At first they labelled it as a suicide, but after deeper investigation it was found that someone had framed it to look like that.
Pete had been killed, and now there were even more restrictions than before. No one was allowed out of their rooms past seven, and locks were installed on all doors and were required to be locked once you entered a room. It was really tedious, and some parents even came to collect their kids, saying that they no longer wanted their children attending the school. I mean that's understandable, but Otis and I had a good laugh about it. One freshman's mom flipped off the matron and pulled her kid to their car from his collar. Matron was in a disgusting mood for the rest of the day, going into every room and telling us all that if any of our parents had the audacity to flip her off too, then she would personally put in a bad letter for any future schools.
Honestly what a mood.
By now it was Halloween and I had the perfect costume planned for Otis and I. Well actually it was pretty basic and overdone, but I couldn't wait to see the horrified look on his face when I gave it to him.
"Voila!" I said, presenting Otis with a red cone shaped hat after classes were over. "What is this crap," he said, staring down at it, looking disappointed.
"We're going as crayons." I said putting on a purple hat myself. "And look, it's even your favourite colour! Red!"
Otis cleared his throat shaking his head slowly, "no." He said blatantly.
"Yes." I said, forcing the hat on his head, "it's funny!" He crossed his arms looking disgruntled, "halloween is supposed to be scary, not funny." He moaned, as I took a matching red shirt out of the bag I was holding and handed it to him.
Don't ask me how I eventually got him to agree to it, because I had no clue myself. Walking into the gymnasium for the Halloween party, Otis and I were crayons.
He hated me for this, I could tell.
"Can we just go to the haunted house and then go to bed?" He grumbled, trying to hide his face so no one would recognise him.
"Absolutely not," I replied, "we're going to be normal teenagers and enjoy ourselves."
That was tough, because this party was a flop. There were police officers stationed at all the doors, watching us all intently, and the girls who decided to wear rather revealing outfits were dancing in the middle of the gym, attracting the attention of many boys. Phat ew.
I was glad Otis wasn't like that, he didn't really care about girls and all that. In a way it was a little disappointing too, I'd developed a teensy crush on him. Just a small one. Like an itty bitty one. But it wasn't a big deal whatsoever. At all.
We walked over to a drinks table and Otis poured us both some apple juice because the punch looked and smelled like the inside of a skunk's ass.
"LET THE PARTY BEGINNNN!!" The crazy kid that I knew as Leo Valdez, one of Otis's roommates yelled, barging in throught the main doors.
Otis sighed, rubbing his eyes, trying even harder to hide his face."Out of all the costumes in the whole world you had to choose crayons? Why Nika, why are you torturing me," he groaned. I giggled, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him over to one of the side doors, "there now Leo can't see you, he's a little preoccupied anyways," I said, watching as Leo, who was dressed as some kind of bronze dragon thing, danced around with Piper and her boyfriend Jason. They looked like they were having a great time, definitely not bothered about if Otis and I were dressed as crayons or not.
Otis huffed, crossing his arms, "can we just go through the haunted house a few times and then dip?"
I contemplated for a minute before nodding my head, this party was boring anyways. "Fine let's go," I said, opening the door and leading him out into the freezing october air. It was a lot colder at the school than it would have been at home, and I think it was partially because we were at the top of a mountain and partially because it was a little up north from home.
Otis stuffed his hands into his jean pockets, as he did 90% of the time, and I wrapped my arms around myself not wanting to freeze to death.
"Nika please let me take off this godforsaken hat," Otis pleaded, gesturing to the cone on his head."
I smirked, "no." he scrunched his face up in displeasure and we walked around to the front driveway where the haunted house would be set up.
"Yes let's go," Otis muttered, taking bigger strides to the entrance, causing me to have to jog after him. "Slow downnn," I chuckled as we got in line behind a couple other people.
"I can't, I love scary things," he breathed, a cloud of fog escaping his mouth every time he talked. Damn the temperature must have been in the negatives already.
As we got to the front of the line, I frowned, getting a little nervous. Otis must have noticed because he held back a laugh, "I'll be here the whole time, and plus, it's probably going to be a flop anyways, I mean what's the scariest these guys can come up with?!"
True he had a point, I just had a bad feeling about tonight for some reason.
"Ready?" Charles Beckendorf asked, his fake vampire teeth affecting the clarity of his speech. "Yessir," Otis muttered, and Beckendorf opened the makeshift gate for us to enter.
Three steps in, someone jumped out in front of us, yelling and swinging around a fake chainsaw. I screamed, startled, and grabbed onto Otis's arm tightly. He didn't even flinch, but instead laughed. "Idiot," I gasped, "that was terrifying," he shook his head, giving me a devilish smile. This was going to be scary, I underestimated it.
We kept walking, me three steps behind Otis, clutching onto his sleeve, and Otis laughing at every scary thing that popped out.
At one point there he shook my grip off and walked into the pitch black without me. "Otis come back," I whisper yelled, but he ignored me and walked ahead by himself.
I refused to move, not unless someone came to get me out of here. This boy really just abandoned me in the middle of a haunted house on halloween, I was ready to throw HANDS.
"Otis!" I called out again, but he didn't come back for at least another five minutes, as I stood there practically shaking from fear. I could be a bit of a wimp when it came to things like these, horror movies and such just didn't flow with my senses if that makes sense.
"Ight I'm back," Otis walked back through the dark hall that he had left from. I took off my crayon hat and whacked him a couple times as he laughed, deflecting my blows. "Otis what the hell why did you leave me here?!?!?" I asked, still hitting him.
He sighed, "you were being so annoying and scaredy that I wanted to finish it by myself without you screaming by my side. But I mean at least I came back to get you," he smirked.
I continued to whack him, annoyed by his words. "Get me out of here," I pleaded, sticking out my bottom lip.
"Ok, ok lets go," he said, holding out his arm all gentleman like for me to take, "my lady," he drawled, giving me a wonky smile that was oh so cute.
I grabbed onto him and squeezed my eyes shut as he led me out, still laughing at all the jump scares, of skeletons, and creepy dolls.
"Look we're out," he whispered into my hair as I felt the cold breeze hit my body again. I pulled away from him, still angry that he'd left me, and for the STUPIDEST reason too. "You're a rat!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air. "I know you remind me every day." Otis replied, shaking his head.
"WHAT- SOMEONE- FIRE!!!" Travis Stoll ran out of the haunted house, panting and yelling bloody murder. My head shot in his direction, and that bad feeling I had earlier, came back.
I watched horrified, as people ran out, the haunted house going up in red hot flames, a scream coming from inside. These police officers literally sucked ass, where were they? This fire wasn't an accident, it was another attempt at murder, this fire was a deliberate act. Fire doesn't just get that big in a matter of seconds unless there's gasoline...
I backed up, lacing my fingers through Otis's, not even realizing what I was doing.
"Everybody out!!" someone yelled, and I coughed on the ash flying around. Otis pulled me away, far from the flames, and pulled me into a hug. "You ok?" He asked.
I stared at the rising flames in the distance, my face blank, wondering now more than ever, who killed my roommate.