“Carmen!” Ivy shouted from the bottom of the dark wooden stairs in their shared home together in virgina.  “We need to leave now so we can be back before the sun sets!” Ivy continued, as she walked up the steps. “If you're not down there in two minutes I'm gonna- '' Ivy scolded as she stepped toward Carmens room. 

“Sorry” Carmen cut her off by opening her bedroom door with one hand, “I'm trying to get these stupid ugh! Stupid shoes on.” Carmen scoffed and grunted, as she hobbled around on one foot trying to get her brand new white shoes on. 

“You sure you wanna wear those?” Ivy questioned.

“Yeah I don't mind, I need to break them in anyway.” Carmen replied as she finally got her shoe on, “Plus it's not like we're going to be walking anywhere gross and muddy.” 

“Well… actually I was thinking we could try this new path I saw on my way home from work, because I took a different route.” Ivy said with slight nervousness in her voice. 

“Mmm I don't know, you know I'm always down to try new things but it's getting late and- ” Carmen commented, sounding uneasy.  

“I'm gonna stop you right there, I promise you it's gonna be fun! And if we seriously leave now we can actually be home before it gets dark. Sun sets in one and a half hours and it's a forty minute drive, so come on!” Ivy said while tugging on carmens arm trying to get her up from the end of her bed. 

“Ugh, fine.” Carmen replied with a playful roll of her eyes.

“Yay! I promise you, you won't regret this, when I was driving by it looked beautiful. Now let's go!”

The unsuspecting girls got into their car and drove the forty minute drive to the new path, listening to their favorite song "Sugar sugar” by The Archies on loop almost the entire way. Once the girls arrived at their destination they were shocked by the beauty that surrounded them.  The air that filled their lungs as they stepped out of the car was crisp and cool. The girls began to walk and couldn't take their eyes off the lush bushes and trees that danced with the wind. Everything around them was so incredibly breathtaking.     

“Wow.” Carmen sighed in absolute awe of the nature that surrounded her. “I've spent my entire 24 years of life in Virginia and I can't believe I have never seen this or been here.” 

“I know, it's so gorgeous.” Ivy added on. 

“Besides its beauty I can't shake this weird feeling I have, it's kinda creepy you know, I mean we're the only ones here and not a soul is around for miles.” Carmen spoke with a shaky voice. 

“You know you don't always have to be so negative, right? You need to start seeing the positives in things. ” Ivy said, sounding saddened for her friend.  

 Carmen didn't respond back to her friend's words, she stayed quiet and kept walking, until she broke the silence with a question.   

“What time were you thinking we should turn around? It's getting kinda dark.” Carmen questioned.

“Hold on, let me see what time it is right now.” Ivy reached into her legging pockets to pull out her phone. 

“Crap, it's dead.” Ivy dead panned.  

“Let me check mine.” Carmen said, grabbing at both of her pant pockets. “Are you kidding me right now?!” “Ugh! I left it in the car! And it's starting to get dark.” “How am I supposed to know if brian is trying to call me?” Carmen said while throwing her head back and slapping her hands on her head in frustration.  

“Can you ever go at least one hour without talking about brian, god I've never liked that good for nothing man child. You know I hate him right? Ever since I found you covered in bruises." Ivy said the last words softly as to not rub salt in Carmens wounds.  

Carmen's eyes began to water thinking about the terrible things 

Brian has done to her. She wants to leave him more than anything, but the first time she tried that, she ended up in the hospital for four days because she “Took a nasty fall.” 

“Stop it, okay we love each other and that's final if you don't like him for something he didn't even do to you that's something you need to get over." Carmen said in one breath.   

Ivy stayed silent accepting defeat. The girls continued to walk on the path, but as they ventured deeper something caught Carmen's eyes. 

“Oh my gosh Ivy look!” Carmen squealed as she ventured off the dirt path completely ignoring what they were just talking about. 

“Wait, hang on!” Ivy said while jogging to catch up with Carmen who was now squatting low to the ground looking at something.

“They're white lilies! They're my favorite flower, and look, there's more of them this way!” Carmen got up to follow the path of lilies deep into the forest far from the dirt path. 

Carmen began to speak again, “They’re so beautiful, I bet you wouldn't expect that they are actually extremely deadly.”

“Carmen.” Ivy spoke slowly, sounding scared.  

But carmen continued to ramble about the flowers,  “And I find it so weird that they represent purity when they can actually kill you but-”

“Carmen! Look.” Ivy shouted, cutting her off and startling her 

“Oh my god.” Carmen said with terror but yet slight interest in her voice.  

The white lilies created a perfect thin path to the large doors of an old moss, rust, and ivy covered abandoned warehouse.  

“Oh you know what we have to do.” Ivy spoke with a wide grin on her face. 

“Okay let's do it.” Carmen said wearily walking towards the large doors. 

“Wow, I'm surprised that it took zero convincing.” Ivy said, shocked. 

“Yeah, don’t push it.” Carmen said while raising her eyebrow.  

Carmen began to try and push the door open by herself, but it wouldn't budge. 

“Little help?” Carmen grunted while using all her strength to open the doors.  

“Oh yeah.” Ivy said while exploring the outside of the rusty building. 

