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My Friend Tony
My Friend Tony
Icy fingers grabbed my arm as I inched through the darkness. “Dammit, Tony, I almost crapped my pants.” I turned around to see my best friend Tony right behind me, his face pale in the moonlight. We were in the thick of the woods now, just a few metres away from our destination. Tony spoke, “Sorry man, just couldn’t see you for a sec, thought I lost you.” “It's ok”, I whispered back, “we’re almost there.” We continued our journey in silence and arrived at the house shortly. Standing at the bottom of the really long staircase leading up to the front door, we stared up at the mammoth of a building looming over us like a sleeping giant. I knew we shouldn’t be there, but a bet is a bet. Jamie Stevens and his disgusting gang of friends were not going to prove that I am scared of an old house. Honestly, I was seriously worried about being caught for trespassing. My dad and step-mother would kill me. Tony tapped my shoulder lightly, “You’re ready, Matt?” We could see each other more clearly, now that we were out of the woods. I nodded and we started up the stairs. Tony started rummaging around in his backpack. He then pulled out a small flashlight and gave me a sheepish look and small smile to say sorry for forgetting that he had had a flashlight in his bag all this time when we could have made good use of it in the woods earlier. I scowled at him in response and grabbed hold off the huge brass door knob. We were close enough to have a conversation without talking, we had been best friends and next door neighbours before our voices broke. Now at the age of fourteen, we were not the most popular in school so we were lucky that we had each other. Gingerly I turned the knob and pulled the door. It was unlocked. We shared a look as I pushed open the door. It was heavy and creaked. We walked in and looked around. Tony switched on the flashlight. The foyer was huge. High ceiling and a winding staircase that connected the five storeys above. On either side of us there was a door leading to a room or maybe more than one room. There were long dark wooden tables against either wall with vases of dead flowers on them. The walls held several paintings, different sizes and themes. Portraits, landscapes, even some abstract ones. They were dusty but looked really expensive. “Come on”, said Tony, “let's go upstairs, find what we need and get out of here.” We ran up the stairs, two at a time. Starting on the first floor we started searching the rooms. The man that lived in this house was a very rich business man and had passed away a few months ago. During his last few weeks he had given an interview to the local newspaper stating that he was donating all his millions to charities. He was too weak to get out of bed so the interview had been conducted in his bedroom. Above his bed was a massive painting of him and his wife who had died years before him. Jamie wanted me to prove I was in the house by taking a photo of myself in front of that painting. He wanted to ensure I spent as much time as possible in this creepy mansion. We eventually found the room on the second floor. Another huge room but more of the same. Nothing special about it except that painting. I pulled out my mobile phone, and took a photo of myself in front of the painting. We touched nothing else in the house, just ran back down the stairs as fast as we could, out the door. We couldn’t move as fast through the woods, we had to navigate carefully, without speaking. I was in front and was holding the flashlight this time, whilst Tony followed silently. We reached the end of the woods and emerged out onto the street, a few blocks from home. I turned around to check for Tony, but he wasn’t there. A chill ran down my spine. I took a couple of hesitant steps towards the entrance of the woods and hissed his name, once, then another two times. A few seconds passed before I heard rustling of leaves and crunching twigs. Tony pushed through two thick overhanging branches, and joined me and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. We picked up our bikes which we had left behind two thick bushes and rode home. It was already 01h45 when I crept through my bedroom window.
The next morning, I woke up earlier than usual. I was excited to show those shitheads that I had won the bet. I didn’t wait for Tony because I was early and his dad would drop him off anyway. I got to school and found Jamie and his gang. I showed them the photo. They were a bit surprised that I had actually done it. I know I could have imagined it, but part of me thought that Jamie also looked impressed as he watched me walk past him when school was over. I smiled smugly on my way home thinking about the twenty bucks in my back pocket, won fair and square. I couldn’t wait to tell Tony. I hadn’t seen him all day and assumed he had stayed home. I got home but he wasn’t waiting in the front yard for me like he usually did. I quickly ran upstairs and looked through my bedroom window, which directly faced his bedroom window. His curtains were drawn and I couldn’t make out any movement. He’s busy, I thought, so he would probably come see me later. I started on my homework.
