text: A light laughter floats upwards. A brunette holds a handful of cut straws. A group of girls shy away before reaching out to claim their own. They all pull one of the neon plastic tubes out of the cluster, and I reluctantly follow suit. My reluctance doesn’t result of fear, but a faintly disinterest in the proceedings. The Walk, like most of Patty’s designs, is the result of a night of light drinking and the need to always have some new idea that everyone else will just think wildly entertaining. “Annalise, you drew the short straw.” “I,” the sentence is started before I glance down to compare the length of my own straw to that of everyone else’s’. “I suppose I did.” A light shrug falls off my shoulders. The whole game seems silly to me, and I’m not worried to have lost the draw. Patty walks to the sofa where her purse sits to pull out a long strip of cloth. “Blindfold time, Annalise.” Rebecca takes the length of blue cotton off her hands and closes the distance between us with a few awkward steps. I turn my back to her and tie my hair in a ponytail. The other girls watch with interest. This is the first time I have actively participated in any of the games that didn’t involve drinking. Everything goes dark as the knot cinches at the back of my head. “Can you see anything?” Patricia asks the question, presumably from her previous position at the other side of the room, and I simply shake my head in response. “Then let’s go. Unless you’re afraid of the dark.” A biting retort reaches my lips and I hold it down, reminding myself that these aren’t the girls from my previous school. As far as I know, it a friendly taunt, and not a subtle way to intimidate me. In an attempt to just be friendly a smile spreads across my lips and I shake my head. “Not afraid of the dark, but maybe this will be different.” Someone, most likely Tracy, judging by the small size of the hand grasping my elbow, guides me towards the door. “Just count to twenty, and then walk.” Tracy’s voice sounds by my ear and I inwardly congratulate myself on my excellent guess. The 6 girls take off in different directions, footsteps giving away their positions at first, but quickly fading away until I’m left with just the numbers sounding in my head. I count slowly, determined to play this silly game with as much seriousness as I can muster. If I am being completely honest, The Walk seems mostly like an initiation into this new group. The fact that we drew straws is my only consolation that this wasn’t some form of twisted setup. Once again I remind myself that these girls are followers of Patty’s whims, and not the gossiping malicious one I left behind when I transferred. A deep breath fills my lungs with the cool fall air, and I can almost feel the full moon shining down. Of course, that’s all in my imagination, but without my vision it’s running wild. I take the first step off the porch and slowly walk forward. A rustle of leaves to my right catches my attention and I quickly turn my head in that direction, tripping a bit as I do so. Obviously my brain has forgotten that I’m blindfolded. The uncertainty of the situation nags at my anxiety, but I take another deep breath to calm myself. “It’s just a game.” An inner mantra begins repeating itself, but is quickly abandoned as I struggle to figure out what’s going on around me without eyes. A scream dashes through the air, ending as quickly as it began .It was convincing, but I know better. “That’s really funny, girls. Scream all you want, I’m not scared.” There’s no response to my announcement, and I smile widely. So that’s how they want to play this. I should have known that a simple walk through the woods wasn’t all Patty had planned for whoever drew the short straw. Another scream, much like the first, cuts through the air. It’s followed by the sound of a person crashing through the forest. The smile remains spread across my face as I keep walking, these girl’s are going above and beyond to scare me. “Patty, oh my god, Patty!” Rebecca’s distressed voice reaches my ears, and for the first time I a m a little bit worried. More screams and the sound of running fill the air until I can’t even hear the leaves under my own feet. “Annalise, take off your blindfold, there’s someone-“ the sentence is torn short by another scream. I know the rules though. The blindfold must stay in place until someone comes to you and pulls it off, signaling that I have successfully completed the walk. I don’t even reach upwards, determined not to fall for their tricks. The screaming eventually quiets down, one girl at a time and I struggle to keep my footing and my breath. At some point I started running. My legs and arms burn with scrapes and cuts from the branches I had encountered. I hadn’t realized how scared I actually was until I stopped running and realized that the only sound was that of a light fall breeze, creeping through the trees. “Patty?” No response. “Patty, this isn’t funny anymore. Can I take off the blindfold?” Still no response. I know that I’ll never hear the end of it for chickening out, but that doesn’t matter anymore. A deep fear gripped me, as irrational as it was, and I need to see what was happening around me, I need to be reminded that this was just a game. My finger pulls at the knot holding the blindfold on and it eventually falls to the ground at my feet. I blink several times, getting used to seeing again as someone approaches me from the left. I turn to see Emily, the quietest of Patty’s followers, covered in blood with a knife in one hand, and Rebecca’s head in the other. A twisted smile. A knife covered in blood. A terrified girl running away through the woods.