The disgusting aroma of Luke’s sandwich wafted throughout the lunchroom of the high school as he pulled it from his bag. “Hey uh, Luke, what’s on that sandwich?” Luke’s friend Timmy asked as he squeezed his nose shut with his thumb and forefinger. 

“Umm, let me see,” he said, examining the sandwich. “We got tuna fish, vegemite, and mustard.”  His friends all looked at each other. “Sounds delicious,” they said through fake smiles. 

Luke was an only child who lived in a pretty secluded neighborhood. He often kept to himself, not going out on the weekends, but he still had plenty of friends at school. He didn’t have many activities either, usually just stayed home, but occasionally some of his school friends would spot him at the grocery store. Only two of his friends, Timmy and Ed, had even been to his house, and that was just because they were working on a project for school. That was before the party.

“We can’t wait for your party this Saturday,” Ed said. “Yeah, should be a lot of fun,” everyone agreed. “How are your parents going to be alright with it though? Aren’t they pretty strict?”

“I’ll figure it out,” Luke said without looking up from his lunch. “They’re actually pretty chill. It should be fine.” His friend, Paul, got up from the seat next to him but tripped on Luke’s bag as he walked away. The contents of the bag spilled out onto the sticky floor of the cafeteria. Before Paul could even apologize Luke was up shoving the miscellaneous binders, books, pencils, and yellow container that Luke had grabbed first. 

“Sorry about that, Luke.” 

“It’s fine. I’ll see you guys tomorrow night.” Luke grabbed his bag and walked out of the cafeteria leaving his half-eaten smelly sandwich on the table. 

“Hey, Luke, your…” but he was already gone.

Later that night, Luke spent most of the time in his bedroom. As Luke sat in his room he could hear his parents mumbling outside in the hallway. He couldn’t quite make out what they were talking about. Then, there was a knock at the door. Without a word, Luke’s mom burst into the room and was quickly followed by her husband. “Are you having a party tomorrow night?!” She exclaimed. 

“No,” he said with a calm face. His mom’s face tensed even more. 

“Then why did Ed’s mom say she overheard him talking about it!” Silence. 

“Fine, I am,” Luke said, rolling his eyes. “That isn’t a problem, is it?” His mom’s eyes were bloodshot and she clenched her fist as if she was about to attack.

“It would have to be over my dead body that there was a party in this household, young man.”

“Really?” 

The next night there was a knock at the door. Luke opened it and on the other side were Ed, Timmy, and Timmy’s girlfriend. Timmy and his girlfriend held various party supplies such as cups and ice while Ed held a case of 30 beers and a speaker on his shoulders. “I heard that there’s a party here tonight,” Ed joked. 

“Come on in,” Luke said as he waved them inside. “The party will be downstairs in the basement.” He then turned and looked them dead in the eye. “Make sure no one comes upstairs during the party, especially my parents’ bedroom. They all looked upstairs and could see the door to the master bedroom which was practically boarded up with the amount of caution tape that was placed around it. 

“Yeah, how were your parents ok with you having a party anyway?” Ed asked.

“Oh, don’t worry, they’re out of town,” he froze for a moment. “Alright, come downstairs.” 

“Dude, do you smell something?” Ed said as he scrunched up his face. 

“It’s probably just yourself, now come downstairs.” Ed sniffed his armpit and shrugged, then followed Luke down. The stairs squeaked under every step that they took down the staircase to the basement. To his friends' surprise, Luke’s basement was pretty nice. They didn’t know what to expect but this wasn’t it. To their left down the stairs were swinging doors that led to a movie room and to their right was a gym. Straight forward was an open area with a ping pong door and sliding door to the outside. “That’s where we can let people into the party,” Luke said pointing at the door. 

“Ummm, Luke, is that a camera?” Timmy said as he looked in the corner of the room. Hanging from the ceiling was a white security camera. 

“Yeah. It’s fine though, my parents wouldn’t be checking the cameras anytime soon. I promise.” They all gave him an unsure look. “Come on, let's get set up,” he said as he reached for the case. 

Within two and a half hours the party was flooded with people. Some of Luke’s other friends had also come before the party and had set up some DJ equipment in the corner of the basement and were playing 2 Days Into College by Aimee Carty. “Yo, you can not play the music too loud. The cops cannot get called!” Luke said to Gavin who was running the DJ booth. “If the cops get called on the party, I’m screwed!” 

“Don’t worry it’ll be fine. None of your neighbors will hear. I’m not playing it that loud,” Gavin reassured Luke. Despite Gavin promising to keep the volume down, Luke’s friends could still tell he was stressed. They were all pretty tipsy at this point though, so they didn’t really care except for Luke. Luke spent the night patrolling the party, like the guard of a prison. Particularly, Luke made sure to stay around the staircase to the upstairs. Every once in a while, Luke would catch people trying to sneak upstairs and he would yell at them, getting angrier every time. 

“Luke, you should try to enjoy your party a little more,” Ed said. “Look, everybody’s having fun, you should do the same.” Luke looked really uncomfortable now.

“I don't really know, I’m worried something will go wrong.” 

“Trust me, it’ll be fine and Timmy will make sure that the music is quiet and no one goes upstairs.” Ed grabbed a beer, pushed it into Luke’s hand, and then grabbed his shoulder. “Look at these people having fun,” he said as he pointed to the crowd. “Join them.” Ed shoved Luke and he uncomfortably tried to mingle with the rest of the party. Timmy’s girlfriend watched as Luke walked away as she and Timmy talked.

“What are you looking at?” 

“Luke isn’t guarding the stairs,” she said, staring him in the eye. 

“So?”

“So, let’s go upstairs.” Timmy looked as his friend blended into the crowd of people and then back at his girlfriend. He gave an uneasy look but didn’t say anything so she grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs. Despite Ed’s promise to watch the stairs, Ed had already disappeared into the crowd as well. Once upstairs, they explored the first floor. Not seeing many rooms they made their way to the second floor, walking past the master bedroom as they went. Timmy tried to open a door to a room and it was instantly slammed shut. “Not that one I guess.” He then tried another door but it was locked. Finally, he tried what he assumed was Luke’s room but that was also locked. “How about we try that one,” his girlfriend said pointing at the parents’ bedroom.

“I don’t know if that’s really a good idea, he told us specifically not that one.”

“He wouldn’t find out.” Timmy’s girlfriend ripped the caution tape off and tossed it to the side. She then slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. “Ugh, it reeks in here,” she said as she stepped into the bedroom. 

“Oh my god, yeah.” Timmy flipped the light switch on and turned around. Timmy’s girlfriend watched his face turn the same color as a piece of paper. She turned. A scream rang out through the basement that everybody there could hear. 

“I think that was coming from upstairs,” someone said. Everybody rushed upstairs with Ed leading the charge. Ed ran up and could see the master room ajar but he was not ready for what he was about to lay his eyes on. Timmy and his girlfriend were frozen like statues staring at the two motionless corpses lying on the bed. He turned around and sprinted downstairs. “LUKE!” But when he got downstairs all he saw was the back door wide open.