“Everyone… plays… together…”
Suddenly, the lights flickered back on and all that Noah could hear was the nervous chatter of the students. The wind and the voice were gone. He looked at MC, whose face was still pale as if they’d seen a ghost. Which in part was true.
“W-well, sorry for the little interruption, guys!” – Lucas’ voice called out through the speakers. – “Please welcome again, our basketball team captain…”
The pap rally proceeded without interruptions, but Noah didn’t hear a word. His mind was racing with thoughts of Dan – who still hadn’t replied him –, Jane and him.
He was back.
After the pap rally, all the students seemed to have already forgotten about what happened that morning, talking happily with their friends and returning to their classes.
But Noah was pretty sure that not everybody heard it. Heard him.
He looked down to MC, who was walking beside him. They didn’t say a word since then.
“Hey… You okay?” – he asked in a low voice. MC turned to him.
“Noah… He’s back. Redfield is back.” – he could see concern in their eyes.
“Yeah… I know. I heard him too, remember?”
“The others heard him too. I saw in their faces.” – he nodded, letting them mumble. – “We need to talk. With everybody.”
He chuckled.
“Yeah, good luck with that.”
“Don’t be a jerk, Noah.”
“I’m not being jerk, just realistic. How do you expect to talk with all of them if we haven’t talked to each other in 10 years? They won’t want to talk.”
“No. They will.” – MC insisted, and he rolled his eyes.
“You’re as stubborn as ever.”
“And you’re as pessimistic as ever.” – they replied.
They stared at each other for a couple of minutes, in the middle of the hallway, before giggling.
“Hey, I kind of missed you, Beanie Boy.” – MC said first.
“’Beanie Boy’?”
“Yeah. What is this thing in your head?” – he rolled his eyes, but couldn’t hold back a smile because of the nickname. The bell rang. – “Crap, I have to go.” – MC extended their cellphone to him, who looked confused at them. – “Let’s exchange our numbers. I’ll open a group text later so we can talk to everybody.”
He still was a little skeptical, but did what they asked anyway.
If Jane was here…
Surprisingly, all of his former friends – although MC forgot to add Lucas to the text – agreed to meet by the school fountain at six o’clock. So Noah went back home after school. The house was empty, as always.
If Jane was here…
He hurriedly did his homework and took a shower, before going out again.
When he was back at school, Lily was already there. He sat on the fountain, his hands shoved in his pockets.
“Um… Hey Noah.” – she nervously greeted him.
“Hey.” – then, he saw Lucas walking out of the school building.
“Hi Lily. Hi Noah.”
“Hey Lucas.”
“Hey.” – he answered the other boy.
They waited in an unconfortable silence until MC arrived, just as the same time as Andy and Stacy.
“Hey, guys! One sec.” – Stacy greeted, texting something on her phone.
“Jeez, how’s it this dark already?” – Andy cursed, looking up to the sky.
Noah stood up from his seat:
“Who’re missing?”
“Um… I don’t see Ava.” – Lily answered, but Ava appeared suddenly, startling everyone.
Thankfully, MC interrupted that weird talk about vampires and started the meeting:
“Okay, look… We all know why we’re here. The blackout at the pep rally. The wind. The voice.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” – Stacy replied.
“Stacy, I saw your face at the rally. I saw all your faces. And you were all just as freak out as I was. Because you all heard the same thing I did.”
“Everyone plays together.” – Noah repeated those famous words and a long and heavy pause filled the air as everyone refused to look at each other.
Lily broke the silence:
“There’s… There’s something else…” – she showed her phone.
And then, they discovered that all of them received those weird texts from Dan. MC told them about the nightmare they had the night before and about the monster that wore Dan’s face.
MC concluded the same thing as Noah: Redfield was back.
Andy had the dumbest idea to tell the police about Redfield. He and Noah almost got in an argument, but Lucas intervened.
“Oh yeah. Uh, speaking of cop stuff, Dan’s parents reported him missing this morning.” – Ava seemed to remember, suddenly.
“They what?!” – MC screamed in shook.
