"So, what? It's not like I believe in that thing, anyway."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Look, I already told you before, it's me who believe that and I had such a creepy feeling about you. It doesn't matter if you don't believe me, though,"

"Then you don't have to waste your time here, Lily! For God's sake-"

"But I care for you!" Lily's eyes sparked. "You're my best friend so I think you might be in some dangerous situation or something..."

"Well, thank you very much, but, no. Please go back to your class, Lily,"

Lily crunched her nose and got up from the chair. She walked to the door, and waved a good-bye kiss to Clare. "Don't say that I didn't warn you before! Good bye!"

Clare huffed. Her nap was intruded by Lily, her childhood friend who happened to study in the same high school as her. They were going to different secondary school, and made no contact before they met again in this school.

Friday the thirteenth, Clare thought. There's nothing called bad luck in this day. Bad luck is everywhere and everytime, not just in this day.

The class' bell rank, and she muttered something about tired and sleepy.

- - -

It was raining outside. The nice thing to do was hid yourself under a thick blanket, with a hot chocolate in your hand, and a laptop playing a movie. But Clare sat inside an aircon-ed room, with her clothes soaked wet because of rain.

She just walked outside her school building when the rain started. With nothing to protect her from it, she ran randomly into the houses nearby, and found an abandoned small shop with a glass window. Lucky, the front door wasn't locked. She barged inside, and suddenly the lights were turning on.

"Uhm, hello?" Clare shivered. Her wet uniform was bad enough even without the aircon. "I'm sorry I'm going in without permission, I just need place to... Hello?"

There was nothing.

Clare raised her shoulder in annoyance. Well, she thought, it's not like I'm going to steal something.

But it was nothing to be stolen, actually. The shop was nearly empty, except for a glass table in the middle of the room. And the aircon.

She needed to go back home now. With her wet uniform, she could get a hypothermia inside this small shop. She prefer became wet than die because of the cold.

Not lucky for her, the front door was locked. Bloody hell, she cursed. She didn't remember there's any other living things but her in this room. Then how on earth the door was locked?

Today is Friday the thirteenth.

Clare hissed. She didn't believe in such thing. This must be a bad luck, not because of the particular date. She sat in front of the glass window, circled her own arm to her body to increased the heat. Not helping too much, but better than nothing.

She could see the main road from her position. Mostly cars on the road, because they didn't need to worry about rain. There were still brave people, who fought the rain and got soaked just like her. And there was Lily.

She walked inside the rain with no umbrella. Her long blonde hair was wet, clung to her shoulder like a glue. Clare rushed to the window and tried to get Lily's attention. She could free her from this damned place, she hoped. She knocked the window harshly with one hand, while the other hand was waving.

And Lily turned her head. She noticed Clare, and her expression lit up. She crossed the road and-

today is Friday the thirteenth.

-a car hit her abruptly. Clare couldn't scream. Her mouth gaped in shock. She froze in her spot, her eyes focused on Lily's now lifeless body in the road. Then like she had been switched on, she tried to open the door, but she failed.

"Lily!" She screamed. Her voice echoed in the empty room. "Lily! Lily! Oh my God..."

No one seemed to notice the incident. The car which hit Lily earlier was nowhere to seen. Ran off, probably.

Clare still tried to broke the door handle. Normally she could actually break it, but she was not in the good shape; soaked wet and the aircon...

Outside, Lily's body was coughing out blood. The red and sticky liquid was splattered everywhere.

"Lily..." Clare stopped trying, she slumped on to the cold floor. It must be the hypothermia attack. She felt so weak. The floor twirled beneath her feet. Her nails were purple. There was a buzz inside her ears, and she thought she heard someone talking. Her vision blurred.

Oh, she thought. What a nice firefly.

And then pitch black.















"What is it, Honey?"

"I thought I heard something downstairs."

"Should we go to check it?"

"Nah, I can check it myself."

"Okay, be careful."

Thud. Thud. Thud.

His footsteps against the floor were loud. He glanced at his wife once before he went downstairs. It was raining outside and they decided to do a movie marathon. His wife was making two cups of coffee at the moment.

Maybe it was a stray dog, he thought. His shop wasn't open since two years ago; they didn't have much money to run the shop again. Nobody entered the empty room except two of them. Well, it was their home anyway.

Slowly, he entered his shop. Nothing could be seen. He was about to head upstairs when he saw something moving.

Something huge and black.

It screamed in front of the window, making noises, it seemed that the thing want to go outside but it can't open the window.

What the fuck.

He remembered he owned a baseball stick. Without a sound, he headed upstairs to pick his bat. Where was it? On the storage room? Or his room?

"Honey, what are you-?"

"Ssh. Don't make noises."

His wife nodded. She wrinkled her eyebrows, her eyes questioned her husband, but she just stood still. She watched her husband disappeared behind the kitchen's door.

And he headed downstairs once again. The thing still sat in front of the window, still screaming, or making weird noises (maybe it's its way to scream?). Slowly, he walked closer to the thing. The black creature seems didn't realize his presence.

And, one, he counted silently.

Two. 

Three.

Labels: english, Short Story, Story