The Invitation

“Okay Emma, do you feel up to talking about that night?”

Emma changed position in her chair and stared at the fidgeting fingers in her lap.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Go ahead.”

“That night…. Uh, my friend Carlos was in a film production class at the U, and he had to make a five-minute movie for an assignment. There’s a group of us who are friends, and he asked me, Jen and Toby if we would be in it. Of course, we were drinking and high and said, “Yeah, that would be cool,” but after that Carlos said we’d be shooting in this old house out in the country that some people said was haunted. I was kind of freaked by that, but didn’t want to look like a coward in front of the others, so I pretended it was fine. Carlos sent us a script he’d written called “The Invitation,” and we all met at the Sander’s House that night to start shooting. I got a creepy vibe the minute we stepped in the place, but no one else seemed bothered, so he set up lights and his camera and we began shooting.”

“What creeped you out?”

“I felt like someone was…hovering around me, like some freaky guy at a party stalking me. Everything was okay for about a half-hour and then weird shit started happening, like a piece of the ceiling fell down next us and we thought we heard a door open and close upstairs.”

“What was Carlos’s script about, Emma?”

“It was a horror movie, of course, about an insane woman who murdered guests she invited over. Kind of stupid, really.”

“Who played the insane woman?”

“Me.”

“What happened next?”

“We were shooting a scene where Toby is sitting in a chair and I sneak up behind him with an axe. I raise the axe like this and start swinging, only I stop right when I get to his neck. Carlos had this mannequin head with blood all over it and we would cut from me to the fake head falling to the floor.”

“But it didn’t happen that way.”

Emma looked out the barred window as if searching for something. “No, it didn’t. Something happened to me as I was swinging the axe. I can’t explain it, but I lost control.”

“And you decapitated Toby.” Emma looked down again. “That’s enough for today. We’re making progress.” The doctor stood, went to his office door and opened it. “Nurse, you can take Emma back to her room.”

A large, scowling woman entered and clasped Emma’s arm, leading her to the door.

“Doctor,” said Emma as she reached the threshold.

“Yes?”

“You should come down and visit me sometime.”