I woke up suddenly at 01h20 to the sound of my mobile phone ringing. It was Tony. I was relieved yet also nervous. I had been trying to get hold of him all evening. I answered, “Hello?” No response. Just silence. Then he hung up. I got out of bed and walked over to my window. Tony’s room was dark. I sat on my bed staring at my phone. I was regretting not going over to his house earlier. The problem was that his parents were very strict and he would always get into trouble when I visited without their permission or advanced notice. I lay flat on my bed thinking about what to do. Eventually I fell asleep. I was awoken suddenly again, this time by ambulance sirens. It sounded close, as if it was right outside. I checked the clock. 06h30. I quickly ran downstairs and out the front door. My parents were already out there. Two ambulance vans were parked outside Tony’s place. My heart was racing. What the hell was going on? My dad turned to look at me, the expression on his face was one I last saw when my mom died. He came up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Matt, something terrible has happened”, he was obviously struggling to say what needed to be said, “ Mr and Mrs Johnson..err… were...have been killed...murdered. Their maid...just found them now.” I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I was confused. Where the hell was Tony? My dad squeezed my shoulder, told me he would be right back and went to talk to a man in a jeans and leather jacket. I glimpsed a gun in a holster on the man’s hip so I knew it must be a cop. I went back into the house, to my room, changed my clothes, grabbed an apple from the kitchen and left. Slipped away when no one was looking. It was Saturday. No school. I needed time to think. Alone. I cycled to the woods. I sat on a tree stump, ate the apple, staring at the silent mobile phone in my hand. Where the hell was Tony? I dialed his number. It rang then cut off. The second time it went straight to voicemail. I sat there for hours. Eventually, I went home.
That night, I tossed and turned. Weird, disturbing nightmare after nightmare. At 01h27 my ringing mobile phone woke me up again. It was Tony’s number. No one spoke on the other end. I was scared, really scared. And confused. My phone buzzed.
Text message from Tony:
“Matt, it’s me. I’m in big trouble. Need to see you.”
Second text message from Tony:
“Meet me at the old house.”
That was it. Only those two messages. My best friend needed me. He said so. Whatever had happened, whatever he had done, if anything, he was still my best friend. I had to help. I got out of bed, dressed, and out my window. I rode to the woods and walked to the old house. Yet again, just like the other night, I found myself at the door of that house, alone this time. I took out my phone and checked for new messages. Nothing. I decided he was waiting inside. The door was unlocked like last time. I pushed it open and closed it slowly and quietly behind me. My phone buzzed:
“Meet in me in the old man’s room”
The old man’s room? Why specifically that room? I was so confused. I just needed to find Tony, find out what’s going on and sort it all out, whatever it was. I followed his request. I entered the room, but I couldn’t turn on the light because the electricity had been disconnected, so I just walked further in the darkness. I felt it before I heard it. The door slam shut behind me. I turned around and there he was, Tony my friend, standing there. I couldn’t really see his face, he had his hoodie on, but I knew my best friend. “Tony, thank God, what the hell is going on? Where the hell have you been?” I decided not to mention his parents until I knew what he knew. He didn’t say anything for quite a while, it felt like ages. He just stood there. Then he lifted his hand. I could make out he had a knife. A big kitchen knife. He finally spoke, “I had no choice, Matt. They had to go. You have no idea what kind of people they were. The things they’ve done. They stopped, but now they were going to start again. I could not let that happen” He slowly lifted the knife up to his own throat. I started to panic. “Tony, stop, what are you doing. Just stop and talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Who are they? Are you talking about your parents?” Tony placed the blade of the knife against his throat, “Matt, thank you for being my friend. It means alot to me. I needed to see you to say goodbye. So goodbye.” And just like that he slit his throat. Right in front of me, in the old man’s bedroom. I puked my guts out. I collapsed on the floor. I struggled to catch my breath for a long while. Then I got up and ran. As fast as my legs would take me. I didn’t even bother checking Tony’s body. I had seen all the blood, I knew he was dead, I couldn’t bear to see anymore.
They found Tony’s body three days later. I didn’t tell a soul what had happened. I didn’t have to. There was a reason, a very good reason Tony asked me to meet him in the old man’s bedroom. Turns out, the old man was actually his old man. His real father. And the father, the parents he knew, were child abductors. The old man really wasn’t that old when he died, just very sick. His wife had committed suicide when Tony was kidnapped six years ago. Tony found photos in that bedroom, photos framed and in an album, with him and his real parents. He immediately recognised himself, went home, confronted and killed his abductors. And when they found his dead body in that huge abandoned house, in his parents bedroom, two Polaroid photographs fell out of his jacket pocket. One of him and his real parents, at a state fair, a big ferris wheel behind them, a candied apple in his hand and a huge grin on his face, age eight. The second, of his fake parents, his abductors, and him, age eight, naked, in bed.
