Category : Stories

Sub Category : Horror

Today was my eighteenth birthday which most would usually be excited about right? Not me, birthdays were never really that important to me and I never really understood why they were celebrated. “Hey you managed to stay alive another whole year here’s some gifts and a cake. Now make a wish and blow out the candle!” just didn’t make sense to me.

I was now at school and got air dropped a photo, it was of me putting in my locker combo. It was from an unsaved contact and was followed by a 

“Happy birthday Matty” 

text then another air drop. This one was a video. I clicked it and it began to play a very strange, unrecognizable noise and then at the end was a loud bang.

“Who’s messing with me?” I wondered looking up and down the hallway trying to scope out anyone staring at me but there was nothing.

SLAM!

My locker was thrown shut just missing the tips of my fingers. “Happy birthday ass hat” my best friend Gordon said taking his hand off my locker door. 

“Here I got you something.”

“I don’t-“

“Yeah, yeah you don’t do the whole birthday crap I get it but just open the damn thing” Gordon said taking his backpack off his shoulder, unzipping it and pulling out something wrapped. 

“This is wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper.”

“Yeah and?”

“It’s the middle of sum- you know what never mind” I said taking the gift from him, reopening my locker and throwing it in. “I’ll open it at the end of the day alright” I told him and he raised his hands and made a gesture that said “alright.”

“Hey well you’re here harassing me, did you air drop me weird stuff and send me a text from a different number?” I questioned him.

He smiled and right as I was about to laugh and give him a light shove to the shoulder calling him a jackass he said “no man, you’re so weird. Why would I go out of my way to do that I got better things to do. What kind of weird stuff though like something flirty or kinky maybe?” continuing to smirk. 

“I wish that’s what it was but no.”

“What then?” 

“They sent me a text saying happy birthday-“

“Oh wow not a happy birthday text.”

“Not just that you idiot, it was with a picture of me from down the hall and a dark video with weird noises.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing man, probably just that weird girl stalking you still, remind me why’d you never hook up with her again?”

“Holly Rivera. Sorry but I don’t find girls attractive that leave notes in my locker and coincidentally end up everywhere I go whether it’s the market or the park or my own street when I’m pretty sure she lives across town.”

“I don’t know dude, it’s kinda hot she wants you so bad” Gordon laughed and slapped me on the back before leaving down the hall then pointing back and shouting “don’t forget to open the gift.” I rolled my eyes just before the bell rang and headed to science which was probably the only thing I would look forward to today. I wasn’t necessarily good at it I just enjoyed the experiments and lessons but most of all Mrs. Whitlock. My oh my Mrs. Whitlock…she was something else. Her long curly blonde hair, her smooth silk legs, her bright blue welcoming eyes, the tattoo of a butterfly on her ankle and the jugs on this woman oh my lord. Without a doubt she was the woman of my dreams, definitely the reason I was doing a victory lap and I really thought I’d marry her some day even though she was ten years older than me. 

Out of no where I heard another airdrop notification muffled by my jeans. I pulled out my phone and seen a picture of me taken from the classroom door then another text.

“Shouldn’t you be focused on the lesson and not drooling all over Mrs. Whitlock Matty?” 

Worried and a bit annoyed I decided to do what I should’ve done in the first place, I texted this unsaved number back.

“Who the hell is this and why are you messing with me?”

“Hmm who could I be Matty? Why don’t you just take a little guess.”

“No you’re going to tell me along with how the hell you got my number.”

“Nope doesn’t work like that Matty. Where’s all the fun in that, don’t you like fun? I thought you’d enjoy a happy birthday text. Besides you should know exactly who I am.”

“Look I don’t know if you’re screwing with me but I don’t find it funny whatsoever and if you don’t leave me alone I’ll call the police.” 

“Matty, Matty, Matty, you don’t want to do that.” 

The number texted and then I received another airdrop. It was someone’s gloved hand holding a kitchen knife up to my cat Juno which must’ve been in my backyard. We occasionally let her out in the backyard since she’s fixed we seen no harm in it. I was frozen and all I could hear was a ringing in my ears but then all I could hear was my heart thumping fast and hard, so fast I could’ve sworn it would jump out of my throat and then another text.

“What’s the matter, cats got your tongue? Well you even so much as dial a 9 and I’ll have Junos.” 

“How could they of moved so fast from the school to my house?” I thought as I stared at the photo before realizing it wasn’t even taken today. Juno was wearing her old collar that my family and I assumed had broken then fallen off when we let her outside so we replaced it over two days ago. It was then Mrs. Whitlock noticed me on my phone and stopped in the middle of her lesson.

