#horror week

*****

Four weeks later

It was Halloween, and plans had come together nicely for the Haunted Circus. Chloe had gone nuts on Pinterest with ideas. She’d made a sign for the front of the house that read “Haunted Circus and CarnEvil.” Beca and several others had rolled their eyes, but they’d all agreed in the end it wasn’t an awful idea. They decided they’d have a “less scary” version of everything for the first two hours, leaving lights on, and get a bit scarier after most of the young ones had left.

The group had all sorts of activities set up. A ball pit for the younger children, a mirror maze for the teens and adults, and Flo had an entire tumbling routine she’d performed in one of the circus “rings.” Cynthia Rose and Stacie perfected a lion and tamer routine. Stacie had actually managed to choose a “sexy lion” costume that probably wouldn’t offend most parents. They’d talked her into using more “family-friendly” moves, knowing full well that she’d probably bust out her sexier moves for the later crowd.

Everything was set for the fun to begin at 4:00 pm. They decided the Bellas dressed as clowns would take turns being in the circus and collecting admission. Aubrey had suggested they have an empty plastic jack-o-lantern out at the exit to collect extra donations, figuring people may be generous since the money was going to the children’s hospital.

Chloe had asked everyone to be ready and in their places by 3:30 pm. However, Beca was nowhere to be found. She knew she’d had a shift at the radio station, but she was scheduled to be finished by 2:00. Chloe even put the radio station on, but she heard Jesse’s voice, not Beca’s. She texted Beca, but she didn’t get a response. She even tried calling her, but her call went straight to voicemail.

It was nearly 4:00, and, just as Chloe was going over a new plan with Aubrey to move around the fortune teller table, Beca showed up. She had a clown mask over her head, skeleton gloves, and a red cloak.

“Beca! You’re here! What took you so long?!” exclaimed Chloe. “And I thought you were doing clown makeup, not the whole mask.”

Beca simply shrugged and walked over to her table. Chloe had put a light under a clear, plastic ball that made it look extra spooky. She’d found a set of tarot cards as well. She’d left a jack-o-lantern there as well to collect tips.

The early hours of the haunted circus went pretty well. Aubrey surprised everyone by showing a softer side of herself. Several times they’d see her leading a tour carrying a frightened child on her hip.

Nobody walked up to Beca to have their fortune taken during the “less scary” times, but there was a very long line once the later hours began.

Beca kept giving everyone fortunes in a strange voice. Several of the guests looked rather horrified. Chloe overheard her telling someone that they would be dying a gruesome death. When that person left, looking white as a sheet, Chloe said, “Easy on the bad fortunes, Beca.”

“Who is Beca?” she asked in the same strange voice.

“Very funny. I didn’t think you’d get into character like that. But, I’m serious, try not to tell everyone they’ll die a gruesome death.”

They had a steady flow of customers for the next three hours, and Chloe was too busy being an evil clown to listen for whether or not Beca had toned down the creepy fortunes.

Finally, at 9:00, the last group left the haunted circus. The Bellas had made enough money to give a very generous donation to the children’s hospital.

Chloe and the others began to take down the decorations. She’d insisted that they get the house back to normal before leaving for the A Cappella Halloween Bash at the Treblemakers’ house. As Chloe began to divide up the various responsibilities, she couldn’t find Beca.

“Hey, has anyone seen Beca? She’s not at the fortune teller table, and…”

“Sorry, Chloe, I’m right here,” said Beca. “I’m so sorry I missed the circus.”

“What?” asked Chloe. She took notice of her friend. The girl had her right arm in a cast, stabilized by a sling. She was in her regular clothes.

“The strangest thing happened,” said Beca. “I was leaving the station, and I don’t know exactly how or why, but then I was on the ground with horrible pain in my arm. Maybe I tripped over my own feet or something. I called my dad to take me to the hospital, and then my phone battery died. Which is weird because I just charged it last night. Maybe it needs a new battery.”

“So, you’ve been at the hospital the whole time?”

“Yeah,” said Beca. “I broke my arm in two places. I would have called you from my dad’s phone, but I don’t actually know anyone’s number.”

“Then, who was telling fortunes tonight?” asked Chloe.

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t me.”

Chloe looked around at the Bellas. Everyone was dressed as they’d been for the circus. “Did anyone do the fortunes?” she asked.

The group collectively shook their heads.

“Well, let’s get this place cleaned up,” she said. “Some of these props are rented, and I don’t want anything wrecked by a drunk Bella. Beca, you just go up to our room and rest and charge your phone.”

“Thanks, Chlo,” Beca said.

