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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Tubasandtaxes on 2024-09-19 03:14:40+00:00.

I’m not sure how this is going to be perceived, but it is extremely vital that I get the word out to someone. So far, no one has listened to me. No cops, no DA’s, no therapists, no psychiatrist, absolutely no one. I need someone to believe me. I am not losing my mind.

I had a friend group consisting of five guys. Big Thom, Darryl, Robbie, Lawrence and Gill, with myself making up the sixth of the group. All of us had been friends since high school and hung out through college. It was known even in high school and more in college, that even though all of us were a group, Lawerence and Gill were best friends first. If a party was on the agenda for the night, they always arrived together and left together. Both went to the same college, majored in computer science, and both graduated top of the class. Having two friends like that led to so many jokes about sexuality or dependence, but within the group, it was normal. Kind of like having twins as friends, I always thought. Hell, they even looked alike, both being small, nerdy types. Cut to us at 26, and we all lived in the same city, Chicago. Thom and I had a house all to ourselves out in the suburbs, which was where the incident took place.

We had a once a month poker night that all of us showed up to religiously. Big Thom and I held the poker night in the basement, which was decorated like you would expect college graduates without prospective dating partners would decorate the house like. It was an open concept basement, with just one length of a wall being taken up by the bathroom and the laundry room.  We had posters along the walls along with Thom’s trophies. He had many and they were large, seeing as he used to be a top wrestling prospect at university until he messed up his shoulder. Thom had always been big, but after the shoulder injury he had ballooned up to 350 pounds. Giving the nickname Big Thom some serious truth behind it.

Darryl and Robbie showed up around 9 that night. Poker night didn’t start until 10, but Robbie never turned down a beer and Darryl liked having a buddy to ride with on the Metro. We were casually waiting around the table when Robbie started talking about Lawrence and Gill.

“What do you think they got up to in Thailand? Just some fun times or something better. Like a you know…” he said as he killed his beer with a wink.

“C’mon man. Don’t be like that. They went to look at some temples or something. Don’t be rude about it,” Thom said, giving Robbie his patented look of disdain.

“I’m just saying man, those two have been getting weirder and weirder. I caught lunch with them in the city before the trip and they were super excited. Like kids on Christmas morning excited. And two days ago, I saw them on Lower Wacker at night, just walking among the slums. No smiles, no expressions. I honked my horn and flipped the bird out the window, and they just stared like I was a stranger. Now, tell me that ain’t some weird shit,” Robbie said.

It was a bit strange, because even though Lawrence and Gill were tight, they were always friendly and quick to say hello. And it wouldn’t be like they missed seeing Robbie, he was the only asshat in Chicago to drive a bright blue, jacked up Jeep. It stood out, making it easy to spot him randomly out and about the city.

“Yeah, well, who knows man. Maybe you pissed them off recently. Did you do anything extremely dickheaded to them lately?” I asked, knowing just how easy it was to be pissed at Robbie. He had a way of getting under your skin, but was good about recognizing when he goes too far.

“That’s just it, I haven’t done anything. I’ve practically been a choir boy,” Robbie said excitedly, sensing I was grasping his meaning with our two friends. We then heard the garage door open, something that was not shocking as we had given each of our friends the passcode, allowing them to come in whenever they wanted.

“Well I think they just arrived, so drop it. We’ll see how the night goes and if it’s still weird at the end of it, we’ll say something as a group. Fair?” Darryl proposed, quickly agreed upon by Thom and myself. Just then we heard the door to the basement open and down came Lawrence and Gill, both looking stoned faced and stiff with their movements.

“Boys, about time. Let’s do this!” Big Thom shouted as we made our way around the poker table. Lawrence and Gill looked at each other, and then sat down across from each other. The other four of us just stared in amazement. They never sat apart from one another. They had always sat next to each other, Gill on the right and Lawrence on the left. Robbie gave me a wide eyed face, and motioned with his eyes at the pair, in a “Are you seeing this shit” kind of way.

.

