The Black Mercedes

     I was spending the hot summer afternoon at my best friend Lauren's house. We were laying out next to the pool tanning. Well, I say tanning, but really I was just burning. My skin refuses to tan - ever. Lauren, of course, already had the perfect tan and was just laying out enjoying the sun.

     While we were outside, we heard a car pull into the driveway. Strange, because Lauren's parents were at work and her sister had just left for the movies. We peeked through the fence and got a good look at the car, trying to figure out who it might be. It was a black Mercedes and the windows were limousine-dark. Neither one of us recognized it. The Mercedes stayed in the driveway a few minutes longer before pulling away. Lauren and I went back to tanning.

      It'd been maybe thirty minutes later when we heard a car drive by. Her street is purely residential and very quiet, so we both looked up at the sound of the motor. It was the same black Mercedes as earlier, going much slower than necessary down the street. In front of her house, it stopped.

     Now, I should say here that Lauren and I have pretty active imaginations that we work hard to keep under check, but when we are together, we tend to let our imaginations go wild.

     Lauren said, "Maybe he's a burgler scoping out the house!"

     "That's stupid, it's like three in the afternoon. No way."

     "It could be! Mom was just talking about this guy last week- he robbed this house right in the middle of the day! He went around the back pretending to be from the gas company and picked their back-door. He took lots of jewelry and stuff, just put it in his bag. They only caught him 'cause the people had a camera set up in their yard."

     "Well maybe this guy is just lost."

     "Or maybe he's planning on robbing us!" Lauren said, "Oh my god, what if he does and we walk in on him! He'd probably kill us!"

     "He wouldn't risk killing us, the neighbors would hear."

     "Not if he used a silencer or a knife! Oh my god, what if he has one of those big knives? Could you imagine?"

     I thought about it for a second and felt the familiar tingling in my stomach. She could be right, you never knew...

     "What if he's planning on kidnapping us?"

     Lauren gasped and said, "You think? But how does he know we're here?"

     "I dunno, maybe he can see through the cracks in the fence. Oh my god, what if he's just watching us right now! We have to go inside so he can't see us anymore!"

We grabbed our towels with a quick glance at the Mercedes still parked outside.

     "Come on," I squealed, "Come on, go go go!" 

     We ran inside, barefoot and dripping from the pool. The house was dark and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust. Lauren slid the door shut and locked both locks.

     "There, we're safe."

     The AC kicked on and I shivered. We decided to change out of our swimsuits and watch TV for a while. Just as we were walking to her room, a loud THUNK came from across the house.

     "Oh my god, what was that?"

     "What was what?"

     "That noise," I said, "You didn't hear it?"

     "What do you think it was?"
     "I dunno... maybe just Cassie?"

     "But I put Cassie out earlier," She said, "Remember?"

     Just to be sure, we looked out the back window. Sure enough, Lauren's poodle Cassie was laying in the sun.

     "Where'd the noise come from?" Lauren asked.

     "Um, somewhere in the back. Maybe your parent's room?"

     Lauren's eyes grew wide.

     In a hushed voice, she said, "Do you think someone's here?"

     A thrill passed over me and I shuddered.

     "The black Mercedes!"

     We looked outside and the car was still there, idling in front of the house. I looked at Lauren.

     "What do we do?"

     She said, "We have to check it out!"

     She started for the bedroom but I caught her arm.

     "Wait! What if there is someone? We can't just go in their unprotected! What if they attack us?"

     "You're right." She thought for a minute then said, "Oh, I've got it! Come on." I followed her back into the kitchen where she grabbed two butcher knives out of the drawer. "This should work."

     As the braver of the two chickens, I led the way to the bedroom, holding the butcher knife tight in my numb fingers. I was ready. If someone was in that bedroom, they were about to get it. Not that two scared thirteen year old girls holding knives were that terrifying, but in my mind, we had the upper hand. Besides, I didn't completely think there was anyone in the bedroom. It was a sort-of game, we knew it was nothing. Still, it was fun.

     Just as we turned the corner, there was another noise. A scraping sound coming from the front door. We spun around and this time, it wasn't a game. Someone was at the door, we could see their silhouette against the window. The doorknob rattled and Lauren and I backed away.

     "Do you think-" I started.

     "It's the black Mercedes?" Lauren finished, her voice barely more than a whisper. "They're trying to break in. What do we do?"

     "I don't know," I whispered back, "Hide?"

     Lauren shook her head.

     "No, we have to scare them, make them go away."

     "Okay."

     "Okay."