As the sun fully set,  Ivy and Carmen used all of their might to push open the creaky rusted double doors using the moon light to see, as soon as they busted through the doors a shiver was sent down Carmen's spine at what she saw in front of her. It appeared to be a dried patch of blood but Ivy reassured her that it was simply just rust mixed with rain water.  After convincing Carmen that everything was okay, they searched for a light switch but to no one's surprise there wasn't one, but they did find a small old flashlight that made a weird buzzing noise and would flicker on and off every few seconds. They began to venture around the first floor of the two story building. Upon their exploration they found old cans, molded plants, rusted tools, and a foul smelling black bag that they didn't dare open. As they wandered up the stairs to the second floor they heard a noise. 

“What was that?” Carmen snapped her head around to look at Ivy. 

“It's probably just an animal, maybe a racoon or something like that. It’s fine I promise you.” Ivy said as they began to walk toward the direction of the noise. All of a sudden a thundering crash made the girls jump out of their skin. Ivy pointed the flickering light in the direction of the noise only to find a tall and large man dressed in black, his face covered with a terrifying clown mask. 

“Oh my god!” Carmen yelled in pure terror.  The two girls were stuck in place, almost as if the floor had turned to goo and was swallowing them whole. The man took one step forward and moved his hand from behind his back to his side, revealing an enormous blade of a knife. 

He spoke just above a whisper “Run.” 

The girls turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction of the man. Carmen leading the way. 

“Oh god, oh god, oh god.” Carmen said with tears welding in her eyes, she then heard Ivy grunt and scream from behind her.  

“Ivy! No!” Carmen cried out in agony as she turned around to see her best friend being dragged away from her by the mystery man. Carmen turned back around and kept running, guilt twisting like a knife in her gut for leaving her friend. As Carmen was running she heard Ivy cry out for help.  

“Carmen! Help!” Ivy screamed, Carmen turned around and began to run in the direction of her voice “Please help me!”

She kept running, and running till she found herself by the entrance of the warehouse. 

“Oh god, Ivy.” Carmen cried kneeling next to Ivy’s bleeding body putting Ivy's head on her lap, she immediately reached to put pressure on one of Ivy's multiple stab wounds on her abdomen. 

“I’m so, so, so, sorry for letting him take you.” Carmen blubbered to her best friend who was dying in her arms. 

“It will be okay I promise, you're gonna leave me here and you’re gonna get the hell out of here. You can come back for my body once you leave and get help.” Ivy said weakly 

“No I- I can't.” Carmen said while crying, hot salty tears dripping down her face and onto Ivy’s forehead. 

“You listen to me, you're going to make it out of here alive okay? He ran up the stairs and is still searching for you, I'm sure. So if you leave here now you can make it to the car, call for help and drive to the nearest police station.” Ivy reached for Carmens hand that was rested on her face before continuing speaking.“When you make it out of here alive promise me one thing, ” Ivy paused to squeeze carmen's hand, “Please leave Brian, report him to the police so they can lock him up, I need to know that you're safe when,” Ivy paused again wincing in pain “When i'm not here.”

“Okay, I promise you I will.” Carmen said, reaching down to place a kiss to Ivy’s cheek. “I have to go now, I'm so sorry that this happened. I knew we shouldn't have gone in here.” Carmen said while continuing to sob. With shaky hands Carmen took Ivy’s head off her lap and placed it back on the ground.  

“I love you so much Carmen, thank you for being with me all my life.” Ivy spoke just above a whisper. 

“I love you too Ivy.” Carmen said while gently reaching into Ivy’s pocket for the car keys. Standing up walking towards the door, Carmen couldn't bear to look at her closest friend dying on the floor.  She didn't say anything more as she swiftly ran out of the door. As Carmen ran outside the warehouse she looked down to see Ivy's blood dripping off her hands covering the white lilies. Carmen fought back tears as she looked at the crimson stained flowers. 

Carmen ran on aching feet, In dark forest for what felt like an eternity back to her car. Once she got to the car, she got in and locked the doors and was ready to never look back. That was until she started the car and the check tire pressure light came up. What? she thought to herself. Carmen got out of the car to see what was wrong and to her dismay the back tires were flat. She went up to get a closer look.

They were slashed. As Carmen backed up slowly from the tires she felt a strong grip on her shoulders, the next thing she knew she was slammed hard to the ground. She looked up to see the man dressed in black towering over her with a knife in hand.  

“Please, you don't have to do this!” Carmen cried out.  

“Oh baby, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet.” The man's voice was rough as he reached for his mask and took it off revealing his face. 

Oh my god. 

It’s her soon to be ex boyfriend.  

“Brian?! Why, why would you do this? ” Carmen said while continuing to cry. 

“I came here to just get rid of Ivy and shake you up a bit, I was gonna let you leave, and make it out alive. But then I heard you promise her you were gonna leave me, and that,” he paused re adjusting his grip on the knife “That just won't do.”

Using all of his might Brian drew his arm back and stabbed the left side of her chest, slowly pulling the knife out. He grabbed her arm that was laying on the ground and placed a white lily in her open hand. He turned around walking back into the dark forest whistling and singing her favorite song, in a low monotone voice. “Sugar, oh honey, honey.”