The End
(All rights reserved)
© Susanna Perumal
Icy fingers grabbed my arm as I inched through the darkness. “Dammit, Tony, I almost crapped my pants.” I turned around to see my best friend Tony right behind me, his face pale in the moonlight. We were in the thick of the woods now, just a few metres away from our destination. Tony spoke, “Sorry man, just couldn’t see you for a sec, thought I lost you.” “It's ok”, I whispered back, “we’re almost there.” We continued our journey in silence and arrived at the house shortly. Standing at the bottom of the really long staircase leading up to the front door, we stared up at the mammoth of a building looming over us like a sleeping giant. I knew we shouldn’t be there, but a bet is a bet. Jamie Stevens and his disgusting gang of friends were not going to prove that I am scared of an old house. Honestly, I was seriously worried about being caught for trespassing. My dad and step-mother would kill me. Tony tapped my shoulder lightly, “You’re ready, Matt?” We could see each other more clearly, now that we were out of the woods. I nodded and we started up the stairs. Tony started rummaging around in his backpack. He then pulled out a small flashlight and gave me a sheepish look and small smile to say sorry for forgetting that he had had a flashlight in his bag all this time when we could have made good use of it in the woods earlier. I scowled at him in response and grabbed hold off the huge brass door knob. We were close enough to have a conversation without talking, we had been best friends and next door neighbours before our voices broke. Now at the age of fourteen, we were not the most popular in school so we were lucky that we had each other. Gingerly I turned the knob and pulled the door. It was unlocked. We shared a look as I pushed open the door. It was heavy and creaked. We walked in and looked around. Tony switched on the flashlight. The foyer was huge. High ceiling and a winding staircase that connected the five storeys above. On either side of us there was a door leading to a room or maybe more than one room. There were long dark wooden tables against either wall with vases of dead flowers on them. The walls held several paintings, different sizes and themes. Portraits, landscapes, even some abstract ones. They were dusty but looked really expensive. “Come on”, said Tony, “let's go upstairs, find what we need and get out of here.” We ran up the stairs, two at a time. Starting on the first floor we started searching the rooms. The man that lived in this house was a very rich business man and had passed away a few months ago. During his last few weeks he had given an interview to the local newspaper stating that he was donating all his millions to charities. He was too weak to get out of bed so the interview had been conducted in his bedroom. Above his bed was a massive painting of him and his wife who had died years before him. Jamie wanted me to prove I was in the house by taking a photo of myself in front of that painting. He wanted to ensure I spent as much time as possible in this creepy mansion. We eventually found the room on the second floor. Another huge room but more of the same. Nothing special about it except that painting. I pulled out my mobile phone, and took a photo of myself in front of the painting. We touched nothing else in the house, just ran back down the stairs as fast as we could, out the door. We couldn’t move as fast through the woods, we had to navigate carefully, without speaking. I was in front and was holding the flashlight this time, whilst Tony followed silently. We reached the end of the woods and emerged out onto the street, a few blocks from home. I turned around to check for Tony, but he wasn’t there. A chill ran down my spine. I took a couple of hesitant steps towards the entrance of the woods and hissed his name, once, then another two times. A few seconds passed before I heard rustling of leaves and crunching twigs. Tony pushed through two thick overhanging branches, and joined me and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. We picked up our bikes which we had left behind two thick bushes and rode home. It was already 01h45 when I crept through my bedroom window.
The next morning, I woke up earlier than usual. I was excited to show those shitheads that I had won the bet. I didn’t wait for Tony because I was early and his dad would drop him off anyway. I got to school and found Jamie and his gang. I showed them the photo. They were a bit surprised that I had actually done it. I know I could have imagined it, but part of me thought that Jamie also looked impressed as he watched me walk past him when school was over. I smiled smugly on my way home thinking about the twenty bucks in my back pocket, won fair and square. I couldn’t wait to tell Tony. I hadn’t seen him all day and assumed he had stayed home. I got home but he wasn’t waiting in the front yard for me like he usually did. I quickly ran upstairs and looked through my bedroom window, which directly faced his bedroom window. His curtains were drawn and I couldn’t make out any movement. He’s busy, I thought, so he would probably come see me later. I started on my homework.
