“Are you excited Max?” Mom asked. Oh no. Mom asked Million a question. That was not smart. Leave it to mom to add to a conversation with a motor mouth.
“Aren’t you excited?! I can’t wait to swim! I am so psyched!” Million had been talking non-stop for the past twenty minutes with mom stepping in sometimes to add to the never ending conversation. I had tried to tune most of it out but that is practically impossible because he talks so incredibly loud. He had gone from talking about the landscape, to the puppy he was going to get next month, to his new videogame, then back to the landscape, then to swimming. He’s my friend and all but I really regret buying him that Monster Energy drink. It had been three hours since I stopped to buy his that drink and I still thought my dad was thinking about running off the road to commit suicide.

“Million, would you please shut up?” Di Di interrupted.

“I can’t. I just have so much energy!” Million was practically bouncing around in his seat.

“Well, try. I can’t hear myself think.” Di Di stuck her nose back into her book.

I could see my dad’s knuckles were white from clenching his fists on the steering wheel. I guess I wasn’t the only one who was annoyed by Million.

I looked outside. The landscape was actually pretty beautiful; the hill country of Texas. I imagined climbing those trees out there; I don’t know what the trees are called though. It was too bad that they were all roped off with houses near by. Even though the houses were really crappy shacks, the land around them was pretty.

“Oh I love this song! Turn it up Mrs. Rain.” Then that little twerp started singing Katy Perry.

“Um… exactly how much of that soda did you drink?” He stuck a completely empty bottle with the monster M on the front, right in my face, and I had my answer. I groaned. Note to self, I thought. Never give him caffeine or sugar or someone to talk to.

I just went back to staring outside. I was surprised to not see anymore houses. I heard the small van putter and gasp, and then it lurched to a stop. I looked frantically at Di Di. She stared back at me nervously. We were at least fifty miles from any type of city; forwards and back. My dad got out of the car and went strait to the hood. He flipped it up and disappeared behind a curtain of smoke; he gasped and sputtered just like the car and stumbled back to the drivers seat gasping for breath.

“Well kids, I guess we’ll be stuck here for an hour or two.” He said “Do me and your mother a favor. Go take Million on a walk to work off that energy. Casey you have your phone right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll text you when the car is fixed then you can start to head back.”

So Di Di, Million, and I trudged along until the car was out of site. This would probably be a good time to interject and tell you about how we got here and what we are doing because for an hour and a half, it’s just us walking and talking.

Eh-hem. Ok, it all started about a month ago when I finally convinced my parents to take my two best friends with us on our trip to Fredericksburg, Texas. I eventually won the argument and Di Di’s parents had already agreed to let her and her twin brother Maximillion come (Yes his real name is Maximillion). We were going to Texas just for fun and my parents promised to take us to Sea World and that place is EXTREMELY boring without friends. We had planned to go see all the shows, then feed the dolphins French fries instead of fish. Then we got stuck in the middle of nowhere walking down the road like homeless people or something. It was humiliating. What if someone saw us? What if some creepy person saw us and kidnapped us?! We had probably walked three miles, just talking about school stuff, boys, parent problems, and other girlie stuff that any boy (especially Million) would kill us to get away from. Then I made the mistake of asking Million about the puppy they were going to get. Oh well, I planned on tuning him out again anyway.

“I am so glad you asked. It’s going to be a Doberman and if it’s a boy I’m going to name it…Whoa; where are we?”

I looked around. It was a town; no sorry that was a major overstatement. It was three houses clumped together. A palm tree was flopped over in one of the front yard and the houses were totally abandoned. Half of the shingles were missing on every one and most of the windows were broken. Million jogged around to the back and out of site. “Hey guys, you better come see this.” He shouted.

Di Di and I glanced at each other and ran over to where he was standing. We stood in front of a massive graveyard. I mean MASSIVE. It probably held seven hundred people. The large iron gate was coated in rust and the pad lock had withered away into nothingness so now the graves were open to the public. Above it in big, bold, rust covered letters it read; LIFELESS RUINS CEMETERY.

“That’s an upbeat name.” Di Di said, “come on let’s go take a look.” She pushed open the gate and we stepped inside.

I bent down to examine a grave. All the headstones were simple grey marble but this was the only grave with flowers on it. Sure, they were wrinkled, old, colorless, lifeless flowers but it meant that this man or woman was loved. The tombstone said, TOMAS FIGMAN, 1781-1811 but below that, where it would usually say husband, friend, brother, and other stuff like that there was a poem:
THROUGH HATE-FILLED DARKNESS WE MUST BRACE
WE HEAR THE SCREAM FROM A BEAUTIFUL FACE
WE WAKE KNOWING OUR SOULS ARE SPARED
THOUGH FROM PAINFUL DARKNESS OUR HEARTS CAN’T BE REPAIRED
ALWAYS LISTENING FROM USELESS EARS
THE SCREAM IS THE ONLY THING WE HEAR
WHEN WE COME OUR HEARTS ARE LIFTED
THOUGH ALL YOUR KNOWINGS WILL BE SHIFTED

A cold shiver ran down my spine. That was easily the creepiest poem I had ever read. It was also the fact that I was reading it off a gravestone in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere.
“Di Di, come check this out.” I motioned for her to come over. She read the poem carefully then beckoned Million over from the grave that he was looking at. He read it carefully and looked shocked.

“What is THAT about?” He exclaimed. “That poem was on the other grave to!”

Di Di walked over to a grave in the row behind me. “It’s on this one too. The poem must be on every one. What’s it about though? All your knowings will be shifted? What the?”

I contemplated that for a minute. “I bet ten bucks it’s about dying but your memory living on.” I knew it didn’t mean that though. I didn’t know what “the scream” meant.
“You’re probably right. Now let’s get out of here. It’s really creepy.” Million exclaimed. Against Di Di’s complaints we quickly ran out of the cemetery. I hope no one’s mad that we stepped on their graves.
We walked slowly back to the road. We had only taken a few steps on the road when I felt something crawl over my flip flop. I looked down to see a gigantic, red centipede laying there on my foot; soaking up the sun. A cold shutter ran down my back. I shrieked at the top of my lungs and flipped it off my foot with one quick motion. Di Di just looked shocked. Million ran away as fast as he could go. The centipede slithered away under a rock. “Oh my god, that was so scary.” I said, panting. “Let’s go, please!”