"You can't come home with me," my best friend argued. "You have to make plans. You know how my mom is!"

"Please?" I pleaded, walking alongside him. "I can walk home at five, no big deal. There's your plan."

"But my mom-"

"But me," I interrupted.

"Andy, you're killing me." Jay replied, glaring at me as I followed. "Dude, you realize we can just talk online and play video games at the same time."

I groaned in response, hunching over. "But I don't want to go home yet."

It was true. Sure, home was nice, when you didn't procrastinate from doing your weekly chores.- which I had been doing all week. Once I got home, it'd be chore after chore thrown at me, not to mention my parents giving me endless shit if I didn't start them right after homework.

"Why don't I just walk you home?" Jay asked, stopping in his tracks. I took a few more steps, stopped, and turned around to face him.

"Fine." I replied, drawing out the word. 'But I still have to do chores...' I thought as Jay turned around to head to my house.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The only thing Jay regretted about walking to my house was disregarding how far it really was. Halfway there, we stopped at the arcade, and went inside, pulling put the money we had in our backpacks and presenting it to the front desk. The man, old and thin, looking as if he was done with life and just wanted to fall over into his grave, smiled weakly and gave us our wristbands. 

Hours later, we loitered outside the arcade. "Well, good thing we wasted all of that time. I'm gonna have to ask my mom for a ride from your house, no way I'm walking home in the dark." Jay said, crossing his arms and shouldering his backpack. I sighed.

"I wouldn't say 'wasted'. I think we spent our time pretty well." I argued, a smug grin plastered on my face. Jay fell silent, grabbing his phone out of his backpack. The phone flashed a few times before turning off.

"Do you need to use my phone? " I offered. He nodded ashamedly,  putting his backpack back on as I lowered mine to the ground, crouching and unzipping the front pocket to grab my phone. My phone flashed on, and I looked at the time; 6:37pm. I quickly put in the passcode and handed it to Jay, who took it and started calling his mom. 

I waited, standing next to him, leaving my backpack a few feet away. Apparently Jay's mom didn't answer because he left a voicemail and handed it back to me. I tucked my phone in one of my pockets and headed over to my backpack, nut as I reached down to grab it, it scooted away from me. A puzzled look on my face, I reached for it again, but the backpack flung itself into the street, slamming into the side of a truck passing by. The driver flipped me off as he sped down the road. I stared at the backpack, completely confused, and a little scared. Not wanting my backpack to get run over, I quickly ran into the street and grabbed it by the straps, and ran back to Jay.

I hesitantly put it back on as Jay laughed.

"Dude, why did it fly out into the street?" he snorted.

"I don't know..." I replied, walking in the direction of my house, Jay following in suit. His laughter ceased, and we walked up the road for about a mile in complete silence, finally reaching my house.

"Just spend the night." I blurted as I unlocked the front door, breaking the silence. Jay jumped, startled by my sudden comment, but he quickly scowled and crossed his arms. "I caaan't!" he groaned, drawing out the last word. "My mom will shove me in a microwave and-"

"Fine, fine, fine." I interrupted. "Just hang out for a little while while your mom is on her way."

"Okay. Do you have a charger for my phone?" Jay inquired, revealing his phone. I opened the door and then turned to grab his phone, inspecting the outlet on the bottom.

"Yeah, it's the same as mine." I said, before handing it back to him.  Jay nodded and followed me inside, both of us dropping our backpacks on the floor.

"Is it in your room ?"

"Yeah, on the nightstand." I replied, attempting to close the door. Before I could close the door, my backpack flew outside onto the porch. I stepped outside, closing the door behind me.

"I need to take my backpack to an exorcist, god damn." I muttered to myself. As I expected, the closer I moved to the backpack, the farther away it'd drag itself away.

I heard Jay slam the door shut from behind, and I jumped.

"I think it's trying to lead me somewhere." I said.

"The backpack?"

"No, the alien." I replied sarcastically.

"At least an following an alien would make more sense than following a possesed backpack." Jay pointed out, walking toward the backpack, which flew into the driveway.

I ran after it, gesturing Jay to follow, which he was already doing. We both ran down the street and into a small part of the city, trying to keep up with the backpack. The backpack turned a corner, and I tripped over myself, crashing into the broken concrete sidewalk. I groaned and quickly got to my feet, Jay speeding past me. I covered the bleeding gash on my forearm, trying to ignore the slight stinging. I gulped, trying to catch my breath, and continued running.

The backpack threw itself over a fence and skidded to halt in the middle of the fenced parking lot behind the abandoned hotel. Jay and I scrambled over it, and cautiously crept over to the backpack. I got close enough to grab it, which meant it wanted me here. I hunched over to catch my breath and I winced, the stinging getting worse.

"This is it??" Jay said, voicing my thoughts.

"I guess so..." I wheezed.

Blood dripped onto the ground below as I picked up my backpack, slinging it over my shoulder.

"Okay then. That was a waste of ti-"

The ground below me suddenly cracked, sinking inward. A sinkhole. I panicked and threw my backpack into the hole, running away. Jay started running too, looking back every so often to make sure I was okay. But I felt a pair of hands grab my feet, which knocked me down and started dragging me away. I screamed and kicked and thrashed, clawing at the ground. Nothing was even on my feet, but it felt like there was, like something invisible was dragging me to my death. The sinkjole opened into a dark black pit, but as I got closer I realized it was a substance, almost like black paint,  sloshing around in waves.  Not only was I going to be dragged into a sinkhole, but I was going to be drowned too.

I felt the goo start to soak my shoes, and I struggled more, though my attempts were futile. I fell into the black substance, closing my eyes, and I was sure I was dead.