Prank Gone Wrong Chapter 02

Prank Gone Wrong Chapter 02

They told me they needed Hollywood-level special effects makeup. Told me to wait in the drama club prop room.

“Go ahead. We’ll grab the fake blood.” Connor said it like it was nothing. “Be right there.”

The prop room was in the auditorium basement. Nobody went down there except theater kids during rehearsal. The building flooded last semester. Nobody fixed it. The cameras were dead.

I pushed the door open. The air inside was old dust and mothballed costumes.

I believed them. I walked in and waited.

Sunset light cut through the narrow basement windows. It painted the room a sick orange-red.

I was still thinking about how to play along. Zombie walk? Or that bone-chilling scream from every horror show I’d ever seen?

Then pain exploded at the back of my skull.

A single blow. Fast and brutal. Like a baseball bat. I didn’t even have time to turn around.

The world spun. The orange light shattered into a kaleidoscope.

I tried to scream. The sound never made it out. I pitched forward.

Darkness.

I don’t know how long I was out. I woke to pain.

My wrists and ankles burned. I opened my eyes.

They’d tied me to a rusted metal pipe chair. Industrial-grade black zip ties dug into my skin. Every breath made the plastic bite deeper. A hot, grinding pain.

Silver duct tape sealed my mouth. I tried to open my jaw. Only a muffled whimper came out. The chemical smell of the glue mixed with something sharp and rancid. I almost gagged.

And my face. Something thick and sticky coated every inch of it.

Corn syrup blood. Connor’s annual Halloween recipe. He always made me mix it for him. Now it dripped down my cheeks, mixed with God knows what else.

The sensation made my skin crawl. The stench of iron and rot filled my nose.

I thrashed. The zip ties tightened. Warm liquid slicked my wrists. Real blood.

The door opened.

Connor, Tyler, and Jackson walked in. They saw me. They high-fived.

The sound of their laughter turned my stomach cold.

“Dude. This is insane. R-rated horror right here.” Tyler whistled.

“That fake blood was worth every cent. Hollywood quality.” Jackson leaned in to look.

Connor stopped in front of me. He looked down. Satisfied.

“Maya. Harper’s coming in soon. Just scare her like this.”

He bent close. I could smell his deodorant. His cologne. Familiar and sickening now.

“Make it convincing. Thrash around like a psycho. Some guttural noises. Sell it.”

I shook my head. Violently. I wanted to tell them I was in pain. I wanted them to get scissors and cut the ties off.

Tears streamed down my face. They mixed with the syrup blood. Disgusting. Pathetic.

Connor just patted my cheek. Impatient. “Don’t make a scene. We’ll grab In-N-Out after.”

The pat wasn’t hard. But it sent a spike of pain through the wound on my face.

That’s when I realized. They’d hit me with something while I was unconscious.

I saw his eyes clearly in that moment. Cold. No concern. No guilt. Not even a flicker of hesitation.

Like I wasn’t the girl next door who’d shared his treehouse secrets.

Just a Halloween prop. Something he could use.

A stepping stool so he could look cool in front of Harper.