"The Year They Came Back" by Eman H

 

It has been almost four years since the incident, my friends and I still have not said a word. It is finally my senior year, soon enough, I will be starting a new chapter in my life. Four years ago, the group of friends I had was inseparable. However, our bond would forever change on October 15 of 2016. Clown costumes became a trend that year and someone took it over the top by filming themselves killing high school students. Now, it is finally October 2020 and I still do not understand why everyone chooses to forget about the tragic events as the years go by.

 

“Hey, Miranda!” My best friend, Amanda, shouts.

 

“Hey, girly,” I say in monotone. I look around and people are staring at me though I am crazy.

 

“Keep your head up, Miranda. Don’t make it noticeable that the day is coming around,” whispers Amanda.

 

“I don’t know,” I pout, “I mean...the anniversary is soon and it is like nobody is saying anything about it. Everyone is suspicious of one another because they don’t know who killed who. The clown roams freely to this day.” I am terrified. The murderer got away, the victims never got their justice and who is to tell if the killer is sitting in the same room as us? Do people not care or are they secretly terrified?

 

Amanda places her hand on her forehead, sighing, “Look, it is going to be alright.” Her face brightens up while she thinks for a second. “Okay, here is the deal! We will not let the past ruin our future! Tonight, you will stay at my place until the weekend. It will be perfect, after school we will have so much time to prepare all the posters for the football game!” Her bright smile fades away, “I do not want you to be upset, if being safe together is what you need, I will do everything to ensure that.”

 

I give a weak smile. She means well, I love her for that, but I am still worried. Being together does not mean guaranteed safety. “Thank you, Amanda,” I say while hugging her as she hugs me back.

 

As the day goes on, the fourth-period bell rings. We are all in our Asb groups talking about the big game and predicting who will win Homecoming King and Queen. The contestants are the typical girls you would see in every cliche movie. It is true that the popular people always rank the highest, but what is high school without different friend groups? Every school has their very own popular drama queen, our high school belongs to...Isabelle Sander.

 

As the votes come in, we start to count ahead of time so we will not have any issues on the night of our football game.

 

“Ugh, do you guys think Isabelle is going to win?” Eric, a classmate, says displeased.

“I mean, there is not anything we can do about it, everyone loves her. If only everyone else knew who she really was in middle school, maybe they would have their opinions changed up.” Amanda chuckles.

 

“Shh, Shh, she is coming our way. Let’s pretend we actually care about her votes-” I whisper.

 

“Well, well, well. Look what we have here. The Walmart version of the Losers, from ​It​. How are my votes coming in? Oh, it does not matter, anyway. I already know I'm winning.” Isabelle claims.

 

“You act as if you weren’t one of us in middle school.,” I scoff, “Your dad got a better paying job and you kicked us to the dirt. Friends do not do that to their friends. If people knew who you were, you would not even be in this position.” I groaned. I look the other way, hoping she would walk away. I hate seeing her, hearing her name or voice.

 

“Pfft, please-“ she starts.

 

“What are you still doing here?” I interrupt her, “No one here likes you.”

 

She runs her hand through her hair, squinting her needy little eyes at me. “I am ASB president, not you or your friends! I am better than all of you! I am involved all around the school and community. Why wouldn't anyone like me?”

 

“K, are you done crying?” Eric whispers. My friends and I begin laughing and Isabella takes a step back.

 

“What do you do other than sitting around making posters, Miranda? Hurry up and get to work with votes... Don’t want to hurt your little bestie’s feelings when she doesn't get crowned.” She says, sarcastically.

 

If I had the nerve in me, she would have gotten beat up already. When the period ends, I meet up with Amanda and Eric to go to the parking lot. As we get in our cars, I realize that the jocks are picking on the quiet kid that never really says a word. I feel terrible but there has always been something super odd about him. Maybe the vibes? I step out of my car and run to the group of jocks.

 

“Hey, stop!” I make my voice heard, “Leave him alone! Adrian has never done anything but respect your personal space.” I shout.

 

“Aw, look,” one of the guys, Jacob Sagittarius, says as he walks away from Adrian and towards me, “His little girlfriend is here to help him. Cannot wait to tell Isabelle all about this.”

 

“Isabelle does not scare me. Waste your time though.” I stand up for myself. The boys roll their eyes and walk away from us when they realize their threats are now pointless.

 

“I am so sorry that they do this to you, are you okay?” I ask.

 

Adrian also rolls his eyes and starts walking away before saying, “I am fine, just leave me alone. I can help myself.” Ugh, I feel so horrible. Adrian is such a quiet and odd kid that has never harmed anyone.

 

Finally, after that little incident with the jocks, Amanda and I arrive at her house. We eat lunch together and work on posters. I am still nervous about this weekend, especially how the anniversary lands on our homecoming night. As the week safely goes by, it is finally game day. My friends and I began to hang up posters for the game during the fourth period.

 

Instead of joining the game at the beginning, we decided to get some Chick-Fil-A first. We, obviously, arrive late. Just as we got to the game, our team was down by 14. The Atlanta Tigers were beating us by 14-28 by the end of the third quarter.

 

“Dude, who do you think is going to get crowned??” I say, as I’m looking around the crowd.

 

“Isabelle has it all, I mean everyone swears they love her,” a friend says, sarcastically. As the boys prepare to go back to the locker room for the last half, the parents come out to escort the nominees to the field. Just as the nominees are presented, the lights cut off. After a minute of panic, a screen pops up on the scoreboard and we see Jacob passed out, bleeding on the locker room floor. I started to look around for Amanda and my eyes caught something by the scoreboard…a clown.

 

Am I the only one who saw that?!

 

“Oh, my, God... this can't be happening again. Everything was perfectly fine, I knew this week would not end well.” I scream and cry.

 

I could not find Amanda out on the field, I was so nervous and afraid that I lost the clown and now Amanda.

 

“I understand that you may all feel worried and confused, but please understand this was a misunderstanding! Jacob is fine, it was only a prank. Homecoming will continue as planned!” The announcer shouts.

 

A prank?! They are throwing this under the rug as “a prank”?! This is outrageous! I scan the entire area once more, hoping to see Amanda. She won’t return my calls or texts.

 

As the announcer said before, the night did continue. They are about to announce Homecoming King and Queen.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this years Homecoming queen is,” the band kids start beating their drums and everyone is anxious, “Isabella Sanders!”

 

The crowd goes wild. As expected...except the unexpected happens.

 

Isabella is missing.

 

Boom. All lights are out. Everyone is freaking out. Scoreboard goes black until it turns on again, only this time there is no score.

 

Only Isabelle’s dead body next to Jacob’s in the boy’s locker room.

 

Two people in clown costumes walk up to the camera, waving. Then, they both hold out a tiara and a crown, placing the tiara on Isabelle and the crown on Jacob.

 

Scoreboard goes back to normal, the lights are on again. Everyone runs and screams.

 

I quickly call Amanda one more time, she finally answers.

 

“Miranda, I’m so sorry for disappearing. I ran into Adrian and things got a little flirty-“

 

“Amanda, we have to get out of here! Did you see wha-“

 

She cuts me off, “No, it is alright, the announcer said it was a prank-“

 

“How would you know that if you were with Adrian..where are you..?” I feel nauseous and hang up. I check Amanda’s location through Snapchat.

 

She is in the gym, room F-15.

 

The Boy’s locker room.