Screams of terror echoed off the walls of the deserted house, the pounding of the music from the stereo system seemed like a whisper compared to the chaos happening around me. Hundreds of people rushing past me, pushing and shoving and paying no attention to those around them. The crowd flooded into the long hallway from several rooms on the main floor as well as upstairs. People worked their way down the elegant stair case and tried to merge into the herd of people like vehicles on a freeway. Vampires, witches, werewolves and other things that go bump in the night stampeded for the front exit of the house as I watched in amazement with the lack of loyalty people appeared to be showing each other.
People who I had seen hanging out together for the past several hours at the party, seemingly inseparable, scattered like shards of broken glass from a fallen window pain and ran in separate directions never looking back for their friends. Situation like this are where you find out who your real friends are and apparently most of these people believed in the old 'looking out for #1 theory'. I wasn't sure what was happening, I didn't know what had scared these people and sent the party on the dead run but I knew I wasn't leaving without my best friend Tara. Tara and a few of her friends had set up this party, found the old house and decorated it and stuff. The place resembled a Halloween rave with loud music, low lights, people everywhere and the walls and halls were decorated with spiders and cobwebs. I made a split second decision and ran against the crowd and back into the blackness of the creepy old house to find her.
I looked dead ahead, my eyes searching for any opening in the crowd, any inch of space I could get through. My shoulders became battering rams that I used to fight through the tide of people swooping towards me. Just a few steps ahead of me a girl, about 19, dressed as a princess was knocked to the ground by the pushing crowd and was getting kicked by legs pushing past her like she was invisible. She was in danger of being trampled and I had to do something. "Watch out!" I yelled while closing in on where she lay crumpled on the floor. People either didn't hear me or were choosing to ignore my cries of warning about the fallen princess. "Move it!!" I bellowed while pushing people on either side of the fallen girl with a straight arm. Some guy dressed as a football player pushed me back and stepped on the girls dress, ripping it. "Real sensitive asshole!" I hollered at him.
I let my eyes fall down to the girl noticing her more closely now. She was very beautiful, appearing even more innocent in the long, lacy, light pink dress she wore as part of her costume. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her blue eyes looked up at me with a mix of terror and pleading in them as people continued to push past us. "You're going to get out of here, it's going to be okay." Her eyes were locked on mine as I tried to comfort her. "When I say 'now' I want you to stand up and just go, okay? " Her eyes were locked on mine and she nodded that she understood. "Don't stop, and don't look back no matter what." I moved around behind her, stretched my arms full out, planted my feet as solid as I could and used my body as a human shield protecting her against the rush of people coming at her. "Now!" I hollered as people pushed me from behind trying to make me move, "Go, now!" She got to her knees and then her feet, in moments she disappeared into the hysterical crowd and out of sight.
I didn't know what I might face as I turned and fought my own way back further inside to look for Tara. I didn't even know is she was still in the house but I couldn't leave till I knew for sure. About ten minutes before this hysteria set in Tara had excused herself to find another beer for each of us. Why didn't I go with her? I thought. Whatever could possibly happen to me inside could never scare me half as much as going through the rest of my life without her so I forged on against the crowd, yelling out her name as loud as I could as I went.
My eyes scanned the crowd furiously looking for any sign of her. The green mask of an alien, the bloodied face of a zombie, the jet black hair and ruby red lipstick of a hooker but no sign of my sweet Tara. My denim clad, cowboy hat wearing cowgirl, Tara. "Tara!..." I yelled again, "Tara can you hear me? Tara!!"
The creepiest feeling I'd ever experienced grabbed hold of me as someone dressed in a clown costume came towards me. It was just one face in the screaming crowd of people still filling the halls of the old house but it seemed so remarkably out of place. The white face, the rainbow colored wig, the round red nose. A big red smile painted permanently in place that grinned from ear to ear and stood out in a crowd of faces filled with fear. If I had been stuck in some really cheesy horror movie or a twiglight zone episode I'd have thought that the smiling clown had gone insane and began a rain of terror. This clown wasn't insane though, just a young woman as fearful as the rest of us.
As I worked my way past the last large group of people I took a second to notice my surroundings and try and figure out where I was. I was in a large room, I recognized it as the main dance room I had been in earlier. It was poorly lit and the floors were scattered with derbies from the party. Beer and lord knows what else left wet patches on the hard wood floor and I had to be careful not to slip as I worked my way towards the window I noticed on my left. The pounding beat of the dance music from the large speakers in the room vibrated the floor, you could actually feel the music with your body.