“Matty put your phone away now before I take it away.”

“But I-“

“No buts” she said crossing her arms and I locked my phone sliding it back into my pocket. I gazed around the room as my heart continued to pound but there was nobody watching me or acting shady so I had no one to suspect. No one except one person that is, Holly Rivera. The bell rang to end first period and I rushed out of the classroom and into the halls as fast as I could to go find this psycho bitch. I pushed through crowds of people and finally found her getting a coffee in the cafeteria before the next period would start. I sped walked up to her as she took a sip from her coffee and then gave me a creepy smile so I smacked the hot beverage out of her hand onto the floor.

“What are you doing?!”

“I know it’s you messaging me and I’m not scared of you reject. You text me again or come near my house or cat again and it won’t end so nicely for you!”

“What are you talking about you crazy asshole? I don’t have your number and I didn’t even know you had a cat.”

“Don’t lie to me, you’ve been obsessed with me for two years now. I’ve seen you follow me around town and even caught you on my street when you live no where near me but nice try.” 

“Obsessed with you? No you idiot I’ve had the biggest crush on you forever and you’re too much of a dumb ass to see it. You’re right I do live no where near you, my uncle lives on your street and I sometimes babysit my cousins on the weekends.”

What she was saying kind of made sense, I didn’t know what to say and l looked around to see everybody laughing or shocked at how I was acting. Looking back at Holly she began to cry and stomped off with her best friend Ciara flipping me off and running after her. What had I just done? Embarrassed and broke the heart of the only girl who probably would ever like me and made myself look like a psycho in front of my school. I ran out of the cafeteria and passed Gordon who asked “What the hell was that about?”

I ran to my locker, put in my combo as quick as possible and grabbed my backpack along with Gordon’s gift and then ran out of school. I took the bus to and from school which took about fifteen minutes so it’d take a bit longer to walk home but I didn’t mind at all. As long as I was far away from school I didn’t care and just wanted to get home and go under my blankets and never come out of my room again. It wasn’t Holly so who else could it be? I thought about it for the entire walk home and couldn’t come up with anything at all. I always stuck to myself and never had any enemies, at least none that I knew of. I got home instantly running into my mom who was a bit mad I skipped school and came home but I think between it being my birthday and the look on my face she knew something was wrong and didn’t punish me. I went to my room closing the door behind me and just sat on my bed, then the sound of another airdrop and it was a video of my altercation with Holly.

“Wow that’s really embarrassing Matty, you really made a fool out of yourself huh?”

I ignored the text and scrolled up through the message to the video they sent me and listened to it on repeat. I began to hear that the audio sounded almost as if it was in reverse or something so I downloaded an app that flips videos and I was right. The video was in reverse and what I heard raddled my bones, at first all you hear is that big bang that sounded exactly like a gun shot. Then a few seconds of silence and someone speaking with a deep voice filter.

“Matty…I’ve waited sooo long to tell you the truth. We’ve been apart for what feels like forever but we will be together again and I’ll kill anyone who gets in the way, that I promise you.”

What could any of that even mean? I was so lost and confused and just terrified. I wanted to tell my mother so badly but this unknown psycho said if I called the cops he’d kill Juno so I don’t wanna risk telling my mom either. A couple hours had passed now and school was over, mom had called me for dinner but I told her I wasn’t hungry and when she asked what was wrong I insisted it was nothing. Probably an hour after my parents had finished eating dinner I heard a knock at my door, my mom came in and gave me a gift.

“I know you hate birthdays but I just went out and got you it last minute because I knew something was bothering you” she said as I held the bag stuffed with tissue paper. I opened it and found a geode, I used to love them growing up but lost the few I had when I was younger through our last move.

“Thanks mom, I love it a lot.”

“Happy birthday honey” she said and smiled before leaving. This ended up being the highlight of my entire day which was pretty ironic from how much I hated birthdays and gifts. Half an hour later I heard another knock at the door.

“Matty, your friend Gordon came to see you and make sure you were okay” my mom yelled through my door. I walked over and opened the door waving him to come in.

“Thanks mom.”

“No problem honey and it’s nice to meet you Gordon, Matty never brings any friends home.”

“Nice to meet you too Mrs. Remington” Gordon said as my mom closed the door behind her. 

“Sorry about my mom being weird.”

