The letter was waiting for us there the moment we got home. Perfectly planted neatly on the mat.

Four of us lived in the house. Three of us stood in the doorway, staring down at it. Our fourth roommate lived upstairs but we didn’t speak much. She was a terribly introverted creative always locked in her room slaving away at the script for her debut horror movie.

I picked the letter off the mat. We gathered round and opened it at the kitchen table everyone crowding in to get a look. Inside the letter was a small yellowing paper on which was printed:

You have seven days to get it to me.

If you don’t, you and your friends are dead.

“It must be fake” I said hurriedly before I could even let myself panic.

“Which one of you sent it?” I said, forcing an awkward laugh.

The room was dead silent.

“It wasn’t me,” replied Caspian on my left.

“Me neither,” replied Pandora.

My heart was in the Mariana Trench by now. I knew deep down that neither of them could have pulled off a prank like this without laughing.

I spent the rest of the evening by the fire like every other night, but it wasn’t the same. I could almost feel my coffin closing around me already. As the clock hit eleven, I decided to retire for the night and at least get a good sleep. When our fourth roommate walked through the room and past the letter still open on the kitchen table, she stopped in her tracks.

“Oh,” she said. “That’s mine.” Picking it up quickly and attempting to walk away.

“Lilah! What on earth?” I shouted after her.

“Guys! You didn’t really believe it was real. It’s a prop of course for my film.”