     We held our breath as the knob rattled harder. This was it. The game turned real. My heart was pounding in my head and suddenly the temperature dropped another fifty degrees. Beside me, Lauren held her knife in front of her body, sticking out towards the door. I did the same with mine, preparing myself to use it.

The rattling stopped. We both involuntary steps back as the doorknob turned.

     "Ready?" She whispered.

     "Ready."

     Just as the door slowly opened, we charged, screaming at the top of our lungs.

     "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

     The stranger at the door stepped back with a look of horror on her face. Lauren's sister, Lindsey. As soon as we recognized her, we stopped, gasping to catch our breath and calm our hearts.

     The three of us stood there, staring at each other in silence, trying to figure out what'd happened. Suddenly, Lindsey burst in to a fit of laughter. Lauren and I frowned and looked at each other.

     "What's so funny?"

     Lindsey couldn't answer, she was laughing too hard. Tears streaked her face and she grabbed her stomach. I didn't think it was that funny. Maybe a little, but not that much. She was exaggerating.

     "What-" She finally gasped, "What are you doing? Why do you have knives?"

     We started explaining, talking over each other.

     "There was this noise-"

     "We were swimming-"

     "-coming from the back-"

     "-we saw this car-"

     Together, we took a breath and said,

     "The black Mercedes-"
     "Wait-" Lindsey stopped us. "You mean Mark's car?"

     She pointed to the black Mercedes, still parked outside. Leaning against it was Mark, Lindsey's boyfriend.

     "He came by to talk but I wasn't here, so he waited. Who did you think he was?"

     "We thought-"

     "he was a burgler-"

     "-or worse."

     Lindsey cracked up again.

     "A burgler? Are you serious?"

     Lauren's face turned red and she said, "Well Ashley thought he was gonna kill us!"

     I turned on Lauren and said, "So did you! And it's not like we could see in those windows, anyway. He could've been some serial killer, you never know!"

     Lindsey shook her head, still laughing.

     "You guys need to stop watching so much TV. I'm going out again, I'll be back later. And please don't attack me when I get back." As she started down the driveway, we heard her say, "Mark, you won't believe what they just did..."

     After we watched Lindsey and Mark drive away, Lauren turned to me.

     "A serial killer? Really? Ashley, you have to stop freaking me out like that."

     "You never know..." I said darkly, "And what about that sound we heard earlier? In the bedroom? What if it's - "

     "Somebody still in here?" Lauren grinned and gripped the knife in her hand. "Let's go see."

Author's Note

Okay, so I'm embarrassed to say this is completely true... Lauren and I shared the same vividly unrealistic imaginations and we were always scaring ourselves. I just free-wrote this, so there are probably tons of errors, but I don't really care. Just something fun to post.

Reviews

[A.Lee]

Haha, awesome. :) I could just imagine. I love how you guys still want to investigate the bedroom even after the sister and her boyfriend leave. I would say "kids always have wild imaginations" but I'm guilty of thinking the worst when I hear weird noises in the house. I've never gone investigating with butcher knives though :)

Hahah This is so something little girls would think of. My cousin did this to me all the time. When it was just us at the house, she would think every noise was a serial killer and she would try convincing me that he would kill us. I, having a tighter grasp on reality, just kinda laughed and let it go. It was so funny watching her freak out. She did that when we would go to the store to, it was hilarious. Then I would be lectured on how I am oblivious to the world, and how a rapist could kill me because I wouldn't have noticed he was a rapist. I could relate to this haha It was funny.

[Kira]

Ha, I love how you guys jump to conclusions, but it's totally believeable (I thought it was real life, there was just something extra in the description and dialogue). Scaaaary.

[EMW]

This was awesome. I totally would have thought the same thing. I have a very active imagination. lol.

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

Sweet story. It would make a cool short film. It reminds me of the things I used to read in reader's digest. I liked it.

[Bette]

this is cute well done

[PadfootBlack]

I love this. Absolutely adore it. I've done the EXACT same thing, except I was alone in the house, and I had a full-fledged King Arthur-like medieval sword. LMAO this is great.

[Miss Coral]

This was super adorable. I've done things like this when I'm home alone, but never to the extent of grabbing a knife. c:

I loved the ending... not just the part where they figured out what the noise actually was, but the very last line.. a perfect conclusion. :)

Great piece!!

Coral

[_thesovo]

This is so funny! Lol, we've all kinda been through the same thing. x)

[al25]

hahahahah this is so funny. I can't believe you thought it was killer. Good going LOL

[Levioshock]

well done