“No, no it’s cool man don’t worry about it. Now are you gonna tell me what the hell happened today?” Gordon said as he took a seat in my computer chair to face me sitting on my bed. I know I couldn’t call the police and I didn’t want to risk telling my mom but for some reason I felt safe telling Gordon about this. 

“Look dude, what I’m about to tell you can never leave this room alright It’s a matter of life and death.”

“Woah! Life and death?! You’re starting to scare me man.”

“Listen you’re either in or you’re out and if you’re out I’d prefer if you left right now.”

“Alright man, I’m in but if I end up dead I’ll kill you” Gordon said with a laugh and then he became silent so I could tell him what I wanted to get off my chest. About twenty minutes went by and it felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders, I was so thankful to not be the only one who knew anymore. 

“I don’t even know what to say man, and you can’t call the police?”

“No, no police and you can’t either.”

“Okay so what do we do then?”

“I don’t…I don’t know to be honest” and suddenly the weight that lifted was slowly coming back. Sure it felt nice not being the only one who knew about what was going on but we still didn’t have a solution.

“Look man, it’s getting late so I should get home but I promise you we’ll meet up tomorrow during lunch break and we’ll figure this out.”

“Screw that man I’m not going to school tomorrow, not after what happened today I’m not goi-“

“Chill out man. I talked to Holly and she was just as confused as I was and she told me she wasn’t going to hold a grudge or anything against you. She said you seemed really freaked out and she was just worried about you.”

“Really?”

“Yes and if anyone bothers you about it tomorrow I’ll kick their ass, alright?” 

“Yeah alright man.”

“Good now before I go what’d you think of my gift?” Gordon asked awaiting an answer I couldn’t give him.

“Crap dude I completely forgot to even open it I’m so sorry, just with everything going on-“

“Hey don’t sweat it. Now I can see you open it and get your reaction!” Gordon said. I thought why not and started digging though my backpack to find it, I pulled it out and he nodded at me to open it. This was a new record for me, opening two gifts on my birthday and actually enjoying it. I ripped it open and was confused and then once I realized what it was I was scared, it was Juno’s old collar. Gordon had never even been to my house before or met Juno so I didn’t know what to think. I looked up and seen him holding the geode my mother got me.

“What is this?” I asked hoping he could give me some type of explanation but he just smiled and then swung that big crystal rock to the side of my head and things went black. I woke up unable to move in a dark room with loud music playing. The music was so loud I could barely even hear myself scream so I knew nobody else would hear me. Then all of a sudden I bounced and I realized I wasn’t in a room, I was in a trunk. Time went by and it felt like eternity before the music stopped and the vehicle came to a halt. I heard a door open and then close, footsteps dragging across gravel and then the trunk popped open. All I seen was Gordon standing over me with the moon being the only source of light revealing half his face. I looked down at myself to see I was tied in rope and there was a handgun beside me, out of fear tears started to fall from my eyes.

“What did you do Gordon? What did you do!”

“I did what I did so I could be the only one in your life to tell you the truth!”

“What the fuck are you talking about you psychopath?!” I screamed from the trunk and Gordon opened his mouth to shout again but stopped and collected himself. He pulled me out of the trunk and threw me to the gravel then pulled the handgun out and stashed in the waist of his pants. 

“You really don’t know do you? Well then let me take you back to the very beginning. I’m your brother and your mom didn’t want me because she cheated on your father and he wouldn’t let her keep me. So rather than get an abortion she gave birth to me and dropped me off at an orphanage.”

“You’re lying!”

“No Matty but I wish I was, I really do. See I was unwanted so I was given up for adoption by our whore mother and then went through family after family of not wanting me until finally I ended up in the home of step daddy Ricky who you never met.”

“How would I have met him? You never brought me to your house.”

“That’s a bit hypocritical don’t you think Matty.” It was weird to think about the fact that me and Gordon had been friends all throughout high school and never once went to each others houses or told our families about one another.

“Now let me tell you about Ricky, the scum sucking bastard who made my life a living hell! He had me for seven years and abused me every single damn day, slap me, punch me, put cigarettes out on me. That’s all over now though Matty because he’s dead.”

“That- that gun shot in the video you sent me that was…”

“Yup that was good old Ricky finally getting what he deserves. Now when I snuck back into the orphanage five years ago I couldn’t track down my father because he wasn’t in my files but our dear mommy was. When I went to your house and seen how happy all of you guys were it lit a fire in me Matty. I wanted to kill you but then when I met you, you didn’t even know who I was.”

