People say that murder is the unlawful premediated killing of one human being by another. For me it’s way worse than that. Hi my name is Reiley and life was never the same for me after August 8th. It was the day of Joshua’s birthday party. He finally turned 13. He had been talking about this party since he was 8 and now it's finally here. Though it was the middle of the summer the sky felt cold like a dark cloud was coming for us. The whole day I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, like I was being followed. I told my mom about this but she just said that I was being paranoid which I probably was. Later in the day, my five other friends came to my house to get ready for Josh’s party. There was Diana, the aspiring designer. Jason the football player. Marcus the musician. Isaac the drama king and last but not least the shortest one in the group: Kyle (the instigator). I told them how I was feeling about today but they all thought I was just crazy except for Isaac who said we should have a seance. After we finished getting ready we took an uber to Josh’s party. It was at the Boys and Girls Club. When we walked inside the guy at the door stamped our hands. He told us something before we walked inside he said, “Your life will change forever after tonight”. Which was him probably staying in character because the party was a haunted house themed. After we got past the door there was Joshua waiting for us. We gave him the biggest hug and his birthday punches. The first thing everyone wanted to do was go inside the haunted house which was the last thing I wanted to do. I was outvoted so we went in. As soon as we walked in I got the same feeling I had that morning that I was being followed and that something bad was going to happen. I tried to talk myself out of it but my gut knew something was wrong. The farther we got into the haunted house and things were jumping at us, the more sick I felt. Diana had the idea for us to play hide and seek. We all voted that I would be the first seeker. As I counted, they hid. When I finally got to 30 I started to seek. I was already freaked out about being there, but now I’m by myself and looking for 6 people in this huge abandoned house. The first person I found was Diana who was hiding in plain sight. We both decided to look for other people separately. As I went on I heard Marcus screaming. I thought he was doing it because Diana caught him. Although the closer I got the worse it sounded like. When I finally found him he looked so scared, I just laughed it off. Then he told me to run, I was confused at first when he told me but then someone came behind him and chopped off his head with an ax. I was too shocked to sceam, all I could do was cry. I ran as fast as I could until Josh bumped into me. I told him that Marcus was dead, but he didn’t believe me. I showed him where Marcus’s body was and he broke down. He called 911 and then arrived in 10 minutes. The police took all of our statements. Mine was the longest because i saw the actual murder take place. Our parents arrived shortly after, they asked all of us what happened but I was the only one who could give a full story. The best thing my mom said to do was get sleep and we will talk in the morning.That night when I went to sleep the sky only got darker and the air was unbearable to breathe. It was like things were only going to get worse. The next morning I woke up and my mom was crying. I asked what was wrong and she said Diana was found dead in her room. Her throat had been slashed and her eyes had been gouged out. I stopped breathing for a second because my brain and my heart could not keep up with what she was saying to me. The police were sitting right next to asking me if I knew anything about her death. All I could do was run outside to see what was happening. My mom followed me to see if I was still there. I fell into her arms because I do know why this was happening to me. Someone was hunting us down and I did not know who was next. The next morning, Diana and Marcus’s parents held a double funeral for them. They asked me if I was speaking, but I just couldn’t. I had lost 2 of my best friends. The whole service there was this man at the back of the church who just kept staring at me. I told myself that it was just in the head but, every time I looked back he was staring right at me. My mom let me take a break from school for a while. When I finally got back, everyone was looking at me weird. The only people I was looking forward to seeing were the remaining friends that I had. We met up in the library, we didn’t really have much to say to each other. I was the first one to talk and what I said changed everyone’s mood completely. I said let’s find who killed our friends and why and if we are next. Josh was the first person to say yes. The rest of them were against it at first because they didn't want to get hurt. I told them it’s either we figure out who killed are friends or we could be next and not even know who did it. That night we all met up at our local coffee shop. We looked over copies of autopsy reports and evidence copies. None of us were able to make any connections. Until I realized that they died within a few hours of each other, but they died two different ways from a horror we just watched. That’s when I realized the killer was killing us based on different ways from the movie.