Story Night Read online



  Story Night

  Every year, a small group of friends get together on October 30th. It was the anniversary of the death of one their old friends and a coincidence that Halloween came the next day. The group kept the two days separate out of respect. In fact they skipped Halloween altogether. This would be the first year that things would be different.

  Pete, Reece, and Blake all gathered at Jack and Erin’s house this year. Shannon and Greg had yet to come in from Chicago like they always did. Shannon was known as the ringleader of the crew, which was why the night had yet to start. Greg was in charge of incessant grumbling and his absence was why everyone was still cheery. Greg never liked ‘the tradition’.

  “Don’t forget to play at least one game.” Shannon told Reece on the phone. “You have to make sure. Tell Erin.”

  Reece said she would and hung up.

  “They’re no shows tonight.” Reece announced, straightening her short red hair. “She sounded like something was bothering her though. I guess she’ll probably call back if she needs us for something.”

  “I told you they weren’t coming. I just had this weird feeling.” Pete reached into the fridge for another beer. His facial expressions could sometimes be as dark as his hair if he didn’t have a fresh drink in his hands, which was all too common. He extracted a Sierra Nevada, popped the top and began drinking. Everything would be okay for Pete. They had plenty of adult beverages.

  Jack looked down at the table full of games. Shannon had made him go out a few days before and get everything from Operation to Monopoly. Now that she wasn’t coming… drinking and watching Monday Night Football seemed a lot more appealing. He began picking up the games when Erin stopped him.

  “We’ll still play one. For Adam.”

  Jack looked at the brown haired young woman and saw there was no arguing with his wife. They had been together since freshmen year and he had learned a couple things in all that time. “Alright. For Adam.” He took out the one game he was curious to play: the Real Game of Life, then set aside the rest. He’d been dying to play it since he had bought it online.

  “Touchdown!” Blake shouted from the other room.

  Jack went to go run and check it out when Erin stopped him. His eyes begged her to let him go, but to no avail. She yelled toward the living room, “Turn it off Blake and join us.”

  There was silence for a moment then, “Fine.” The sound of the game clicked off.

  Blake came back, still happy his team had scored, but also ready to get the tradition on and over with. “Let’s do this.” Pete tossed him a Sam Adams as he sat down with everyone.

  Jack unfolded the game and set everything up.

  Everyone got situated. Pete sat back and worked on his beer. Blake set his drink aside momentarily to make sure his muscles were displayed through his tight polo shirt. Reece absentmindedly curled and uncurled her hair, still dressed up from her job as a secretary. Erin wore a Sac State sweatshirt and jeans and helped Jack set up. Jack was in a blue and red flannel, jeans and a 49ers hat. He set weights on the sides of the plastic board so it wouldn’t move as things usually got rowdy when they all got together.

  “You can do drugs in this game?” Reece said, looking amused.

  Blake laughed, “I like it.”

  Before they started, Erin made an announcement. “Remember what this night is about guys. It’s been fifteen years since we lost Adam. We will always miss him.” She raised her Corona Light. “To Adam.”

  “To Adam.” Everyone repeated.

  The game was fun and everyone died one by one before reaching the end. Blake got addicted to Heroin until he finally died from it. Jack almost made it but the radiation poisoning he got early on caught up with him. Most got to the old folks home and never got out.

  All in all, they all had fun playing.

  The tradition was usually an all-night thing, but Shannon wasn’t there to enforce it. It had begun on the first anniversary of Adam’s death and had continued on. Back then Shannon and Adam had been a thing and she made sure they never forgot to pay their respects. Adam’s favorite thing in the world was to be with his friends playing board games, mostly because he was so good at them. He would destroy anyone at Chess. And so that’s how they honored his memory. They never talked about the hit-and-run itself. There was no need to relive that.

  “Aww, it’s over now.” Blake said from the living room again.

  “What was the score?” Jack asked when Blake came back.

  “Bears won by a field goal in overtime.”

