Silent Sheep

by Katie Miller

“Come on! We’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry up.”

“How can you be so energetic so early?” I replied, stifling a yawn.

“It’s really not that early. It’s already eight ten…oh shit! It’s eight ten, we really are gonna be late. Move it, move it!” Chelsea started pulling my arm harder.

We got there early, sixteen minutes early to be exact, time that I could’ve spent sleeping. On top of that, I wasn’t even supposed to be there. This meeting was for Chelsea and her online gaming friends.

She made me try the game Sheep & Wolves once. Everyone in the group is a sheep, but one sheep is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Every turn, the wolf kills one sheep. Together all the sheep, except for the dead ones, try to decide who the wolf is. Every turn they hang one sheep that they all decide is the wolf. If it is the wolf, then the sheep win. If not, they play until the wolf kills them all or until they hang the wolf. It was confusing and wasn’t that much fun but she’s really into it.

Her group was meeting that day in person and she got nervous so she woke me up at seven-fucking-thirty in the morning and dragged me with her.

“…And she, like, always wins…” Chelsea was saying.

“Huh? What?”

“I was telling you about the group members. God, you really space out way too much.”

“Sorry, sorry. Say it again.”

She heaved a big sigh. “I give up. No. You’ll just have to meet them. Oh, just to let you know, we’re going over to Ally’s house today.”

“Fine, fine. Whatever. I don’t even know who she is. Is this the first time you guys are meeting up?”

“Yeah, that’s why we needed a common place to meet. Cause we don’t know where she lives.”

She was going to a stranger’s house, who she had never met before, with four other strangers. No wonder she wanted me to come along.

“Ah.” Was all I said.

“Oh! Oh! Sam? Ally?” Chelsea randomly called out, startling me.

A blonde, curvy, teenager with a too short skirt turned around, saw us and waved.

It was strange to think of her as a gaming girl. She appeared to be more the social type.

When the girl started walking over, I asked Chelsea, “How did you know she was in your group?”

“The sheep charm on her bag. We’re all wearing them so we can spot each other.” She showed me the sheep attached to her cargo pants.

“Oh.”

“Hi.” The blonde girl smiled coyly. “I’m Sam. You must be Chelsea. And you are…Tyler?”

“Oh no, he’s a friend of mine, Ari.”

“I can speak for myself, thanks,” I said, then turned to Sam holding out my hand. “Hi, I’m Ari.”

“Nice to meet you.” She held my hand a little longer then necessary. Chelsea coughed.

“Have you seen anyone else, Sam?”

Sam let go of my hand. “Well, I saw one guy that I thought could be Mike, but I didn’t want to piss him off in case he wasn’t…oh, there he is.”

She pointed to a very gruff looking 20-year-old dressed in cargo pants and a black wife-beater. Hanging from his backpack was a sheep; it had red splatters all over it.

“Mike?” Chelsea tentatively called out.

His head turned and he started walking over. No introductions were made. The silence bore down on me and I felt as if I was suffocating. Chelsea actually knew these people a little bit; I was clueless.

“Who’s this?” A voice asked from behind us.

I turned to see a clean-cut, brown-haired teenage boy with glasses wheeling a slightly younger pale-faced, raven-haired girl in a wheelchair. He was staring at me.

“I’m Ari. I came with Chelsea.” I held my hand out; he waited a minute before taking it. The girl smiled up at me.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ari.”

“I take it you guys are Tyler and Ally?” Chelsea came up beside me.

“Yes, we found each other while coming here.”

“Shall we get going?” Ally asked. “My house is only a couple blocks from here.”

“Okay! Let’s go.” Chelsea ran up and took the wheelchair from Tyler. “Which way, your highness?”

Ally blushed cutely and pointed left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What a weird door. Ally, why does it have a keyhole on both sides?”

“That’s so if someone breaks the window on the door they still can’t open the door. So they can’t get in. My sister has been a bit paranoid about losing me too since the accident.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Where’s your sister by the way?”

“I think she said she was going out today. Could the last person please lock the door?” Ally said, while passing back the key.

“’Kay, will do,” Sam’s voice called out.

“Hey,” I whispered to Chelsea. “What accident?”

“”Her parents died when she was younger in a car accident. It the reason for why she’s in a wheelchair.”

“Oh, that’s terrible.”

Chelsea nodded solemnly.

We all filed into the living room. Snacks had been prepared, along with drinks. We all sat down and started chatting amongst ourselves.

“It’s nice to finally meet you all,” Chelsea started.

“Yes, I am so excited to have you all come over.” Ally smiled.

