THE LEGACY
CHAPTER 5- THE LAST RIDE


That night, Carrie could barely sleep. She kept tossing and turning with her mind wandering in a million places. When she finally did manage to fall asleep, her dreams were filled with nightmares.

She dreamt that it was pouring down rain and she was running in the middle of the dark woods from some terrible monster, but she couldn't see what it was. She heard the screams of misery from her friends, but she was powerless to help them.

Then she couldn't run any more. It was as if her legs were sinking deep into the wet ground and she could barely move at all. She screamed when the monster came into view, and she shielded herself from his hideous face.

The monster grabbed her and shook her violently. She tried to scream again, but her voice was muffled.

Carrie then awoke with a scream as Jay stood over her bed shaking her to wake up.

"Come on Carrie you got to get up, it's already 9 o’clock,” Jay exclaimed, still shaking here. “Everyone will be here in an hour.”

The news that she slept in didn't bother her too much because she had stayed up almost all night packing her Dodge minivan with all her supplies. Now all she had to do was get up and get dressed and she would be ready to roll.

What did bother her, however, was that nightmare. 'What does that mean?' Carrie asked herself in her head, still not acknowledging Jay's presence.

“Carrie, you hear me? You gotta get ready,” Jay urged.

“Damnit, I’m ready! I packed last night, now will you get out of my face!” Carrie shouted back, trying not to sound too annoyed.

“Oh, sorry,” Jay explained as Carrie sat up on the edge of her bed. “Melody made me come in here and get you up. She's outside smoking a cigarette. We got all our shit loaded.”

“Is anyone else here yet?” Carrie asked with a yawn, rubbing her eyes.

“Not yet, but Patty must have called 10 times wanting to know what to bring and what to wear,” Jay stated. “I think Mel told her off after she wanted to know if there were any sharks in the lake or something.”

Carrie just giggled.

“Thanks for letting me sleep in a little while longer,” Carrie said as she got up and stretched. “I'm going to jump in the shower and hopefully everyone will be here by the time I get out.”

“Alright, sounds good to me. Mel and I will be outside waiting, so make sure you lock everything up,” Jay replied as he left.

Carrie grabbed some jeans, her favorite tank top and a fresh pair of bra and panties, and walked into the bathroom, still contemplating her freaky nightmare the night before.

Psychology was Carrie’s minor, so it was natural for her to analyze strange events in her life. As she stripped down nude and stepped into the shower, she remembered that there were more people in her dream. People she never saw before. But for some reason, they saved her from the horrible monster.

As the cold water turned hot against her body, she forced the nightmare out of her head and focused on the trip ahead of her.


***


Melody and Jay were outside enjoying the warm sun, holding each other's hand, when they heard the thump of Jamal's car stereo playing 50 Cent’s “Many Men” before it even entered the parking lot. Then, a few seconds later, Jamal’s silver Honda Civic screeched to a halt nearby.

“Yo, what up y’all?” Louie screamed as he got out of the car.

Jamal just gave a nod with his head in the "what's up" motion.

“Hey guys, you ready to become ‘famous’?” Melody asked in a sarcastic voice.

“Ha ha, you know I'm ready to make this paper with y’all,” Jamal replied as he slapped Jay a high-five and gave Melody a hug.

“You know me playaz. I'm ready to get all the bitches and the Bentleys,” Louie chimed in, trying to fit in to the conversation.

“Man will you shut the fuck up already with that bullshit!” Jamal fired back. “Ain't no bitches going to want you even if you had as much money as Bill Gates and looked like Tom Cruise.”

Melody and Jay laughed, but the comment seemed to hurt Louie's feelings.

Louie just murmured something and turned away.

“Where's everyone else?” Jamal asked, looking around.

“Carrie is up getting a shower, so she should be down soon,” Melody responded. “And Slax and Patty will be here any minute now.”

Then as if on cue, Slax's beat up old Dodge Neon rolled into the parking lot, followed by a stream of smoke from the muffler. The group faintly heard Trapt’s “Headstrong” playing in the car shortly before the engine died.

Slax got out of the car and swore silently to himself, and then Patty got out of the passenger’s seat. Jamal couldn't help but laugh as he noticed the passenger side of the car lift back to normal when she got out.

“Yo, yo, yo, what up dogs,” Louie shouted as he ran over to greet them.

Slax just gave him a weird glare as he walked over to the rest of the group.

“Hi Louie,” Patty replied in her typical cheerful voice.

After a short minute of greetings, they loaded the rest of their video equipment into the van and Jamal’s Civic.

Melody was just about to go back inside and check on Carrie when she barged out the front door of their apartment, gleaming with beauty and excitement.

“Everyone ready to go?” she asked, clapping her hands together.

Everyone seemed to reply at the same time with “yea.”


***


Jay drove the van with Melody in the passenger’s seat and Carrie and Patty in the back. Jamal followed close behind in his Civic with Slax in the passenger’s seat and Louie reluctantly in the backseat.

The ride went smooth. In the van, Melody read Jay directions and Patty went on and on about how she got to ride in Slax's car. Carrie was quiet. She just sat there and daydreamed about her nightmare.

In the Civic, Jamal and Slax continued to rip on Louie more and more. For some reason, the Louie jokes never got old. They finally stopped when they noticed that Louie had fallen asleep.

Hours passed by and before they knew it, they were on the outskirts of town, passing a sign that read: “Newkirk-2, Fairfax-12, Crystal Lake-22.”

Carrie got butterflies in her stomach after reading Crystal Lake on the big green sign, but also a sigh of relief, because she didn't think she could deal with Patty much longer. Man that girl never shut up.

They continued to drive on, passing the site where Sean flipped his Jeep a few years back, and Rob avoided near disaster only a few days earlier.

As they grew ever so closer to the cursed campgrounds, Carrie couldn't shake the feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that she had somehow made a mistake by leading them out here.

A very deadly mistake.


Proceed To Chapter 6
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