THE LEGACY
CHAPTER 3- PHONE CONVERSATIONS
"Hello? Yeah what's up?" asked Jamal Jackson when he finally answered the phone on the sixth ring.
"Jamal, this is Carrie," replied the soft voice on the other end of the line.
Jamal, 22, is almost a carbon copy of actor Chris Rock. He's tall, dark and skinny, and would always seem to have a wise-ass remark about somebody or something. In fact, when he wasn't ripping on someone, he was usually trying to pick up women. Most times he would go after the “easy” girls, who would fall for his sleazy pick up lines, but all the sophisticated girls saw right through his act.
"Carrie who? Oh…this about my Yahoo personal ad?" Jamal answered back, attempting to sound sexy.
“What? No, Carrie Wilson from the Comm. group, in Professor Morgan's class.”
"Oh...oh yeah I knew that, I was just playing with you," Jamal replied with a smile, trying to play it cool. "So…what you doing tonight?”
"Listen Jamal I got big news," Carrie replied, sounding irritated. "Have you seen the news lately?"
"Naw, I just got back in, why?" Jamal answered in a normal tone.
"There were more murders at Camp Crystal Lake again,” Carrie informed him. “But this time they caught the guy.”
"Oh for real?" was all Jamal could answer back with.
"Yeah, so I mentioned it to Jay and Melody, and we came up with the idea that we should all drive out there to shoot our senior project,” Carrie replied, anxiously awaiting his reaction. “We figured we could do like a documentary type thing on the whole Crystal Lake murder thing.”
"Girl, I think you lost your mind!” Jamal fired back. “Ain't no way in hell you’re getting my black ass out in no haunted woods in some hillbilly bumpkin town. Them country folks probably haven't seen a black head since the last time they looked in the mirror.”
Carrie couldn't help but giggle. "I didn't get to finish though. If everything goes well, we could get major recognition, and be on national television," she added.
"No shit? National TV?" Jamal asked, with a sudden change of heart.
Before Carrie could reply, Jamal’s roommate, Louie, walked in the door.
"Yo bro what's the dilly man?" Louie shouted with a smile as he slammed the door shut behind him.
Louie Liang is 22, and has been Jamal’s roommate since the previous semester. He is short with slick, black hair and slightly slanted eyes, but since he started rooming with Jamal, you couldn’t tell whether he was Chinese or black. He started copying everything Jamal did, from music, to style of clothes, to how he talked. He did a complete 180 of the Louie Liang of old. The only problem is that Jamal hated being copied, and he never missed an opportunity to let Louie know that either. Jamal would always cut down on how he talked or dressed, but no matter how bad Jamal cut on him, it did not deter Louie, who kept acting the same.
"Man what the hell did you just say?" Jamal asked, disgusted.
"How it be like? How's it hanging? What's really good? Man you know," Louie replied as he raised his hand to slap him a high-five, but Jamal just left him hanging.
"Shut the hell up and leave me alone man, can't you see I'm on the phone!" Jamal yelled, even more irritated.
"Oh smack, is that one of your hoes? Tell her to bring five friends if she comes over tonight," Louie joked as he twisted off the cap of a bottle of Heineken.
"Yo, I'm going to hit you with five of my friends if you don't shut the hell up," Jamal said as he clenched and raised his fist.
"Jamal? Is that Louie? Can you ask him too please?" Carrie asked as she tried to interrupt the conversation at the other end of the line.
"Yeah, it's cool, we’re both in," Jamal answered, without even bothering to ask Louie first.
"Okay, great,” Carrie responded. “Can you meet me at my apartment tomorrow morning around 10?”
"Yeah, no problem," Jamal stated.
"Okay, thanks, see you then," Carrie cheerfully replied as she hung up the phone.
"Yo man go pack your bags and your equipment," Jamal ordered as he sat down on their broken lazy-boy recliner.
"Why? Where we going?" Louie asked.
"The woods,” Jamal replied as he switched the TV on and saw that the recent murders were on almost every channel. “Don't worry about it. Just be ready by tomorrow morning.”
"Word up dawg. We going to roll up a couple blunts then too?" Louie asked, knowing it would piss Jamal off.
Surprisingly, Jamal didn't get pissed. He just rolled his eyes and thought about his future stardom.
***
Carrie flipped through her address book for the phone numbers of the remaining members of her group, and came across Joel Martin, or “Slax,” as everyone called him.
She giggled to herself at the thought of him. Everyone called him Slax because he was so damn lazy and laid back. Slax hated the name Joel anyways. In fact, he preferred being called Slax. The name Joel always reminded him of a gay British rock singer. He was too tall and too skinny for his young age of 21. He was the ideal stereotype of a "freak.” With his raggy long black hair, eyebrow, nose and lip piercings, he always got weird looks from people in the street. But behind his black Ozzy Osbourne t-shirt, black jeans, and spiked dog collar, he was really quite a nice guy, always willing to help out a friend.
Carrie dialed his number, and he answered on the first ring.
"Hello?” Slax answered in a voice that would hint that he just woke up out of a deep hibernation.
"Slax, it’s Carrie Wilson, from Comm. class," she stated.
"Yeah, hey. What’s up?" Slax replied sounding a little more back to earth.
"Well I have to make this really brief because I still have a lot to do, but did you hear about the recent murders at Crystal Lake?" Carrie asked.
"Again? Damn, they need to nuke that place already," Slax replied.
"What do you think about going out there and doing a documentary on the place before it gets shut down, for our senior project?" Carrie stated, hoping she didn't need to be much more convincing.
"Sure why not. It's not like I have anything to do anyway," Slax answered without much care.
"Great!” Carried exclaimed. “Have your gear ready. We’re meeting at my place tomorrow morning at 10.”
"Cool, see you then," Slax concluded as he hung up the phone.
***
Carrie glanced over at the clock, and saw that it was nearly midnight, but she still had one more call to make.
Jay and Melody had already gone to bed, and now the apartment was eerily silent and dark. She quickly dialed her friend Patty Walton's number, and as she waited for her to answer, she thought to herself that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, but that thought was erased from her mind as soon as she heard Patty's cheerful voice answer the phone.
Patty was the same age as Carrie, and the two had recently became good friends. Patty had a pretty face and a heart of gold. However, her only downfall was that she was overweight, and was constantly told about it.
"Hey Carrie," Patty chimed in before any hello's could be said.
"Yeah Patty, it’s me, but how did you know?" Carrie asked, surprised.
"Well, caller ID for one, and two, I just got off the phone with Jamal. He told me the plan, so I figured you would be calling sooner or later," she answered.
"Oh good, so you know already. What do you think?" Carrie commented, hoping Jamal had already convinced her.
"I think you’re crazy and out of this world. But there is only one thing would make me risk my life out there in the wilderness," Patty said in her same cheerful voice.
"What's that? Fame and fortune?" Carrie asked.
"Nope...Slax...is he going?" Patty asked with her fingers crossed.
Carrie laughed a little and answered, "Yes, I just got off the phone with him. He’ll be there."
"Yes!" Patty squealed with excitement.
"Did Jamal give you all the details, because I have a shit-load of work that needs to be done for tomorrow," Carrie stated.
"Yeah, I know the drill," Patty confirmed.
"Okay good. See you tomorrow morning," Carrie said as she hung up the phone.
Carrie glanced back over at the clock, which now read 5 past 12.
She sighed and thought to herself, 'today's the day.’
Proceed To Chapter 4
Back To The Lair Of Horror