Alex's New Life: Next Generation Chapter 13
Time to catch up with the gang at Halloween. Don't forget to donate as usual to keep reading this and more https://donate.nifty.org/
Chapter 13
\\\ Ben ///
I'd never felt anger like that before. I was more shocked than angry when Nick told us what his dad had done in the past, but seeing the anguish that he was going through now, because of that bastard, made me want to track Brandon down and beat the shit out of him. After Nick had calmed down some more Josh apologised to Nick for being rude to him earlier and told him he'd be welcome back at the farm any time he wanted to come over. Alex then offered to take him home with Sammie along for the ride, leaving me behind with Lucas and Josh.
When Sammie returned home we decided to head into town to meet up with the Fleeks to work out a plan. We didn't know if Brandon would ever show up but we decided that we didn't want to leave Nick alone just in case. There was only one more week of school left before the October half term break so it would be easy enough to keep tabs on him while we were there. Danny and I would walk to and from school with him every day; while anyone who was in a class with him would make sure they walked to and from that class with him as much as they could. We weren't too worried about anything happening in the school building but any time we were away from there we'd stick to him like glue.
Uncle Luke also made sure to be around them a lot more, which he didn't mind at all as he and Summer seemed to be infatuated with each other. He also wanted to build a relationship with Nick as they could end up living under the same roof if all went well. We didn't need to worry though as nothing untoward happened during the week. As the days wore on we started to forget about keeping Nick secure, and just hung out as a big group of friends. The main topic of the week soon turned to the Halloween fright night and what the teachers would have instore for us in their house of horrors this year. We already knew it was going to be some sort of genetics lab but we didn't know what type of monsters or scares they'd use on us.
We tried a couple of times to sneak a peek through the doors to the performing arts block but all the windows were blacked out. The teachers would also use lesson times to sneak in any props or decorations they'd need so that no one was around to see them. We did get to see how the auditorium was shaping up though, and it seemed to be tied in with the lab theme. There was biohazard tape everywhere as well as warning signs and anything else they could use to make it look less like a school. By the end of the week the lighting rig was up and the place was all set for the dance, all that was left was the DJ (not Josh of course) to kick out some tunes and it would be a fun night.
When it finally came to the night we were all probably far too excited for it than we should have been at our age. I couldn't help it though, my dad owned a bunch of comic shops for crying out loud and his best friends used to cosplay in some awesome costumes, some of which take pride of place in the different stores. I knew Lucas and Sammie were looking forward to it as their grandma, who had always helped her mother create Josh and Alex's costumes over the years, had come back to town to help us get our own costumes ready. Danny and I got a lift from Uncle Luke to Nick's house as he was helping to chaperone the night with Summer. The school always asked for parents to volunteer as some of the teachers were in the house of horrors, scaring the crap out of us, so they needed a few extra people around to keep things in order.
When we arrived Nick was already in his costume but I was less than impressed with it. He was meant to be a zombie but the clothes were far too...neat. The trousers were ok but his shirt had some rather precise looking cuts in it which just looked crap, so after digging out an older shirt from his wardrobe I set about tearing it up a bit more roughly before taking the whole outfit into the garden to dirty it up a bit. When he finally tried it on it all looked much more authentic, all he needed to complete it was the makeup. He showed me some cheap, crappy stuff he'd bought but luckily I had brought some of my own.
Over the years I'd learned how to do some pretty good scars and welts so I put a few of those on his face and arms, as well as making his skin look pastier. After I was done he looked pretty good, and I was able to show him how to do the scars as well so he could help me with my own makeup. This year Sammie and I were going as Joker and Harley Quinn so I'd gotten a pretty decent looking purple suit made up and used some temporary green hair dye to complete the look. Once the makeup was done I looked pretty awesome. Finally we turned to Danny, who had decided to go as Chuckie from the Child's Play movies. All he really needed was a stripy shirt, some dungarees and a red wig and he was all set, although after seeing Nick's scars he decided he wanted a few as well.
Once we were all done Uncle Luke drove us all to the school where we were going to meet up with everyone else. I knew what Lucas and Sammie were going as but I wasn't sure about Tom and Noah. I had a pretty good idea what to expect from Jamie, even though I hoped this year would be different. When we parked up you could see kids everywhere in all sorts of different costumes, some people were easier to recognise than others though as some of the masks completely obscured their faces.
