What in the…Ezra thought to himself. Once the room began to shake, he immediately stopped the video and turned off the TV. After he turned off the video, the shaking stopped. Ezra jumped up from the bed and searched for his cellphone. He scurried to the other side of his room and rummaged through his backpack, throwing out his textbooks and notebooks looking for his phone. Where the hell is that phone, Ezra thought to himself as he slowly began to panic. He then looked in the pockets of the jeans he wore earlier. It was in his back pocket. He grabbed his phone and instantly dialed Aaron’s number.
“C’mon man…c’mon. Pick up,” Ezra said. He placed his phone down on his night stand next to the bed and began pacing back and forth. He sighed deeply and ran his hands across his face.
After what seemed like 100 rings, Aaron finally picked up the phone.
“Hey man what’s up,” Aaron said in a cheerful tone. “Been by the store?” Before Aaron could ask another question, Ezra cut him off.
“Man, how far are you from my house,” Ezra asked in a shaky voice. “I need you over here like, right now. Some weird shit is going on.”
“Uhh I’m actually down the street. W-What’s up? What’s wrong,” Aaron said worriedly. “Something happened at the store? Is it John?”
“I’ll tell you when you get here. Just hurry.”
5 minutes passed before Aaron made it to Ezra’s house. Aaron pulled into Ezra’s driveway, welcomed by him standing outside on the porch with the front door open. Before he could stop the car, Ezra waved his hands signaling Aaron to hurry out of the car.
“Dude, where’s the fire,” Aaron joked awkwardly. Instead of responding, Ezra led Aaron to his room to show him the tape. They both hurry into the room and shut the door behind them.
“What’s going on? Why’d you shut the door? You’re acting weird man,” Aaron grimaced as he sat on the edge of Ezra’s bed.
Ezra took a deep breath and said, “Ok, just listen. I know it might sound like I’m tweakin’ but I found this tape at the store and ever since I found it, weird shit has been happening.”
“Like what?” Aaron asked.
“Okay…when I first found the tape, it felt like I could hear voices coming from it. Like…it sounded as if I were there? It’s hard to explain. Like I was in a trance or something. And then I brought it home to watch it…next thing I know the TV started going crazy and the room began to shake.”
“Man, are you high,” Aaron asked. He shifted his weight on the bed and rested his face in his hand. “You better be ’cause this sounds crazy.”
“I swear,” Ezra whined. “Look, I’ll rewind the video and play it for you. Just watch.”
Aaron shook his head and sighed. “A’ight man. You better be for real.” Ezra rewound the tape again and grabbed the remote. He sat on the edge of the bed next to Aaron and glanced at him before pressing play.
He sighed and said, “Just watch. You’ll see.” He held up the remote to the VCR and pressed play. After he pressed play, the TV began to buzz and the screen was filled with grey fuzz once again. After maybe a minute, it cleared up and the words Welcome to Paradise appeared on the screen and the theme music began to play. The tall muscular woman also appeared on the screen. She was still in her black and white body suit barefoot. “Hello and welcome back to Paradise. We’ve been waiting,” she said as she smiled directly into the camera.
“Welcome back,” Ezra said confused. “What does that mean?”
“Man what is this? It’s just a video, nothing is happen…” Before he could finish his sentence, the TV screen began to flicker and the room began to shake. The dresser that held up the TV began to rock and the drawers began to fly open.
“Wha-what’s happening? Is it an earthquake,” Aaron asked looking around.
“I tried to tell you man! This is what happened earlier!”
“Try to turn it off!” Ezra stumbles trying to turn off the VCR. He grabbed the remote to try to turn off the TV and VCR but it wasn’t working. He held up the remote and clicked the button but nothing happened.
Ezra looked at Aaron for help. “Why isn’t it shutting off,” Aaron yells.
“I don’t know!” The room began to shake even harder. The TV fell from the dresser and the screen cracked. Books from Ezra’s book shelf then began to fall. The room felt as if it was about to cave in. There was a strong, sudden burst of wind that shattered the window and filled the room.
“What the hell is happening,” Aaron yelled. The gust of wind filled the room. It was so strong that it swept Ezra and Aaron off of their feet. With that, they both felt a jolt in their bodies. The wind lifted them higher and were then dropped on the floor causing them to hit their heads. Aaron landed directly on his head and was out cold instantly. Ezra landed on his back and hit his head. He looked over at Aaron and his vision began to blur. He struggled to keep his eyes open. He tried to look around the room but could not make out where he was. Where am I? He looked up at what he thought was the ceiling in his room but it looked like a clear blue sky. The hardwood floor felt like sand and he could feel the sun beaming on his face. Is that the sun? He rolled away from Aaron trying to see if he could stand. He rose to his knees trying to catch his balance. In the distance he thought saw the woman that was in the video. He squinted his eyes.
“What…is going…on,” he asked breathlessly. Before he could make out who it was, he slowly began to pass out. He landed on his stomach causing him to land face first in the sand. Before he closed his eyes, he saw the distant figure come closer with their hands reaching out. “Who..are…are you,” he asked before losing consciousness. The last thing he saw as he looked up was an outline of the woman with purple hair.
