Scream

Reyna Copulas

My phone buzzes. Speaking of...it's Mare.

"Maren?"

"Reyna, are you almost at school?" she hurriedly asks. "There's some scary stuff going on right now. I'm with Allister and Della and everyone...we need you."

 "Maren, listen to me," I order, backing out of the driveway and speeding down the street. "Remember the suicide in the rental room?" 

"Oh, my God, Rey. Don't talk about that now. Now is the worst time to think about that," she tells me, rushing her words. I can almost sense an oncoming panic attack.

 I run through a stop sign and hit the school road. "So it wasn't you who left the note in that room?"

"What?" she furiously questions. "Rey, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"God," I sigh. "Maren, I'll talk to you at school, I'm almost there."

I hang up and toss my phone on the passenger, momentarily looking down. Once I look up, I realize I'm barreling towards a pedestrian. Slamming on my breaks, I gasp and brace myself for impact. Luckily, I manage to stop mere inches away from him. I park the car and get out. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. I mean, obviously, I didn't mean to. A lot of stuff is going on and I'm overwhelmed. I...are you okay? I didn't hit you, right?"

The man laughs a deep, smoky laugh; it's the stranger from the party. "No. No, you didn't hit me."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Good." There's a silence, and in the daylight, I see that the man's eyes are blue. "Why are you walking to school?"

 "I have a car," he explains. "But I live close so I don't waste money and drive." "Did you want a ride?" I offer. 

 "Um, I don't know. Are you going to run over someone? Because I don't want to be an accomplice to vehicular homicide.

I roll my eyes and manage to laugh a little. "No, I don't plan on hitting anyone. Also, your jacket is inside."

 "Oh, so now you're holding my jacket hostage? That's just unfair." The stranger flashes a bright smile and gets in the passenger seat. I try to hide the small grin on my face as I enter the red car. "I assume you meant the whole thing about Destiny when you said you had a lot of stuff going on."

 "Destiny?" I question. "Who's that?"

 "The party last night...it was at her house."

"Oh..." Well, now I just feel stupid and rude. "Well, what happened?"

The man looks at me as if he's trying to discern if I'm serious or not. I park the car in the school lot and look at him, expecting an answer. "Wow, you really don't know, do you?"

"If I did, would I be asking you?"

"Alright," the man says, placing a hand on the back of my leather seat. "After I heard the scream, I went up to her room. There's tons of blood everywhere. It's on the ceiling, the walls, the carpet, the bed...it's almost an inhuman amount. But there's nobody insight."

I turn towards him. "Wait. So there's blood and not a body. How do you know whose blood it is?"

The stranger holds up a long finger. "You didn't let me finish. The blood has mixed DNA. Some of it is Destiny's; some of it is from a man named Enzo King, a deputy who is perfectly okay; and some is from a set of twins who died years ago."

I piece together the information he has just told me. "Nobody and three sets of blood. If the blood is truly mixed, that means the murderer, or whatever they are, premeditated this. They got the blood beforehand and decided to just splatter it all over the place."