We agreed to meet near our lockers as it would be too loud in the main hall so we all hung out there until the others arrived. Noah was the first to arrive dressed as a ghost, but rather than the usual sheet with holes in he actually dressed like he was from Victorian times, except that the costume and his skin was all pretty much white. Aaron was with him dressed as a ghostly pirate in much the same way. As quickly as he came to greet us he dashed off into the main hall to find his friends while we waited around for the others. Lucas and Sammie arrived pretty soon and their costumes were incredible. I thought Nick made a pretty good zombie but Lucas had decided to go with the same type of costume and it looked so much better, he even had pus oozing from his scars and wore contact lenses that made his eyes look milky.
Sammie on the other hand had dyed her hair blond and wore a figure hugging, leather outfit, complete with buckles and chains all over, just like Harley wore in the Arkham games. Seeing her dressed like that was a major turn on and even though I'd been worried about smudging my makeup I suddenly didn't care. I pulled her into a passionate kiss – well ok, she let me pull her into a kiss – and I could hear Lucas groaning in the background.
"I knew I should've made you wear something else tonight." Lucas said.
"You could've tried little bro but you know it wouldn't have ended well." She replied with a smirk when we broke apart.
"You're 8 minutes older than me and you know I've never been smaller than you." Lucas replied in a huff. I found myself feeling very fortunate that I'd never been around these two when they'd fought each other, although I could quite imagine Lucas being the bigger sibling when they did.
"Jeez, you two are as bad as my dad and uncle." I added with a chuckle. Before any more could be said I suddenly heard Danny burst out laughing and when we turned to see why we all cracked up. Tom had arrived with a cheap looking rabbit outfit but with tyre tracks and blood stains across the body as well as what looked like organs hanging out in random places.
"Ok, so tonight I learnt the importance of looking both ways before crossing the road." He said as he came over, making us laugh even harder. Jamie was the last one to join us and his costume certainly lived up to my expectations. As usual he turned up in his normal clothes, only this year he had a cap on saying Teen Wolf and a little sticker on his chest saying `Hello I'm...A Werewolf." Nick took one look at him and I could see he was completely bewildered.
"Really? This again?" I asked.
"What're you supposed to be?" Lucas asked.
"A werewolf, see? It says so right here." Jamie replied, bursting with pride as he pointed to his sticker.
"Aren't werewolves...you know, hairier?" Nick chimed in.
"Well yeah." A big smile crept over Jamie's face. "But it's not a full moon tonight."
"For cryin' out loud, this is nearly as lame as last year." Tom complained, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.
"What was wrong with last year?" Lucas asked.
"He wore pretty much the same thing but with two drops of blood on his neck claiming he'd just been bitten by a vampire and was going to turn sometime soon." I said.
"Yeah, so?" He still looked confused.
"So he still hasn't turned into a vampire a whole fucking year later!!" Tom shouted and I saw Nick and the others burst out laughing, even though Tom was still mad at Jamie.
We all followed the sound of the thumping music into the auditorium where Mr Evans was up on the stage as the DJ for the whole thing, clearly having acquired an awesome lighting rig from some of his dad's contacts. There was a buffet table set up near the back of the hall with enough snacks to feed a small army, or Lucas and Sammie's family; and we could see a couple of teachers and a few parents dotted around the dance floor, keeping an eye on everything. We were told the tours of the house of horrors would start in about twenty minutes so we all decided to hit the dance floor, with Lucas and his friends impressing everybody whenever a song came on that they'd done choreography for in the past. Lucas even went to request a song with a pretty easy dance routine and soon had the whole crowd joining in. It was so easy to lose track of time and before we knew it some people had left the dance floor to take their turn in the house of horrors so we decided it was about time we went for it.
When we reached the main corridor to the performing arts building we were told we would be going in groups of twelve, so that meant we would be joining up with another, smaller group to make up the numbers. There were quite a few individuals and groups of kids in the corridor, all waiting for their turn to go through, so the teachers moved people together to form the different tour parties. Eventually there was me, Sammie, Tom, Lucas, Danny, Noah, Jamie and Nick, together with another guy from my geography class called Robbie Jacobs and his friend, and then two other random kids made up the numbers. One was dressed like Michael Myers while the other dressed as Jason Voorhees but I wasn't too sure who they were underneath the masks, I just assumed they knew each other as they had similar taste in costumes. Hopefully they didn't scream too much in this place. Soon enough Miss Hardcastle, one of the science teachers, arrived to be our tour guide and we eagerly got underway.
