An original Horror Palace Scary Story
Episode 2 – Old Friends Reacquainted (Episode 1)
As the light washes over the figure, Janine can only make out the most obvious features. And yet there is no doubt in her mind who the figure belongs to.
Timidly Janine eeks out, “Buddy, they told me you were dead. How are you even…” The words trail off unfinished as she takes a longer look into the eyes of the stark boy before her. His skin is like paper, but the face. The frame. The hair. That’s Buddy. But it’s in those eyes. The eyes are what are really wrong. They are the stone blue they have always been, but the color fades to a pupil which seems grey, hollow, and iridescent all at once. When he opens his mouth, the same illusion occurs.
Buddy opens his mouth and begins speaking, but the words trail behind his mouth out of sync with his mouth, “Seems like I just can’t stay away from you, Janine,” a slow smirk blooming on his face. The skin of his cheeks wrinkles funny and appears to crack around the eyes. He takes another step forward. Janine’s vision clicks for an instant, and Buddy is far closer than one step should have taken him. Now that he’s so near, she can make out dark stains on his skin which crawl from the collar and sleeves of his t-shirt. Buddy looks filthy, but Janine doesn’t smell anything. She just feels the breath of cold blowing over her.
“How are you here?” she manages through her confusion.
“I’m telling you. I need you, Janine.” His voice is steady, but there is an urgency there that makes her nervous. She can’t look at his eyes for long, but there is no hint of his intension there; just icy, dead space within a nest of cracked stone.
From behind her, Janine hears softs steps. She turns to find a German shepherd stalking her. The dog’s fur is wiry and his pupils are black holes in amber space.
“Rugers?”
The dog trots over to Janine and licks her outstretched hands. Rugers had been struck by a car and killed while she was on a date her junior year of high school, and Janine had never forgiven herself for not being there when he died or more importantly, to make sure he could not get out of the fence. Rugers had been her dog since he was a puppy. He meant more to her than most people ever will. “Oh boy, my boy!” she sobs into the animals neck. “I am so sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” She breathes deep into his fur, but smells nothing. Janine holds the dog at arm’s length and examines his long sad face. She looks to Buddy, who hasn’t moved. His face obscured by shadow, she can’t tell if he is mad, impassive, or feeling anything at all.
“What did you do to Rugers?” Janine asks him. “Why is my dog here?”
No response. Dead silence.
Something within Jeanine stirs. “You’re dead. No. I don’t know what you are. Buddy is dead. What are you Buddy?”
‘Run!’ shouts the voice from within her head. ‘Run for your life!’
The abyss that was once Buddy’s mouth opens: “I am Buddy, and nothing can separate two people who were meant for each other…”
‘Run!’ the voice screams.
“…not even death,” he finishes. “Here!” he snaps at the dog, who obediently walks to his side and sits. “You meet him with love and embraces. Me?” he asks, voice rising. “How do you greet me?”
“I’m sorry, Buddy. I… I never meant to hurt you.” She says it, and part of her believes it, but Buddy does not look convinced.
“Would you do it differently?” he prompts. “If you could, would you take back what you did?”
“But I can’t…” she begins.
“But you can,” he insists. Buddy raises a hand to the scared shaken girl and whispers, “We can be together… forever… you, and me, and Rugers, an eternal family.” He takes a step in her direction. “But you will have to become like us: eternal.”
“You mean dead?”
“I mean like us. And I can do it for you. Bring you here.”
‘He’s going to kill you!’ the voice in her head calls. ‘RUN!’
Like a deer at the crack of a twig or rifle, Janine turns and bolts for the house. She makes it around the corner but stomps to a halt. Buddy is standing on the porch, Rugers at his side. She backs away from the specters, moving toward the car. Buddy steps off the landing and Janine turns to run.
“No!” her voice blasts.
He’s there. Between her and the driveway still walking at her. She cuts into the grass and bolts for a neighbor’s house, and Buddy’s there, standing in the street, Rugers still with him. She dives left to where the cul-de-sac ends and sprints for the trees. She second-guesses her choice for a moment and looks over her shoulder. Buddy has appeared behind her and off to the right.
‘He’s herding me,’ she realizes. ‘Oh God. He’s herding me into the woods.’