“Yeah, it was nice to meet all of you,” Sam said, giving looks to Tyler and Mike before her emerald eyes landed on me. I gulped. Chelsea nudged me and I looked away.

“We have quite a variety of people here,” Tyler commented, pushing up his glasses. “Though some are slightly more…dull then others.” He spared me a glance.

Mike grunted.

“Would you like to sit on the couch, Mike?” Ally asked. “There’s plenty of room.”

Mike turned back to the window muttering something that sounded like, “Fucking perfect princess.”

Mike was an asshole. She was just being nice.

“Anyways…Ah! Did you guys hear?” Chelsea started again. “’Bout the new sequence in the game?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah,” Sam joined in, “sounds hella awesome.”

I had no clue what the hell are they talking about?

“Hey…” I tried to interject.

“I think it’s very unnecessary,” Tyler said, sitting up straighter.

I rolled my eyes and got up. If they were going to exclude me, I might as well find something more interesting to do.

“Where are you going, Ari?” Chelsea called after me.

“Bathroom,” I half yelled back, then sighed.

“It’s on the right.” Ally’s soft voice said.

I turned right and ambled down the hall, taking my time looking at the pictures on the wall. Ally’s chubby kids’ face was hung everywhere. What looked to be her older sister appeared often too. But around the time Ally looked to be about eight, her parents didn’t show up in any more pictures. I shrugged and continued my task of finding the bathroom. Not actually having to go to the bathroom, I turned on the faucet. My reflection in the mirror showed bags under my eyes, so I washed my face a couple times. I reached my hand out searching for the towel but couldn’t find it. I turned off the water and opened my eyes, looking for where one might be. The reflection in the mirror caught my eye.

A person was behind me. They had on all white clothing, stained and made wet with blood. Surrounding their head was a giant wolf mask, like what a mascot would wear. They tilted their head to the side.

“Chelsea, that’s not the least bit funny. Now, can you please find me a towel?”

The person lifted their right arm. Held fast in their hand was a crowbar dripping with blood. They brought it crashing down on me before I could make a sound. My body fell to the floor as my vision blurred and darkened. I heard their footsteps walk away as my eyes shut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ow, fuck.” I woke up with my head pounding. I touched my fingers tentatively to my head and pulled them away dripping with bllod.

The sun was just setting, filling the room with an orange glow as if the walls had caught on fire. Images of the wolf-person with the crowbar flashed through my mind.

They could’ve gotten Chelsea too!

I sprinted from the bathroom, coming to a halt when I reached the living room. No one was there.

“Chelsea! Chelsea! Where are you?” I hollered.

Movement came from behind the couch.

“Chelsea?” A head of blonde hair appeared, some matted with dried blood.

“No, Sam,” Sam replied, wincing from the pain.

“Have you seen Chelsea?”

“No. What the hell happened?” She came over and pressed herself against me. “I’m so scared. What happened?”

“I don’t know.” I gently pushed her off. “I need to find Chelsea.”

“Ari?” I distant voice called.

“Chelsea?”

“Ari?” Her voice held sobs. I ran toward the sound, but froze when I got into the kitchen. Chelsea was curled up in a ball in the corner. There against the wall was Ally. Her silky hair was soaked with blood and her head lop-sided and low. Her legs hung below her, straight. Almost as if she were standing on her own two feet, except they were a couple inches off the ground, held in mid-air. Thin trails of red liquid ran down her legs, dripping off her toes and forming a puddle beneath her. She was pinned up by her hands, wooden stakes had been pounded into each palm, holding her against the wall. Thick paths of blood had made their way down the wall. One track of blood ran into the sink, dying the marble pink. Above her head were the words Sheep #1 written in blood.

The sight was too much. I feel to my knees and my bile splattered the linoleum.

“Ari,” Chelsea said again.

I pushed myself up and dragged myself to Chelsea.

“C’mon. We gotta get out of here. Some freak is in this house.” I tried pulling on her arm so that we could get going, but she wouldn’t budge. “Chelsea come on.”

“Ari, d-did you even…did you s-see her? I was r-right here, it’s Ally, Ally.”

“Yes, I know. But it could be us next if we don’t get out soon. Come on now. We’ll call the police as soon as we get out.”

She still wouldn’t move.

“Chelsea, come on.”

“Hey, Ari, you never came back for…me.” Sam walked into the room and her mouth dropped. “Ally? No, Ally.”

She ran over to the body and cupped the girl’s face in her hands. Almost immediately, Sam pulled her fingers away, screaming. They were covered in blood. I hugged Chelsea close, trying to block out the sound. The screaming drew attention. We could hear footsteps running toward us.

