Finally! I think to myself as a plop down onto my bed. I’m Emma and I’ve had a long day and this nap on my free day off is the perfect solution. Ding! I get a text. Hey Baby! It reads. It’s Cooper, my boyfriend. Ugh, I think to myself. I love him and everything but he can be a little much and whenever he texts, that usually means he wants to hang out. Cooper and I have been dating since sophomore year. He’s amazing to me but can sometimes be rude to others and is really tough on himself. His dad left when he was only 2 which could explain why he is the way he is. The following text reads, TJ texted me and Max and asked us if we wanted to go to an abandoned prison and said you and Ava could come. Told you. Hmmm… Exploring an abandoned prison with my friends and boyfriend or sleep the night away. I thought about it for a second and replied, Ok, let me see what Ava’s going to do.
Max and Cooper have been best friends since the second grade and they do everything together. Their families are good friends so they vacation together, go to each other's games, they’re pretty much inseparable. Similar to me and Ava’s relationship. That's how we all met. Cooper got up the courage to ask me out sophomore year and once we were together, we set Max and Ava up.
TJ moved to Coastal Beach last year and had circulated into Max and Cooper's friendship right away. He’s an outgoing guy who everyone loves having around. Everyone except me. Something has always been off with him, almost as if he tries too much. Last summer, we were at a party and he tried to kiss me after I had a couple of drinks. Luckily Ava was there to stop him because I was too vulnerable to make my own choices. Ever since then, I have hated him. I never told Cooper because he always looks so happy with TJ and I’m afraid the friendship will end if I say anything or worse, he won’t believe me.
I texted Ava shortly after receiving Cooper’s text. She replied right away saying, I’m in! I then told Cooper to pick me up whenever.
Cooper and Max were going to meet at my house and pick me and Ava up here.
As soon as Ava got here we got ready.
“Ugh!” Ava said, “I hate TJ.” Ava has always been on my side with TJ ever since she saw him try to kiss me. “Emma, when are you going to tell Cooper? Then you won’t have TJ around anymore.” “No,” I tell her. “High School’s almost over and then there will be no more TJ.” “You’re still scared Cooper won’t believe you?” I say nothing. “You and Cooper were together years before he met TJ and he would give up anything to be with you.” “I know,” I say. “I just don’t want to risk anything.”
Cooper and Max pull up simultaneously. Ava and I finish getting ready and get in the cars.
By the time we all got there, the sunlight had almost faded. TJ’s waiting near the entrance. COASTAL BEACH PRISON, the rusty sign reads. This place has been closed down ever since the newer, high-tech facility was built 20 years ago.
TJ starts right away, “Legend has it that during the prisoner transport, one of the prisoners escaped the bus and came back to this prison. They looked for him for years but all that happened was whoever went in never….came….back.
“You're full of crap!” Cooper yells. TJ shrugs and we head in. As soon as the last person came in, the door slammed shut. Ava walked over and tugged on the handle. It didn’t budge.
“We’re locked in,” Ava said.
“Sh*t!”, shouted Cooper. “Now how are we supposed to get out?” TJ suggested the group continued looking around. Everyone agreed and started walking.
It’s pitch black. The only light we had was the dim light shining from a single flashlight. The sound of dripping prison cells surrounded us.
After about 30 minutes of exploring, Max shouted. The flashlight died. Now it was really pitch black. We started to look for an exit. Along the way, we ran into a lot of cells. Eventually, we hear a scream.
“What was that?” Ava questioned. It sounded like a man. “Max!”, she then called out. No answer. “MAX!”, this time even louder. No answer.
“Max this isn’t funny,” Cooper shouted. After still no response we decided to go look for him.
This time we picked up our pace a bit because we need to get out of here.
After about 5 minutes TJ exclaims while sounding a little out of breath, that he remembered he brought a backup pair of batteries. We put them in and proceed to look for Max.
The next corner we took was the worst corner I have ever taken. Dripping with blood we see Max hanging from a noose in a prison cell. Dead. We go silent. No one talks. No one moves. Written in what appears to be blood on the floor below him is, You’re next. Ava runs away crying and I follow.
We sit down on a bench and hug for a moment. TJ and Cooper catch up. We devise a plan to escape. TJ and Cooper go upstairs towards the roof and me and Ava continue searching for an exit on the main floor. TJ hands me the flashlight which has a touch of blood on it. I shrug it off and think to myself that he must have touched the blood on the ground to see if it was real. I wipe it off and forget about it. I give Cooper a kiss and he tells me to stay with Ava and don’t leave each other's sight. We go our separate ways.
Ava doesn’t speak the entire time. Rightfully so, she just witnessed the death of her boyfriend. When we get to a crossroads we decide that in order to cover more ground we must split up. I hand Ava the flashlight and we split.
Not even 5 minutes after our separation I hear Ava scream. I ran faster than I ever have before and eventually got to Ava. She stands there petrified at the sight of Cooper lying there dead. I gasp. We both look away and I fall to the ground too stunned to cry.
After a couple of minutes of silence, we hear something behind us. It’s TJ. He looks out of breath and says, “I’m…so glad… I found you.” We don’t say anything.
He proceeds to tell us that he and Cooper were walking in the dark toward the stairs when he heard a bang. He quickly turned around to see what it was and could faintly make out the shape of Cooper’s body lying still on the ground. TJ continued, telling us that he ran as fast as he could looking for us, trying to get away from whatever killed Cooper.
We stand there for a few moments, trying to grasp the situation. I then think back to when Max died. When we heard Max scream TJ was nowhere to be seen. Obviously, we couldn’t really see that well but I didn’t hear a single thing from him. He also didn’t scream out for Max like the rest of us. Flash forward a little bit when TJ handed me the flashlight that had blood on it. I didn’t think of it as anything at first but now…
“TJ why didn’t you scream for us when Cooper died? We were on the same floor, we probably would have heard it,” I question. He looks at me and says, “I told you, I ran away to find you guys.”
Accidentally I blurted out my thoughts, “What if he didn’t run away to find us but to… flee the scene.”
TJ notices my sudden realization and starts to move toward me. Ava and I freeze.
The next thing he did was unthinkable. He grabs me by the throat and holds me against a cell wall. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” he mutters. “Ever since that night that you didn’t let me kiss you, I have been plotting my revenge.” I struggle to get free. “I knew that if I killed you right away, Ava would know who did it. So I had to improvise. I wasn’t really friends with Cooper and Max. I just pretended to be, to get with you. But when you rejected me, it sparked a flame. I was convinced that I needed revenge. I never looked back.” He pauses for a minute. The look in his eyes was as if I was looking into the devil. He lifted up a knife and swung. I braced myself.
His hand released my neck. He then proceeded to drop, revealing Cooper standing there on a limp with a metal bar in his hands and blood on his face.
TJ doesn’t move. Ava checks his pulse. “He’s dead,” she remarks. I start to cry and Cooper hobbles over to comfort me. The three of us hug for a good five minutes before Ava and I grab each of Cooper's shoulders and start to walk.
Finally, after 30 more minutes of searching, we found a door. It's unlocked. We open the door to see a beautiful starry night sky. The full moon shines down on the prison. We’re free.