“Why didn’t you just come to us, we would’ve invited you into our home and made you a part of our family.”

“Would you of? Because I don’t think it would’ve been that easy. That’s why I took my time and was patient just for enough time so I could learn everything I needed to and waited until your eighteenth birthday. I figured it’d be the perfect time to do what I’ve been waiting for all these years. I took the collar off that stupid cat and was tempted to kill it but I didn’t want to hurt you because you were so attached to the damn thing I just needed something to tip you off. That’s why I wrapped the collar and knew you wouldn’t open it until after school. Don’t worry I brought her with us” Gordon said as he reached into the back of the car and brought Juno out and began to pet her. 

“Your family on the other hand, they had to die.”

“No you’re lying, It’s not true!”

“Oh don’t worry I made your mother’s death quick but your asshole of a father…well let’s just say I can’t say the same for him” Gordon said with a smirk. More tears began to roll down my face as I cried, tied up and unable to move, nothing to live for anymore. He stood me up and showed me where we were, it was an old abandoned house.

“You see this place here? This is our home, this is where I used to go when I’d run away from the orphanage after every family would bring me back. You see I knew I was special and destined for something Matty and it was you.”

“You’re fucking crazy man, what you just thought you’d kill my family and bring me and my cat here and we’d live some kind of happy life? You’re never gonna get away with this!”

“I think I already did Matty and I thought you might be a little hard to convince that this is the life you needed at first so let me show you where you’ll be staying.” Gordon pointed the gun at me to move and I didn’t budge, I had nothing to live for anymore what was the point? Then he pointed the gun at Juno so I began to move into the run down dump. He shoved me down the stairs and flicked a light switch that led to a bulb which somehow still worked. All I seen was a cage in the corner of the room with a mattress on the floor and a bucket.

“I’m not going in there.”

“You either get in their willingly or I force you in and you’ll never see this cat again” Gordon threatened. I took a deep breath and walked in then he told me to lay stomach down and he began cutting the ropes. I thought about making a move but he quickly tied some of the rope around my ankles for myself to untie, he then threw Juno at me and slammed the cage shut. 

“Is this how you thought everything would work out?” I said as I began to untie the double knot around my ankles.

“I always had a plan b and a plan c, hell even a plan d just incase I needed it. If one didn’t work than I knew the other would and all that matters is that you’re with me now and not those people who lied to you.”

“They didn’t lie to me Gordon, they protected me from the truth because it wasn’t important enough to know.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way Matty but now we have all the time in the world to change your mind.”

“We used to be friends man, was it all fake?”

“None of it, and now we can be brothers forever and no one will ever get in the way again.”

“We will never be brothers.”

I stared into Gordon’s eyes and it seemed like a soul wasn’t even there, he seemed possessed or lifeless. He was bat shit nuts and I was stuck in a cage with poor Juno, how could I let myself get in this position? How could I be so naive and idiotic to let this monster be my friend for years and never see who he was. As I stared at him I seen something from behind him in the window, it was flashing lights. The police they were here, by some miracle they were here. All of a sudden I heard the door upstairs being kicked in and footsteps flooding the house.

“It’s the police come out with your hands up!” 

Gordon’s face dropped and for a second he looked to not be soulless.

“No, no I won’t let them separate us again, we’re going to be together forever Matty!” Gordon said raising the gun to me and it was like my life flashed before my eyes.

BANG!

The gun went off but I was still alive, I opened my eyes to see an officer behind Gordon with his gun drawn. Gordon dropped to the ground staring at me and just before he died he used the last of his breath to say 

“Happy…birthday Mat-Matty.”

Then he was gone, dead and I couldn’t feel more relieved. The officers let me out of the cage and brought me up out of the house outside to sit at the back of the ambulance to check me for any injuries. They bandaged up my head and wrapped me in a blanket.

“We found the kids father later this evening and went on a search for him when we found numerous pictures of you in his bedroom. A few moments later we got a call for a noise complaint, I’m sorry kid it was at your house and by the time we showed up your father was dead and your mother was bleeding out. But she managed to tell us how he kept rambling on about taking you to your new home outside of town so with that information and the description of the car we managed to find you guys.”

“My mom, did she, did she make it.”

“I’m sorry…no. So what now, do you have anywhere to go?” the officer asked and that was a very good question. What now? My family was gone and the only friend I had ended up being a psychopath murderer and I’m pretty sure Holly hated me. But as I sat there at the end of the ambulance holding Juno I knew everything was going to be okay and that I would find a way to keep going.