100 Sleepless Nights

Today was Halloween and we were gonna make my house into a ghost house for the neighborhood kids. My mom and dad went out of town to let us do as we wished, thankfully. The thing is Vic is supposed to be helping me decorate and Kellin is getting some candy, but Vic was nowhere to be found. I asked him to be here for 4pm but it was now 5. So I decided to go to his house.

I walked across my lawn and out the gates. My feet carried me over to his garden and up onto his porch. I rung the bell and waited. Eventually the door opened and a women in her late 50's stood there. "Hello how can I help you?" She smiled.

"Hey you're Vics mom? He was supposed to help me decorate my house for halloween..." I began.

"Is this a halloween prank?" She screwed up her face at me.

"What?" I looked at her with confusion.

"You kids do this every year. It's not funny, my son meant a lot to me!" She shouted.

"What I don't understand?" I shook my head.

"Get out of here or I'll call the cops" She said as she slammed the door in my face.

What the fuck was that all about? I turned and left the garden. I walked over and got in my car. Vic goes to San Diego private school for boys. Maybe he's been held back or something. I took the 20 minute trip over to the school and parked out front. The school seemed empty. Not a soul in sight.

"Where the fuck is he?" I asked myself. I pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. I took a deep inhale of smoke and sighed. He's gotta be around here somewhere. I quickly finished my cigarette and then got out the car. I entered the school and walked up the the receptionist.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She smiled eagerly at me.

"Hey, I wanted to know if you guys have a student here named Vic Fuentes?" She looked at me strangely.

"We can't give out student information" She said sternly.

"I don't need information just if he goes here" I sighed.

She noddes and checked the system. "No, no Vic Fuentes in the system" I nodded and thanked her.

I left the school and drove back home. Hopefully Vic will be there to give me some answers.

I pulled up into my driveway and got out. I looked back over to Vics house and noticed a guy sitting on the porch steps. He got up and walked across the road and stood about a meter from my gate. "Hi" He said softly.

"Hey, sorry if your mom thought I was offending you guys, I was just wondering where Vic is" I sighed.

"You really don't know do you?" He looked sorry for me.

"Don't know what?" I asked. He nodded for me to follow him.

He led me over to his house. We walked inside and led me down a hallway. "I'm Mike by the way" He whispered.

"Harleigh" I mimbled. He stopped at a door and we both walked in.

"This is my brothers room" He said quietly. I looked at him with confusion. "You'd better sit down" He sighed.

"Okay" I said as I took as seat on the bed.

"15 years ago my brother and me were in this band. It was really fun and we had some good laughs. But somehow we got into some trouble and couldn't afford our record deal. We breached it and owed the company thousands of dollars. Vic got a job in some shitty bank to make some money. We all dropped out of high school to make it big. We failed" He rubbed his eyes.

"Okay but why are you telling me this? I could be anyone?" I asked.

"You live in that house and in a minute you'll realise why I'm telling you" He looked at me.

"Okay" I nodded.

"There was always something so morbid about Vic. I'll show you" He said, going into a drawyer and pulling out a notebook. I flicked through and found the words. 'Oh, all right, I'm dead and I don't care if it's cold outside anymore. So come on, let's have some fucking fun' written all over the pages.

"What's this?" I said looking up with shock.

"Keep reading" He nodded towards the book.

'Calm down as I drag myself along These severed hands are doing the very best they can As I drive my car into the sea (I taste you like a hammer through my teeth) Will someone tell me what it means to be alive? It feels just like the feeling when you die'

"He was so fucked up. He was on so many meds and it was the late 90's so they weren't so good with the right medication and dosages for certain things. Everyone said he was depressed, but he was just evil. It saddens me to say it. He was pure evil. He hated everyone and everything was simply not good enough for him. That's why the band failed" He sighed. "So he got this crazy plan to rob the bank he worked at. The plan was 'foolproof' as he put it...

FLASHBACK October 23rd 1999

"Vic this isn't going to work. If we get caught then we're going to jail" Mike pleaded with his brother.

"Mike live a little" Vic shrugged.

"You're crazy" Mike shook his head.

Vic went to work as normal and the plan went underway. They were going to frame his boss for fraud and tax evasion. The jerk had it coming anyway. Vic knew the basic set up of the bank and how to get everyone out quickly.

Everything was going smoothly when suddenly the doors opened: Mike, Jaime and Tony stormed into the bank with guns they had stole from Jaime's dad. Vic smirked, knowing he had gotten what he wanted. They demanded the code for the safe in the back. The poor girl behind the counter thrusted a piece of paper with the code on it i to Mike's hand. He handed it to Vic and demanded he got the money for them.

Vic almost skipped off to the safe, unlocking it with his ID and codes. He stuffed money in 4 different bags and struggled to pull them out of the safe. "Well done guys" Vic said cockily. One of Vic's co-workers looked at him.

"You're in on this?" He said. Vic looked at him for a second then grabbed the gun from Mike's hand.

"No Vic don't!" Mike screamed. Vic fired a bullet straight into his co-workers head.

"Are you stupid?!" Jaime shouted at Vic. "Now they all know! You're done for" Jaime shook his head.

Vic turned to everyone in the bank. Putting bullet after bullet into 15 peoples heads. Everyone was dead. "Now no one knows who did it" Vic stepped over a body and grabbed a bag. Everyone was in utter shock at his actions. The distrant sound of police sirens made them all panic. Vic ran out of the bank and into his car. The rest split up. The cops seen Vic's car leaving the scene and followed him. He drove back to his mom's house and abandoned it. Running into the old creepy abanonded house across the street.

He ran up the stairs and sat on the floor. Hearing the sirens get closer and closer he lifted the gun up to his head. He had no chance now. And pulled the trigger.

END OF FLASHBACK.

I looked at Mike in shock. I couldn't believe it. "How did you not get caught?" I asked.

"We handed the money back and gave statements about Vic and got 2 years each. Vic, well he's paying for it forever" Mike shook his head.

"I don't get it, how can people see him?" I was confused. I mean I sorta believed in ghosts now that the house has given me reason to but I hadn't really seen anything big.

"Something about that house holds peoples souls. If you die in there, you stay there forever. Most of the spirits don't even know they're dead. Vic is like a child now. He has no idea how he died or why, he simply has no idea" Mike explained.

"Why don't you go see him?" I asked.

"It's difficult. 15 years have passed and he did terrible things. He didn't even hesitate to kill any of those people. Do you know how scary that was? Watching my big brother kill helpless people. It was terrifying" He rubbed his eyes.

"What should I do?" I asked.

"Pretend you don't know. Once he knows you know, he'll freak out" Mike informed me. I nodded and stood up.

"It's gonna be fine right?" I asked. Mike nodded.

"Come over here if you ever need anything okay" Mike said leading me out of the house.

"Thanks... I just don't know what to do with myself now... I'm kinda shaken up" I sighed. "Have a good halloween Mike."

I walked back over to my house and searched for Vic... he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was hiding from me. Maybe he knew I knew. Whatever the case, I hope he doesn't hate me.

Notes