I woke up suddenly at 01h20 to the sound of my mobile phone ringing. It was Tony. I was relieved yet also nervous. I had been trying to get hold of him all evening. I answered, “Hello?” No response. Just silence. Then he hung up. I got out of bed and walked over to my window. Tony’s room was dark. I sat on my bed staring at my phone. I was regretting not going over to his house earlier. The problem was that his parents were very strict and he would always get into trouble when I visited without their permission or advanced notice. I lay flat on my bed thinking about what to do. Eventually I fell asleep. I was awoken suddenly again, this time by ambulance sirens. It sounded close, as if it was right outside. I checked the clock. 06h30. I quickly ran downstairs and out the front door. My parents were already out there. Two ambulance vans were parked outside Tony’s place. My heart was racing. What the hell was going on? My dad turned to look at me, the expression on his face was one I last saw when my mom died. He came up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Matt, something terrible has happened”, he was obviously struggling to say what needed to be said, “ Mr and Mrs Johnson..err… were...have been killed...murdered. Their maid...just found them now.” I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I was confused. Where the hell was Tony? My dad squeezed my shoulder, told me he would be right back and went to talk to a man in a jeans and leather jacket. I glimpsed a gun in a holster on the man’s hip so I knew it must be a cop. I went back into the house, to my room, changed my clothes, grabbed an apple from the kitchen and left. Slipped away when no one was looking. It was Saturday. No school. I needed time to think. Alone. I cycled to the woods. I sat on a tree stump, ate the apple, staring at the silent mobile phone in my hand. Where the hell was Tony? I dialed his number. It rang then cut off. The second time it went straight to voicemail. I sat there for hours. Eventually, I went home.
That night, I tossed and turned. Weird, disturbing nightmare after nightmare. At 01h27 my ringing mobile phone woke me up again. It was Tony’s number. No one spoke on the other end. I was scared, really scared. And confused. My phone buzzed.
Text message from Tony:
“Matt, it’s me. I’m in big trouble. Need to see you.”
Second text message from Tony:
“Meet me at the old house.”
That was it. Only those two messages. My best friend needed me. He said so. Whatever had happened, whatever he had done, if anything, he was still my best friend. I had to help. I got out of bed, dressed, and out my window. I rode to the woods and walked to the old house. Yet again, just like the other night, I found myself at the door of that house, alone this time. I took out my phone and checked for new messages. Nothing. I decided he was waiting inside. The door was unlocked like last time. I pushed it open and closed it slowly and quietly behind me. My phone buzzed:
“Meet in me in the old man’s room”
The old man’s room? Why specifically that room? I was so confused. I just needed to find Tony, find out what’s going on and sort it all out, whatever it was. I followed his request. I entered the room, but I couldn’t turn on the light because the electricity had been disconnected, so I just walked further in the darkness. I felt it before I heard it. The door slam shut behind me. I turned around and there he was, Tony my friend, standing there. I couldn’t really see his face, he had his hoodie on, but I knew my best friend. “Tony, thank God, what the hell is going on? Where the hell have you been?” I decided not to mention his parents until I knew what he knew. He didn’t say anything for quite a while, it felt like ages. He just stood there. Then he lifted his hand. I could make out he had a knife. A big kitchen knife. He finally spoke, “I had no choice, Matt. They had to go. You have no idea what kind of people they were. The things they’ve done. They stopped, but now they were going to start again. I could not let that happen” He slowly lifted the knife up to his own throat. I started to panic. “Tony, stop, what are you doing. Just stop and talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Who are they? Are you talking about your parents?” Tony placed the blade of the knife against his throat, “Matt, thank you for being my friend. It means alot to me. I needed to see you to say goodbye. So goodbye.” And just like that he slit his throat. Right in front of me, in the old man’s bedroom. I puked my guts out. I collapsed on the floor. I struggled to catch my breath for a long while. Then I got up and ran. As fast as my legs would take me. I didn’t even bother checking Tony’s body. I had seen all the blood, I knew he was dead, I couldn’t bear to see anymore.
They found Tony’s body three days later. I didn’t tell a soul what had happened. I didn’t have to. There was a reason, a very good reason Tony asked me to meet him in the old man’s bedroom. Turns out, the old man was actually his old man. His real father. And the father, the parents he knew, were child abductors. The old man really wasn’t that old when he died, just very sick. His wife had committed suicide when Tony was kidnapped six years ago. Tony found photos in that bedroom, photos framed and in an album, with him and his real parents. He immediately recognised himself, went home, confronted and killed his abductors. And when they found his dead body in that huge abandoned house, in his parents bedroom, two Polaroid photographs fell out of his jacket pocket. One of him and his real parents, at a state fair, a big ferris wheel behind them, a candied apple in his hand and a huge grin on his face, age eight. The second, of his fake parents, his abductors, and him, age eight, naked, in bed.
The End
(All rights reserved)
© Susanna Perumal