  “Sounds like it was a good game.” Erin made sure her words were laced with sarcasm. She wouldn’t let them guilt-trip her for honoring Adam.

  Blake added quickly, “I can miss one game for Adam.” He stuck his tongue out at Erin like he did when he was a kid.

  Erin ignored him, finished putting the game away, and looked up at Jack. “So if we’re not going to play games all night, what are we going to do?”

  Jack shrugged.

  “Let’s tell ghost stories.” Pete, who’d been brooding all night, seemed to brighten at his recommendation. “Doesn’t it just feel like we should for some reason?”

  “You know the rules.” Erin chastised him. “We celebrate the two days separately. If Shannon were here, she’d kill you.”

  “Shannon isn’t here. C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

  For some reason… it did feel appropriate this one time.

  “I think we should.” Pete kept on. “At the very least, we’ll share one each.”

  “I like this.” Blake chimed in. He looked like if he couldn’t have football, he can have the next best thing: scaring his friends.

  “But I don’t know any.” Reece was playing with her copper hair again.

  “Everybody knows one. It can be something strange that happened to you. It doesn’t have to be long.” Blake added. He didn’t wait for her answer just pointed and said, “Reece is in.”

  She grimaced at him.

  “I know a good one.” Jack joined in.

  “So it’s settled.” Pete concluded. “Majority rules.”

  Erin looked around and saw she was suddenly outnumbered. She would get on her husband later for not backing her up. “I don’t like it, but alright.”

  Pete clapped and went back to the fridge. “Anyone need another?” He didn’t wait for an answer and grabbed a bunch. He went to the living room and set them on the coffee table. “You can’t tell scary stories without alcohol.”

  Everyone else followed him in and took seats. Reece and Erin took the love seat. Blake took the Lay-Z-Boy. Jack turned on the electric switch for the fire and joined Pete on the sofa which completed a good story telling circle.

  ●

  “Okay, I’ll start.” Pete said excitedly. “This isn’t a story per se, but it’s something that happened to me.” He looked around and when no one objected, he began, “So, I came home from school one day to my old house.”

  “The two-story one on the hill?” Blake asked.

  “Yup.”

  “That reminds me now,” Reece smiled. “I do have a story about that house actually.”

  “Well, it’s not this one. I haven’t told this to anyone except for my little brother Matt.” He paused to sip his beer. “So obviously a couple of us know that that house his haunted or heard it was.”

  There were a couple nods from the others.

  “So I came home. Alone, of course. I was downstairs making myself some celery with peanut butter snacks when I heard a noise. It sounded innocent enough. It was just a door closing. The house had that happen all the time. It wasn’t drafty though. It was just something that occurred. So, I ignored it when I
heard something crash. It was faint but I could tell it had come from upstairs. Now I thought maybe Matt had forgotten his house keys and was trying to get through his bedroom window, but I knew it was too early for him to be home yet. I could feel a chill run down my spine. I knew I had to check it out, so I slowly went up the stairs. My brother’s door was open and I could see he wasn’t there. So it wasn’t him after all. I went past my mom’s door and sure enough it was empty too. Then I see my door. It’s closed. It must have been the first thing I had heard. I turned the handle and let I let it slide all the way open. Immediately I see what had made the noise. Half on my bed, half on the floor at the foot of my bed, was my Green Bay Packer’s puzzle. It looked like it had burst open. I went further inside and saw that my closet door was open. And I never left it open. I realized I was scared but I had to know. Sure enough, where I kept the puzzle underneath all my other crap was a puzzle shaped hole at the bottom.”

  “Whaaat?” Blake interrupted.

  “Ya. Something had taken it out from underneath and thrown it all over. It wasn’t like it was sitting up somewhere high and fell. I double checked.”

  “But most likely, that’s what happened.” Erin chipped in.

  Jack could tell she was just trying to comfort herself. “Easy babe.” Jack told her.

  Blake scoffed. “That one was alright, but here’s one that’s actually scary.”

  “Did I say I was done?” Pete asked him.

  “I just figured…”

  Pete smiled. “Ya I was