Chapter 19

MILA

The openingof the movie is some poor woman getting stabbed.

Nothing is hidden either in terms of the knife going in and out of her skin.

Of course she's running through the house she's babysitting at, her shirt open, not wearing a bra.

As soon as boobs are visible, Jax begins to clap.

"Now this is a movie," he whispers to me.

I elbow him. "Fucking idiot."

The woman falls up the stairs and turns to her back.

She's got blood all over her from the stab wounds.

The killer has a baseball cap on with the brim pulled way down.

We can't see his face as he slowly walks up the stairs.

The woman is screaming for help.

Why won't anyone help me? Why can't anyone hear me? Help! Someone just help! Please!

Her voice screeches as the killer stands over.

"Here we go," Jax whispers. "The final stab… right?"

"Shut up," I growl at him, elbowing him again.

The killer holds out the knife.

He's ready to go for that last stab…

But he suddenly turns the knife and plunges it into his own chest! Right into his own heart!

There's a collective gasp throughout the theatre.

The killer falls back and down the stairs, hitting them over and over, until he's on the floor.

The knife sticking out of his chest.

His arms out.

Dead.

The woman grabs for the railing and pulls herself up to her feet.

Oh, look, there's her boobs again.

Nice, big melon-like boobs.

Perfect nipples.

I roll my eyes.

Obviously someone here on campus wanted to have their moment on the big screen.

Which, hey, go for it.

You want everyone to see your boobs? Go for it.

She slowly works her way down the stairs and crouches down in front of the man who just tried to kill her.

She reaches down and takes the baseball cap off the killer's face.

And it's just a skull…

The woman screams.

And that's how the movie begins.

"That was a little intense for a second," Jax whispers to me as the opening credits flash on the screen.

"No talking during the movie," I say.

The movie continues some more.

It's got that small-town slasher feel to it.

Every little movement of the camera is ready to make you jump.

I hate to admit it, but I actually end up getting scared more than I planned.

So it turns out there's some kind of curse that college doctors keep blaming as a disease. A sickness. This curse only happens to college students.

Fitting for where we are.

And if you get this curse you end up killing two people, leaving one to maybe die, and then you have to kill yourself to complete the curse.

The one left for dead - if they die, then they just die.

But if they survive, they are so clinically insane and cannot sleep without being shown the origins of the curse.

So the woman from the beginning?

She survived the stabbing but now she's insane.

Her boyfriend's roommate gets hit with the curse now.

So her boyfriend breaks her out of the mental hospital so they can track down the roommate with the plan of killing him before he can finish the cycle of the curse.

They end up back at the boyfriend's dorm…

She has to use the bathroom.

She opens the door and there's the cursed roommate.

The scene is so sudden and shocking, I jump up out of my seat and end up throwing popcorn at Jax.

Then I end up tumbling on top of his lap, practically sitting on him.

He has his right hand around me.

I inch away.

But my eyes are glued to the screen.

The roommate grabs the woman by the neck and pulls her into the bathroom.

He shuts and locks the door.

Her boyfriend is screaming her name.

He grabs the doorknob and it's burning red hot.

He starts punching the door but then the blade of a knife pokes through the door.

Over and over.

Each time… there's more and more blood on the knife…

"No," I say. "No…"

I'm really into this movie now.

The door finally opens and the woman falls out, down onto the floor, covered in fresh stab wounds.

She's not topless this time. But she's definitely dead.

I gasp.

Now the boyfriend goes into the bathroom… the lights are out…

The light switch doesn't work either.

Of course it doesn't! Run! Turn around, dude!

He finally does turn around.

But his roommate is there again!

Another perfectly timed jump scare.

I leap up and Jax grabs for me.

The movie is gory and full of jump scares.

My heart is racing as the roommates fight each other.

The good guy manages to finally overpower his roommate and has tears in his eyes…

He has to end the curse.

His roommate has killed his girlfriend…

"This ends now," he says.

With a growling sound he has the knife in his hands and starts to bring it down…

No…

He turns the knife on himself…

And that's the end of the movie.

As soon as the screen goes blank, the lights come on and I look right at Jax.

"That was nuts," he says.

"Nuts? That was amazing!"

"You really like scary movies, don't you?"

He's smiling at me.

I instantly feel vulnerable.

"I just said it was a good movie," I say. "It's not that big of a deal, Jax."

I stand up and grab my popcorn and soda.

"You know, Mila, you don't have to get defensive over everything," Jax says. "If you want to know… I like the way your face lit up just now. Genuine excitement. Happiness. That looks good on you."

With that said to me - making me blush - Jax turns and starts to inch along the aisle.

I quickly take my popcorn bag with the same hand as my soda so I can reach out and grab for his shirt.

He pauses and looks back at me.

"It was a scary movie," I say.

"It actually was," he says.

I shrug my shoulders. "Feel like walking me back to my dorm?"