HELL'S NIGHT
CHAPTER 1- MADISON


October 29, 2004
Haddonfield, Illinois

"Man, this sucks!" 18-year old Madison Mauberry said aloud as she blew a strand of red hair out of her face.

She had just returned home from school and her mother already had chores lined up for her out the yin-yang. First on the list was to rake the entire backyard, which was blanketed with fallen leaves.

Madison was dressed in tight blue denim jeans with a baby blue South Pole hooded sweatshirt, accenting her perfect figure. She almost always wore her long, straight hair in a ponytail, and the guys in school always said she was so hot, which Madison herself questioned. If I’m so hot, she thought, how come I don’t have a boyfriend?

Madison lives with her mom, and is an only child. Her father ran out on them when she was still very young, so Madison was always stuck with all the extra chores around the house. She had been used to it after so many years, but today, she just wasn’t in the mood. She hated the entire damn fall season, and had been in a deep depression since the end of September. She had dealt with it for the most part, but it seemed to get worse as Halloween approached. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Halloween; in fact, it used to be her favorite holiday. It used to be their favorite holiday, back when she still went out with her boyfriend Tony.

Madison and Tony has started going out three years ago in the month of October, and Halloween was always their favorite holiday, until this year. ‘Until that stank Kristen had to steal him off me,’ Madison thought glumly to herself as she began to rake.

Just then, a gust of cold wind blew, causing even more leaves to fall off their massive oak tree in the backyard. Madison watched as the golden yellow and red leaves fell to the ground and wondered to herself, ‘How can people see this type of year as being beautiful? How could they be so blinded by beauty that they fail to notice that death is everywhere this time of year. Everything was either dead or dying by now. It just seems depressing and sad to me,’ she thought as she picked up a large red leaf and stared at it. ‘I wonder if he felt pain as he was tore from his host and fell to the ground?’ she thought as she crumbled the leave up in her hand and tossed it aside.

I wonder if the leaf felt pain? What the fuck am I even thinking anymore? “I need to get a grip,” she said aloud to herself as she continued to rake. But suddenly, she screamed as someone grabbed her from behind.

“Hey, you chicken shit,” the person said. It was the voice of Madison’s best friend, Kayla Soffy.

Kayla and Madison had been living across the street from one another since the age of five, and had practically grown up together. Kayla had long, straight bleach-blonde hair down to the small of her back, with bright icy blue eyes and a skinny waist. She was head cheerleader for all the obvious reasons, and an all-out party animal. Like Madison, Kayla was an only child living in a single-parent household.

“Why do you always find it necessary to scare me all the time?” Madison asked, relieved to see her friend.

“Um, I dunno,” Kayla responded as if in deep thought.

“Well anyways, what’s up?” Madison asked as she went back to raking.

“I just got home from detention and while I was there, I got this totally awesome idea for this weekend,” Kayla stated with enthusiasm.

“Do I even want to know?” Madison responded, not sounding enthused at all because she knew this weekend was Halloween.

“Of course you want to know silly, cause it’s just absolutely brilliant,” Kayla responded without losing any of her enthusiasm.

“Okay, shoot,” Madison said, leaning up against her rake.

“Well you know how both of our mom’s are leaving for their weekend getaway in Chicago?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah, how could I forget,” Madison responded. “My mom got a list a mile high of shit she wants me to do.”

“Well, I say we have a big Halloween costume party at my place!” Kayla stated almost shrieking from the excitement.

Madison just looked at her and thought about it for a while, but only dully replied, “Halloween is on a Sunday this year. We have school the next day.”

Kayla’s mouth just dropped and stared at her in sheer amazement, wondering how she could even make such a ludicrous comment.

But a smile spread across her face nevertheless.

“We’re off Monday, and you know what that means, party, party, party!” Kayla shouted as she danced around Madison in victory.

“Yeah, but won’t Tony be there?” Madison asked, still sounding depressed.

“Oh, goodness gracious girl! Will you get over it already? It’s been like five freaking months,” Kayla responded, throwing her hands up in disgust. “Besides, they’ll be lots of other guys there for you to pick from.”

“Well, I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it,” Madison replied.

“Great, so you’ll be there!” Kayla smiled, sounding enthused once again.

Madison was going to argue with her that she didn’t say that, but decided against it.

“I gotta run, Chris is picking me up soon,” Kayla informed her. “We’re going out to eat.”

Madison just raised her eyebrows as if to say ‘yippee.’

Kayla just gave her a look, and then Madison thought what now.

Kayla looked over to the pile of leaves that Madison had just gathered and winked.

“Oh, no, don’t you dare!” Madison shouted, but it was too late. Kayla already jumped in the pile scattering them everywhere.

“Ha, you are soooo done!” Madison replied back with a laugh, watching her best friend trash around in the leaves like a 6 year old. Just as she was getting up, Madison tackled her back into the pile, spreading them out even more.

The two girls continued wrestling and throwing leaves at each other, and Madison was finally smiling on the outside for the first time in a very long time. But on the inside, she couldn’t help but feel depressed.

There was no way she was going to this party. Halloween just wasn’t going to be her day.


Proceed To Chapter 2
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