Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror (2 page)

Maria leaned close and raised her dark eyes to him. “Can you get us free Cokes?” she whispered.

He wasn't sure he heard her. “Excuse me?”

“Come on, man,” Bony said. “No one's watching. Free Cokes. You can do it, right?”

“No,” JJ said. He turned to see where Florian was. Probably in back. “I don't think so. I need to keep this job. I—”

Maria put her hand on his. She had a very sexy smile. “You can do it, JJ. . . . It's just Cokes.”

“Julie, get your butt over to that table!” Florian's shout made JJ jump.

“Why is the idiot busboy talking to the customers?” Florian yelled. He slapped his fat hands on the counter. “JJ, get back to the kitchen with the other cockroaches!”

JJ could feel his face grow hot. He knew he was blushing. Maria laughed. She squeezed his hand. JJ dropped the silverware on the table and hurried to the kitchen. “Sorry, sir. Sorry.”

A few minutes later, he saw Florian go down to the cellar to deal with the garbage. JJ waited a short while to make sure he wasn't coming right back up. Then he strode to the soda dispenser and poured four Cokes for Maria and her friends.

Julie saw what he was doing, but she didn't care. She helped him punch the right keys on the cash register to make it look like the kids had paid.

Bony flashed him a thumbs-up. The other two guys grinned at him. “You're okay, dude. Be true to your school, right?” That made them all laugh.

He could hear Florian lumbering up the stairs. JJ hurried back to the dishwasher. Why did he give them free Cokes? To put it to Florian. And well . . . maybe he was tired of being ignored. All those hours in school, silent, with no one to talk to. Maybe he needed a few friends.

Especially Maria?

Florian burst into the kitchen and gave JJ a shove. “Hey, worthless, didn't you hear me calling you to come down and help?”

“Sorry, sir,” JJ replied with his best Texan politeness. “Please don't shove me, sir.”

“Shove you? I'll smack you upside the head!” the fat blob shouted. “What are you going to do, sue me?”

After work, Maria, Bony, and the other two guys were still at the back of the parking lot. JJ stretched his arms above his head, shook off the steamy air of the kitchen that clung to his skin, his clothes. He headed to their car, his boots kicking up gravel as he walked.

Maria sat on the half-rusted hood of the GTO. Bony had an arm around her waist. The other two leaned on the side of the car.

“Thanks for the free drinks, man,” Bony said. He reached his free hand out, and he and JJ touched knuckles.

“No problem,” JJ muttered. He had his eyes on Maria, and she knew it. Her dark eyes flashed.

“That's Sammy and Eduardo.” Bony pointed to the other two guys. “They don't go to school anymore.”

“What do you guys do?” JJ asked.

Eduardo shrugged. “Whatever we can get away with.”

All four of them laughed. JJ thought about laughing, but it was too late. Maria had a great laugh, he decided. Very open. He liked the way she tossed back her head when she laughed, and her hair swung back on her shoulders.

“Well, thanks again, man,” Bony said, patting JJ's shoulder, like he was a dog. “We could pay for the Cokes, you know. We were just kinda testing you.”

JJ took a step back. “Testing me?”

Bony nodded. “You know. See if you had any guts.”

JJ felt his jaw clench. “I've got guts,” he said, staring Bony in the eyes.

“Well, we like to test people,” Bony said, squeezing Maria's waist. “In case they want to hang with us.”

“It takes a special dude,” Sammy said. He had a strange, scratchy voice, like a cartoon character. “It's a club, you know.”

JJ shook his head. A breeze fluttered his flannel shirt. It brought a chill to the back of his neck. “A club?”

The three guys nodded. They had strange smiles on their faces. But their eyes were serious. “The Killers,” Maria said. “That's us.” Bony turned and showed off the word KILLERS embroidered on the back of his leather jacket.

Bony hardened his stare.
Like he's trying to invade my brain or something
, JJ thought.

“If you want to join our club, there's an initiation,” Bony said softly.

JJ looked away. “Like what?”