Once the group had everything taken down, put away, and the rental props placed in boxes, she headed to the room she shared with Beca. The girl was sitting on their bed, looking at her phone with a furrowed brow.

“What’s going on?” asked Chloe.

“I don’t understand,” said Beca. “My phone has almost a full battery. I couldn’t turn it on after I got off of the phone with my dad. Fucking thing…”

“Get some rest, Beca,” said Chloe. “Let’s skip the Halloween party and eat junk food and watch TV.”

“Probably a good idea,” said Beca. “They gave me painkillers at the hospital, so I don’t think I should be drinking.”

Beca followed Chloe down to the living room. She flipped channels until they found a Halloween special from some old sitcom. It wasn’t long before Beca had fallen asleep, her head on Chloe’s shoulder. Chloe couldn’t help but wonder who had really been the fortune teller that night. It was all too much to not be connected - Beca’s fall, her phone not turning on, and someone mysteriously showing up to do her job and then disappearing just as mysteriously.

Beca hated the way the chair squeaked when she sat down next to the woman. She hated the Chanel perfume that she wore and the way a charm bracelet with a little star jingled each time Aubrey shifted. Even more, she hated the way the woman stared at her, almost through her. She didn’t’ say anything, she hit the button.

1200 [10-31] Rodger. Clock.

1221 [10-31] Rodger. roll.

1222 [10-31] Rolls complete. Pitch is programed.

1223 [10-31] One bravo.

Beca clenched her jaw hard enough for it to ache. She imagined her teeth shattering. Aubrey had a stony look on her face and part of her wanted to mouth the words. She hadn’t slept. This was all standard protocol. What was Beca missing? She could run these codes in her sleep.

It burned her to hear Chloe’s voice on the tape. She sounded elated, her whole crew had been. Beca remembers the way, just five months ago, she melted into the woman’s touch. She had breathed in the licorice scent and pressed her nose into a fiery mane of hair. It was hard to let go then and hard to listen now.

Aubrey leaned forward and pushed another button on the recorder. Despite herself, Beca strained to listen to the words. They were too fast. When it finally stopped, her head pounded and her mouth was dry. Still- she sat quietly.

0900 [11-04] Houston to ISS Immortal.

0901 [11-04] Copy.

0901[11-04] Was wondering if you had AUTO optics selected. Over.

0902 [11-04] That’s Affirmative.

0903 [11-04] Roger. Looks like to us we need a PROCEED, Jessica, to get the sextant pointed at the star. Over.

They were taking pictures, marking every single star that the team before them hadn’t gotten to. Chloe had an eye for the probes and the lenses while Emily kept an amazing aim. Anyone would be proud of the team. Anyone would be proud to be there. Aubrey fast-forwarded the tape again.

0600 [11-22] ISS Immortal to Houston.

0600 [11-22] Copy.

0601 [11-22] Breach in line, hull point of ship took some damage. Over.

0602 [11-22] Stand by one.

0607 [11-22] intrusion breached. All good on our end. Over.

0608 [11-23] Nice work, Beale. Debris?

0612 [11-23] Bet you a cup of coffee on it.

0613 [11-23] Copy.

Aubrey drew in a shuddered breath. It made Beca’s lungs ache. She had forgotten about the cold of the room. The little strip of skin by her thumb had been effectively peeled away and the frigid atmosphere made it sting something fierce. Her superior reached to fast-forward the tape once more, but Beca found herself stopping her.

“wait,” she rasped. Her fingers were wrapped around Aubrey’s and they squeezed tight. “It wasn’t debris, was it?”

“No, it was. That’s what our team believes anyway.”

“Then what? They all… They all perished because of a natural thing. Something that we were all warned about when we signed up for this program. I don’t understand.”

“Something got in,” Aubrey whispered.

She hit the little button and Beca found herself withdrawing her touch. She placed her hands in her lap like she was sitting in the last pew in a church instead of in a stuffy board room with a woman who could barely keep her sweet emotions in check.

0614 [11-24] Houston to ISS Immortal

0614 [11-24] ISS Immortal, do you copy?

0614 [11-24] Copy. We copy. Medic standby.

0614 [11-24] Stacie? Over.

0614 [11-24] Negative, she’s indisposed. Over.

0615 [11-24] ISS Immortal, what is the issue?

0616 [11-24] Emily is sick. Stacie soon after.

“It started with a fever. That soon progressed to chills and vomiting. It was bile at first, whatever they could keep down. And then it was blood. Chloe said it was more than she had ever seen.” Aubrey leaned back in her chair. That stoic, medical side of her started to shine through again. But it was quickly outweighed by sadness. “They were the two who repaired the damage the day before.”