We really are going to be caught. She just let the whole house know where we are.

Tyler and Mike came in through different doors. Both stopped moving as soon as they saw Ally. Tyler took a deep breath, then moved to examine the body. He started touching her, trying to find a pulse. I saw his hair was darker in spots from blood.

“It’s obvious she’s d-dead. Just leave h-her in peace,” Chelsea mumbled from my arms.

Tyler dropped his arms. “Very true…”

Sam was still looking at her bloody hands. She had started rocking against the wall and was muttering to herself.

“Shuddap, Sam,” Mike said, glaring at her. I noticed none of his bleached hair was dyed red with blood. I pulled Chelsea up so we could run and get out of the god-forsaken-place.

“Mike?” I questioned.

“What the hell do you want?” We were almost at the other kitchen door, opposite Mike.

“Why didn’t that freak hit you?”

Anger flashed in his eyes. “I had fallen asleep in one of the bedrooms. They probably thought they didn’t need to. Or I don’t know. Why don’t you ask the killer? You’d get better answers that way.”

“For all I know; you seem like I pretty good suspect for the killer. You’re the only one who didn’t get hit.”

“Well, fuck you. I didn’t do nothing.”

“Either way, me and Chelsea are leaving. This is fucked up, you guys are fucked up.”

I broke out into a run, pulling Chelsea along. We made it safely to the door, but it was locked. And that stupid, stupid double lock kept the door shut.

“Wait right here,” I said, placing Chelsea against the wall. “I’ll be right back. Just gotta go get the key.”

I jogged back to the kitchen.

“Sam?”

“Oh, Ari. You came back for me.” She wrapped her bloody hands around my neck.

I wondered about Sam’s sanity for a second before I peeled her arms away from me. “Where’s the key?”

“Huh?”

“The key for the front door, give it to me.”

“I don’t have it. I gave it back to Ally…”

“Fuck! You know what this means right?” I said getting slightly hysterical. “The killer has the key.”

I turned to Mike.

“I am not the fucking killer, okay?”

“Fuck.” I went back and brought Chelsea to the kitchen again. “We gotta find a way out.”

“All the windows and doors are locked tight,” Tyler said. “I checked them when I gained consciousness.”

“Could we break the glass on the windows?”

“No, it’s at least two pained. I tried that already.”

“Let’s split up into groups and check again. I’ll go with Chelsea. You three stick together. That way people can keep an eye on each other.” They all nodded. “You three check that part of the house.” I pointed through one of the doors. “Chelsea and I will check this side of the house.” I pointed to the other door.

We all went our ways, wandering the house, looking for any escape. It had gotten dark now, and we had to turn on the lights to see anything. When Chelsea and me made it to the living room we turned on the light, but it almost immediately flickered off.

“Huh?” I tried flipping the switch again. Nothing happened. Chelsea walked over to the lamp and tried turning it on. Nothing.

“Fuck,” she whispered.

We stood there in silence for a while.

“C’mon,” Chelsea finally said. “We need to find some kind of light.”

I felt her leave the room and tried to follow, but I bumped into a chair, then the sofa. When I finally got out of the room I had lost her. I stood there, figuring as soon as she realized I wasn’t with her she would come back. A strangled cry broke the silence. I tensed. I waited, completely still, sure that Chelsea would find me then we could find out what happened.

“Ari? Ari?”

“Chelsea?”

“Oh, there you are. What was that noise?”

“I have no idea. Let’s go see.”

“Oh, right. I found a flashlight.” She turned it on and we headed in the direction of where the scream had sounded.

There, in the master bedroom, was Mike. He was hanging from the ceiling fan, a rope around his neck. His arm was slashed open, blood dripping and forming a circle on the carpet below. On the wall behind the bed were the words: You thought wrong written in blood. It was signed with a happy face.

Tyler and Sam were already there. They had also found a flashlight.

“We had gotten split up…the lights…” Sam managed to get out.

“Fuck!” I grabbed the nearest object to me, a book, and threw it at the bedroom window. It bounced off. There wasn’t even a crack.

“What do we do now?” Sam asked.

“What can we do? The lights are out, we can hardly see, and the killer is due to strike at any moment. Not to mention it’s one of you guys,” Tyler finished.

“I could be you,” I retorted.

“Very true, though I believe I am not.”

“That means shit to me.”

“This is getting nowhere,” Chelsea said, her voice full of annoyance. “First, let’s get out of this room. I don’t like the thought of being in here with him like that.”

