know.
    "What do you want?" Cathy finally got the courage to speak into the phone.
    "Wouldn't you like to know?" the voice replied.
    "Why won't you leave us alone?" Hannah grabbed the phone.
    "Because you won't leave the Boys alone," the voice replied back. We shivered.
    "Who are you?!" Cathy took the phone back.
    "Your worst nightmare," the voice replied, before hanging up.
    Cathy looked at us. We held onto each other tighter.
    We looked towards the door to the garage in horror as we saw the knob turn.
    "Happy New Year." A figure emerged...resembling the psycho from Scream. A phone was in one hand, a knife gleamed in its other.
    "AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" we screamed in fright.
    Cathy dropped the phone and we split without thinking.

    Hannah, Cathy and Chin ran as fast up the stairs as their legs could carry them. Cathy tripped and Hannah frantically helped her up as they continued their ascent. Chin was out of sight by now - she had run and hidden on the balcony. They looked back to see the figure following them. They reached the second floor and Hannah ran for her life to her room. She got in and closed the door...and then realized that Cathy was no longer with her.

    Jenny, Julie, and I had turned and sprinted down the downstairs hallway. Jenny and I looked back to see the figure follow us. We turned around and Julie had disappeared from in front of us - she had run and locked herself in the guestroom. We ran for our lives for the door to the patio, trying not to slip on our socks on the wooden hallway floor.

    Cathy didn't have time to catch up to Hannah. With the figure close behind her, she turned the corner and locked herself in the game room. She held the knob as tight as she could, incase the person tried to break in. She heard a noise behind her, and turned...to see the ghost mask she thought she had just left behind emerge from behind the pool table.

    The figure made some noise behind us, and I struggled to unlock the door. Jenny was close to screaming as she kept looking behind us then back at my hands fighting with the handle. We finally got it open and ran outside, passed the porch, and turned right before we fell into the pool. We didn't notice the figure quietly close the door and stay in the house.

    Meanwhile, Rebecca had run down the upstairs hallway, not knowing which room Hannah had run into, knowing Cathy would have "fun" with Leah in the gameroom. Something caught her eye on the balcony. The window was partly covered by thin curtains - Rebecca could see a silhouette that was cast by the moonlight. She headed for the balcony to get a closer look. It seemed to be a plant...and something else. Rebecca hoped it was one of us, and not a pet that Katrina had forgotten. The closer she got, the more sure she became...Chin was in the corner on the terrace, her back to the hallway, huddled in front of a plant we had placed outside. Rebecca headed towards her, rage burning inside her. AJ is MINE, she told herself.

    "There's the street," Nick spoke up, pointing ahead.
    "Yes, thank you, Nick," Howie shot back. Almost everyone was getting tired of the blond one's eagerness.
    "Looks like everyone is having New Year's Eve parties," Kevin commented, looking at all the cars lining the streets. They took no special notice of the black van that was close to our house.

    Hannah poked her head out of her room, and saw the cloaked figure to her right, heading towards the balcony. Without thinking, she left her room, and made a beeline to the gameroom. Rebecca turned around, but didn't bother following. Hannah reached the door and pounded on it when she couldn't turn the handle.
    "Lemme in! Lemme in!" she whispered frantically.
    "Lemme out! Lemme OUT!!!!" Cathy screamed, opening the door.
    She grabbed Hannah, who saw a glimpse of the figure she thought was by the balcony, and ran to her room, which was just a few feet away. With both of them in, Cathy slammed the door, thanking the heavens that there was a lock on it. Hannah ran to the bathroom that connected her room with Cathy's and locked that door as well. Leah had taken her time to get to Cathy's door, and just for the hell of it, pounded on it a few times. The two girls jumped onto Cathy's bed in the darkness and held onto each other for dear life when they heard the noise from the door.

    Chin stiffened when she heard the balcony door open. Rebecca smiled under her mask, slowly pushing the curtain behind her. If the girl didn't know she was there, a surprise attack would be perfect.
    Chin took a deep breath and stood up. She turned around, ready to face the figure, and whatever else that was coming. Rebecca lunged at Chin, when she noticed her plan of sneaking up on the girl was ruined. In a split second, something that Cathy and I had once taught Chin kicked in. Rebecca landed on Chin, ready to beat her to the ground...but Chin flipped her over and off the balcony in one motion.
    ...Chin blinked. What had she done?
    She heard a splash from the pool. She looked over the balcony and noticed the mask floating up in the moonlight. She sank back down into her corner and shivered.

    "I wonder if they're still awake," Lance stretched as Howie pulled the Boys' rented van up into our driveway.
    "Probably, considering it's New Year's Eve," Brian unbuckled his belt.
    "Hope we didn't miss them watching the video yet," AJ grinned, as he slid open the side door of the van.

    Julie stuck her head out into the hallway, having heard Jenny and me. She scolded herself for being selfish and locking herself in the room without us. She didn't want to think about what might have happened to us, but looked out just the same. She saw the figure to her left, at the door to the patio. Without a thought, she ran out of the room to the right, heading for what she realized was the garage door.
    Katrina spun around and ran after Julie. She almost tripped on the phone that lay in the hallway that Cathy had dropped when we had split up. Julie got into the garage, and slammed the door after her. She knew there wasn't a lock from her side, so she held onto the knob as hard as she could. Katrina thought it was enough, but just in case, locked the door...then headed back towards the patio when she thought she heard a splash. Leah met her at the stairs. Julie soon realized she was stuck...alone in the dark garage.
 
 

-->Chapter Fifteen: ...Lemme.Hear.You.Scream [CONTINUED]
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