“It could have been anything,” Beca cupped the back of her neck and dug her nails into the soft skin until it burned.

“But it wasn’t, Beca. It was something none of us could explain. We heard it all.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“You have to.”

“No.” She slammed the edge of her fist into the table. It shook that retched tape recorder and the chairs that remained unoccupied around them. Aubrey didn’t flinch, though her vacant stare made her regret the action. The side of her hand was numb and then it tingled with feeling. “You want me to listen to all of them die? My team? You think that’s easy for me?”

“It’s not supposed to be easy Beca. It’s going to prepare you.” She didn’t’ wait for another objection before starting the tape again. Beca wanted to plug her ears and scream until everything was drowned out. But instead, she rubbed the side of her hand and cursed herself for injuring it in the first place.

1245 [11-24] ISS Immortal to Houston

1245 [11-24] Copy

1246 [11-24] Emily is dead. Do you copy?

1249 [11-24] We copy.

1250 [11-24] What do we do now?

1253 [11-24] Standby. Over.

Beca felt as if she wanted to get sick herself. She regretted the big lunch. Chloe’s sullen words sunk to the bottom of her stomach like a ton of bricks. They had prepared them for everything, it seemed; the hull busting, running out of oxygen, every single machine aboard the ship failing them in a single moment. But not this; not some unknown illness.

“They put her,” Aubrey swallowed roughly “They put the body in the storage compartment and kept an eye on Stacie. That’s what Chloe said. It was the last thing… it was the last thing she said before what I’m about to play you next, and Beca?”

“Bree,”

“What you are about to hear does not leave this room. It doesn’t. And if it does I will not hesitate to put you in the ground myself. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.”

It seemed like an eternity before Aubrey finally hit the button. Once she did, there was nothing but static and distress. The formalities were gone and the screaming had stared. Beca wanted to move her fingers up to her throat because she knew theirs would be raw and torn and filling slowly with the taste of blood.

0467 [11-26] Houston… Fuck. Houston respond.

0469 [11-26] ISS Immortal, we’re here. You’ve been dark for two days. Over.

0470 [11-26] Bree? Bree is that you. God damn it, I’m so happy to hear your voice.

0471 [11-26] What’s happening up there, Chloe? Signal not clear.

0471 [11-26] She wasn’t dead, or maybe she was, and then whatever made her sick brought her back.

0471 [11-26] Emily?

0473 [11-27] Shit… yeah, yes. Emily. She was fine and then she wasn’t. And then there was blood. So much fucking blood.

0473 [11-27] Copy. Where are you now?

0476 [11-27] Houston to ISS Immortal, do you copy?

0478 [11-27] Chloe, do you copy?

0479 [11-27] I copy. I’m in the bottom brig. I can hear her walking above me. She can hear me too, I’m betting. I’m sorry, Aubrey. I knew you were counting on this to go well.

0479 [11-27] No, Chloe. It’s alright. Stay quiet.

0480 [11-27] You still owe me that cup of coffee.

0480 [11-27] Sure. We’ll go to that little shop on 9th. Stay quiet now, okay?

0497 [11-27] Houston to ISS Immortal.

0520 [11-27] ISS Immortal, do you copy?

Beca had been going through the motions, keeping her mind focused on those little tasks that she was given. She didn’t’ know the difference between day and night, fine and far from it. When her eyelids did grow heavy enough to close, she would hear Chloe’s voice. The screaming and the static, and she would jolt awake.

Aubrey had called this a rescue mission, but it felt more like suicide to the young pilot. They held onto false hope that Chloe had somehow made it, that the thing… whatever it was, that took all of them, moved on and left them to their own devices.

Chloe was strong, she was determined, and she scared the hell out of Beca on a good day. But it wasn’t a good day, it was a bad one. It was the worst one that Beca could remember. The rest had blurred into games of chess with herself, that horrible crackling static of the radio, and her own foolish hope.

She was awoken one night, or maybe it was day, to the sound of an easy alarm and the flashing red light of the controls on the right panel. A foreign object had struck the side of the craft and the radio was crackling with noise. She was sweating despite the cold.

“Houston to ISS Condemnation, do you copy? Beca do you copy?”

Aubrey’s voice was frantic. She groaned as she pulled herself out of the uncomfortable position that she had landed in. Her neck was aching, a pinch moving down her arm and to the base of her skull each time she quirked it a certain way.

“Yes, I copy.”

“Our sensors are going haywire, is everything okay up there?”

Beca looked around at the packaged meals that were strewn about and the black and white chess pieces that threatened to float through the air had they not been secured. She traced her fingers over the patch on her breast and the other on her wrist.