Bony didn't have a chance to answer. The kitchen door of the restaurant swung open, sending a flood of light over the parking lot. “You punks better get outta here!” Florian screamed. He filled the doorway, blocking most of the light. JJ saw he was swinging a butcher knife. “I already called the cops. You jerks got maybe a
minute
to scram outta my parking lot!”

JJ ducked behind the side of the car. Did Florian see him? He didn't want to lose his job because of these guys. They were scrambling into the car. A hand grabbed JJ's. Maria. She pulled him into the backseat.

The car squealed away, shooting up a shower of gravel. JJ pressed against Maria and ducked his head. He glimpsed Florian's angry scowl and the big blade of the knife swinging in front of him.

They roared through town, laughing like lunatics. JJ laughed, too. Something broke free in him. For a while, he thought he was flying. Maria's hair brushed his face. She smelled like flowers.

They stopped in Fremont Park, across from the high school. Bony killed the engine and the lights. They dove out of the car and sprawled in the dew-wet grass. They were all breathless and giddy.

“It's a club, see,” Bony said, as if they hadn't been interrupted. “But I don't know if you're man enough for the initiation.”

JJ gulped in the cool, fresh air. “Try me.”

“The name says it,” Eduardo told him. He pounded the back of Bony's jacket. “KILLERS, see?”

“I don't see,” JJ said.

“That's the initiation,” Maria whispered. Her breath tickled his ear. Was she coming on to him?

“Guess I have to spell it out,” Bony said. He tore up a handful of grass and let it sprinkle over Maria's legs. “You have to kill someone.”

“Huh?” JJ blinked at him.

Bony grinned. “That's all there is to it. We have to know you really want to be with us. Friends for life, see.”

“Friends for life!” Sammy squeaked. He touched knuckles with Eduardo.

JJ shook his head. “You're joking, right?”

Eduardo's eyes narrowed. His smile faded. “It's not a joke, man. It's serious. That's the initiation.”

JJ let out a long whoosh of air. “Too heavy for me, man.” He started to his feet.

Maria tugged him back down. “We all did it,” she said.

“You telling me you all killed someone to join your club?”

“It's easy, man,” Sammy said. “We'll give you the gun and everything.”

“I don't think so,” JJ said. He realized his chest suddenly felt fluttery. His stomach churned.

Maria ran a fingernail down his cheek. It made his whole body tingle. “You can do it, baby,” she whispered. She let her hair brush his cheek again.

“We'll be there for you, man,” Sammy said. “Friends for life. Really.”

“Here's what you do,” Bony said, pulling up more grass, letting it fall in his own lap. “Pick someone, right? Pick some jerk you really don't like. Wait till he's alone. Make sure no one can see. And—
POP
. That's all there is to it. It's cake.”

Maria squeezed his hand. Her breath tickled his face.

“This is the gun,” Eduardo said. He held up a tiny pistol, not much bigger than a cell phone. “Cute, right? But it does the damage.”

“We've all used it,” Sammy said. “
POP
. That's it. Then you bring it back to us.”

“I used to shoot back in Texas,” JJ said. Why did his voice suddenly sound so tight, so shrill? “But I used real guns. Not toys like that.”

“It'll do the damage,” Eduardo repeated. “It's loaded for you, man. It's ready.”

JJ took the pistol from him and rolled it in his hand. It felt cool and light. Like a toy. He pictured Florian.

POP
.

Florian.

POP
.

Florian.

POP
.

Florian.

POP
.

“Okay,” he told them. “I'll do it.”

 

 

Sometimes days fly past like the wind. Here it was, three nights later, and JJ, sweating despite the evening cool, found the four Killers at the familiar place in the park, deep shadows playing over their expectant faces.

“I did it.” The words burst from his mouth in a breathy explosion. He raised the pistol in front of him. It glinted in a narrow beam of moonlight. “Friends for life, right?”

He waited for them to react. To congratulate him. Some high fives. Some knuckle slaps. So, why the silent treatment?

“You don't believe me?” JJ shoved the pistol back into his jeans. He leaned against a tree trunk and stared down at them. “I did it. Just like you said. I killed Florian. Shot him in the head.”

