Lights Out, Please - Release

This is the full original story for my contribution into the amazing collaborative twine project, Lights Out, Please, which you can play here. 

Release

Justin sat with his legs tucked under him, attempting not to vomit below such a beautiful night sky, but the dead body was making that part hard. Alex looked so peaceful with her head resting on the log and her eyes still, staring up at the moon. The young Hispanic girl looked so pale, unnaturally so for her, but she had one of the most beautiful faces he had ever seen, even now. This was supposed to be some quiet lovemaking in the woods on a summer’s night—because what else was there to do in that part of Georgia on a Friday night just two weeks after being released from prison?

It had all been rather stupid. Justin took the fall for a group of friends, pill distributors and small time pot farmers, but only one person needed to take the fall. He was only twenty and had already served nine months in jail—the roughest nine months of his life—but it seemed to have been the sobering experience his parents had thought it would be. Upon his release Justin distanced himself from those ‘friends’, even though he had never once dreamed of giving them up for leniency, a decision which he paid for. That was not entirely true though, he distanced himself from them, but not from Charlie. Charles Wagner was a conundrum and an asshole, but he was Justin’s asshole, and had been the only one to actually write and visit Justin during his sentence. So it stood to reason that once Justin was allowed outside of the house again that the first person he would want to spend time with was Charlie, who had promised a large bag of weed and a night with a beautiful woman to welcome his friend back into the arms of a loving society. Charlie was an odd one, but he seemed like a true friend, and Justin would do almost anything to finally spend a night without the nightmares prison had bestowed upon him.  

They had started the day at the smoothie bar, then to Charlie’s apartment to get the party favors, and onto his van for the purposes of cruising the town. The apartment was where Justin had finally met Vicky, Charlie’s girlfriend who he had been hearing about for the past six months, and her friend Alex, whom the couple was trying to not-so-subtly hook Justin up with. Alex had seemed shy at first, and bored that night when they were catching Justin up on all of the gossip he had missed over burgers. The next step was to relocate to the woods though, a quiet spot Charlie used to get high and write some of his shitty poetry. Once they were there with the small fire going though, when the beer was cold, and the weed had come out, Alex was a lot more relaxed, talking about her aunt’s shop and getting a bit closer to Justin—he could not stop staring at her, with that beautiful long dark hair, full brown eyes, and one of the best smiles he had ever seen. She was the type of girl he had dreamed about being with again while he lied in his bunk in the prison, never fully asleep due to the fear. He was out now though, here in that moment he had thought so often about. Justin liked to think he was a master with the ladies, but even he was surprised at how well his lines were working.

“I bet all the other girls are jealous of you.”

Two beers later, it was like paint by numbers. Alex had been talking about wanting to go to the beach before summer ended, and Justin was listening diligently as his fingers played across her bare leg, all the way up to the short cut-off jean shorts. Charlie and Vicky had taken that distraction to retreat back to the van and become intimate—loudly intimate. Alex had finally noticed and it was her that, with a devious smile, made the suggestion that they go find their own spot deeper in the woods. Justin would have agreed to almost anything she said at that point, like a dog she could pull along anywhere with her. No leash required though, he was being led by the bulge in his pants and the realization that it had been nearly a year since he had kissed a girl.

They did not go too far, but away enough for privacy, in a clearing where the moon was high and bright above them. It was almost tragically romantic as they began to kiss and touch. Justin was a little worried, shy even with everything that had been going on, but as the two made out it all came back to him. He reached down and began to unbutton her shorts. He paused afterwards, giving her a chance to indicate that she was not ready, or even possibly unwilling, but Alex pushed the cut-offs down with her own hand and kissed him again, deeper this time. Her tank top and underwear followed soon after, teasing him slightly about still being dressed as she put her clothes together in a pile. Justin had only ever stripped that quickly before in gym class and the prison showers, but he was excited, hot with his blood rushing, and had his mind set on only one thing at that moment—having her. She was gorgeous, so much that he almost tripped attempting to watch her and get out of his jeans at the same time.

The two had sex in the grass under the light of the moon, drenched in the sweat of the Georgia summer, and breathing in each other as they tossed, turned, rolled, pulled, and pushed in between kisses. Justin was a little too excited, a bit rough with her and a little quicker than he had wanted it to be, even with the condom on. Justin did not admit to himself that the flashes in his mind while they were having sex were of all of the inmates who had told him how pretty he was. When it was done they were both dirty and still breathing heavily, drinking in the humidity like sea water. There was only a brief moment of real silence before she threw and arm over him, leaning her head down to kiss the warm skin of his chest near black and red ‘lucky XIII’ tattoo.

