Echos of Midnight Secrets

Night of Youth

As the night continued the air was alive with excitement. This was for sure going to be a night we would remember for the rest of our lives. We would tell our grandkids about this night.

To make it more special we decided we'd dress like we did as teenagers. This was going to be hilarious, and I had been looking for an excuse to dig out my old jeans.

Finally, our plan was in place. This was really going to happen, and I couldn't be more excited.

We decided to meet the next weekend for our adventure. All week I counted down the days and it was all I could think about. I caught myself several times zoning out thinking about my glory days.

Finally, Saturday arrived. It was go time. The four of us met at the old teen center. It was now a run-down building that had been abandoned years ago.

We weren't sure why it had been left behind but that didn't matter. We wanted to enjoy reliving the past and weren't going to let a creepy building stop us from that.

As we made our way inside, all the memories from back then overwhelmed us. In the corner was the old arcade. The games still stood there covered in dust and the walls behind them had the same graffiti I remembered.

The old jukebox was there too. It was loaded with some amazing 80s music, and I bet anything David could get it going again if the power to the building could be turned on.

The old pool table, although a little worse for wear, stood in the center of the room. All the balls and sticks were still there so we quickly dusted things off and took turns playing each other.

David decided to entertain us with his old breakdancing moves. This brought on a fit of laughter that lasted for a while.

I made sure to bring snacks for us, but we decided to see if the old vending machines had been raided.

To our surprise, they were still full! I was positive that they would be expired, and no way was I going to eat anything from them.

David had discovered the power still worked and quickly added in some change. To our shock, the snacks were newer.

This weirded me out, but I went ahead and pigged out with the group on honeybuns and Dr Pepper.

We sat in a circle enjoying our forbidden treats and swapping memories. We shared where we thought our lives would have taken us and we laughed at some of our former aspirations.

It felt so good to laugh until my sides were aching. It was like we were teenagers again and all the adult worries slipped away.

We had no idea that in a mere few hours, we would all be scared out of our minds.

The creepy things started happening with a simple weird noise that interrupted our reminiscing.

It was a low deep rumbling that felt like it came from the belly of the building. We all froze in place in confusion.

Then we heard what sounded like footsteps. They were deliberate sounding and seemed to be coming from the hall outside the arcade.

Michael attempted a joke, but we only half-heartedly laughed. The tension was too great. Something was wrong.

We tried to figure out what our next move was going to be when the door suddenly slammed shut.

I silently cursed that we hadn't thought to use something to keep it propped open. Now we were trapped.

Then we started to panic and get the door open. But the door wouldn't budge. It felt like my heart was going to come racing out of my chest.