“Let’s go into the living room,” Sam suggested.

We headed there, our flashlights bouncing, our feet dragging and our thoughts heavy. The silence consumed us.

We sat in a circle, so that we could all see each other and no one could sneak away or do anything to anyone. The watch on my wrist told me it was three in the morning, we were all tired. Chelsea leaned against me, laying her head on my shoulder.

“Why hasn’t Ally sister come home yet?” Chelsea whispered, more to herself than me.

I rested against the chair behind me. My eyes got heavier and heavier, but I had to stay awake. If not for my sake, then Chelsea’s; she was already sleeping soundly. But the darkness and the sound of Chelsea’s soft breathing lulled me to sleep faster then I thought possible. The next thing I knew, Tyler was shaking me awake.

“Chelsea, Chelsea. Ari. Wake up.”

“Hmm?”

“They…they got Sam.” He hung his head, his grip tightening on my shoulder. I looked over his shoulder. There on the leather couch was Sam, or what was left of her. Thick, red, oozing blood covered her form. The clothes concealing her body were completely soaked with blood. Her face was so scratched up that she was hardly recognizable, but I could still tell it was Sam. Behind her, written on the books, were the words: Sheep #2. In blood, of course.

“What?!”

“I feel asleep a little after you…”

“Fuck, it’s you isn’t it? You waited until we fell asleep then killed her. You asshole! You…you…” I stood up, grabbing his shirt.

“Then why would I even bother waking you up? Huh? I would’ve just killed you there in your sleep.”

“Cause you are fucking freak, that’s why. You’re crazy.”

“Are you listening to yourself? You’re the crazy one. It could’ve been any of us.”

I let go of him and held my head in my hands

“What are we gonna do?” Almost as if on cue, our stomachs rumbled. I would’ve laughed in a different situation.

“I know you most likely do not feel like eating, but we should eat something. It’s seven in the morning.” Tyler said, heading toward the kitchen. He paused. “I’ll go alone, don’t worry. I’m sure none of us want to see her again.” Chelsea and I nodded.

I turned to Chelsea when he left.

“I…I know this may seem childish but…”

“Yes?”

“Will you come to the bathroom with me and stand outside the door? I don’t trust Tyler completely.”

“Me neither. Yeah, I’ll come. I’ll scream if I see him coming.”

“Thanks.”

When I got out of the bathroom, Chelsea wasn’t there.

“Chelsea?”

She peeked from behind the open door.

“You should check both sides of the doorway before yelling next time.” She offered a half smile.

We walked back to the living room in soft silence. It wasn’t the time for useless chitchat, but I was almost able to forget we had a serial killer among us. That was, until we got into the dining room. Hanging from the chandelier was Tyler; his wrists were slashed open. Blood was splashing onto the hardwood table below. Written on his shirt were the words: Wrong again.

I turned to Chelsea as she turned to me.

“You’re the…” Before I could finish she rammed me to the ground.

“How could you?!” She screamed. “How could you kill all of my friends? What the fuck, Ari? What the…” She broke down in sobs, hitting my chest repeatedly.

“Wait, no, I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t even know these people. Why would I kill them?”

“You didn’t?”

“And you didn’t?”

“Then who did?” we both asked. Light footsteps could be heard in our silence.

“One sheep, two sheep. See how fun? Play all day, sleep all night. But look out for the big, bad, wooooolf. They’ll just gobble you up,” a voice sang.

There was another person inside!

“Run Chelsea, run!”

The voice followed us. “Sheep and wolves, sheep and wolves. You won’t steal my sheep from me. You big, bad wolf.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was held tightly in my arms. I had taken her off the wall once they had all seen her. I just wanted those horrid people to realize what they had done, what they had made me do. But everything was better now, she wouldn’t go anywhere, she couldn’t leave me. I stroked the raven hair and pale skin that resembled mine. My fingers caressed the small palms, which had been ruined by gaping holes. Look at what they had made me do.

The boy and girl lay on either side of me. The blood flowing from their bodies soaked my shoes. They had been the easiest by far. So eager to save one another, so eager to prove their bravery, I hardly had to try to kill either.

“Ally, you can’t leave now, you can’t be taken away. It’s time for us to be a family again.”

I laid her down on the soft bed. Even with the blood coating her face, she still looked like the purest angel. I picked up the white bottle, the pills rattling inside, and the glass full of water and climbed onto the bed next to her.

One, two, three, four…

A small sip after each, until every single one was gone.

I wrapped my arms around her cold body.

“No one can steal you away now, my dear sister.”