“That was…“ Alex’s sentence cut short, as if she had changed her mind.  

“Great? Fun? We should go again?” Justin said with a smile, offering to finish her thought for her.

“How much did I have to drink…?” Alex said unconvincingly.

“Huh? I don’t know. I’m not sure to be honest,” he said leaning up.

She groaned slightly and her hands went to her head as if she were in pain. “This is why my aunt told me not to drink until I was old enough…”

Fear shot over Justin’s face as he reached for his boxers.

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“Didn’t you hear me earlier,” Alex said in an almost valley girl accent. “I told you I turn seventeen next week.” She paused. “Oh shit… and you got me drunk so I would have sex with you…. That was not cool.”

“What?” Justin shot up and looked horrified. “Wait, wait, Alex…”

She had already turned away though. He was not able to see the smirk on her face.

“I’m going to tell Charlie I don’t like how his friends treat me, and I’ll bet Vicky will tell her dad, she is my friend after all.”

“No, no! Wait.” Justin was almost yelling, hand outstretched, but she had already begun walking back to her pile of clothes by the log. “You can’t.”

“Aren’t you on probation too?” She asked looking over her should. “Smoking weed, drinking, and sex with a minor… wow.”

Justin’s right eye was twitching by this point and she was not giving him a chance to catch her gaze. It was all causing him to hear the sounds that had come to scare him, things moving in the cell when he was trying to sleep, light tapping against the bars, and someone licking their lips. Justin was trying to get hold of himself, but the situation was serious. He grabbed at her harder than he meant to, and when he did she tripped. Alex fell backwards and the back of her head struck the old log with a sickening thud. She yelped and then wheezed as her naked body fell limply. There was blood pooling up on the old wood, barely visible in the darkness, even with the bright moon. Justin froze in place, having to process what had happened.  

He got closer to her, not sure what to do. There was a moment where he almost grabbed her and ran back towards the van. Justin needed to yell for help, to call for Charlie, but something kept him there. Her words had not set well with him. This was bad, the weed was something small (in comparison at least), but what if Alex decided to press charges, especially now. It would look like he had attacked her. That meant a lot more jail time.

Alex took in a sharp breath and flinched, eyes widening to look up at the moon. She had said something, but Justin could not make it out.

“Oh god…,” he finally understood her to say.

That was when it hit him. It could partially be blamed on the alcohol, but more so on fear and guilt, but most importantly the desire to avoid the possible future that had been laid out for him. He was not just having the flashes now, but felt the other prisoner breathing down his neck like monsters in the night. That was why he slowly took her hair in his hands and grabbed on to the sides of her skull, proceeding to lift it up and then slam it back down onto the fallen tree. The sound was like a deep drum, as dry bark broke and flew off with the impact.

“I’m sorry,” she said just before the first impact, “It was a joke, stop,” she begged before the second. He was not listening and by that time she was not making sense, unable to speak properly from the trauma. His hands were still on her head, feeling the warmth that remained, even though she had quit moving. Not quite all there, Justin’s departure from her was slow, eyes locked on her face.

He was stuck in the moment, determined to fix the situation he had gotten himself into. He needed to think of how to deal with Charlie and Vicky, how to spin this all to them. If he did this right, Charlie would help him hide the body. Charlie owed him. He had done time for that man. This is what Justin thought as he crawled away, sitting under the bright moon in his boxers with his legs tucked underneath him as he looked at the pretty dead girl in front of him. Justin thought he was about to vomit, hearing his former cellmates behind him, laughing at his expense.

Justin tried to make himself think, think of what to do, think of a better plan to save his ass, but he could not move. He did eventually fall back from his upright position as his legs had begun to fall asleep, continuing to watch the dead girl whom he had just had sex with. Justin hoped that Charlie and Vicky were going on to round two, or maybe even three, or perhaps, if he were really lucky, passed out from the entertainment. He needed more time to think.

Justin finally stood once he was sure there would be no vomiting and no more fearful tears. Quickly, he dressed and checked his pockets for the condom wrapper, then the blood on his hands, lining up everything for the story in his mind. Justin was turned around, distracted, and had not noticed that there was considerably less blood on the log now. In fact, Justin had nearly forgotten about Alex except in where his story was concerned. In his defense, it would have been hard to see the body shifting in the dark anyway, no matter how much the pale moon accented her features. With everything going on in his mind as of late, he may have not believed the sight anyway.

