Deep Breath

Episode 1: Teenagers
That fine smell of pancakes and bacon in the morning always gave Donny the feeling of a good day, it also meant that his younger sister was in a fantastic mood, "Just another day," he thought to himself as he forced himself out of the bed with a loud grunt which was all a part of his everyday routine which his sister found annoying whenever she was trying to rest in the bed opposite him. He grabbed his cell phone to see if he received any messages while he was asleep. Unread(0).

"She's going to be mad at me for falling asleep last night," Donny said, chuckling quietly to himself and snatching a black t-shirt from atop his T.V.

Before he went to the bathroom just to the right of the hallway leading away from his room, he continued forward to the kitchen where he attempted to sneak a strip of bacon from under his sister's nose.

"Don't try it." She warned, raising her spatula in the air but quickly putting it back on the pan atop the stove to keep any of the leftover butter resting on it from falling on the ground and making a mess. She placed the spatula on a brown plate nearby and turned around; her face was all screwy from seeing her greedy brother chomping down on that piece of bacon with no shirt on. "Don, what the hell?! I told you not to eat the bacon!"

"Hm? Oh right, yeah Jan," his muffled responses only annoyed Jan even more than he ever intended for it too.

"Oh my God. Will you put a shirt on! And go get cleaned up, you look terrible."

By now, Don had already engaged in his usual activities that came after getting cleaned up for the day, he would usually check out the various subscriptions of magazines their father ordered in the mail and flip through whichever ones seemed the most interesting but it never helped him zone out from his sisters voice, "You should speak for yourself," he responded.

"Look, if you want some pancakes then you'd better go and get your ass cleaned up. I swear, sometimes I feel like the oldest one."

"Oh fine Grandma," Don responded, as he prepared to leave the kitchen he noticed a square-shaped box on the counter next to their refrigerator and his heart began to pulsate a bit faster than normal. "No way…" he whispered, rubbing his finger over the box, becoming lost in an enchanted series of thoughts. "Jainey, I think this it! My names on the address and stuff, so, this has to be the board!"

Jan was too busy washing a couple of dishes and maintaining a watchful eye on the pancakes to keep an eye out for Don's package. "Just in time for the party tonight huh?"

"No kidding, maybe all of those internet rumors may be true." Don let out an embarrassing laugh before continuing, "Studying all that crap online and finding out none of its true, don't get me started."

"Yeah, just remember one thing. I'm only watching, not playing, I'm definitely not for all that dead talk stuff."

His grin took on the shape of a crescent moon, Don, ran to his room with the board and stuffed it under his bed in a sort of plastic rectangular bin where he kept most of his video games. "This'll make that Halloween party worth a scream or two,"

South Elmwood High School

South Elmwood High School is considered by far, an unimpressive high school by school board standards. There were a series of four buildings, each which served their purposes as two regular class buildings, one elective building, and of course the cafeteria. The northern classroom building can basically be considered as the Main Building, the obvious reason would be the Principal's office being on the second floor of the structure, the southern one is considered the most hated for it strictly being a classroom only building.

"Chevy, oh how I hate the Chevy's." Don's method of transportation is a beat down Chevy of who-knows-what edition, it was the type that had the square shaped hood, roof, and rear, the really old ones, and his had particularly seen better days.

"I think we should just take a bus to the party tonight." Jan insisted.

Don put the car in park somewhere along the student parking lot and, along with his sister, got out the car and closed their car doors shut much harder than needed, "I agree."

They both felt the ground shake violently as a Hummer approached them slowly and threateningly, the loud pulse pounding Linkin Park music from inside, gave them both a quick understanding of who this particular person was. Putting his car in park, the boy leapt from his car seat and shut the door with his foot after shutting the car down.

Jan tilted her head slightly to the right, "Found a New Linkin Park song?"

"Well, it's not new." The boy mumbled pulling down on his shirt in adjustments, "Lying From You. It's a new favorite."

"Oh, that's a pretty old one Darren."

"No kidding babe." Darren approached Jan and gave her a light kiss on her forehead, making eyes at Don in the process.

"Got a problem there?" Don was never too fond of Darren, he considered him a womanizer and a cheapskate for what he's worth, now, the fact that his sister dates Darren only adds fuel to the fire.

"No man. Do you?"

"I can name more than one." Don said, as he took a few good steps towards Darren.

His sister however, objected to this oncoming scuffle, and often case found herself pushing one away from the other. In this case it was Don. She put both hands over his shoulders and gave him a pissed-off look in the eye, "You need to stop."

"Stop what?" he asked.

"Picking fights with Darren. I'm getting sick of holding you two back from one another. This is getting old and stupid so man up and accept the fact that he's dating me." Most of the time she was mad Jan would coldly come up with things that would make a person think twice of what they said or how'd they even say it, she particularly hated doing so to her big brother.

"Alright, so you know that I don't like him for various reasons but you date him anyway?"

"I'm in charge of my own life, not you."

For a second, Don observed Jan and her boyfriend before saying his next batch of words. "Alright, have it your way. Maybe, you can have that piece of shit there take you to the party tonight I don't care, but don't talk to me in the meantime." Perhaps, this may've been the first time he had even gotten truly mad at his sister over the situation, let alone avoid talking to her. "Funny how a day can change so fast," he said to himself as he headed for the main building.