The window looked out towards the front of the house where people seemed to be gathering momentarily while looking for friends before taking off again. I scanned the crowd the best could but saw no sign of Tara nowhere. Maybe she left already, maybe she's already safe. At that moment I heard a voice call my name from across the room, I recognized it immediately as my roommate Jason's and turned. At first I didn't see him. "Jason!" I called out. "Is that you? Is Tara with you? What the hell is going on here?" Just then he popped out from a group of several people who had scattered into the room at the same time he had. Wrapped all in white toilet paper as a Mummy he stood out.
"I don't know where she is Trish...but we gotta get out of here...now!" he said grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me towards the exit, the place where I had just come from. He held me so tight that my wrist hurt instantly. "Someone saw a guy stab a girl. He just went nuts. We gotta go."
"Jason, let go of me." I ordered while trying to rip my wrist free of his grasp. "Let go of me now! I'm not leaving without her, I'm not. I can't do that."
He stopped and held me by both wrists, shaking me slightly as he spoke just like a father scolding a child who had done something wrong. "Trish listen to me. You can't stay here. You could get killed. Do you think that's what Tara would want?"
"I don't care what happens to me," I replied as a few tears began to roll down my cheek, "I am not leaving here without her." I pulled my arms back with all my might and managed to get my wrists freed from his grasp and I stepped back away from him.
"Do you have a death wish or something, is that it? he scowled at me. "Do you wanna die?"
"If I had to choose between living without her or dying looking for her then I guess I would say yeah, I wanna die cause I sure as hell don't wanna live without her." I was babbling in my state of fear and I didn't care. "I love her 'J'...I'm in love with her!" I didn't waste a moment after dropping that bomb on him and turned and started to run away from him, further into the house before he could grab me again.
"Trish wait..." he hollered from behind me in shock at my revolation, the distance between us growing. "You're what with her?! Come back!" I just kept running. "Trish we'll find her don't worry."
I didn't look back, just ran from room to room yelling her name. "Tara....Tara!" The hallways in the extremely large house were like a maze in the dark. I felt like a lab rat put through a test to find the cheese at the end. I passed some people in the hallways who were searching for the exit but for the most part it seemed to be nearly deserted now. My voice and the music was all I heard. I rounded the next corner and noticed what appeared to be an attic door in the ceiling at the end of the long hallway that was lit with a few antique looking globes along the walls. The hallway was empty except for me, my body shuttered at the thought. I yelled out again, "Tara!" Walking down the long hall I peered into the open doors, examining their contents one by one.
I stuck my head inside the last door at the end of the hallway and instantly my eyes were drawn to the bloody knife of the floor in the center of the room. I turned to run when an arm grabbed me from behind around the waist and a hand clasped over my mouth. I tried to scream and run but was froze with terror. "Shhhh Trish, it's okay." the person holding me whispered."It's me, it's Tara."
I spun around and instantly pulled her to me, hugging her tighter then I ever had before.I didn't give her a chance to speak. Suddenly, at that moment when I pulled back from the hug and looked into her eyes everything seemed so clear. I knew our lives were in danger and I had to tell her how I felt in case I never had the chance again. I wanted her to know, she had to know. My eyes never left hers as I spoke in my panicked haste. "Tara, I thought I'd lost you. I thought..." I gasped for breath for as I spoke quickly and the words flooded out in one long,never ending babble. "I...I knew I couldn't leave here without you so I came back. Jason tried to stop me, he told me what happened and I didn't care. I had to find you cause I couldn't live without you. I love you...I'm in love with you Tara." Just like that I blurted it out as I watched the shocked look in her eyes. I was still holding her so close from the hug that our breasts were touching slightly while I had her by both arms. For a moment I just stood speechless staring into her gorgeous brown eyes, our eyes locked on each other in a wordless silence.
"Oh god Tara I can't fight this feeling anymore..." I let my words trail off into a whisper and moved my two hands from her upper arms to her face, cupping it in my hands and stroking her cheeks with my thumbs a few times. Leaning in towards her face, I closed my eyes and let my emotions take over placing one long, soft, loving kiss on her full lips. The kiss lasted only seconds and then I removed my hands from her face and stepped back from her realizing the severity of what I had just said and done. My emotions and the adrenaline pumping through my vains had just made me do something I never thought I would do.
That's when I noticed her shirt and remembered the knife on the floor. Her shirt was covered in blood and I rushed towards her again in panic mode. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" I pleaded. Are you okay? You're bleeding. Where you cut? What happened?" Again I didn't allow her to answer or say a word at first, I just grabbed her hand and started to leave the room. "I'm going to get you out of this Tara, don't worry. We can't stay in this room. We'll find someplace to hide until the cops come...I'll protect you."
"But..." she started to say while I dragged her from the room.