“Dan’s missing? And you’re just telling us about this now?!” – Noah yelled at her, feeling his cheeks burning with anger.
“I figured you would have heard!”
“Not everyone’s dad is the sheriff.” – Stacy snapped at her.
“Guys, Dan could be in trouble. We have to go find him.” – Stacy said that they should leave it for the “professional adults” to care, but MC reminded them that they knew who took Dan. – “I know nobody wants to dredge this stuff back up. But it happened. We all remember Mr. Red, and we all saw what he did to Jane. We can’t let him do the same thing to Dan.”
“No one did anything to Jane, MC. It was just a freak accident.”
“That’s bull, and you know it.” – Noah told Stacy, feeling his blood boil.
“All I know is that we were a bunch of dumb kids who shouldn’t have been playing in the woods by ourselves!”
The “pacifist and diplomatic” Lucas intervened, again:
“Look, let’s just all calm down for a second and consider the facts. Everything that happened at the rally could be explained by some faulty wiring.” – Noah rolled his eyes. – “As for Dan… What exactly are you proposing we do?” – the boy with glasses asked MC.
“Isn’t it obvious? We have to stop this. We have to go find Dan and figure out what he did, so we can undo it. We have to go—“
“…Into the woods…” – Lily whispered before backing away. – “No. No, no, no… I’m not going back there!” – she was shaking her head, refusing the plan.
Carefully, Noah moved towards her, holding up his hands in a calming gesture.
“Lily, I know you’re scared, but if we want this to stop, we have to—“ – he tried to say in a soft and reassuring voice, but Andy blocked his path:
“Back off, man. Lily doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to.”
“Are you serious right now?!” – Noah shout at the same moment as a door was slammed open, startling the group.
It was just three fucking cheerleaders. As soon as them entered the school, Stacy started talking:
“Noah… Maybe you have time to go running around the woods chasing boogiemen, but some of us have real problems.”
“Gettin’ kidnapped by some shadow monster nightmare dude seems like a pretty real problem!”
“Guys… We need everyone’s help.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t get involved with this.”
“Why, ‘cause it might mess up your standing with the popular kids?” – he snapped at Stacy, which she and Lily answered that they should stay far away from the woods.
And that was it. Noah just couldn’t hold it anymore:
“So you’re just gonna close your eyes and pretend nothing’s happening, just like you did when my sister died?”
“Noah—“
“No, I’ve had enough of this. Redfield killed Jane right in front of us, and you all shrugged it off like nothing happened!” – Andy even tried to say tha “no one ‘shrugged off’ anything”, but he knew it was more bullshit: “The hell you didn’t! Class president, cheerleader, basketball jock… You all seem to be doing just fine. The second Jane was in the ground, you were all happy to move on with your lives. And you’re pulling the same stunt with Dan!”
Then Stacy told them about Dan’s breakdowns, blaming them for not helping him. How could they help Dan if they didn’t know about his problems?!
The cheerleader turned away and stormed off. Lily ran away too. He turned to Lucas:
“I guess you’re gonna bail too, Captain America?” – he snapped with an accusing frown.
“Look, even if I did believe all of this… I just don’t have the time.” – and then, he turned and headed back toward the school.
“Fine! Just bury your heads in the sand! This isn’t just gonna stop, you know!” – he shouted, still feeling the anger and betrayal.
“Noah…” – MC squeezed his arm, and that gesture kind of was comforting. – “We don’t need them. If they won’t admit what’s happening, then they won’t be any help anyway.”
He nodded, agreeing with them. At least MC seemed to understand him.
Noah couldn’t say he was impressed when they ran away. They had already done that, 10 years before, when Jane died. But Ava and Andy stayed. They seemed to be willing to go after Dan, but not that night. MC managed to convice them both to go into the woods.
“Noah?” – MC turned to him, their eyes shining expectantly.
“Yeah, I’m in.” – he answered, smiling with determination.
He had the impression to catch a glimpse of MC’s smile just before they announced:
“Alright then. I’ve gotta go in and grab my stuff, so you go on ahead. We’ll meet up in front of the hardware store.”
“Alright. Then what?” – he said.
“Then… We go save Dan”.