Be My Valentine (Monthly Short Fiction Contest)

Finally back to this contest! Hi everyone! Hope you enjoy the story! It's not as action packed as I wanted, but I hope it's good!

Genre: action
Theme: Valentine

It was Valentine’s Day, and my best friend was spending it moping.

Luke had just broken up with Sara Bender. She was the most popular girl in school, so even though I didn’t say it it wasn’t like I was surprised. I was his only friend, and two years older. I picked him up everyday from school, but it wasn’t like I was in there with him. Genuinely, I didn’t get why people didn’t like him. He was fairly nice, clever, and by normal standards (or at least what I thought) fairly attractive. Not that that particularly mattered.

I knocked on the door to Luke’s house. His dad opened it, and I put on my most innocent smile. “Hi Mr. Frost,” I said, showing him the fast food bag in my hand. “Can I come in?”

He smiled and motioned for me to come in. He pretty much never talked. I didn’t really know why. It wasn’t that he didn’t speak English, I knew he did with Luke. But I thought it was rude to ask, and I didn’t disrespect adults. I know, I’m such a saint.

I put the bag on the table and went up the stairs. I stopped and looked at Mr. Frost, but he was already on the couch again, reading something I couldn’t see. I continued my journey up.

“Hey Luke,” I said, opening the door without knocking. He looked at me from his bed. It was messy, he was messy. Black hair sticking up everywhere, brown eyes with no light behind them. I closed the door and leaned back against it.

“You look terrible.” No response. Just a pillow thrown at my head that was easily avoided.

“Oh come on dude,” I said, coming over to sit down on his bed. He sat up a little. “What is it Noah? Do you need something?”

I rolled my eyes. “What I need is for you to snap out of it. And I got the perfect solution.” I smiled, and he groaned.

“Whatever you’re planning, stop it.” I shook my head. “You didn’t even hear it yet.”

Luke sat up fully, and I began speaking. “Well, there’s these old tunnels underneath the whole town. Used to be a train station, before some big crash on February 14th, 1907.”

Luke rubbed his eyes. “Everyone knows that Noah. What’s the point?”

I looked at him incredulously. “The point is that we should check it out, see if anything’s down there.”

Luke’s face brightened just a little, before he seemed to remember something. “I don’t know, I really don’t feel like it.”

I sighed and stood up. “Come on dude. You’d really rather sit here and mope?”

He looked at his bed. “It’s comfy here.” I raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t respond.

I crossed my arms. “Fine, but I’m going with or without you. It’s your choice.”

I was almost out the door when I got him.

“Fine! Fine,” he grumbled, though I knew him well enough to know he wasn’t annoyed. I threw him a brush. He stuck out his tongue at me, but brushed his hair anyway, threw on his dark green flannel and sneakers, and we were off.

“You know you can drive right,” I asked him after we got out of the car.

He nodded. “It’s better when you do it.” He got out of the car.

---

“Cool, right,” I said after turning on the flashlight. The tunnels were dark, with spider webs and graffiti on every wall.

Luke smiled a little, dimples showing. “I guess it’s pretty cool.”

We walked through the tunnels on the tracks, which I didn’t realize was stupid until Luke almost fell on his face for the third time. Only reason he hadn’t was because I caught him.

“Think there’s any ghosts here,” I asked.

Luke shrugged. “No idea, but I hope so. I mean, with so many people who died in that crash, there has to be.”

We didn’t realize how right we were.

I had just caught Luke again after he tripped over his own feet a rock, when he gasped lightly.

“What,” I hissed. He didn’t have to say anything. I saw it two seconds later.

A woman, about Luke’s age. She was in a wedding dress, like the kind your grandma would wear. She was facing away from us, but I could tell she was holding a bouquet.

She threw it, and Luke managed to catch it without trying. That’s when she turned, so fast she should’ve got whiplash.

She had pieces of glass sticking out of her arms and one through her forehead. Blood splattered her dress. She smiled. “Can you be my valentine,” she asked, pointing to Luke.

We screamed and began to run.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot!” Me and Luke had believed in ghosts of course, but I didn’t think there’d be one here. I just wanted to get Luke out of his house.

“What the hell was that,” Luke asked as we hid behind a wall. I tried to breathe. “How the hell am I supposed to know? A ghost?”

Luke gave me a look as if to say “you think?” We finally were able to breathe, and I looked over to see if the girl had chased us. She hadn’t.

“We’re okay,” I said, a sigh of relief reaching my lips. “We’re okay.”

Luke’s eyes widened and he shook his head. I furrowed my eyebrows. “What?”

Something grabbed my shoulder and pushed me into the wall. My vision was blurry, but I could see the ghost bride. She walked towards Luke, who was backed up into a wall.

“Can you be my valentine,” she repeated, holding her hands out as if to grab Luke’s face. He quickly grabbed salt from his pocket (don’t ask) and threw it at her. She hissed and fell back a few steps.

Luke pulled me up and we continued running.

I heard the ghost girl scream. Not in pain, but in anger. We just kept running.

Something appeared in front of us. It wasn’t the girl, but a man in a suit. Luke screamed and I punched it, but my fist went right through.

“Relax, I’m here to help,” the man said in a hushed voice. He pulled me and Luke to another area, to our reluctance.

Finally, he stopped, blocking our exit. “I’m Percy Mauve. I was a butler for the woman coming after you, Emily Cane.”

I didn’t know if we could trust this ghost, but what other choice did we have? “Why does she want us,” I asked. Percy looked at Luke. “Your friend looks almost exactly like her fiance. She never got to marry him because of the train crash. It was Valentine’s Day, her favorite holiday.”

I sighed. Great, the first girl to actually like Luke was a ghost (I’m 95% sure Sara used him for homework answers).

Luke shook his head. “Um, I don’t want to marry a ghost.” Percy rolled his eyes. “That’s why I’m getting you out of here,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Couldn’t argue with that. “Then get us out of here.” Percy suddenly looked embarrassed.

“I can’t.”

“...Pardon me?”

“I can’t,” Percy repeated. “I can’t leave this place.”

I rubbed my temples. “Of course you can’t.” I had no idea where we were, just that we had run at least a mile.

Crash.

Percy said words you wouldn’t think someone from 1907 would know.

“Start running. I can hold them off for a little bit.”

I didn’t get to ask him who “them” was before Luke had grabbed my arm and we were both running. Instead, I looked behind us to see about 10 ghosts fighting Percy. Well, more like beating him. I didn’t have time to feel sorry though.

A ghost appeared in front of us, and I punched it. This time it hit. The ghost fell back in surprise. He then glared at me and ran to tackle me. Luke pulled me out of the way just in time and we continued to move. I could hear the ghosts following us.

Eventually we began to throw rocks at them. I didn’t know if it would work, but anything was better than nothing. Some of them hit, but not enough.

“Be my valentine,” I heard Emily say again. She grabbed Luke by the hair, but I kicked her in the stomach and she let go.

The exit was in reach. I pushed Luke up first. She wasn’t getting him.

Emily glared at me. She took a piece of glass out of her arm and threw it at me. One of the shards hit my arm, but I was alive. I climbed and saw Percy, watching me. That was the last thing I saw. Then I was out.

Me and Luke pushed the door closed and finally breathed. We made eye contact, and at the same time we spoke.

“Never again.”

I guess I never left the spooky mood. Oh well. Have a good day!