More silence. Sammy and Eduardo exchanged glances. Maria bit her bottom lip.

“I waited for the restaurant to close,” JJ said. “There was no one around. The parking lot was totally dark. I walked up behind him and shot him in the head. He dropped onto the trunk of his car. Didn't know what hit him.”

Maria let out a gasp. She looked away.

“You shot him?” Bony said finally. He kept blinking. “You really shot him?”

JJ nodded.

“But we loaded the gun with blanks,” Sammy squeaked.

“Yeah. Tell me about it,” JJ said. “I took the pistol to a firing range to try it out. All six chambers were loaded with blanks. So I bought a box of bullets for it. Guess you guys messed up.”

“No way,” Bony said, shaking his head. “It was
supposed
to be blanks, JJ. You weren't supposed to kill anyone. It was just a joke, see. The whole thing was a joke.”

JJ's eyes grew wide. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“It was a joke, dude,” Eduardo said. “We're not killers. We didn't kill anyone. You're the new kid. You looked so desperate. We thought we'd have some fun with you, that's all.”

“Fun?” JJ said in a whisper. “
Fun?
”

“We were messing with you, man,” Bony said. “We were punking you.”

“Why did you put real bullets in the gun?” Maria cried. “You weren't supposed to!” She had tears in her eyes, and her chin quivered. “You weren't supposed to kill anyone.”

JJ slammed his open hand against the tree trunk. “Oh, please . . . Oh, please, oh, please. I killed Florian. You told me I had to. Now you tell me it's a joke? But it's NOT a joke! I
killed
him!”

“JJ, sit down,” Maria said, tears running down her cheeks. She patted the grass beside her. “We have to talk about this. All of us.”

JJ didn't move from the tree trunk. “I'm a
murderer
,” he uttered in a low, trembling voice. “A murderer, all because of a
joke
.”

“But no one saw you, right?” Sammy asked. “There's no way anyone knows it was you, JJ.”

JJ shut his eyes tight. His jaw clenched and unclenched. The others watched him in silence. “No. No one saw me,” he said finally. “No one knows . . .”

His eyes opened wide. “Except you guys. You're the only ones who know I killed him. You're, like, witnesses or something.”

He stepped away from the tree. His whole body stiffened. He jammed his hand into his jeans pocket and brought out the pistol.

“Hey, don't get crazy,” Bony said. He jumped up from the grass. He took a step toward JJ. “We're not going to snitch on you, man.”

“No, you're
not
going to snitch on me,” JJ said softly. He pointed the pistol at Bony. “I won't let you snitch on me.”

Maria scrambled to her feet and took a few steps back, eyes wary. “JJ, what are you doing? JJ—please. Put it down.”

“I can't trust you,” JJ said. “I can't trust any of you. Everything you told me was a lie.”

“Listen to us. It was supposed to be a joke—” Bony said.

“I'm a murderer because of you,” JJ repeated, sweat pouring down his forehead. He waved the pistol from Bony to Maria, then down to the other two boys, still hunched tensely in the grass. “A murderer—and you're the only ones who know.”

“We won't tell. Promise!” Sammy whined.

“JJ—don't,” Maria pleaded. “Put down the gun. This is crazy.”

JJ shook his head. “You understand me, right? You all have to take a bullet. I can't trust you. No way. I can't take a chance.”

He aimed the pistol at Bony. His arm tensed.

Maria let out a scream.

Bony jumped at JJ. He made a wild grab for the gun.

JJ swiped it out of Bony's reach—and fired.

POP
.

Bony uttered a groan. His face showed more surprise than pain. He grabbed his stomach, dropped face-first to the grass, landed with a soft thud, bounced once, then didn't move.

Maria screamed again. The scream ended in a choking gasp.

Sammy and Eduardo were on their feet. They had their arms outstretched, partially in surrender. Their faces were twisted in fright.

“Who's next?” JJ barked, hoarse, excited. He swung the pistol from one to the other. “Who's next?”

“Please—” Sammy wailed. “Please—”

“Don't kill us,” Eduardo said. “You can trust us. Really. We won't tell anyone.”