When it was our turn to enter the house of horrors I was actually surprised at how much effort had gone into it. Even though there were monitors and scientific equipment everywhere you could still see little hints to the music rooms or where they hadn't quite covered up the sign for the wardrobe department properly. All in all though it looked a lot like a proper lab facility. They even had videos playing on big monitors which were meant to be windows into the different labs, showing various scientists conducting experiments and moving samples around. The initial part of the tour consisted of us being taken around the ground floor of the facility and the story was that they were working on a cure for a disease, which you could see them testing on various animals in the labs, although Miss Hardcastle did break character for a minute to assure us that no animals were actually being harmed in the facility.
The tour then took us upstairs where they showed us one lab, again through a window which was really just a video screen. Inside that lab was where they did the animal testing and as we looked on we briefly saw one of the rats bite a scientist, who then started to have a reaction to it. Other scientists quickly rushed to help but it looked like it was fatal. When we were ushered along there was suddenly a strange growl from the lab behind us. Looking back we saw the supposedly dead scientist rise up again and start attacking the other scientists. It was pretty graphic as well because blood was splattering up the `window' as the scientist bit into them. Miss Hardcastle swiftly ushered us along so they could seal off the area and as we hurried down the corridor the lights abruptly went out.
We stood there in the pitch black for a few seconds and heard a few grunts and groans coming from the corridor we just came from. When the emergency lights came on we could see what looked like a couple of zombie doctors shuffling around at the end of the corridor. Miss Hardcastle quietly ushered us into another corridor – which was actually the dance studio divided up by some false walls – but as the last member of the party was just getting to the door the `zombies' suddenly noticed us and started running straight at us, screaming and snarling as they came barrelling down the corridor. We quickly barricaded the door with a couple of tables but then heard more grunting from behind one of the false walls they'd set up to make the room seem smaller. Miss Hardcastle signalled for us to keep quiet as we started to sneak through the corridors, keeping a listen out for noises as we went. The only lighting in the corridors was from the red, emergency beacons flashing all around us and, even though I knew this was all fake, it was still pretty scary wondering what was going to happen next.
Soon we rounded one corner to be greeted by one of the infected scientists looking straight at us. As it readied itself to charge at us we jumped out of our skins when there was a loud bang behind us and we turned to see a security guard with a gun, although obviously a fake one, firing shots at the scientist. As that one dropped to the ground there were more snarls and groans coming from all around us. The security guard shouted for us to run and we were soon dodging through the corridors behind Miss Hardcastle as more shots rang out behind us. The corridors were pretty dark and still only illuminated by the red, flashing lights which added to the urgency. There was a fire exit on this floor that had emergency stairs leading back into the main school building so we were all directed that way. At the bottom of the staircase was a door leading into the school as well as an exit to the outside. We followed Miss Hardcastle into the school building and as we did there were more `zombies' coming at us from the sides, with security guards jumping out of nowhere to protect us.
Finally we made it out of the facility and into the main building where we were told it was all safe again. My heart was absolutely pounding as, even though it was fake, they still made you want to run for your lives. As we stood there catching our breath, Uncle Luke and Summer came up to see how scared we were.
"So how was it? Anyone need a change of underwear?" Luke grinned.
"Holy shit that was better than last year." I exclaimed. Looking around I could see the others breathing hard as the adrenaline started to wear off, and even Lucas looked like his heart was racing.
"That's the first time I've been through one of those, and I think possibly the last." Lucas said. "I nearly punched one of those security guards when he jumped out in front of me. What did you think Nick?" We turned around to see what he'd say but quickly realised he wasn't with us.
"Wait, where is he?" Jamie asked.
"Probably went to empty his underwear." Tom replied.
"No, he would've had to go past his mum to go to the toilets. And where's Danny?" I looked around our tour group to see that we'd also lost another member. Whoever was dressed as Michael Myers had gone missing as well. I suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. I quickly grabbed my phone to call Danny and when it connected I could hear him running and Nick shouting in the background. "Danny what the fuck is going on?!? Where are you?!?"
"GET OUTSIDE, NOW!!! HE'S GOT NICK!!" The call quickly disconnected but I knew exactly what Danny meant. Brandon was here.