The bell for First Period classes had rung at least fifteen minutes prior. This was Don's favorite class most of his closest friends had it with him and the girl throwing the party had it too, and she was definitely going to discuss it amongst her peer group.

Erin, one of Don's pre-mentioned friends sat in a desk behind him. She had an unintentional method of annoying him, always placing her feet upon book racket under his desk and moving her feet up and down against it causing his desk to shake partially, in any case, whenever he'd look back to say stop, she'd usually stop in his tracks by giving him a beautiful white smile where she stuck her tongue between her teeth in a 'sexy' way because she is by far a very hot woman.

Today, she intentionally kicked his chair due to him not texting her back the night before, something of which she absolutely hated more than anything. It can definitely be said that she's a phone geek.

Don felt his desk jerking forward slightly. The first time he ignored it and paid attention to the teacher's lesson on why he and his wife separated two years ago, nobody cared for it but they didn't have to do work so who's complaining. A second kick came again. He tried again to ignore it, resting his face on his right hand as rouse. Three more swift kicks came at once and a student next to Erin couldn't help but to look perplexed at this display. Don brought his head back a bit and whispered through the side of his face, "What?"

"You know what's 'what'." Erin whispered back.

"Okay, sorry. I was tired and you took way too long to text me back so I got tired and fell asleep"

"You could've sent me something this morning."

"Why should I if we have a class together in the morning?"

"Oh, please don't give me th-"

"Uh, Donny and Erin," Their teacher called out. They both turned their attention to him nervously as he folded his arms and tapped his foot rapidly on the floor. "Is there something you'd like to discuss with the class perhaps?"

"No sir sorry." Don responded.

"Yeah, yeah. Well, students today is Halloween and as you all know Victoria has a little party planned for you all and she begged me to give her five minutes to discuss it before we delved into our little lesson for the day."

Victoria, a brunette beauty with sharp eyes and a well shaped nose smiled her way past a couple of students that sat around her and took her stand at the front of the classroom. "Well, guys. Like you already know my Halloween party is going to be held tonight at my house starting at seven. Everybody's invited and whether you want to or not you can come In costume or out of it." Victoria looked over in Don's direction and continued on with her speech, marketing a smile along with it, "A certain friend of mine says he'll provide us with one of the scariest experiences of a lifetime so you don't want to miss that."

Erin flicked Don on the ear and leaned forward over desk, "What can you tell me about that experience you've got planned for us?"

"Believe it or not Victoria asked me the same thing before class started, I'll tell you both during lunch later."

"This better be worth it Don!"

Lunchtime finally settled in after third period eased on by, the cafeteria was always full of students no matter how early or late you'd have reached there it seemed. At a table far off in the corner of the building, Don, Victoria, and Erin sat there mingling about various subjects until Erin finally asked the harrowed question, "What do you have in-store for the party tonight?"

Another male student cut in and sat next Don where they gave each other a fist-bump before he continued, "Just in time Justin."

"Thank you, thank you," Justin said, performing partial bows in Don's direction. "But, please, I'm just here to eat and listen, not talk. So if you would, kindly."

"Such an asshole. Anyway, I've told you all that I've been doing…research on the paranormal and such right?"

"Yeah," Erin sighed.

"Don't sound so uninterested. Look, there's this thing called The Ouija Board, ever heard of it?" This question came by a long shot. Most of his friends had no pure belief in the paranormal whatsoever so why would they know what an Ouija Board is.

Yet, the question seemed to hit a spot in Erin's brainwave somewhere, "Yeah, they had one in Paranormal Activity!"

"Yeah, they did. But, what they showed in that was just B.S., an Ouija Board is a type of method used to communicate with the spirits of the departed. In many cases, people have considered this dangerous but from the research that I've done nothing like death or all that crap has ever occurred."

"So what makes it scary?" Justin asked with a mouth full of undercooked beef and bread.

"There's the fact that we're communicating with the dead. Quite possibly, we'll have conversations with people like…I don't know, Al Capone?"

"Al Capone? How random," Victoria giggled.

"Yeah, just how much research have you done on this board thing?" Erin asked cautiously.

That usual readable smile that appeared on Don's face let everybody know that he was definitely unsure of how to answer the question, "A little bit, I mean…every so often. I read some stuff and now I'm interested. I don't want to spoil much for myself so that's why I try not to unveil too much."

"Great, so we're going to be screwing with demons in my house?"

For some odd reason or another, Justin busted out in a contained laughter which gives them the feeling that he's a bit screwed in the head. "Guys, what if I get possessed by a homeless person?"

"Then it'll do us all some good no doubt," Erin murmured.

Across the cafeteria Don noticed his sister sitting in Darren's lap, laughing hysterically at whatever he whispered in her ear, no doubt something sexually enticing, "Hey Victoria."

"Yeah?"

"You invite Darren to the party tonight?"

"Duh! He's the quarterback on varsity, who wouldn't invite him to a party? Besides, your sister insisted I invite him."

"Oh," Don said weakly, no doubt Darren was at least one of the most popular students in high school. Big, muscular, and much more intimidating than Don would ever be, an idea immediately came to Don's head, a not so friendly idea to say the least, "I wonder... if he'd like to play the Ouija with us?" Was the thought malevolent or purely out of curiosity? Don himself could not answer that question...

Deep Breath