The body twisted slightly at the neck, and folded one leg underneath as a brace. The rest of the blood had found its way home and Justin could not see the animated corpse rising behind him. Alex’s expression had been one of patience and wonder as she died, with her mouth slightly agape and eyes widened. They were narrowing now though, and her lips fell to a frown as her naked form stood tall, or as tall as the short Hispanic girl could, ready to approach her killer.

“Justin… dear…,” she said curtly. “I said it was a joke….”

Justin turned almost quicker than he could comprehend, lucky that he did not piss himself as well. The naked figure in front of him caused his eyes to widen and his body to clench.

“It was your friend that said you’d find that shit funny,” she cursed. “Charlie swore that was the kind of sick joke you’d appreciate.”

Alex’s words were a bit angry—expectedly—and she was not surprised when Justin turned and ran.

There was a brief smile of amusement in fact, just before the sigh and the snatching up of her clothes as she took off after him through the woods, in the wrong direction to get back to the van to boot. Alex had to dress herself, minus the shoes, on the run, which made her glad she had not worn much after all. Justin was in shape, and people seem to run much faster when they are scared for their lives, but he was also lost and frantic. Once she was dressed Alex had little trouble catching up to her prey.

In Justin’s mind it was like something out of a bad movie. The dead girl had just risen and spoken to him; then she was gone, then there again, but now dressed. He could hear her in the woods, coming after him, but never quite get a bead on her. How was she keeping up, why could he not see her; questions that he could have rationalized had he not been so close to a heart attack. There was a brief moment where he wandered if it was all real, or just his mind continuing his torture, even now, out of prison. The visions were supposed to bother him less now, but he could hear her coming, so either they had gotten worse, or the dead girl really was coming after him.

Justin was near the edge of the woods now, able to see the trees beginning to thin and dim lights from the road. Justin’s heart was pounding, and he was sure that safety was close. He pushed his legs to go, determined to make it, but those thoughts of salvation were cut down, just like his legs out from under him. Alex had tackled him with some deal of strength, quickly turning him, sitting atop his chest with her knees pinning his arms. She was so real, but the people still laughing at him, they were in question.

“There we go,” she said playfully. “I like being on top.”

Justin was about to yell. His body clenched, protectively, like he had so many times before. This could not be happening and he had just officially lost it. Alex’s hand was quicker though, blocking his mouth and nose as his cries were muffled.

“Stop it… stop. I’m going to keep my hand here until you listen to me.” She moved her hand so that the boy could breathe through his nose, but still could not cry for help. “I know my acting is bad, but shit, dude.” She honestly looked a little hurt. “Why did you freak out and bash my skull in, huh?”

Alex moved her other hand to the top of Justin’s head, getting much closer to his face.

“How would you like it if I did that shit to you? You probably wouldn’t like it would you, since you’d just die like a little shit, am I right?”

Justin shook his head, but then quickly nodded. He was scared and unsure of the exact answer the woman wanted, fighting not to scream.

“Here I was just looking to have some fun tonight and you had to go and do that. And what were you going to do, bury me out there and hope no one noticed I was gone?”

Justin did not get a chance to answer, to tell Alex the wonderful plan he had concocted, because there was the sound of an engine.

Alex cursed in Spanish under her breath, she wondered if they could have a few more minutes if she kept him quiet, but then heard Vicky calling out both of their names.

“Justin! Alex!”

She stood him up, hand still over his mouth as she whispered to him.

“Okay, little boy… we are going to walk out to our friends out there all smiles,” she instructed while dusting him off, “pretending like that was the best sex either of us ever had, and that nothing that actually happened did.”

With a quick drop of her elbow she grabbed his crotch, squeezing hard enough to make a point, then just a bit harder to drive the idea home. She whispered into his ear after his yelp.

“If you breathe one word of this to anyone, I take this away from you…” Alex paused. “Who am I kidding? You talk about what you saw at all and I’ll have to kill you, do we understand?”

Justin nodded franticly-scared, burning her image into his mind, a new fear.

“Good, I didn’t want to completely go from almost wanting a second date to thinking of you as a loose end.” She released her grip on his genitals first, then on his mouth, giving his cheek a quick series of pats.

The van had slowed down as Vicky yelled for them again. Alex took Justin’s hand and put on her smile, motioning for him to do the same as she led them out. Charlie stopped the van when he saw the trees parting and someone pushing through. Vicky opened up the side door.

“There you two are, why did you wander off so far?”

“Oh you know, Vick, privacy.”

The two girls laughed as Alex practically helped the still wide-eyed Justin into the van. The door slid back shut and Charlie began to pick up speed down the deserted Georgia back road.

“Justin,” Charlie said as the van pulled off. “Dude, what is that smell? Did you piss yourself or something?”