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My Boyfriend’s Halloween Prank Nearly Killed Me
Novelix
Completed
Sadie Hart’s boyfriend knows her heart condition makes haunted houses dangerous. He helps lure her inside anyway, then laughs while her closest friends film her terror. When Sadie finally walks away, they demand an apology to the woman they all protect. This time, the emergency is real—and their favorite punch line ends up in intensive care. Nate promises he’ll change. Her brother wants another chance. But surviving their cruelty has taught Sadie something they never expected: she can leave them all behind, and she doesn’t need their permission.
Chapters (3)
第1章
My brother called from inside the haunted house and told me my boyfriend was bleeding.
“A prop fell on him. Sadie, get in here. He's not answering me.”
I forgot I was afraid of the dark. Forgot the discharge instructions from last Halloween. I ran straight through the entrance.
The place was open late for a private group. Strobe lights flashed against hanging plastic. Somewhere behind the walls, a woman screamed on a loop.
Then a man in a bloody mask came after me with an ax.
I fell, got up, and ran again. By the time I found Nate, I was limping and shaking so badly I could barely reach him.
He lay on the floor beneath a broken-looking beam.
“Nate?”
Laughter burst from behind me.
Kelsey came out of the control booth, wiping her eyes. My brother and Wyatt pulled off their masks.
“Told you she'd come in,” she said. “So much for being too scared.”
Nate sat up.
No blood. No injury.
“It's Halloween, babe. You're supposed to get a little freaked out.”
I looked at the four people who had been my whole life.
Kelsey leaned against Nate. Dean stood close to her, grinning. Wyatt rested the fake ax against the wall.
I was still on the floor.
“You really ate it out there,” Wyatt said. “I tried to stop you, but you kept running.”
He had chased me into a dead end. When I fell, he'd kicked at my legs, laughing through the mask.
“Don't blame me,” Kelsey said. “You were the one refusing to join in.”
For years, I had thought the problem was being the only person in our group who couldn't handle haunted attractions.
The first time, they'd left me alone until a staff member found me at closing. The next year, Nate had slipped away and let a masked stranger take his place beside me. Last Halloween had ended in the ER.
They had watched all of it from the monitors.
Nate helped me stand, then slapped my bruised arm affectionately. I flinched.
“Come on. You're not going to hold a grudge over a little scare.”
Before we went in, he had tucked my scarf around my neck and promised burgers afterward. Same smile. Same voice.
I let go of his hand and walked toward the exit.
He followed. “Okay, I'll take you out.”
For a few steps, I let myself believe him.
Then a scare actor jumped from behind the next door. Kelsey screamed for Nate to close it.
He pushed me through first and slammed it behind me.
The actor lowered his prop.
“You okay?”
I stared at the closed door.
“Where's the exit?”
Outside, my phone filled with group-chat notifications. Dinner photos. A Venmo request Wyatt had sent only to me. Not one picture with me in it.
Finally, Nate texted.
Reflex. Thought you were one of the actors. Won't happen again.
It had been a reflex.
That was what hurt.
第2章
Nate brought takeout home after midnight.
He put it on the counter while smiling at something on his phone.
“Why aren't you answering anybody? They're worried.”
I'd left the chat two hours earlier. Nobody had noticed.
“We're done,” I said.
He looked up.
“Seriously? Over this?”
“Yes.”
“You chose to go in.”
Dean had said he was unconscious. Bleeding. I had run toward the thing that frightened me most because someone I loved might need me.
Now the person I'd done it for was explaining why it was my fault.
“Was it funny?” I asked.
Nate sighed. “You were making everyone feel bad before we even started.”
Four years ago, he'd packed away his horror collection because the covers gave me nightmares. He had walked me to my door after every date, no matter how late it was.
He bought me a little bedside lamp with a timer. When we moved in together, he turned it on every evening and brought me tea.
He still did those things. Somewhere along the way, he had forgotten why.
“Are you leaving, or am I?”
“I'll give you a couple of nights to cool off.”
He packed a bag, relieved to have found a version of the argument in which nothing had really changed.
Usually, Dean would call the next day. Kelsey and Wyatt would follow. If I was wrong, they explained why. If Nate was wrong, they explained why it wasn't worth being upset about.
This time, I didn't want the hearing.
An old coworker sent screenshots after Nate left.
Kelsey had posted him on her Close Friends story, with me excluded.
Poor guy got kicked out. Guess I'm running a shelter now.
There were older posts, too. Four best friends. A separate group chat. Gifts I'd thought Nate was buying for me.
I sat on the couch while a familiar tightness spread through my chest.
After last Halloween, the doctors had diagnosed cardiomyopathy with dangerous rhythm problems. I had taken the medication. Kept my appointments. Tried to believe everyone had learned.
When the symptoms didn't settle, I called for a ride to the ER.
第3章
The doctor remembered me.
He listened while I explained the haunted house. His expression sharpened.
“Your discharge instructions were clear last year. Your heart condition is not something to test.”
“I didn't mean to.”
“The people who brought you in heard the explanation, too.”
I looked down at my hands.
Last year Nate had cried in the hallway. He argued with the others, brought me meals, watched me sleep. They had all apologized.
A year without an ambulance had persuaded them that I was fine.
After monitoring and treatment, the doctor arranged an urgent referral to a specialist cardiac center in Cleveland. I was stable enough to go home, with instructions to return immediately if the symptoms worsened.
He asked whether someone could stay with me.
“I'll figure it out,” I said.
At the apartment, laughter came through the door before I opened it.
All four of them were in my living room. Coolers of seafood sat leaking across the kitchen floor.
“What's this?”
Dean shrugged. “We're checking on you.”
“Without asking?”
“Since when do I need an appointment to see my sister?”
Nate nodded at the coolers. “Kelsey brought dinner. They're trying.”
None of them knew how to prepare it. I always cleaned the shrimp, cooked the food, washed the dishes. They played games until I served them, then began eating without waiting for me.
“Are you apologizing,” I asked, “or ordering a caterer?”
Kelsey looked wounded. “We can get takeout if you're going to be like that.”
I asked them to leave.
When I reached to move her bag off my chair, she grabbed for it. Her phone slipped, and a video resumed at full volume.
My screams.
Cartoon sound effects. Slow motion as I fell. A caption asking why every friend group had one drama queen.
Forty thousand likes.
“It's just a stupid edit,” she said. “People love you.”
I copied the link before she could hide it.
Then I went into the bedroom and packed my ID, medication, a few changes of clothes, and the little lamp.
Nate watched me wheel the bag past him.
“That was fast. Almost like you planned it.”
I had packed very little.
Leaving him behind didn't take up space.