I sat down with the others, not exactly ignoring Robbie, but not giving in to his skepticism just yet. Darryl grabbed the cards and started shuffling as Thom pulled out the chips from under the table and started dividing them up between us. We played as normal, but there were problems with Gill and Lawrence, like the way they were placing bets or the fact that they never once cracked a smile or a joke during the time we played. They would never increase a bet, but always called one, regardless of if they had a good hand or not. They didn’t drink anything either: no beer, no water, no sodas, nothing. It wasn’t making any sense. And then there were their eyes. I would catch them staring, leering at us as the night wore on. Gill was staring at me and Thom, while Lawrence’s eyes lingered on Darryl and Robbie. Robbie finally stood and said he was going for a smoke, gesturing upstairs and looking at me.

“Yeah, I’ll burn one,” I said, heading towards the stairs with him.

“I’m going to use the toilet, “ Lawrence said suddenly, standing up and looking at Gill with such an intense stare.

“I’ll stay here,” Gill said, peering down at Lawrence intently.

“Are you two hooking up or something? Jesus, you two are so weird tonight,” Robbie said as we went upstairs. I didn’t even have it in me to tell him off for making fun of them, because I was getting a bit weirded out by them as well.

Outside the garage, Robbie had already lit a cigarette and passed me the butt. He took a deep drag, and sighed, “Dude, we have to say something. This is beyond weird man.”

“Yeah, I know. I keep getting the feeling that they are staring at us, like they are watching our moves or something,” I said, exhaling smoke and looking at the stars. I was trying to keep my cool, and not let Robbie make me even more nervous.

“Dude, EXACTLY! Lawrence is looking at me like I’m a steak man. Did you see how his eyes are dark, like the eye itself and the skin around it? It’s giving me the creeps. I don’t like this. I know Darryl and Thom are going to try and keep it civil and chill, but we have to find out what’s going on. That means getting a bit tough with them and getting them to tell us the truth about what has changed them so much,” Robbie said, almost pleading with me. He flicked his butt into my yard, drawing a stern gaze from me. But he was right, this was beyond normal for Lawrence and Gill, and we needed to say something to get them back to normal.

“Ok, you’re right. Let’s go down and…”

BAM!

We looked at each other. It sounded like a truck had crashed in my house.

BAM! 

BAM!

Two more crashes. I could then tell it was from my basement.

“What the hell?” Robbie said, pushing past me and as he ran towards the door. I was right on his heels. He led the way through the house to the basement stairs, taking them in leaps. We landed at the bottom of the stairs and came upon the scene of a horror movie.

Gill was atop Thom’s back, with both of them turned away from us. It looked like Gill was trying to choke out Thom, which was a ridiculous assumption considering Thom was twice his size and had years of training on his side. The basement was littered with the broken table and chairs, trophies strewn among the floor with the walls smashed in. Slowly, the two turned around and we could see the true savagery that was taking place.

Gill had a knife and was plunging it into Thom’s chest and neck. Blood was flowing down Thom’s shirt, almost pouring down the floor. Thom had a glazed look in his eyes and was making hand gestures towards us, like grabbing towards us or motioning us to go away. Thom’s legs gave out, with him dropping to his knees. It was then that I looked at Gill. Gill was grinning from ear to ear, breathing heavily but still able to laugh in a wheezing manner. It was as if he was getting joy out of murdering one of his closest friends. It was a sound that would have been unsettling even without the look on his face and the knife he was plunging into his friend’s body. I then saw his eyes, pure black, with black veins surrounding them. His gaze was focused clearly on Thom’s and I could hear him say words to Thom, “ Una magis anima pro domino, Una magis anima pro domino, Una magis…” Gill kept repeating the words until Thom fell face first onto the floor.

Robbie and I hadn’t moved. We were frozen in terror as we saw a friend murder another friend. I couldn’t make my legs move nor could I seem to take a breath. I broke through the fear when I heard Robbie cry, “What’s happening?”

“THOM!” I screamed as I ran towards Thom’s body, as adrenaline pumped through me now. Gill looked up from Thom’s back still smiling, tilting his head to one side.

“One more for the Master,” he whispered before launchi…

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